MONTH : MARCH 2012
March in Melbourne, Australia can best be described as the "transition month", the month we say goodbye to summer vegetables and welcome those vegetables that will feed us through the autumn and winter months (if Melbourne could ever deem to have a winter). March started with two days of continuous rain; nothing like they had up north, but two good days of steady rainfall. Now Melbourne is experiencing consecutive days of 30 degrees, and average temperatures in the mid 20's. Almost like a return to late spring. Which means some tomatoes are hanging on, radishes are still growing, lettuce is maturing in abundance and even beetroot is still maturing. So whilst March is the beginning of autumn here, summer is still hanging on by its fingernails.
However some vegetables have come and gone. Our corn crop has finished (19 plants produced 57 cobs), all our cucumbers have died off and many of our tomato plants called it end of season. Although my wife decided to cut many of them back very hard and some of them have decided to grow back for a second season. As such some of our raised beds are currently in fallow and have had additional compost added and some vegetable matter, turned over and will be ready for planting in a week or two. Some say giving the soil a "breather" for a little while does help to revitalise it. One raised bed is going gangbusters (see top photo), with the small french round carrots, another crop of lettuce and beetroot coming along strong.
In the meantime decisions about what we wish to plant for autumn/winter need to be made. This year we will be planting peas and beans, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, pumpkin, more carrots, leeks and plenty of onions are on the menu. March is also the month to plant garlic and I have four heads to separate and plant. This year I will try Italian Red, Early White American and Italian Purple. The greenhouse has been home to a number of seeds for the last two weeks and the results are already encouraging. Whilst this photo was taken on the day of propagation, the growth since then has been excellent.
Celery and I have yet to reach an understanding. It doesn't like the greenhouse, it struggles when it is planted out and then thinned, it is a very slow grower, hates the hot weather, looks as if it is about to commit suicide, and then pops up looking healthy and strong for no apparent reason. My answer is to plant it out, ignore it, verbally abuse it, tease it with a drip of water occasionally and watch it grow in spite of me. Reverse psychology. I cannot argue with the outcome;
Peas and beans are very agreeable and propagating both in the greenhouse has been a very simple matter. These might be two of the vegetables that we overlap in cropping over the next three months. By utilising the greenhouse to propagate them this will give me time to prepare the soil and the stakes necessary to encourage vertical growth.
March has also been the month that I have discovered a new way to grow any plant that climbs. I call them "Chicken towers", and I have constructed three of them to accommodate all our peas. Having chickens and building their run has left me with around 50 metres of 1.2 metre chicken wire in excess and now it has been put to good use. I have simply hammered in four stakes in a diamong pattern, surrounded the outside with chicken wire, clipped them together to make a complete circle and wired them to the stakes to secure them. The peas have simply been planted around the outside where they will grip onto the wire as they begin to climb. In their current setup I have been able to plant around 15 peas per tower.
APRIL/MAY 2012
Peas, peas, peas and lot's of peas. Around 50 plants in total and the pea towers have worked a treat. One small problem; each pea tower is 1.2 metres tall and it is very difficult to reach inside and remove any weeds that develop. At present they are not competing with the crop but as they get larger and lean outwards I have got them! Looking forward to a roast dinner with our own peas.
The middle raised bed is now the home of italian red onions and leeks. Considering the maurauding ability of three hens this bed has also been protected with light plastic fencing. I find this material much more sustaining than wire and there are no sharp edges. As the onions and leeks begin to develop I will simply remove the fence, roll it up, or use it somewhere else. It never ceases to amaze me how such tiny weak-looking seedlings will develop into such tall, strong looking leeks.
Lettuce is the other plant that needs to be protected. I know my wife visualises lettuce plants growing in front of every tree in the horseshoe garden, but unless they are protected from the feathered variety, in the early days, you will have nothing left later on. Great eggs though, great eggs. The other thing we are learning about lettuce is if you plant plenty and use it sparingly what's left eventually goes bitter and then to seed. Stagger out your plantings and use as many varieties as you like. The COS type lettuce is always the longer lasting variety; just pick a few leaves and the plant will regenerate them.
My latest product line directly off the shelf; genuine liquid organic chicken poo soup, with added water, sifted through hay and straw, and made in the garden wheelbarrow (Ana is not amused). Seasol, eat your heart out! I am starting to feel a little like Hugh from River Cottage; waste not, want not, and bottle everything you can. And if Ana eventually does something with the worm farm she recently acquired, we will be the organic fertiliser producers of the decade! If I just keep handing out eggs to the neighbours noone will complain about the odours that develop every Saturday morning.
I didn't plant out copious numbers of cabbage, cauliflower, broccolini and brussel sprouts this year. Last year they took over the garden completely, and for all their size didn't produce a large quantity of vegetable. Since noone else but me eats brussel sprouts (and I love them fried in truffle butter with bacon, garlic and seasoning), I have only planted a few. Cabbage seedlings look so puny but the rain is helping them to develop, slowly.
This one is for Jason of Zucchini Island(http://zucchiniisland.blogspot.com/)
fame. We have woken up that if you put a protective screen around any raised bed you don't want the girls to mauraude all over, they won't. But that means anything else is fair game. Which means every time we clear any raised bed, we leave it in fallow, the girls will find it in minutes, and voila!
Stand bye in JUNE for a berry, berry, berry brand new growing area, to be known as the Berry Patch, just down from the back veranda and currently undeveloped. This will be my feature next month, including soil development, working the bed, berries to be planted, etc, etc. See you soon.
JULY/AUGUST 2012
I must apologise for the tardy way in which I have written, or in this case not written, as June, July and August are my very busy months in the business and there is little time to write. But things have happened in the backyard and as Spring is about to happen it is time to prepare for the summer months and the opportunity to grow all our vegetables (and fruit) for the next ten months. So the greenhouse is alive with seedlings, including 10 varieties of tomato, 3 varieties of cucumber, 6 varieties of lettuce, 2 varieties of radish, 2 varieties of zucchini, plus assorted carrots, capsicums, pumpkin, cauliflower, kale, silverbeet, onions, and of course, plenty of herbs.
And I didn't forget the potatoes;
Cheers
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012
These three months are classified as Spring in the southern hemisphere, and hopefully with a goodly sum of warm sunshine followed by reasonable rain, we will be in a position to prepare our vegetables for the coming seasons. This is the end of our third year here and this will be the first year we will be able to utilise the entire backyard development to produce what we require. Our major emphasis will be on salad vegetables, including lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and radish, which traditionally make up our summer meals. We will supplement these with carrots, beans, cabbage, our own garlic, eggplant, leek and zucchinis.
whilst the others are developing strongly. They all love an early dose of chicken pootea glady given by "the girls".
The next area was a completely new area close to the back veranda. It had been worked on for weeks by "the girls" and only required the minimum of digging and the standard mesh fence to become the pumpkin patch. This is our first attempt at growing pumpkin and we are already discovering that they need plenty of room and we have planted three varieties; Australian Butter, Wee B Little and Queensland Blue. I think we will very quickly run out of room, but produce lots of good pumpkins. There are flowers on most of them right now.
The third area developed was the strawberry patch. Also a new area on the other side of the veranda steps to the pumpkin patch. We have twelve plants growing, including the varieties alinta and kunawase with a strawberry guava as a centre piece. This plant will grow to four metres in height, which means strawberries will suit this area now, but wont later on. This area has been fenced and netted to stop all birds (including our own), but we will have a small issue with a mouse or two.
