Public holiday here in Perth and we are celebrating Australia Day. Watching the cricket, going to the beach, listening to the cricket on the radio and having a BBQ lunch are all traditional activities for today. Gardening will be low on the list for most people but I grab a little moment to harvest my dinner!
Clean Up Time
With the harvest of the corn over it is time to clean up a few beds in the garden and start preparing for the next round of plantings.
The compost heap is quite tall again and I may need to have a big turnover this week to get the heat going in the middle and check the moisture levels.
Veges To Eat This Week
Carrots, eggplant and broccolini are the main edibles this week. The carrots are just the thinnings from the carrot bed to encourage the growth of the larger carrots.
The bowl of fruit salad is for our breakfast!
Finally picked the grapes this week and they are so sweet.
The capsicum we pick as they ripen and we have had a few this week. The sunburnt ones are used for the dog – he loves capsicum with his dinner and has on occasion stolen them from the garden!
The eggplant are producing large numbers of fruit and even though I have picked 7 big eggs this week there are plenty more on the way!
Here are the cucumbers which are racing along now and should be producing fruit next week. We expect to pick some lettuce as well!
Apples and Pumpkins
The apples are progressing nicely and will have a good feed from the trees later in the year.
The pumpkin plant is sneaking around the garden and we look forward to some nice fruit.
Finally the Paw Paws are coming along nicely and it is quite impressive how quickly they can grow when the heat starts!
This plant is nearly 1.5metres tall having started at 15cm when planted from the pot.
The second one is rapidly out growing the pot and I will plant it at the end of the summer.
Anyway have a happy Australia Day my Aussie friends and may everyone else just have a great day as well!
Well here we are past the mid point of January and several weeks of very warm weather with today being the second day in a row over 42 degrees celcius. Tomorrow promises to be around 37 and it might even rain – the first time in 57 days!
We have broken some records this month on the summer temperatures and rainfall front. Normally this spells disaster for the vegetable garden but this year I seem to have had a win! My plans and preparations have saved the day and I have suffered minimal losses in the garden. A few lettuce plants got fried, a few capsicums burnt but generally all is well.
This zucchini plant has a little stress (as seen by the white fungal infection which I will treat with milk)
Beetroot and spring onion doing fine under the shade cloth. Oh yeah, that’s Dill growing in the front there!
Tomatoes doing fine, little sun damage and nice and plump.
The eggplant are thriving and we are enjoying them on and off the BBQ!
The next round of Cucumbers doing very well and a few lettuce in between them and the broccolini.
Will pick our first ever grapes tomorrow if it rains other wise the next day it cools down.
The cloth is to cover them on the hottest days, otherwise they are raisins!
Picking and Preserving the Corn Crop
Last week we picked the first of the corn to have cooked on the BBQ for Margit’s birthday. Today I picked half of the remaining crop to preserve for eating in the winter months. It seems so far away right now, but warm buttered corn on a cold winters day is some fine comfort food! The following photos demonstrate the procedure for preserving them in the deep freezer.
A very successful crop of corn this year it was 42degrees when I took this photo – corn was quite happy!
A sharp broad knife makes cutting the corn much easier.
Strip the cobs of the leaves and the filaments.
Cut into convenient bite sized cobs.
I had a big pan of water coming to the boil and ready to go as I finished chopping. The corn goes in for 5-6 minutes only to just partially cook them. (This stops freezer burn)
This bucket has a little ice and cold water ready to cool the blanched corn cobbettes.
The corn is bagged in lots of 6 for a dinner serve, dated and placed in the freezer. There is some lovely organic beef and free range pork sitting next to them!
That’s it, all ready for the coming winter. The rest of the crop we will eat raw and BBQ – and also give a few away to some lucky neighbours and friends!
I wish the best for the rest of the week – we expect more hot weather in the mid-30’s this weekend so the heat is on in Perth!
Had lot’s of great food, most of it from my sisters garden. I have a few photos to share from the visit and these will show you some amazing results from her sunflower bed!
The other great opportunity was to eat lots of fresh apricots, peaches (white and orange flesh) and some plums (only managed to get one since they are a little later ripening).
Jon is around 6 foot so you can see how monstrous these flowers are!
Steve and Jon picking more ripe fruit.
The netting is to keep out the parrots and the odd green eye.
We are still eating the peaches here at home as well as some cherries I picked up at Mt Barker on the way back from the Albany holiday.
In the Organic Garden This Week
When I got home the garden was looking pretty good! The shade cloth covers had worked a treat and the plants were all very healthy and in fact very much bigger than before I left. The plants are thriving despite the many days over 35 degrees Celsius this month.
