Plans Take Shape

This sunny, dry weather continues and somehow it is August. We are going on three weeks now with only one good day of rain. The dafoldils have joined the roses in deciding it is Spring already. We know they are wrong, however. We could get another cold snap at any time. 

Many of the Winter greens are still going in my garden.  The peas are on their last legs. The rocket has all bolted - I plan to leave one plant to make seed for next season. The beetroot seems to have stalled its growth and not gone in for much in the way of roots. Luckily the beetroot greens are still deliscious. The sprouting broccoli, beetroot greens, and dependable sivlerbeet are still providing some Winter veggies for us. The purple broccoli are the only ones that are looking their best right now; they will be ready to harvest soon. 

The purple broccoli looking glorious

By the end of July I had put together a plan for my Spring garden. This involved a lot of thinking and reading and letting ideas simmer away on the back burner until they started to take shape. Then I did a sort of sketch of the garden beds:

That is usually all the planning I do, but this year I took it a bit further. One of my goals this year is to grow more from seed. There are a couple things that have held me me back from this in the past. One is a short supply of free time and that continues to be an ongoing challenge. Another is lack of a good set-up for seed raising. Mostly this has been confined to limited space on window sills until the weather is warm enough to leave seedlings outdoors. However I got this nice little cold frame for my birthday this Winter:

It will allow me to grow from seed as if I had a greenhouse, but with much less space. 

Another problem is timing. This is where my extra layer of planning comes in, with the use of the excellent Koanga Garden Planner: Master Chart. 

This chart is dense with useful information, beautifully and logically laid out. You can go very deep into garden planning with this chart, but I kept it simple so as not to get overwhelmed. I made a list of plants I intended to grow, as laid out on my garden map. I then went through the chart and made myself a basic calendar showing when to start seed and plant out seedlings for the chosen plants. All this I wrote on the back of my garden map. And so I have all of the season's plans on one little piece of paper. Though I may write the calendar out a bit nicer on its own sheet to hang up somewhere. Will this help keep me on track with my seed raising? We will see.

I started on my seeds just last week. At this point I am volunteering to grow seedlings for my parents and a friend as well. Accordingly, I started a lot of silverbeet seed, and spent the rest of the week working out how to make the best of the cold frame. I found out I really have to keep on top of the watering on a sunny day or risk things getting dry. I put a thermometer in there yesterday and found the insides of the cold frame - with the windows open - reached a good 25 degrees C. I also have to remember to open the cold frame windows every morning and close them every evening, or I risk either freezing or overheating the seedlings. Overall, I am very happy with the set up. I am back to using newspaper pots, but I may try some inprovised seedling trays as well. Here are my first little pots in the cold frame:

They are sharing the space with a few succulents which have been quite happy in there over Winter. 

Will I really grow as much from seed as I plan to? All I can do is try. There is always the garden centre for a backup. The planning has been good for me regardless. Imagining the garden full of Summer veggies. Feeling like I am more prepared than usual for all the Spring activity in the garden. It's all making this Winter go by a little bit faster. It reminds me that Spring will come. But it's also helping me appreciate the quiet time for contempation and planning that Winter allows.