Karpy's Organic Veggie Garden

Nothing is certain ... except death, taxes ... and change

2011-04-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

After a lazy late winter/spring/summer! when I was too busy with my million other hobbies, the patch became weedy and difficult to get around. Plus I'd never netted it properly from our resident female bower birds and the occasional possum.

So after a dedicated weekend, I netted the patch, cleared the weeds off the path and used some scoria over newspaper for the new paths. I have used sawdust in the past and this works really well and you can scoop it on the the patch after it has rotted (takes a year or so!), but the little path around the patch is too small to do this easily, so the patch has gone a bit 'house and garden' :)

I found a use for some old ladders and trellis, providing a visually interesting climber for the peas:

Some crops left over from summer:
Rhubarb (Organic John gave me this healthy plant - I think it's had a bit too much nitrogen!):

Celery - I didn't know you could just pick the stalks as needed - bonus! I Haven't bothered blanching it (because I'm lazy - :)), so it's a bit more 'green' tasting than what I am used to (ie. more chlorophyll and more bitter (which is supposed to be good for you).

The Apples of My Eye

2011-03-07T00:47:00.000-08:00

The Dwarf Gala apple tree, espaliered against the south fence of the veggie patch (but facing north) had babies for the first time this year. There were five crisp apples and on two occasions I had a hunch to pick them on a certain day, left it that night and the bower bird got in behind the netting against the fence. It's at least nice to know my instincts are in tune - just need to act on them sooner!

So she got the best looking apple and ate half (how nice that she left me some :^))

And the flavour? Delicious! Not quite as sweet as I'd expected, but not bitter and very crisp and juicy. In fact, I don't recall eating any apple that crisp and juicy. It just shows you how much is lost, the further away from 'fresh' that it gets.

Strawberry Delight

2011-01-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

The strawberry patch went well this year, though the slugs ate quite a few. I used some garden-friendly snail-bait in a tube to tempt them away. But there were so many, I didn't worry too much about it.

I'm not sure if this is a biennial variety. They didn't do too much last season. It's a variety called "Cambridge Rival" and they are so sweet, they are almost like sherbert sweets - possibly even too sweet for me! I might get another variety that fruits at a different time to extend the strawberry season. I replanted some of the newer runners into a different section of the patch and used black plastic as a weed mat for the next season.

Ahhh ... Spring!

2010-09-19T04:10:00.001-07:00

Ahem ... yes a time of massive reproduction in the garden!

And with these phallic fellas, it's hard not to see sex everywhere ;)

Mind you, it's the female asparagus that produces the fattest spears! I have grown these babies from seed, so they are two years old (I think). I have left the cutting down to next season as it is not good to do this too early. With weeds, neglect and gardener's laziness, a number of spears still popped up. I did pinch one to taste and it was delicious - crisp and light - no tough skin.

Daffodil flowers in a pot - for sheer perfume and visual pleasure!

A polyanthus that flowers madly every year a happy escapee from a pot.

Peach blossom. Sadly my peach has been affected by leaf curl ...

and it's too late to do anything about it this season. I've just pulled off some leaves, sprayed it and fed it with seaweed tonic and hope for the best.

At least the Cercis (Forest pansy) is happy!

The trouble with Broccoli (and other brassicas)

2010-09-19T04:04:00.000-07:00

The trouble I've had with brassicas over the past few seasons were explained by a few lines I read recently in a gardening magazine. You see, each year they take forever to grow and then bolt with the early spring warmth before heads are fully formed or big enough. I thought I kept getting them in too late, but I didn't realise that inconsistent watering and feeding (guilty!) can cause them (or indeed any plant) to bolt. Derrr! Well it makes sense now. The plants think they might die and so try to reproduce (flower).

I did however get a couple of very nice savoy cabbages (here's one below) and lots of sprouting broccoli (no waiting for just one flower head).

Bolted Romanesco broccoli - not as impressive as last year's.

Still tasted ok though :)

I've also got some kohlrabi in that I'm about to harvest as they threaten to bolt (with the warm weather this time!) and am intrigued to see what they taste like. They look rather like aliens!!