The corn is huge and the cobs are thickening up nicely and I check them every day just in case any are ready to eat!
There are tomatoes on the bushes now and so we can expect to start eating them next week. I thinned out the carrots and had a little feed – I cannot believe how well they are growing! The capsicums are doing well and the egg plants are very productive and I will soon be picking them daily.
Today I planted some more cucumber and lettuce which should be ready just as the other plants start to deteriorate.
Drive In Food Bars for Magpies
Lastly today I wish to share a video I took one day when we were admiring the sights from a look out in Albany. A family of Magpies was sitting on a rail in the car park and quite calmly inspected each car as it arrived and helped themselves to the bugs caught in the grilles of the cars.
What we most amazed by was that they al;ways walked to the front of the car each time – never the back of the car!
Well the end of the year is upon us and it is amazing to thinking that in a very short time it will be 2010.
The garden has been a wonderful supply of fresh organic food this year – I have learnt many new things about the management of a home garden to produce food!
I hope what I have shared has brought useful ideas and encouragement to the many organic home gardeners out there – my encouragement to you is to keep at it and you will succeed!
Growing our own food will have a big impact on our carbon footprint and it is a very efficient way to contribute to the improvement of the environment. Home grown food, especially organic food saves the planet on so many fronts.
This Week In the Garden
So much is happening this week as we prepare for Xmas. I have huge plants growing in all the beds and I am very excited to see corn towering nearly 2 meters high, tomato plants starting to bud up and the cucumbers zucchinis loving the new shade cloth.
Beetroot in my sandwiches, lots of lettuce and the broccolini has proved to be a real bonus – even on the hottest days it has shown no signs of bolting or wilting!
As for the fruit – over 20 apples on the two dwarf trees so far, apricots starting to ripen and figs just delicious!
The pawpaw has shot away and is now nearly a metre tall! Bags of mulberries in the deep freeze – ready for cold winter afternoons next year! The grapes are filling up and getting fatter everyday!
I could go on, but I won’t! Here are a few shots from the yard to give you a feel for the bounty we have out there this week!
Lettuce, Tomato, Coriander bed. Garlic Too!
Eggplant, Beetroot and Onion Bed
Carrot, Capsicum and Beetroot Bed
The Corn Forrest!
Eggplant, cucumber and zucchini bed.
Moon Flower
2 years ago I was given a cutting from a “Moon Flower” and last year we had 1 flower. I was in Adelaide or Melbourne at the time and missed it but this year we have three flowers that have budded up and burst into life. I have searched the web for a picture like this one but no luck so anyone who can give me a botanical name please live a message here on the site.
I have taken shots over the two days and you can see the progression – we went out last night and came home to find the house full of this cinnamon scent and three enormous and dazzling flowers!
After all that glorious scent and wonderful flowers this is the way they look the next morning!
The summer weather has been mixing it up a bit – cool days (24C) and hot days (38C) and lot’s of in between days as well!
I know that the summer is yet to really heat up so I am already seeing the problem of the high temperatures on the delicate plants. My umbrellas have been working but the winds are challenging some days so I have followed a friends example of building a shade over the top of the beds.
Shade Cloth
Today I have built my first shade over the two hottest beds – they get sun nearly all day so can get very dry unless I pour in more water. Water is restricted now in most cities and Perth is no different. The shading should cut down water loss and allow me to keep to my rostered days.
So here is the process I followed:
Some tall start pickets on the four corners and a brace across the ends and the middle.
I used old PVC to strut and support the posts and shade cloth. It’s light and cheap!
This is 50% shade cloth.
The cucumbers were a lot happier this afternoon so I believe we are on the right track!
Veges in the Garden This Week
Here is a quick update on the veges this week!
Apples are starting to grow!
Siamese Twin Cucumbers!
Eggplant
Zucchini
Spring Onion
The Corn Forest! Over 1.5m high now!
This weekend will be over 37C so that should a big test for my shades and I will let you know how it all performs!
This post may seem a little out of time! You see my last post was to be published at the start of November but I got sick and was too ill to publish on time!
I have just got back to the keyboard today to find the unpublished post! However, this is no drama since it shows the dramatic growth over the last 4 weeks. You won’t believe the way my seedlings and seeds have rocketed into the world!
Anyway, here is the update for the first week of December – weather has been strange – some very hot days now and then, rain and thunderstorms and then some very mild and thoroughly amazing days – 23-27 degrees with a cool breeze…. the best of Perth’s climate!
Let’s start with the corn –
It is so thick and lush and I am delighted with it’s progress – could be the best we have ever grown!
The cucumbers are just about to start their mad rush up the fence and supply us with a dozen or so fruits a week!
