Monday 24 December 2012

December Wind Down

The heat and lack of rain has really knocked things about this month with the last of the potatoes, beans, tomatoes, carrots and zucchinis being harvested.
We have some lettuce seedlings (couldn't strike the seeds) kicking along under shade houses and chillies ripe for the picking.
My little oasis in the desert (thanks to daily waterings) is also looking great.
In the new year will will share our great new garden project, but for now it is just time to reflect and enjoy the fruits of our labour!

Merry Christmas and happy gardening everyone!


Saturday 8 December 2012

Today's Harvest


Considering the lack of rain and subsequent enthusiasm for gardening lately, it still surprises me how much we are reaping the rewards of having a vege garden.

Potatoes, parsnips, zucchini, tomatoes and beans made it's way into our kitchen today. Now that's a great effort I reckon!

Tony assures me he has been pottering around most days to keep it ticking along - I think I've been too pre-occupied with trying to keep my flowers alive and a small patch of grass green through the drought to notice too much about the vege patch.

My recent gardening efforts might not be enough to fill our bellies, but at least I have a small oasis in the desert to fill our hearts!

Friday 30 November 2012

Community Gardens

On the hunt for tips in expanding our vege patch, I recently attended a local Community Gardens open day.

It is a group of mainly older folk who have some fruit trees and raised garden beds beside a retirement home. From what I could gather, they are encouraging individuals and groups to have a 'plot' and pay a small annual fee. They can plant whatever they like and join in a monthly gardening meeting.

Roping in a friend to share the experience, I got to mingle with a dietician, the stay at home mum guru, the 'bee man', uni students and a few other folk who I think lost their way back to the retirement home… plus share in a delicious vegetarian lunch with fresh seasonal produce complete with damper and home-made pestos. Oliver and his friend did some 'craft' and there was even some awesome live music from a very talented local guitarist. I taste tested honey from local native bees (yuck - give me honey bees honey any day), then there was a 'op shop' fashion parade… All the ingredients for a great day out - If only there were more people.

Now I get to have my little 'dig' at that lack of support these 'community' events have. Makes you want to sell up and move to Nimbin! Come on folks - get out there and get involved! Attend open days, make new friends and support these initiatives! Nothing to lose but so much to gain…


Wednesday 28 November 2012

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!

Sunday 18 November 2012

Sweet Pea Seeds

...a bunch of love

What a brilliant display of sweet pea flowers we had this season. No doubt thanks to nature supplying us with those fat seed pods from the previous year! Any plant that goes to seed it is really worth collecting as this is natures way of saying "hey this plant is growing really well here in these conditions - go populate!"

A few weeks back we collected a huge supply of seed of the last of the rambling vine. If the pod feels dry and rattles when you shake it - it's ready to pull off the bush. If some a still slightly green, but mostly brown, still pull it off - if you leave them somewhere for a week or two to completely dry out, they will be easier to crack open and collect the seed.


Then they go into a brown paper bag just in case there is any moisture so then they won't go mouldy. Label them and come St Patricks Day (17th March) we will be planting out these babies! By then hopefully along a 'new' fenceline… (mmm, possibly a new garden on it's way!)

Saturday 10 November 2012

Dividing and Conquering the Jonquils


A few weeks overdue, today I dug up the Jonquil bulbs from the flower garden. They finished flowering quite a while back and all the tops have died right back. These guys have been in the ground a couple of years untouched and this year you could really notice them doubled up and crowded. So time to lift out! I guess some people do this every year, or others leave them untouched forever, but mine need relocating.
It is really important to leave the leaves die back before you lift the bulb out. Because as the leaves go yellow and fade, the bulb is withdrawing all the nutrients from those leaves to store ready for next season's growth. Depriving spring bulbs of this essential part of their growth cycle will result in poor, or no, flowering next time.

Leaving the tops on also makes it easy to locate the bulbs underneath! It is a little 'hit n miss' with digging them up though - you have to be careful not to slice any in half.
So originally this was a pack of 14 bulbs (yes, still have the label) well now I reckon that has tripled! From what I could tell, the original bulb has at least two other bulbs attached.
I will gently separate them off, making sure a few 'roots' are on each bulb. Loosely bag them up and then into the bottom of the beer fridge until late summer. Bulbs are one of the easiest low care plants with generous rewards! Next I need to research dividing the agapantha's! 

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Organic Pest Control


Occasionally we see our children doing some beautiful things together and on the weekend we witnessed some great team work in tackling our grub infestation on the last of the sweet peas and snow peas.
Getting this little National Geographic kit with oversized tweezers, bug catcher and spy glass was hands down one of the best presents I have ever gotten them.

They were quite meticulous in selecting them without squashing them - which is quite ironic when you consider where they were headed...

Also, I didn't have the heart to tell them these old crops were going to be pulled out later today.

They spent a good half hour fossicking and collecting little green grubs and had several trips to the chickens who were hungry for more!
An alternative way to combat these critters is by spraying with a garlic mix: Put a whole garlic bulb through a garlic press and let it sit in a glass jar with a few tablespoons of salad oil. Then mix a few spoonfuls with dishwashing liquid, hot pepper sauce and water in a spray bottle. Spray the affected area once every couple of weeks.