Now that our fruit trees have developed some height we are looking forward to apples, mandarins, oranges, lemons, limes and peaches. If anyone has ever wondered why there is a lavender bush between each fruit tree, if you wander around our backyard all you can hear is the hum of bees. And in reward for all the nectar they collect from the lavender they pollinate all our trees. We keep hoping this is the year for olives, but i still believe we are a year or two off producing any fruit. However we will certainly have fruit from most of the others as this red delicious tree will show you;
Late spring and early summer is also the time to harvest garlic and this year we have quite a crop. Now that all three raised beds have been completed, fertilised and composted we are very pleased with the success of most of what we plant. During winter we planted three different varieties and on Sunday Ana gently lifted each plant with a trowel to reveal this year's harvest. It has been cleaned and will hang up to dry out a little in my workshop.
Securing anti bird netting over the cabbages has also ensured that our crop has not been afflicted with the cabbage moth larvae that is prolific in this area. The cabbage seedling may be very small, but again we are realising that when fully grown a cabbage takes up a huge area. And whatever part of the cabbage is laying too close to the edge of the fencing will be dealt with by the girls. This one they missed on completely;
Herbs are also part of our spring planting and the kitchen here wouldn't be the same without them. I am still using the benches outside the greenhouse to grow them but have been forced to install mesh guarding to keep "the girls" from destroying them. this section has lemon balm (makes a great tea, Ana tells me), continental or flat leaf parsley and another tomato (I am running out of places to grow excess seedlings).
Plus a good helping of mint;
However, one must be continuously vigilant of marauding hens with similar tastes;
I wonder, can you get herb flavoured eggs?
Cheers
MONTHS ; DECEMBER 2012 & JANUARY 2013
This time of the year is the middle of summer "down under", but while we bask in the long hours of daylight and warmer temperatures, Melbourne is famous at this time for the occasional 40+ degree day, which will place any plant under stress. Which is why I was exceedingly grateful when a client (that we shall call Linda) gave me a lengthy role of shade cloth, she had no more need of, to use in our backyard. We have already started to put it to good use and some of it now covers our 12 x plant tomato patch. If you look closely you will also notice that we have draped an anti-bird net across the top of the shade cloth and clipped it to the mesh fencing. Birds are a menace at this time of the year and whilst I don't mind a few tomatoes being taken, I would prefer to be eating them myself.
Meanwhile "the girls" are thriving, although little Lucia did sprain one leg and was restricted to the greenhouse for 3 days to allow her leg to mend. Fortunately on the days she was restricted, the temperature was relatively mild and she suffered no ill effects. A greenhouse temperature is on average four (4) degrees warmer than the outside air, so if it is 20 degrees outside it is likely to be 24 degrees at least inside the greenhouse. We made sure she had her own food and water, but forgot the fact that injured or not she would continue to lay. And did. And found her own favourite place; the polystyrene box containing our oregano. Lucia will tell you that the leaves of the oregano are much softer than hay.
Having since recovered she has now taken to standing guard over the strawberry patch, which is not that necessary since it is fenced and netted to keep out the birds. I take it she believes her guarding may be worthy of the occasional reward; like a strawberry or two. Fat chance!
One of the important aspects of growing at this time of the year to plant seeds for a continuous cropping over a lengthy period of time. As one batch matures, the next one should already be at the seedling stage, but no where ready to pick. It is a practiced art that we are still learning and it means you need to keep a record of how long it takes any vegetable to reach maturity. For example, these mignonette lettuces take about 60 days to reach maturity from seed. If you plant a few each fortnight you should have a continuous crop for months.
Australia is still notoriously a dry continent and particularly at this time of the year. Already we have not had any rain for two weeks and nightly watering has become a ritual. That may not seem a bad thing until you get your quarterly water bill and then reality hits home. Tap water here is expensive! As a result my next project is under way; building a water tank stand in the enclave beside the carport. We have already selected our tank even though we are yet to buy it; a 3,000 litre slimline, 820 centimetres wide by 2,400 centimetres long. And then built the stand to suit the measurements taken, with a little to spare. As 3,000 litres of tank filled with water will weigh in excess of 3,000 kilograms (or 6,600 pounds for those in the USA) the stand needs to be heavy duty and very secure. In our case I have used 75mm wide pineboards secured with inner and outer brackets and heavy stakes. This will be filled with a road base or stone mixture and then covered in powdered concrete, and watered down until rock hard. The water tank will then be placed on the top. Why do we need a stand? Because the idiots that develop these tanks place the outlet as low on the tank as they possibly can, which means that you cannot place a watering can under the spout if the tank sits on the ground. Brilliant! We will collect our water by plumbing into a nearby downpipe which directs water runoff from the spouting around our roof. Once the tank is in place and plumbed in I will publish a photo of the completed work.
As a conclusion to this update, let me introduce you all to a plant for which we were given seedlings from one of the members of our Veggie Swap Group; Amaranth. Whilst it looks attractive with its masses of red flower, in fact it is a pseudo-cereal. That means it is not a cereal in the true sense but produces seeds which can be ground up like a normal cereal and contain many of the benefits a true cereal possesses. We have never grown this plant before but we have it spread in some parts of our backyard and it is very hardy, doesn't need a lot of attention or water, seems to grow in shade as much as the sun and grows very quickly. This one has already surpassed the height of its neighbour; a very sooky lemon tree.
Cheers
MONTH : FEBRUARY 2013
February in the southern hemisphere is one of the most productive months of the year. I assume that June is the equivalent month in the northern hemisphere. Someone will correct me if I am wrong. Currently everything in our backyard is in "ripening mode", including cucumbers, spring onions, lettuce, radish, pumpkins, corn, apples and strawberries. The only disappointment so far is the slowness of this year's tomatoes. The weather here has been very unkind, so much tomato flower has been burnt by 40 degree heat (even with a shade cloth), and there has been little rain since November last year. At least we are not alone in our disappointment; everyone else we know is having exactly the same problem. However, over the last few days a few signs of new flower and development of fruit have begun to appear, such as this hungarian heart. It seems we will have a crop but it will be very late.
But whilst we are struggling with our tomatoes, the pumpkins are growing from strength to strength. We initially put up a mesh fence to keep "the girls" out of the growing area, but the pumpkin has a mind of its own and has simply grown anywhere it can, including up the mesh fence itself. All five plants are in full production of both flower and fruit, particularly the golden nugget and we look forward to harvesting them in March.
The cucumbers and spring onions are ready to be picked. Currently we are harvesting an average of 3 lebanese, 2 mini white and 1 apple cucumber each week and we pick spring onions as we need them. The taste of home-grown apple cucumbers is sensational and our salads are something very different from many others'. Cucumbers do have to be staked or they simply spread out and stifle the growth of anything nearby. Spring onions may be left in the soil even if the are ready to pick.
I always feel very sorry for people who are forced to buy the woody and tasteless rubbish supermarkets call strawberries, when picking our own. The taste of home-grown strawberries is almost indescribable. The problem is that our patch has a full mesh fence and an anti bird net over it, which makes it a little difficult to harvest. So we have called on our shorter neighbours to crawl into the patch on our behalf. Unfortunately the number of strawberries picked never seems to equal the number of strawberries that come out of that patch by a wide margin. And when I ask why the answer is usually befuddled by a bulging mouth.
