Progress

With the very wet summer, followed by incredible heat my garden hasn't been as inspiring as it was last year. The tomatoes have only just started to ripen - the cucumbers are struggling (this time last year we had a huge crop). The corn and beans are doing well... The berrys (raspberries mainly) started fruiting this year..so hopefully next year it will be bumper.

Garden and Ducks

The garden is finally getting some sun after what feels like weeks of cloudy wet weather. The bean arch has almost connected in the middle! Here are a few shots of my vege patch. Followed by a photo from today of our remaining duckling of the two that have been born so far to the ducks. (versus the ducklings born to the chooks! - read back on entries!)
And the duckling (around 4 days old). The 2nd died yesterday.

Beans running away!

The runner beans are off and running. It happened overnight - a couple of days of hot weather and it's literally grabbed the string and run up about 30cm in about 30hours. Is that possible? Both sides. (here it is about a month ago when I first built it) I'm very excited to the prospect of having a living arch of beans this summer.

First signs of Asparagus

Some very exciting news today. I was having a closer look at the first little asparagus I had spied shooting up out of my ferny asparagus plant and realised it was in fact coming up from the actual asparagus roots I had bought and planted about 6 weeks ago. I had planted them as directed spreading the roots out over a small mound dug in the soil and covered up with soil. I wasn't sure if I was suppose to fully cover them with soil - and maybe I was? However looking around at them the other day we were certain they were dead. But today having a quick glance at the garden - ever hopeful - 3 of the four have shot up asparagus! Small tiny thin asparagus, but asparagus still!. So maybe they will eventually take off...they last for 20 years...so I am excited something is growing :) Now just have to wait to see what the ferny stuff does. (another purchase, but completely different from the roots I bought). I'm encouraged, because I am following instructions and just having faith. Being patient and just waiting. It's working!

Here they are...

Verge Garden - updated

I just thought I would post an updated photo of the verge garden nearly six weeks on from building and planting. (click here to read all the posts about it so far)
Here is a before and after so far...

Willow arch for beans

Yesterday A's 9yr old and I went down to the community gardens to cut down some noxious Pussy Willow from near the stream there. This is a type of willow which has destructive tendencies along the streams and swamps of The Blue Mountains. However! The long bendy sucklings of the willow make for perfect arch building. I've been planning an arch for my scarlet runner beans to grow up and over, and decided to build one, rather than spend more $. After watching some quick tutorials from the web on square lashing knots I have now built the main structure. :) It's pretty solid - I used garden stakes bashed into the ground as the foundation and then tied to each a willow suckling on each side. Bent them down in the middle and tied that together. I used mainly wire in variations of the square lashing knot because - well...wire is wire. I will soon tie more cross sticks to create a better grid for the beans to climb up. One thing that A has advised however is to watch out for the sucklings taking root! Apparently they just need a bit of water, put them in the ground and watch out! So I will probably take down the arch at the end of the season to avoid this....

Still raining, crushed eggshells around the lettuce!

It's still raining. Flooding in some areas. Stats are stating to appear - like coldest September in 5 years....or coldest first day of October in 20! After only just planting out the rest of my seasons lettuce seedlings 2 days ago, I suddenly thought that the snails too would be coming out with all this rain...so I went down to the vege patch and sprinkled some crushed egg shells (from our own chooks...very sustainable ;) ) around my 'own' seedlings which I have raised since 'birth'!. I don't mind if the snails get the bought ones - but given I started out planting 35 seeds, to get 11 lettuce seedlings to transplant, and of those only 4 remain...(one word - cat).... I'll be damned if I am going to let a slug eat them! - I am keeping close watch.....

Raining, raining.

It's been raining for 24 hours. Which normally would be good news as we haven't had such heavy rain for weeks...so my garden's getting a great soaking. BUT! I did just plant my carrots and I am pretty sure, after inspecting them, that the seeds have soaked, washed out, uncovered and spread everywhere. :( I will wait for a dry spell (apparently in about a week!) to go out and recover with more soil. Damn!

Nantes Carrots

Well third time lucky. I am trying to grow carrots (again!). This was last years attempt when I tried small round carrots...(click here) The soil around our parts is quite rocky and sandstoney and I have a feeling the previous attempts failed due to the basic reason this root vegetable couldn't grow downwards....! BUT! With plenty of room left in my raised verge vege garden bed I thought I would give them another go. The 'raised' part of the raised garden bed is 40cm - more than enough good soil depth I think for healthy carrots. So I still have some heirloom seeds left of the Nantes Carrot variety and have duely planted three rows. I just used my finger to dig a shallow trench, sprinkled in the seeds, then covered up with seed raising mix. They will need to be thinned out twice, - first when about 5 cm tall, and then again when about 15cm tall (those ones you can eat I think). This is assuming the birds don't get the seedlings. If I get about 20 carrots per row, - about 60 carrots all up - I think that will last our home about 2-3 weeks! (we eat a lot of carrots!). So really an experiment in my determination to get carrots growing here.

