tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74237450467016287232024-03-26T00:27:57.648+10:30Adelaide Kitchen GardenersWhere dedicated gardeners and passionate cooks meet to share their knowledge and passion.Adelaide Kitchen Gardenershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04176999385285446990noreply@blogger.comBlogger311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-91910114525097720852015-05-25T07:42:00.001+09:302015-05-25T07:48:43.539+09:30Pumpkin-picking Sunday<p>One of the simple pleasures of autumn is the bringing-in of the pumpkin crop. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ou7pc2qSZuQ/VWJMa7oyAeI/AAAAAAAAFhA/F863_fma6Fs/s1600-h/P1060899%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="The chicken flock moves in as the pumpkin crop move out." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060899" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ds8LncTCQzI/VWJMbhIhOsI/AAAAAAAAFhI/8BP2U8_nYgw/P1060899_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="451" height="341" /></a></p> <p>The chooks are happy too – they get turned into this patch – closed to them since <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/pumpkin-planting-and-garlic-hanging.html">the crop was planted</a> six months ago – to work their way through the old mulch in their search for insect snacks.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ikZVRwo4tI8/VWJMcZ_omkI/AAAAAAAAFhQ/J-NfTzBcqAs/s1600-h/P1060903%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Butternut pumpkins are sweet-flavoured, easily handled and peeled, and long-lasting in storage" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060903" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--Ku3Lw4Yu2I/VWJMdME1KnI/AAAAAAAAFhY/o0x6s5F4W6s/P1060903_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="456" height="347" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dmWZ6pcusjo/VWJMjpHdEBI/AAAAAAAAFhg/4VjsE248lbM/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="Austrian hull-less pumpkins, grown for their edible seeds. The flesh tastes pretty ordinary." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5hKlTgcxnEA/VWJMkh4AvwI/AAAAAAAAFho/xHU0IZKpx0Q/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Within half-an-hour, this healthy crop has been placed into cake-trays on a shelf in the workshop, with the smaller ones set aside for our four-month-old <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/an-adelaide-kitchen-garden-2014.html">granddaughter</a>, who is just discovering the taste of vegetables for the first time.</p> <p>These butternut pumpkins are sweet-tasting, long-lasting and easily peeled. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zasYt2PTE0g/VWJMq_C3ggI/AAAAAAAAFhw/EYLcP94TpgA/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><img title="Turkish Turban pumpkins - decorative, but they taste disgusting" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-g5E43vhcnkA/VWJMr7u1fuI/AAAAAAAAFh4/7VWhclpwxJw/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>They are neither as decorative nor as large as many other varieties that I have grown in the past, but I have settled for what suits the kitchen. </p> <p>They will last us until well into Spring, to that new season when fresh food is once again available.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TwI4yPu6Kvg/VWJNqFJtCXI/AAAAAAAAFiE/8f9OiON9OWY/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img title="Triamble pumpkin - an old Australian favourite, now rare" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--H8JFZTV9W8/VWJNrz6g1CI/AAAAAAAAFiM/vdUpyyaEeBw/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="462" height="349" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-73132960202074913882015-05-21T04:38:00.001+09:302015-05-21T04:40:45.097+09:30The rains of autumn<p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z2jDgqFSM4c/VVzbmjcs1BI/AAAAAAAAFgI/zecc1seWmmU/s1600-h/P1060852%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Winter crops spread over two seed tables. The netting stops blackbirds digging in the pots." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060852" align="right" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k-gGdwPTo5w/VVzbnZu5WnI/AAAAAAAAFgQ/XJAnestwSKo/P1060852_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>The rains of autumn have come at last, bringing relief to a gardener weary of the chores of irrigation after eight dry months.</p> <p>Winter crops are growing slowly on the seed tables and the chooks are taking care of the weeding. All gardening activities – including blogging – have been put on hold while I prepare for the final assault.</p> <p>Fortunately for this ageing body, this last attempt requires me only to attempt intellectual heights, not physical ones. The same well-spring that drives this small garden has powered my life’s work in developing sensors and systems for improving the way we irrigate crops on a global scale.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2KZU6sYQi54/VVzboVa4fqI/AAAAAAAAFgY/ydIA4c1G4JM/s1600-h/IMG_20150519_081637_028%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The home lab in the middle of the garden" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20150519_081637_028" align="left" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e9D4IWS_jQ8/VVzbpBcTKSI/AAAAAAAAFgc/v8m15EgprLg/IMG_20150519_081637_028_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>So I’ve cobbled together a small budget to outfit my home workshop – right there in the middle of my garden – to make the final tweaks to a sensor design that began twenty-six years ago. Finally, the art of electronics and my own skill levels are good enough. </p> <p>I’m going to “get the plants to do the talking”</p> <p>That story has been told before (<a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/tales-of-backyard-farmer-chapter-24.html">here</a>). </p> <p>Now I assemble my workshop from judiciously-chosen second-hand equipment available on eBay and Gumtree. Winter evenings will be spent down at my bench. Winter weekends will be devoted to getting those crops into the soil and sorting out weeds and soggy paths.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qySc5t4U6bU/VVzbqPRpKuI/AAAAAAAAFgo/1z8lHUMV7Ck/s1600-h/IMG_20150502_150442_453%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Grandpa and grand-daughter making fun stuff together in the home lab" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20150502_150442_453" align="right" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--JJwVY5lDpA/VVzbq4eXlII/AAAAAAAAFgw/PX-qM_-LqjE/IMG_20150502_150442_453_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>But it’s not all work. <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.de/2012/08/tales-of-backyard-farmer-chapter-17.html">My granddaughter</a> comes over and ‘plays’ in the newly-organized home-lab, making flashing lights and miniature weather stations from the junk that has been set aside after a long career building such things professionally.</p> <p>Life seems good.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-48236683621556734952015-05-18T13:15:00.000+09:302015-05-18T13:15:17.931+09:30New roosterMeet Colin!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqofF1SeMA6BUT2e2pshsyGtcZC41YRj0P6FzEhg6Gs_aq2vMhqLmK-YxvBHkuIz_2kwTDXAtD3SNSaLyPxAdMgQLuUnzjGZBBFQ4yqbb6by_tLEW4jrQlaMcTXdFwVFw-jOY3GHAvFfw/s1600/colin+gate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqofF1SeMA6BUT2e2pshsyGtcZC41YRj0P6FzEhg6Gs_aq2vMhqLmK-YxvBHkuIz_2kwTDXAtD3SNSaLyPxAdMgQLuUnzjGZBBFQ4yqbb6by_tLEW4jrQlaMcTXdFwVFw-jOY3GHAvFfw/s320/colin+gate.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
The Berry Gnome has always wanted a rooster called Colin.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavSF2NjiJZgl405ZaYn6qqXfcOh4jcg69smURDJ0T9gIIBSueDJwcvrjQSohmsgiDAoLg7Iy3byp_4UF-i4wHJ-j5DdJ3tCmrBDNo6n4YQEYD6xhdX79ROBwWgj2PsZUzY2tw07ZqIHw/s1600/colin+gate2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavSF2NjiJZgl405ZaYn6qqXfcOh4jcg69smURDJ0T9gIIBSueDJwcvrjQSohmsgiDAoLg7Iy3byp_4UF-i4wHJ-j5DdJ3tCmrBDNo6n4YQEYD6xhdX79ROBwWgj2PsZUzY2tw07ZqIHw/s320/colin+gate2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Now she has got one. :)<br />
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<br />Veggie Gnomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15914328803975022495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-87923806085239714202015-05-12T13:52:00.000+09:302015-05-12T13:52:31.506+09:30Purple mashWell, why not? Purple potatoes are absolutely delicious. Roast or as mash. Depending on variety, obviously.<br />
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Today's purple feast - vegetarian shepherd's pie.<br />
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Delicious and just the ticket on a cold day. </div>
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Have you had purple potatoes before? </div>
<br />Veggie Gnomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15914328803975022495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-33750479087299131052015-04-28T21:48:00.001+09:302015-04-28T22:14:29.066+09:30Autumn Chill<p>It’s autumn in southern Australia and plants are beginning to slow down as soil temperatures fall and daylight hours rapidly drop away. All this starts once Easter is over and the first rains bring the soil back to life; the autumn chill is coming.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MBQvHxBiQog/VT96a6CWl4I/AAAAAAAAFeo/K9q9cgqnMFU/s1600-h/P1060657%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Flourishing seedlings such as these can wilt and die within days in the fragile environment of a seed table operated during the heat of February – high-summer in Australia. Despite adequate water and shade, nutrients in the potting mix ran out, and so did the strength of these tiny plants." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060657" align="right" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kOK6dlJQlu4/VT96b7XwfjI/AAAAAAAAFew/2mNKi5_uUoU/P1060657_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>Only a month ago I was protecting seedlings against too much sun and heat. Shade cloth over new seedlings produced the worst seed table I can recall in a very long time. One week they were thriving (photo on the right) and then – phlat! </p> <p>The most likely problem is that the commercial ‘premium’ potting mix I used lacked sufficient nutrients to provide these seedlings with the energy they needed to cope with extremes of heat and shading, no matter how carefully I watered them. So what started out as excellent piece of planning – an early start to the autumn plantings – turned into a near-disaster, with many seedlings lost.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8WjXBiKfy4Q/VT96e-mIHWI/AAAAAAAAFe4/lpnU9eoOrRw/s1600-h/P1060864%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The second replanted autumn seed table copes better because the heat is gone and the rains have come. Now the problem has reversed; the danger is that too-cool night-time temperatures will stall growth before plant-out." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060864" align="left" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-urfYSBwJFEs/VT96f6iLjiI/AAAAAAAAFfA/h_gh7n8eCgw/P1060864_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>So the seed table was moved to a sunnier spot, new potting mix obtained from a more reputable supplier, and new seeds planted. All the usual winter stuff - red, brown and white onions, orange and purple carrots, kohl rabi, beetroot, parsley, tatsoi, whitlof, all sorts of flowers (for the Spring display), mitsuba, mitzuna, filderspitzkraut, chives, garlic chives, Black Spanish and Miyashiga White radishes, raddichio, endives, ‘Fat Hen’ salad greens, ‘Freckles’ cos lettuce and thyme. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C8DCd0o2K9k/VT96j7iUVlI/AAAAAAAAFfI/Vc6z9Vgjq9U/s1600-h/P1060859%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Seed tables need to be covered in netting before blackbirds get in there and flick up the potting mix in their search for worms. Fragile seedlings can be irreversibly buried." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060859" align="right" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lwq7oDT_u6k/VT96kvnVI1I/AAAAAAAAFfQ/r1HgKSDzkVs/P1060859_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>More netting is dragged out of the shed to cover these seed trays before the blackbirds get in there and flick up the potting mix in their search for worms; the fragile seedlings are all too easily buried.</p> <p>The ‘home paddock’ garden bed has been dormant all summer for lack of available water; this has been mulched and watered and the soil restarted to receive these autumn/winter crops and the remnants of the summer seedlings.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0nkT2D4X_w8/VT96mNtbhqI/AAAAAAAAFfY/wUNA09YsLa8/s1600-h/P1060844%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The great thing about saving one’s own vegetable seeds is that many seeds are stored in abundance, and so can be broadcast-sown liberally to make edge rows of – in this case – lettuce." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060844" align="left" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8W7-P_vnAic/VT96oAaNl0I/AAAAAAAAFfg/sWZ8DCyQ-nU/P1060844_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>April brings the first serious rains we’ve had in over six months; weeds and remnant vegetable seeds spring up all though this soil. Direct-sown lettuce does particularly well, along with broccoli, cauliflower, ‘rapa’, silverbeet and corn salad (‘Feldsalat’ in German). It doesn’t look like much now, but it will all get sorted before the soil cools too far. </p> <p>All this goes on while the last of the summer crops are harvested – pumpkins, zucchinis, basil, eggplants (aubergines), capsicums (peppers), beans, avocadoes, grapes and peaches. The citrus trees – mandarins, grapefruit, oranges and lemons – are already starting to show colour.</p> <p>And the current soil temperature? Over in the production garden soil temperature is monitored automatically and continuously. I need only log onto the internet to see that the long slow slide into winter is upon us. So now it is a race to get those seed-table seedlings to a sufficient size to plant them out before cool soils stop them altogether.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bx_7-AYqaO0/VT96q-a3_7I/AAAAAAAAFfo/mMDmxgxYUDE/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="Soil temperatures fall rapidly as winter approaches, dropping below 15 degrees (Celcius) after two months of autumn weather. This is ten degrees lower than the peak summer soil temperature, even under a thick insulating layer of straw mulch." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-unZdNdIZ9io/VT96sI1ZWnI/AAAAAAAAFfw/VUarTBe32OY/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="471" height="293" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-33193485623518604652015-04-06T21:43:00.001+09:302015-04-06T21:56:49.672+09:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden: Part 5<p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/self-sufficiency-in-kitchen-garden.html">Why this series?</a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XReS4y8mfhs/VSJ4HDCPFGI/AAAAAAAAFcw/vC9gS5GrO3E/s1600-h/P1010910%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Productive gardening means the ever-changing use of a small space. Here food crops (tomatoes) jostle with seed production and fruit trees (peach, olive and banana)" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010910" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-DrzoFhmmELs/VSJ4IPHFmSI/AAAAAAAAFc4/biBlOU4cmIQ/P1010910_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Productive gardening – like farming – is a tough business; it’s no place for the whimsical idealism that set me upon this journey in my early twenties. This is especially true in our Mediterranean climate where more than one hundred varieties of vegetables and herbs are likely to be grown across summer and winter growing seasons. So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #21</em></strong>: Learn which vegetables grow in which season.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fMWbLu7Ol5g/VSJ4JM3kp1I/AAAAAAAAFdA/MfO3sJuAbu8/s1600-h/P1010759%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Growing fresh basil is a most pleasurable experience, but doesn’t work if the seasonal timing is wrong." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010759" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9Ws3GRteyuQ/VSJ4KG4LPZI/AAAAAAAAFdI/zAsMrdLBFto/P1010759_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Growing vegetables out of season simply wastes space and the potential of those seedlings. Some things – like cabbages – enjoy a touch of frost, while frost kills many other plants, or prevents successful flowering. The solanums (tomatoes, capsicums, eggplants and so forth) grow best in summer, while the brassicas (cabbages, kale, cauliflower etc.) like colder weather. Peas like cool conditions, beans like warm weather, so they can grow up the same mesh fence but during opposite seasons.</p> <p>Simply stated: “Out-of-season, out of the garden!”</p> <p>Also, plant one full season ahead: seeds sown in Spring will grow throughout summer to be harvested in autumn.</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #22</em></strong>: Learn to space vegetables according to their needs.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-o3hX0qlNh24/VSJ4Mqow0yI/AAAAAAAAFdQ/RSK6tr9jjGE/s1600-h/P1010777%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="What looks like wasted space when seedlings are young can look like over-crowding once they reach full size." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010777" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-i7nXZ9_Sfw8/VSJ4N_dEXBI/AAAAAAAAFdY/tSL-aKTfov8/P1010777_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>This is crucial to maximising productivity. </p> <p>Where space is limited – and it always is in a backyard garden – throw away weak or sickly seedlings and plant the strongest ones. </p> <p><strong><em>Tip #23</em></strong>: Choose your crops.</p> <p>Don’t grow what you won’t eat. In our house, cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts aren’t planted because we won’t eat them. If I had my way, that would also be true of beetroot, but the cook loves the stinking stuff. Some things just don’t return value: we find melons and sweet corn to be too water- and space-intensive.</p> <p>Eat the freshest food available. But</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #24</em></strong>: Learn to store produce</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-_3LNncWInNo/VSJ4P4U6lqI/AAAAAAAAFdg/stUUmDQQb8w/s1600-h/P1010884%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Garlic stores well when hung in a dark shady place." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010884" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-w5Hna_jDg7w/VSJ4Q1mrzzI/AAAAAAAAFdo/3tS1Ti02YxA/P1010884_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Some vegetables – potatoes, onions, garlic, pumpkins – store well and can be kept in a cool area for months, eking out their value to the kitchen after a bumper harvest.</p> <p>Learn to pickle, dry, freeze and ferment. Build a cellar under the floor. Buy freezers for the basement or back shed.</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #25</em></strong>: Get some help! </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-xQb1H5uHgkM/VSJ4Sv6aRdI/AAAAAAAAFdw/cfwlL7bWNPM/s1600-h/P1020884%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Chooks - willing workers in the garden when provided with a sensible rotation system, plenty of fresh greens and a place to scratch." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1020884" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vrRGVZO0dtQ/VSJ4TdD62kI/AAAAAAAAFd4/mRhVRVstlFk/P1020884_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>In an economically-constrained kitchen garden, a small flock of chickens is all that’s needed. If I’ve learnt anything over the past few decades, its the value the ‘chooks’ bring to the gardener, working year-round without ever taking a day off. I’ve written about that <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/chicken-house-2.html">here</a>.</p> <p>On a more human scale, gardeners need cooks as much as cooks need gardeners; the combination together makes for an unbeatable partnership.</p> <p><strong><em>End Note</em></strong>: And that’s it. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-dzlIP5SxjYE/VSJ4VrnK5nI/AAAAAAAAFeA/W4NK84i4p7E/s1600-h/P1020182%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Gardening is not for everyone; it is by its nature time-intensive, on-going and solitary." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1020182" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ssPMHpGKrz4/VSJ4WaZE_SI/AAAAAAAAFeI/bIxkxK1QJCg/P1020182_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Gardening is not for everyone; some temperaments are simply unsuitable for the sustained and solitary effort required to produce food for your own kitchen.</p> <p>So is ‘self-sufficiency’ just a dream? </p> <p>Probably, though I’m still aiming at that far point as a useful goal and goad to sustain my efforts to squeeze the maximum productivity and produce out of the confined space that is a kitchen garden. I’ve always felt amply repaid by the gains in friendships, health and satisfaction that the simple yet complex business of growing crops gives us.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-mDflXQe6n4A/VSJ4X9xaGUI/AAAAAAAAFeQ/x6H0H2Ac0n8/s1600-h/P1010929%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Owning garden tools is easier on one’s budget than owning a horse or an ocean-going yacht. " style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1010929" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-xxtMYY-nY_g/VSJ4Yljt53I/AAAAAAAAFeY/anM8g1djLao/P1010929_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="463" height="352" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-6545651753892446002015-04-01T07:44:00.001+10:302015-04-01T07:52:47.557+10:30Pole beans<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-6DuIw5R996o/VRsN7b5rcgI/AAAAAAAAFbY/gOyr_IpoAbM/s1600-h/P1060808%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="A peace offering from gardener to cook – ‘Lazy Wife’ climbing beans produce steadily and prolifically once they reach height." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060808" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-FOX1u0YeRec/VRsN8Iji65I/AAAAAAAAFbg/GYqnR-fsd7s/P1060808_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>The same small argument breaks out each year between cook and gardener. And the topic of contention? “Dwarf beans versus climbing beans”.</p> <p>Why this should be so has much to do with the differing pace between kitchen and garden. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-fsPfmVHtzK8/VRsN9DeENZI/AAAAAAAAFbo/dYgm6jeqTSw/s1600-h/P1060805%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘Lazy Wife’ heritage climbing beans – stringless and still tender even as they go ‘bumpy’ with seed." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060805" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eyWB_PuKfgQ/VRsN90iIdMI/AAAAAAAAFbw/ysSfSuG3tjY/P1060805_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Up at the house, meals have to be pulled together in a matter of hours, whereas the gardener operates on a seasonal time scale that stretches on interminably through our long hot summers.</p> <p>Dwarf beans mature more quickly than climbers but produce a once-only flush of pods that are soon eaten, leaving the garden bean-bare. Nevertheless, “plant the dwarf beans first!” cries the cook early each Spring, hungering for something fresh and green to delight our palates after the months of broccoli and brassicas in late Winter.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-33Kn0HHViIQ/VRsOAOhHkzI/AAAAAAAAFb4/h87Q2zs5MIQ/s1600-h/P1060803%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="This is how it should be done! Netting protects the lower levels of climbing beans from the chickens (who love fresh bean leaves) while bamboo poles inserted into the fence allow the beans to grow to two or more metres in height, extending their productivity." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060803" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2ljZx8BHkuE/VRsOBf1axjI/AAAAAAAAFcA/2ek61ujQDMk/P1060803_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Sadly for us both, this specific dwarf-bean-planting conflicts with all the usual Spring chaos that runs on for four months as old winter crops come out and new summer crops go in. “There’s just not the room yet…” declaims the gardener.</p> <p>Yet somehow that same gardener always finds time to plant out the climbing beans, knowing that they will bear longer and that he will not have to kneel down to pick them if sent back to the garden to gather in whatever the current recipe demands.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-4HNQ3DVt9rw/VRsOEQwM2UI/AAAAAAAAFcI/WFDF0oBoYpg/s1600-h/P1060799%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="These climbing beans have been nibbled to chicken head-height, while the height of the mesh fence (without poles) has limited their vertical growth. Cropping is therefore less efficient." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060799" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yE4ZcxiXwpg/VRsOFuEPFSI/AAAAAAAAFcQ/8kHEfhuKVDM/P1060799_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Is it any wonder then that the gardener receives so little sympathy from the cook when her chickens – in their never-ending search for edible greens - reach through the mesh bean fence and eat the developing beans shoots bare to half a metre off the ground?</p> <p>So the gardener – never one for overt warfare – uses ingenuity to push beans up out of reach of those short-legged chickens. Netting protects them at ground level as they grow to the top of the mesh fence, then bamboo poles stuck vertically in that same fence allow the beans to grow up another metre, greatly increasing the productive capacity of the crop compared to those stumpy dwarfs with their large footprints.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-CM8Zh_J0yfw/VRsOGgQLPWI/AAAAAAAAFcY/4uLwJ9SpyJg/s1600-h/P1060800%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Netting protects beans at ground level from the predations of wandering chickens; they can get started up the mesh fence with their vigour unimpeded." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060800" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eXyFs0IHN2Q/VRsOHAx73FI/AAAAAAAAFcg/w8-UAvvrdBw/P1060800_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Finally, as in every year, the cook’s mutterings die down as each new dish of tender beans is brought up to the house in autumn and the overflow is blanched and stored in the freezer for the lean bean times.</p> <p>I’ve had two tranches of climbing beans this year, and a warm winter is forecast.</p> <p>I wonder can I make that three before the frosts hit?</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-11609890904313852062015-03-17T22:16:00.001+10:302015-03-17T22:27:30.238+10:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden: Part 4<p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/self-sufficiency-in-kitchen-garden.html">Why this series?</a></p> <p>One thing that gardening bequeaths upon the gardener is the sense of the passing of the seasons. While other outdoor jobs may well confer the same benefits, it is the short cycle of a vegetable's life that makes the gardener more conscious than most of the passage of time. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-o0K6U-K8b1k/VQgUBbR1-gI/AAAAAAAAFZw/fhkSwMKMfqg/s1600-h/P1010932%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Zucchini flowers probably look the same every year, but their beauty reminds the gardener anew of the opportunities that a new season brings." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010932" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-NZITsg0BEws/VQgUCPUBeEI/AAAAAAAAFZ4/AhL4d-o3TIA/P1010932_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #16</em></strong>: Each new season gives you a chance to correct the mistakes you made last year.</p> <p>I read somewhere that ‘errors aren’t mistakes until you refuse to correct them’. So fiddle about until you get it right. You can easily clock up experience on twenty or more generations of annual vegetables such as cabbages or capsicums.</p> <p>Nevertheless, </p> <p><strong><em>Tip #17</em></strong>: Perennials may be slow growing, but they require less work.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-BwXhEWSNTxo/VQgUD5J3tfI/AAAAAAAAFaA/r94LAdOQOBc/s1600-h/P1010902%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Perennial plants – like this grapefruit tree – deliver crops annually for very little additional effort, beyond picking up fallen fruit." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010902" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-sY7p5RDwrZM/VQgUEp7LCeI/AAAAAAAAFaI/LBZSWWH6_3Q/P1010902_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Fruit trees are the natural adjunct to vegetables and herbs in a productive garden. If room is limited, learn to espalier them along walls or fence lines. Once established, they deliver nutritious and tasty treats on an annual basis without the hassle of replanting new crops each season.