February is also the month for apple picking, and I have had a difficult time stopping Ana picking them before they were ready. Whilst we lost our entire crop of golden delicious apples to the local bird population, because we didn't protect them with a net, the red delicious tree was netted, protected and ready to be harvested, slowly, one apple at a time if you please!
We are growing two varieties of zucchini this year, a normal heirloom that has taken on the appearance of a giant and this much smaller hybrid (I know, why am I growing hybrids). I suppose I selected it because zucchinis are usually long and cigar shaped. I had never seen a round zucchini before and was intrigued. I wonder how big this fella actually gets?
At the end of January I had to put one of our three hens to sleep (not a pleasant task). Lucia had been sick since Christmas, grown listless and lacking in energy, spent most time hiding away and had certainly not laid for over a month. She may have been poisoned but we were not very sure, and when I picked her up she was just skin and feathers. The end just may have been some relief for her. We have replaced Lucia with two new pre-laying pullets, whom I shall formally introduce; Gloria and Rachel, here being "protected" by adoptive mother Esther. Unfortunately when they first arrived they were set upon by Gladys who decided not to share her backyard with two new beaks. After two days of bullying I found her guilty of extreme misconduct and sentenced her to a week in the greenhouse (fortunately the weather was mild). It gave Esther the opportunity to bond with the new girls and Gladys has lost her status for the moment. The henhouse is currently very subdued and they are at peace with each other. Note that even when I took this photo Esther placed herself between me and the new girls. Talk about a "helicopter mother!"
There was one additional side effect of the new arrivals; Gloria and Rachel actually sleep of a night in one of the laying boxes and as a result the two older girls have decided to find a new home in which to lay their eggs. It took me a while to locate it, between the southern fenceline and the greenhouse and directly beneath a flowering bush. It just means that I have to build a cover over to protect it from the weather. My only concern is that since the laying enclave is so small and snug, once the two new hens are ready to lay, we are going to have a lengthy morning queue. Gladys is already complaining if Esther decides to prolong the daily event with a lengthy thought process.
Finally my latest project, the water tank, is about to reach its conclusion with the completion of the tank stand itself. For those technically minded the timber shell has been heavily staked, bracketed both inside and on the top, and is filled with crushed rock (about three quarters of a cubic metre), and topped with quick drying concrete. I had to hover around for an hour after wetting down the concrete because the girls like playing "I'm the king of the castle" on top and they had to be shooed away. Nothing worse than having a chook permanently affixed in concrete.
And today, Tuesday 19th February, 2013, the final construction act in our backyard was completed with the installation of our water tank and constant pressure pump. For those technically minded the water tank is a 2,000 litre slimline and the pump is a 3,600 litre per hour constant pressure pump. It has been setup in such a way that the user only needs to affix a standard garden hose to the brass tap on the wall and turn on the tap. The tank has been plumbed so that water is diverted from a storm water down pipe to an inlet valve at the top of the tank. Once the tank is full any excess is funnelled back into the storm water pipe and taken away. All we need now is some rain to fill it, and hopefully we no longer need to use good tap water. Using storm water costs nothing.
Hopefully next month I can boast about our tomatoes, and maybe even introduce our eggplant and autumn seedlings.
Cheers
MONTHS : MARCH/APRIL 2013
Since March and April are the most productive months in our garden, much of what is happening now involves harvesting and preparing for autumn/winter vegetables. This is our opportunity to show people what we have produced and what successes or failures we incurred. In March we commenced harvesting our tomatoes, pumpkin, corn, cucumbers, red delicious apples, and continued to harvest zucchinis, lettuce, carrots, spring onions, and radish. In general we were pleased with our crop of most items, although the tomatoes were very late and some of the different varieties did not produce much fruit. This has determined what we will be planting later on this year.
We were particularly pleased with our pumpkin, although we will not be planting the very small variety known as Wee B Little again as there is very little flesh to go with a very small pumpkin. I would highly recommend the pumpkin at the very front, known as Australian Butter; it is quite large and the flesh is very sweet. Roasted it is better than anything we have tasted before.
After having little success with carrots last year, this year has been a bonanza, and we have learnt one or two lessons. Carrots and too much nitrogen do not mix, so we have kept "the girls" away from any raised bed where we intend to grow them. Their manure can effect their growth. This is the result of no chook manure, and both the French Round and All Year Carrot have done particulaly well. The punnet of tomatoes includes cherry, fournaise, tigerella, and wapsipinicon peach. These four varieties were the biggest producers and we will continue to grow them this year.
We did not do particularly well with the bigger tomatoes. Both the mortgage lifter and brandywine pink were a dismal failure. However the hungarian heart produced some very good fruit which I have now bottled and is currently in our freezer. I have now learnt that it is not necessary to skin tomatoes for bottling. Just remove the core, chop roughly and throw the whole lot into a blender until everything is mixed together, pour into clean jars and seal immediately. Freeze until needed. Since these were bottled over Easter, I could not resist the chocolate easter bunny on top.
Both ginger and garlic were planted early in April and both have taken very well to their positions. These are new raised beds hidden down the side of our home and probably get around five hours of sunlight per day. Apparently both enjoy filtered or sun/shade positions, protected from strong winds or other adverse weather conditions and the southern side of our home provides both. The garlic has just appeared above the mulch and was too small to photograph for this month's update.
"The girls" continue to thrive and as soon as my wife and I enter the backyard they rush to greet you, or more likely see if you have something they can eat. They each have very definite characters, they lay wherever they wish, which means searching for eggs each morning becomes a hunt, and they are more pet than productive creature. We have renamed the two younger ones to Rachel and Moaning Myrtle, courtesy of the unusual sound she makes. They are wanting for nothing and eat us out of house and home, which is why occasionally we end up with the odd double yoker in our frypan, as follows;
The biggest activity for the month was our contribution to our local Home Harvest Festival, where local growers, big and small, provide a little of what we produce to create meals, put together by local chefs, where we can enjoy our harvest to the full. Everything is home-grown, at the height of its season, fresh and at the peak of its flavour. This is the first year we have been able to take part and we were rather proud to make a contribution to a worthwhile event. Our contribution included eggs, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, spring onions and eggplant, as pictured below;
April is also the transitional month; the end of summer and the preparation for autumn and winter crops, which means that our greenhouse is abuzz with cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprout, chinese cabbage, broccoli and leek seedlings. As one crop is cleared, the dead plants removed, the soil replenished with good compost, these seedlings are almost ready to plant. As we are big users of leeks (in casseroles and soups), these seedlings are almost ready to plant;
The first tree we ever planted in our backyard, as it was being constructed, was an olive tree given to us by a very good client. This tree is now three years old, and will be the first year it has produced any fruit, which is currently reaching the ripening stage. If you are reading this Cathy and Adrian, take note of the olives ripening away. We will not get a huge crop this year but it is a start and a promise of better crops in future years.
Next month's update will involve the growing of our autumn/winter vegetables and some of the problems we incur "down under". One of them is the white cabbage butterfly that lays its eggs in any brassica plant it can find, because the resulting larvae feed loving on your crop. To keep them at bay we are forced to cover them in the following away;
More about this and other matters next month.