We should be able to pick 6-7 by the next weekend!
Oh yeah here is one of the lettuce I planted in the corn bed between the rows – it clearly loves this location.
Here is one of the 8 or so eggplant I planted!
The Zucchini are also near bursting with fruit and by the weekend we will be picking 5-6 of those as well!
This is our first bunch of grapes growing up over the patio!
Also let us not forget the carrot seeds and leeks I planted in the refreshed bed.
The board is for me to step on so I don’t compact the bed – each garden bed has something for me to stand on without compacting the soil to encourage good root growth and water absorption when it rains.
Beetroot, eggplant and onions here are doing very nicely indeed!
Let me finish off with one of the many delicate flowers growing around the yard right now!
Have a great week – I can feel a stirfry coming up this weekend – zucchini, coriander, spinach, carrots……..
Heritage
You may recall me speaking about the decision I made this year to grow tomatoes from seed and particularly sow heritage varieties. Well here they are and doing very well thankyou!
That is self sown lettuce in the background – it’s like weeds at the moment!
Well not much happening in the organic garden this week, other than watching my seedlings grow. I have seen a surge in caterpillars so I have been picking them off and using a little pest oil as well.
Our weather is very spring! We have thunderstorms one day and then high temperatures the next! I have lost a couple of seedlings to the hot weather since I have been sick with the flu and so did not get out enough to check on the little ones!
This is why I usually plant more than I could hope to eat so no great problem so far with the losses.
The silverbeet is thriving and is soooo green!
The corn, cucumber, zucchini and eggplants are doing well – as are the onions!
I have planted lettuce between the corn rows since I will harvest them long before the corn block out the sunlight!
The tomato seedlings are coming along at last and I should be planting them out soon!
New Flowers
As the weeks move on into late spring the type of flowers around the yard starts to change some what. The bulbs are browning off now and the roses are racing ahead. A few of my newer plantings from last winter are now flowering and we are enjoying a few different splashes of colour.
Compost Heap
The compost heap has grown to huge proportions as I am pruning and thinning out all over the yard.
This is currently about 1.5m high and will settle down as the rot sets in! I will need to add some blood and bone and give it a good turnover when I feel better.
Meanwhile the sweet-potato are enjoying the boost of nutrients that they have access to near the base of the heap.
I also think that the mulberry tree is also benefiting from the heap since they are well know to seek out nutrition over quite large distances.
Fruit Trees Racing Along
My Pinkabelle Apple tree is flowering – exciting prospects of lot’s of apples this year!
Apricots are on the tree now! I will be watching keenly for any fruit fly – have found an organic bait to control them this year!
Still lot’s of mulberries!
My fig tree is loaded and carries so much fruit for such a young and little tree!
Fruit Fly Control
The organic bait and control is quite an easy product to use. I simply mix it as directed and spray over 1sm of fruit tree in the yard. This attracts and kills the fly for roughly 70sm of garden – so for me just one spray once a week or two should control all the fly problems – tomato to apricot tree!
A great way to control the pest without the toxic chemicals of the alternatives!
Of course basic garden hygiene is also important – all waste fruit should be composted quickly or given to the worms to reduce the chances of the fly getting into the yard. Infected fruit can infect the soil and then the fly is a major challenge for many years to come!
We are well into spring here in Perth and the organic garden is warming up and the soil is just right for preparation for summer crops.
Seeds are in the trays and germinating so the next step is to prepare the ground.
Step 1. Complete the Harvest of Winter Crops
I have picked the last of the turnips and onions and also found a few beetroot.
The organic Garlic are going well but no where near ready for harvest yet.
Step 2. Weed the Beds
With the extra rain this winter and spring I have actually had quite a lot of clover growing in the beds.
This has not been a problem since it fixes nitrogen in the soil and makes good compost too!
So I have weeded these all out and turned the soil over.
After all that the compost heap is looking huge.
Step 3. Add compost and Blood and Bone
Next is the addition of blood and bone and compost to revive the tired soils that have produced wonderful winter food like cauliflower and turnips.
I also add some germs – this are granulated bacteria that kick off the soil activity when you add them with the organic materials.
Step 4. Mulch the Beds
This year I am trying something new – cane sugar mulch!
Garden straw has become very expensive over the last few years so I have tried to find alternatives but most are just as expensive. I spotted this sugar cane mulch last week and though I would try it this summer. It comes in a compressed bale in a plastic bag so the bag covers 7 square meters at the depth I need. Very convenient and easy to handle.
We will see how this goes and I will report back next year.
I give it all a good watering – completely soaked and ready for the plants.