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-VI1hDhvxLPo/VQgUFgbUC-I/AAAAAAAAFaQ/wXRKFUW7364/s1600-h/P1010885%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Potatoes flowers have their own subtle beauty, while telling the gardener that new tubers are being born under the earth." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010885" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Yx0sQHiEvd4/VQgUGDAR9kI/AAAAAAAAFaY/DgZS63C6xUY/P1010885_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Tip #18</em></strong>: Keep things fun – gardens can provide stress-relief.</p> <p>Gardens can provide plenty of stress too; there is a certain inexorable pressure to foster and nurture in a garden that never goes away. </p> <p>Unlike knitting or reading books, you cannot simply lay a garden aside until you feel like dabbling once again.</p> <p>I suspect such pressures do go away in colder climates than ours, when winter shuts down the garden and gardeners get to hang up their hoes. Around here though, winter crops follow summer crops like night follows day; we garden all year round. So</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-GV12KBeVct8/VQgUHbed93I/AAAAAAAAFag/VpVJDdEe0II/s1600-h/P1020135%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Who can remember how we came by this particularly flavoursome peach variety, but it has earned its place among our favourites." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1020135" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-doalqCZJP8Y/VQgUIGW_CGI/AAAAAAAAFao/PtMAUAQMdpY/P1020135_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Tip #19</em></strong>: Plant some interesting and unusual plants for your own enjoyment.</p> <p>I’ve got coffee bushes, Manzana and Christmas Bell chillies, Golden Sunrise tomatoes, Triamble pumpkins and Lazy Wife beans, Purple Congo potatoes, asparagus and avocadoes, as well as all the common stuff. Massed displays of sunflowers feed the chooks and delight the eye simultaneously. </p> <p>So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #20</em></strong>: Give your friends gifts from the garden, not from the shops.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-n11gyAPhim4/VQgUJwFpALI/AAAAAAAAFaw/yfjuqEds75c/s1600-h/P1010681%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Fresh raspberries from the garden are an unusual and tasty treat for friends and visitors to the garden." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010681" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-oE6i5MI8KLA/VQgUKnMe5cI/AAAAAAAAFa4/UKw66yT2FZ4/P1010681_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Any chance you get to claw back the high costs of water, mulch and seedlings is a step closer to self-sufficiency, saving your cash for other things.</p> <p>Besides, who can resist an unusual gift of fresh fruit, brown eggs, piquant herbs, colourful flowers, home-made tomato sauce and crisp vegetables? </p> <p>Remember, lots of folk cook but very few folk grow the ingredients. A gift from the garden is likely to be welcome in most homes.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3rSxi2gytOw/VQgULngtRvI/AAAAAAAAFbA/OWLVRvuM-tM/s1600-h/P1020289%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Pickled home-grown cucumbers make a gift that keeps." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1020289" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9eZluEeoe9s/VQgUMa_MSiI/AAAAAAAAFbI/_Rlwo3B0h88/P1020289_thumb%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="335" height="200" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-87679336098082241362015-03-01T16:30:00.001+10:302015-03-01T16:37:29.399+10:30Late summer harvest<p>Feb 28th is the last day of the Australian summer, so the demands of harvest must interrupt my dissertation on self-sufficiency as I help the cook process the burgeoning tomato crop.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-h06xH56KeVg/VPKq19tbEnI/AAAAAAAAFY4/0Q1s31P9FEM/s1600-h/P1060770%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘Multi-Flora’ sunflowers glory in the last days of the Australian summer" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060770" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Fe2cqIO5Dlg/VPKq2poSfII/AAAAAAAAFZA/_sOOwInYgxA/P1060770_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="471" height="356" /></a>There is always a hiatus in the garden at this time of year, as heat and lethargy combine to drag our footsteps as we wait for the first rains of autumn to kick-start the soil and the planting of autumn and winter crops. Sheer weariness has set in, as it always does, as we keep water up to growing plants to bring them through to harvest.</p> <p>But some things are – magically – blooming, especially the sunflower crop, which is a delight to the eye and a feast for the bees. These ‘Multi-Flora’ sunflowers – with many blooms on the same stem - also make wonderful gifts for visitors and birthday celebrations.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-uL8dxqwr-Jg/VPKq3q0T0iI/AAAAAAAAFZI/GwfG8B5DA4Y/s1600-h/P1060760%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="Red Oxheart tomatoes combine with small Golden Sunrise cherry tomatoes - supplemented by red onion, home-made olives and fresh basil - to make a delicious summer salad" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060760" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-N88PuCA8teo/VPKq4aI_HHI/AAAAAAAAFZQ/gS9mvbui_Ak/P1060760_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Fresh basil, red onions and ripe tomatoes combine in tomato salads to offset the on-going cost of water. Lettuce and avocado also combine in green salads, green beans are a common side dish, and late asparagus shoots still pop up to delight the questing cook.</p> <p>This year our crop of ’Golden Sunrise’ tomatoes is prolific. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-QjROBNRS_fk/VPKq5jVDCcI/AAAAAAAAFZY/jsxMLdxAgDs/s1600-h/P1060769%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Various red tomatoes and small Golden Sunrise cherry tomatoes fresh-picked from the garden" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060769" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-DHy1d0M2lh4/VPKq6fpL2NI/AAAAAAAAFZg/gfG3IsoiSA4/P1060769_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>This is a variety that was rare enough when I obtained the first seeds from a fellow gardener more than a decade ago. Now they have disappeared altogether from the seed catalogues, and I rejoice that they are still to be found in my garden. Their small 2.5 cm (1”) fruit are low in acidity and less prone to the viral diseases that plague their larger and redder brethren. I pick out the best fruit and carefully scrape out the seeds to carry on their line into future generations.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-17572852567652186522015-02-22T19:21:00.001+10:302015-02-22T22:37:59.955+10:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden: Part 3<p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/self-sufficiency-in-kitchen-garden.html">Why this series?</a></p> <p>It’s a strange fact that growing ones own food is about the least profitable use of one’s time, whilst being the most rewarding.</p> <p><strong><em>Tip # 11</em></strong>: Gardening is the single most important step towards a self-sufficient lifestyle</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-lw4cLl5F2T4/VOmYZZ8BzFI/AAAAAAAAFXA/jNU721j-6Aw/s1600-h/P1060184%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Produce from a kitchen garden offsets the cost of water, mulch, tools and fittings against smaller grocery bills" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060184" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8JRwFs0Js9w/VOmYaASd8II/AAAAAAAAFXI/q1WO-hkZGgM/P1060184_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Running a kitchen garden has real costs: water, mulch, seed and seedlings, compost, irrigation stuff and tools.</p> <p>Against this red ink on a gardener’s ledger must be pitted savings at the greengrocery, the hardware store and the plant nursery. </p> <p>One of the hardest lessons I needed to learn as a kitchen gardener was that I didn’t need industrial inputs and retail therapy to sustain the productivity of the garden. </p> <p>Learn this, and the savings begin. So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip # 12</em></strong>: Skip the products – there are no magic bullets or secrets to be purchased.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TuceziORXPs/VOmYa5lKeLI/AAAAAAAAFXQ/IS5RGL_G5ck/s1600-h/P1060147%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘Blood and bone’ – made from abattoir waste – is a natural product that can provide plants with certain basic minerals not found in all soils. " style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060147" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-S0A97IBWqXQ/VOmYbuoDgfI/AAAAAAAAFXY/Zc_XmANbxf8/P1060147_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Relentless advertising has convinced modern man that someone else has the secret product to cure all of his ills. Of this maddening array of costly inputs the most insidious are those from the chemical companies that support modern agriculture: herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and soluble fertilisers. </p> <p>I don’t farm commercially, but I can well imagine that it must be almost impossible to produce modern crops on a vast scale to feed the masses without these products. But </p> <p><strong><em>Tip #13</em></strong>: On a backyard scale, you should farm organically – it’s cheaper.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ULIbP_2vs84/VOmYduM5GKI/AAAAAAAAFXg/4gzqP5Dcgy4/s1600-h/P1060028%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Home-made compost made from kitchen waste is a natural way of recycling nutrients from the garden back to the soil. " style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060028" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-dUzbHlS9bxs/VOmYeZawoDI/AAAAAAAAFXo/TA2bahft72I/P1060028_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Sometimes – particularly as you begin to improve your soil – you will need help to reverse imbalances in soil pH or deficiencies in soil trace elements. The soil may be depleted of nutrients or its structure may have been destroyed by years of abuse by previous owners. A soil test from an accredited laboratory can be helpful as you break new ground. However</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #14</em></strong>: The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow. </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-qLGrV3Ba1bY/VOmYfswpEFI/AAAAAAAAFXw/eMMcwrSJmLM/s1600-h/P1060031%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Seeds saved from last year’s vegetable crops can be grown-on as this year’s seedlings, offsetting the purchase cost of commercial seedlings at the local plant nursery." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060031" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-FC8XQIkYPN0/VOmYgYUY3wI/AAAAAAAAFX4/9vfMjWJAllc/P1060031_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Patrol your patch. Or sit in it and let impressions reach you. There are no gardening mistakes - only experiments. Try stuff out – don’t just pour chemicals onto the problem spots. Healthy soils create healthy plants which feed healthy people. If you are going to add anything to your soil, add a good organic compost; your plants will feed off it for decades. Try not to poison Mother Nature as she gets down to work.</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #15</em></strong>: Small amounts of garden produce <strong><em>do</em></strong> make a difference to the weekly shopping bill.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kkbQBk0rY0c/VOmYhNSV9cI/AAAAAAAAFYA/L2KBxN1-NS4/s1600-h/P1060713%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Home-grown fruit offsets store-bought fruit for a small part of each year." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060713" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-t2gYE1YrhXc/VOmYh6CzB1I/AAAAAAAAFYI/mSPOZupPi1I/P1060713_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>A fruit tree bearing steadily is something a kitchen gardener can celebrate. It represents one small win in the unending struggle to balance the fiscal books. Keeping the cook out of the grocery store is a mark of a kitchen gardener’s success.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-7417843679762263032015-02-17T05:08:00.001+10:302015-02-17T05:17:39.514+10:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden: Part 2<p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/self-sufficiency-in-kitchen-garden.html">Why this series?</a></p> <p>It’s a complex world.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-4fTRjvcjBFE/VOI3eJu0mjI/AAAAAAAAFVY/quvkPYTvkNY/s1600-h/P1040587%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="One of the great pleasures of a kitchen garden is the fresh produce – it just tastes better!" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1040587" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mf_LlxHydz0/VOI3l1B9p3I/AAAAAAAAFVg/wuwK6P3xQeY/P1040587_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Once of the great pleasures of a garden (and there <em>are</em> some unpleasant things) is that it allows you to disconnect from our ‘always-on’ world of mobile phones, computers, Internet, television, traffic and relentless advertising.</p> <p>You need to keep this small private world simple, so</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #6</em></strong>: Buy simple but high quality gardening tools. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8qvQtFeSzEg/VOI3u1QwUJI/AAAAAAAAFVo/fDbQrHlO_SU/s1600-h/P1030377%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="A big powerful shredder recycles dried garden waste, returning carbon to the soil and future generations of plants. This 6.5hp Masport eats everything." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1030377" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3NfDmMnhNbo/VOI30I8hT2I/AAAAAAAAFVw/43BcFCyK084/P1030377_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="113" height="244" /></a>Good tools last a lifetime. A sturdy wheelbarrow is essential. You need not spend-up big on machinery, though a big powerful shredder is my exception to this rule – it’s an essential tool for recycling carbon in your backyard ecosystem.</p> <p>Chainsaws are also useful for recycling dead branches, especially if you have a wood-fire in winter. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-sRnBmcg2ME4/VOI3-oTffLI/AAAAAAAAFV4/GW6V-d8gbgg/s1600-h/P1030344%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Big wheelbarrows and large sons are both handy items in a kitchen garden, provided only that they can be brought together" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1030344" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-WrUYDPA6iJQ/VOI4C05a40I/AAAAAAAAFWA/FmUJXIB8vqo/P1030344_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Electric chainsaws are sturdy and always start. Small petrol engines – if used infrequently - are expensive to maintain. Petrol-driven chainsaws, lawn mowers and whipper-snippers cause more frustration and wasted time than just about anything else. So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #7</em></strong>: When the kids have grown up, you don’t need a lawn. Plant it to vegetables. Use the front yard for fruit trees.</p> <p>No lawn = no lawn mower, and more space in the garden shed. Sure, the grandkids are likely to want to run around outside (do they do that anymore?) but there are plenty of open-spaces and playgrounds in modern suburbia, maintained and watered by others. So,</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #8</em></strong>: Eat your landscape.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2KFIO2N_FkI/VOI4O9YKVAI/AAAAAAAAFWI/JdrgmoaeH5E/s1600-h/P1020296%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The subtle but pleasant colour of late clingstone peaches delights the eye. These shady green trees also provide delight for the palate and the human spirit." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1020296" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Xsf62TUaags/VOI4WPWwClI/AAAAAAAAFWQ/9QnbBAICYCg/P1020296_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Many vegetables and fruit trees are highly decorative. Better a real pear tree with an annual crop than a non-fruiting ornamental one. Espalier fruit trees along the fence line to save space, as you will need to use every bit of room you can find. To this end,</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #9</em></strong>: Pull out old plants quickly.</p> <p>This is particularly true if plants are unhealthy – playing doctor to plants that are in the wrong place or growing in the wrong season wastes your time, which is your most precious resource. They also take up space where something that feeds you could be growing. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-sFkjN206z9g/VOI4e9U-UTI/AAAAAAAAFWY/0e1hrxxFi6o/s1600-h/P1020333%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="If its work you want, try growing and processing your own tomatoes – they demand that you visit them often out in the sunshine and fresh air" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1020333" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ZkfEazjPr28/VOI4oHmttAI/AAAAAAAAFWg/G67FzKVtLaQ/P1020333_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Other plants will simply be unsuitable for your climate; we buy more bananas than I can successfully grow, though I am trying to do better at this.</p> <p>If it’s flowers and birds you want, let your vegetables run to term. They all flower, and while they may lack the spectacular blooms of floral plants, they can also delight the eye and tickle the nose. </p> <p>So seed-saving is the one useful exception to Tip #9; leaving plants in the ground to run to seed is a time-honoured method of cutting costs in a garden and propagating along rare and adapted local seeds, so</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #10</em></strong>: Learn to save your own seed.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-t7fjFgUk3mA/VOI47oUnNPI/AAAAAAAAFWo/2N-fmHOqOi0/s1600-h/P1030414%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Tools, music, bulk olive oil (bottom left) and the seed collection all live in harmony in the gardener’s shed." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1030414" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Map52qNlHQs/VOI5HzKVHuI/AAAAAAAAFWw/RVJ-LigSTPA/P1030414_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="471" height="357" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-73561658009629656382015-02-12T21:09:00.001+10:302015-02-12T21:31:17.515+10:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden: Part 1<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4Jd9AxH18fg/VNyCnFI9lAI/AAAAAAAAFUA/euTuLa2dtEE/s1600-h/image2.png"><img title="The book that started it all" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XY-fdzzA3r8/VNyCoNYPpoI/AAAAAAAAFUI/VNnVJwuuHn4/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="191" height="244" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/self-sufficiency-in-kitchen-garden.html">Why this series? Why this subject? Click here</a> </p> <p>Back when I was a young single bloke with a head full of dreams and a few dollars in my pocket I purchased John Seymour’s book ‘The complete book of Self-Sufficiency’; life was never the same thereafter.</p> <p>Looking back over the intervening forty years, I must admit that I was charmed by the drawings and the idealized lifestyle portrayed. It took me decades to realize that self-sufficiency was only for the rich, much like the formula for becoming a millionaire: “Start with $10 million and work your way down from there”</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-HoDqATKKf6U/VNyCqA2G1fI/AAAAAAAAFUQ/Qvt3vIIuO60/s1600-h/P1010950%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Buy the land, not the house" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010950" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-SFo1vHMAHpY/VNyCq9oCaqI/AAAAAAAAFUY/GX-Ln4EdosA/P1010950_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>‘The complete book of Self-Sufficiency’ was written by an Englishman in England. If I needed to drain a field, jug a hare, pluck a pheasant or choose between a horse or a tractor to plough a five-acre plot in the English countryside this book would have been perfect. For a backyard gardener in the fiery climate on the Adelaide Plains in South Australia I had to start from scratch. So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #1</em></strong>: Start soon, because it takes decades to understand your patch of soil and your local climate.</p> <p>Of course, five acres in the city – where I needed a job to support a growing family –  was never going to happen, even for a dreamer like me. So </p> <p><strong><em>Tip #2</em></strong>: Buy your house for the land, not the house upon it.</p> <p>I did that, and spent another thirty years fixing up the house so that the cook could suffer to live in the place. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Hfm73Dmfawg/VNyCsvKRf6I/AAAAAAAAFUg/eX-gjfQCJXM/s1600-h/P1010916%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Thirty years on, not the same scruffy house we moved into" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010916" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1VxTiA5SRgE/VNyCtQ_f-xI/AAAAAAAAFUo/zSmeebd20e4/P1010916_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>But houses can be renovated; if you don’t win some garden soil from the real-estate agent the small self-sufficiency of growing ones own fruit, herbs, eggs and vegetables will be a dream still-born.</p> <p>Earning a living, studying, raising children, staying married, staying in touch with extended family and friends – these are all things that eat into a gardener’s gardening time. So</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #3</em></strong>: If you want to live off a garden, you have to live in it.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-iN3-6CDOvu0/VNyCuhm6GYI/AAAAAAAAFUw/BRPecxfDexo/s1600-h/P1010876%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Give a cook space, light, plenty of cupboards and a large table to serve food on and she'll let you buy as much compost as you need" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010876" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-xDXRsCNAffc/VNyCvJUJd5I/AAAAAAAAFU4/-3On3pFDYds/P1010876_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>This may well be why so many folks only get gardening when they retire. If you put it off until then, you’ll find yourself surrounded by jobs that require a 35-year-old back, not a 65-year-old one. </p> <p>But at a more fundamental level, kitchen gardening is a very time-consuming life-style; if watching sport on TV or endless rounds of socializing is what rocks your socks, you’d better stick with the lawn and the white roses.</p> <p>If you’ve found a patch of garden behind your house that gets full sun and is not invaded by tree roots, then</p> <p><strong><em>Tip #4</em></strong>: Buy compost, not stocks and shares</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-nHY3qJUq3j0/VNyCxJSa9sI/AAAAAAAAFVA/OFYqPk98d4Q/s1600-h/P1010873%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Even cooks like to get out of their kitchens into the garden. However, they need to be watched, tending to feed a gardener's hard-won produce to their favourite chickens" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1010873" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Pd9wGonzCbQ/VNyCxyIytQI/AAAAAAAAFVI/vosDFfdnh28/P1010873_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Enrich and protect your soil: healthy soils produce healthy people. Kitchen gardens will win you small returns in savings at the local shops but big returns in exercise, sunshine, friendships with down-to-earth people (other gardeners), a connection to nature and the satisfaction that only growing your own food can bring.</p> <p>More next week, I guess…</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-52391520330862402912015-02-03T04:53:00.001+10:302015-02-12T20:19:51.018+10:30Self-sufficiency in a kitchen garden<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-f5MblmplKyM/VM_AhMdayiI/AAAAAAAAFTY/Flw4kxEVGyE/s1600-h/IMG_20150120_211354_373%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The cook in full flow, serving fruit-flavoured fermented drinks at the the Rare Fruit Society of SA annual mini-conference in 2015" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20150120_211354_373" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Ylir1BiHbGs/VM_AiJJncmI/AAAAAAAAFTg/9KbRnwozL2o/IMG_20150120_211354_373_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Each year, for some years past, I’ve gotten a phone call in January asking me to talk about kitchen gardening at the <a href="http://www.rarefruit-sa.org.au/">Rare Fruit Society</a>’s annual mini-conference. The cook gets called up too – she tells a tableful of folk all about pickling, lacto-fermenting and preserving food from the garden.</p> <p>Folk who attend these evenings – and its a huge hall packed with people – have a broad interest in all things to do with home gardens. <a href="http://www.rarefruit-sa.org.au/RFSJanConference2015.pdf">Topics</a> range from bee-keeping, grafting, native fruits and pruning to mulches, composts, netting, figs, citrus and berries.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sTI5KTC_0mE/VM_AjKbllVI/AAAAAAAAFTo/OaJ64EN5hoo/s1600-h/IMG_20150120_211421_007%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="One of thirty talks underway at the Rare Fruit Society of SA annual mini-conference in 2015" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20150120_211421_007" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-avLVEX2UgjQ/VM_Aj5CABHI/AAAAAAAAFTw/S3cbyVgwneM/IMG_20150120_211421_007_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>All good, but I’m famous for being unable to give the same talk twice, and I’d already covered seed-saving, mulching, irrigation, soils and so forth in earlier years.  Caught on the back foot, and with a decision and abstract required that very day, I had to hang up and hope for inspiration while I ate my lunch…</p> <p>Perhaps peering into my lunch box – at stuff both purchased and home-grown – prompted me to talk on self-sufficiency, a subject I’ve had to bat away regularly on garden tours. It’s a suburban dream that I’ve tested harder than anyone, and I’ve never even come close to living off the garden. Therefore this year’s topic is <strong><em>‘Kitchen Gardens – Living Off your Back Yard. Can it be done?</em></strong>’</p> <p>So I’ve set myself the small task of writing a series of articles about what decades of growing my own food has taught me. I burned through all 35 tips in 20 minutes at the Rare Fruit Society; I suspect it will take somewhat longer to get them into print over the coming weeks.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-87509272299937056972015-01-26T21:13:00.001+10:302015-01-26T21:16:24.853+10:30Everything is peachy<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Day">Australia Day</a> once again, but no time for festivities for cook or gardener – the peach harvest is upon us.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Q3UcMOwXe_8/VMYaU-YAaYI/AAAAAAAAFSQ/WUHE769WS9A/s1600-h/P1060714%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Peachs are everywhere in the kitchen by late January each year." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060714" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-btbC-30V6Eg/VMYaV_Ea1lI/AAAAAAAAFSY/mdxQ5EGwRaM/P1060714_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>This is a good time to have friends and to cement friendships; peaches make a welcome and delicious gift in most households. And we’re grateful just to get them off the property – there’s the usual glut.</p> <p>Still, this harvest of fine fruit has somehow to be stored for the coming winter, when family dinners are usually finished with fruit ice-cream made from frozen peaches, raspberries, strawberries, grape juice and bananas from the garden.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-b4_YFGGhmtM/VMYaWlPtKdI/AAAAAAAAFSg/I_-4mYusEo8/s1600-h/P1060704%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Pureed peaches can be frozen as peach cubes then bagged in bulk." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060704" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-aOHobF20-ko/VMYaXUKwBMI/AAAAAAAAFSo/YLLfZFJ33v8/P1060704_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>One way to store peaches – limited only by freezer space – is to stone, trim then puree them and put them into ice-cube containers, freeze them, then bag them for final storage in the freezer drawers.</p> <p>Peaches also go into trays in the outside fridge (the inner fridge being always full). These will be used as fresh fruit once the peach harvest is over.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-4RfuijK2gvk/VMYaYO4xRvI/AAAAAAAAFSw/3ArYtbmRP-4/s1600-h/P1060710%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Stewed peaches are cooked on low heat then go into jars in the freezer for long-term storage" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060710" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-kq0jS73Jrqo/VMYaY7xes1I/AAAAAAAAFS4/c-3t-5b11GQ/P1060710_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Another method is to cut up the peaches and place them in a large pot on slow heat on the stove; the stewed peaches also go into jars in the freezer, because we don’t use sugar to preserve them.