A bit of history about the Nantes carrots...The Nantes carrot takes its name from the city on the Atlantic coast of France where the surrounding countryside is ideal for its cultivation. (“It only attains its full quality in a mellow, deep soil…,” wrote Henri Vilmorin in the 1885 edition of his family’s seed catalog.)

Here is the pic of the carrots bed after planting...Will update in about 4 weeks the progress...

Carrots with beetroot in background

The seeedlings grow and grow

It really is the simplest of things that bring me joy these days! I now have 12 beetroot seedlings and about 8 cucumber seedlings coming up....I'm so excited! I stopped the gentle spraying. I now gently pour water in the soil to keep it REALLY moist. (and of course the egg cartons with trays are working really well...seedlings are just starting to show in those) (click here to see the earlier post when they were just popping out of the soil!).

From various for blog

From various for blog

Verge side garden planting

Here we go - the verge side garden planted.....

From various for blog

Seedlings update

I thought I would put a quick update in here of the seedlings I started - (read about them here).

Out of the nearly 30 I sowed, I now have 11 healthy baby seedlings, which I have transplanted now directly into their vegetable bed. I am quite pleased and watching them very closely adapt to their new home.

I have since started some new seedlings and am learning more each time. One seemingly obvious point i have picked up, but really neglected in my first lot - is some advice I found online. One gentleman said that he finds 'watering' the seedlings from below in the tray rather than spraying them from top nearly always works so much better. So I have placed an egg carton inside a shallow metal tray, (you can use the lid of the egg carton, but mine had holes) and filled that with water. I also put a small hole in the bottom of the egg carton sections before putting the soil in so the water could go directly in. The egg carton itself is cardboard and will act as a wick soaking up the water. I then just loosely placed plastic wrap over the top. Already I can see the difference in two days. The soil has not yet dried out, the carton is soaked. Before the soil was drying out in a matter of hours. I am also having some success with my heirloom beetroot and cucumber, each with a new seedling appearing. I am loving this. !

From various for blog

From various for blog

Verge side Vegetable Garden

I built a verge side raised garden bed this weekend. We have a very wide verge and it gets sun most of the day, so I decided last summer that I would take advantage of that space and plant a raised garden bed there for this season. We needed to take into account a few things, including it's council land. We had a 'dial before you dig' plan but couldn't quite tell where the various pipes etc were so decided to put the bed above ground. We also live just across from a very old quarry site (around 100 years ago!), which has since been turned into a cricket oval, but this has resulted in quite a lot of rock under our earth out the front.

I am inspired by the verge side gardens in Sydney inner city, where the residents have little land to work with so use the verge to grow gardens. We have a lot of land compared to them, but I really like the idea of growing vege's out on community land, for locals to help themselves to if they like. It's my small contribution to sustainable living. We ordered a couple of tonnes of vege soil (mixed with mushroom compost) to fill it in. I will be successive planting beetroot, NZ spinach and silver beet over the next few months.

From various for blog

From various for blog

On another note, while we were working away yesterday, we noticed the dogs agitated with something in our lane way next to the side fence. At some point during the day, our chooks had escaped and we found them enjoying a lovely time in the afternoon sun out and about.

From various for blog

Springtime #3 begins

Well today I planted the first of the spring crops. It will be our third springtime here in Katoomba and I feel as each season passes I am learning more and more. My new favourite things are garden glass cloches. Not that I have any - but instead have used plastic drink bottles cut in half. I can only dream about owning my own vintage French glass cloche.

My garden beds have been prepared over the winter with compost from our bin, along with the odd sprinkle of manure. The soil looks great. It's been turned over a few times as well. I am experimenting with starting off my heritage seeds both indoors and in situ in the garden. I have read both work - so am keen to see what suits our soil/ lifestyle! I am also growing some lettuce seedlings indoors. So today I planted
INDOORS - toms, cucumber, beetroot (with lettuce already as seedlings, having been planted a few weeks ago.
OUTDOORS - tomes, lettuce, beans

I still have my corn, silverbeet and spinach to grow.

I have placed my recycled cloches over the areas of each planting (some with two or three seeds).

Will post some photos soon.

Insect Hotel

With snow only days ago, today I am in a T-Shirt. I had planned to begin my spring planting this weekend - but have resolved to start in a couple of weekends time. Just letting everything warm up a bit. I have planted some basic herbs in the herb garden however (this time with herbs we will use!) basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and lemongrass. Our lush herb garden, while bountiful wasn't used much and was pruned during winter to get ready for our 3rd spring here. Looking forward to renewing this area, now we have a better rhythm to the seasons (and to our cooking pleasure!).

