Spring time happenings on the block

Finally spring is here! After receiving over 50mls last week, everything is growing before my eyes in this balmy 25C weather :) 

Thought I would give a picture tour of the happenings in our food production area.

The veggie garden as of this morning. The red dirt piles are the posts for fencing off our veggie garden to the chooks and the fat resident bunny who keeps popping his head up from time to time.

Broad beans in flower

More broad beans and snow peas in the foreground (the broad bean felafels were a hit last year!)

Savoy cabbage which I am hoping will come to a head and not bolt.

Our newest addition - rhubarb

Plenty of seedlings, herbs and trees to plant out in the next month. I'm keeping the milk cartons to make cloches and maybe some wicking pots.

This morning's harvest - silverbeet, cauliflower and eggs

Carrots found hiding in the weed infested salad garden. They are now in my belly!

The strawberries are going ridiculous since the rain

Blueberries in flower with strawberry plant companions...and weeds

3-way pear in flower

Cherry tree just starting to come into bloom

Our mulberry tree - all baring late frosts we should get a decent crop this year! (You may need to squint hard to see the fruit but they are there)

The almond tree - with almonds already!

The peach tree with tiny peaches forming

and same with the apricots.

Happenings around Murrumbateman

Floriade is on again in Canberra and I have been helping out at the Urban Agriculture Australia stand enticing people to grow more edibles on their balconies, courtyards and backyards. If you are heading to Floriade, check out the display and also their website which has some very useful fact sheets www.uaa.org.au 

Murrumbateman Field Days is gearing up again for 19/20 October. Check out their website for more details  http://www.mfdays.com/ 

Winter Cold

I'm cold. Freezingly-turning-into-an-ultra-frozen-icicle-cold. Brrrrr.

 

After having a lovely little holiday away in a 'sweltering' 26 deg  (I kid you not that is how the English press described it) in London, the Italian summer of around 34 deg and a melting 44 deg in Dubai, I get back to a high of 6 deg. 6!! I don't think it could even be classed as a 'high' as it hasn't reached double figures! I am finding it a little hard to warm up.

 

After seeing so many veggie patches in the estates on the outskirts of London and through the Italian Tuscan countryside, I was starting to get a little homesick for my own little patch.

 

Luckily, everything had been well cared for by good friends, and was going well.

 

 

Overall view of veggie gardens

 

 

Here we have broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, beetroot, silverbeet, lettuce, leeks and carrots

 

 

Snow pea seedlings

 

 

Bit of a mess but I call this my 'reality' shot :) In the greenhouse we have chilies and eggplants potted up from last season, a peanut bush still hanging on, a sweet potato vine still hanging on, bok choi, silverbeet, assorted herbs, tagasastes and some salvia cuttings my mum gave me to hopefully plant out in spring.

 

 

And look at these cute little guys! I have managed to sprout 9 little Mary Washington Asparagus plants from seeds. Won't be ready to harvest for another couple of years yet, but so far so good. I seriously need to get in and repot them though.

 

 

An update on the retrofitting of the orchard. Not an overabundance to information to share here, but we have moved the oranges and feijoas (companion plant) nearer to the pond to hopefully displace a bit of the frost and deflect some heat onto the plants from the rocks and water during winter. You never know if you never try. I have planted some comfrey with them as I have read that the comfrey draws up minerals from the deep to make available to the orange's shallow roots. We have also planted a Cox's Orange Pippin apple and another apricot in the orchard.

 

 

The tagasaste are growing super-doper well and are on track to be planted out in spring in the orchard when it gets a little warmer.

 

I was speaking with a friend yesterday and we came to the realization that winter is almost over as the first day of spring is only about a month away! Can you believe it! I feel a little behind as I have yet o plant any seeds for the spring planting and I have a list a mile long for jobs to do in the garden before it becomes too hot.

 

I will hopefully have some more time on my hands as I am taking a break from studies this semester. This is for a couple of reasons, firstly, because I'm not sure what I'm studying is exactly what I want to be doing. Its not my passion and I have been finding myself 'cheating' on my studies by looking up much more exciting permaculture and food gardening topics when I should be studying instead. I have put my name down to assist with the Urban Agriculture Australia's stand at Floriade this year and hopefully will gain some really good contacts with the people around this region. I have given myself these six months to see if I want to go back to it. But I really don't want to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A time of firsts

First plum blossoms

 

The first day of spring came around and what a morning it was! Very close to -8C, the coldest morning we have had since moving out here - and the water tank pipes froze! So that meant no water for us. Our youngest daughter came running into our bedroom and flung the curtains back to excitedly exclaim 'SNOW!' at the top of her lungs.  Must admit it looked very close to snow. Hubby braved the cold (OK I pushed him out!) to go over to our other tank to fill up the kettle for a cuppa and he reported back that there were actual icicles coming out of the hose!

