Nov 2013

A very wet month is November, my area alone has had close to 90mm in 3 weeks. The ground is struggling to hold any more water an my backyard, as it has a slight angle on it, it does drain from the top down to my dry grass area on a retaining wall, which drains a little to well. We kind of recently installed a gutter on our pergola (why one was not already there I don't know) and fixed some drainage issues but not enough it seems to deal with the heavy delude we keep getting. This time of year the rain is FAT FAT drops.

In amongst all the rain I have managed tone quite productive. I have planted two different aubergine; Bonica & Mini Lebanese, the Bonica. Also planted was a Bush Crop cucumber as well as a mixed Sweet capsicum, green lettuce of a mystery variety and some sunflower seeds.

The tomatoes I planted are already flowering but I have picked most to get it to get strong stems.

My carrots are getting close to pulling and look great & so lush, I just with I could eat the greens from them. I have looked up what to do with them and composting seems to be the best solution.

Photo's below of corn, beans & sweet pea planted a while ago as well as my red cabbage, Thai chilli plant as well as seedlings planted this month.

I picked about 250 grams of chilli and topped the stems off, and blended with 150 grams coarse salt. Topped up with 250 grams rock salt and placed in glass jars to be used for cooking. Instant Chilli Salt
Enjoy

Oct 2013

October was a rather uneventful month in the garden for me. I planted two Tomato plants; Heirloom Orange and Black Russian. I tossed in some beetroot seeds for the second time in as many months and they too failed dismally. My marigolds are coming along nicely and should be flowering shortly. I pulled up my sugar snap peas as they were not doing so well and have prepared that area for spring/summer planting.

I have yet to decide what to plant I have just under 2SQ metres of space for veg for spring and summer, decisions. The mini white Cabbage that I planted are about 50% successful, It appears every second one is sacrificing it self for the one next to it. I have been diligently plucking of the green caterpillars and feeding them to the local birds. I planted six and will only be able to harvest two. One of which I have already eaten, made coleslaw. So now I have one left. I am unsure if I will grown cabbage again, at least white. It takes up a lot of room even the mini ones.

Here is a photo of one that gave it's life so another could live.

Sept 2013

September was a lovely month for some spring planting & more veggie bed preparation. A good lot of weeding and pruning was also had, with my new toy.

Along handled electric (corded) hedge trimmer; from you guessed it Bunning's the Ozito PHT410. It has a length of 2M, however the handle is solid and does not retract. Which is fine as it is quite sturdy. The head adjusts depending on what angle you need. I still had to use a small step ladder to get the top of my Star Jasmine to get it flat. For my first try at hedging with an electric implement I was pretty happy with the job overall.

I planted Sweet Corn and Butter Beans, I may have planted them a little to close, well actually in amongst each other. To use the corn as stabilisers for the beans.

I had Sweet Pea seeds so in they went as well, around the edge of the garden bed, nears the corn & beans. Too bring a little colour to the veggie bed. Can not wait for those to flower.

My little green friend the frog has returned this year which is nice to see, I was wondering where he got to. He has grown a bit and is living in my Swiss Chard. One must be careful when harvesting the Chard not to chop the frog.

My Snapdragon seeds I planted have not produced so much as a leaf. Might have to buy some already in a seedling tray.

August 2013 Update

It has been unseasonly warm here in Sydney and the early planting of cabbage has paid off. It is well on it's way. Carrots are in, Chantilly & Harelquin, with a scattering of radish. Baby beets are I also.

The strawberry plants I put in the hanging planters are looking good and have settled very nicely.i have a few more of the planters leftover, they have pre-cut holes for plants, just fill with soil and pop the plant in. I think more strawberries will have to be done this way. Perhaps throw some nasturtium in.

Having let the Pak choi go to flower and the local bees coming in each day, I have pulled them up and have the seed pods drying.

My mandarin is blooming & smeels devine, but with all the trouble it has had over the 18 months I've had it, I hope it fruits. Possums stripped it bark and all.


The front yard is filling with freesia's and jasmine, the scent of Spring well and truly in the air.

July 2013

Well to date July has been a good month for some preparation of my garden beds for spring planting. And a little side planting also.
A while ago I threw some horse manure directly onto one of the beds, oops. Forgot to read up on how to apply horse poo. I found out the hard way, best used in a compost bin to kill any seeds from the horse feed/manure, then use on your beds. Anyway I have a few little sprouts here & there but easy enough to control. I have been turning the bed every week to pull the lower dirt up and push the poo down. The worms get a little upset seeing daylight & all. Speaking of the worms they are fat fat fat. I am most amused by the fact that I never added worms to the garden beds, they just magically appeared. My guess is word got out that fresh new organic compost had appeared overnight and "life was good in that yard". Same with my compost bins. I'm still going to get a warm farm in the near future. Back to the horse manure.....