</p> <p>And if all else fails – and it always does – then we make ‘peach leather’. The pureed peaches are poured into shallow trays on grease paper and placed in the summer sun to dry. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-2h_HDKyiJeg/VMYaZv7EuVI/AAAAAAAAFTA/eUdUtMjC98k/s1600-h/P1060712%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Cardboard trays of fresh peaches make a wonderful gift for friends. Garden tours are thrown in if they come around to pick them up." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060712" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-g0pqlveL_TM/VMYaaR3KGxI/AAAAAAAAFTI/0jHA7j5advw/P1060712_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>This peach leather is cut into squares and placed in jars in the cupboard for snacks over the coming months. A jar of toothpicks nearby is essential.</p> <p>Night falls, and its back to work tomorrow. Yes, it will be raining peaches for the next month – we haven’t even begun to see the late clingstone varieties ripen.</p> <p>Now, if only we had a cellar…</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-81133734474777843782015-01-19T04:58:00.001+10:302015-01-19T05:21:43.095+10:30First coffee flowers<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-MnQdUNJmf-M/VLv7IOKrlMI/AAAAAAAAFRI/VdhFfuVDoYU/s1600-h/P1060443%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Coffee plant - with comfrey companion in the background" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060443" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lmLx-okJN9g/VLv7I86m6oI/AAAAAAAAFRQ/cVwqopd67g0/P1060443_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>As a seed-saver, there aren’t many vegetable flowers that I don’t recognise. But the first small flower buds along the inner branches of <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/growing-coffee-in-adelaide-kitchen.html">the coffee bushes</a> caught me by surprise. </p> <p>I’d never seen a coffee bush before I purchased these two in pots some years ago, and I’ve watched them with some concern each year as they weather the hot Australian sun during our long summers. Burning at the leaf margins – despite plenty of water – suggests that solar irradiation might be the problem. Far from their cloudy mountainous home in Ethiopia, and adapted to a narrow range of temperature and humidity, growing coffee on the Adelaide Plains half a world away is a longshot at best.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Lmj9UuEaCfQ/VLv7K8fjkGI/AAAAAAAAFRY/sZrjDXCZAE4/s1600-h/P1060647%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The coffee plant pair, with the much-pruned comfrey companion in between. The right-hand coffee plant is on the westerly side and so is most exposed to the sun, with consequent higher level of sun damage to leaf margins." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060647" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-M_P3r7XTFqY/VLv7Lvc87uI/AAAAAAAAFRg/bz2JHiX674U/P1060647_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>For all of these reasons, I’d left stand a large <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey">comfrey</a> plant that has been growing between the two coffee bushes, shielding their lower leaves with its own broad hairy ones and stabilising the humidity within the microclimate of its canopy. Comfrey plants are also valuable for their ability to draw up nutrients such as potassium from deep in the sub-soil.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-F2IJZI67vVA/VLv7Ma669sI/AAAAAAAAFRo/FfeF_5ciAJw/s1600-h/P1060645%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Coffee flowers appear at the leaf bases" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060645" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-fgxh0qZolIU/VLv7NON8g4I/AAAAAAAAFRw/CjdJkbXaGNg/P1060645_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>But enough’s enough – the comfrey plant was starting to provide altogether too much shade and had to be cut back. And lo and behold – the first coffee flowers were there!</p> <p>It’s a shade too soon to be putting the kettle on, but there’s sufficient pleasure in raising new  unfamiliar plants. And with recent rain gathered into bins below the chicken shed eaves, there is also the bonus of comfrey tea  - a natural fertilizer - that will come from soaking all those comfrey leaves.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-GLkTt1rrdhY/VLv7N6lDfGI/AAAAAAAAFR4/SyCv-msw4Lo/s1600-h/P1060646%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="Flower buds on coffee plants" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060646" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-m4m8CuxQ9Ic/VLv7OZXjgDI/AAAAAAAAFSA/uhh0yDoanYQ/P1060646_thumb%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="475" height="166" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-76518664614815350232015-01-14T08:20:00.001+10:302015-01-14T08:23:08.692+10:30‘Soft-staking’ tomatoes<p>If I simply grew five tomato plants I could afford to mollycoddle them like everyone else, shaping and trimming and tying each plant up a stake and making the garden beautiful.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6Ogi0s6mHAo/VLWS7wkVitI/AAAAAAAAFPw/R1-zifs2UyU/s1600-h/P1060627%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Traditionally-staked tomatoes take a lot of time and effort to stake, tie and prune." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060627" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-kb7Dcuq-4h4/VLWS8-MQoBI/AAAAAAAAFP4/Sel7iL-El34/P1060627_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="456" height="345" /></a>Indeed, I’ve tried all the standard methods of staking tomatoes, but things fall apart when you are growing north of 50 plants and strapped for time. So I’ve been experimenting with faster methods of raising uglier tomatoes, safe in the knowledge that I win kudos for volume of fruit produced rather than the exquisite geometrical symmetry of my tomatoes beds.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-rfg7MnUWCRw/VLWS-4fPAPI/AAAAAAAAFQA/v1yOGQFsbA8/s1600-h/P1060604%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Tomatoes are allowed to sprawl on soft mulch until their root systems are strong enough to allow 'soft-staking'" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060604" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2I1VKmXXpLE/VLWS_97h0_I/AAAAAAAAFQI/LQZUUyA1fIY/P1060604_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="291" height="221" /></a>Along this journey I’ve learnt that the tomato plants don’t actually appreciate all that servicing either. Heavy gardeners compact soil, break off shoots inadvertently and spread disease from one plant to the next through tools or touch.</p> <p>So these days I try to go into the tomato beds only once – to ‘soft-stake’ them. After that, the cook – at half my weight – moves more gently among them to harvest the final produce for sauces and salads.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-R20sIuuWpNQ/VLWTBCttilI/AAAAAAAAFQQ/5qdFvzbLlxc/s1600-h/P1060598%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Growing tomatoes along mesh-fences also minimises staking and tying" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060598" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-HMgPt3o3geQ/VLWTBiDYknI/AAAAAAAAFQY/DP3GdwETR9c/P1060598_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>How does this work?</p> <p>Firstly, I grow the tomatoes on thick straw mulch so that they are lying about in cleanliness and comfort rather than on the soil surface. If this barley straw ‘shoots’ from barley seed buried inside it so much the better – the stiff straws and tough leaves serve to hold up the branches of the young tomatoes as they get established.</p> <p>Many of these tomatoes are grown along mesh fences; these too serve to support growing tomatoes which, at the 300 mm spacing of the drip irrigation system below the mulch, tend to intermesh and prop up each other. This works on rich soil – the hallmark of a well-managed kitchen garden, where planting density has to be maximised.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LvogQyBTIqk/VLWTC9SAv_I/AAAAAAAAFQg/UZlDHbYNElE/s1600-h/P1060606%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Soft stake' ties use the root system of the established tomato plant as an anchor point. The tie near the base is knotted on itself rather than on the stem so that it doesn't stangle the plant." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060606" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-5hBMia4FKIk/VLWTDy1zy8I/AAAAAAAAFQo/rW__QaCx21c/P1060606_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>For those rows of tomatoes out in the middle of the bed, individual staking would create an impenetrable forest of vertical hardwood stakes. So I wait until the plants are deep-rooted and sturdy so that they themselves form the anchor-point for the ‘soft stakes’ that are tied loosely at their base and spiral around central stems up to a horizontal pole overhead. These <a href="http://www.fertool.com.au/Plant-Ties/Jolly-tree-ties-Jolly-garden-ties.aspx?id=113&c=28">Jolly tree ties</a> are soft biodegradable expanding cloth strips that come in a 40m roll.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-RgzbCg37-Po/VLWTFAXeNHI/AAAAAAAAFQw/PQCE6ulGWgA/s1600-h/P1060615%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Soft stakes' are spiralled around central leaders and the whole vine cane is pulled up to an overhead binding post to allow the foliage to breath." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060615" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-0S_X3vifNnk/VLWTFgcl9BI/AAAAAAAAFQ4/gJDGb96gE14/P1060615_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>It looks messy, but the bushes stay lower and spread wider and stay healthier longer. And I save lots of time mucking about pruning them.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-11088764227036410242015-01-05T20:52:00.001+10:302015-01-05T21:07:24.309+10:30Manzana chillies and rinse water<p>Oops! - nearly lost my last <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/saving-manzana-chilli-seed.html">Manzana chilli</a> plant in the latest heat wave…</p> <p>My fault of course - I lost track of which one of the 50 watering cycles this particular plant relies upon. And although I’ve grown this chilli in the past I’d somehow failed to keep the seed-line alive except for this single plant. As Manzana chilli seeds are simply no longer to be found in my favourite <a href="https://www.edenseeds.com.au/?name=Request-a-catalogue&">heritage seed catalogue</a> this is something I can’t afford to happen. It’s my favourite chilli, now rare and irreplaceable.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-eqOMuRs-_pQ/VKpl5SYh28I/AAAAAAAAFO4/9QgECgkyq7w/s1600-h/DSCN0005%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="This small patch of mixed chillies - from June 2006 - contains Manzana chillies to be seen on the middle right. Who knew it was hardy enough to outlast all those other exotic varieties?" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="DSCN0005" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-JhrpyGhsRJ0/VKpl6Z3ejBI/AAAAAAAAFPA/dGjNHPO_A38/DSCN0005_thumb%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="345" /></a></p> <p>‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_wilting_point">Permanent wilting point</a>’ is the scientific term for ‘death’ in plants – lack of soil moisture causes the remaining water in the plant tissue to be drawn out in a last ditch attempt to maintain life. So tissue – and hence the leaves and stems – wilt and droop as cell turgor is lost.</p> <p>This extremity can be reached very quickly in hot weather and particularly in sandy soils that aren’t as good as loams and clays at holding soil water available to the plant root system.</p> <p>To cap all that off, this particularly chilli bush is exposed to the full heat of the westerly sun, so must deal with this source of water stress in addition to the gardener’s inattention.</p> <p>There is only one thing that saved this rare heritage chilli; the fact that I was on holidays and so around the garden all day. As this small chilli has been planted right outside the backdoor in easy reach of the cook, it caught my eye just in time.</p> <p>So which irrigation schedule is it on? It turns out that its alone, by itself, outside the norm and utterly reliant on the gardener to keep it alive. For I water this one plant by hand, stealing the occasional bucket of rinse water out from under the cook’s nose, as she has her own favourites to water.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-FQ7LEvnAbs4/VKpl7kERQPI/AAAAAAAAFPI/ymVZF9dI6jA/s1600-h/P1060578%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Simply catching the rinse water in the kitchen sink in a 5 litre bucket is enough to keep one rare chilli plant alive in a kitchen garden" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060578" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-f3oTk3ucIAk/VKpl8Rq7GyI/AAAAAAAAFPQ/1PRWk_R5ezE/P1060578_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="449" height="340" /></a></p> <p>And that rinse water?  Lots of small items just aren’t worthy of the trip to the dish-washer and so get rinsed over a 5 litre bucket in the sink. This water is saved rather than allowed to run to waste down the drain. All it takes are a series of routine trips to the garden to dispose of each bucketful as it become available.</p> <p>So rather than wait for the ‘wilting point’ symptoms to manifest themselves I have installed a <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/an-african-connection.html">GDot soil moisture sensor</a> dedicated to this one Manzana chilli. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-gnh_PSVCkCo/VKpl-5NVGXI/AAAAAAAAFPY/Ukdaw4uz_aM/s1600-h/P1060579%25255B8%25255D.jpg"><img title="A single Manzana chilli plant near the back door can be monitored by eye using the GDot soil moisture display in the right of this photo. Note the severe wilting damage to leaves and fruit to be seen in the bottom right limb of the plant." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060579" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4ZLkcbykonI/VKpl_x68HzI/AAAAAAAAFPg/ZPMNNGOAor0/P1060579_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="451" height="341" /></a></p> <p>Maybe even the cook will spot its plight next time and make a rinse-water donation when needed? </p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-54190358281877833972015-01-02T10:00:00.000+10:302015-01-02T10:00:59.839+10:30Shade HouseSummer has struck with a vengeance. 42C are forecast today.<br />