Plenty O' Pumpkins

2010-05-16T01:59:00.000-07:00

A Japanese Pumpkin self-seeded in the patch (from compost and a commercial pumpkin we must have bought). They weren't the typical shaped Jap. pumpkin, but I heard from a veggie-wise friend that they can grow in all kinds of shapes. It is true you can easily grow them up fences, along wires and even up a garden stake! They just grow a nice thick stalk for support. I ensured that the vine could get some roots in the ground along the way to feed different clusters of pumpkins.

I got about 13 all up (I thinned out almost that many again) and they are delicious. I still have several on top of the kitchen cupboards, having given some to friends and eaten some roasted or as soup.

My beau made a pumpkin soup for my birthday and I had carved out the pumpkin for the bowl (I'd always wanted to do that!). It went down well at the party and tasted divine!

(there are cape gooseberries on the table in the background - we had a great crop off just one plant for months and months as we had a long summer this year).

Potatoes Galore!

2010-03-30T04:39:00.001-07:00

(L - the waxy white, firm Coliban - R - the creamier, softer Dutch Cream

I tried a few different varieties of potato this season. White - Dutch Cream, Coliban, Pontiac, Nicola and Sebago; Pink - Desiree. A friend gave me some seed potatoes. I have to say after a few seasons now, the Dutch Creams are still my favourite and their flavour changes even with storage time. Fresh out of the garden and into a potato salad or steamed - they are to die for! You cannot get that rich creamy flavour from the shop-bought ones. The home-grown Desirees were pretty yummy too!

We had literally buckets of them and I weighed them to collect some of my stats :)
We lost a few (mostly Dutch Cream) due to very heavy prolonged rain and reduced drainage ( due to clay soil - still!). They rotted in the ground - bummer. Probably lost at least a kilo :(

Still, I planted 12 potatoes, most of them cut into pieces and got a total yield of just over 21kg! At say only $3 a kilo for pesticide-free home-grown delicious potatoes, that's $63 worth! The Sebago had an astonishing yield - one seed potato of about 100g (cut into pieces) yielded 5.85 kilos of potatoes. That's nearly a 59x yield by weight!

I laid them out in a dark room to let them dry out a bit after all that rain. I had many more potatoes than shown in this picture. We are still eating them now (4 months later) and had potato and pumpkin mash using our home-grown pumpkins for dinner tonight. YUM!

Tonnes of Top Tasty Tomatoes

2010-03-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite tonnes. But kilos and kilos. I made two mistakes with tomatoes this season - I got them in the ground too late for our slightly shorter mountains summer and I viciously pruned them to allow large fruit to get larger - I did this too late and lost lots of baby tomatoes. But despite all that, we have extra tomatoes for sauces/pickles or soup to eat and store, with a few green ones to ripen or pickle.

Typical morning sweep's harvest:

unripe Rouge De Marmande (above) and Martino's Red Roma (below)

And of course there were some for the slugs to enjoy!

I tried quite a few varieties this year for fun. I also planted some seeds saved from last season. Most worked and one looked like it had crossed and had weird-looking fruit (a failed beefsteak).

All up I planted Black Russian, Cream Sausage, Martino's Red Roma, Roma, Amish Paste, Tommy Toe, Rouge De Marmande and some cherry tomatoes in a pot by the back door. The Tommy Toe fruited prolifically and tasted lovely but I was surprisingly more taken with the (yellow) Cream Sausage that had a firm and quite sweet (less acidic) flesh. I also loved the Rouge De Marmande - a perfect mix of firm, juicy, tasty and sizeable.

Mostly Tommy Toes (small round), Rouge De Marmande (large ones on right)

(Above) Tommy Toe (top), (L-R) Cream Sausage, Martino's Red Roma, Amish Paste
and below a small Rouge De Marmande, Cream Sausage and Black Russian.

