The Organic Home Garden

Weather has calmed down a little now in Perth, around 27-30degrees C. Much nicer for growing seddlings and that is what I have been up to in the last week.

This lot are being hardened off in readiness for planting next week.

Winter Vegetables

I had a big day this weekend with ten bags of manure and compost to refresh two garden beds in readiness for Autumn planting.

I have put in a few broccoli, silverbeet and lettuce since it is cool enough to start a few winter vegies as well as the regular pickers.
Lettuce, beetroot and spring onions are what I consider regular pickers since we use them each day and a constant supply is handy. I am trying to get my carrots and leeks up to that level as well but they are a little slower growing so it will take me a while to get them up to the constant supply we would like.

Broccoli

Silverbeet

I will wait for the night temperatures to drop below 10degrees before I put in the cauliflowers and cold loving vegetables in!

We are now waiting for the apples to start ripening since both trees are carrying a good feed despite their small size. Patience is something you learn as a gardener!

Until next time.
Enjoy organic food whenever you can!

The organic home gardener is home after a nice break down south of the state.

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!

Anyway have a great week and happy new year!

The Organic Gardener

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

Heating Up

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!

Until next week, have a great week!

The Organic Gardener

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!

Here are the veges harvested today and a look at the progress of next weeks!
Click on the link to be taken to the Album!

Harvest time!

Here are some of this weeks veges!
Zuchinni are still going strong and the cucumbers are starting to pick up now.Tomatos are slowing but the next crop of plants are coming on strongly and should be delivering fruit in a week or two.
The bottle is the remains of our first attempt at dried tomatos – which were very yummy!

This week I have been trying out the dryer with herbs and we have had great success with basil and this weekend I have started on some mint – spearmint actually and we will try it as herbal tea.

The basil is very productive right now and it is amazing how much it takes to produce even a small jar of dried herb. I am pruning it heavily each week and still it keeps growing!

Fruit and Vegetable Dryer

Sorry about this but this baby is such a beauty I have to brag!
Couldn’t find a box of matches so used a tea bag instead for sizing!

Cucumber

It was such a lovely morning here in Perth. The sun was shining the air was cool with a strong breeze and blue skies above. It’s Xmas day and I cannot think of much better things to do than go out in the garden and grab lunch! We are off today to the relatives for lunch and so we are obviously bringing the salads. We have been blessed with some marvellous weather and as a result the garden is the best it has been for years! So here is the roll call of veges this week!

Tomatos by the bucket load! Red, black and yellow!

Xmas week harvest

Eggplant and Zuchinni!

Zuchinni

Carrots, cucumber and lettuce!

Baby Carrots

Lebanese Cucumber

Butter Sweet Lettuce

Onions, spring onions and leek – I harvested all the onions this week and most of the garlic and they are just drying out a little before we store them for the summer!

Brown Onions

The onions are so sweet that I have been eating the little ones raw! Well they are too small for cooking so I eat them as a salad! My son-in-law Jon has been eating fried onions with Russian black tomatos this week and loves them.

PLANTINGS THIS WEEK!

I have half of the leeks left for harvest this month so I have started planting the next lot and also some white onions, cucumber and tomato for late summer salads! We also like to make tomato chutneys with the green tomatos on the last of the bushes in early autumn.

Leeks

Tomato

Oh yeah here is the first of the Capsicums!

Capsicum

BRAG BRAG BRAG!

I hate to do this but the tomatoes on the Mortgage Lifter are already gigantic so get an eye full of these two – they are as big as my fist already and there are 5 more on the bush as well!

Mortgage Lifter

2 weeks later - Ripe

PRESERVING EXCESS CROPS

As you have seen the production can sometimes be way over what you can eat. So what do you do?
Well I give away a lot to family and friends so that is the usual solution. However, I like to have some vege and fruit for those cold winter days as well. So we have a number of options – preserving in chutneys, freezing and drying.

We are actually still eating green tomato relish from last year on our salads – even after giving so many bottles away as gifts! This year I am trying to dry some veges and the first effort are some tomatos – red and green!

Preserving Fruit

We made fig leather last year and I ate the last of that recently. The difficulty is sometimes the variety of fruit is not suitable for drying – some have more water in them than others and this affects drying. Anyway I will continue to experiment and will eventually get it right!

Have a lovely Xmas season and enjoy!