Planting in the Rain

Laying out the packets, deciding what to plant.

Planting in the rain is as much fun as a kid playing under the overflowing tank – well nearly!


Yeah…it’s raining again and one month has passed since my last feverish planting effort - that crop is powering, almost waist high corn…yippee!


So yesterday I planted more corn, beans and a couple of different types of lettuce. I should plant some more carrots while the rain is here too.


Remember best time to plant small seeds is during a wet period as they need to stay moist, planting now can sometimes cut germination time in half.

Also now is kind of last chance in these parts (SE QLD) to plant potatoes, next time I get to town I’m going to get some seed spuds to plant, can’t wait.

So, c’mon get planting - don’t wait another day!

Wet, lush, green and powering - I love the rain!

It's a beautiful thing: Heat + Moisture

Last Friday morning after a night of rain (and just before the big 20 inches of rain) I planted a good crop of seeds: corn, beans, beetroot, carrot, lettuce, zucchini, and cucumber. The soil temperature is perfect with plenty of moisture - there is no better time to be planting. And now just four days later, the sweet moment has arrived.. corn and beans planted last Friday morning are coming up. Lettuce is up as well. All this after 20 inches of rain! Here I was thinking surely they would of washed away!

Beans emerging - it's a beautiful thing

If you live on the Eastern side of Australia right now conditions are perfect - now is the best time to be planting heaps of stuff!

It’s one of the special things in life planting a seed and watching it sprout – just take a minute to think about it..

Below is a small selection of what can planted with success just now, so go get planting don’t leave it another day it could be germinating by then!

The corn shoots through

Beans (all kinds)

Beetroot

Carrot

Chives

Cucumber

Kohlrabi

(I am having flashback of this plant from a not so pleasant Israeli dude that treated us like slaves!)

Lettuce

Mustard Greens

Parsley

Radish

Silverbeet

Sunflower

(cool to look at plus chooks love to eat it)

Sweet Corn

Zucchini

Striking Seeds

So I was thinking, in this extreme heat it can be difficult to strike seeds. Most of the time I have got little shade houses that I made from shade cloth and a bit of wire – they are good but in the hot months I have most of them in use for lettuce etc that need the protection all the time.

So my challenge has been how to get longer rows of seeds to strike... I heard some old timer saying once that the trick for carrots was plant them cover them with wet hessian for two weeks then take it off and they’ll be up, thinking of the theory behind it ummm yeah plausible because you just need small seeds to stay kind of moist.

I found some scrap shade cloth I had in the shed; cut along the long edge then I planted a row of some basil and rocket seeds; laid the shade cloth on the ground (with couple of stick to stop it blowing away) watered them daily– now they’re up, now I’ll wait for them to get up a bit then some rainy or coolish days to take the shade off – job done.

So, it works, that’s proof because I couldn’t strike them 1 week ago... I reckon the challenge now will be transition to no shade watch this space. NOW go plant some seeds!

Reliable Carrots

The ol' broccolini crop is now over and out - we have had some awesome feeds from this crop but has tapered off a good deal now so out she comes and some carrots go in. You can see the chooks drooling over these lush green leaves of the ex-broccolini and no doubt within a few days they would of reduced the plant down to just a bare stem!

There has been a bit of discussion in our house over the humble carrot and its value. Sometimes buying a bag in the supermarket seems so easy and cheap. But they would have to be one of the easiest and most successful vege that we've tried to grow. Plus it is one of the favourite things the kids like to yank out of the garden! 

freshly yanked carrots - the tops will go straight the chooks

I've tossed a bit of compost in the area plus a bit of chook poo and drag a few good lines through the dirt, in no fixed fashion and sprinkle the seed, don’t spare the seed - we will thin it out a bit later. Remember only just cover the seed with soil, 3mm coverage ain’t much, and this is how much you need!

Keep seeds a bit moist until they emerge – about 3 weeks for the carrot (in warmer weather about 10 days). When you cover the seed I always grab a handful of soil from next to the rows and rub it through my fingers to make it really fine as it’s falling onto the seeds, so I don’t smother them with big bits.

And remember, successive planting is pretty important on this all rounder - another planting will go down in about 2-3 weeks!

current seeds from these guys -
but not always this brand

Planting Broccoli Seed

It's starting to cool off a bit more everyday now so I reckon time for some more broccoli. I planted the last lot a bit early and the caterpillars punished me for it - but they don't like the cold weather so much. Because I have a bit of room in the top plot, I am going to plant the seeds direct into the ground. To try and guarantee myself of a good planting I might sow some seeds into a tray as well that way if I lose some I can replace with some from the tray... well thats the plan!

broc - direct sow

So once the days get like now – around sub 10 degree mornings and mid 20 days broccoli, coriander and parsley love it!

Prepare the ground so that where the seed will lay has good texture - fairly loose and crumby. Pretty simple science, the small sprout needs to push its way out so don’t make it too hard work for them.

When you lay the seed in the furrow that you make grab a handful of dirt from outside the furrow break it up as you cover up the seeds with same handful. Rule of thumb....most seeds like to planted 3 times as deep as the seeds diameter so for stuff like broccoli and carrot this isn’t very deep.

I figure that a light dusting of soil, then when you water it in she’s covered up enough. When was the last time you drove past a farmers paddock and seen him out with a ruler getting all serious with how much dirt was over the seed .... arrrgh can’t say I’ve ever seen that (not that I hang around any farms either I suppose – although I do watch landline on telly, that counts doesn't it!).

Coriander and Parsley Seed

Today in the garden I planted coriander and parsley...

the ole 3 prong rake is the best

Arrhh... Coriander my favourite! I secretly reckon I’m the coriander king, now this stuff is simple – well I think so, but so many crew that I talk to say they can’t grow it at all. It is very, very basic, make sure soil has good crumb and is moist - dark damp (technical term for when soil looks moist you know when you wet soil it goes a darker colour – that’s it! Or when you grab a handful and squeeze it; it feels moist and cool, yep you’re onto it!).

 

coriander seed collected from
last season

Now, run your garden fork through the soil to create furrows or just mess the soil up. Then get your seeds if you have made a row, drop them in randomly about 1 – 2 cm apart. Or if you’re like me, don’t get too technical just scatter them on top of your messed up soil. Then get handfuls of dirt and scatter over the area, remember 3 times seed thickness layer of dirt, so not too deep or else they will never emerge.



 
Pat the seeds with your palms when done and then water them in. In about 1 week it should look like a field of green! Keep these small seeds moist during germination but not wet.

always pat down the seed after
applying a top layer of dirt

YUM....I can taste it already!

Note: The same theories apply to parsley seed!

same deal for the parsely seed -
again seed stock collected from last crop

mature contenential parsley currently growing