Brief garden update. I harvested our last cauliflower, a cabbage, some broad beans and strawberries today. This morning, I sowed more sunflower seeds as the germination rate of my previous sowings was rather disappointing. I pulled out some swan plants that had died and the wwoofers helped to chop them up into smaller pieces, making them easier to dispose of. The girls helped me by doing a bit of weeding and planting some more spring onions. After lunch, we potted up some lettuce, spinach and cornflower seedlings into trays. The girls also planted cut-and-come again lettuce seedlings into some containers. You might recall seeing a picture in a previous blog post of them in trays. Today’s photo is of a bearded iris purchased from Carolyn Ansell, which has just started flowering.
I’ve already written about hosting wwoofers but I’d like to add a bit more info and elaborate on some points I previously made. Read together, I hope to provide a more complete picture. What is wwoofing? Wwoof stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. Wwoofing exists in many countries around the world and each country has a separate website. Hosts provide accommodation and food for travellers (usually with working holiday visas) in exchange for some assistance around the garden and/or farm. The purpose of Wwoof as an organisation is to educate people from all over the world about sustainable and organic growing practices. It is therefore essential that hosts are prepared to spend time with wwoofers to explain how things are grown. I usually work with the wwoofers but not all hosts can do this if they work during the day or are limited physically. I try really hard to make wwoofers feel that they are working with us, not for us. You have to be prepared to allow someone else to work in your garden. Some wwoofers are better than others. Sometimes, you need to learn to let go and forgive them if they make mistakes. For example, the wwoofers staying with us at the moment pulled out my wildflowers when doing some weeding, even though I had explicitly explained that they were not weeds several times. Yes, wwoofers are strangers who you let into your home and life, but in my experience, you have a higher chance of being hurt by someone who is very close to you than someone who you don’t really know at all. As Lynda Hallinan said, wwoofing is hit or miss. You never quite know what a person is like until they have actually arrived and started wwoofing. All you have to go by is their profile, feedback (if any) and communication between you, all of which can sometimes be deceptive. Like all relationships, it’s a two-way street and communication is key. Generally speaking, the more effort the hosts put in, the more they will get out of it, not just in terms of work completed but also having their lives enriched by often highly talented and intelligent individuals. If either side is unhappy about something, it’s best to speak up soon. I used to hate confrontation, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve learnt how to deal with these sorts of situations. We have hosted wwoofers who we couldn’t wait to leave and ones that we wanted to live with us permanently. Although you can try to iron out any issues nicely, bear in mind that you might receive bad feedback on your profile from wwoofers if things don’t go smoothly, which can deter future wwoofers from contacting you. Wwoofing does come at a personal cost, even though the work is unpaid. Aside from costs associated with food, lodging and wifi, hosting wwoofers can take a lot out of you, both physically and emotionally. Some people are travelling as a means of escaping their problems and their issues can leave you feeling very drained. It’s also not always easy instructing and managing other people in the garden. There are times that I feel it’s easier to just do the job myself. After some bad experiences (and even before we noticed that theft had occurred), mum and I stopped having wwoofers for awhile. We eventually returned to hosting wwoofers when we felt that we could cope again. If you’re in it for the long haul as we are, I recommend that hosts take a break from having wwoofers if it starts becoming too much for them. In the discussion forum on the Wwoof website, even people who have been hosting wwoofers for over 25 years have done this and recommended we do the same when we started having problems. Both mum and I agree that we need help if we want to maintain the garden as it is and hosting wwoofers suits us for the time being. I strongly believe that there’s a season for everything and we’re determined to enjoy being hosts until it has run its course. To make it work, we have learnt to take the bad with the good. I certainly don’t want to put anyone off becoming a host but I think it’s important to go into it with your eyes wide open. Happy to discuss this further with anyone who is thinking of becoming a host. I have lots of minutes which roll over on my phone and I never use, so I’m happy to give you a call.
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Yesterday, I checked that our Lisetas this season were ready for lifting and “bandicooted” four lovely potatoes for dinner. Another tip for growing potatoes is that you can harvest spuds without digging up the entire plant by gently slipping your hand in the dirt around the plants without disturbing the roots. This way the potatoes you harvest are “new”. It may suit you to keep a few plants in the ground if space isn’t an issue and you want new potatoes, especially on Christmas day. However, I wouldn’t recommend leaving them in the ground for a very long time otherwise they might go a bit funny.