But I think the tweezer approach is way more fun!

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Lady Fingers Galore

But not from our tree :(  Although our tree 'pups' have been in the ground over a year, they seem to be extremely slow growing. They came from my Dad's suburbia tree - it seems to produce copious amounts of them! He gave us two hands on the weekend, a few days later they have all ripened at once (of course).

As we love smoothies, a fair few went straight in zip lock bags into the freezer for later use. I love love love frozen bananas in smoothies!

Cake tends to be the next best thing to make - great for school lunch boxes and with ice cream for dessert! I am always trying different recipes and scouring different books - this 'Easy Banana Cake' from the local day care centre has come up trumps. You know the type of fundraising books I mean; all the mums, aunts, grandparents etc contribute with 'never fail' delicious things to cook and the centre raises money to buy extra play equipment etc for our kids to enjoy.




So preheat the oven to 180 deg C (160 fan forced), spray some muffin trays and set aside.
Melt 125g butter, 3/4 cup sugar (I used raw), and 1 teaspoon vanilla in large saucepan on low heat till all melted and sugar dissolved. Add 2 mashed bananas (I used 3 lady fingers) and stir through until just blended. Add one egg and mix well. Stir in 1 & half cups of self-raising flour (wholemeal best). Add 1/4 cup milk and mix lightly. Spoon into the trays and bake for approx 20 minutes. I had enough to fill 24 mini muffins plus half a dozen others. If you were doing a round cake, obviously this would take longer!

I would love to hear from you on what you do with those ripe bananas.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Tomatoes Anyone?

When I see great crop of tomatoes coming out of the garden I start to get a Italian accent!
The tomato crop from last tomato season (start of year) has self seeded - which tends to be the best/most successful crop.

Bellissimo!

Nature doesn't tend to get this stuff wrong - cos the way I see it, nature has decided that it was time for the seeds to germinate when all things aligned and now we’re reaping the rewards! Jules tells me tomatoes are bloody expensive at the moment so I'm feeling pretty good about this crop that came up with little effort!

We have also got a few basil plants coming up - about an inch high - but nowhere near the quantity that I want. So I have planted heaps more seed and put some seedlings under shade covers, just need to almighty rain to kick start them off – again nature will have the final say!

Temperature lately has been weird - up to 36°c now it’s back down to 25°c and no real rain since July so we have had to do heaps of watering. Good thing we have dam water to see us through.

Mmmm now I'm thinking... pesto, tomato and basil bruschetta... do yourself a favour and go and plant some today and you’ll be eating it all over Christmas!

Oliver wash chuffed with his picking ability

Thursday 18 October 2012

Livin' the Dream

Perhaps it is the spring weather or maybe the end of year approaching, but which ever way you look at it seems I've had some time recently to reflect and appreciate...

For starters - we love where we live - apart from the obvious location in South East Queensland, I am also talking about our local area and the place we call home.

Making the move from town to semi-rural a few years back has afforded us the opportunity to experiment/expand the garden and reap the rewards everyday. And it is not just me, Tony has this love thing going on too "Just livin' the Dream!" - his latest standard answer is more truer than you think.

We are rewarded everyday and not just from what we harvest from the vege garden to eat, but also having play spaces for the kids to explore/create/imagine; getting them involved in the planting/picking/checking of the veges; keeping chickens and providing them with glorious greens post-harvest to devour; being able to give surplus food/flowers/seeds to family/friends/neighbours (especially after they have looked after your pets and garden when you go away); but maybe the most important aspect - the sharing of knowledge!

Sorry for getting all philosophical with you, but truly guys - I hope you are all out there livin' your own dream like us :)

Thursday 11 October 2012

Time the Watering

Spring sprung and then went in what seemed like a couple of days, so we are straight into the heat and it is a battle to keep the garden moist.

So what I've done is set-up the ol' tap timer so that the sprinkler comes on automatically. Initially it is programmed to come on every 24 hrs for 15 mins which may not seem like a long time but with reasonable humididty around here it does the trick.

Tap timer with dials - best way to go

Shade structures made with some leftover fencing wire
and cheap shade cloth from hardware store
I also dragged out my little shade houses that I use for covering up lettuce and other fine leaf seedlings in the heat.

Fair dinkum I can't believe I've busted out all my summer tricks in just the past week - but better that than coming home from work to find your crop is burnt to a snider!

Also, if you do go and invest in a tap timer do yourself a favour and don't get a digital one - stick to the basic dial/knobs variety - I've had both and the latter has seen the test of time.


Friday 5 October 2012

Fertiliser Musings

Ever wonder why your crops have heaps of great looking leaves and no roots like no potatoes or crap short carrots?

What about not much leaf and good root system… read on brother!

Even though I understand the 3 main functional groupings of fertilisers I still get it wrong and I know why - I don't think about it at the crucial time, simple. So this is my latest focus - well kind of..

