The Organic Home Garden

Not much happening this week in the organic garden. I have been working at several jobs this week so even if I really wanted to garden I would have been struggling.
However the beauty of winter time is that the crops don’t need watering and they actually like the cold! It has been cold this week too!
Not as cold as Tasmania but cold for Perth.
We are enjoying warm yummy meals of organic veges though as a side benefit!

Organic Vegetables This Week

Organic Cauliflower is a real lover of the cold and seems to grow even faster the colder it gets!

Here the peas are showing signs of action at last - not really as good as I would like!

Not like the beans, which are growing well even if a little bashed by the weather!

Silverbeet is thriving and looking nice and green - lotsa iron!

Carrots are making a good show and we are picking the baby ones as we need them!

The Leek are looking good - this is the last of the big ones - the next crop are a little smaller right now!

Now for the bonus - the eggplant and capsicum seem to be growing into the winter and we are still picking both!

From In the garden this week Blog

Until next time!
Keep up with your vegetables and fruit and you may not catch a cold!

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Just an update on what is fresh in the organic garden this week!

Lot’s of lovely rain has stirred things along and so we are enjoying the benefits of that.

Beans are still going strong and the eggplant defies all logic and also pushing out stacks of fruit. Bok Choy and parsley going strong and the turnips are yummy!

I cannot believe the number of capsicums that are still growing despite it being so cool but we don’t mind. Found a red one today!

I mowed the lawn this week, first time in 4 weeks - I love this new Sir Walter - and had to mow around lettuce that are springing up through the lawn! Beats the normal weeds you get in lawns.

Pests In the Organic Garden

First sign of a real pest this week. Aphids on the roses.

I normally deal with them by wiping them off with my hand. If they get very thick we use a garlic spray to discourage them. I usually don’t over react at this early start to the winter since the ladybugs need food and these few aphids will give them a feed.

The roses should be going dormant by now so if we lose a few leaves or flowers it does not matter. I need to keep the ladybirds in my garden over winter so that they can make a start in the spring as things warm up. If I go and hammer the aphids too much the ladybirds may leave for greener pastures.

Organic gardening is about balance in the garden between the bugs and the gardeners friends the predators. We put up with a few bugs knowing that in the long run balance is more important than 100% productivity.
I also now have the personal experience of several years organic gardening of seeing less bugs the more I follow the principles of balance.

Until next week
John the organic gardener.

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Now all good gardeners know that when the crops are in season or things go really well you often have far more than you can eat. I regularly give away organic vegetables but sometimes they are just too nice and I have plans to eat them later in the year. This is where a good deep freeze and a few preservation techniques are essential.

Bumper Organic Beans

An example was this weeks harvest of beans. 2 kilograms of organic beans are more than most couples can manage in one week and 500grams to Jess and the neighbour still leaves me 1 kilo to eat! So I have to prepare them for freezing since freezing them is the most effective way of retaining the nutrition they have to offer.

I turn to an old trick my mother applied to the organic vegetables that dad produced when we were kids - blanching.
Blanching is simply a system of par-boiling vegetables so that they are just starting to cook but not quite. This does a number of things - improves colour, flavour and neutralises enzymes and any bacteria that might spoil the food.

This technique is very useful with crops that tend to grow rapidly and yet may not be eaten everyday (silver beet, beans).
Today I have both beans and silver beat in abundance and we have had a feed of both in the last few days so other vegetables (like my turnips) that are best eaten fresh are on the menu.

The technique is very simple and yet very effective.

Blanching Organic Vegetables

First step is to clean and chop the vegetables in question.
Simply rinse and the remove hard stems and blemished leaves.

Next we get a big pot of water, boiling like mad, drop in a handful of vegetables - not too many - you want to keep the water boiling as much as possible - it should just go off boil for 30seconds or so and then come back.

Now the magic is in this next step. You get it right here or you have cooked dinner for tonight!
In the first few minutes of boiling the vegetables change colour for a very short period. In the case of the silverbeet here a lovely lime colour appears in the stems. As soon as you see this get them out!
They go straight into either running cold water in a colander or into another pot of cold water. If you get it right then the colour stays in the vegetables. Like in these silverbeet leaves. The sooner they get cool the quicker they stop cooking.