Today, the wwoofers (two young German girls) helped me lift a row of Liseta potatoes that were planted on 1st August (see photo of our harvest). Liseta is an early variety and takes between 70-80 days to mature. I heard about Liseta through the NZ Gardener magazine. Lynda Hallinan did a potato trial a few years ago and managed to get 20kg from a 1kg bag of seed potatoes, which I thought was very impressive. I grew them for the first time last year and we had a wonderful crop which I gave to the partners of my previous firm Bell Gully as a Christmas present. You can’t really buy the partners of a large law firm anything they can’t already afford and they were chuffed with the gift. After the potatoes were dug up, we planted a mixed row of Rocket and Swift seed potatoes in the same place. These are very quick-maturing varieties, ready in just 60 days. I see that Metservice have predicted rain for later this week, which will help them to emerge. The girls helped pot up my apple cucumber seedlings from Yates Seeds. Since they have just come off the heat pad and look quite fragile, I didn’t want to harden them off straight away so I moved them into the greenhouse. In their place on the heat pad, I sowed some Honey and Pearl corn from Egmont Seeds and Kings Seeds. I only managed to nail growing sweet corn for the first time last summer. I have written an extensive blog post on the subject which you can read here: https://www.anitakundu.co.nz/blog/growing-guide-corn. Here are my top tips: · Corn is very easy to grow from seed, although you can buy seedlings in garden centres · Don’t sow seed too early or it won’t grow well · Don’t leave sowing seed too late either, as corn needs a long growing season. October is generally perfect · Soaking seeds overnight can aid germination as they have a hard coating · Either sow seed in punnets for transplanting later or directly where you want them to grow. It’s often said that it’s better to sow direct as so you don’t interfere with the roots when transplanting seedlings, but bear in mind that seed can get scratched up by birds and cats. I’ve never had issues with corn grown from transplanted seedlings and you should also be fine as long as you take care when handling them · Corn does best grown in full sun · Choose a sheltered spot as corn can topple over if it gets windy · Work lots of compost into the soil, as well as some sheep pellets and granular fertiliser. Last year, I used Nitrophoska and had my best crop ever! · Corn is pollinated by the wind. Plant corn in blocks rather than rows to aid pollination · Space seeds or seedlings at least a hand span apart. Don’t plant corn too close otherwise it won’t grow well, but not too far apart or the kernals won’t all be pollinated · Liquid feed plants weekly with Yates Thrive Natural Fish and Seaweed for best results · Depending on the variety, corn takes around 100 days to mature · Corn is ready to be picked when the silks on the ends of the corn become dry and brown Who else is growing spuds and corn this summer? How are they coming along? As you can see in the photo, our broad beans have started cropping (there are some “Easy Peasy” peas from Egmont Seeds in the bowl as well). We had our first broad beans this season for dinner yesterday and are having more tonight. I thought I would talk about my tips for growing great broad beans. They are very easy to grow. You can’t buy them fresh so broad beans are a must-have in the spring garden. We grow them every year. They are delicious lightly boiled with a bit of butter and salt and pepper. We have a recipe in our collection for a delicious broad bean dip and have also made falafels.