The rest I did place in my ready to use compost, I then left it another 2-3 weeks and it was good to go. I gave all my beds a good turning adding home made compost and my favourite mushroom compost and chook poo pellets.

Late June I planted out seedlings of silverbeet the coloured stem variety, this is also well known as chard. Red cabbage seedlings were also planted out. They are happy little seedlings, growing merrily.

I bought 2 strawberry plants last year, one a clumper (Nellie Kellie) and one that runs, I planted them all over the garden beds and throughout my yard in general. They have both grown quite well and were taking up a good quarter of one of the beds. It was time to split them up and repot. So a quick trip to my local Bunnings to get some pots to relocate the strawbs'. I did not go to the garden area, I went directly to the bucket isle and bought the 3 x 35 litre plastic tubs with handles, you know the one they come in many colours and are flexible..$3 each BARGIN. drilled some holes, add the compost and divide and conquer the strawberry plants . There were still so many plants left over I potted up 3 into terracotta pots I have strewn about the heard and reused old bought plant pots, so I also have 9 waiting to to in ground or off to a good home. They are even flowering just a week after being repotted. After replanting the little buggers I had to set up protection from the possums and critters that would pick me clean in a heartbeat if it was not all netted, caged & wired. So I took the opportunity to set up netting on my lemon tree and fig.

On a whim I planted some Sugar Snap Peas, I might be a bit early on that but let's wait & see. Tossed a few radish in also. But to e erythronium was happy planting in July. I finally pulled down my passion fruit plant. 2 years it had been growing, 2 years it was being eaten, yep those pesky possums. I even had this netted, but they got in. So no more passion fruit. At some point you must realise the local animals are just winning and let bygones be bygones.

June 2013

June was a particularly wet month in Sydney this year, but in amongst the wet days & nights there was a bit gardening accomplished.

I wanted to increase my fruit tree collection. I have a dwarf Kafir lime/lime tree, a Meyer lemon tree and a imperial mandarin tree. All of which the local nocturnal animals have had a go at ,be it eating the leaves or stripping the bark of the stem. I have not had to worry about birds eating my fruit as the possums stripped it all.

Back to what I just purchased, an apple tree, Pink Lady on dwarf stock and a yellow fig plant. Can't ait to watch them grow as they are nothing more than bare branches. I bought the apple as a bare root plant, put it in a 50 litre plastic tub with drainage holes drilled in the base. Staked on either side to stop any movement until a root ball forms. The yellow fig had the same treatment but in a smaller tub. Now I wait & watch.

Red cabbage and coloured chard as the label calls it, but we all know its really silverbeet, not spinach or chard, but silverbeet. That vegetable your mother would boil to death and serve with dinner that was almost grey by the time it was plonked on our plate. Thankfully I hold no ill will against my mum for overcooking veggies I ate as a kid. I will still plant & eat them.

The eggplant plants had a final harvest before getting the 'ol heave ho to make way for the winter/autumn crop. I got about 10kg of eggplant overall. I will grow again in summer I think.

Pak choi planted early in June are coming along nicely, though I do keep picking the smaller leaves for salads. White cabbage was planted at the same as the Pak choi, but Lordy knows that's month off

May 2013 - Getting ready for Winter

Well it has been a spectacular month for May in Sydney this year. Autumn has put on it’s finest. The sun shines every day; the sky is blue and the air crisp. The nights are chilly and the dew greets you every morning.

The weather reporters tried to predict rain in Sydney but as weather reporters are more often wrong than not. It was no surprise it did not rain.

I have been getting my garden beds ready for the upcoming winter. Late April saw the removal of the last of my Bush Beans. I aerated the soil, tossed in some cow manure and have basically let it sit for a few weeks. It still needs to have more compost added. My very bushy Thai basil got relocated as well to a better location for summer I do hope it survives winter. I also planted some of my flowering Pineapple Sage in what will now be known as the herb & flower bed. It gets minimal sun in winter but is good in summer as it gets the very early morning sun and mid morning but is shaded during the high heat of the day.

Another glorious Sydney day mid May & I relocated my strawberries. I seem to have plants & runners in every Garden Bed and stray pots. So after rounding up the little buggers I gave them all the same new home. However I given up some precious space in my Garden Bed to do this! I can see me relocating them again in a few months. At least I now have enough plants to actually get a decent crop on a daily basis next year.

I finally removed my Roma Tomato plant, it fruited but the result is green tomatoes. No matter how long I left them they did not ripen. Will have to find a new recipe for tomato chutney that uses green ones. Garden bed #1 still has Aubergines being prolific, there appears to 7 fruit and more on their way. I want to pull them out but while they are going so well and I have a great recipe for Tomato & Eggplant chutney I have decided to let them grow. At least for a few more weeks!