Alright, to be simple the 3 main groups are NPK most crew know this.. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, shown on fertiliser bags as a ratio. 

The best way to remember is group what you are growing onto 2 plant types, plants you grow for their leaves like lettuce, spinach etc and the plants that you grow for their roots and fruit like carrot, corn, tomato, peas, beans and flowers (the later keeps wife happy!).

So for the leaf group you need mostly nitrogen, and for the crops you're growing for their roots/fruit deal you need phosphorus, the potassium helps keep the plant strong and resist disease etc don't get hung up on this or trace elements just now otherwise you will bore yourself to tears - or I will writing it - just get the basics right and you're good to go.

If you get weird stuff going on and the plant doesn't look right, trace elements will be a conversation and google is your best friend! Plus always go organic if you can - hey don't put poison on your food!
When shopping for the fertiliser focus on the NPK ratio that best suits your needs like for me now is highest Phosphorus because I have had a couple of ordinary root crops ie, spuds and tomatoes... drop me a line if you have some recent issues and I will try and answer them - that is about plants my friend! 
:) T
Sneak peak in my garden pantry

Thursday 4 October 2012

Motivated - like plants feeling that warm spring sun

I couldn't believe how organised I was a few weeks ago when it got noticeably warm - out came the balance of the ol broccoli crop and some old lettuce. I re-mulched, fertilised and planted: corn, beetroot, more lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, chilli, then mulched again.
Corn thriving planted from seed approx 50cm tall now


These are going good now and the garden looking great but very full as usual. A bit of a surprise at the moment is the snow peas - I only planted them because I had left over seed from last year, and now they are the cream of the crop! So I will plant them again next year for sure

The spuds (potatoes) are coming along good as well, lets hope they're better than last years crop otherwise I'm gonna go postal I swear!

A few leftover spuds went into the main
vege patch - bulk into 'top paddock'

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Mulberries, Peas & Flowers - Hello Spring!

Finally we had some rain in the couple of days, but in the last few weeks we have been watering most days and not spending much time in the garden for pleasure. Getting a chance to wander around this afternoon we feasted on mulberries (Oliver loves these - thank heavens for stain spray I say) and snow peas.
Here are some random shots of life in the garden at the moment taken with my in-built phone camera. Enjoy :)


Seed pods emerging on the sweet peas -
we will save all these for next year's planting. 
 






Thursday 6 September 2012

Free Trees

It's rates time again! Our local council has a scheme for us landholders where we are entitled to a couple of native trees every six months. You just have to show your notice to Landcare Nursery and they let you take what ever you want! Pretty cool hey - apart from the fact you still have a substantial bill looming. I mean lets face it, a couple of two dollar trees ain't exactly something most people would get terribly excited about...

Except for me maybe - especially when you have family that don't see the value in it and couldn't be bothered to go and collect theirs... well hello - I'll take that voucher thanks!

So today Julie got the privilege of collecting an array of tubestock - with a bundle of vouchers in hand!
including a couple of freebies, about 12 new plants
came home today!



Pretty flower pictures generally gets her excited - but I also note she choose drought tolerant varieties. Good thing too when "imminent rain is not on the horizon" (thanks Mr Weatherman... not)! These signs at the nursery are great.

The Flax Lilly's made it to the garden this afternoon, the others will have to wait until the weekend. I say most things that are free are worth the effort! Especially when it means adding some greenery to an otherwise  bare patch of dirt. So for all you locals, do yourself and the planet a favour, get out there and go plant your free trees!


Sunday 2 September 2012

Father's Day Choc-Beet Treat

I don't need too much of an excuse to bake a cake - but being Father's Day - the temptation was too much. I've had baby beets just begging to be eaten so I fished out the chocolate cake with beets recipe from my deceptively delicious book. Jessica Seinfeld has created this deceptive cookbook trying to hide all sorts of healthy vege amongst her baking - often disguised with lots of sugar! That is a whole other topic so I will try and stay on track.

The beetroots get roasted first - save yourself some time and electricity by doing this the night before while you have something else in the oven.
Beetroots trimmed but not peeled
then wrapped in foil and roasted
for approx 40min - peeled when cooled
I then finely diced them using my nifty tupperware chopping gadget - you could try and puree like the recipe says, but this way seems far easier. You need half a cup for this recipe.


Beat 1 cup of firmly packed light or dark brown sugar with 1/4 cup margarine until creamy. Add one whole egg then 2 egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat in 85grams of melted dark chocolate that has been cooled. Then add the beetroot (1/2 cup), 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used skim) and 1 tsp vanilla beating well.

Add 2 cups plain flour, 1 tsp bi-carb soda, and pinch salt, beating well again. You will have the gloriously deep pink mix that looks divine!

Pour into a lined 9-inch round cake pan and bake 180deg for about 40 minutes. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes before turning out and when cooled completely ice with some chocolate icing. The recipe says it will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days - but they are kidding themselves - ours will not last the day out!


While we are munching down this divine cake I fess up to the kids and admit the added vege - but it did not bother them at all! Happy Fathers' Day to all - especially our Ol' Rusty Possum daddy!