The last date for entries in the first Mini Challenge is this Friday 17^th.  Then we will look at the entries and for 6 of you (3 nominators and 3 nominees) will win the really cool prize pack featured in the middle photo of the main page of the Gardening Community.  To be honest I wish I could win it…  The book is how to successfully grow edibles in containers – and I have to say I take my hat off to anyone who does that as I tried it for a season when I was between gardens and gosh it is hard work.  The seaweed tonic is great for helping stressed plants especially when going through the transplanting process.  The tomato food certainly wouldn’t go amiss and, in the seeds up for grabs there are some of Yates new seeds that I can’t wait to grow myself this season…

But I digress.  The prize is awesome, but to enter all you need to do is decide who’s your favourite gardener and let us know who it is and why in a blog post with the heading MINI CHALLENGE ONE and tick the ‘Mini Challenge’ box to let us know you want to be considered for this prize.  The mini challenges that pop up throughout the challenge don’t affect the overall outcome of the challenge, they are just an extra way to win cool prizes along the way.

I don’t envy you having to pick just one gardener though.  Two weeks into the challenge and there are some lovely gardeners, amazing gardens and it is a delight to see the comments sections quickly fill up with chit chat shortly after each post is added. 

In my garden it is a bit of a mixed bag of getting things done.  I think I have finished sowing the last of the seeds – although I probably haven’t.  It turned out I had completely forgotten to sow silverbeet!  It is such a feature in my garden because it is in there all year long and I grow the brightly coloured 'Bright Lights'.  I sow almost all of the seeds in the pack to ensure I get all the colours in my garden. 

Now the focus has shifted to the transplanting process, and I hope we move to a Level soon that allows me to get more potting mix as I suspect I don’t have enough for everything.  I’m doing daily checks to see who needs moving on, so they don’t get stalled in their 'ok for seeds but too small for seedlings' pots.  

And I can say with much relief I finally sorted out my strawberries. It should have been done in August but I had to repair the beds before I could sort out the plants.  I’ve replaced the 3 year old plants with new runners and removed all the other runners.  I’ve set some aside for when I can safely share them with friends, but the rest just need to go into the compost bin.  It breaks my heart, but I need to be ruthless – there are enough to set up a market garden!  I don’t have that kind or space or that many friends who haven’t already benefitted from previous year’s strawberry runner generosity!

I’m sure the garden will find plenty of ways to keep me busy this week.  I’m trying to decide if I need a plan with a list or to just wing it. 

Happy gardening and as always – if you want to get in touch leave a comment below.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)