The main differences between broad beans and green beans is that (i) broad beans grow in winter and produce in spring; and (ii) you need to shell broad beans because the edible part is contained inside the pods, unless you pick them when they’re very young. Broad beans also don’t climb, but may need some support which I will discuss later on. They are sometimes grown as a cover crop as broad beans add nitrogen to the soil. Broad beans are very easy to grow from seed. I normally start them from seed in late summer or early autumn, when I sow my other winter veggies. I highly recommend the varieties “Evergreen” and “Exhibition Long Pod” from Yates Seeds, which I grow every season. It is also possible to find dwarf varieties and ones with red flowers, such as “Hughey” from Yates Seeds, which I must try in the future. As broad bean seeds are very large, it is possible to sow them directly where you want them to grow. I personally prefer to raise mine in trays filled with potting mix and transplant them into the garden when they’re large enough, so I have more control of where I grow them and how far apart to space the plants. If you’ve forgotten to sow broad beans and the soil becomes too cold, you can always purchase seedlings in punnets from the garden centre. This is what I had to do one year when I was sick in February and March and unable to raise seedlings for the autumn and winter garden. I like to add a little granular fertiliser to the ground at the time of planting. I used Yates Thrive Natural Blood and Bone when I put in my plants in autumn. It's a good idea to stake broad beans at the time they’re planted, as they can get quite tall and doing so then avoids damage to the roots. Tie them to the stakes with string as they grow. I liquid feed my plants every fortnight with Yates Thrive Natural Fish and Seaweed fertiliser to keep them healthy. Broad bean flowers need to be pollinated by bees. Make sure you have lots of spring flowers such as lavender, borage, calendula, cosmos and wildflowers to attract bees. My plants started developing broad beans in early October. Check daily for new broad beans and harvest them regularly to encourage further production. If you have a glut, it is possible to freeze broad beans but we normally eat them fresh every day while they are cropping. Don’t leave broad beans on the plant too long once they have developed or they will become quite tough to eat. Broad beans normally finish by mid to late November. I follow them with pumpkin seedlings in their place to rotate crops. When your plants have finished cropping, you can remove the stems and leaves, leaving the roots of the plants in the ground. This adds nitrogen to the soil. Is anyone else growing broad beans this spring? Have your plants started cropping? I hope you enjoy them! Over the past two days, the wwoofers have been helping me in what I refer to as our “greens” garden. In autumn, I set up an area to plant greens for our smoothies. We had bok choy, kale, spinach, silverbeet, cut-and-come again lettuce and miners lettuce in this space. In September, the bok choy started going to seed so we harvested what we could and pulled it out. Yesterday, we removed the kale plants which had started going to seed and salvaged what we could, in addition to the five or so bags which I harvested by myself last Sunday. Today, we removed the miners lettuce plants which had also begun to go to seed. While the girls sat on the grass harvesting what they could of the miners lettuce, I worked in the garden bed, removing some Italian parsley which had started going to seed. The area is not quite bare, as you can see in the photo. There is still some silverbeet, perpetual spinach, bunching spinach, rocket, Italian parsley, triple curled parsley, celery, borage and calendula. Eventually, the calendula and borage will die down so I’ll be able to remove them and have a bit more space. I’ll probably use the area for my large Sweet 100 tomato plants which were in the earlier photo of my plants lined up under the eaves of our house. I’ve never grown basil around tomatoes but I might give that a try this year. They are supposed to be good companion plants and doing so apparently brings out the flavour in the tomatoes. Planting tomatoes in this area is also a good rotation of crops, as the leafy greens will be followed by a fruiting veggie.
There is actually another part of the garden that we use for planting other leafy crops, our leeks and spring onions. This patch has always been problematic for us as it borders the neighbour’s property and there is an enormous willow tree near the boundary. The area is mostly shady but it does get a couple of hours of sun every day. I discovered that leafy crops do best here, especially leeks and spring onions, which even like a bit of shade. Like silverbeet and spinach, we pretty much always have leeks and spring onions growing in our garden. They are so versatile and can be added to many dishes. In early September, some Danish wwoofers helped us to plant 13 punnets each (!) of leeks and spring onions in this area. These were established seedlings purchased from Kings Plant Barn. Leeks and spring onions are very easy to grow from seed. They can be sown in both spring and autumn. I usually raise mine in punnets with some seed raising mix and leave them outside to germinate. Spring onions usually mature in around 12 weeks, but leeks take at least six months, sometimes even longer. In mid-September, I sowed the leeks “Winter Giant” from Kings Seeds and “Welsh Wonder” from Yates Seeds. I also sowed some spring onion seeds from Yates and Kings Seeds (“Red Bunching” and “Tokyo Long White”_. These are coming along nicely in the nursery. The only difficult thing about growing spring onions and leeks from seed is that planting them can be a bit fiddly. I manage this by doing only a punnet or two every day and wwoofers sometimes help me. Another leafy crop we enjoy growing is celery, which we use in soups over winter. About three weeks ago, I sowed “Groene Pascale” from Franchi Seeds and “Utah” from Kings Seeds. They have just started to germinate, which is very exciting. The process of raising celery from seed is similar to the way you would start leeks and spring onions. Celery is prone to rust, as I discovered a couple of summers ago. I used Natures Way Fungus Spray from Yates, but the rust was at a very advanced stage so I couldn’t salvage most of the plants. This year, I have decided to spray my celery seedlings with Yates Liquid Copper from an early stage. I hate using sprays on edibles, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to have a decent crop. Finally, as you may recall from the photo I included in an earlier post, I have a number of spinach and silverbeet seedlings coming along nicely in the nursery. In a few days or so, I will get the wwoofers to help me repot them from punnets into seed raising trays so they can grow a bit more before being planted into the garden. If you haven’t already done so, it’s still not too late to get any of the leafy veggies I’ve discussed in this post started from seed or you can purchase seedlings from the garden centre. What leafy green crops do other people have in the garden at the moment? Brief garden update: Wwoofers arrived yesterday and helped me to pot up seedlings and weed the front garden. More of the same today. I will also spray the roses and fruit trees with Yates Liquid Copper. The photo is of our radish seedlings. While spaced close together, they are growing nicely.
