October's Harvest :)

Numbers are in for october :) with a total of:

1.023KG!!!!

4g chives
25g rhubarb
536g lettuce (mixed: cos, mignonette, baby spinach....)
7g snow pea sprouts
448g spring onions
3g radish

:)

And some spring garden pics



Beautiful strawberry flower :)




Seedlings




Seedlings

Hope you all have spring gardens going :)

Food Dehyrdating

So it was my birthday on thursday :) and from my family i got a food dehyrdator! Yay....very exciting, i took it on a test run yesterday. I tried strawberry, kiwi, mango, pear and apple!

Was a fantastic success :) (ive got a big batch of apple in at the moment!)

Also have some orange flowers that have just opened...they smell amazing!

Dont mind the foliage behind....slugs and snails of all things were eating the leaves...have a band of copper tape around the pot now :) problem solved!

The blueberries are getting very big now :) We got our first blueberries in december last year but im betting this lot will be ready earlier than that. Has anyone noticed how our spring seems to be about 3 weeks ahead of normal?


The 2 mature bushes are literally dripping with unripe blueberrys! yummy

A few more pics from around the garden

Strawberry Flower




Potato Tyres




Tomatoes and baby spinach in the raised bed




White fleshed nectarine....growing...yay!

Have purchased 2 more fruit trees (waiting for them to arrive)
The first is called "Golden fruit of the andes" or "Naranjilla"

It is reputed to have the best juice in the world :) A cross between a pineapple and a lime...or something like that
The send is cornelian cherry

Apparently cornel jelly is divine :) yay new fruit.

The new fig (silvan beauty) and the boysenberry that i got at the garden expo a month ago have both finally sprouted! Looking forward to making boysenberry icream...mmm

On that note i made vanilla icecream for the second time the other day....omg yum...

Here is the recipe...thanks to Jody @ stayathomemum.net.au

600ml cup cream

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 can Condensed Milk

Beat the cream with an electric mixer until it begins to thicken.  Add the vanilla and beat until a light whipped cream forms.  Gradually add the condensed milk and keep beating until it thickens and becomes a nice cream.  Pour into a container and freeze until hard.

The end result (half eaten :) )

Well that will do for today :)

Lemon Butter and lemon and poppyseed cake :) yummy

Have a day at home alone today... and adam brought home some lemons one of his customers had given him so i thought i would whip up some lemon butter :) and a lemon and poppyseed cake to go with it!

Lemon Butter

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
125g chopped butter

1. Put sugar and eggs into a heatproof bowl, put bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved
2. Add the lemon juice, rind and butter (i would get this ready before hand) Whisk for 20 minutes until smooth and thickend (it doesnt look like its going to work...but for me at about the 18 min mark it thickened)
DO NOT LET IT BOIL! IT WILL CURDLE-you have been warned :)
3. Put 2x 250ml clean jars into the oven for a couple of minutes (this sterilises them)
4. Pour mixture into hot jars and seal

Store in the fridge and use within a few weeks-makes 2 cups

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake

50g poppy seeds
185ml warm milk
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups self raising flour
185g butter, chopped
1 lemon-zested

1. Turn oven onto 180'C. Grease a loaf tin (approx 20cmx10cm)
2.In one bowl put warm milk and poppy seeds-leave for 15 minutes
3. In another bowl put your sugar, eggs, flour, butter and lemon rind. Mix in the milk and poppys
4. Beat for 5 minutes or until the mixture is looking pale
5. Pour into loaf tin and cook for 40 minutes (mine took more like an hour. test it with a skewer from 40 mins on)

:)

Oven Baked Bread Recipe

Update: Made this again yesterday and have a pic!

I made this way back in march! But though i should share it! it was the first bread i have ever made that was light and fluffy on the inside and had a crunchy crust!

2tsp dry yeast
300ml luke warm water
3tsp salt
3tsp sugar
500g plain or bread flour
2tbsp olive oil


Stir 2 tsp dry yeast into 300ml luke warm water. let it sit until bubbles have formed. Place 3 tsp salt 3 tsp sugar 500g flour(plain or bread flour) in a different bowl, stir together. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast/water mix and 2 tbsp olive oil. Mix with wooden spoon until it comes together. Knead for about 10 minutes on a floured bench top. add flour as needed to keep it from sticking. put in an oiled bowl for 45-60 minutes (or until doubled in size). Shape the loaf (loaf tin, football shape etc. let it rise again. bake for 30-45 mins in a 190 C oven.