Step 5. Plant out the Seedlings
I have bought a few seedlings as well as grown my own to get things moving and to space out the plantings.
Today I have put in cucumber, yellow zucchini, egg plant (3 varieties), coriander (in tomato bed for pest control).
So there we go the crops are in and the only thing to do now is to keep an eye on the pests and keep the ground moist.
Now Keep that Dog Out
Now blood and bone has a nice smell if you are a dog and so if I don’t take precautions the red menace will be into the garden in a flash. This is why you can see the galvanised fence around each bed.
Here he is chewing his raw bone looking very happy. I can tell you he would also be thinking how that freshly dug garden bed will be a great place to bury this bone later today!
The black pipe is the recycled tyre material that I bury below the soil as an underground water system. The pipe weeps and effectively maintains good moisture levels with little evaporation.
Protect Seedlings From Heat
In Perth we can get some real scorchers even in spring so I prepare for the odd day by placing my beach umbrellas in each bed.
I have placed steel stakes deep in the bed and then tie the umbrella base to them. Top of the umbrella can be removed in very windy weather but usually I can just leave them down and tied.
This one is in the broccoli bed and last year enabled me to grow and pick the vegetable for almost the whole of summer!
Here it is in it’s full glory doing a great job protecting my dinner!
I actually have two stakes in some beds one for early summer and one for late summer. This can compensate for the changing tilt of the earth as the season moves on.
That’s it then all ready – now I just keep an eye out for bugs and deal with them as the weeks progress.
Have a great week and may you have success in your garden as well!
This is today’s harvest of organic broccoli! Why so much? I think the 38degrees on Saturday had something to do with it!
I had put up the covers on the bed so that the veges would not burn and that seems to have worked well. However the high temperatures push the growth of the broccoli heads forward and we had 7 or more ready in one go. Normally we can pace our harvest over a week or two but the extreme conditions brought it all on at once!
Never mind a few friends will be happy tonight since they have my excess for dinner!
I picked 1.5 kilos of broccoli altogether.
Oh yeah, a few carrots as well!
Fruit Trees are loving the Sunshine
That is a 10 litre bucket about half full of mulberries that we picked this afternoon and are currently turning into jam!
My dear wife had been preparing them for jam this afternoon and I did the last kilo an hour ago. We cut the little stems off the fruit to improve the jam. If you don’t the jam is a little crunchy – I actually don’t mind that but it is very smooth without the stems.
Seed Collection
I let my Bok Choy go to seed this winter and collected the dry pods as the plants died off. Today I removed crushed the dried pods and separated them from the seeds and now have plenty of organic seed for the next 12 months. I will also share a few with some of my friends who like to grow their own as well.
Preparing Seedlings For Next Crop
Last week I planted some beetroot, spring onion and tomato seeds. The tomatoes are heritage varieties and were great value and I hope to have an excess of tomatoes – which we will turn into sauce or paste and deep freeze. I hope to try drying this year as well, since the few I did last year were very yummy.
This is the fresh bed for the tomatoes and is full of manure, blood and bone and wetting agent.
Dinner Time
Just before I finish up I have ducked out for dinner and thought you might like to see what I am having – pork spare ribs on rice with prune and apple sauce with organic broccolini of course!
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.
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.)
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.
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!
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!
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 OrganicVegetables
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.
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.
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!
Hi everyone just a brief update this week – I am very busy in other people’s yards right now. However, we are still eating well from the organic garden. My daughter Jessica just sent me a photo of a pizza – all my organic vegetables – she is having for dinner – and I just finished my stir fry!
The Raw Turnip
Today, I tried a turnip raw! Before you go all silly – try a fresh organic one from your garden and you will get a big surprise! It was crisp and sweet just like an apple – but had the flavour more like a mild radish. I like them cooked for sure, but someone suggested last week that I try them raw. A great idea!
I bet if I served it up in a salad you would not pick it as turnip! I love it when I find another way to eat or prepare vegetables.
the Great Wall
One of the things I have been doing this week is helping my daughter and her husband Jon, in their yard. We are doing retaining walls at the moment and the first one is the big one at the front of the house.
Do you have any idea how heavy limestone blocks can be? I do!
With the cold mornings and all the hard work I sure get up an appetite and I am so glad to come home to a warm meal with lot’s of my lovely organic vegetables!
As you can see my lovely daughter is rather proud of our work as well!
(We mixed cement in the wheelbarrow, I lifted every block myself without a machine!)
Until next week – after a day on the dingo! (I’ll explain later!)
As I sit here at the desk the wind is howling and the sky is bright! The rain has been heavy today – love it!
