October Garden Update....

Posting Octobers Garden Update in November, because I've been slack....

So last month, it was time to grow the summer season of seeds, some of which I had seed saved, some of which I received in a seed swap from Liz, over at Eight Acres (I've still got to send my seeds, sorry for the delay!). 

I planted a mix of Luffa Seeds, Paw Paw, Silverbeet, Beans (mixed), cos lettuce, calendula, rosella and mini capsicum. 

Seeds to be planted

I cleared a space in the shed and sat down to happily spend an hour labeling pots, adding soil and planting seeds. I grow my seeds in pots, then transplant into the garden after they have germinated. I find it easier to keep track of what grows and what doesn't. 

I planted the seeds in composted goat poo, I'm not sure how good it is as a growth medium, but I have HEAPS of it, courtesy of our 18 goats. In keeping with my 'reduce waste' policy, I've been keeping my finished toilet rolls to use as biodegradable seed pots. The rest of my seeds I planted in re-used pots from various tubestock I've bought over the past year. 

I placed all the pots in a sunny spot, which is close to the chook pen, so I will walk past it and remember to water it morning and night. 

As my chooks are free range, I also added a 'chook cage' to prevent to girls from destroying the joint. Hopefully most of the plants will germinate and I will be able to plant the edibles in Garden Bed #1 and the Rosellas and Luffas somewhere suitable.

Garden Bed #1 is almost finished its food production of winter greens. I'm just waiting for the last of the Bok Choy to go to seed, so I can collect those and use them for the next winter.

Meanwhile, the seeds I planted in Garden Bed #2 have germinated and are starting to grow. The seeds I threw in 'to see if they would grow' seem to have all sprouted. The seeds were a mix of Amaranth, Sunflower and some pink flowers I like at a cafe, so I collected their seeds.

 I'm hoping once the Amaranth and Sunflowers reach 30-60cm, I'll be able to plant Cos Lettuce, Silver Beet and other greens underneath. The taller, hardier plants should provide shade to the greens during the heat of the day, whilst allowing plenty of filtered sunlight... I'll just have to see if that works out...

August Garden Update

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that despite being neglected for two weeks, whilst we were on holidays, the veggie garden is still thriving and most of my bok choys are either ready to eat now, or will be in the next few weeks. Some have been eaten by pests, both of the insect variety and the two-legged variety. My pest control methods are limited to picking off any grubs I find and feeding them to the chickens; and encouraging Gigi to eat only whats within arms reach. I have so many bok choys this year, I'm not that worried about loosing a few leaves here and there.

Happily eating raw bok choy, will not eat it in stir-fry

 I bought a small compost tumbler from Aldi and spend an afternoon putting it together with lots of 'help' from Gigi. Its only about 140L, but I thought it was a good place to start as I've never composted anything before. Our fruit and veggie scraps have always gone to the goats, with meat and dairy going to the dogs. Now that I've got chickens, I thought I'd compost their nesting box 'waste' and also the straw from the bottom for their pen.

Compost Tumbler

One afternoon, my dad used the tractor to collect broken down goat poo from the goat shed and load up two of our unused garden beds. In the raised bed, I plan to plant all of my amaranth seeds, some beans, which apparently are good feed for chickens and a few random seeds in my seed collection, which I have no idea what they are. My dad wants to plant 'real' tomatoes (not cherry ones) and rockmelon in the other garden. 

The three garden beds

 In the winter garden beds, the winter crops will be finishing up soon. I've been picking a handfull of snow peas most days and the beans are starting to 'ripen' now too. I think I might also have a late crop of strawberries, as the flowers are starting to develop into fruit.

The dill has been flowering like crazy and I'm not sure whether I should collect some seeds, or just collect new seedlings when they pop up and replant them in appropriate locations. 

Gigi enjoying a snow pea

Checking out the Dill Flowers

The chooks have picked up their egg output, as they mature. We are getting at least two to three eggs every day, although they refuse to lay in their nesting box and have instead chosen to lay under a bush in the garden. Just another reminder that despite my preferences and wishes, animals do whatever suits them. Another example is in the photo below, where my ladies have turned my seedling box into a dust bath. All four chooks get in there and have a roll around. Needless to say, all the seedling either were eaten, scratched out or died. I have no intention to do anything to keep them out of the box, instead I'll find somewhere else to grow seedlings. Life is about picking your battles after all. 

Re-Using in the Home.

Part of our Simple Life is to consume less, buy local, choose products carefully and recycle or re-use what disposable products we do buy. 

Its easy to find a second use for lots of products that are designed to be 'single use'. I keep all my toilet rolls to use in my greenhouse as seed savers. The toilet rolls can be planted directly into the garden, as they'll break down. 