Spring is here!!!!!

Finally spring has arrived and the garden is a flurry of activity! From weeding, planting seeds, planting out seedling, fertilising, mulching.....the list goes on!

But first things first over the past few days i have been conducting an experiment with my beer baits....as Adam likes beer i thought it would be good if i tried another liqued in them.

So out of 4 traps they had
1x orange juice
1x apple juice
1x diluted ribena
1x apple/blueberry/blackcurrant juice

note: all these juices were the fresh versions not the long life ones...not sure if it would make a difference

....and here were the results! quite interesting!

Orange juice-was difficult to see as i had gone mouldy but there was not alot of anything is there (FAIL)
Apple juice-EARWIGS! tons of them....none found in any other trap (WIN)
Ribena-Slugs, nothing else just big fat engorged dead slugs...who had turned purple (WIN)
Apple/blueberry/blackcurrant-Snails...again nothing else just snails (WIN)

So as i think my main pest problem this year will be earwigs....apple juice it is :)

Here is a look at parts of my garden is picture




1st tyre potato up




Raised bed...end of cool weather crops...ready for summer!




Mignonette lettuce (grown under empty soft drink bottles)




White Mulberry




Lettuce mix (see growth against last pic)




Red Kale seedling




Tomato seedlings (various)




Nectarine

I planted some marigolds around the edge of the raise bed (need to get some more) They are a great companion plant as they repel nematodes in the soil, bean beetle, thrips and they keep whitefly away! They also attract hoverflies (beneficial insect)
I thought that i might start talking about individual plants and my experience with them, difficulty etc to help people decide if it would be something they might want to grow :) I'm going to start today with my favourite:

BLUEBERRIES

These are an incredible easy plant to grow, and so rewarding...i have had bluberries for 3 years now and NOTHING eats them! They have never had a disease, they just grow and produce blueberries!
Height: Anywhere between 1-2m and just a tad smaller in width

Full Sun/part shade (mine get morning sun only and thrive)

Soil requirements: Blueberries are acid loving plants...just like azaleas...if you are planting them in pots you should plant them in an azalea potting mix. They like a ph of about 4-5.5. If you are planting in the ground or potting mix you already have it is a good idea to get some garden sulfur and apply it according to the instructions.

A great way to keep the soil acidic is you mulch it with spent coffee grounds or pine needles. :)

Here is melbourne mine fruit from about end November-Start of February

The other week i raided my mums lemon tree and made lemon cordial, it is very sweet but yummy!

Recipe (Thanks to Jackie French's book 'Backyard self-sufficiency')

Ingredients:
6 cups white sugar
3 cups water
3 cups lemon juice
3 tsp citric acid (in the baking aisle at safeway/woolworths and coles)
3 tsp tartaric acid (see above)

Boil for 10 minutes. Bottle in clean bottles while hot. Keep in a cool dark place for up to a month. Throw out if it ferments or looks cloudy. It also makes a good iceblock.

:) Wow long post...any questions? Queries? would be happy to help

Seeds are up and fruit trees blooming!

The massive rectangular pot that i planted a whole range of flower seeds in are mostly up!

They are:
Nasturtium Milkmaid
Ladybird Poppy
A mist blue
Mulberry Rose
Nemophilia
Lilac poppy and
Native everlasting

I also bought some seedlings from bunnings (i couldnt resist!)
Mizuna lettuce mix

Tuscan salad mix (contains la roma red, la roma green, radicchio and spidery endive)

There has also been a burst of new growth in the more established plants

Macadamia-the light green bit is all new growth!



Pomegranate putting out new leaves




Buds on the nectarine (they burst this afternoon!)



Blueberry in bloom

I went into the garden the other day and heard a buzzing sound! I stood still and then saw a BEE!!! First one ive seen since the end of autumn! very exciting and do you know what it was doing, it was pollinating my blueberry bushes....good bee...mmm...blueberries!

Just about to pick this broccoli



Plans are underway for the spring garden...will be planting my tomatoes in a propagator this weekend! by the end of september they will be ready for transplanting! I have started preparing the raised bed for spring planting

This trellis is one of 3 that will grow cucumbers!...in a small garden it is important to use the vertical growing space! i will be growing pumpkins and watermelons one trellis's this year (not a bamboo one though! need something a bit stronger for those)

I can smell spring in the air :) the sun is finally putting out some warmth and its time to start getting into gear!