Garden is looking great and the winter veges are roaring along – not much to report since I have been in Albany this week. My sisters garden is looking great as the new seedlings have started well down there – she is picking the Cauliflowers already since she planted the dwarf variety. My full size babies are as big as hers already but have more room to grow yet!
If you are wondering why the string – the cauliflower yellows if exposed to the sun. The yellowing largely has no effect on flavour but we all love pure white cauliflower in our cheese sauce!
Anyway just a few photos – the new broccoli and brocollinie plants are in and the fence is up to keep the dog out of the compost.
Carrots and lettuce etc going fine and we are having lots of roast vegetables at the moment.
Just looking at the date – this makes me 50 and 4 months old today!
Have a great week – may your rain gauge overflow!
As you have seen this week the Organic Cauliflower is going great guns – it is almost like it loves the freezing cold weather. We have had many days with temperatures down near 2 degrees this month and lots and lots of rain. After a working on a couple of lawns and gardens this afternoon I felt like a nice warm dinner of something tasty – I looked out in the yard and spotted one rather large white Cauliflower! Mmmmmm Cauliflower Cheese sounds pretty good!
We check the freezer and we have some nice Hoki fish fillets. Sounds like a plan!
Preparing the Organic Cauliflower
Being a rather visual person I have snapped a few photos to make this an easy recipe. If you have your own favorite receipe for Cheese Sauce then use that in place of our Rice Milk and Parsley mixture.
Step 1. Get the Cauliflower in the Steamer. First cut the head into smaller florettes and evenly distribute around the steamer – bigger pieces in the bottom and the smaller ones near the top so they don’t overcook! We also like to include most of the stem that the Cauliflower head sits on as it is rather tasty. You will need to skin it as it covered with a hard stem layer. Our Cauliflower is rock hard due to the ample water supply lately so we gave it a good 10 minutes and it was still firm but cooked.
Step 2. Collect some flour, 1.5-2 cups rice milk(any milk will do), cheese and white pepper (or your favorite spice).
Add a little milk to quarter of a cup of flour and mix the rest of the milk in the pan.
Step 3. Bring the milk to near a boil (not too hot) and slowly add flour mixture, mixing as you go.
Step 4. Add the cheese and slowly bring to a simmer as it melts. When you have a smooth even mixture turn off the heat.
Step 5. Chop and then add the Parsley.
Step 6. The Cauliflower will be steamed by now and can be added to the greased bowl. We use an organic olive oil.
Step 7. Pour the cheese sauce over the top. Sprinkle with your favorite cheese – a touch of parmesan can really work well with Caulliflower.
Step 8. Put the bowl in a preheated oven at 190 degrees. Our oven is fan forced so that is a pretty hot oven and should only take 25 minutes to bake the Cauliflower. It will brown as it approaches the end so use as a guide.
Step 9. Serve with your favorite fish, or steak, or roast dinner or…….. I found a nice sweet white wine in the cupboard and this went well with the cheesy flavours and fish.
And just to think I have 10 more plants to pick over the next few weeks!
We picked some Organic Silverbeet for dinner tonight and whilst I was out there I thought I would just check the beets and turnips. We are having a nice family roast dinner tomorrow and I need a few veges to roast. Anyway, went digging about the garden bed and find myself confronted with these huge vegetables!
The beetroot I am familiar with since they will grow large if you let them. I usually eat them small, they tend to be less tough that way. Though, I must say the organic beetroot seem to be quite tender even at this sort of enormous size.
I cleaned them up and bagged them for the fridge – friends and relatives may get a few this week!
Not that they mind!
Our Vegetable Loving Cavalier
I also chopped up a little turnip for the dog tonight – after he gets his meat based food we always give him fruit and vegetables. He loves capsicum, carrots and cucumber. Yes I know he is a carnivore but he loves his vegetables.
The vegetable feeding started as a puppy!
I remember one year he managed to eat all my snow-peas – I could not work out why I was losing peas every day until I caught him red-pawed – biting them straight off the bush! Then last year he started eating the capsicums that fell on the ground from the wind.
What can you do?
I have to put up fences now to keep him out!
This dog eats better than a lot of kids I know! Don’t let the cute act fool you!
One of the outcomes of a successful garden is the production of lots of organic material. This would have once been referred to as garden waste but not any more since it is a valuable resource. Most of the leaves, stems and roots of my vegetables are passed into the compost heap or the worm farm. However, some material is just way to tough or big for either of these.
This being the case you need some mechanism to reuse this material and recapture both the carbon and the precious minerals.
Think about it – if you spend so much time developing healthy rich soil it would be silly to let the remnants of your crop leave in the big green wheelie bin. The leaves and scraps are just as rich in minerals and carbon as the part you ate as food! This is where one of my favourite garden tools comes into it’s own. The Mulcher.