Now what I do is squeeze the leaves into a ball working all the water out that I can. The less water in the leaves when you freeze them the better.

I let them sit for a moment while I drop in the next handful of leaves in the now boiling water.

Into the Freezer You Go

The next step is the easy one - get the freezer bags out and write on them the date and contents before dropping into the deep freeze!

This is our little box freezer. I prefer this style since the cool air is trapped inside even when you open the lid. (Physics 101 denser cooler air sinks!)

So here are the beans and silverbeet in their final resting place, for a few months anyway. You can see a few packs of chicken and Kangaroo in there as well. Oh yeah on the right there are several bags of yummy Mulberries from last season! (Mmmm looking at this photo reminds me I must defrost this thing sometime soon!)

Here they are in close-up just in case you missed them. We will be having a warm apple and Mulberry pie in the depths of winter with some nice cream or ice cream. A little burst of sunlight in the middle of the grey winter days!

Oh yeah if you are wondering how deep freeze the freeze is - here you go! -13degrees Celsius.

Yep I Eat Game

A few of you maybe surprised to see that I eat a little Kangaroo. Yep I’m no vegetarian, though I do eat lots of organic vegetables.
I spent the first 20 years of my life on a farm and not only was involved in the raising of animals for the markets but also the culling and butchering of such. I spent many Saturday afternoons with my dad processing sheep, pigs, chicken or a steer for our table. If we did not do it we did not get to eat. Simple!

What I have realised, however, over the last 30 years is that the running of cattle and sheep (imported species) in Australia has led to the degradation of millions of hectares of land . These hard hoofed animals are not suitable in all areas of this country. So when I saw that some brilliant entrepreneur could see a profit in harvesting native animals to feed us I was for it!

Cows and sheep are great in some areas of high quality farmland that is more like the rich pastures of Europe that they came from. Soft footed low impact native animals are better in the marginal areas of farmland that the cows and sheep tear apart.
There is room for both in this great country.

Secondly the energy and greenhouse gas component is hugely minimised when you harvest the natural species and avoid the lot feeding model that the American beef manufacturers have “perfected”.

Well that’s my soapbox for today!
Enjoy your out of season vegetables and fruit.

John

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The weather in Perth is just perfect for the organic gardener this week - I cannot believe it is winter. Sunny days with a strong heat in the sun and cool nights (around 5oC). Everything is leaping out of the ground almost.
The ornamental plum has dropped it’s leaves and the Mulberry tree is looking a lot thinner so we are in the next season for sure.

Organic Harvest

Todays pick which I shared with Jess and the neighbour Nick. He loves stir fry so I gave him a stir fry in the bag. Capsicum, eggplant, bok choy, beans.

I am having a huge success with the beans this year. Picked over 2 kilograms of beans so far this week from a garden bed that’s 2m squared. I have half a dozen lettuce in there as well as 12 leeks fighting their way up through the leaves of the beans. My idea is that the beans will dump a tonne of nitrogen into the bed and the leaks will suck it up and grow faster than usual.

The cauliflower is responding to the colder nights - having doubled in size in the last week already. My sister has the hearts forming on hers (but Albany is much colder than here at night!). She is using a dwarf variety this year since they form quicker than the larger ones. I may second plant a few next weekend if I get a chance.

A House becomes a Home

I have just returned from Jessica and Jon’s new home. I say home since now it is no longer just a house being built but now has the signs of a home. They are both a little stunned still - “This is it - we are in the house!”
They think it may take a few weeks to get used to the being in the house!

Jessica has also started planning the landscaping and showed me a plan today. Organic vegetable gardens here, water tank there, fruit trees there and lawn……… that’s my girl! I expect to be there this week painting the last few rooms and then digging the reticulation pipes in and conduit for the controllers. I love working on clean blocks that are sandy and flat!

I drove Jess to the local theatre on the way home since she is doing the dress rehearsal for “Little Shop of Horrors” I think it’s rather appropriate to finish my Blog today with thoughts of a plant eating people - I wonder if the blood can be considered organic blood?

