Michelle’s travels through the internet have discovered a provider of nice things.  This weekend she gifted me a garden ornament in the form of a mutant, industrial, ghost cocky and I immediately fell in love with him.  I explained to the girls that I was struggling for an endearing name for him and, after a brief brainstorming session, Mollie came up with Rustle Crow, which I thought was perfect (except for the fact that he is a cocky and not a crow, but he’s certainly rust coloured) and he is so named and established in our garden.  He joins a couple of other decorations from the same provider (www.forum4collections.com.au), pictured below.

It’s the 8th day of Winter today, and my broad bean seedlings were flopping and flapping and generally letting me know that they would appreciate a little bit of structure to cling to.  Gee, galvanised and steel trellises are expensive, aren’t they!?  Up to about $30 each.  Dont tell my broad beans this, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to invest that much in their immediate needs.  So, I adopted an alternative in the form of some narrow plastic stakes about 1200mm long, and lovingly placed the beans out into the weak and intermittent winter sunshine.  The garlic plants are thriving in the grow area, and I see no immediate need to move them.  I’ve sowed some more seeds:  wasabi and a cool looking Spanish black radish, and I also have some perpetual spinach which I will sow tomorrow after they have an overnight soak.

The seed notes for each are as follows:
 - Wasabi:  sow late winter until mid autumn.  Keep moist.  Sow every 3 weeks.  Plant seedlings 20cm apart.  Germination in 5-10 days.  Fertilise with high nitrogen fertiliser like Seasol every 2 weeks.
 - Black radish:  Sow spring-autumn in compost or manured soil.  Show direct 5mm deep and water in well.  Thin to 7cm apart.  Germination in 5-14 days.  Harvest 20-40 days.  Requires plenty of water.  Avoid nitrogen fertilisers.
 - Spinach:  Sow spring-autumn.  Soak seeds for 8 hours.  Sow direct or into pots, 12 mm deep.  Thin to 10cm apart.  Germination in 5-10 days.  Water with Seasol every 2 weeks.