“We all need a bit of help at times”. So a journalist friend of mine who lives in New York wisely once consoled me when I leaned on her for support. In this post, I’m going to talk about when you might need help in order to manage your property. The starting point is to not take on more than you can manage! While this sounds sensible, it is very easy to get carried away when you become so passionate about something. Sometimes, you need assistance if you become injured or sick in order to get things back under control. Some health issues mean I’m sick periodically. I basically wouldn’t be able to maintain the garden if it wasn’t for help from wwoofers after those times. You might recall me mentioning in a previous post that mum and I host wwoofers. Since Carol mentioned wwoofing in her comment on my last blog post and Sarah said that she might look into getting wwoofers, I thought I would discuss our experiences as hosts. We started hosting in 2017. Things to bear in mind before you consider hosting wwoofers: · You don’t have to have a farm or lifestyle block. You can become a host if you live in an urban area like us and have a garden · You need a spare bedroom to accommodate the wwoofer(s). Not everyone has this · Wwoofing is voluntary, but you need to provide accommodation, food and (usually) wifi · It’s not for everyone. If you’re not particularly social/prefer to be very private, you may not want people you don’t know living in your home and having to interact with them Still interested? Here are some advantages and disadvantages to hosting wwoofers: Pros · You get 4-5 hours help around the garden every day! · You don’t need to pay wwoofers · You choose who you want to host, how long they stay and when they come (subject to their availability) · If wwoofers have been wwoofing before they might have some reviews on their profile, so you know what to expect · Wwoofers are generally young and fit. They have lots of energy, enthusiasm and a genuine interest in gardening · All wwoofers we have hosted were educated, well travelled and hard working. We’ve never hosted anyone that was just out for a free ride · Wwoofers often do a better job than if you paid someone to do the same work. I was so happy with the work one French wwoofer called Ivan did pruning and shaping our camellia trees that I took him and his girlfriend out for lunch to thank them. None of the wwoofers we have hosted have ever done a shonky job. · It can be hard finding a suitable local to help you in the garden even if you can afford it. · Wwoofers are prepared to do work that locals won’t do even if you paid them! We had trouble finding someone to help remove kikuyu grass from our garden, but this was no trouble at all for American wwoofers Becca and Alex. Working together, we managed to dig it out by the roots and extend the garden · We enjoy the company and cultural exchange. I have had some very interesting conversations with wwoofers. It is a two-way thing. I have also learnt a lot from them! · Wwoofers can be very talented. One American girl called Becca was an incredible cook and made us sushi on two occasions, as well as a delicious Thai curry · Wwoofers feel like family and can become friends for life. I still keep in touch with many of the wwoofers we have hosted · If you can speak another language/have a different mother tongue or come from somewhere else, you may be able to find someone from your homeland. I can speak French, so we enjoy hosting wwoofers from France Cons · Wwoofers are not professionals. You need to be prepared to show them how to do things, but they pick things up very quickly · Sometimes you’re not able to get help when you need it most due to lack of availability or if you’re not impressed with the requests for stays that you’ve been receiving. · You can’t rely on wwoofers showing up and/or staying for the duration of the agreed visit. For example, the two German girls staying with us now were delayed three days in arriving because there was a technical problem with their flights and they had to stay in Dubai unexpectedly. On one occasion, two girls packed up and left at very short notice · Some wwoofers can have a lot of baggage/personal issues. We once hosted a wwoofer who was highly troubled and incredibly dependant on us for company and support during his stay · Theft is a possibility. Over time, we have noticed a few things go missing in our home which makes us feel a bit sad as we become quite close to the wwoofers who stay with us · You can’t quite trust reviews left by previous hosts, who may not be completely honest (or even write a review at all in the case of a bad wwoofer) for fear of retaliation. A bad review on a wwoofer’s profile becomes redundant at the end of the year when their account expires and they leave the country but it remains on a host’s profile forever! · Lynda Hallinan once said that wwoofing can be hit or miss, which sums it up perfectly Still have questions? Please leave a comment below or feel free to get in touch with me at anitakundu.nz@gmail.com Set out below is my latest blog post in the Yates Spring Veggie Gardening Challenge