Organic Prunings
You may recall me talking about pruning the Mulberry bush last month. Well the prunings have been sitting around for the last 5 weeks and have lost most of their sap. The leaves have fallen off and rotted down into the garden bed I placed them in and the stalks are just ready for the mulcher..
My mulcher is an electric machine of modest size, just right for a yard like mine. It can handle branches up to 5-6cm which means it just rips through the mulberry canes. It also deals with the many gum tree twigs and other garden prunings that I bring home occasionally from my landscaping jobs. I pile them all up in a big heap so that all the softer green material rots off and feeds the worms in the soil. I regularly stir the pile up to encourage decomposition and drying of the larger material.
Thorough Drying
The reason for the care with the drying is that if there is too much sap in the branches they will gum up the mulcher. I have learned this the hard way. During one of the early uses of the machine I added too much green material and it just clogged up to the point of stopping! I then spent an hour cleaning the sticky mess out of the inside! Not a favourite job!
So I have learned to get it nice and dry and clean of leaves. A large pile will disappear very rapidly if you get this preparation right the first time.
Mulch Away
As you can see the mulcher is quite effective – it produces a nice coarse product that can be used on any garden bed requiring some covering. I can even put this in the compost heap if I so choose.
Today I have used it to mulch a new area of the garden.
This part of the fence blew down last month and required replacing. That has been completed and so I have planted some shrubs I grew from cuttings last summer. All I needed was some mulch to prepare them for the summer and this lot has done the trick.
That was about two wheel barrows full of mulch. Just the right amount for this little bed.
Reduce Reuse Recycle
The mantra of all true greenies. My mulcher has helped me achieve a great outcome –
– the yard is clean of prunings
– I reused a handy, quality resource
– two garden beds have improved their fertility
– I have helped reduce water loss through mulching
That’s all for today I will drag out another favourite tool from the shed next month!
Hi everyone just a quick update on the harvest for the first week of August in the Organic Gardeners Patch.
The Cauliflower has grown like mad, still picking Capsicum(don’t ask me how!), baby beetroot, more carrots and the spring onion are leaping out of the ground and there is just a little bit of lettuce about as well. This morning also saw me finding a few sweet potato! They will be yummy with the other veges in a big roast this weekend.
Fertiliser From Worms
The worms gave their best today by supplying 10 litres of liquid fertiliser for me to spray around the vegetables. I added a little seaweed based fertiliser as well to give it a real kick.
Should see a surge in the growth next week! The 20degreeC days are working so well with the chilly mornings – I love growing vegetables this time of the year.
After a weekend in the country – way down south – I came home this week to pick my weekly feed! Once again the organic veges have caught me un-awares. It is incredible what happens when you have some rain and a little sunshine in winter. The vegetables just go crazy. Here is my proof of that – I picked two cauliflowers this week because they are just springing out of the ground. One is of a normal size the other is one that has just gone cccrazy!
Giant Organic Vegetables
All looks as usual, although the leaves are very long.
Just a normal cauliflower.
In the other bed we have more vege looking ok – oh I forgot about that one I wrapped!
Looks a little large!
Hmmmm quite heavy!
Now that’s some Cauliflower! Obviously the worm fertiliser did the trick!
Here is the mornings harvest – most of which I am giving to a mate since we have plenty in the fridge already!
Fruit Trees Starting to Prepare for Spring
A wander around the garden reveals that many fruit trees are responding to the longer daylight hours and preparing for the spring. The mulberry tree is already looking very busy with flowers and green fruit growing all over it!
Mulberry flowers and fruit in the background. All we need are warm days and the sugars will start bulging those berries!
Peas flowering and reaching for the sky!
Onions swelling and will be ready soon enough!
We are still picking capsicum – this has to be the first time I have picked them – red – through the whole winter!
Here are my “baby” broccoli – and the lettuce in the lawn will be ready soon!
Well I am off this Friday to a Yoga Retreat at the Serpentine Retreat Centre. This is always a great time for me I look forward to it every year.
No it’s not just the yummy vegetarian food!
It’s the time to slow down and find some space in a busy life and find some guidance and inspiration for the remainder of the year and beyond. The weekend is also a time to serve one another and my first contribution will be some organic vegetables! Your surprised I know! LOL
I hope to bring a recipe or two back for you all so stay tuned!
This week we are in the grip of lovely winter weather and so the organic gardener has been just relaxing. Lot’s of rain and with it the natural fertilising of the nitrogen dissolved in the water as it falls. There is something special with this natural event it always amazes me how it produces slightly better growth than just chucking on other fertiliser. I suppose when you think about it the plants have been tuning themselves to this natural process for thousands of years and so should be expected to respond so strongly.