I have topped up my sad citrus’s with manure, shredded paper and compost. The lemon is flowering and the kaffir lime is showing new leaf growth. However it is the pup growing from the base that bothers me. The pup is growing off the grafted base plant. SNIP SNIP and that was gone. I don’t need a full size lime tree trying to take over my yard. I even went so far as to remove the wire I had wrapped around each plant to protect them form the local critters – possums my enemy – so far so good. No leaves or branches eaten yet.

I have decided to keep my passion fruit vine behind bird netting through winter and will decide its fate through spring. Will it flower, will it fruit, will the animals get at it again. Only time will tell.

Mystery Plant was ?

After lovingly tending to my little vine, the day came when I had to cut the cord or stem in this case. The time had come. It was, after all a rogue seed that had decided to germinate (as seeds from home-made compost tend to do)of it's own accord. I gave the melon one last tap tap tap, yep sounded good. Cut.

Whilst doing research to figure out what I had grown I came across two (2) facts about melon, when the leaf nearest the fruit is dead, time to pick the melon. Stop watering a few days before harvest, this will help sweeten the melon. I took this one step further, after harvesting the melon I let it sit out for a week before eating.

For an accidental plant it sure tasted good.

What is it?
Honeydew

Would I try to grow it again?
Yes, it was quite easy to grow. You do have to prop the fruit. I propped on bricks after having hang in an old OJ fruit netting. That was really quite good until the fruit started to get a little to big for the bag. I had seen pictures on Google for melon bras, you get an old pantyhose (stocking) and tie it off either side of the melon, the melon then grows into the stocking. Very gentle.
The blog below has a good photo of it.

http://engineeredgarden.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/hmmsomethings-going-on-with-few-of.html

Time to grow?
About 3 months from seed, maybe 4 months

Quality of fruit?
Juicy, very juicy, the colour was a little light, size was on the small side; about 2/3's of what you would get in the shops. The flesh was as Goldilocks would say " Just Right" soft yet firm.

From Yard to Table now on Twitter
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Homemade Preserves - The Bad The Good The Yummy

The Bad
I have had a glut of Eggplant a few weeks ago and tried to marinate some except I forgot one major step, I forgot to pickle it, I salted & washed it, dried and char grilled it, then placed it in jars with vegetable oil. I tried it about 3 weeks later and it was chewy, no leathery would be a better description. Then I read the process and realised I missed a big bit. Thankfully I have a few eggplants on the go and will be able to try the recipe again and do it correctly.
0/10

The Good
Strawberries were quite cheap this weekend so I bought a few punnet's, thinking Jam time. I had Castor Sugar in the pantry a plenty, I know granulated is best but castor works.
7/10 tasty, sweet, good consistency

The Yummy
I have Eggplant being picked every other day so I tried another recipe, this one a Chutney

Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
500 g strawberry (hulled)
500 g castor sugar
40 mls lemon juice

Method
place all ingredients into a heavy based saucepan and stir over med heat until dissolved - do not boil
once dissolved bring to boil then reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes
test to see if ready but placing a small amount on a cold plate and set in fridge for 30 seconds to see if set
pour hot jam into hot sterilised jars, seal, invert for 15 mins, turn right way up
label ans store in dark cool place for a week
Once opened leave in fridge for 1 week

Notes
Sterilise jars by placing in hot oven (start cold) for 25 mins or in dishwasher on high heat setting, boil lids for 5 minutes
can replace one berry with multiple berries if desired
this made 3 jars @ 150mls per jar

to make more simply double the ingredients

Tomato & Eggplant Chutney
Ingredients
1.5 kgs tomatoes
450 g Eggplant - about 1 (cut to size, salt Eggplant for at least 20 mins) removes excess water & bitterness of seeds
3 Granny Smith Apples
250 mls red wine vinegar
1 cup (220 g) packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 red onions
2 cloves garlic
2 birdseye chilli
60 mls olive oil

Method use a large pot
dry fry the seeds until aroma released, set aside
cut a cross at the base of tomatoes, place in boiling water for a few seconds to soften skin
remove skin & discard, cut in half, remove seeds & discard, cut tomatoes into chunks
cut onions finely as well as garlic & chilli, fry in oil til tender
add Eggplant and cook for about 5 minutes
add tomato flesh, spices, vinegar, sugar & apples to pot, bring to boil
reduce heat & simmer until most of liquid has evaporated

pour hot chutney into hot sterilised jars, seal, invert for 15 mins, turn right way up
label and store in dark cool place for a month before using. Will happily sit in your cupboards for months
will store in fridge once opened for a good while

Notes
Sterilise jars by placing in hot oven (start cold) for 25 mins or in dishwasher on high heat setting, boil lids for 5 minutes


this made 4 jars @ 250 mls per jar

10/10 excellant flavour, just spicy enough, great texture & consistency


I have recently bought some lovely preserving jars from Kitchenware Direct http://www.kitchenwaredirect.com.au in WA (online ordering is my friend) Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni jars in multiple sizes. It is also where the Jam recipe came from. The Chutney came from http://taste.com.au

Mystery Plant.......