 

Lucky for us we had the fire going and the house was warm and toasty. After so much hassle getting this thing in and approved we were very grateful for the warmth. I fall asleep most nights in front of the fire.

 

 

We recently built our first wood shed with very kindly donated tin from our next door neighbour. This also meant that I got my greenhouse back when all the wood could be moved in.

 

 

And here is our veggie garden as of this beautiful bright sunshiny day. We recently harvested our first lot of winter veggies from the garden. It has been so cold this winter that nothing really grew much. The broccoli and shallots are from the garden and the potatoes and carrots are from the greenhouse.

 

 

In anticipation of spring, and also reviving the garden, I have been planting out some seedlings in the greenhouse.

 

 

These are my herbs - Chamomile, Thyme, Mint, Marjoram and Basil. As the Basil was closest to the wall, it actually got hit by the -8C frost we had. It didn't completely die and has started to reshoot green tips so all the work wasn't lost.

 

 

These are my pumpkin, rockmelon, watermelon and loofah seedlings, although the loofah seeds haven't come up yet.

 

 

Here are my tomato seedlings. This year I am growing Roma, Grosse Lisse, Mortgage Lifter, Money Maker, and Sweetie. *May* have gone a little bit overboard :)

 

 

In anticipation of the dream of one day getting sheep, we planted some trees at the front of the house so they will provide some shade for them when the trees get bigger. We planted three manchurian pears (I have always wanted some of these trees and finally got my wish). Although they are not edible, they still have purpose - shade for both the sheep and the front rooms of the house in summer, screening the neighbours across the road, beautiful colour in autumn as well as leaves for mulch and composting in the autumn. After much discussion, we have also planted our new little fig tree out the front as well. Hopefully for shade for the sheep and front rooms of the house and fruit as well.

 

 

And finally.....TA DA! My first loaf of bread - raisin bread! tastes yummy too!

 

Time to cross another off my New Years Resolutions:

Make bread from scratch, even if just once.  DONE!

 

 

Other firsts in the household - my youngest daughter turned the big 6, my twin bubbys turned 3 and also started preschool (big boys now *sniff*). We opened our bees for the first time since ANZAC Day and - phew! - they are still alive! I am about to embark on a permaculture design certificate in a couple of weekends time and I have almost completed my first semester back at uni and survived to tell the tale! Well - that is at the end of October and a lot can happen between now and then!

Projects and Plantings

School holidays are over and we are into Term 2 - and May! - already! The weather is getting decidedly colder here, and Mother Nature kicked it up a notch just around ANZAC Day. We held out until the night before ANZAC Day for the heater (the 'rule' around these parts is the heater doesn't come on until ANZAC Day) but we were pretty close! On the heater issue, I blogged previously about wanting a wood heater - well council approval is in, heater has been ordered and picked up and due to be installed in a couple of weeks! I am so excited at the prospect of sitting in front of the fire on a cold winter day and curling up with a book - I'll keep you all updated.

During the school holidays, Hubby and I decided to tackle a job that's been on our 'To do' list since we moved in - build a fence between the house and shed to block off the kids play area so the little kidlets won't run out into the driveway and garage. Handy hubby did all the work himself and I was the go-fer and sometime painter. We are very impressed with how it turned out :)

Who's that good looking hunk of a spunk :)

OK, only half finished the second coat of paint here but looks good!

Quick paving job

Look at my passionfruit vines! We built a trellis for them as part of the new fence. We have had one frost already this season - so far so good!

Here is the current state of my veggie garden. It looks even more bleak today as its raining. Starting in the bed closet and going clockwise we have one bed of garlic; red onions, celery and some lettuce, pak choi and parsnip seeds that haven't come up yet; a bed full of peas with a row of snow peas and broad beans; last bed in this row is brown onions and shallots filling in some gaps; next bed is empty at this stage as we just moved the chook pen onto the next bed; some old leeks that have started resprouting; and in the final bed is shallots, cabbage, broccoli, Wong bok and cauliflower.

I have plated some more veggies in the greenhouse. Now we have some mignonette and cos lettuce, rocket, some silver beet seedlings that haven't come up, carrots (in the long terracotta pots at the front, bit of an experiment), tomatoes in the round pots at the back, some strawberry off cuts growing for the kids school fete in a couple of weeks and some oregano, parsley and zucchini seeds which have yet to come up. I am also attempting to grow ginger for the first time (completely wrong season I know but thought I would give it a go) and I also have some potatoes in bags which are behind me in this picture.