I'm lucky enough to live near a Co-Op and can buy a lot of my food in bulk, using re-usable containers- Jars, bottles and paper bags. I have lots of jars at home. Lots. I buy 1L jars of coconut oil and keep the jar. These are the best jars for storing grains, flour, rice, cereals, nuts, etc in. I use smaller jars for homemade goodies- pestos, jams, marmalades, creams, etc. 

I also use jars as take-away containers. Every morning, during winter, I cook porridge on the stove, put it in a jar with sultanas, put milk in another jar and take them to work/ kindy. When we get to kindy, I pour the porridge out of the jar and into a bowl for Gigi to eat and add the milk. When I get to work, I eat my porridge out of the jar. My colleagues think I'm pretty weird, but I can live with that. 

We re-use our milk bottles by cutting the tops off and turning them into storage containers and organisers. The soaps in my bathroom cupboard are stored in a milk cartoon, I have toiletries in another, cleaning cloths in another. In the toy-space, they are used to store Gigis pencils, small toys, feather, coloured rocks, etc.  Other milk bottles have had their bottoms cut off and I use them as scoops for goat/chicken feed. Other bottles have holes punched in the lid and are used as small and light watering cans for our green house and herb spiral. 

Old clothes that can not be donated are also re-used. Some I cut into squares to use as disposable cleaning cloths. These can then be composted. Other items are cut into strips to be used in the veggie garden for staking plants. At the start of each winter, I buy three pairs of black cotton tights. I wear them every day and by winters end, they are full of holes. I usually repair the holey ones and wear around the house, but eventually the cotton 'rots'. 

This pair of tights is a few years old. They were thin, rotten and full of holes. The perfect candidate for staking some of my plants. I just cut the cloth into strips and tie the plants to stakes. Most of my stakes are sticks found in the garden. 

I remember reading once that plants should never be staked with plastic ties, only cloth ones, otherwise the ties can damage the plants as the grow. Cloth is much more yielding and most importantly- free. The other benefit is that when pulling up annuals, the whole lot can be pulled up and thrown in the compost. With plastic ties, you either have to remove the ties, or deal with plastic in your compost. Win-Win-Win

July Garden Update

As I said in a previous post, winter has hit with a vengeance. My cottage is located within a floodplain, close to a reasonable sized river. Therefore it has been getting all the frosts that have hit South-East Queensland this winter. I have no experience with frosts. The last few winters have been quite mild and I've always lived at higher altitudes, where there is no frost. 

Sweet potato 

Cherry Tomato

It was quite a shock to have a look in the garden at my cottage and find most of my food plants killed by frost. The leaves have blackened and the plants are dead. I'm so disappointed. I had no idea this would happen. My sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, herbs, and food forest small trees are all dead. I'll replant everything in Spring and hopefully it'll get enough growth in three seasons to survive the winter frosts next year. I've left the plants in the ground, in the vain hope that maybe some aren't dead and will return to life in spring. 

On a positive note, my veggie gardens at my parents property are going great. The lettuce seeds I planted in my raised garden bed 'to see if they would grow' are now delicious lettuces. I have been harvesting a few leaves everyday to have on sandwiches. I plan to let one or two of these go to seed and save the seeds for next year. 

                             

The Bok Choy seeds I planted have grow into little plants, that will be ready for harvesting in a few weeks. I sowed the seeds into seedling trays and grew the seedlings in my greenhouse, before transplanting them into my raised garden bed. The seeds were ones I saved from last year and once again, I plan to allow one or two go to seed so I have seeds for next year. The raised garden bed also has beans, snow peas, lettuce and chives growing in it.


















I picked the last two capsicums from the capsicum bush. I was a good season for capsicums. I think I got 15-20 from the bush. All were quite small, about the size of a post-it note, but all were crisp and full of flavour. I don't know what to do with the bush now. Do I pull it out and chuck it in the compost? Or do I leave it and it'll grow more capsicums next season?

Lastly, I've kept a few of my surplus seedlings in pots to take to a market at Maleny and sell at the end of the month. I have cherry tomatoes, lemon grass, lettuce, bok choy and rosemary seedlings. The market is a Community Garage Sale at the Maleny Baptist Centre- Cnr Maleny-Landsborough and McCarthy Roads at Maleny on July 26th. Hopefully I'll sell all my seedlings and find a few bargains.

Big Changes

Lots of things have happened in the past fortnight- Gigi and I are living back at my Mum and Dads hobby farm. My dad has started a new job, so he and my mum will be staying at their holiday cottage closer to to the city during the week. They will come home on the weekends to help out with activities I can't do on my own- fencing, maintenance, tractor-work, etc. 

I've decided to I'm going to rent out my little cottage in town. I think renting at this stage will present lots of opportunities for me. I'll be able to save money much quicker for the improvements i want to make- extension; boundary fence; solar hot water; solar power; etc. I'll also be able to take the time to properly plan a permaculture design for the backyard. 