Today I picked a lovely pair of organic cauliflowers and there are three more ready by Friday and they will be going to the retreat for dinner. The parsley is so thick and green it would make lovely juice drinks. I hope to take about 2 bags of this to the retreat as well.
The capsicum are nearly finished now – in August? – and the turnips and beetroot are just ripping along. I have just finished eating half the large turnip and will finish it with my Shepherds pie!
This first photo shows the cauliflowers with their leaves to show you how huge the plants are growing.
Here they are all cleaned up!
Some lovely Red Coral lettuce is progressing well.
The baby broccoli are tearing up the garden and the leeks are doing very well too.
Here are the scraps and I chop them up to put in the worm farm!
A layer of newspaper over the top and then lid on top!
Flowers Are Springing
The wattle is bursting into blossom and should be at it’s best this weekend!
The Mulberry Tree is pushing out leaves and should start producing sugar in the new fruit soon!
Well that’s it for this week! I have work everyday so it will be busy up to the retreat.
Have a great week and enjoy whatever season it is your part of the world!
Cya
The Organic Gardener from the Organic Home Garden
Hi everyone and welcome to spring in Perth Western Australia. IT is still raining and we are enjoying that plus the sunny days in between!
I have been very busy working so not much time in the garden this week – but I can still pick food to eat and here is the lovely organic vegetables we are munching through!
The carrots are coming along nicely now and we are enjoying the sweetness they bring to the dinner table!
This lot is fresh and yummy and will be part of the roast dinner we plan at my daughter’s this week!
The cauliflower is the second last one in the garden and is still quite sweet and growing well. The onions are strong and helping keep the sniffles away.
How Onions Saved a POW
Margit’s grandfather ended up in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp during WW2 and survived in large part due to the onions he ate. He swapped his Red Cross cigarettes etc for the onions of his fellow prisoners. He ate them raw and stayed healthy the whole time he was in prison.
Here is an extract of the happy reunion after the family had been refugees:
Very early in the morning, mother, who took only Udo with her, went to the “Junkersiedlung”, where Tante Lotte had found shelter with her sister Alice. When Lotte came to the door and saw Mother, the first thing she said was: “Your husband is searching for you. He was here 2 weeks ago!” Mother nearly stopped breathing when she heard the good news and Alice had to repeat it a few times. Father had left an address with them, where we would find him. Aunt Alice came to the guesthouse to fetch the rest of us children. We heard from them that our Father had been a P.O.W. but not for very long. He was lucky enough to fall into the hands of American soldiers, who released him after a few months. He had been able to find work through a friend in a small town called Bosdorf near the city of Leipzig. We only stayed one night with our two aunties, as we could not wait to see our Dad again. So, the next morning we got on the train to Leipzig. It was late afternoon when we found Dad, who looked at us with disbelief and then he took all of us into his arms.
We had lost much: our home as well as our homeland, friends and material possessions, but our family was once again complete. Having one another was all that mattered and we counted ourselves very lucky. So, our wanderings in the “wilderness” had come to an end. The date of this extremely happy day for our family was the 1st of August 1945. The times, which followed, were very hard. Germany was in ruins and everything had collapsed. There was a severe food shortage all over the country and no heating fuel or coal for the severe winter, which followed.
The whole story is a heart wrenching account of how the family wandered and survived attacks from Russian soldiers. Members of the family did not survive and hunger was a constant companion!
My mother-in-law never wastes food and loves to receive my organic vegetables!
The weather is still quite rough here in Perth at the moment but this has not hampered the plants. The spring flowers are bursting out in all their glory as I type!
This is a fine example the first buds on the apricot tree!
Bulbs still pressing on into the early spring heat!
Flowers Amongst the Organic Vegetable Beds
One of my tricks is to grow a range of flowering plants for the benefits of the bees and friendly insects. Ladybirds and wasps etc can hide amongst the bushes and get a feed on the unsuspecting grazers and visitors to my flowers.
This does two things, firstly it keeps the control insects in my garden longer during the year and also provides them with habitat to shelter from the weather at this time of the year.
This is all part of my pest management routine.
Colourful Vistas
The second purpose of the flowering shrubs and ground covers is simply aesthetic!
The yard looks a great deal nicer with lots of colour.
The following is what can be seen out the kitchen window for example.
Ornamental Plum
Jasmine, Bottle Brush, Daisies, Roses
This is my latest success my Strelitzia is about to flower in the little tropical corner I have out the front yard.
Update: the flower has opened and here it is in all it’s glory!
