The Organic Home Garden

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.

Until next week

Organic Gardener is outa here.

As expected, as an adult, I gradually found myself being drawn back to dirt! Well dirt is where it all begins! Whatever source of food you consider; the earth is the origin of all things rich and healthy for you. So the first thing I started to work on after buying our first home was a vegetable garden in our little patch of dirt.

My first attempts were so poor – I am sure there was more protein in the caterpillars than on our dinner plate! I soon realised that I should have paid more attention to what my father was doing out in the garden all those Sunday afternoons. I knew that manure was a big part of growing wonderful veges but all those bugs! How did he avoid huge losses to the creepy crawlies?

FEED THE SOIL!

Well 30 years later I am a little closer to being an accomplished gardener. There are still a few bugs around, but I now understand their place in my little patch of green! I see more wasps and lady bugs now and I know they are helping me out and they need a few caterpillars to keep them in my garden doing their wonderful thing!

The dirt, (well it started as sand in our coastal suburb home) is now crawling with life. Worms and microscopic friends merrily dig through the rich black crumbly soil.

Rich soil means healthy plants!

The yard consumes between 6-12 bales of pea hay, 3 dozen bags worth of manure and compost and 10-15 litres of liquid fish (Seasol etc) every year now. My workforce of subterranean artisans works their magic and produce the most deliciously fertile soil! Out of this soil grows the tastiest food!

One seasons sweet potatos - alongside my size 10 boots!

NEXT TIME: WHY YOU SHOULD START A LITTEL PATCH OF FOOD.