So if all goes well this winter, we should have a good veggie haul to get us through :)

As I write, the rain is bucketing down on our tin roof - love it! - good for the veggies and water tank!

Autumn Harvest - Take 2

Easter has now been and gone, chocolate overload - and associated undesirable behaviour from too much sugar and preservatives - is toning down, and we have had our first frost of the season this morning. Today, I have been watching the last of the summer veggies wilt and die from the frost, and thought I best escape to the garden to see what I could salvage.

I am pretty disappointed with my pumpkin haul this year. Last year we had over 30 butternut pumpkins and this year I only got two butternuts from the vines I purposefully planted, and the rest were self sown. I think it had to do with where I planted them. Although the spot on the hill running down to the tank is perfect as they can spread to their heart's delight, better preparation of the soil over winter is in order to hopefully ensure a better crop next year. From the top I have Queensland Blue, Kent, Butternut and three veggie spaghetti.

Here is what else I managed to salvage from the garden - the last of the tomatoes (although I did get a 10L bucketful the day before), cayenne chillies, two lonely eggplants, quite a few more capsicums than I thought I had, and a motherload of apple cucumbers. Nobody in our house eats them except for hubby, who obviously didn't keep up his end of the bargain! Anyone know of a good pickles recipe?

Here are our lovely loofahs in the greenhouse. I have never seen a vine die so quick from a frost as the loofah vine. I picked all the ones that were a decent size and read somewhere that they are meant to rattle (with their seeds) when they are ready. None of mine did that so I am hoping to dry them out for a couple of days and then it will happen! I am pretty happy with the haul considering only two vines survived and we are in a cool climate area, which also had a cool summer. Oh, and you can probably see the tomatoes hanging in the centre there. I read/was told by someone somewhere that if you hang the unripened tomatoes up in a warm spot they will still ripen. Its an experiment.

I tidied up the greenhouse today too as it had become a bit of a dumping ground over summer. The mice have had a field day in there (I would have thought it was way too hot?), and am a bit worried that their slithery friends higher up the food chain have also made residence in there. But everything is back in order and ready for the cool season ahead. The potting bench has been cleared in anticipation and luckily I already had the cos and mignonette lettuce, tomato seedlings and rocket in there or I would have lost them this morning as well. Over the weekend I managed to finally plant out the garlic, clear some beds for the onions (the seedlings are in the background), and readied the other half of the pea bed for more peas, snow peas and broad beans. I was meant to plant them yesterday, and then today, but it has still yet to happen. Maybe tomorrow :)

Whats happening on the veggie front.

Well here is a pic of our veggie patch! Its an eight bed system with little beds in between, which I have lately been utilising for carrots. Our chook run sits over one garden and gets rotated as one crop finishes. There is netting over all the gardens as the girls like to eat and scratch everything we plant. We have an arbour at the front and have planted some happy wanderer to hopefully quickly grow up and over.

Our winter veggies are still in the plots as its still cold down here (currently a balmy 11 degrees! This pic was taken a few days ago). I'm a bit bummed as the broccoli and cauliflower I have raised from seeds are only just getting heads, and next year I think I will start them off a bit earlier maybe Jan/Feb. In the beds we have garlic, onions - red and brown, leeks, peas, lettuce, broad beans (although they are only a foot high but are flowering which is good, I think), silverbeet, carrots and cabbage.

I have started my spring seeds in the greenhouse.....

Just starting off we have apple cucumber, corn, pumpkin (QLD Blue and Kent - hopefully butternut pumpkins will self seed this year), eggplants, celery, lettuce - endive, cos and iceberg, watermelon, rockmelon, vegetable spaghetti, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes (heaps!), beetroot and some silverbeet. I also have advanced purple podded peas, dwarf peas, beans and potatoes. I have planted some companion plants such as nasturtiums and marigolds as well.

I haven't had much luck with the herbs from seed though. The only ones that have come up are basil, sage, dill, some flat leaf parsley, one chive!, 2 garlic chive!, and that's about it! The mint and the thyme are MIA. Here is a pic of our herb garden next to the pizza oven (yum!)

At the moment we have tarragon, rosemary, sage, chives, lemon balm, lemon thyme, basil mint, flat leaf and curly leaf parsley. After my failure with the seeds, I bought a thyme and peppermint mint to plant today as well. Oh and I have a wormwood which is currently in the greenhouse because I have been slack and haven't covered it and put it in the chooks pen.

In the back of this pic you can see a massive dirt mound which is all the dirt from the pool excavations. We are going to turn this into a native garden and mulch the lot (still have a bit of work to do here), and as it is also north facing, we are going to plant the pumpkins, watermelon and rockmelon there so they can go as berserk as they like.

If only the weather was better so I could go out and potter.....

MM xox