And below the lovely and striking difference in texture and colour of these three (shown with chopped up squash)

There are supposedly around 7500 varieties of tomatoes to choose from in the world!! A far cry from the few varieties sold in stores. So far I still prefer the Amish Paste to the Roma for taste and texture, the Rouge De Marmande and Black Russian for good performance in cooler climates, juicy, tasty flesh and long-yields, and Cream Sausage for sweetness and chunky, firm texture. The Tommy Toes are good for ridiculously large numbers of large juicy cherry-like tomatoes with a slightly acidic flavour.

Honestly, you could spend your whole gardening life just trying different tomatoes!

Amusingly, according to Wikipedia, the country known for its famous pasta sauces and love of tomatoes grew only 17% of the number of tomatoes that China grew in 2008.

Rain, Hail, Blistering Heat and a Surprise

2010-01-12T23:44:00.001-08:00

The poor veggie patch has been subjected to near 40 degree heat, two freak heavy hail storms and some thundery showers for some relief in the last few weeks. I just got the shade cloth up before this last heat-wave and I think that's helped a lot, particularly for the lettuce and bean seedlings that are just too young to survive the big fry.

The espaliered apples and a self-seeded pumpkin had some of their leaves almost shredded.

But none of this crazy weather has deterred my strawberries who have veggie patch domination plans of their own!:

And you can't keep a good plant down ... a surprise flower popped up from a bulb buried in dirt I'd dug up for a path to our studio:

We've got a couple of these in our garden - do any Blue Mountains people know what it is? I hope it's not a weed, 'cos it's a spectacular flower. We do have a lot of bulbs around the garden that were planted by previous occupants.

Where did the year go?

2009-12-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

My favourite spinach for 2009 - Southern European Spinach

Well the year flew past and I went through stages of business and laziness with the veggie patch, still managing to produce food even when doing little. The plants that bolted in our unseasonably early warm weather are now producing beautiful seeds for me to collect. At about $2.50 to $3.00 a pack for organic heirloom seeds, the bolting plants are still worth something and then after
seed harvest, they are of course, composted, ready to go back into the veggie patch several months later. I love nature's recycling system!

I tried using toilet rolls for seed germination. I'm not convinced they worked as well as the seeds in the plastic black seedling containers that were probably warmer and germinated more successfully. Also planting the toilet rolls in the ground sounds good, but they take ages to break down. I'd be more inclined to just recycle them. They may also be glued together with something yukky, so I probably won't bother so much with them. I tried putting the seeds in toilet rolls under plastic but that didn't seem to help.

I received a red currant plant as a gift - even in its first season, it produced about 1/3 punnet's worth of currants which went into a glorious summer pudding for a New Year's Eve dinner party (thanks to my partner, a skilled cook).

Some radishes were rather amusing :)

I left the brassicas to grow as long as I could. It was a good thing, too as I was surprised by a huge head of purple broccoli that wasn't there last time I looked!!

Green Mignonette, Australian Yellow Leaf, Purple Oakleaf (not shown) and Forellenschuss (not shown) lettuces provided us with months of greens for yummy fresh salads and they are so easy to grow. The yellow leaf lettuce was the least bitter of all the lettuces, but I like bitter greens anyway - they are very good for you and the slugs and snails don't bother much with them - maybe just some of the outer leaves.

The golden-podded snow-peas continued to give us lovely crisp pods for a number of months, just from growing in a big trough along a sunny trellised wall and I have saved some of the finest peas, ready for next season. Even the neglected broad beans growing near the compost bins (not in the veggie patch) in less prepared soil still produced beans.

The patch goes through stages from partially bare, ready for new plantings, to feral (late spring).

The strawberries (Cambridge Rival) produced strawberries so sweet they almost tasted like sherbert. Sadly though, too much leaf growth, not enough flowers and enthusiastic slugs reduced the yield, but the plants have gone nuts and I will have plenty of runners for next season. I planted them in an elongated, raised mound, covered with hessian to protect from fruit rot and reduce weeds.

I did have more success with carrots this year (and beetroot), but still had trouble getting the seeds to germinate in the first place.

And sometimes the ladybirds in the garden were just having too much fun on on the bok choy flowers!

To mulch or not to mulch?