Today, I sowed some more seeds on my heat pad: apple cucumber, rockmelon “Hale’s Best” and zucchini “Blackjack”, all from Yates seeds. Our wwoofers are arriving this morning, two young girls from Germany. Together, we are going to pot up some lettuce and kohlrabi seedlings and I’ll get the girls to help me with a bit of weeding. The picture I’ve included for today is of our broad beans which have started fruiting. I’ve noticed a number of recent newcomers. Welcome to the challenge! I’ve decided to write a bit about what to do if you’re a bit late coming to the party. It’s normal to always feel a bit behind schedule. There are always things that should have been done yesterday! But what if you really are behind because you haven’t done anything yet? The good news is that it’s not too late to start preparing your summer garden. It’s still spring, the ground is moist and the days are often sunny (at least here in Auckland). The conditions are ideal for raising seedlings from seed and putting plants into the ground. I have put together an action list if you are starting from scratch this season: · Prepare your beds. Dig the soil over and work in lots of compost, sheep pellets and fertiliser such as Yates Thrive Granular All Purpose Plant Food. It’s always a good idea to leave the soil to settle for awhile before putting in your plants · Consider buying some established seedlings and plants from the garden centre to get a head start on the season. If you live in a remote area or are pressed for time, Awapuni deliver direct to your door · Look for fast maturing varieties. Don’t forget that cherry tomatoes will ripen before larger ones such as beefsteak, which need more sun in order to turn red · Start sowing seeds immediately. Even tomatoes, capsicums, chillies and eggplants can be started in early to mid-October. I have done this in the past and found these plants cropped later in the season, in March and April. This is a good thing, as they will follow the established plants you put in and it gives you an extended harvest period · It should still be fine to sow carrots, parsnips and peas direct. Make sure you keep the soil nice and moist to aid germination. I like to sow seeds just prior to rain as I’ve noticed they shoot up soon afterwards · Sow curcubits - zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and melons. As the temperature drops considerably at night, it’s a good idea to sow these indoors in a warm environment such as on a heat pad or in your hot water cupboard · Now is the perfect time to sow corn in punnets for transplanting outside after Labour Weekend, or you can wait until then to sow it direct · I would advise holding off sowing beans until after Labour Weekend as the weather is still quite temperamental and I’ve never had luck sowing earlier than that · Don’t forget to include some companion plants in your garden. It’s not too late to start marigold from seed or you can purchase some seedlings from the garden centre · Do your bit for the environment by putting in some swan plants and wildflowers. Both can be started from seed now · It’s still not too late to have spuds from your garden on the xmas table but act quickly! Look for quick maturing varieties such as Swift, Rocket, Liseta and Jersey Benne. Bunnings still have lots of seed potatoes left and the last time I was there they had reduced them to half price · Think ahead. Sow asparagus seeds now as they take three years to mature until they develop spears which can be harvested That’s all I can think of for now. Have I missed anything? Garden news. Since the beginning of October, I have started hardening off my plants. It isn’t a good idea to move plants from a warm environment (in my case, a greenhouse) straight to the garden without acclimatising them to outdoor temperatures gradually. I started by leaving my plants outside for a few hours during the day and brought them back into the greenhouse at night. However, my biggest tomatoes needed to be repotted and restaked (again!) and take up more space, so they don’t fit into the greenhouse. I’ve had to leave these and some of my larger chillies and capsicums outside a lot earlier in the month than I would have liked. As you can see in the photo, I have lined them up under the eaves of our house, where I hope it’s a bit warmer and more sheltered. I’m so excited! We have beans on our broad bean plants! I will share a photo in a future post. Over the past couple of days, I have been re-potting seedlings into larger pots. I will continue with this today. I am writing my blog post early as I have a busy, shorter day than usual. I am going into the city in the afternoon to participate in the YMCA 10k summer series, which kicks off today.
