Heatwave Prep Pest Pressure More Planting in the Micro Self Sufficiency Garden

Hello and a very warm welcome back to my six-bed self-sufficiency raised beds project. Today I'm preparing for the heat wave. I have some plants that I'm putting out, which You can place plants outdoors during hot weather, provided that you give them plenty of water. But I'm not planning to do any direct sowing, just because it's going to be so dry and it's will affect germination if they dry out. But things have been happening, so I thought I'd get some more things out and also share with you some of the things that have been growing on. And the date today is, just so you can keep on track, June 23rd. just after the summer solstice. If I were to summarize how the garden here was doing in general, I'd say pretty well. Some of the things got really wind battered because we had this crazy wind suddenly. For example, these cucumbers, but they're really starting to finally get underway, which is really nice. I've got my squash bed here, so I've got winter squash, cucumbers, and the zucchini are just starting to come through. So I'm going to make sure I Soak these really well. And what I'm also going to do is cut a bunch of grass a bit. later today I'll mulch a lot of my larger plants to help retain moisture in the soil stays nice and cool during the extremely hot weather. And it also prevents all of the water that I've put into the ground since then, evaporating back out, because really I want the plants to enjoy as much as possible. Now overall, I'm pleased with how the garden's turning out. coming along, but it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows. There is one crop in particular that has been struggling. Everything else is going well, but let me share with you one of the disasters or rather the main disaster. Now, unfortunately here, the Australian tree cabbage and the Pentland Brig kale got attacked by the most unsuspecting pest, rats. So I've pretty much dealt with the rat problem now, and these guys are showing signs of recovery. But That's why I haven't planted more brassicas. So I think once the heat wave passes, I can plant more. things like other kales and cabbages, but I am going to risk putting out a couple of perennials brassicas in the back because I've never had a problem with those and rats. But yeah, just a bit, you know, unusual, but I'm just being transparent about what's going well and what It's not going well with this garden. Now, just before the weekend, I spent some time planting. out. These are Oregon sugar pod peas, and I've added some pea sticks. I've created this nice little A-frame structure for them to grow up in. And I think there's going to be, you know, a a decent amount of nice food here. What I've done is I've planted this on the south side, so they Just create a little shade to protect these dwarf beans. I think they're tender green. the dwarf beans. And then these, which I got from the local garden center, these climbing beans, are Blue Lake white-seeded French climbing beans. They looked a lot worse for wear after all of The wind, but they're finally recovering nicely and they're starting to wind themselves up here. Just trying to make use of the vertical space. Maybe you should just center this a bit more. but it doesn't matter. It'll fill it in. And I can already feel that, you know, provided that there are no major disasters, there is going to be a lot of food here in a a few weeks. And something else I've done here is I've planted some spare runner beans that I had called Celebration, which I'm going to allow to grow. And this is a perennial bed. So I'm now going to go and plant Dawberton's variegated kale and also keeper's kale, just to give me a good amount of greenery, especially during the winter months, which is a crucial aspect of challenge of self-sufficiency. Especially if you have a smaller space, very often people like to go for all of the summer crops and then forget about what you're going to eat over the winter months. The brilliant thing about things like perennial kales, this keeper's kale, and the Dawberton's variegated kale, the thing about them is that they can be propagated from cuttings, which is how I've done it. how I've propagated both of these from cuttings taken from my own plants. So I'm just going to put a A couple of these in, and I think these are going to be quite significant producers of food. What I already have in this perennial bed is, of course, rhubarb, which I planted myself. But because these are going to take a little bit of time to grow, I am, well, they'll be huge. As As long as they keep growing nicely, they'll become huge pretty quickly. But I'm growing them vertically. layered throughout so the beans can get through the canopy before these become too large. And I'm also Just for this year, place a blue one and a jumbo pink banana squash at the edge there on the sunny side. to let it grow out onto the pathway, so hopefully I can get another bit of extra food in that space. I also planted out some boulder and chogia beetroot last week, which are just starting to sprout. Come through. And I'm also really excited because more of the carrots that I've sown, because I've been having trouble with germination this year, but with carrots, but the carrots here You're doing really well. So the root veg bed is starting to come together. I have a few plants here. that I've grown from seed, including some basil and shiso, which I'm going to plant out A couple of sunflowers just to add a bit of color here. But this is an interesting one. that I'm adding into the salad bed. So this is summer purslane, which is a nice succulent that is a good type of cut-and-come-again variety that I'm going to plant in a block along this edge that will provide a lot of nice fresh leaves to add to the salad that's starting to come through. So I'm going to Plant this out here, and I will then do more sowings of the next kind of succession of salads. after this heat wave has ended, just so there's a bit of, you know, a nice little break succession. Hopefully, as long as I keep these watered, these lettuce are going to be absolutely perfect. Fine. So at the end of the root beds here, I'm actually going to transplant some quite deeply. leek seeds and seedlings that I have, just to let them grow. And then I'll harvest the bigger ones and then let the smaller ones mature. But I'm just going to place them in carefully and give give them some really good water, probably do a couple of rows and just see how they do. The soil It's quite dry, so I'm going to have to give them a good, thorough soaking to welcome them properly. Now each bed follows a theme just to aid in planning, but it's a loose theme. There's There are going to be some changes I'm making because I'm moving some winter squash to another location. to allow them to extend into the pathway space, to utilize the pathway space. So I've placed one in front of those beans at the back there. So it means that actually I might not be growing any more squash in this area. So I might put some more beans and peas in this little nook, maybe some more salads, but kind of keep it to a rough theme, while allowing myself not to get too caught up. Because really what's more important is getting plants in the ground rather than having these a little bit awkward open gaps that I then don't make use of. Overall, I'm satisfied with how these turned out Beds are starting to come together. This is a project that is not just going to be for this year. It's also going to be next year because you might not expect to achieve all of the savings. especially starting late in the first growing season. But I want to show you Moving into the second growing season, hopefully, as long as this stays on track for 70% of the plan, That is where a huge amount of savings go in, and that is where the investment comes in. and starts to give you those returns. So if you're new to this series, I've got a little Here's the playlist so you can catch up and see exactly what I'm doing with this space.