The Organic Home Garden

In The Organic Garden This Hot Summer Week

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!

Take care,
The Organic Gardener

Spring Is Springing

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!

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

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!