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

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

Well the rain has disappeared for few days and we have a hint of the summer that is ahead. The organic gardener worked on a limestone wall yesterday and felt the heat of the sun for sure! Today we are several degrees warmer and almost clear blue skies as far as the eye can see!

Lawns Are Stirring

I fertilised the lawns this week since I was expecting the warmer days and the grass will take off very soon. I have also been busy weeding – getting them out before they set seed! This is more for preventing next years crop of weeds as tidying up the yard today.

We planted Sir Walter last year after I dug up our old fashioned buffalo lawn. The Sir Walter stays nice a green in the winter and needs less water in the summer. These are two useful features in Perth – our summers can be very hot and dry and of course water restrictions will be in force again this year. We actually had a sprinkler ban in winter this year – which seems odd but people actually forget to turn them off in the winter and so need reminders!

Still More Flowers

I checked the strelitzia yesterday and we now have two lovely flowers – the front yard is blooming and is so bright it almost shimmers with colour.

If you only had smell-o-vision! These smell unbelievable in the early morning and add to the many sweet smells of spring flowers.

Vegetables Going Strong

A few days ago I went through the garden with a knife and bagged up a large amount of parsley and Silver Beet. Most of this I gave away since we still have heaps left and just pick it as we need it. My friend Greg scored a big pile of carrots, turnips, Silver Beet since we are having a few days down south next week and I like the vegetables to be eaten fresh and hate storing it too long after harvest. His wife was delighted with the free organic vegetables.

We will have a few more feeds of winter vegetables for the next few weeks but after I return from the short holiday I will start preparing beds for the summer crops. Tomatoes, beetroot and lettuce rank high on that list. I wont need to plant many lettuce since they self seed all over the garden! I may just move a few seedlings to more convenient spots.

We had a few meals with the broccoli this week and it tasted yummy. I get out most mornings to check for snails since they are the major competitor for the broccoli. There will be a few more caterpillars this week I am sure with the heat improving so I may need to go get some pest oils ready but for now we are managing without them.

That’s it for this week!
Have a great week.

The Organic Gardener

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!