Cheers
MONTHS : JUNE/JULY 2013
In south-eastern Australia the months of June, July and August are our winter months. Whilst we do not achieve the low temperatures found in the northern hemisphere, the nights will get down to around 5 degrees centigrade and the days between 12 to 15 degrees centigrade. We do have some severe frosts although they are irregular and not persistent. But they occur often enough to damage anything not protected by netting or a greenhouse. Winter is brassica season - cabbages of various types, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale, broccoli and pak choy. It is also a good time to grow leeks, onions, carrots and peas. The cabbage in the opening photograph is the chinese variety, also known as wongbok, currently growing under netting beside the garden shed.
.
Broccoli, or as in the above photo, broccolini, seems to thrive irrespective of the weather conditions and is already beginning to sprout. The only enemy about is the white cabbage butterfly that likes to lay its eggs in the centre of any brassica plant. The resultant larvae will feast on the leaves and eventually destroy the plant. Finding any larvae requires constant vigil and the "girls" are never far away when I am picking them off. A regular spray with pyrethrum is also necessary.
Winter is time for mandarins and our imperial variety is full of the sweetest fruit you could ever eat. This is its third year and is by far our most successful citrus tree. It takes very little looking after, a little extra compost and a chicken pootea feed in Spring, and a little watering at least once a week. During the winter months almost no watering at all. Don't buy any, grow one. It needs plenty of natural sunlight, a sheltered position and this is the reward.
Kale grows anywhere and in any condition. During the winter months, with the sun lower in the sky, certain growing areas receive considerably more shade than in the summer months. This photograph was taken around lunchtime and the sun is still an hour away from reaching them. And yet the kale is thriving. This brassica is wonderful in soups, casseroles and stir fries. The "girls" thrive on the outer leaves which we regularly pick and add to their regular supply of greens.
This is the updated garlic patch, now into its fourth month of growth. In our part of the world the garlic growing period is April to November. Garlic usually goes into a semi-dormancy period now where very little happens, and then begins a massive growth spurt as Spring approaches and the soil begins to warm up. The exposed leaves can be cut and used in any cooking dish requiring garlic. All that is needed at this time of year is a little water. Fertilisers of any description are useless at this time as there is almost no growth at all. Wait until late August or early September to apply.
But there is continuous growth in the greenhouse and these young leek seedlings are thriving. We also have leeks growing outside the greenhouse and they are only half the size of these fellas. The average temperature in our greenhouse is approximately 4 degrees warmer than the outside, and the added warmth lasts considerably longer. The back door has now been secured which ensures any additional warmth is trapped. We are also growing the Romanesco variety of broccoli, red cabbage and onions. One still has to be vigilent about white cabbage moths. They seem to know how to get into the greenhouse and lay their eggs no matter how secure the front door is.
This is a propagating box of all year carrots which we successfully sow whenever we require them. Some say it is better to sow them directly into the soil and thin them out once the seedlings are big enough. Usually the removed seedlings are discarded. For some reason unbeknown to me, my wife has the knack of being able to transfer them from such a propagating box into various parts of the garden with an almost 100% success rate, as long as the soil into which they are planted does not contain too much nitrogen. I know what the experts say, but hey, who am I to judge, and we always end up with plenty of carrots. These seedlings have a little way to go yet but the will be transplanted soon enough.
I have been asked a number of times what do we do on weekends when the weather is inclement, driving rain, freezing cold or there is nothing to do outside except wander around looking for caterpillars on leaves. Three weeks ago I decided to begin looking at sustainability ideas indoors and went back to school to learn about how to make our own cheese. I began with cheddar, which is rather complicated and time consuming and am now beginning to work my way back through the easier varieties. Unfortunately cheddar takes a minimum of 2 months to mature so our initial taste tests were performed on ricotta. So, the photos are as follows;
Ana cutting the curds;
Chief stirrer of the curds;
The cheddaring process;
And the final product;
More about this and other matters next month.
Cheers
MONTHS : SEPTEMBER 2013
September marks the beginning of Spring in the southern regions of Australia, and this year has heralded the return to a traditional Spring; warmer days, cool to cold nights, plenty of rain and annoying winds, just when you need to spray fruit trees. September can be a deceptive month. The comfort and pleasure of warmer days does not overcome the fact that the nights are still cold and frosts will occur from time to time. There is an old saying "down under' which could be used anywhere in the world; plant what grows under the soil in the first month of spring and what grows above the soil in the second month. Cold nights and frosts will destroy fragile seedlings, which is why ours commence in the greenhouse, to be planted out in October. However our potatoes, carrots, leeks, and onions are thriving in the cooler weather.
The windy weather over August gave us a fair amount of grief when trying to spray our peach tree with copper sulphate (it can also be sprayed on grapes for the very same reason). As our area suffers from the fungal disease known as curly leaf, it is important to spray before any leaf growth has developed. Unfortunately the winds were so strong during the entire month of August we were unable to spray, and, as such we will develop curly leaf if we are very unlucky. The fungus is born by wind and/or rain, so we have no way of protecting the tree. Your prayers would be appreciated.
One plant can be shifted in the month of September, irrespective of the weather, and that is strawberries. It is highly recommended that you move your strawberries every year to stop any build up of disease found in the soil. Plus the fact that we enrich the soil of every raised bed prior to planting, so there are plenty of nutrients available whatever is planted. This year the alpine strawberry (on the extreme left, both rows), was cut in half (with a spade), to create two plants, and already they both have new growth. Tough plants, strawberries, particularly when I wield a mean spade. Just make sure there is plenty of root development on both sides of the cut before you commence wielding. All of the suckers that developed last year have now become separate plants, some we have planted in the front row, right hand side and others we have given neighbours.
This year I am calling it the "Year of the Grape", since we didn't get any last year, and apparently in the first year you don't. This year I am looking forward to a bunch or two. Late in winter it is a good time to tidy up the vines, cut back a little and tie off vines to the trellace. You don't have to remove much at the end of the first year, but since we are espaliating (the art of growing flat against a vertical surface), any vine growing away from the trellace was removed. I am also tying the vine to the trellace using thin cotton cloth strips instead of string or wire, which notoriously digs into the vines as they expand and finally kills them. We also have a possum problem (I am sure they wrestle on the roof), so eventually the vines will have to be protected by netting.
Little trees become big trees and little shrubs become big ones, and this photo tells the story of what happens when you plant them too close together and they suddenly grow much bigger. Fortunately my wife cuts the lavender back very hard in winter but they seem to grow back very quickly. And whilst the scent of valencia orange blossum and lavender flower is quite extraordinary, these two plants are beginning to muscle up to each other. We will see out this season as they are but the lavender may have to be moved. Which is very sad, because the bees have returned and are diligently pollinating all of our fruit trees. Nice to hear a gentle hum in the backyard all day, and lavender is one of the best ways to attract them.
Our brassicas continue to grow during the winter and spring, and netting is used to protect the plants from the white cabbage moth. The only problem netting creates is that it is difficult to get into the raised bed to do any serious weeding without first having to remove it. Admittedly our soil is now so rich that the two can live quite comfortably alongside each other, and "the girls" pick off the weeds closest to the vertical fencing as part of their green diet. This raised bed is growing three types of cabbage; savoy and red cabbage at the front and traditional January King at the back. Brassicas are a leaf-growing plant and thrive in any soil containing nitrogen. If you grow them yourself consider a little liquified chicken pootea (diluted with water) at the end of winter/beginning of spring, to give them a lift and encourage growth.