2009-12-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

To prepare my tomato patch this year, I grew some green manure for a few months and then dug it in (L) and covered with pea straw (R).

When I dug over the patch ready for planting only a couple of months later the soil was like moist, light chocolate cake (L below). I dug over the brassica bed that I had left unmulched and you can see how much drier the soil (R below) is and less rich after the enthusiastic broccoli, rocket and bok choi had finished with it!

Now I have some happy tomatoes (below) growing in the mulched patch and have installed a drip line that runs off a gravity-feed water system (ie low pressure), so I can use some of our tank water up the back of the garden that is higher up the slope. It saves water and I'm a lazy gardener! The whole veggie patch is on slightly downward-sloping land, so the drip line runs perpendicular to the slope and the water drips through very nicely along the whole 15m line. Mind you, I actually need a second line to cover my whole patch, although the potatoes are doing fine without special treatment.

Grand Garlic

2009-11-30T01:59:00.000-08:00

I harvested my first batch of garlic a few weeks ago - very exciting!

After drying, carefully peeling the external one or two layers and plaiting them, they are now hanging proudly near our kitchen door. I had no idea how to do it so thanks to Gillybean and the fabulous internet, I followed the instructions. I think it looks rather rough, but hey, they hold together.

I planted two bulb's worth of cloves that a friend gave us. I think (but will have to confirm) that one is Australian White and the other Australian Red. I tried some of the red today and it was very fresh and had a strong flavour. The chemicals that are so active in garlic seemed to really have a "zing".

The red variety had these little "bulblets" that grow in the stem that you can plant like the cloves and one garlic bulb also gave me some bonus cloves as a second layer:

Another vegetable grown (for my first time) yet again proves to be more delicious than shop-bought stuff. I read somewhere that you can never plant enough onions - the same goes for garlic. I'm very pleased with my first attempt and they are keeping nicely, though they won't last too long as we can go through a few bulbs of garlic most weeks!

I left some of the flower buds on for show, so I just harvested the garlic in time.

Nature Love

2009-09-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

I started my veggie patch with heirloom veggies as they are supposed to be good for the home garden as they are open-pollinated, growing true to type. In the process, I have fallen in love with some varieties, as you will rarely or never see them in Australian shops, yet they are commonplace in veggie shops in regional France (for example) where they value their old-style local veggies.

One broccoli I saw in France had me gob-smacked - I could not believe Nature could produce something so precise-looking - until I realised it looked just like a fractal, which is found everywhere in nature. This is the Romanesco broccoli I grew this winter - some grew heads more geometrically sharp than others. It tasted tender (less tough) and less bitter than normal broccoli. In short, delicious!

And these golden-podded snow-peas have such beautiful purple-mauve flowers and golden yellow pea pods (instead of the familiar white pea-flowers and green pea pods), they are worth growing just for show! ...

Above (L) regular snow peas next to (R) golden podded snow peas

Mind you they are also juicy, crunchy and yummy! They often don't make it to the kitchen though we did have some on nachos the other night.

Best laid plans ...

2009-05-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

When I put the veggie patch in the corner of my garden, I didn't figure for such a pronounced shadow cast by the fence in the middle of winter when the sun is at its lowest. I could have calculated it (but didn't) and if you are starting a veggie patch, it may be worth observing where the sun falls in your garden for a season to ensure enough sunlight (at least 6 hours on a sunny day) unless it's in the middle of your yard!

Not only does this mean I've had to move some plants around in winter but the other tricky thing is doing crop rotation with four beds when only two are in full sun during autumn/winter!

Crop rotation also means that some beds or areas may lie fallow for a period of time:

... which may be fine if compost or manure is decomposting into the soil, or you can use green manure as below (barley grass, broad beans here on the left) to prepare a bed for the next season planting:

The area on the right is being used for brassicas as the actual brassica bed is in shade this winter!

Originally the bed design was four square beds (numbered 1 to 4) with paths in between and around for access, but as I got keen to plant more and discovered some of the patch was in shade in winter (blue area), I altered the design to add more planting area (red areas) so it's more like a squarish small "keyhole" design (green) that is often used in permaculture gardens:

So plants that might be in the blue areas are moved to the sunny red areas in winter. Makes things a little more complex!

