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| Blackberries |
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| Blackberry Jam...yes that is condensation...no its not supposed to be there...i didnt keep my jar hot enough...oh well into the fridge and learn for next time...say another couple of days :) |
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Jam and Frogs
Picked some blackberrys today...enough to make a small amount of jam :)
Also found a frog in my backyard!!! and not a tiny one at that! How it managed to get into my fully (massive) fenced yard is a mystery...its hard enough for the bees to find their way
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Canning (or in my case jaring)
Well its a first in my house, i have made and canned a jar of pasta sauce :) i made it with cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden, plus red wine and lemon juice :) Heres a pic
Can you tell im very proud :) lol....anyway wild blackberries at my friends house are almost ripe so i will be making some blackberry jam and maybe even some apple and blackberry sorbet!
The corn has set fruit and continues to grow. The potatoes have got 1 more week in the ground before they get unearthed. The borlotti beans have beans on them and once they are full size i will rip the plants out and dry them in the garage or shed. Some of the beets have sprouted, their are a million cherry tomatoes being picked :)
The blueberries have finished for the year but the raspberries are flowering again! i think they are getting confused about the seasons...i know i am.
I have been quite surprised at how quickly the bananas have grown, they are spouting leaves every couple of days :)
I have been very busy pruning the fruit trees, completely wrong time of year to do it but they were getting out of control. The apple trees are now espaliers, the cherry is a fan and the nashi pear is a pyramid :) very space efficient.
And last but not least the newest member of the garden a washington navel orange tree :D
The corn has set fruit and continues to grow. The potatoes have got 1 more week in the ground before they get unearthed. The borlotti beans have beans on them and once they are full size i will rip the plants out and dry them in the garage or shed. Some of the beets have sprouted, their are a million cherry tomatoes being picked :)
The blueberries have finished for the year but the raspberries are flowering again! i think they are getting confused about the seasons...i know i am.
I have been quite surprised at how quickly the bananas have grown, they are spouting leaves every couple of days :)
I have been very busy pruning the fruit trees, completely wrong time of year to do it but they were getting out of control. The apple trees are now espaliers, the cherry is a fan and the nashi pear is a pyramid :) very space efficient.
And last but not least the newest member of the garden a washington navel orange tree :D
The weather has been alot better the last couple of days! Sunny and blue sky yay! i hope it continues!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Food for thought
Excerpt form The Age -Paul Sheehan (The floods and food prices http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/next-shock-will-be-high-food-prices-20110116-19sen.html)
"Australia is addicted to fertiliser - to compensate for declining soil fertility - and transport, thanks to an absurdly centralised food distribution network. The idea of growing and consuming food locally is a largely alien concept to Australia's supermarket oligopoly."
The fact is we as Australians rely completely on our supermarkets. Backyards are getting smaller and fruit and veggie gardens almost non existant. We continue to have our food transported from all over the country because heaven forbid we dont have tomatoes all year round. Our farmers ofcourse supply this food but at what cost to our environment. The soil doesnt get looked after, we drain it of nutrients and then dump more toxic fertilisers and pesticides on for the next crop.
Sorry for the rant but it doesnt take alot to look after the soil. Composting, manure, mulching, worms, proper crop rotation. Okay so on a large scale it does get more difficult .
Anyway, hopefully the higher food prices will encourage people to start to grow some of their food at home again...every bit counts. But no only that, farmers markets and local fruit and veggie shops are a great way to get fresh produce, at a lower price, that tastes better and is generally grown locally! If that is not enough of an incentive then think of the fuel the trucks from all around australia use to get produce to the big supermarkets!
"Australia is addicted to fertiliser - to compensate for declining soil fertility - and transport, thanks to an absurdly centralised food distribution network. The idea of growing and consuming food locally is a largely alien concept to Australia's supermarket oligopoly."
The fact is we as Australians rely completely on our supermarkets. Backyards are getting smaller and fruit and veggie gardens almost non existant. We continue to have our food transported from all over the country because heaven forbid we dont have tomatoes all year round. Our farmers ofcourse supply this food but at what cost to our environment. The soil doesnt get looked after, we drain it of nutrients and then dump more toxic fertilisers and pesticides on for the next crop.
Sorry for the rant but it doesnt take alot to look after the soil. Composting, manure, mulching, worms, proper crop rotation. Okay so on a large scale it does get more difficult .
Anyway, hopefully the higher food prices will encourage people to start to grow some of their food at home again...every bit counts. But no only that, farmers markets and local fruit and veggie shops are a great way to get fresh produce, at a lower price, that tastes better and is generally grown locally! If that is not enough of an incentive then think of the fuel the trucks from all around australia use to get produce to the big supermarkets!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Weather and worm tea :)
Well this weather is just aweful...about the only plant in the garden that likes the wet and humidity is the banana's which are growing new leaves every couple of days! (usually 7-10 days). So in the interest of keeping the garden healthy and disease free i made up a batch of worm tea. Here is the recipe
18L water (non chlorinated or leave tap water sitting in a bucket for 24 hours
1/3 cup vegetable oil (when you spray the tea on plants this helps it stick)
1/3 cup molasses (sold at coles in the health food aisle)
1 cup of worm castings
Mix the water, oil and molasses in a big bucket until the molasses is dissolved. Place the cup of worm castings in a stocking and let it hang into the liqued (just like a teabag). Place the tube part of a fish water pump into the mixture with an airstone attatched to the bottom. Let the tea aerate for 24 hours. Then spray all over your plants. There is no such thing as too much worm tea.