I’d like to discuss how to maximise the productivity of your plot. It’s not how many plants you have that matters, it’s how productive they are. More plants don’t necessarily equate to higher yields. Don’t forget that the more plants you have, the more time, effort and money you will need to spend on them! Here are some suggestions: · Use high quality seeds. I highly recommend Yates Seeds. Even though my Queensland Blue pumpkins expired in August 2017, they all germinated really well · Put in a couple of extra plants as a contingency because you can’t count on everything growing. Also, plants are not all equally productive · Consider planting grafted tomatoes and eggplants, which yield more than standard seedlings. This may be a good idea if space is limited or you live in a region where the summers are short · Plant varieties which are known for having a higher yield. I’ve noticed that Liseta potatoes and Iznik cucumbers (Egmont Seeds) crop more prolifically than other varieties. Crown pumpkins can produce 8-12 fruits per vine, compared with just a couple (or just one!) from fancier varieties. I like Hybrid Grey Crown from Yates Seeds, which I’m growing this year · Save seeds from your own plants where possible. Their germination rate may be better than store bought seeds (remember what I said about Carol’s parsnip seeds?). Over time, seeds will become acclimatised to your microclimate and perform well in your unique conditions · Be realistic - grow what’s appropriate for your climate. Cherry trees are unlikely to do well in the Far North and passionfruit probably won’t do well in Queenstown! · Make sure plants are in the right position. Fruiting and root crops generally need full sun, but leafy crops can do well in part shade · Timing is everything. Try to plant at the right time. Early spring is perfect for planting potatoes and many other veggies as the ground is nice and moist which helps germination · Practice crop rotation to keep the soil healthy · Consider planting a cover crop such as lupins or broad beans over winter to give the soil a rest and build it up again for the next season · Pick fruiting crops as they mature to encourage further fruit to form · Water your garden regularly · Use quality fertilisers to feed your plants. I highly recommend Yates Thrive Natural Fish and Seaweed liquid fertiliser, which I’ve been using on my plants every fortnight · Provide plant support where needed eg tomatoes and broad beans · Remove laterals from tomatoes so plants put their energy into fruit on the existing branches · If crops are growing but are not being pollinated, it may be necessary to become involved in the process by hand. Melons and eggplants may benefit from hand pollination Does anyone have any other ideas on how you can maximise the productivity of your plot? My last blog post on how to make the most of your space gave me an idea for this post. I’d like to share my ideas about how to make the most of your harvest. Sometimes we get so caught up in the excitement of the growing process that we overlook the end result – fresh, delicious produce from the garden. After all the time, effort and money that has gone into growing your veggies, it would be wasteful and a real shame not to use it. Of course, there can be the problem of having a glut on your hands, which tends to be the case in summer when everything grows at such a rapid pace. Here are some suggestions:
· Stagger seed sowing and planting so you have an extended period of harvest and everything doesn’t mature at once · Harvest veggies daily as they mature, whether you’re ready to eat them or not. If you don’t, zucchini will very quickly become marrows and fruiting veggies such as tomatoes and capsicum will stop producing new fruits. It’s a good idea to write the date that you harvested the produce on a bag when you store it in the fridge, so you can make sure you’re using older stock first · In saying that, some veggies and herbs can be harvested as you need without the risk of bolting to seed or becoming inedible. This can depend on the time of the year they are grown · Check the temperature of your fridge to ensure it’s appropriate for storing produce. Try to make use of the crisper section at the bottom of the fridge as much as possible to keep veggies fresh · Eat as much produce fresh as you possibly can, even if it means eating more veggies than usual. It’s good for your health! Look on www.taste.com.au for recipes. We like typing in a veggie that is plentiful in the garden eg “zucchini” and it brings up so many different creative ways of using them. In the picture, you can see the kale chips we have been having every night with dinner from Sunday’s harvest which I mentioned in my earlier blog post · Remember that some veggies will keep better than others. We never eat our pumpkins in summer because there are so many other things that are ready in the garden which don’t store as well. We use our pumpkins over winter and in spring · Drink your produce! Make juices and smoothies. In summer, we make tomato juice out of tomatoes and cucumbers. In winter, we enjoy kale in green smoothies with coconut water · Reduce the amount of meat you consume in summer, in favour of vegetarian pizzas, lasagne and