Tomatoes galore!

2009-05-02T05:08:00.000-07:00

I had a successful first summer season of tomatoes. Having grown green manure in late winter and spring and mixed it with horse poo, the patch was ready to jump! I'll try mustard in the green manure next time as it specifically kills organisms that bother tomatoes.

Of course the piccies look nice but there were a few tomatoes lost to fruit fly, giant slugs and even the local female Bower bird! Even so, we did not have to buy tomatoes all through summer and even the first month of autumn.

I grew three types: L-R: Black Russian, Amish Paste and Beefsteak.

The Black Russian tomatoes grew really well - not super-high yields but consistent yields for many months - maybe because the seeds were saved from a friend's patch from last year who lives in the next suburb and so has a similar climate.

One of the early beefsteak tomatoes just grew and grew - I'm not actually sure it wasn't some kind of wierd 'throwback', but I saved its seeds and I'll see what grows next summer.

Giant mutant beefsteak tomato... the one on the right! :-)

Oi! Get OFF my veggies!

2009-05-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

I thought this was the work of possums, but I caught giant slugs in the act and found slug slime on the tomatoes.

Our first and only spaghetti squash (like a sweet zucchini) was pecked by our local female bower bird.

These little critters nibbled on some tomatoes and pumkpin leaves.
We also had pumpkin beetles, and this green critter on the pumpkins.

Summer season meals

2009-04-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

Though I didn't plant enough zucchini this year, there was still enough even on one plant to have with several meals (above - spinach, beetroot greens, tomatoes, zucchini, chilli, sage, lemon verbena and some cape gooseberries for dessert). This made a nice pasta sauce!

Some zucchini got a bit excited after a lot of rain!:

Teenie Weenie Zucchini

2009-02-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

The ridiculous heat we had a week ago affected the zucchini. I did cover them in shade cloth (kindly donated by a friend) in time for that stupidly hot 40+degrees Sunday, but I think the damage had already been done. Jerry Coleby-Williams grows his food under shade cloth all summer.

The many days of rain afterwards helped some of the new ones. So the little ones were a little tasteless but the larger one was sweet and delicious. I could really taste its crispness in the stir-fry we had. I'm still not sure if this plant is a new hybrid or one of my heirloom plants as zucchini self-seeded from the compost. (Note to self: plant seeds in mushroom compost to avoid confusion!).

When is a cherry not a cherry?

2009-02-11T22:10:00.001-08:00

These funny little things are called "Ground Cherries" or "Cape Gooseberries". they are related to the tomato and taste like a very, very sweet tomato - a bit like a 'tomato-berry' :) They grow in these cute little 'jackets' so the birds don't seem to touch them and they ripen from green to yellow-orange.

They are so yummy, they don't even make it to the house! I'd HIGHLY recommend growing these if you have children and/or a sweet tooth. The plants have been hardy, competed well with the feral tomatoes and are continuing to crop. I must plant more next season.

Tomayto Tomahto

2009-02-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

A lovely 'family' of Russian Black tomatoes:

The juicy 'flesh':

And what crazy weather can do to your tomatoes - these tomatoes cracked after extreme hot weather, deep watering and then days of cold and rain:

So far I have picked nearly 4kg tomatoes and they are really only beginning to ripen! And there are still many babies on the plants :)

Potayto Potahto

2009-02-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

It was worth growing veggies for a year just to see the joyous look on S's face as she pulled potatoes out of the patch like a child finding Easter eggs! The harvest of potatoes this way is amusingly called "Bandicooting" in honour of the digging habit of the little Aussie bandicoot.

The treasure:

I think (!) I planted Nicola, Desiree and definitely Dutch Cream potatoes.

The treasure chest:

This was from light digging alone. I have not dug up the whole patch yet. I can't quite bring myself to do it and yet, some potatoes are so ready, they are beginning to sprout new plants! Even so, we have already harvested nearly 10kg!