Until next week
May all your veges be as green as mine!

John

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Lovely, lovely rain, thunderstorms all morning as well!

I got out before the last storm and took a few snaps and also harvested food for this week!

All is doing well and I am off out shortly to buy a few things for a nice big roast dinner tonight with lots of organic vegetables from my garden!

Here are the beans - going great guns I picked over a kilogram this morning!

This is the turnip and spinach bed and the new beetroot are busting out as well!

Here is the mornings harvest! More than we can eat so sharing it around to three other families this morning!

Oh yeah we picked our organic apples today!

Have a great week!
John

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The organic home gardener here!

Lovely, lovely rain! Yes it is pouring outside and the wind is raging a gale! My organic beans were flat out due to the heavy rain this morning but they look happier this afternoon.

On Wednsday I managed to get out and harvest the garden crops and also today a huge pile of silver beet! This week - turnip (lovely and sweet), english spinach, beans, eggplant (two varieties), lettuce, baby carrots, beetroot, spring onion, leek. We had a nice roast dinner last night and all the vegetables we could we baked!

The apples are nearly ready to pick and if the wind does not kick them off today we will be eating them next week!

The organic strawberries are still going nicely though I suspect this colder weather will put an end to that!

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This month we have our worm farm going great guns after the first week of rather slow worm action.
These little fellas are starting to really eat their way through our kitchen scraps and producing lovely liquid worm fertiliser to use in my organic garden!

I purchased my farm from Bunnings and it was quite cheap and I bought an extra bag of worms as well to give things a hurry up!

How the Worm Farm Works

The worm farm has easy to follow instructions and sits up on it’s own legs. This keeps it at a very workable height.

We lay a few sheets of newspaper on the top of the worms and fold the pages back to add fresh food scraps every couple of days. We use a 1 litre yoghurt container in the kitchen to place the scraps in and a larger plastic bin for the lemon skins, onion and other harsh scraps that the worms don’t like!

The farm has a tap in the front and this makes draining the fluids from the base very convenient. I collect this once a week and make up a batch of organic liquid fertiliser.

We collect rainwater and overflow water from the air-conditioner and use this in our garden. It is an obvious choice when mixing the worm fertiliser in the watering can.

Here is a mix ready to go and it does wonders in the garden and means I now can cut down on buying fertilisers and also reduce our composting activity.

Composting is too hard for most people.

Now you may think that this is an unusual statement for me the organic gardener to make. No, I am not saying don’t compost your garden and kitchen waste.
It is a clear observation on my part that composting is a skill and one that is usually successful for two main reasons;
you have a brilliant compost tumbler or you have the time and space to set up the heap properly!

Composting is an art and one that the average gardener, with a job and other responsibilities will find difficult to keep up. The amount of material needed to get the heap hot enough is usually more than one family can provide - if you have time then maybe you could get 2-3 neighbours to chip in and then you would have enough green stuff to heat it up! Oh yeah did I mention you need some straw, paper, manures ……etc

The easiest starting point for most families would be to get a worm farm and follow the instructions supplied with your kit. The worms can consume large amounts and will produce beautiful castings and liquid fertiliser within a very short time and with little effort.

Our little guys are now taking most of our green waste from the kitchen and we need to visit the compost heap very little now! (I run a heap in a black compost tub with all the dog droppings and a little straw - it is more anaerobic than aerobic so takes several months to break down. When I have autumn or spring prunings I build a large compost heap with lawn clippings and vege thinnings from the garden and that one usually cooks up a nice brew.)

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We have had the most amazingly warm April this year and the impact has been seen in the garden.
You may recall the planting of my seedlings around the start of April, well these are the same plants after this warm Autumn period. The warm moist soil has nurtured my little babies and they have raced after the sunlight like crazy. The result is far more production in the garden this month than I expected.

Just Add Some GERMS

I also tried a new product this month - I added some germs to the soil. These are bacteria that are normally found in the soil and are concentrated into a granule form to add to composts and garden beds. I added several bags of organic manure and a measure of the germs with seaweed extract. Well stand back and keep your head down! The response in the soil has been amazing.