melanzane with garden grown produce · Don’t forget that produce can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, tea and in between! Breakfast ideas include omelettes containing tomatoes, capsicum and herbs from the garden or a side serving of wilted spinach and tomatoes with scrambled eggs or a fry up English style · Think outside the box. Zucchini, beetroot and carrot can be added to cakes and muffins. A couple of months ago, I was looking at a recipe for keto bread which used broccoli · Preserve. Bottle, dehydrate and freeze produce for later use. In the past we have bottled gherkins and made pesto with basil which were put into small Sistema containers for freezing. Don’t forget that you can freeze both actual produce and make dishes using them to put into the freezer for later use. Sure it takes time to make them, but it’s perfect for when you’re really busy. Just defrost, re-heat and enjoy! · Share excess produce with neighbours, family and friends as we do. · You could consider selling excess produce at a farmer’s market or set up a mini stall outside your home with an honesty box · Look into joining a produce swap website or community group. If you grow mostly veggies as we do, it may be possible to find someone who has a lot of fruit trees so you can exchange produce It’s raining this morning and wwoofers are arriving in the early afternoon, so I thought I’d take a moment to write my blog post now. I’ve already ventured outside with a raincoat to sow some more sunflower seeds direct. I should have done this yesterday, before the rain which had been forecasted but I didn’t get around to doing it. Nevermind, although it has eased off a bit hopefully the moisture in the ground will help the seeds to germinate. The first lot of sunflowers that I sowed in mid-September have already poked their heads above the surface of the soil. I plan to sow them at fortnightly intervals until mid-November, so we have a continuous display of sunflowers over the summer. They bring so much cheer to the garden and are delightful for the bees. There are a few self-seeded sunflowers in flower now in the garden, which grew steadily over the winter. Carol’s post prompted me to get a packet of “Ginormous Flower Zilla” seeds from Yates. I am excited to be growing this variety for the first time this year.
Carol’s previous comment about square foot gardening gave me an idea for this post. I’d like to talk a little bit about how to make good use of the space you have. All too often, I hear people complaining that their section is “too small” for a garden, or that they don’t have a farm or a lifestyle block. Well, neither do we! It’s not about how much space you have, but how well you use it. I know people with acres and acres of land, yet they don’t even have a lemon tree or a sprig of mint on their property. We actually give them veggies from our little plot! Not everyone likes gardening which I appreciate, but if you do want to develop a garden, don’t let the size of your property stand in your way. Don’t forget that while rural folk may have more room, they also have to deal with pests such as possums and rabbits which usually aren’t an issue in a city garden. I have put together a list of ideas for making good use of a smaller area: · Try square foot gardening, like Carol suggested · Grow vertically. Think pallets, trellises, obelisks, hanging baskets · Use containers, pots, troughs, planter bags etc · Plant crops closer together as Collette mentioned in my previous post. But bear in mind that while this works well for lettuce, spinach and silverbeet, things like cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli need a wider berth otherwise they won’t form a head · Instead of having a separate bed for flowers and veggies, mix them together. You’ll find the flowers bring so much beauty to the veggie patch and attract bees which helps with pollination · Grow dwarf varieties of fruit trees, which take up less space (see photo of our mini orchard) · If you have a good relationship with your neighbours and they aren’t using their garden space, you could ask if you could use theirs or help them to plant a garden, as Collette does · Plant standard roses rather than bush roses. They add height to the garden and you’ll be able to plant other flowers around them. We have daffodils and dutch iris growing between ours · Don’t be afraid to dig up your lawn, even if it is infront of your house like ours is. Of course, if you have children and dogs like Collette or are renting, this may not be possible Even if you are lucky enough to have acres and acres of land and have the space to plant all the things you want, don’t forget that you also need to be able to take care of all your plants, otherwise they probably won’t do that well. Don’t underestimate how much time is involved in harvesting veggies, not to mention coming up with creative and delicious ways to cook them. Don’t take on more than you can handle! Unless you are growing commercially, you probably don’t need to grow acres and acres of veggies in order to feed your family, even if you’re completely self-sufficient. I hope this post has been helpful. Comments are welcome. |
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