This is the one thing that hybrids have yet to conquer, and that is the joy of variation in plant type. This is the broccoli called Romanesco which has a much sweeter flavour than the usual boring ones you find in supermarkets, and is superb when steamed (add a little sea salt to boiling water). I am no lover of broccoli, but this one I enjoy and recommend. The stem is actually the sweetest part, which I clean, trim, slice finely and add to Chinese stir fry dishes. If you are considering different broccoli types try Purple Sprouting, De Cicco and Green Sprouting as alternatives.
Yesterday was our traditional monthly Vegie Swap meeting at the rotunda in Macleod, opposite the railway station. Robin (front left), together with her husband Paul, are the engine of our group and an inspiration to all of us that produce our own food. The whole idea of a Swap is to exchange produce, seedlings, seeds and ideas at no cost to anyone. It gives us a chance to exchange our excess for other people's excess, adding variation to our diet and new seedlings to plant and grow. This meeting gave me a chance to introduce our home grown cheese for the first time, and as there was none of it left at the conclusion of the meeting, it must have been enjoyed by all. If you are interested to find out whether your own area has a Vegie Swap, contact your municipal council. They will have contacts for your local branch. If you don't have one consider starting your own, but contact your local authorities for permission and a venue.
In fact this was part of my wife's spread to introduce our home made cheese to friends and neighbours the week before. The Port, Muscat and Whiskey Liqueur was deliberately left off the table for this photo (I refuse to promote my bad habits). Our cheddar is now three month's old which means that it is officially classified as mild and ready to eat. Ricotta can be eaten almost immediately and the brie takes between two and five weeks to mature. What we were so surprised about was the difference in flavour between two wheels of cheddar made just seven days apart. The difference in milk quality and fat content has a remarkable influence on the taste of every individual cheese. As the good book says "every cheese made will be different, even if the processing strategy is exactly the same." And if you have ever wondered what four wheels of home made brie looks like;
996 grams worth.
Cheers.
MONTHS : MARCH 2014
For those of you who read this blog regularly, I apologize for the length of time between updates. In November last year my wife and I left for an extended holiday in Florida and Colombia, not returning until mid-January. Unfortunately while we were away our lovely backyard was ravaged by extreme heat and almost no rain for over a month. In fact just before we returned, Melbourne had five (50 consecutive days with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees celcius. No garden can survive unscathed in these conditions. And so we have spent the last month and a half rescuing what we could and resurrecting that which we were unable to. The trees did survive, in particular the peach and apple trees, which have recently given us a bumber crop. Ana was also able to rescue some beetroot, and whilst the tomato bushes looked sad, a little water and TLC (tender loving care) has produced a reasonable amount of fruit.
This year we have concentrated on the varieties; tigerella, wapsipinicon peach, cherry, jaune flamme, red fig and russian brown. They have all repaired and now we are picking ripening fruit almost on a daily basis. Our apple trees are golden and red delicious and they have both reached their full productive potential. Both trees require netting at this time or the birds simply eat the lot. Last year the golden delicious fruit was destroyed by large black crows and we are making sure there is no repeat this year.
We have turned the northern side of our house into Berry Avenue. Berries, of any variety, require a sheltered site, and protection from intense sunlight. Our northern side gives our berries sufficient sunshine, protection from most winds and makes it easier to protect from birds once the vines start to fruit. We have planted a gooseberry, a raspberry, two blueberries (different types) and three different types of strawberries. As you will note, the blueberries are planted in a separate raised bed. Blueberries require a more acidic soil and have been mulched with pine bark, whereas the other berries have been mulched with sugar cane. The side fence will also provide a backdrop to the terracing that will need to be constructed over the winter months.
The current extended summer we have, even at this time of year, with temperatures still in the mid-twenties, means that we can still grow beans (as a summer crop) and peas (as a winter crop). The beans are doing exceptionally well and have been trellaced utilising some of the spare chicken wire I have. It is still the best investment for any form of trellacing, and with the metal tubes sunk into the earth, some parts of the vegetable garden are set up permanently. Then it is a simple case each season of rotating one's crops around those areas in need of a trellace. Beans in the summer, peas in the winter, for example. The gap in the centre of this bed is purely to enable someone to walk between the rows to pick ripe beans.
March is also the time of the year (in Melbourne anyway) to begin propagation for autumn and winter crops. Winter veggies include cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, leeks, garlic, onions, beet root, radish, peas and some lettuce. As usual the greenhouse (which died over the summer) is now producing all the seedlings we require (and some we will give away or swap), and includes both savoy and red cabbage, cauliflower mini and purple, both green and purple sprouting broccoli, celery leaves (just the leaves, not the stalks), long island brussel sprouts, king richard leek, and four varieties of garlic.
One can never underestimate the value of a greenhouse in the backyard. It doesn't need to be a monster. Ours is 4 metres long by 3 metres wide by 2.8 metres high, and serves as both a propagator and a raised bed. On average it is 4 to 5 degrees warmer inside, even on the coldest of days. A greenhouse is never affected by frosts, and if a flywire door is fitted at the front (like ours), there is little problem from insects. It does need to be watered on a daily basis (particularly in the summer), and grows just about everything, bar celery. Great for growing herbs in pots, and extending the productive life of some summer vegetables including tomatoes and cucumbers. I am still using polystyrene boxes to propagate and this photo shows the propagation of leeks, water and land cress, carrots and beetroot. The leeks are almost big enough to plant out.
Our pumpkins succumbed to the hot weather over summer, but we were able to protect and nurture four of them; two Australian nugget and two Kent varieties. They should all reach maturity during the month of April. Pumpkins are always laid out under cover but subject to good sunlight for a couple of weeks after harvesting. This method hardens the outer skin and ensures no loss of moisture inside.
And with neighbours in our tiny court also growing vegetables in their backyards, we have ended up with a glut of various tomatoes, which have now been turned into a puree, which has been shared around. My tomato puree recipe includes capsicum, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley and a little salt, is put through a vitamizer until it becomes a thick, and pored into glass jars that have previously been sterilised. It has an intense flavour and is great in both French and Italian cooking, particularly if diluted with chicken stock.
Cheers!
JUNE, JULY & AUGUST 2014
Winter in Melbourne, Australia. Not as cold as I remember when I was a boy, and certainly not as cold as in the northern hemisphere. Nights can get down to 2 or 3 degrees celsius and days can range between 10 and 15 degrees celsius. We do get regular frosts and certainly plenty of rain, which means the water tank is constantly filled. I highly recommend one if you have room in your backyard; they have halved our water bill. Winter is the time for planting brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts), leeks, onions, radishes (they can grow all year if you have a greenhouse), some lettuce, and herbs. Winter is also the time to start chitting potatoes, which the photo above shows. We buy seed potatoes from Diggers.com.au and place them on egg cartons, put into a large shallow tray, and covered with some form of mesh to keep the birds away. Our mesh is the door on the "girls" chicken coup, which has become very useful for things such as this. They will need at least a month of chitting to develop the shoots or sprouts necessary before planting. This is performed under the back veranda, protected from most weather, but with plenty of light to encourage growth.
Winter is also the time for pruning fruit trees, grapes and cutting back olive trees to encourage bushy growth. Whilst the above photo is not particularly attractive, it shows just how heavy grape vines need to be pruned, and the importance of a good trellis. As this is the 3rd year of growth, the vines need to be pruned back to the main canes, so that any new growth will produce our first fruit. Grape growing is a labour of love; you have to wait three years to see the fruits of your own labour. Whilst it looks appalling, some fruits such as raspberries and blackberries are pruned right back to the soil, leaving little more than a short stump. They will grow back and all that new growth is where the fruit will eventually grow.