But the big news around here today is that with the able assistance of A's 8 year old girl and 10 year old boy we built an Insect Hotel. [ You can view some stunning ones here ] An insect hotel is a place where all types of insects and critters can hang out and hibernate during winter and provide safe haven until emergence in next spring. Things like ladybugs, solitary bees, etc but even frogs if near a pond. (which ours kind of is). The insects will hopefully then ward of unwanted pests around the vege patch and help pollinate our plants (and fruit trees). You build it with a steady foundation, then adding recycled materials like old pipes, logs with different sized drill holes, straw and hay, things where things can hide basically! The only thing left to do for this one is to add some succulent plants to add some living matter.

Here it is!

From various for blog

The Lost Seed - my spring seeds have arrived

My first lot of spring seeds have arrived. I ordered them from The Lost Seed (www.thelostseed.com.au) which specialise in old heirloom and heritage varieties of seeds and seedlings. To start with:
CUCUMBER - BOSTON PICKLING - dates back to 1880
CORN - GOLDEN BANTAM - dates back to 1898 - American
TOMATO BUSH - NAPOLI PASTE - Italian heirloom
TOMATO BUSH - CHERRY MIX - mix of cherry type toms. (Cherry toms grow much better in The Blue Mountains.
BEETROOT - CHIOGGIA - Italian heirloom dates prior to 1840
BEAN RUNNER - SCARLET EMPEROR - Heiroom dating back to 1633.(in UK_) - and introduced into America in 1800s - and used by the native americans. Have a look at this beautiful old illustration of the scarlet emperor

From various for blog

This time last year (this weekend) I planted my spring crop. I will try and do the same this year - I will also be planting my corn (and more of it) a lot earlier than last year probably late September. Although it's not high yielding - it's just so wonderful picking fresh corn!

Lettuce Seedlings

I am attempting to grow Lettuce from seeds. Many people probably think why bother - but I want to establish a routine of collecting seeds each year from various crops (starting with lettuce) to grow the next season. To become closer to a self sustaining vege patch. So the two types of lettuce seeds I have chosen are Red Romaine and Red Velvet - both heritage varieties from 'Eden Seeds'. They dont have a high 'cross pollenating' tendency - so hope they will be ok. I haven't had any luck in growing seedlings - not enought patience nor attentive enough...but I keep persisting. This time I have sown some into egg containers - which also mean that once the seedlings are ready I transport them - container and all to the ground - so they don't have to be moved. - Another thing I have learned to avoid. The other seeds I have in fact grown into pots - to eventually replant - see how I go. I have placed them on a north facing window sill. will keep blog up to date with pics of progress.

From various for blog

From various for blog

LUNCH! The final corn harvest

Ok - so we may have only had about 4 corn cobs from the harvest but every single one of them was devoured! - Today we ate three for lunch. Next year I now know you can plant the sweet corn a little bit closer together and thus increase the harvest. I will also plant them earlier in Spring - they took a little long to reach edible size. I may aim I think for between 10 & 20.

Here was today's lunch:

From various for blog

My first corn

It's been a long harvest and to be honest - not a great one. But I picked my first corn this week - mum was visiting and so decided to wait for her to do the honours. It's quite small and probably the rest (all 4!) wont get much bigger, but wow! - it was very fresh and very yummy. Mum said the best way to cook and eat corn is to

1) put the water on to boil.
2) go pick corn
3) put corn in to cook for a few minutes
4) bit of butter and eat!

Couldn't be much fresher! The funny thing about the corn I grew - about twice as many also turned up elsewhere in the garden - metres away - one in another garden altogether (the succulent garden). They just kept popping up.

I will have another go next spring - but plant earlier and plant more. Its just a beautiful plant both just as a plant and also a produce. How exciting to have discovered corn - back in the day - and unwrapped those layers to find a cob. It's just wonderful.

Anyway - here 'tis mine!

From various for blog

Bread & Butter Pickles and Sun Ripening Tomatoes

My Mum came to visit this weekend. The weather was Finally fantastic. Blue skies and a perfect temperature of around 25 26 degrees. We got stuck into harvesting my tomatoes and cucumbers and doing interesting things with the bounty. First up were picking about 4 cucumbers and making a batch of 'Bread and Butter Pickles'. Basically a pickled cucumber, left for around 2 months, then served as a side with cheese or a ploughmans lunch - even on a sandwich. This was an 'easy' recipe I picked up from the internet, which I would supply here but the link is now broken. The basis of it was 4 lge cucumbers, 4 onions, white vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Salting the cucumbers and onions for about an hour prior to adding the vinegar mixture. - That's the basis!

From various for blog

Then it came to my tomatoes. They have almost taken over -day of the triffids style - and my mum gave the wise advice of pruning them right back so sunlight was getting in. So we (well she) picked all the ripe tomatoes at the same time and so this evening I have made a roasted tomato and red onion puree sauce for future pastas. I have frozen the bulk in an ice tray for single servings with pasta. (we did sample tonight the fresh sauce however - and it was scrummy.). After picking the tomatos I also left them in the sun all day today for the extra ripening.

From various for blog