Now you probably thinking what the heck is this going to do....well basically when the liqued is aerated micro organisms and beneficial bacteria start to grow (they feed on the molasses). When you spray these organisms and bacteria on your plants they help to prevent disease, make the plant healthier and thus produce bigger and more produce, it also improves water retention in the soil and many many other good things :) so with this humidity the worm tea will give my plants the extra lift they need.
I was down at my parents holiday house today and noticed that they have a compost pile that has been there since the previous owners (at least 3.5 years) and as i was in need of some more compost for my raised bed i grabbed a couple of bagfuls :) free compost!!! yay!
Hoping everyone stays safe during these aweful floods
18L water (non chlorinated or leave tap water sitting in a bucket for 24 hours
1/3 cup vegetable oil (when you spray the tea on plants this helps it stick)
1/3 cup molasses (sold at coles in the health food aisle)
1 cup of worm castings
Mix the water, oil and molasses in a big bucket until the molasses is dissolved. Place the cup of worm castings in a stocking and let it hang into the liqued (just like a teabag). Place the tube part of a fish water pump into the mixture with an airstone attatched to the bottom. Let the tea aerate for 24 hours. Then spray all over your plants. There is no such thing as too much worm tea.
Now you probably thinking what the heck is this going to do....well basically when the liqued is aerated micro organisms and beneficial bacteria start to grow (they feed on the molasses). When you spray these organisms and bacteria on your plants they help to prevent disease, make the plant healthier and thus produce bigger and more produce, it also improves water retention in the soil and many many other good things :) so with this humidity the worm tea will give my plants the extra lift they need.
I was down at my parents holiday house today and noticed that they have a compost pile that has been there since the previous owners (at least 3.5 years) and as i was in need of some more compost for my raised bed i grabbed a couple of bagfuls :) free compost!!! yay!
Hoping everyone stays safe during these aweful floods
Monday, January 10, 2011
A look at the garden
Well it should be summer but at the moment it is thunderstorming and pouring with rain...grrr...makes growing anything a slow process!!!
However the cooler plants in the garden (ie baby spinach and beans) are doing very well....i thought i would post some pics of my garden as a whole so you can see just how small it is :)
My 2 new banana plants are going very well and sprouting new leaves! I also bought a strawberry quava however the blossoms it has on it are dropping off. Probably due to transplant shock.
Oh and to give you a pic of some of the pickings, this is what i collected the other day
However the cooler plants in the garden (ie baby spinach and beans) are doing very well....i thought i would post some pics of my garden as a whole so you can see just how small it is :)
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| The backyard...very very small |
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| The side yard...even smaller |
My 2 new banana plants are going very well and sprouting new leaves! I also bought a strawberry quava however the blossoms it has on it are dropping off. Probably due to transplant shock.
Oh and to give you a pic of some of the pickings, this is what i collected the other day
The beans are obviously beans, but the greeny brown tomatos are 'black russians', the yellow cherry ones are 'beams yellow', the red ones are 'tomatoberrys' and the pink ones are 'pink pearls' :)
They all taste amazing and are so sweet, when you eat homegrown tomatoes you really struggle to go back to the crap from the supermarket...sigh
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
December Harvest
Happy New year everyone! It is finally sunny, hopefully summer is here to stay!
In the meantime i have my december harvest count
33 Snow peas
5 strawberries
21 Blueberries
4 Small Onions
2 Medium Onion
2 Rhubarb Stalks
7 Heirloom Snowpeas (it produced alot more but i am leaving them on the plant for the seeds)
9 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Black Russian Tomato
170g Baby Spinach
1 Patio Tomato
1 Yellow Beam Tomato (Cherry)
1 Fig
1 Raspberry
29 White Currents
Not bad considering how stupidly wet it was :) i have also just added 2 new plants (fruit)
Dwarf Red Dacca Banana (cool region variety)
Pepino Gold (Small yellow melon like fruit)
Unfortunalty all my local nurseries seem to be out of strawberry quava's but that is next on my list
My raised vegies bed is doing well however i have had to pull up a few of the swede and all the brussel sprouts and cabbage....they got annihalated by cabbage white butterfly. I have replaced them with silverbeet.
The corn is growing well as is the mixed lettuce growing underneath it.
Oh and from this month i will be calculating the produce by weight not quantity :)
In the meantime i have my december harvest count
33 Snow peas
5 strawberries
21 Blueberries
4 Small Onions
2 Medium Onion
2 Rhubarb Stalks
7 Heirloom Snowpeas (it produced alot more but i am leaving them on the plant for the seeds)
9 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Black Russian Tomato
170g Baby Spinach
1 Patio Tomato
1 Yellow Beam Tomato (Cherry)
1 Fig
1 Raspberry
29 White Currents
Not bad considering how stupidly wet it was :) i have also just added 2 new plants (fruit)
Dwarf Red Dacca Banana (cool region variety)
Pepino Gold (Small yellow melon like fruit)
Unfortunalty all my local nurseries seem to be out of strawberry quava's but that is next on my list
My raised vegies bed is doing well however i have had to pull up a few of the swede and all the brussel sprouts and cabbage....they got annihalated by cabbage white butterfly. I have replaced them with silverbeet.
The corn is growing well as is the mixed lettuce growing underneath it.
Oh and from this month i will be calculating the produce by weight not quantity :)
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