I dug a bed tonight to plant out my snow peas. Well the soil is so nice you could eat it! I exaggerate, but the structure of the soil and it’s colour are just perfect. I have dug the bed over once more and redressed the hay mulch. I have a new set of seedlings growing in the germination tray and these will go into this bed in a few weeks time.
I have more onions, cauliflower, English spinach and spring onion. These will follow up the first planting and give me a nice steady supply through the winter and into spring.

Organic Vegetables in April

The beans I planted earlier in the month - behind the capsicum - which we are still picking (more green less red, now since the sun is not as strong). These beans are flowering and a few have tiny beans forming already - I love fresh baby beans so I will be picking very soon. Just imagine them lightly steamed and served with a mixture of garlic butter or a light olive oil. …..mmmmmm.

Carrots, spring onions, beetroot, onions.

Silverbeet and lettuce and onions.

Cauliflowers, English spinach, turnips and beetroot.

My dwarf apple tree has held on to two apples - Pinkabelle is the variety - the apples are looking about normal size and one shows a hint of orange so maybe they are starting to ripen. A few leaves are dropping (well it is autumn) and I hope to be eating my own apples next month.

Mint in a pot so that it does not takeover the garden! This is old fashioned mint, I also have a spearmint variety in another pot.

The second bean crop which was planted two weeks after the first ones. Spacing out the plantings gives you a more constant supply instead of a huge bumper crop - not that I have trouble giving them away - neighbours and friends are frequent recipients of my organic surplus.

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FEED TIME!

The last condition of a plants environment that you must deal with is nutrition. The first and most obvious is the need for sunlight. Your leafy veges clearly need lots of sun and will not do well if you restrict them to less than 6 hours a day! Too little sunlight and the plants grow slowly and are more likely to contract diseases and don’t taste quite as nice! Remember sunlight means sugars -

sunlight
Carbon Dioxide + Water ======= Sugar + Oxygen

to produce enough sugar to convert to starch or proteins your plants need a minimum amount each day to do more than just survive! This process is known as photosynthesis. (Here-in ends the biology lesson!)

Pale and Yellowing leaves

Vege leaves that are pale or yellowing may need more sunlight as might plants that grow tall and spindly – they are taller than usual since they are chasing more light and that is their solution – grow up higher!
A similar problem can be seen in fruits that seem to fail to ripen. Many fruits need sunlight to convert starches into sugars and trigger the ripening process so be aware of where you place your fruit bearing plants. I have moved my apple trees around the yard chasing the sun as the season has moved into autumn and they are still growing well as a result.

The second requirement are the minerals that normally are evident in the soil of your garden. This is where the quality of your potting mix comes into question. Good quality mixes will start off with a good balance and will need only a little supplementing as your plants start to take off. Cheap mixes, well you will see the difference in your plants in a very short time after planting them.

Give em a little boost

Powdered or pelleted organic fertilisers are the best place to start and some are made specifically for pots. These can be added at planting time and then a little later on as the plants start to grow. It really depends on the size of your pots and the types of plants as to the frequency.

The next most useful is the liquid fish fertilisers or seaweed mixes. These are gentle and carry more than just fertiliser effects – many trace minerals and growth promoters are found in these products and they are convenient to use as well. These are so gentle that they can be used every two weeks as a boost to the plants and also to improve disease resistance.

HARVESTING

The last consideration is the issue of harvesting your veges. With plants like tomatoes it is obvious when these are ready to go and by all means pick them at the peak of their ripeness and get the taste! With leafy veges, like lettuce, spinach and herbs it may profit you to have several pots for each variety so that you can give them a chance to rest and regrow after picking a few leaves for your meals. Also remember to add a little fertiliser after a heavy harvest of any plants to speed up their regrowth and get them out in the sun.

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The organic garden is roaring along this week due to the unusual warm weather. I will be picking English spinach tomorrow, spring onions, carrots, silverbeet and maybe some beans!

To give you an idea of the strangeness of the weather, here is a large strawberry I picked this week - there are several more to pick this weekend too!

P.S. the Pinkabelle apples are now very pink - I’ll let you know how they taste.

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