And the taste test? Potatoes steamed lightly with a dash of butter and salt - ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! The wierd thing is I am getting tastes that I remember as a kid. Just goes to show you how bland a lot of produce has become with hybridisation, long-term refrigerated storage, etc. - even within one generation.

So why aren't Dutch Cream potatoes grown en mass? Is it because of less yield? Poor storage? It puzzles me. These potatoes are so yummy that I literally can't stop eating them every time a batch is cooked.

Plus they are so easy to grow. I just made sure the soil was heaped up and straw added on the top and sides of the potato patch to keep the light out so they don't go green. I didn't even bother watering them that much aside from the rain. I did put some chicken poo on the patch as an experiment and this was probably the result :) :

But all-in-all fun to grow and great to eat ... and arrange into patterns :-)

Vegetable Art

2009-02-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

I pulled some lovely tomatoes out of the garden today, along with lettuce and a pretty zucchini flower:

I decided to water the tomatoes less and they were not so humungous this time but juicy and very tasty! Though they are Russian Black tomatoes, they look quite bright red.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY VEGGIE PATCH!!

2009-02-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, it been exactly a year since I dug up a section of our lawn and planted veggies (see first few posts). In that time I have harvested:

Zucchinis, lettuces, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, beetroot, onions, bok choi, mustard leaf, strawberries, radishes, blue lake beans, broad beans, sugarsnap climbing peas, rocket, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, dill and fennel.

Duds included carrots, corn and parsnip that didn't germinate or tasted bitter, finicky coriander that didn't do much and a couple of plants that became diseased (got rust or fungus).

Highlights included zucchini so sweet it was eaten raw, potatoes that I could not stop eating!, crispy, juicy bok choi and very zingy, juicy onions (one friend said it was the best onion she'd ever eaten!).

This is the first season of summer veggies as it was too late this time last year to plant tomatoes and the like. So, this is my veggie patch today:

Currently growing: Tomatoes (Black Russian, Amish Paste & Beefsteak), ground cherry (like a Cape Gooseberry), capsicum, eggplant, potatoes (Dutch Cream, Desiree and Nicola (I think)), strawberries, rocket (gone to seed), mustard leaf, lettuce (Forellenschuss), zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, Italian romano bean. I suspect the pumpkin and zucchini self-seeded from the compost and are not what I planted, but I thought I'd let them grow anyway and see what happens :) The root bed has beetroot, carrot and spinach seeds but nothing has germinated yet. It has been ridiculously hot and ants have moved in and I know they like to steal seeds.

Maybe I should sing them a song or do some voodoo or something :-)

I've lost track of how much I've spent and how much the produce would be worth. It was about $200 to set up the patch initially, including hoe hire and fencing and I occassionally throw on manure, blood and bone, seaweed fertiliser, potash and home-made compost, so I think I might have spent at least $100 more as a rough guess (including garden stakes, more seeds and netting). But the pleasure of eating fresh veggies is worth the small profit!

Not all ladybirds are good

2009-01-16T03:55:00.000-08:00

I have been delighted at the variety of insects and bugs in my veggie patch. But some are unwelcome pests and I never knew that some ladybirds like to feed on vegetable crops ...

A pest and its mate - they can rip through a fair section of leaf in a short time

They are usually larger with 24-28 spots. They liked my potato plants and have also had a go at the 'curcubits' patch - that is, zucchini, cucumber and pumpkin. Others have reported the same problem. They are pretty big, so are easy to spot and pick off the leaves. This is why I have been reluctant to put bird-netting over my vegetables, as I hope they eat these bugs - but they may be unsavoury to birds. Hmm. Dunno about that.

Seed Saving

2009-01-05T03:20:00.000-08:00

As well as finding much enthusiasm for fruit and vegetable gardening, I have begun seed-saving. Don't know where that came from except maybe a deep desire to recycle!

So far I have saved dill seeds, mustard leaf seeds, sage seeds, Russian Black tomato seeds (and some "Granny's Bonnet" (aquilegia) seeds - not a veggie, but very pretty with easy-to-spot seed pods). I dunno if its a response to the 'GFC' (Global Financial Crisis) but there are a lotta people going back to growing their own food. I now have very healthy Russian Black tomato plants from a neighbour's tomatoes from last year - my first seed-saved babies!