Winter is also a great time for home made soups and casseroles, and this home is famous for them, particularly the French varieties with lots of tiny onions, potatoes, leeks, and plenty of garlic and herbs. Savoy cabbage is a basic ingredient in our soups and currently we are growing nine of them. They are a particularly tough plant that survives all weather and can be left in the ground much longer. But be aware they are susceptible to slugs and snails, so you may be forced to resort to chemical means to deal with them. The white cabbage moth is also an annoying pest, for the female lays its eggs deep in the middle of immature plants and the larvae feeds on the leaves. The use of nets can overcome this,such as the mini white cauliflower shown here;
As yet I have not delved into the world of perennial vegetables, such as asparagus, artichokes and rhubarb (not everyone's cup of tea, including me), but I am beginning to discover perennial herbs. Perennial plants, of any kind, are those that do not need to be planted out every year, such as tomatoes and cucumbers. Whilst they can be left in the ground, they will only produce a crop in season. The problem for any backyard gardener is that they take up a large amount of room and that area can only be used for the perennial you are growing. Makes it difficult if you are rotating crops every year as we do (don't plant the same thing in the same place every year). However, perennial herbs are another matter, if you can find them. We use basil constantly, in potatoes, Italian dishes, casseroles and when steaming vegetables. At last I have discovered perennial basil, but beware! Whilst it grows continuously, it is also an aggressive plant, and needs to be cut back from time to time. If you use it regularly that should not be an issue;
It is obvious that some form of climate change is upon us, as much as some of us would like to deny it. Gardeners will have noted that the soil is not as cold, there is more sunlight in winter than what we can remember, and the nights are nowhere as bitter as we have been used to. Which is why, for some strange reason, we grew peas in the autumn (when they are a spring/summer crop), and were still picking them in July. Lettuce that normally I would have moved to the greenhouse, is maturing quite well in the garden and has been assisted by the warmth generated by the zinc alumium wall of the shed. The broccoli in the foreground couldn't care less about global warming and is growing quite happily with very unusual neighbours. The mulch being used is chopped sugar cane, which breaks up quite well and produces the most wonderful compost after a year;
Winter is also citrus harvesting time and our mandarin and orange trees have both come on a treat. The mandarin tree, in particular, has cropped very heavily, and the weight of fruit has forced us to remove some of them to ensure the branches do not break. This is the first year we have received an orange crop, however somebody decided to pick a few too early, and the initial fruit were somewhat tart. The later picked oranges were far better and full of the sweetest juice. So the moral is; don't be in a hurry to pick them, and give them time to develop their natural sugars. Which is why what you buy in supermarkets is so tart, and the ones you pick off a tree are so sweet.
The greenhouse comes into its own over winter, and protects those plants that are susceptible to any frost. It is a great place to grow most herbs and we are still propagating, particularly radishes, lettuce, cress, leeks, onions and most brassicas. The purpose of a greenhouse is also to extend the growing season, and until I found perennial basil, was still growing the other in the greenhouse half way through winter. A greenhouse is also a great way to protect small seedlings from birds. Winter dramatically reduces most natural feed for the local fauna and the bird population. Your seedlings will become an obvious target. We propagate until the seedlings are big enough to look after themselves and then plant them out, usually under nets. But the more sensitive ones we leave permanently in the greenhouse, where they thrive, like this mizuna that we use (sparingly) in salads;
However, some weekends are typically winter, with cold blustery winds and driving rain. No place for any gardener to work in. On those weekends we turn to our other past time; the making of cheese. Having just completed a course in the making of camembert, it is now time for me to try my own. 8 litres of Jonesy's non-homogenised milk, a little starter, a little calcium chloride, some rennet, and voila! Four fine looking camembert wheels to mature in our humidifier. Never realised how important temperature and humidity is to the famous camembert cheese. Must be between 10 and 12 degrees celsius and humidity of 95% constant. 10 days later, and covered with its famous white mould, they are ready to wrap and store for 4 weeks;
And once a month we meet with our fellow backyard gardeners, here in Macleod, at our local Vegie Swap, where we exchange excess produce, seedlings, seeds, Maya's famous relishes and preserves and a whole lot of advice. This is a particularly important group to us, for it reminds us that we are not alone in our love of good food, not so expert that a little advice wouldn't help, and not so isolated in that we are surrounded by others who share our passion for what we grow;
And just a little sample of what we have contributed to the Swap;
See you in Spring.
Cheers!
SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2014
Springtime down under, and propagation has begun once again in the greenhouse. This is the fourth year we have propagated and we have just about got it down pat. Our soil preparation has improved immensely, we have started a little earlier and all of the seedling trays have been setup on the northern side of the greenhouse to gain as much sunlight as possible. We make no distinction between small and large seeds; everything commences in the greenhouse and is planted out when the soil begins to warm up in the garden area. And, the larger the seedling, the bigger the pot they are propagated in.
We continue to use the larger polystyrene boxes, given to us by our local greengrocer, simply because we can use a better type of propagating soil mix and leave the seedlings in the box for a longer period of time. Propagating in the smaller trays you buy from larger hardware stores means that the goodness in the soil you use will deteriorate very quickly unless you continuously add fertiliser, until the seedlings are big enough to transplant. Using these boxes means that no additional fertiliser is required. Our soil mix in these boxes are; 25% good quality potting mix, 25% good quality compost, 25% good loam soil, and 25% granulated sand (not builders sand). I usually add a little blood and bone at the beginning, but nothing else.
For those who have not managed to read the achives filed on another page, we have deliberately planted lavender bushes between each of our fruit trees, and about this time of the year each of them is full of flower and bees. We are now accompanied by the gentle hum of bees collecting the pollen and returning to the hive. Bees are very important in the annual cycle of our backyard, since we have apple, citrus, peach and pear trees. As a result of the bees' activities we now have a peach tree full of developing peaches and a pear tree showing pear growth for the first time in four years.
There has been a certain amount of luck created in fertilising our pear tree. Ours is the packham pear variety, and even though we are part of a vegie/fruit swap group, no one had the variety that cross-pollinated with ours. Cathy and Adrian, long standing clients who live locally, have a massive pear tree in their back yard, but don't know the name of it. So we took a chance. Cathy gave me two small branches with plenty of flower on both, and I simply draped them across our own tree and let the bees do their work. No dabbing paint brush required. And, voila, we have pears! This tree will require some netting in the near future to protect the fruit from birds.
"Berry Avenue" is coming along fine and spring has seen intense growth of all plants; strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and gooseberries. In particular the raspberry bush that has doubled in size even since this photograph has been taken and raspberries are beginning to develop Raspberries do require a certain amount of shade and dislike temperatures exceeding 30 degrees centregrade. We have planted ours on the southern side of the house where some shade is provided, netting is already been used and a shade cloth will be applied when the hotter weather arrives.
The beginning of spring also heralds the last of the winter brassicas, and this year we were inundated with purple flowering broccoli. We had some success with the romanesque broccoli, but again I have to admit to not succeeding with brussel sprouts. I get the impression that many friends and associates were also hoping I was not going to succeed, since any glut would have meant performing a local distribution of any extra sprouts to people who can't stand them. I mean, come on, how can you reject a sprout! Anyway "the girls" enjoyed the leaves and anything over went straight into the compost bin.
