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.

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

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 :)

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.

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

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'