I never took much notice of seed pods of plants before. Now they look like gold to me. Next to water and healthy soil, they are the most precious 'commodity' we have.

Above: Russian Black tomatoes (green :))

Below: Mustard seed pods & Dill seed 'umbrels'

Some advantages of saving seeds are that you know the life of the seed's parent and what has been put on the soil (or not - eg. no yukky chemicals or sprays) and by growing well, it may have adapted to its local microclimate and have offspring happy to grow in the same area. And of course it gives you propagation power!

I have been using a book called "The Seedsavers' Handbook", but I have also joined a local seedsaving group to swap seeds and tips.

You can't let everything go to seed at once. For example nearly all brassicas (mustard, bok choi, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc) will cross with each other, so the offspring may not be what you expect!

All-in-all very satisfying and an exercise in patience as seed pods may take months to grow and dry on the plant.

Keeping those plants in line

2009-01-05T02:58:00.000-08:00

Green support poles and Espaliered apple tree

Finally got my dwarf apple-trees ("Gala" and "Granny Smith") attached to a wire fence in order to espalier them (training trees on a wire trellis or fence line). My first attempt at putting in the green posts (that I picked up off the street) was rather sad. Digging a hole didn't cut it - they just fell over. So I discovered "Builders' Cement". You chuck it in the hole which is wet and partially filled with water and mix it in situ. It dries to hold the post in about 15 minutes and the posts are sitting solidly now, even with the taut wire pulling on them.

La femme du legume

2009-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

See any similarity? I got this gorgeous card from my beloved. This is the root of a very large spinach plant. Who says gardening isn't sensual art!? (and who says artists know their grammar!? :-))

Death and Disease

2009-01-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION - must post regular blogs! :)

I've been planting new stuff and dealing with unhealthy plants for the first time in my veggie patch. I must have transferred rust from a diseased geranium plant in the garden to my broad beans. they were so seriously infected, including the beans, so I disposed of the whole plant (sadly not for my compost- you need to burn them or fast-compost them to kill the spores). My own fault for using the same gloves and for not visiting the veggie patch often to check for such diseases. The rust may have been encouraged by overhead watering as a mustard leaf plant developed some kind of horrible fungus - I had to kill that too. Not so nice :( I felt like I was putting something down. I didn't realise I could get so attached to plants :)

Broad bean with rust

I gotta look into drip lines to avoid so much overhead watering and risk of disease. Also either a milk-fungicide or sulphur may work if the problem re-occurs. It has been warm and humid a lot lately.

Mustard leaf with fungus (upper and lower side of leaf)

Sweet Beets

2008-11-16T02:31:00.000-08:00

I had planted two sorts of beetroot and tried them today lightly steamed. The beetroot "Early Wonder" is from Eden Seeds and the "Chioggia" is from The Digger's Club. I probably didn't quite give them enough food or water, but they had the same soil conditions, so it was an interesting experiment.

The "Chioggia" was much sweeter and very delicious and is very beautiful with its distinct pink and white rings. It's an heirloom beet and according to the "Growing your own Heirloom Vegetables" book from The Digger's Club it has really high yields. They do look nice together though because the rich red contrasts the pretty rings of the Chioggia. And they are the first beets I've ever grown, so it was exciting to taste them. I suspect they were both a little bitter, only the chioggia is so sweet that I couldn't tell.

I did a quick search on the 'net and found some tips for growing sweet beets.

Basically you grow 'em QUICK with lots of water, liquid food and potash and make sure the soil is a bit alkaline (add lime) and not too freshly manured. And pick 'em when they're young - the size of a golf ball - this way they will have the most sugars and taste yummy!

Recent harvest

2008-10-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

Recent harvest - fennel and broad beans:

Currently growing ...

2008-10-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

October Patch ...

Return to the garden

2008-10-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

After being on holiday for nearly four weeks, I was excited (and a little anxious) to see what had become of my veggie patch ...