Waterwise Garden
The very frontyard is designed to use as little water as possible and so I use native plants with a little twist.
I like to trim them a little and add formal shapes!
Lavender is a very useful plant – giving both shape and colour as well as smell to the garden.
This is the edge of the driveway and colour here brightens the concrete.
This little tree we call the “Bubble Gum Bush” because of the smell it releases at night when flowering.
Hope you have a great week – may life bring you lots of sweet flowers this week!
Well the rain has disappeared for few days and we have a hint of the summer that is ahead. The organic gardener worked on a limestone wall yesterday and felt the heat of the sun for sure! Today we are several degrees warmer and almost clear blue skies as far as the eye can see!
Lawns Are Stirring
I fertilised the lawns this week since I was expecting the warmer days and the grass will take off very soon. I have also been busy weeding – getting them out before they set seed! This is more for preventing next years crop of weeds as tidying up the yard today.
We planted Sir Walter last year after I dug up our old fashioned buffalo lawn. The Sir Walter stays nice a green in the winter and needs less water in the summer. These are two useful features in Perth – our summers can be very hot and dry and of course water restrictions will be in force again this year. We actually had a sprinkler ban in winter this year – which seems odd but people actually forget to turn them off in the winter and so need reminders!
Still More Flowers
I checked the strelitzia yesterday and we now have two lovely flowers – the front yard is blooming and is so bright it almost shimmers with colour.
If you only had smell-o-vision! These smell unbelievable in the early morning and add to the many sweet smells of spring flowers.
Vegetables Going Strong
A few days ago I went through the garden with a knife and bagged up a large amount of parsley and Silver Beet. Most of this I gave away since we still have heaps left and just pick it as we need it. My friend Greg scored a big pile of carrots, turnips, Silver Beet since we are having a few days down south next week and I like the vegetables to be eaten fresh and hate storing it too long after harvest. His wife was delighted with the free organic vegetables.
We will have a few more feeds of winter vegetables for the next few weeks but after I return from the short holiday I will start preparing beds for the summer crops. Tomatoes, beetroot and lettuce rank high on that list. I wont need to plant many lettuce since they self seed all over the garden! I may just move a few seedlings to more convenient spots.
We had a few meals with the broccoli this week and it tasted yummy. I get out most mornings to check for snails since they are the major competitor for the broccoli. There will be a few more caterpillars this week I am sure with the heat improving so I may need to go get some pest oils ready but for now we are managing without them.
Everything is thriving in the garden right now. The warm days with regular showers means amazing conditions – if you are a vegetable or a fruit tree!
For example the mulberry tree is in full leaf now and covered with yummy fruit!
The vegetables are racing along and we are enjoying carrots and brocollini and lots of spinach.
I expect to harvest 10 heads of brocolli this week so some lucky friends and relatives will be given a feed.
The Headless Carrot Man
It looks weird doesn’t it! A product of some scientific experiment! No! Just what happens when carrots find rocks or hard ground in their beds! I have a had a few deformed carrots this week and the lesson is to sift the soil in these beds a little better next time!
After a couple of days back in a school I realise how important working in the garden is to me. A few minutes here and there all day helps keep me sane and calm. (I have a 5 week contract of work holding a Head of Learning position in my old school starting the day after I officially resigned! Such is life!)
I have only taken it up as a favour to a friend who has to face some serious health challenges for the next couple of months and asked me to help him out.
So to get ready for this situation I have had to go flat out ripping out the old crops and getting the seedlings in and established before I start spending full days working away from home. Well I have done it and I am fairly sure the seedlings will survive without my regular checks next week – thankfully the weather this week is hovering around 30degrees instead of 40 degrees celcius!
Out With the Old and in with the New
I have removed the tired Zucchini, added a pile of compost and blood and bone to the bed – the seedlings are spring onions (two varieties) and some lettuce, beetroot and carrots.
The corn is in the compost heap and the bed has received a pile of compost and manures to get it ready for more seedlings next weekend. The mulch is Sugar Cane mulch that I buy in bulk – $20 a bale from Bunnings. I am undecided as to what to plant right now – so will think about it for a week!
The new cucumber are thriving and double in size every couple of days and should be bearing fruit very soon! We have started harvesting the lettuce.
On Sunday I harvested a feed of broccolini, eggplants and capsicum. We can possibly pick one or two capsicum every day now. The tomatoes have started ripening and we have had two lovely organic tomatoes in our sandwiches and some cherry toms on our plates so far this week.
The eggplant I left have already increased in size and should be suitable to eat any time we need them!
That’s it from me this week since I have a lot less time now with a day job to attend to!
The Organic Gardener.
