Our seed potatoes went in on the weekend. I bought them months ago from The Lost Seed and they arrived in four neat brown paper bags. I was worried they’d gone bad or green in the back of the cupboard, and we really have missed the prime months for planting spuds. Big M declared himself in charge of the potatoes and he selected four of our local market favourites – Pink Eyes, King Edwards, Nicola and Kipler. We shouldn’t have worried, the tubers were bursting with sprouting buds and more then ready to go in. Our only worry now is that perhaps we might have too many!
Today was the day before a full moon, and according to my “Astrological Calendar and Moon Planting Guide” by Thomas Zimmer, it’s a perfect time to sow “fruiting annuals – those vegetables which you want to produce abundant seed, or the seed bearing organ of the plant.”
We both got home early from work, and set about planting out our first three beds. The planting were based on digger’s article “The Mini-Plot” and what in suitable for Brisbane’s climate in November.
Bed one:
- Potato: Lost Seed Pink Eye, King Edward, Nicola, Kipler
- Watermelon – Yates Country Sweet x2
- Strawberry – Franchi 2 rows of the whole packet
- Rockmelon x 5 (Digger’s Prescot Fond x2; Minnesota Midget x2; Mix x 1)
Bed two:
- Lettuce: Digger’s Yellow Leaf x4; Eden Great Lakes x2; Digger’s Oakleaf x2; D.T. Brown Green Cos x2; D.T. Brown Green Mignonette x2;
- Corn: Digger’s Sweet Corn Golden Bantam x9; and Eden’s Sweet Corn Balinese x 12
- Beans: Digger’s Lazy Housewife x 12; and Lost Seed Purple King Climbing Bean x16
Bed three:
- Squash: D.T. Brown White Scallop
- Beans: Lost Seed Runner Scarlet Emporer x 12; Aqua Dulce Broad Bean x 12
- Eggplant: Digger’s Listada Di Gandia x4
- Rosella: Eden x 3
- Eggplant: P.D.F Melanzan Cima Viola x 4
We ended up swapping the carrots for squash. Beetroot for eggplant and rosella. In the perennial bed, we swapped the artichoke and asparagus (we don’t like either) for watermelon and rockmelon. The pototoes took up half the bed, but that’s ok because we’ve got two lots of rhubarb in pots.
In retrospect, we were thinking it might have been better to space out the timing of the plantings so that everything doesn’t come up at once. Oh the enthusiasm of naivety 
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