Even when the plants receive enough water (not always the case around here), the sun can burn some of the bigger-leaved plants.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9idpepVtCHU3cm40j177A-Tn6FcrIqUqphE068rKnhRk2kyBnxucP6-3nAfT_u_L2FFzD4UTdN2WsUa1JAINXkvzxrOEPRgBYEVlZUaUONJ7JXUyeHc2chXHxgz-i3cYQh_3jIr5eJXgj/s1600/shadehouse2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9idpepVtCHU3cm40j177A-Tn6FcrIqUqphE068rKnhRk2kyBnxucP6-3nAfT_u_L2FFzD4UTdN2WsUa1JAINXkvzxrOEPRgBYEVlZUaUONJ7JXUyeHc2chXHxgz-i3cYQh_3jIr5eJXgj/s1600/shadehouse2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
These shade houses are easy and quick to put up. They are also very
quick to dismantle, and can therefore be as temporary or permanent as
you want them to be.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96z_abdtQro_q1KoYKFS1KBGkgXNwGAoDQEdqYUDAMCJahU16bQ_Hhxf0UZtAkID_AnUHoJNkYBlMFy7ZRJ8Tee2LJamKgOQhyphenhyphenKdm3QkrF61v9KamAzA863olTUMn-Qr55JdLuO928Cvh/s1600/shadehouse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96z_abdtQro_q1KoYKFS1KBGkgXNwGAoDQEdqYUDAMCJahU16bQ_Hhxf0UZtAkID_AnUHoJNkYBlMFy7ZRJ8Tee2LJamKgOQhyphenhyphenKdm3QkrF61v9KamAzA863olTUMn-Qr55JdLuO928Cvh/s1600/shadehouse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Take a length of light-weight rebar, push one end into the ground, then
form a tunnel and push the other end into the ground. Put some shade
cloth over the structure. Tada!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lfLUrfRlKvLxA9Uj0cPdkJMBmNeUfODZIHliDiaJxQO0HpLCSiFy35vangWhSdPS_ig1JVSIgk_-gSlF7BDsG_uaNOqkPmwEyeGEEKzbnHkFBz2wsnzfMJ80T5j6N5N4OxS9LZ9dV3xC/s1600/shadehouse3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lfLUrfRlKvLxA9Uj0cPdkJMBmNeUfODZIHliDiaJxQO0HpLCSiFy35vangWhSdPS_ig1JVSIgk_-gSlF7BDsG_uaNOqkPmwEyeGEEKzbnHkFBz2wsnzfMJ80T5j6N5N4OxS9LZ9dV3xC/s1600/shadehouse3.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
Veggie Gnomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15914328803975022495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-73493737918941429342014-12-30T08:04:00.001+10:302014-12-30T08:08:19.714+10:30Mid-summer harvest and winter sowings<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-idRvjXv3QRg/VKHItZwGVEI/AAAAAAAAFNg/iKAq2FzuubQ/s1600-h/P1060574%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Hunter River Brown' onions" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060574" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-qCTAttmvqCg/VKHIuIMNFdI/AAAAAAAAFNo/2qNmkQm0Kzo/P1060574_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>As the year draws to a close so too do those crops planted mid-year and mid-winter – garlic and onions. Planted on the shortest day of the year, we harvest around the longest day or thereabouts. So these slender plants have had to be nurtured for six months, protected from the competition of weeds, watered and mulched and finally dug up and stored in the shed.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Etb06ISFnhk/VKHIvYahqXI/AAAAAAAAFNw/C9PDUZzocCU/s1600-h/P1060575%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Hunter River White' onions" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060575" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ouQeyioUY-A/VKHIv_kSJoI/AAAAAAAAFN4/F4vvmX4sipE/P1060575_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>All this effort is repaid because onions – at least the brown and white varieties – store well and will supply the kitchen for months to come. </p> <p>Red onions stay in the garden bed until the cook wanders past and selects one to slice into salads. Whereas the tops of the Hunter River brown and white onion varieties die off to signify that it is time for harvest the Sweet Red variety maintains green and healthy tops even after the bulb is formed. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sTebxbOEel4/VKHIxCmFQqI/AAAAAAAAFOA/at7wWFg8G8A/s1600-h/P1060576%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Yates 'Sweet Red' onions" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060576" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-g6eib47L7_I/VKHIxw_YxSI/AAAAAAAAFOI/CmN7ZYMbPxI/P1060576_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>These tops are also used by the cook as ‘oniony-material’ in soups ands stews.</p> <p>The garlic has come out of various beds to make way for pumpkins – another long-storing vegetable – and silverbeet for the chicken flock. The tops on the hard-neck garlic varieties stay in place and allow the garlic cloves to be braided before hanging in the shed. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-xzjJO_eoCbY/VKHIy15pMqI/AAAAAAAAFOQ/NFdet6l4vCo/s1600-h/P1060550%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Italian Purple' garlic retains the tough dried stalk attached to the bulb and so can be braided for storage. The bulbs are simply broken off as needed by the cook." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060550" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-EAn_UQKMEvM/VKHIzhlY9dI/AAAAAAAAFOY/SIqLos9R6qA/P1060550_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>The soft-neck garlic types lose that sturdy tie and so are stored in open-mesh onion bags that are also hung out of reach of mice.</p> <p>Once these beds are cleared the remnants of the spring seed-table sowings are set out – largely lettuce and carrots.</p> <p>Now the cycle starts again: the seed table is re-established and I look to the seed collection to begin sowing crops that won’t enter the soil until the break of the autumn rains in late March.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-s7jvO9sU1Jg/VKHI08SkThI/AAAAAAAAFOg/2fMV1tQgkvw/s1600-h/P1060556%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Winter sowings on the seed table start in mid-summer to catch the gentle days of autumn when the rains begin." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060556" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-eTzbI6F5vNU/VKHI1pPycbI/AAAAAAAAFOo/-rIOZAVNCoo/P1060556_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="465" height="353" /></a></p> <p>These winter crops include winter-hardy herbs – coriander, sorrell, chia, parsley, lovage, thyme, dill, spring onions and rocket. These will flourish briefly in the cooler yet still sunny days of an Australian autumn. The deep winter crops belong to the cabbage family – broccoli, kale, Chinese and German cabbages and ‘Palla Rossa’ radicchio, a form of bitter red lettuce beloved of the cook.</p> <p>With the hottest summer weather still to come all these seedlings will be permanently covered by shade cloth and hand-watered daily with the last of the water from the rainwater tanks.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-11398615209206451532014-12-25T22:02:00.001+10:302014-12-28T04:51:12.158+10:30An Adelaide Kitchen Garden - 2014<p>In the quiet hours of Christmas Day morn I tour the garden and think back over the year that was, as is my habit.</p> <p>A kitchen garden exists to supply a family kitchen with fresh and dried fruit, berries, vegetables, culinary seeds, eggs and herbs, to supply firewood and fresh flowers, to store produce and to provide the ingredients for refreshing juices, salads and whips.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vUXEmpiglsg/VJv1kq_U_HI/AAAAAAAAFLI/_hxRHHqyupk/s1600-h/P1060464%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Christmas flowers - cannas, leek and parsnip blooms" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060464" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6Qxbwy-CCqU/VJv1lW3CkoI/AAAAAAAAFLQ/W-Q2IzZcv9c/P1060464_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>The gardener's job is to somehow provide fresh seasonal produce year-round at a lower expense but with higher nutritional content and convenience than shop-bought produce. That it is even possible to break even in this never-ending cycle demands literally decades of practice, continual improvement and an intimate feel for the local soil and climate. </p> <p>Given this long gestation period, both garden and gardener need to be somewhat forgiving of each others failings. So these annual retrospectives need to be tempered with a dash of ‘I’ll do better next year!’</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3SizS1QWZmc/VJv1mTHVENI/AAAAAAAAFLY/GeBbDZ47Kr4/s1600-h/P1060454%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Young avocados appearing at last in mid-summer" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060454" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8SZkVLFckC8/VJv1m4B6yyI/AAAAAAAAFLg/NJeQJoxyUFg/P1060454_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>With the Christmas turkey roasting in the oven and the cook supplied with fresh-picked lettuces, red onions, zucchinis and cucumbers for salads, I head outdoors with my camera and notebook. Here’s what I found…</p> <p>On the deficit side of the ledger has been the high cost of water - 460kl (about 122 000 US gallons) - and about one thousand dollars worth of mulch and irrigation fittings.</p> <p>On the plus side I've spent almost nothing on seeds or seedlings, thanks to my <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/a-seed-savers-rainy-summer-sunday.html">seed-saving activities</a>. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-XjUEfn2CYNs/VJv1n8CQ71I/AAAAAAAAFLo/p1Ka6t9Y52c/s1600-h/P1060354%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Drought-hardy flowers brighten the cook's journeys to the clothes-line." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060354" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-k2_N6N3Y85s/VJv1ohqKmXI/AAAAAAAAFLw/Ae7QGS3SwH4/P1060354_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>The <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/housing-chickens.html">new chicken shed</a> was finished and has functioned sturdily despite those sparrows that figured how to get inside despite my counter-measures. The chicken flock has two <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/renewing-chicken-flock.html">new (and younger) hens</a> who have settled into their foraging and scratching duties. Likewise the old chicken shed has been transformed into a  storage shed and finally sealed up properly, with the out-of-control <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/harvesting-giant-cane-arundo-donax.html">bamboo thicket</a> made to disappear at last.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-kIY6XiUoZ9Q/VJv1p0YnBQI/AAAAAAAAFL4/SNJzK9HS8Ig/s1600-h/P1060511%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Mulched paths store barley straw that traffic breaks down and softens before it gets placed gently around crops in the garden beds." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060511" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-6K6EKMaCm1w/VJv1qq_-KOI/AAAAAAAAFMA/PSwGgQiV1sY/P1060511_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>A huge old pine tree has also been removed – those needles were forever blocking gutters that needed to be kept clear to catch rainwater. The same with the chestnut tree, which has been trimmed back upon threat of divorce. <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/winter-mulch-and-caterpillar-wars.html">Deeper mulching</a> throughout the garden has been the key to water savings while making garden paths a softer and more pleasant place to walk.</p> <p>Some of the crops that have responded well to a better watering regime – guided by <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/an-african-connection.html">soil moisture monitoring</a> – have been asparagus, avocado, raspberries, coffee bushes, kiwis, plums, mulberries, table grapes, citrus, apples and peach trees.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-RWMoaYQUem8/VJv1rfpQErI/AAAAAAAAFMI/pe8G11C8FJA/s1600-h/P1060405%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Fuji' eating apples grafted onto an existing Granny Smith cooking apple tree" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060405" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-hAuv9VFuQ3c/VJv1sHp4J_I/AAAAAAAAFMQ/9NyYhkZsodQ/P1060405_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Even my early attempts at <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/mid-winter-grafting-one-trunk-many.html">grafting apples</a> and pears are finally bearing fruit – I just need to net these trees soon to prevent rainbow lorikeets from decimating the harvest.</p> <p>Over in the ‘lady-finger’ banana plantation I’ve removed all the big old palms in the belief that stronger ‘hands’ of bananas will grow on new palms, or so someone ‘in the know’ has suggested to me.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2SWIEA9xpKo/VJv1tNCk7vI/AAAAAAAAFMY/KatoO9OWvyI/s1600-h/P1060535%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Young banana palms get to see the light once last year's older palms are cut away." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060535" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UUSg-6VJV9M/VJv1txy97uI/AAAAAAAAFMg/Rp1RRXWK5J0/P1060535_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>In the garden beds can be found all the usual summer vegetables – tomatoes, egg-plants, silverbeet, capsicums, beetroot, pumpkins, zucchinis, climbing beans, white brown and red onions, garlic and manzana chillies.</p> <p><a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/growing-avocados-from-seed.html">Avocadoes grown from seed</a> are starting to take hold with the first fruit appearing on the oldest tree after a four year wait. <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/piles-of-peaches-and-coping-with-heat.html">Peach trees</a> are burdened with fruit and the almond tree has produced nuts for the first time after a long unproductive spell, thanks to deeper mulching and better watering.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-1XNEB-eipBw/VJv1wF1S2DI/AAAAAAAAFMo/Xb-10DuXgDg/s1600-h/P1060506%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Garden trimmings awaiting shredding, energy and courage on the gardener's part" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060506" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-_uwK1r8oV6Y/VJv1w5-POTI/AAAAAAAAFMw/7ArzK0wBOO0/P1060506_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Some things are still in a state of chaos – that giant pile of <a href="http://adelaidegardeners.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/spring-mulching.html">shredding</a> material still awaits that time when I can sacrifice a whole day to noise, dust and stink to recycle garden trimmings back to the earth.</p> <p>So, not a bad year, but much work lies ahead staking tomatoes and other solanums (egg-plants and capsicums), growing bush-beans, harvesting onions and garlic and planting out more carrots and lettuce. Some beds lie empty awaiting rain and winter crops, for I cannot afford to irrigate them nor have the time to plant them out.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-4MbCZC-Ssbw/VJv1x6qxdGI/AAAAAAAAFM4/TTaeDATbzsM/s1600-h/P1060500%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Avocado seedling growing strongly after having been grown from seed." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060500" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-g_ZPDMZhW-s/VJv1yRqkoVI/AAAAAAAAFNA/Bj_8YwqNIAI/P1060500_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>All around me folk of my generation are retiring and asking me when I too plan to stay home and do a ‘proper job’ of looking after this garden - I can only reply that that is still some years away.</p> <p>So in summary, the garden is OK, but not rating more than 7 out of 10 for productivity; I’m simply too tired and time-poor for a better result. That won’t change anytime soon.</p> <p>But on another front both cook and gardener have shifted up another generation, becoming (biological) grandparents for the first time. There too we’ve had plenty of prior practice, with a parcel of neighbourhood kids learning to bake, make and plant things in Oma’s kitchen and Opa’s garden and workshop.</p> <p>Welcome to the world, Zoe Beth.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-fTHUmSssxWI/VJv1zaS1WHI/AAAAAAAAFNI/_Wl9IyPU9C0/s1600-h/P1060430%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Zoe Beth at three weeks of age and on her first trip to Oma's and Opa's house. Garden tours and baking days come later..." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060430" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Ohtse8bnuOA/VJv10AHrT2I/AAAAAAAAFNQ/e8XoB_ycHeI/P1060430_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="456" height="345" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-82347323551762132712014-12-21T22:06:00.001+10:302014-12-21T22:21:36.530+10:30Summer (vegetable) flowers<p>It’s the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere – the longest day of the year – and its time to remind myself that there’s more to the garden than the seemingly endless list of chores which always peaks at around this time on the Adelaide Plains.</p> <p>The Christmas morning garden tour will capture the state of my crops – just now it’s time to capture the quiet beauty of some of the vegetable flowers that are blooming in their understated fashion. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XwZny2hZp8A/VJawdvodt9I/AAAAAAAAFJA/wHE6pXayvWM/s1600-h/P1060309%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="Leek flower - each tiny floret will produce a seed." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060309" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-e6YUn-3oVzY/VJawehtEUMI/AAAAAAAAFJI/5CT4mtYo0Ds/P1060309_thumb%25255B9%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="468" height="542" /></a></p> <p>Some of these flowers are to be found on plants that have gone beyond their useful productive phase as far as the cook is concerned and remain in the garden only to provide the gardener with next year's seeds. These include leek, onions, celery, lettuce, carrot, parsnips and many of the herbs.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UNKla1BtYRU/VJawgHyjVXI/AAAAAAAAFJQ/vArYH21mfZc/s1600-h/P1060317%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Parsnip flowers contain many umbrella-like structures called 'umbrils'" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060317" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Cm_MaqXtMW4/VJawg9kRBVI/AAAAAAAAFJY/jwjyhLZKTW4/P1060317_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="471" height="356" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-PnJXHT-Ev6E/VJawh0cChAI/AAAAAAAAFJg/bhlBsbuP7FM/s1600-h/P1060332%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="The flowers of 'Lazy Wife' climbing beans" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060332" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-I1Y5Ntn4hCw/VJawia2iwFI/AAAAAAAAFJo/BoV4pm1v9r0/P1060332_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Various other plants must flower before they set their crops – potatoes, beans, tomatoes, chillies, zucchinis, eggplants, capsicums and pumpkins – to name just a few.</p> <p>Many vegetable and herb flowers are small – only the camera can capture their complexity and intrinsic beauty.</p> <p>Others – such as those of the cucurbits (pumpkins and zucchinis) – have large and showy blooms that are either male or female and so have different shapes and internal structures.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-912kZSv4Ogo/VJawjsvGEhI/AAAAAAAAFJw/Hv0x-yz0jcc/s1600-h/P1060333%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Purple congo' potato flowers" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060333" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-n1wt9kU1ILY/VJawkFRomjI/AAAAAAAAFJ4/5D76-IWHxSE/P1060333_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="473" height="358" /></a></p> <p>Some flowers  - such as celery - form large bushes.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-UaA3k9pccm8/VJawmE0m-JI/AAAAAAAAFKA/doEUjfXqWv0/s1600-h/P1060337%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Massed blooms on a celery plant stand a metre high" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060337" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8yRuhsbTC-o/VJawm1jXaSI/AAAAAAAAFKI/gnJMheAnY_E/P1060337_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="473" height="359" /></a></p> <p>Even comfrey – a herb – sets many flowers in late Spring that bees enjoy.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xp-vJB8yeCA/VJawntRn6UI/AAAAAAAAFKQ/c8UIlToNgHQ/s1600-h/P1060350%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Comfrey flowers" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060350" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Om6GUY7d8KA/VJawoYmhXRI/AAAAAAAAFKY/YnSvi3upWXw/P1060350_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="475" height="359" /></a></p> <p>Some of the tallest blooms belong to carrots – these can rise to 2m in height.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-i51iBWdjynE/VJawpQDRGWI/AAAAAAAAFKg/IsaVy331-h8/s1600-h/P1060356%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="Carrot flowers emit a delicate sweet scent that all sorts of small flying insects find irresistable. They can stand up to 2m tall." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060356" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-RED0o0V6UEg/VJawqHIL7mI/AAAAAAAAFKo/iPsGdg8Zx-w/P1060356_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="470" height="453" /></a></p> <p>Even the other herbs - thyme, rue, lemon grass, wormwood and nettles - are all blooming.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sntc6HFoAdY/VJawq1IpimI/AAAAAAAAFKw/0IEy_TAnK14/s1600-h/P1060361%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Ruta graveolens' — commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace — is a species of Ruta grown as a herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is now grown throughout the world as an ornamental plant in gardens, especially because of its bluish leaves, and also sometimes for its tolerance of hot and dry soil conditions. It also is cultivated as a medicinal herb, as a condiment, and to a lesser extent as an insect repellent. Source: Wikipedia" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060361" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-zCMWXIb36JI/VJawrgW_mBI/AAAAAAAAFK4/ScXy64lRTmI/P1060361_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="458" height="613" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-63151983861204563212014-12-06T00:16:00.001+10:302014-12-06T07:41:08.518+10:30An African Connection<p>Spring has slipped into summer in southern Australia and I’m reeling under the pressures from the garden, birthdays, family events, impending births and business pressures that find me alone at my desk long after the staff have gone home and the long summer evenings have started to wane.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-dS1oEiMITNA/VIG26D3P9aI/AAAAAAAAFGw/gbV7luMtxSM/s1600-h/P1060177%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Sweet peas blooming in the heat, thanks to thick barley straw mulch and an efficient irrigation system." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060177" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3xUSIQDOV9Y/VIG27FyTJGI/AAAAAAAAFG4/vtbMahAzKJk/P1060177_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>There is barely enough energy left after my typical working day to walk home and to move the irrigation to where its most needed to combat the heat that’s coming. Australia has just experienced the hottest spring on record since records began in 1910, close on the heels of the hottest autumn on record, only six months ago and also in 2014.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mgc3LaO040E/VIG28LKpdeI/AAAAAAAAFHA/mXZNF_89vys/s1600-h/P1060265%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘Ladybugs’ – functional prototypes of the far more sophisticated soil moisture displays - ‘GDots’ - that finally went to market. These remnant museum pieces are still at work in this garden where they originated, though they are to be found no-where else." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060265" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-IZZ5_JQxxgM/VIG284EuyeI/AAAAAAAAFHI/VI2gu5MwiE0/P1060265_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>So I’m almost defeated – but not quite - by the effort needed to bring food plants through this ever-harsher and more variable climate. Each year I discover some small tweak to beat the heat and the spiralling cost of water as I practice growing my own fruit and vegetables for the coming decades.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-pb6KZ3DDwFY/VIG2-MoKLCI/AAAAAAAAFHQ/FF75_CkjU7g/s1600-h/P1060269%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘GDots’ – so called because they use Gypsum block sensors and yellow ‘Dots’ to display soil moisture tension – in their final commercial form. These simple devices have made ‘drive-by soil moisture monitoring’ a reality on thousands of Australian farms" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060269" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-iJfVsLeI6Uc/VIG2-8rSo3I/AAAAAAAAFHY/CGDtM7iwSMA/P1060269_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="218" height="244" /></a>But I've an unexpected ally in this garden – a technological edge that guides my watering decisions and helps me learn about how things work below the soil surface. This garden is alive with gadgetry!</p> <p>In a deeply fundamental way, I’m glad to have all these soil moisture sensors and displays finding their way into this particular garden; they were invented here. Now they have spread beyond this small plot to some of the biggest farms in Australia. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-qXnpmC3hrks/VIG3AfgDfMI/AAAAAAAAFHg/P6P3efw1_bo/s1600-h/P1060122%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Another commercial soil moisture logger – the GBug – was first invented and tested in this garden. Though many thousands were made and are still working quietly out there in commercial agriculture, they have now been obsoleted after more than ten years in service. Parts and software have simply become outdated by the passage of time. They have been replaced by Plexus radio-linked sensor-to-web systems that were also tested in this garden. This one can be seen being unloaded on a commercial vineyard in the Margaret River area of Western Australia." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060122" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-joI1hvC3pwQ/VIG3BLAFa8I/AAAAAAAAFHo/MsEILM78yQo/P1060122_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Sensors measure rainfall, soil moisture, air and soil temperature, relative humidity and other climate, soil and plant variables, keeping records of what’s happening in the garden while I’m away chained to my desk.</p> <p>Where this garden now stands we once tested <a href="http://mea.com.au/soil-plants-climate/weather/free-weather-data">weather stations</a> built in what is now my shed, off to the side of the garden, but the centre of so many of today’s gardening activities such as seed saving. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-jBnmt72J3sg/VIG3Cx_lZSI/AAAAAAAAFHw/Mtw-2QsYu_U/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="Twenty years before vegetables grew in this garden, weather stations underwent extensive testing here. Today their progeny cover many thousands of square kilometres and feed climate and evaporation data to many thousands of Australian farmers." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tid-eVspH_8/VIG3D5rDkoI/AAAAAAAAFH4/Y7wu0aaFB-w/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="162" /></a>It’s in this shed, on warm summer evenings, that I repair all the ‘factory seconds’, prototypes and obsolete soil moisture devices and displays that would otherwise have been tossed out at work. </p> <p>This is the garden that has inspired so many of my ideas for farmers; what works for me here should work for them out there. Indeed, <a href="http://mea.com.au/soil-plants-climate/soil-moisture-monitoring/plexus/plexus-photo-gallery">many thousands of these devices</a> have now been shipped all over Australia.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-R-kT88n7eeU/VIIeC9p1GNI/AAAAAAAAFIo/0g5F_IrQVRk/s1600-h/P1040657%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="A prototype ‘Chameleon’ soil moisture display at work in the garden in March 2013. This device is a four-depth display to show moisture levels as colours: blue for ‘moist’, green for ‘growing’ and red for ‘drying’. It is solar-powered so that no batteries need be found for it in remote African communities." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1040657" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Cg5c261L2_k/VIIeDl1H7GI/AAAAAAAAFIw/dw9yiiFmJuk/P1040657_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="97" height="244" /></a>And there on the fence, just beside my shed, is a Chameleon. No, not the distinctive and highly specialized lizard of Madagascar, but a simple soil moisture display that is keeping track of my onion crop and named for its coloured lights. Developed in conjunction with Australia’s leading research institute - the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research_Organisation">CSIRO</a> - Chameleons were designed to help African subsistence farmers learn to irrigate their crops profitably. That story appears <a href="http://mea.com.au/blogs/chameleons">here</a> on the company blog.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-L6Fsz1OwIoI/VIG3FOCFgJI/AAAAAAAAFIA/0hCwFKSkpU4/s1600-h/Chameleon%252520in%252520Africa%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="‘Chameleon’ soil moisture sensors in use in Africa, tens of thousands of kilometres from where the display was designed in this small South Australian garden." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="Chameleon in Africa" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vTpi1D1ZRcw/VIG3GEHkjiI/AAAAAAAAFII/OV2j_JWsF4o/Chameleon%252520in%252520Africa_thumb%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="165" /></a>On various benches in the shed can be found all the accoutrements of a design engineer’s life. Yes, much of this equipment is also old and obsolete but is still serviceable as I continue my search for tomorrow’s new yet simple irrigation scheduling tools. </p> <p>Those future gadgets – like the many that have come before them – will be tested first in this small inconsequential garden down at the bottom of the world. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xwaExJbrJ5A/VIG3HHnqC6I/AAAAAAAAFIQ/JTHgqAZ7OrY/s1600-h/P1060282%25255B8%25255D.jpg"><img title="‘Factory-second’ GDots awaiting repairs that will see them make their way from my shed to my garden, just a few metres away. Instead of being dumped to landfill, they will return to their roots to help me irrigate my vegetable crops." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060282" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-xMsg8WMgdVY/VIG3H3sWpeI/AAAAAAAAFIY/EkeId3cCPxQ/P1060282_thumb%25255B12%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="464" height="217" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-51045638168944565012014-11-23T18:18:00.001+10:302014-11-24T02:20:32.753+10:30From rain to raspberries<p>It’s been three months since we’ve had any useful rainfall so thunderstorms in November are my last chance to re-invigorate the garden with that magic that only real rain can work on growing plants. With lightning crackling all over the sky, interspersed with sudden intense showers, yesterday was a day spent in the shed doing odd jobs.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-NKEiwjEfW_0/VHGRIGM_UrI/AAAAAAAAFF4/1DE7UqUi78U/s1600-h/P1060226%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Raspberries thrive after thunderstorms in warm weather" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060226" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-apnULq-OB6w/VHGRJ_DBn4I/AAAAAAAAFGA/DhOynjBs364/P1060226_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="443" height="335" /></a></p> <p>Immediately (it seemed) the raspberries chose that moment to ripen their heavy burden of fruit; these will be added to fruit salads, morning muesli and the freezer for fruit ice-cream throughout the year. Raspberry harvest will continue for the next month.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-udU0xDHlkOQ/VHGRKx5WVFI/AAAAAAAAFGI/QhyrnrUnb5A/s1600-h/P1060217%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Cook and daughter-in-law take a well-earned break during the weeks it take to bake some hundreds of 'Stollen' - German Christmas cakes." style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060217" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-g-wYlugStQU/VHGRL-UmcvI/AAAAAAAAFGQ/esAQeY6-u04/P1060217_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Up in the kitchen the rest of the family is baking more than three hundred ‘Stollen’ (German Christmas cakes) using the family’s secret recipe, passed down for generations on the cook’s mother’s side. This money-making enterprise is destined to grace the family stall at the <a href="http://christkindlmarkt.com.au/">Christkindlmarkt</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hahndorf,_South_Australia">Hahndorf</a> a week or so before Christmas, right around that critical moment when three generations celebrate birthdays: 60 (soon-to-be Oma), 30 (soon-to-be father), 0 (soon-to-be grand-daughter). Just the usual chaos…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-5DPOuNSYims/VHGRNzPd_aI/AAAAAAAAFGY/Dsp6hHCdeH8/s1600-h/P1060188%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Wet grapevine leaves in warm weather can lead to fungal disease outbreaks; canes near the ground will be trimmed off to isolate leaves struck by primary infection from below" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060188" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-iYpFpsD7Kg0/VHGROkOW0VI/AAAAAAAAFGg/xkIxkUlSAeo/P1060188_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>For the gardener, now working single-handedly to sort out all the usual Spring chaos, danger flares with this rainfall; grapevine fungal diseases such as powdery and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downy_mildew">downy mildew</a> love these conditions of high humidity, 10 mm of rainfall within 24 hours, and wet leaves. As this is an organic garden, I avoid chemical sprays. The best I can do at short notice is to trim off low-hanging canes that are most likely to be infected by rain-spattering of zoospores from the mulch up onto low leaves. Now I wait.</p> <p>Ah well, I’d hate the table-grape crop to fail, but it will be a bumper year for peaches and those fabulous raspberries…thunderstorms are a one-way blessing for them.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-64672223119477695642014-11-10T07:33:00.001+10:302014-11-10T07:44:51.011+10:30Pumpkin planting and garlic hanging<p>Planting out the tomatoes seemed a simple objective for a weekend in the garden. After all, I needed only to drop a small punnet of a dozen pumpkin (squash) seedlings into the existing garlic bed first and I’d be ready to get into it.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vfBf1RudDAM/VF_WYZC2NmI/AAAAAAAAFEw/MfU8Kn63-S8/s1600-h/P1060151%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Butternut pumpkin (squash) seedlings waiting patiently for a spot to prepared for them in the garden. The planting part is easy." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060151" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-WrySmdV7TEI/VF_WZCsoH6I/AAAAAAAAFE4/ZKeadNz1PZY/P1060151_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>Fifteen hours later, with the pumpkins and garlic sorted, it had become abundantly clear that the tomatoes would have to spend another week in their pots and I’m left to rue my complete inability to guestimate just how long any particular job in this garden will take. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-i4PGVro5W4A/VF_Wajvo4hI/AAAAAAAAFFA/5NOy4BeCRrQ/s1600-h/P1060144%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Once the winter garlic crop had been dug, the mulch cover is peeled back and two trenches hoed either side of the planting row. A dusting of ‘blood and bone’ fertilizer is placed in the channels and these are filled from the hose until water soaks under the central mound. The trenches are filled back in, more fertilizer is sprinkled on then the drip lines are laid out and pegged above the channels. " style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060144" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-otszba8P6V8/VF_WbVedVMI/AAAAAAAAFFI/9R8AOf2e9xw/P1060144_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>Gardening – like painting the house – is 95% preparation and 5% actual doing. </p> <p>In order to get the pumpkins in I needed to get the garlic dug out and hung in the shed, the watering system tested, the soil profile re-wetted, some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_fertilizer">‘blood and bone’ fertilizer</a> in to feed the colossal pumpkin plants that will produce a crop, the drip tubes back on, the pumpkins planted (15 minutes) and the mulch back in place. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2D6_AMAHjkI/VF_WdwjQWCI/AAAAAAAAFFQ/aIw43myBioo/s1600-h/P1060165%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Finally, the pumpkins are planted in the mid-row and the mulch is returned (not shown) to keep the moisture in and the heat out." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060165" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-u_d_FrsiWdI/VF_Weo9WD0I/AAAAAAAAFFY/nDHgi9frWXg/P1060165_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>Along the way the cook offered to pull about 100 onions that were going to seed early (the chooks had buried the working end of the drip line and they’d dried out), leaving me to hang those in the shed too.</p> <p>As for the tomatoes, all I managed was to wet-up that bed, water the pots and get mulch onto the soil to minimize evaporation. </p> <p>Maybe next week?</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-iRa4gjBuacY/VF_Wf9YcVSI/AAAAAAAAFFg/jhHpBWovkyM/s1600-h/P1060185%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="Onions (on the left) and garlic (on the right) hanging in the woodshed until needed up at the kitchen. These are ‘early crops’; the real harvest is still in other garden beds and will grow to full size." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060185" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-cqLpomXnQqQ/VF_Wggt7FTI/AAAAAAAAFFo/rGeXIT0Unrk/P1060185_thumb%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="475" height="270" /></a></p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423745046701628723.post-59322890439005131132014-11-02T07:18:00.001+10:302014-11-02T07:34:55.708+10:30How to save pea seed<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-duQ9CZw7AJE/VFVHDFKwl5I/AAAAAAAAFDY/WN9LHVfdQGw/s1600-h/P1060100%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Pea seeds drying on the plant" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060100" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-2lx1VMXkVvg/VFVHDyB0MOI/AAAAAAAAFDg/um8K5EH4sKc/P1060100_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>In southern Australia peas are a winter crop. So one of the jobs to be done in late Spring is to gather-in the dried pea plants, pluck off the full seedpods and to set aside pea seed for planting next autumn. </p> <p>This is  a simple and pleasant task consuming a few hours of the gardener’s time and well-worth the effort in the never-ending business of off-setting the high-costs of water and mulch by saving one’s own seed stocks year after year.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-9ydG0e4Yq5M/VFVHFY5E37I/AAAAAAAAFDo/mt7Jukf8xYU/s1600-h/P1060103%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Dried seed pods are placed in a seed tray that acts as a sieve to separate the dust and debris" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060103" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-kmtlp19caME/VFVHF0S0LZI/AAAAAAAAFDw/yQxsYB-bnPI/P1060103_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>I’d run low on pea seed and so had purchased several commercial packets of pea seeds last autumn, planting these in a secluded corner out of sight of the cook and growing them only to produce bulk seed. This is part of  a plan to take advantage of that special skill that all the members of the <strong><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume">legume</a></em></strong> family exhibit; the ability to fix nitrogen in the soil from the air through a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria. Bulk-planting of peas over the winter growing season will thus provide both mulch and nitrogen fertilizer for summer crops.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-GqBKS4qQHas/VFVHG-8lP5I/AAAAAAAAFD4/tKZEY9m8pGo/s1600-h/P1060108%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Dried pea pods 'pop' open easily, releasing their seed with just some small encouragement" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060108" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-fLq5VjdZ2xU/VFVHHdsLSuI/AAAAAAAAFEA/meazOXHtHO0/P1060108_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a></p> <p>To harvest pea seed, wait until the whole plant has dried out to a pale brown colour after a spell of hot weather. The dried pea pods are ‘spring-loaded’; they will ‘pop’ open along the sides if left too long, ejecting the seeds onto the ground after this mini-explosion. So timing the collection of the plants needs some care. I just pull up the pea plants by the roots and put them in the wheelbarrow. Inevitably, handling the plants causes seed spillage; all those extra and over-enthusiastic pea seeds can be collected from the bottom of the barrow later.</p> <p>I first strip the seed pods from the old plants - the latter will go onto the working beds as additional mulch – placing the dried pods into a seed tray that acts as a sieve to separate the fine dust and twigs from the seed. I like to do this job in the shed, on the bench, after dark, and with <a href="http://www.tubaskinny.tk/">Tuba Skinny</a> playing on the stereo. </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-7PwFse65bmE/VFVHI3e4s6I/AAAAAAAAFEI/weReQagfmug/s1600-h/P1060109%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Pea seed of several varieties. These will be used for bulk planting as a winter cover crop to fix nitrogen in the soil and provide extra mulch - pea straw." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="P1060109" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-lfCRl7WWuKE/VFVHJtICBPI/AAAAAAAAFEQ/hP_SUmJ0JGE/P1060109_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="476" height="361" /></a>For a time I simply open each seedcase by pressing on the seams to pop them open then brushing the dried pea seeds out with my thumb. After a while, hunger or the need for speed find me looking for faster methods; rubbing a fistful of the pods together also releases the seeds and allows some small increase in speed. The seed is dry enough to place them directly in the seed tins, but I cover them for a week with another seed tray (against marauding mice) to make sure that all the moisture is gone. It would be a sad end to all this effort to open up the collection next year to be presented with mould and fungus.</p> <p>So is the job now done?</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-u6e0cT94elc/VFVHKjaZbEI/AAAAAAAAFEY/_jg756aa66c/s1600-h/P1060062%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="'Sweet peas' are a flowering pea grown to provide gifts from gardener to cook." style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1060062" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-617pXGSncJo/VFVHLTHVdOI/AAAAAAAAFEg/HVHzKzAERP0/P1060062_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="227" height="244" /></a>Not quite. </p> <p>These seed peas have been hidden behind a magnificent display of ‘sweet peas’ that are still blooming profusely and giving off a delicate and pleasant scent (I’m told); I take a bunch up to the kitchen for the cook, busy in her own world roasting parsnips, carrots, garlic and onion for some recipe which will provide our Sunday family dinner the next day. Those flowering pea seeds will also need to be harvested, but nearer to Christmas.</p> Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02477110710368593727noreply@blogger.com0