The Organic Home Garden

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!

Merry Xmas everyone!!

The Organic Gardener

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!

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

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!

Until next time!

The Organic Gardener

A great gardening book! Click Here!

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.

DOWN AT FARM!

Just back from the Chittering Valley north of Perth, where I work on a farm that is undergoing restoration. The house is over 140years old! I plant trees, mulberry, olive  etc.  Today I finished repairing an ancient (60+ year old ) trailer and mulched and fed 21 gum trees – after removing the start pickets and safety fences around them! The sheep are gone now so all the wire can come down. Lots of lovely rain today so the trees should take off like crazy when the weather warms up!

YUMMY VEGES!

I just looked out the window and saw my seedlings that I reported on last time – here they are all ready to go into the garden! the carrots and radish I direct sowed and they survived the ants!

Seedlings ready for planting.

Carrots

I also have a few photos here of the tomatoes. I have several varieties and we have started eating them this week! The zuchinni is flowering so fruit in the next week or so I hope and we picked more leeks and beetroot this week as well. The lettuce are going crazy and I am giving them away every week – as some of you can attest to! or is that ataste to?

Cherry Toms - yellow and sweet!

Russian Black

Roma Dwarf Variety

I also have my first Persimmon

Persimmon

We also have the roses starting to bloom quite nicely now as well – they were covered with Aphids only two weeks ago – and I mean seriously covered. However, I just waitedf for the predators to crank it up and before you know it we have no Aphids but absolute tonnes of Ladybirds!

A red Rose

Until next week, eat well!