In the meantime, I'll be continuing to grow my own food at my parents house. I have lots of plans to extend the veggie gardens I already have growing there, from when I lived there last year, whilst saving to buy my cottage. I've also managed to talk my dad into giving me free reign to plant whatever I like at their house.

I'm really looking forward to the learning curve ahead. 

 

Front Yard Native Garden

I've been planting some native trees in my front yard since I bought my cottage last year, with the idea that it would form a continuous garden for wildlife with my neighbours native garden. 

Regarding the location of trees, I've planted a row along the fenceline, and a second row approximately 3m inside property from the first row. I've left a big gap as the sewer main runs parallel to my front fence, between these two rows of trees. As I live in an old subdivision, I feel uneasy planting trees over the top of the sewer main. I think it is best to leave it bare. 

Log garden edging

To save myself the hassle of mowing, I thought I'd mulch out the whole front area. I don't like mulching areas unless I have garden edging, so I collected a pile of logs from the bush up the road from my house. Some I had to cut to size with a handsaw, which was hard work. I'm thinking I'll have to buy myself a small chainsaw at some point, if I'm going to keep doing these kind of projects around the house.

Gigi helping to spread the mulch. Pipi supervising

Unravelled mulch bale

I bought a roll of sugar cane mulch from the produce in town and dropped it off at my house. It was so heavy, I couldnt physically push it. I used the ute to push it into position, cut of the ties holding it together, before using the ute to unravel it. Gigi enjoyed raking the mulch around, before deciding that Pipi needed mulching.

The whole exercise only took one afternoon and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I'll need to collect more logs to continue the garden edging to the front corner, then up the side boundary. I'll also need another bale of mulch for the next section. But its slowly getting there.

Mulched front yard. 

Chook Update: Settling in Nicely

The lovely ladies took up residence at my parents house three weeks ago and they are settling in nicely. Every morning they are let out to wander the house yard and every evening they put themselves away in their chook house. 

To start with, they limited their exploration to the gardens around their chook house, but everyday they explore a little further afield. My suspicions of their personalities have turned out to be correct- Fly (brown) is quiet and friendly. She is the easiest to catch and seems to enjoy a cuddle. Chicken Dance (white) is big and docile, whilst In The Box (black) is quick and crafty.

As I predicted, Gigi loves the chooks. Fly has emerged as Gigis favourite, possibly because she is very quiet and doesn't struggle when being held. She is also much smaller than Chicken Dance, whose larger size is a little intimidating for Gigi at the moment.

For myself, I just love watching the girls as they wander around the garden, scratching in the mulch and the grass on their hunt for insects. I find it incredibly relaxing and endlessly interesting watching them do their thing. 

Alternative Pesto Recipe

Mary, Mary

Quite Contrary

How does your Basil grow?

WILDLY

As mentioned in a previous post, the basil in the herb spiral is growing very well. The time had come to harvest and make pesto. I don't make pesto to a specific recipe, instead I usually experiment and use whatever I have in the pantry/fridge. So the following is a guide and contains various substitution options, based on your likes/ dislikes/ pantry situation. 

For this recipe I used:

• Bail (10 Cups)
• Sun-dried Tomatoes (5-6)
• Sun-dried Tomato Oil (5-7 Tbsp)
• Parmesan Cheese (5 Tbsp)
• Walnuts (5 Tbsp)
• Cold Pressed Olive Oil (if required)

I collected about two colanders worth of basil leaves, so approximately 10 cups of Basil, added it to my blender (the all-mighty Vitamix). Next I added about 5 or 6 Sun-Dried Tomatoes (all that was left in the jar) and the oil from the jar. The sun-dried tomatoes that I buy are preserved in olive oil and the delicious tomato flavour has infused itself into the oil, along with whatever herbs are used to flavour the tomatoes. This is the secret ingredient that really makes it.

Turn the blender/food processor on its lowest setting and sundried tomato oil a little at a time, to allow the basil to be blended. Turn off the blender and add Parmesan cheese. The amount of cheese depends on how strong its flavour is and how strong a flavour you like. I have really strong flavoured cheese and love a strong flavour, so I added about 5 Tablespoons. Next add whatever nuts you prefer. Most recipes call for pine nuts, but these are super expensive. I had an open packet of walnuts, so used those. Pecans, cashews, pepitas, sunflower seeds are also good options.

Inside the blender

Blending 

Turn the blender back onto its lowest setting and blend away, adding more oil if required. The secret to good pesto is blending it until it is combined, but still a little chunky. 

I then spooned out the pesto into cupcake molds and stuck them in the freezer. Once they'd frozen I popped them into a container and will now have pesto for several months. 

Sort of chunky perfection

Enough to freeze

If making large batches of pesto, it is much easier to freeze them into single batch portions, then chuck the portions, once frozen into a container.