Back to my garden :)

So my last post was about Heronswood and this one is about my garden :)

Yesterday i planted my new fig and staked it, and i topdressed all of my fruit trees with a mix of cow manure, chicken manure, mushroom compost and rock dust. The aim of this is to  fertilize and get the plants ready for spring and new growth. I also sowed seeds

In the propogator (sp?)

• Coneflower purple (echinacea)
• Red Kale
• Lettuce mignonette
• Silverbeet (same colours as in previous post)
• Broccoli sessantina grossa

And straight in the ground

• Pink and blue mix of flowers
• Nasturtium Milkmaid
• Poppy ladybird (vibrant red with black centre)
• Red onion

Today i tidied up the garden, did some weeding, replanted some flowers that were in the way and moved a whole lot of pots around :) I also started on a cage type contraption for all my berry plants so the birds dont find them....i didnt have very much trouble last year but there were not as many of them and they were spread out...and there were less birds!!! so here it is in its beginning stages

As i said very early stages....lol...i needs my husbands help hammering the stupid stakes into the ground and devising some sort of support :) and i need more bird netting for the front :) It was a beautiful sunny day today :) perfect for this sort of work.

I also manured where the watermelons, beans and corn is going to go.

He is a pic of half the garden

I am considering adding another tyre for potatoes :) that would take us up to 6 in the garden!

Believe it or not my garden is starting to flower...the blueberries have had closed flowers for ages now but they are starting to open up



Blueberries




Rosemary




Flowers




Orchid

Last week i repotted my rosemary into the pot that held my rhubarb. I chucked the rubard in the corner as i was sure it had gotten crown rot. Which meant i thought it was dead...anyway i pick it up today and turn it over and what to i find! its sprouted again...lol....so i replanted it in a permenant position in the garden so it could stretch its legs



Well see how it goes :) the pot was really to small for it so hopefully it will take off!

Thats all for today! 

Heronswood-Dromana (Diggers Club)

I have had a fantastic day :)
There is a manor and gardens in dromana called heronswood. It is the base for the diggers club company of which i am a member http://www.diggers.com.au/

I drove down today in the miserable rain...my sat nav took me a very scenic route but i made it :) thankfully i had my rain jacket that i wear to work (thanks mum-same one we took to europe! It still fits lol). So i put that on and went inside the shop. The ladies laughed at me and said i was very brave...lol...i grabbed an umbrella and braved the pouring rain. The garden was amazing....i had a brief look at the ornamental sections and then headed down to the veggie section



Bottom left of this photo is a purple/red kale...it was beautiful




Rue and rhubarb

There was a seat under a leafy arbour thing so i sat down and took in the view. It was a few minutes before i realised


IT WAS THE SEA!!!!

They had geese (i think they were geese...maybe ducks) walking around

I wanted to show you a couple of their vegies up close

This is the purple/red kale....it is beautiful...sorry about the picture quality...it was raining and i used my phone



This is the swiss chard/rainbow silverbeet. In pink and orange



and Yellow!

If you remember i grew some of this in summer and its delicious :)

They had so many different types of fruit trees! i was so tempted to eat some of the ripe fruit! Instead i headed inside to the cafe called "fork to for" they use only produce from their garden and locally sourced sustainable food :) I had a caramilzed onion and olive tart with a salad. And pumpkin and something bread with olive oil....I have never eated anything as yummy as my lunch today... :) Their menu changes seasonally based on what they are growing and is available.



I had a bite before the pic...i couldnt resist

 
Then i went back to the shop and picked up lots of seeds, rockdust, bottletop waterers (for watering seedlings!)

A new fig called St Dominque Violette

Reportedly grown at Burnley Horticultural College in Melbourne as early as 1875 and listed in old mail-order catalogues up until the 1930's, this violet-skinned French fig is back. Sourced from Phil Shepherd, whose family have been growing fruit trees in Victoria for 3 generations, this fig is one for the collector and connoisseur of fine fruits.

and Oca which is grown similar to potatoes and tastes similar but is only ready to dig up in autumn!

And last but no least! Yesterday i got all my frozen tomatoes out of the freezer and canned them! one jar of yellow and 2 of red!

Im very very proud :)

Pheww what a massive post....again if you have any questions about gardening, preserving or anything feel free to comment of email me at natalieback@optusnet.com.au

Hope everyone is well :)