The Organic Home Garden

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I have just got back to the keyboard today to find the unpublished post!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!

Record Temperature for October

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!

Have a good week!
The Organic Gardener

The Organic Gardener In Brisbane

I may be a dedicated organic gardener but I love wandering around any garden if given a chance. Today I share with you my wanderings around the Brisbane Botanic Garden. I also update the plantings for Autumn.

Water Restrictions In Brisbane

I have spent the last five days travelling and working in Brisbane. It is a lovely city and I just loved the river being so near to everything. The first thing I noticed in the hotel room was the tag hanging off the shower head reminding me that the city was in drought and that water was precious. Perth of course is not much better and we are also challenged to keep our water use to a minimum. As a gardener this is always on my mind and that is why I choose my plantings very carefully and most plants in our garden are native, low water consumption plants.

I visited the Brisbane Botanical Gardens on my last day and was interested to see how they had coped with the water restrictions. First thing I noticed was the use of drought tolerant plants in the flower beds and the use of grasses. When I say grasses I don’t mean more lawn but ornamental grasses.

The garden was very green and lush so it was obvious that the gardeners had worked wonders. The gardens are a lovely place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and I had a nice morning exploring the grounds.

Autumn Planting Time

You may recall I removed most of the summer plants last month and prepare the beds with lots of blood and bone, manures and peat. I also added some wetting agents and believe it or not “germs”! The germs are a mix of soil bacteria that love eating the smelly stuff and increase the release of nutrients for plants. Organic gardening techniques promote the activity of these bacteria and improve soil quality. Then finally I layed out some hay mulch to keep the moisture up and the worms happy. This is the foundation of my organic growing and feeding the soil is so important.

Prepare Your Seedlings

From Veges April

The temperatures are dropping and we have balmy days of 25-30 degrees Celsius and the soil is still warm. Perfect conditions for seedlings. I seeded my seed trays the week before Brisbane so the plants were well advanced when I started planting today. The plants are mainly winter crops, English Spinach, Turnips, Cauliflower as well as the stock items like beetroot, onions and carrots.

Prepare the Rows

Having collected all my tools and the hose I started preparing the rows for the plantings. This starts with clearing of the straw to get at some clean dirt. I then dig the dirt over and check the moisture levels. The soil was moist and rich so the manures were breaking down nicely. I then gave the whole lot a light watering.

I use a plank of wood to kneel on when I work in the beds so that my body weight does not compress the soil. Compressed soil tends to not allow as much oxygen in and hinders water penetration – plus it make it tough for the little roots to spread out.

Half an hour later and all the seedlings are in and I just give them all a little spray of water. The next step is the use of Seasol seaweed solution over all the bed and seedlings. This encourages the bacteria to get moving and also protects the seedlings from transplant shock.

All I have to do now is keep an eye on the seedlings for the next few days and not let them dry out or get baked too much in the sun. I have beach umbrellas and shade cloth to cover them in the hotter part of the day – they only need this for the first week.

Today’s Harvest

Here is a photo of the harvest for today – some nice broccoli and baby zucchini, beetroot, the last eggplant and a few capsicum. I think a stir fry is on the menu tonight. There is some garlic and spring onion in the garden so that may be a tasty start.

I have also been lucky to have heaps of guava fruit this year. Despite the very dry summer the shrub has been very productive. This is a strong flavoured fruit despite it’s size.