It looked rather feral but beautiful. The mustard, sprouting broccoli, dill and brussels sprouts had all gone to seed and the broad beans were covered in large bean pods! I still can't believe I'm actually growing things to eat. It makes me realise how far removed I've been from the source of food and that you don't have to have a green thumb - just feed 'em, water 'em and check for pests.

Today we had a lovely lunch of home-made lentil burgers & special tomato sauce courtesy of a recipe from Turn Over A New Leaf (and my beloved's marvellous cooking skills :)) with steamed rainbow spinach, cauliflower and broad beans and a broccoli flower garnish. Over half this plate is from our garden, freshly picked right before lunch, delicious and disgustingly healthy.

Spring babies

2008-09-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

These Brussels Sprouts are soooo cute. I never knew how they grew exactly.

I love my babies :)

And this is a baby broad bean. After flowering profusely for months, the bees have done their job and the babies are growing. What would we do without bees!!??

Currently growing ...

2008-09-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

(Video 4Mb - might be slow to load if you don't have broadband or similar :))

Ready for spring

2008-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have planted a few different varieties of carrots, onions, local parsnip (that has been grown in this area for three generations of people!), potatoes, climbing peas, some more broad beans, mustard, chives, basil, evening primrose, dill, more fennel, bok choi and a few different lettuces. Phew! Now I've just got to wait a month for the warmer weather to plant tomatoes, cucumber and zucchini. I am at that stage where I go out every day to see if the seeds have sprouted. A bit premature as they only went in yesterday!!!! :)

First real harvest

2008-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

We were going to stir-fry the zucchini, but it was just delicious raw! The bok choi was juicy and crunchy.

First babies!

2008-05-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Though I planted the zucchinis later in the season, the plants still produced a few kilos worth and they were THE BEST ZUCCHINIS I HAVE EVER EATEN! They were so fresh and juicy and sweet my partner and I ate them RAW!
First Blue-Lake climbing beans. They were also delicious to eat raw, but the early cold weather damaged some of the flowers so bean production was limited. I must check the planting times for my region!

Six weeks after planting

2008-03-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Life emerges after seed planting - lettuce, zucchini, rocket, bok choi, climbing beans. I can't believe this was unproductive lawn just six weeks ago!

Putting the fence up

2008-02-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Having doggies who love to dig, I put a fence around the patch. My first door was a flimsy netting one and later after a doggie "break-in" (they love that blood and bone!) I put a wooden framed door on using an old wooden palette and netting reinforcement.

This took me a full day from 10am to about 8pm, but in just ONE DAY I had converted a pointless patch of lawn into a garden ready for planting! While the beds were settling I planted things into a handful of mushroom compost placed in little holes on top of the bed.

Mark out the vegetable beds

2008-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

I marked out four veggie beds to be used for a four-year crop rotation and took the dirt from the paths and threw it on the four beds. I then covered the beds with more blood and bone and chopped lucerne hay for fresh organic matter. I used old railway sleepers to border the garden and anchor the fencing I added later that day.

Using sawdust from the removal of a dead tree stump, I covered the dividing paths (after putting thick sheets of newspaper on the paths to supress weeds). It adds organic matter to the soil and snails and slugs don't like it!

Then remove the lawn

2008-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

I raked the surface of the lawn and kept the lawn for composting.

Then I put blood and bone, cow manure, gypsum (soil has a bit of clay) and potash over the top few inches of dirt and mixed it in. It was raining so I don't have many photos of what I did next ....

First dig up the lawn

2008-02-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

25 square metres of lawn to dig - I did it the "easy way" with a mini-rotary hoe to dig up the surface layer. It cost very little to hire for the day and it was finished in a few hours. Especially with some help ... actually a lot of help ... :)

At the beginning

2008-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

At last! A patch of lawn unused and exposed to sunlight. A dream come true! Here I stand, shovel in hand with a rotary hoe to dig up the land :) Plus a big pile of manure, lucerne hay, blood and bone, potash, gypsum and mushroom compost :)