A few months ago a vine like plant started growing in one of my veggie beds. Ever curious to see what was growing I let it grow. A small green fury ball started to form from a lovely yellow flower. The flower was much like the one growing from my Burpless Cucumber. I started to think what I had placed in the compost that had decided to germinate. I know a lot of Jack O Lantern Pumpkin seed went in from last Halloween ( yes I like to carve a pumpkin or 3 every October)or perhaps the mountain of watermelon from all the juicing i did over Summer. Maybe a Cantaloupe....

Sure it's easy to tell from the last photo that it is more than likely a Honeydew, but that first photo really had me going. I still had not quite figure it out by the second photo (taken about 3-4 weeks after the first photo) today I'm going with Honeydew.

As it is now Autumn I will only leave it grow for about another 2-3 weeks before it gets too cold. It already has a great hollow sound when I tap it.

Pineapple & Grapefruit Sage

Henry James Byron: "When young, sow wild oats, but when old, grow sage."

I rarely use the botanical (Latin) name of anything I am growing, as I like my blog are a layperson, but here it is Salvia elegans.

Like many avid gardeners I turn to Google for a lot of information. You may have to search a few webpages until you find what you are after or may just hit the jackpot on the first one or two hits. A lot of the pages that come up are blogs, like this, if I refer to them at all I will always add a link to their page. For I do not steal.

After getting home from work I work I do what i do everyday. I go in the back yard and say hello to all my lovelies. Today I was awe-struck by my Pineapple Sage. No it has not flowered, but by God it's big. So naturally I went to Google and searched for Pineapple Sage. They say it can grow to 1.5M, I would have to agree, though mine is in a raised bed about 400mm, it is still quite tall. I'm 5ft 4inches or 1.62M tall and it is almost as tall as me. I am yet to see the pretty & sweet red flowers it is supposed to bare. The plant was bought at my local nursery; Flower Power Mona Vale, when it came in a 50mm pot, Darn should have taken a photo of it as a babe.

Well here it is today..Oh I must admit that there is also a Grapefruit Sage in there, just as tall but not a bushy.
I have been using the Pineapple Sage in all my salads, I just take the tips and first few leaves.
I had try drying it but it went mouldy quite quickly. I did have it in a dark room, plenty of air and not moist at all, but no joy.

Then I stumbled along a website that has 6 recipes from sweet to savoury for Pineapple Sage. I have not tried them so I can not recommend them but they sound good.

I mention Grapefruit Sage in the title, but have only found reference to it as a dog shampoo ingredient & I must say it has no fragrance resembling a grapefruit, so a little more research is required on that plant I think.

Hoping my Sage blooms soon as the seasons are changing and soon the nights will get colder and a good harsh prune will ensue.

www.nefffamilyfarm.com/PineappleSage

a little video of my garden

I thought adding a web link from you tube into this blog would be easy, turns out I ma wrong.
Finding it harder than I am reading.
perhaps copy link from below ansd paste
http://youtu.be/XjsPpSZqtfg

Janaury & Februray 2013

I wish I could say I have spent alot of time in the garden in this new year, but due to the weather in Sydney, garden time has been minimal.
A little rain would not normally keep me out of the garden, but we have had torrentail rain. In fact 2 weeks ago the suburb where I live had the highest recorded rainfall in Sydney 266mm in a 24 hour period.

I have dug up all my beetroot and pickled, with more beetroot seeds being planted. You can never have to much Beetroot. The last of the carrots have also been dug up. They were very small and ended up being juiced. My perpetaul spinach started to show signs of rust, I could have sprayed them, but all in all they were 5 months old & counting so I thought it best to replant some new.

I chose Silverbeet this time instead of perpetual spinach, it may be slower to grow and less productive. I may end up planting more perpetual spinach cause it is lovely in salads.

I planted bush beans seeds (a Christams present from my dad) early Jan 2013 and they are going gang busters. I had bought a punnet of bean seedlings in late Dec 2012 & planted them; only to discover that half the punnet was also bush beans & the other half were good 'ol climbers. I only discovered a few weeks after planting that it was a mixed punnet & I had planted the smaller beans at the back. Oh well it all worked out in the end.

My Aubergine (Eggplant) are going really well. I have 3 plants and have already picked and marinated in oil a couple of the eggplant.
The cucumbers (burpless i think) are being picked at a rate of about 1 every couple of days. They are being used in salads and made into juices. They are OK as a juice so long as the seeds are removed and they are skinned.

Whenever I plant anything I throw in some radish seeds, this time I went for small rounds one over the elongated radish, simply because they are smaller.