Our next major harvest will be our garlic crop, four different varieties, and grown in two different areas of the garden. This is just one small patch and still two or three weeks off harvesting. Garlic is ready to pick when most of the leaves have died off. There is still sufficient green in these leaves to let them grow for a little while longer. However that doesn't stop me from picking one, removing the outer skin, cutting it up fine and adding it to Saturday afternoon's bolognese sauce. Superb!
Lemon trees and I do not get on, have never got on, and probably never will get on. I absolutely detest people who have massive lemon trees in their backyard, and who never do anything to look after them. Our last lemon tree (number 4), just refused to do anything, grew a few leaves, just to tease me, then lost them, and then did nothing. It was taken out of the ground, new soil added, lifted, shifted, added more compost, chook peed on, citrus fertilisered, watered regularly. You name it, we have done it. However I refused to pee on it myself. However, I refuse to give up, and so I have planted number 5. This one is a dual grafted Lisbon/Eureka that cost Aust$60.00. On the day I purchased it the wind here was unbelievable. The wrapping tape you see is not the remnants of its presentation, but my means of protecting it while "her ladyship" upstairs tries to blow it over.
One crop we have always been successful with is the growing of potatoes. But not only for the potatoes themselves, but the fact that they are the best soil breakers you can get. As a result we plant potatoes in a different raised bed each year, add extra compost during the "hilling up" process, and after we have harvested the crop the soil is in superb condition. What ever we plant in this bed for an autumn/spring crop in 2015 will be the beneficiary. This year we have planted King Edward, Dutch Cream and Bintjes, and will probably start harvesting a few just before Christmas to enjoy with the traditional yuletide roast. So if you want to improve your soil, plant potatoes.
This photo was included more for the fact that we are serious netters when it comes to planting out in early spring. Once we have moved seedlings from the greenhouse, where they are protected, to the great outdoors, where they are subject to mother nature, they need all the assistance you can give them. Birds make short work of delicate seedlings and what the birds don't get, snails and slugs will. I will own up and say I do use snail and slug pellets and occasionally I put beer in a saucer, and place it on gthe ground in the greenhouse. We also get mice from time to time (they feed on "the girls'" pellets), and they can also be a nuisance. And particularly with fruit trees and tomatoes, the nets will be retained until harvesting. This bed includes freckles lettuce and five different tomato plants; jaunne flamme, hungarian heart, kumato, wapsipinicon peach and tigerella.
And this photo clearly shows the use of mulch, in this case sugar cane, which is applied immediately seedlings are planted out. Melbourne is notorious for some very hot days, and we are already expecting temperatures of 30 degrees centregrade and plus this week. Mulch will help to hold in moisture which will protect young seedlings and ensure growth. This raised bed will grow zucchinis and four different types of cucumber, including the untried richmond green variety. Again netting is clearly in use, but unlike the previous photo, will be removed as the plants develop. Apparently birds are not big fans of zucchini or cucumbers.
After 3 years of trialing and tasting a number of different tomato varieties,we have settled on the ones we consider to be superior, to plant this year; hungarian heart, tigerella, kumato, wapsipinicon peach, green grape and jaune flamme. We intend to plant out a specific cooking/bottling tomato, called san marzano, which is worshiped in Italy, as I intend to bottle our own puree and tomato paste around February next year. We have previously done this with small quantities, and the results were amazing. Hopefully this year we can produce a significant amount to satisfy our needs for all of 2015. Plus a few extra for friends and colleagues.
We have come to the conclusion that spraying peach trees with white oil does not always work. Ana sprayed this tree twice over a two week period, and prior to the development of any leaves. Then mother nature decided to blow up some very windy days and the curly leaf syndrome occurred irrespective of the work Ana had done. However peaches have well and truly developed and this tree is about to be netted, and I assume that in their time, the curly leaves will fall off and be replaced by non-curly leaves. Certainly their has been no adverse development of fruit, so we are not as concerned about curly leaf any more.
We do have one piece of sad news. Unfortunately Moaning Myrtle, Gladys and Rachel were taken by foxes last Wednesday, because I had left their enclosure gate open for 3 successive nights. At the beginning of spring I open unused raised beds for the girls to forage in early in the morning, and this helps to improve the soil and add plenty of nitrogen. It seems a fox became aware of the practice and took the opportunity to dine "a la carte". RIP girls, your eggs will be sadly missed. In the meantime I have purchased 3 replacement welsummers, but they are only 8 weeks old and extremely timid, and very quiet. I miss Myrtle standing on top of the coop each morning, moaning to be let out.
Cheers!
DECEMBER 2014 & JANUARY 2015
Summer "down under" has not exactly started with the usual bang this year. High winds over two successive weekends destroyed every flower our two apple trees possessed, and since then we haven't had the usual allocation of consistent warm weather. And it still feels like spring even now, with temperatures failing to pass 22 degrees centigrade. As a result much of what we are currently growing is still happening, but certainly not ripening. Tomatoes are aplenty but still very green. Cucumbers failed to produce, capsicum will happen (eventually), likewise eggplant and beans. Pumpkin is looking good and our new crop of melons (three different varieties) look promising. In the meantime our old wheelbarrow just sat around and made a nuisance of itself. So i filled it with compost and soil, through in some herbs (not doing too well in the greenhouse), added some mulch and we now have an instant herb garden. Never throw anything out; it is amazing what ideas you come up with eventually.
For some reason the pumpkins have enjoyed this cooler weather and the growth has been extraordinary, to such an extent that one or two plants started climbing up the back verandah walls. Since these plants have successfully produced pumpkins, we have let them go and just trained them over the top and down the other side. This means that some pumpkins are growing on the verandah floor, which means they don't need anything underneath them to keep the insects off. The variety shown in the photo is Australian Butter and is one of the best roasting pumpkins you can get.
This year all our tomatoes have been put under netting, supposedly to protect them from the "hot summer days". I have been gradually pushing the netting back to expose them to whatever sunlight we are getting. Admittedly the netting thing is good practice! This year I have allowed this group to wander as they like. There are other areas with tomatoes that are staked. I am looking forward to comparing the output as they begin to show ripened fruit. This year we planted Hungarian Heart, Tigerella, Kumato, Jaune Flamme, Wapsipinicon Peach, Mortgage Lifter, Green Grape and a bottling variety known as San Marzano. Their fruit reminds one of a slightly smaller Roma tomato.
As with all our raised beeds, each are surrounded by a mesh fence, principally to keep out our hens when things are growing. The fences have another benefit, in that when a net needs to be applied all you do is drape it straight over the top and secure it all round using small tent pegs. We always net immediately after planting seedlings since the birds make short work of them. Then we can make up our minds later on if we need to remove them. It is also easier to apply shade cloth if (and the word is "if'" this year) there is likely to be a day of extreme heat. This bed contains cucumber (another attempt), carrots (paris round), and radish (red round).
We seem to good at producing leeks, onions and garlic, and this year's harvest of the latter was the biggest we have ever had. The "girls" manure certainly helps and we make sure most of what we grow receives a generous dose the of liquid variety. It is very simple to make; purchase an old fashioned 60 litre rubbish bin with a lid and a large, heavy duty, porous laundry bag, both of which can be found in your local hardware store. Drape the laundry bag over the side of the rubbish bin, the closed end inside. Fill with whatever you collect from inside the hen coop, including their poo, straw and hay, if you are changing it. Fill the bin with water, making sure that the open end of the laundry bag still drapes over the side of the bin. When filled put the lid on (your neighbours will remind you if you forget), and leave for a few days. I usually sieve the contents into a watering can and apply to seedlings and fully grown plants. Citrus trees love this.
A previous photo showed tomatoes allowed to run wild. This is another bed where the tomatoes are being staked to ensure that the lettuce in front of them is not over run. The variety of lettuce is called "freckles" and we just simply picked a few of the leaves each night. I find it handy to plant three or four different varieties of lettuce and only the cos type, and then simply walk around with a small shopping bag picking a few leaves from each type. Again we use netting prolifically.
Ahhhhh potatoes, potatoes, potatoes! We planted three different varieties this year and harvested them all just before Christmas - dutch cream, king edward and bintjes. We have had a bumper crop of all of them and will be eating our own for months. If you grow potatoes make sure you "hill up" as the plants grow. That means continuously adding soil or compost around each plant. Potatoes grow upwards, and the more soil you add the better chance you have of a bigger crop. Also potatoes help to break up and improve the soil. Once harvested, the soil in this bed was crumbly and in superb condition.
I had a request to show what these raised beds actually look like, in this case as we are planting. All our beds are similar; single layer timber, corner stakes and other half way along, close mesh fencing that is flexible enough to create a small gate that can be opened and closed easily. The internal stakes are for plants as they grow and all beds are mulched before we plant. We never leave these opened once planting has been completed but we do allow "the girls" to work on them between time. Just add a water bowl for them and let them do their stuff.
The greatest success story in our backyard is the peach tree. Probably not as many this year, but it continues to crop and the fruit is so sweet. It is imperative that peach trees be netted and the earlier the better. If you don't net this tree, the birds will make short work of the fruit as it begins to ripen. My wife has begun to preserve some of them; the rest are being eaten very quickly.
Oh, and by the way, these are "the girls", now about 17 - 18 weeks old and have just started to produce their first eggs. Unusually, they sleep on top of their coop (and no amount of coaxing will get them inside at night), and they only use the inside to lay. They are Welsummer crosses and are excellent egg layers.
And in between time I am still making cheese; in this case full cream fresh ricotta (that I have never tasted because it disappears so quickly when ready). I use 9 litres of Shultz pasteurised but non-homogenised milk and use lemon juice instead of vinegar to create the curd. Never use homogenised milk as the milk fat that you need has been broken up and produces very poor quality cheese.
Cheers!
APRIL, MAY & JUNE 2015
As well as keeping a substantial fruit and vegetable garden, keeping chooks (hens), a greenhouse, producing our own cheese and purees, we have just added a Piteba oil extractor to our sustainability credentials, bought directly from the Piteba company in The Netherlands. This little piece of hand cranked machinery will enable us to extract oil from various nuts, including peanuts, sesame and sunflower seeds, as well as our small harvest of olives. Initially I attempted to purchase it though Ebay, but had no end of problems getting past their need for continuous usernames and passwords. Eventually I gave up and went directly to the www.piteba.com website, where I was able to buy it at a considerably lower cost, including delivery. Ebay is not always the cheapest method of purchase. By the way, if you decide to purchase one yourself, make sure it is made out of steel, not stainless steel, as they are made from in China. The website has ideas as to secure the unit, how to clean it and how to produce your own ground coffee.
Winter in Melbourne is the green vegetable season, and what better vegetables to grow than the Chinese varieties, including pak choy, choy sum and Chinese cabbage. We have also planted out Japanese spinach, mizuna and Japanese turnips to round off our Asian selection, We regularly prepare Asian dishes at home, and there is nothing better than picking your own from the backyard just before cooking commences. They are all very easy to grow, handle most climatic conditions very well, but do appreciate a good soil mix, including lots of animal manure. We add cow and chicken to ours and plenty of natural compost.
As usual all our vegetables commence their lives in our greenhouse, even more now that the nights are colder and the days much cooler. We also seem to get much stronger and colder winds that come directly from antarctica, and it helps if the seedlings are big enough and strong enough to look after themselves as soon as they are planted out. Some of our spinach will stay in the greenhouse and the leaves will be picked as and when required. We have recently discovered a perennial variety of spinach which has been planted behind the orange tree, where it is protected from biting winds. So far it is developing very well, considering the climate here.
As winter descends here, most fruit trees lose their leaves, which gives us an opportunity to plant our brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts) around their base, no longer shaded by the leaves above. These vegetables will mature and produce just as the leaves begin to return at the commencement of spring. The added compost and animal manure will also benefit the soil well into the production of summer fruit. This packham pear tree now caters for some cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts and a new vegetable called a brukale (part brussel sprout and part kale).
Radish can be grown all year and there is always a patch of them out in the garden and another lot of seedlings waiting to be planted out in the greenhouse. Onions are grown best from sets, where young onions are pulled out and retained between seasons, ready to be planted out at the correct time. The leafy green is spinach beet or "perpetual spinach". It is not spinach at all, but a member of the beet family without the rootstock. It is grown similar to spinach, picked like spinach, but in this case it will regenerate more leaves as required. Should last an entire year if looked after.
Winter is also the season to lift and shift last year's strawberry plants. We do not grow strawberries in the same place each year, just in case there is any disease prevalent. It also gives me the opportunity to split larger plants into two new ones, and plant out runners as separate plants. As a result our twelve plants from last year are now sixteen plants for this year. The two portable raised beds come from Linda and Josh Dupont from Dupont Transport Pty Ltd, who thought they should go to a better home where they could be more useful.
And once again our imperial mandarin tree is full of ripening fruit, so much so that many of the branches are wilting under the weight. This tree is by far the most successful of all our fruit trees and has never failed to produce a large number of good sized mandarins. It is fertilised at the beginning of autumn and again at the beginning of spring, but needs no other special attention. We also assist in its fruit production by growing lavender each side which attracts the bees, who fertilise the flowers each year.
I have been asked a number of times to explain the seed propagation mixture I use in the greenhouse. In fact I use a recipe found at www.organicgardening.com and produced by April Johnson, landscape and greenhouse co ordinator at the Rodale Institute near Kutztown, Pennsylvania, as follows;
4 parts of screened compost (and it must be screened well)
1 part perlite
1 part vermiculite
2 parts coir
All products can be purchased at your local hardware or garden supplier. Coir is purchased in block form. It is placed in water and allowed to soften before breaking up. This mixture combines moisture retention, good drainage and the natural goodness provided by compost. Peat moss maybe used instead of coir, but I am happy with coir at this stage. I three quarters fill a pot with the mixture, place two or three seeds on the top and cover with seed raising mixture, tapping down lightly at the end. The strongest growing seed is retained and the others removed as they develop.
And when the days are so wet and windy that working outside is impossible, some cheesemaking. Possibly some camembert, or a good sized cheddar, or in this case a mozzerella, being made for the first time. This is the cheese that develops stretch as soon as it is immersed in hot water and kneeded like bread. It also meant that our neighbours could host a home-made pizza night using some of our cheese. The only way to produce a pizza!
This is mozzerella just before it is sliced and thrown into very hot water. Even it this stage it is quite elastic in texture. If anyone wants cheese recipes, I am more than happy to start a cheesemaking page on this blog. Just let me know.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment