seed sewing

The other day I purchased 4 punnets of seedlings from our local supermarket. I got Tomatoes (grosse lisse var.), Lettuces (mixed), Marigolds and Capsicum (not sure of their var.).

Today the Lettuce got planted out into my grow tower.  The tower is a set of connected trio pots that has four layers. It all stacks neatly up and sits nicely on a wheel-y circular base for easy moving.  Well it would be easy if the ground was level - mine isn't as some of the pavers have dropped or risen; only a tiny bit but enough to make trying to move the tower an effort.  I haven't put anything into the lowest set of pots as yet - I am waiting to see if the puppy will dig in these.  Last time I put veges in the lowest level they got dug out by one of the dogs.  This level does have mulch in it though so I can see if he has been digging in them.  The tower also has 4 strawberry plants from last year that didn't die over winter (bonus) and onions in the very top layer.

I am thinking of putting a couple of tomatoes in with the roses and the Nashi pear, some in the new back yard bed and the others out in the front yard.  The ones not with the roses will need staked; maybe I could use the old plastic trellis from around the roses to make a circular frame to go around them as support.  I might do the same with the capsicums and marigolds too.

Six of the peas that I planted the other week in the grow box have sprouted so I have placed some wire towers over them for them to climb onto.  I noticed that one bean has poked up through the mulch.  I have moved the mulch and found a couple more are also starting to sprout.  I will have to get that trellis in a couple of weeks.

I mixed up some carrots seeds (atomic red var.) with some sugar into a spice bottle and have sprinkled that over the soil in the rest of the grow boxes.  I added in the sugar so I could see where I had sprinkled the carrot seed as it is the same colour as the wet potting mix.

I must be feeling very energetic today as not only did I take 2 dogs for a walk I also did a bit of work on the vege beds out the front.  They got a digging over - well 5 did, the last one is chock full of weeds.  I removed lots of teeny potatoes and the weeds.  Beds 1, 2 and 3 all need manure and compost and mulch.  Beds 5 and 6 need the same but a lot more of it.  These are the newest beds so they don't have much in them in the way of soil.  I will be fill them up no-dig-style - cardboard, manure, straw, manure, straw, compost, straw.

There is an ever getting larger Agapanthus next to my Dwarf Orange tree's tub that is home of lots of snails.  The snails love eating orange leaves.  So the Agapanthus got a a severe hair cut too - every single leaf chopped off.  As nice as they are, I don't really care if it dies.  I doubt it will though.  Those things are as tough as nails.  This particular one is a baby from the one that lives at the front of the driveway.  That plant is 30 years old.  I did try to dig it up once - failed miserably.  This is it when in  flower......

You should see the size of another plant in my front yard.  It is supposed to be a dwarf Diosma.  It must be over 10 feet wide!  This is the monster......

I have decided it has to go.  It has smothered a native bottle brush and a convulvulus and is harbouring what I think is a prunus variety.  It is threatening too take over my apple tree too.  The poor apple is leaning over trying to get away I think.  So something for me to do during the week - plant chopping.

more seeds

Not much to report, but I recently planted some dwarf snap peas and three different lots of climbing beans in the earth boxes. Peas in one and beans in the other.  I had help via the puppy who was very keen to see what I was doing.  When the time is right I will put in some carrot seeds in the rest of these boxes.  I have a Moon Gardening Calendar and am trying to follow that.

I also removed the old plastic fencing from around the roses and replaced it with the wire fencing I bought last week. I also added in some sugar cane mulch around them.  You can see it in the background of this photo.

I also finished off the fencing around the new vege bed and mulched the path to the clothesline.  The fence section that is in the bottom left of the pic is the gate so I can access the bed.  I have yet to lay out the pavers for stepping stones. Luckily the puppy has gotten big enough to not fit thru the fencing any more.

The seeds that I started in peat pellets are doing well. The kale seems to have all spouted and quite a few of the tomatoes have too, as has the broccoli and the asparagus.

Two weeks ago I got an avocado seed and took off the outer layer of the seed, stuck some toothpicks into it and popped it into water. I checked it today and have noticed that there is a large crack in it on the bottom and I can see what appears to be a root inside the crack. Exciting stuff.  Last time I tried to grow an avo tree absolutely nothing happened. I had that seed sitting in water for over 6 weeks before one of the cats decided to play with it. This time I may have success.  I haven't changed the water yet, just been topping it up with straight tap water.

seeds

I recently purchased a perpetual moon calendar and according to it I was supposed to weed and prepare beds for planting during this past few days.  Didn't do any of that even though the intent was there.  Oh well.

Yesterday I put some seeds in coir pellets - three pellets each with 2 or 3 seeds.  Here's hoping they do well.  I have the following in:

Asparagus
3 colour Capsicum
Tomato - Mortgage Lifter variety
Mini Cauliflower
Broccoli
Purple Coneflower, and
Red Russian Kale

This will be first time I have tried to grow Kale, Cauliflower and Asparagus. My previous attempts at Broccoli were not very successful - they bolted to seed waaaay too quickly.  I have had reasonable success with Tomatoes though this variety is new to me. last year I managed to get enough toms to make a few jars of sauce with. Last years Capsicums grew and fruited, but bugs got the fruits before I did.

I haven't tried Coneflower (below) before either. How hard can they be?

They are currently sitting in my mini portable greenhouse/box/thingy in the laundry.

Today I finished setting up my earth boxes.  I added in the fill pipe which is a piece of 16mm clear poly tubeing cut to size. I made sure I cut the end that goes into the aggi pipe at an angle.  Then I put a couple of layers tulle over the aggi pipe in an attempt to stop dirt getting into it.  Tokk them both outside and into their final resting place.  I had help filling them up with herb/vege mix.  Our 11 week old pup thought I was making a dig patch just for him. Nearly 100 litres of mix and they are full.  To finish them off I out a think layer of sugar cane mulch.  I will get around to planting the seeds soon.

These are going to have carrots, sugar snap peas and beans.

I still have to get some sort of trellis to put behind them for the peas and beans to grow up.

Next of the agenda is to replace the fencing around the rose bushes.  I have some wire edging panels that just push into the ground - quite easy to do.  I do however need to bend them around the corners of the beds as the bed is not made to fit these panels.  They are the same as the ones I have used on the other vege bed next to the path to the clothesline.

Should pull the weeds too - check moon calendar for best time to do this.  Knowing my luck that won't be for another 3 weeks.  In this bed are 4 roses - a white, a pink, a red that I planted and a red that self seeded - and a Nashi pear.  The pear had fruit last year but it all fell off, or was knocked off by something.  Not too sure which.  That was probably a good thing as it will enable the tree to grow bigger and better roots.

Have you done any planting this weekend?

Earth Box DIY

I like using self watering pots on my indoor plants.  Just fill up the reservoir and forget for a couple of weeks.  They are such a brilliant idea.

I have a section of our house out the back that is all brick wall and it faces the setting sun - in my case west.  You can imagine how hot that wall can get in summer.  The other side of the wall inside the house is our office area and our air con doesn't really reach that space.  So it can, and does, get quite warm during the hottest part of summer.

I have been thinking for a couple of years now of ways to shade that wall - it's not very wide, only around 2m. I have searched for suitable solutions and I think I have found one that will work - at least for the office area. Above it on the second floor is the upstairs bathroom and it has a high window that probably should have some sort of awning over it.

My solution needs to be something I can accomplish by myself - DH is of no help when it comes to this sort of thing. Not that he can't, he just won't.  It needs to cheap, it needs to be easy to maintain, and it needs to look good. Oh and I am not that great with power tools so if I can not use those that's a big bonus.

So my solution is a couple of earth boxes (or wicking beds) with some pine trellis behind them.  I can grow some sweet peas or some beans up the trellis and some other small flowers and veges in the front of the box.

I researched various earth boxes - btw this is a brand name for a large self watering pot/tub - and diy and came up with this....

They are just a couple of large black storage tubs into which I have placed 50mm slotted agg pipe.  There is also a small overflow hole in one side.  So far I have spent $15 on the tubs and $35 (ouch) on the agg pipe (it was a 20m roll so I have quite a bit left for more earth boxes).

I am not finished with these babies.  I have to get some electrical conduit cut to 40cm long with a diagonal cut on one end and some netting or shade cloth to cover the agg pipe with so dirt does not fall into the slots. I also have to get the trellis still too.

Once I have those I will do some more pics.

Spring Prep 2016

Spring will be here in 2 weeks - we are getting a taste of it this week with temperatures in the mid to high teens.  Along with spring comes my annual "I must do something in the garden" urge. After much deliberating over winter as to what to do in the backyard I have devised a plan.

After we ripped out the trees in one of the back yard garden beds I layed down a heavy load of sugar cane mulch in the attempt to keep weeds out of the bed.  I will say that I am quite surprised that it worked as there have been very few weeds come up.  This is what is used to look like with the trees still in it.......

It's a bit hard to see as the bed in question is behind the daisy things in the foreground, but you can see 2 trees, a dog house and a shrub.

Today it looks like this.......

That's where the dog house was.  This is the rest of the bed......

I uncovered the bricks along the path and relayed the upright bricks the other day.

In the car waiting to be gotten out is some bags of euci mulch that will be going on the path and some garden edging that will be going in around the edge of the garden bed.  The edging is more like a short fence that will hopefully keep the dogs out of the bed as I intend on putting in vegetables. One of the edging pieces will be used a 'gate'.  I hope I have some pavers left to use as stepping stones in the bed.

Vege Patchs

It is going to happen!

Today I bought straw to mulch the back vege bed.  Tomorrow I will give it a good water, after cleaning out the dog poop and then lay the mulch.

I have pumpkin seeds sprouting in the kitchen and it looks like the melon seeds are starting to sprout also.  I'm not sure what is going on with the capsicum seeds - they are from a batch purchased a few years ago so they not be viable any more.

I think I will also make up some paper pots for zucchini seeds.

I also got some bamboo stakes to support a bag around the seedlings - hopefully that will keep the dogs away until I get the fence up.

I would really like to use pine trellis for the fence as it a bit sturdier than wire but it is a lot more costly at $19 per 1.8m length as opposed to $27 per 5m length of wire mesh fencing.

The pros for the pine: It looks better, more stable, easier to make a gate out of.
The cons for the pine: It needs to be cut into smaller sections to fit the curve of the vege beds border, cost.

The pros for the wire mesh fencing: Cheaper, can be formed to fit the curve of the bed easily.
The cons for the wire mesh: Not as stable as the pine so will need more uprights to attach it to, harder to make a gate out of, the dogs may not see it when doing laps of the yard and run into it and injure themselves.

I have yet to measure how much fencing I need, but I am guessing it will be more than 5m.
I also bought 3 strawberry plants for $4 each from a local building/garden superstore.  Thought that was a good price.  They can join the last remaining strawberry plant in my tower pot.

I need to dump out the pots in the front yard that had strawberries in them that died.  The everlasting spinach is huge and going to seed.  I also need to fill up the 6 front beds with manure and compost and straw.  Though I may redo them using the no dig method - Sara Lee style - layer upon layer and then plant into the top layer of mulch by making holes in the mulch and adding in potting mix and then the seedling.

The raspberries have fruit setting!!!   Now to keep the birds away as they ripen.  Hubby reckons we need to net them.

The orange tree has some flowers too - hopefully we get an orange to two.  Not too sure whether to leave them on the tree and see what we get or to knock them off so the plant has a change to grow and get stronger.

The Nashi Pear had flowers and then something came along and ate them - methinks it was the resident possum.  I sometimes have broken stems on my roses and we hear the possum going across the roof of a night.

The apple is still not much more than a stick.  I imagine it will take a few years to do much.  I have been tempted to order some more apple trees.

So much I want to do and so little time to do it.  I probably need to take a leaf out of my Dad's book - 1 hour a day and eventually it all gets done.

12 months on

Wow - it has been nearly 12 months since I lasted posted anything (really must not let that happen).

Guess what - the garden is calling again!!

I planted out all those seedlings that I had gotten going last year and only 1 actually survived.  It was a melon and it had 1 fist sized fruit that the bugs got too before I found it.  So I didn't bother with trying to do any vege growing over autumn or winter.  The everlasting spinach is still going strong and the potatoes that I put in last year (and did not harvest) kept on going.

I did manage to mulch a bed in the back yard with some straw - but did not get anything planted in it. The dogs thought the straw was terrific to nose around in.  Since hubby is useless at mowing the grass out the back the dogs ended up pooping in the mulched bed and on the path to the clothes line.  I have decided to take matters into my own hands and provide the puppies with their own toilet area.  How I am going to do this I am not sure yet - I think it will involve spraying an area up along the back fence with weed kill to get rid off the grass and then adding some sort of edging and then filling with mulch.  I have an idea of where I would like to put it - I just need to do it.

I also want to put up a barrier around the bed in the back yard to try to keep the dogs out.  That will need fencing material, stakes to keep it said material upright and ties to attach the two together.  I will need to create a 'gate' of some sort so I can access it to plant things and probably some stepping stones down the middle.

It's a shame hubby has this idea that the backyard can't be all mulch.  He hates mowing the grass and seriously only does it 4 or 5 times a year - usually when the grass has grown taller than the little dog who is the size of a cat.

Of the raspberries that I planted last year that survived they are all sprouting again.  There are even some bits that look like under ground runners that have taken off too.  We didn't get any flowers last year so I am hoping that we do this year.  They should be a variety that has fruit on first year canes - so grow cane/branch, flower and have fruit - as opposed to those that need last years canes to produce flowers on.  I did not do any pruning of them so I will see what happens over the coming months.

The other berries have also survived the winter and are growing madly again.  These are marion berry and logan berry and are both long caned varieties that really need to be trained over a trellis.  My attempt to use tomato cages did not really work as they out grew them. Both of these have the nastiest thorns but I really need to train them on a trellis of some sort.

They are growing in containers next to an olive tree - maybe I can prune back the olive a bit and get them to use the olive for support?

I have been following a blog of another gardener here in Melbourne.  She has converted her WHOLE FRONT AND BACK YARDS into her own market garden.  She has a large variety of apples and stone fruit trees, an almond tree as well as citrus trees.  She numerous beds for vegetables - seems as though are mostly wicking beds too.  Maybe I need to follow her lead and turn my beds into wicking beds?  Maybe I just need to get out there every second day and water and pull weeds and plant things?

sometimes it is all just too much.

The Garden is Calling

and quite loudly too.

The weather has been quite nice these past few days. 

I have seedlings doing their thing in the kitchen.  Some of these have their second set of leaves - their true leaves.  So I suppose it is time they are put out into the vege beds.

There is pumpkin, zucchini, tomato, capsicum, cantaloupe and sunflowers.

I made my own 'pots' by cutting the local newspaper in half, wrapping the cut paper around a glass and taping it into a cylinder.  I then taped the bottom over to make a pot, filled them with potting mix and popped in the seeds. I also wrote a bit of a code on the 'pots' so I would know what I had.

 The first lot of seeds were put into my mini greenhouse tray. 

It took a few weeks to do the second lot.  They went into a disused cat litter tray.  I came up with the idea of using a couple of store shopping bags taped together to make a cover for this lot.  It worked well I think.

Since the seeds were kept in the kitchen, and we have indoor cats, I had to have all the potting mix covered to keep the cats out.  It worked. 

Kept under the bench in the east facing kitchen the seeds.....

...have mostly all sprouted and are doing well.

Not everything has come up.  Only some of the sunflowers have sprouted and so have some of the cantaloupes.  Certainly worth the experiment.

Now to put the bigger ones into the vege beds and hope the snails don't get them.....

Gardening again

After a bit of hibernating over winter I'm back into the garden.

So far I have put 2 loganberries and 1 marionberry into large pots, planted out 1 dwarf apple and 1 dwarf nashi pear.  I have also potted up a dwarf navel orange and planted out 6 raspberries - 2 each of 3 varieties; and I have planted out 2 rhubarb crowns.  In fact I had what looked like a tiny crown in with it - so I planted it into it's own pot too.

Where the raspberries are went from this.......

to this.......

 

It now has plastic edging along the whole bed - 8m of it - is filled in with compost and potting mix (run out of compost) and is heavily mulched with sugar cane straw.  So far - 1 week after doing it - the birds have yet to realize they can go scratching in the straw.  Can't say the same for around the rhubarb!

Today I dug up/pulled out the old potatoes that came up over autumn - got a dozen of a useful size.  the other small ones I left in the vege garden beds to do their thing now that it is starting (ever so slowly) to get a bit warmer.  I also added a bag of manure to each bed and covered them all with sugar cane mulch.

In the next couple of days I will plant out the other seed potatoes I have, the small spuds I harvested earlier in the year and the 2 sweet potato plants.

To get more spuds I need to build up the soil/mulch around them as the plants grow.  Must remember to do that.

All the vege beds now have a nice coat of mulch.  I bought some bales that were water damaged and going cheap.  One bale had a worm in it - I put him into the vege bed.  I hope he likes it.

Speaking of worms - my attempt at having a worm farm failed.  I think they got too hot over last summer and either all died or they wriggled their way out of their home.  Not too sure if I want to try again.  Might be an idea to take the plastic tub with the soil/food scraps/etc out of the polystyrene box it is sitting in and plonk it down onto the ground.  It has holes in the bottom so it will most likely act like a small compost bin.  Hhhmmmm..

New Plantings

and some garden pruning happened today at my place.

There were some overgrown strappy plants in front of the kitchen widow that were in need of some major pruning as they were covering up half of the front path.  Looks much better now that they have been cut back.

I also got around to planting my Apple Tree.  It's called Wild Granny and is grafted onto dwarf root stock.  It should only grow to 2m tall and 2m wide.  I have put in the narrow-ish bed in front of the house near the front door.  I hope it takes off in spring and gives us some apples.  It should, once fully grown, give us some shade too.



Apparently is was 'discovered' by someone on an Easter camping trip.  The growers I got mine from have found that it is self pollinating.  Great for those who have limited space as you don't need another apple near by to get your fruit.

It only has a short fruiting season - 2 months - but that will do for starters.

Now to get the Nashi Pear into the ground - oh and the Raspberries, the Loganberries and the Marionberry......

Fried Green Tomatoes

Looks like I will be making this or some Green Tomato Relish.

This is what I picked today.....

a miserable handful of beans and 3 capsicum

and .......

all of these tomatoes.

And that's only half of what is still out there on the dying vines.  Must be around 5kilos worth.  however much they weigh see that bowl in the right of the pick?  It was filled 3 times and it's my largest mixing bowl, the 1 I use to make xmas pudding in.

They have all  been washed in plain water - to get any dirt and bugs off them.  Now what do I do with them?

I have heard you can leave the green ones in the dark somewhere and they will ripen, just have to watch the moisture in the air and check for rot.

I have also heard you can make a green tomato relish.  Any suggestions?

Oh, did I tell you I also harvested a heap of potatoes?  I got a bag full - that's a 30cm cube bag full...
That should keep us going for a while.  They range in size from marbles up to 1.5 fists.  I may see if the little ones will keep over winter and replant them in spring for next seasons crop.

Yummy Bread

I think I have success!

This is my first ever sourdough loaf waiting to slowly rise.

AND after it has been baked.....

I was surprised by how mild it tasted - I was expecting something a bit stronger and more sour.

Since then I have made another one - all gone now - and I have the makings for sponge tonight so I cook another loaf tomorrow.

I think I know what I am doing now.  I only do 1 loaf at a time, so I keep 1/3cup of the sponge for the next starter.  Then I add 1/6cup flour and water for it's first feed.  The second feed is larger at 1/3cup each flour and water.  At that point I am ready to make the sponge, so I add 1 and 1/3cups each of flour and water.  Once that has  done it's thing I add sugar, salt and oil give it a mix and then enough flour to get a dry-ish dough.  I turn it out onto the bench and give it a bit of a stretch and a push together.  Once a finger hole poked in comes back out at, which doesn't take long at all, it's into the tin for the dough to rest and rise before baking.

The last loaf was really light and airy.  I think it was left a bit too long proofing before being popped into the oven.  Still tasted good!!

Sourdough bread

Yesterday I posted a pic of the sourdough bread starter I had put together.  Well this is it today......

It has lots of little bubbles and appears to have risen and then sunk.  As far I have read it is supposed to do that.  It smells quite fermenty too - not a word I know - and that is a good thing.

So my next dilemma is what now.  The 'recipe' says to leave it sit for 3 days but other makers of sourdough say it needs to be fed.  The recipe says that too but does not say when or how to feed my starter.

I have pondered this all morning and decided to give it a bit of a feed.  It is only a small starter (1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup water) and I would like to be able to make a loaf of bread with it on the weekend, so I think it needs a bit of bulking up.  To that end I have added in 1/6 cup flour and 1/6 cup water and given it a good stir.  I will do the same again tomorrow but add in 1/2 cup each water and flour.  That will give me 2 cups of starter which will be enough for a loaf of bread or 2 - I think.

Fruit Trees

Oh how I would love to have the backyard of my childhood!

We had plum trees, apple trees, pear and peach trees, apricots, nectarines and quince.  There was even a loquat tree over one of Dad's chook sheds - this was usually used for climbing in.

Needless to say his backyard was quite large for the suburbs.

My backyard is about 17-20m wide and around 8-10m deep - enough I suppose for fruit trees.  We have 2 sheds at one end, a small wood shed near them, a Lilac and a Birch tree next to the wood shed, a small aviary at the other end of the yard, a clothesline in the middle and another Birch and a large Plum tree next to the clothesline.  We also store 2 trailers and have 3 dogs that go in and out of this area.

The Birch next to the Plum died over winter - not too sure why.  I think maybe that the Plum strangled it or took too much of the water the Birch needed - but who really knows.  So over winter it will be coming out. 

Now the Plum tree is really out of hand.  It is too large to manage and we don't actually eat the fruit from it - it's a type of Green Gage so the fruit is small.  This season the cockatoos had a ball cracking all the fruit open and then the seeds to get to the kernels.  They did this when the fruit was still green - what was left was not enough to bother with.  So as far I am concerned this tree is also to go.  I will miss the shade it provides though - even if it's not on the house.

Hubby has graciously said that once they are chopped down he will square off the bed they are in and I can do what I like with it.  So this means I can put in other fruit trees - dwarf varieties.  I just have to decide which ones.  I am thinking apples and maybe a nectarine.  If I could find a skinny growing type I wouldn't mind putting another one in next to the red rose and something else along the back fence between the sheds and the wood shed.

Something like this....



I am also thinking of pulling out some of the flowering shrubs along the driveway and putting in berries instead.  Blueberries and raspberries would be nice.  I could train them to grow sideways along the fence.

What fruits do you have in your backyard?

Eating our own produce

Not that we have been doing a lot of that.  The odd handful of peas before Christmas, the even less frequent handful of beans since Christmas.

We should do well with the tomatoes though.  The bushes are huge and there is even fruit on them.  Maybe I should have staked them up and even done some tip pruning - but oh well.  Now to wait for the fruit to get bigger and to start to ripen.  I will have to keep a close eye on them as lots are hidden under leaves.

What I have picked though is Rhubarb - my first ever large fistful.  Didn't think to take a photo of it before it got cut up and cooked.  Some of the stems were easily 45cm long.  The variety I have is a green stem variety.  I am thinking I will get 2 more that have red stems.   Here it is all cooked and waiting to be eaten. 

 

I had an order for peach cobbler too.  So it got made with apricots 'cause that's all I had in the cupboard.  Here's the last of it on the left of the plate.  On the right is home-made granola topped with my rhubarb.  A more delicious breakfast I have not had in ages.

 

 

The granola (or muesli if you want to call it that) is a mix of rolled oats, corn flakes, rice puffs, desiccated coconut, chopped peanuts, dried pineapple, dried cranberries and honey.  I put it in the oven for around 20 minutes - minus the fruits - to get the honey to mix up a bit more.  It is quite nice.  Next time I will try to use shredded coconut instead and will crush the corn flakes slightly.

 

 

I am also playing with making my own sourdough bread.  This is my starter that I put together today.  It's 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 tsp sugar and a tiny bit of dried yeast.  This will sit on the bench covered with a tea towel for 3 days before I add some more flour and water to make a loaf of sourdough bread.  I should end up with enough for 1 loaf and a bit more starter.

 

I am using a recipe/method from Linda at Greenhaven - here's hoping it works.

 

Seed Plantings

Yesterday I planted some more seeds in my stacking pots - some Lettuce, Pak Choy, Marigolds and Parsley.  I put the Pak Choy and Parsley in together - it will be interesting to see how they go.

The stacking pots have 4 levels of 3 growing areas - think of it in terms of 4 triangles stacked on top of each other.  I have bush cucumbers in the top - which are sprouting - and then 9 more growing areas in the next 3 levels down.  I wondered what to put where.  In the end I staggered them in so I have each of the varieties in each of the levels in a spiral-like fashion.  I also moved the stack a bit further away from the house so it will get rained on when it rains.

I bought my set of stacking pots from here - Productive Gardens.  Their service and delivery was very prompt.  I am very happy so far with my pots.

Bread Making Dilema

A few years ago Melbourne had a natural gas crisis.  Something happened to the supply of it and it became scarce.  People were supposed to turn off their gas at the meter and not use it - it was that bad.  There even reports in the media about gas supply companies going around and checking people's meters and locking them.  I remember my mum was having cold showers as she had no gas to heat water with.  If you are wondering what that has to do with the title of this post - I'll get to that I promise.

There were a few items in supermarkets that became scarce too as industry was also affected by the gas shortage - bread being one of them.  With a young family I felt that bread was something that we needed to have on hand so I bought a bread making machine.  You know the ones - put in all the ingredients, push a button and walk away to come back a few hours later to freshly cooked bread. It was great. 

We had some nice looking loaves - small ones - but since I could cook 1 each day we always had fresh bread.  The only problem was with the cutting of the bread.  We would get slices that were thick at the top and then taper off to nothing.  Or they'd be so thick it was like eating half the loaf at once.  The kids loved the bread when freshly made but not so the day later when the crust had gone soggy.  And we usually couldn't put in the toaster.  If we did manage to cut a slice evenly enough and thin enough, nearly half of it would stick out at the top.

The gas crisis didn't last too long and so the bead machine was put away.  It did make an appearance every so often, but now I think it was one of those kitchen gadgets that just slowly rust in the back of the cupboard.

I have had a bit of a 'get back to the old days' type of urge these last few years.  I really feel that with the way people are mucking up the environment we need to re-skill ourselves with things our grandparents knew how to do.  Like growing vegetables and fruits, making clothing (sewn or knitted), making food from scratch.

I do know how to cook a complete meal from scratch - and do it most nights.  I can bake a cake, cook a roast, do a casserole (stew), could probably even make jam if I had to.  But I have never made bread.  Every where I look for bread recipes say it is dead easy and it appears to be so.  I have even found a recipe/method that does not use bakers yeast.  It's a sour dough bread so you make a starter and add to that to make the bread.  Today I bought a ceramic pot to 'grow' my starter in from my local second hand shop.

So now we come to my dilemma.  It is 18 days till Christmas and we go away for 3 weeks.  So do I start a starter and make some bread between now and then and the last batch use the whole starter and then start all over again when we get back?  Or do I not worry about making bread until I get home from our holidays?

Decisions, decisions!

Being Prepared in the event of a Major Disaster

I have just read a post over at The Greening of Gavin about being prepared if disaster strikes.  And I have to admit I doubt my family and I are - prepared that is.

Yes we have gas in our camping and bbq gas bottles.  Not sure how long they would last though.

We have Solar Panels that are portable and will charge the auxiliary car battery so we can have some things refrigerated in our camping fridge.  We even have some solar lights and some led strips in the camper that work off the aux battery.  There's plenty of candles around and matches too.

The only water we have stored is what is left over in the camper's water tank after out last 6 days away.   That tank is only 50-60 litres - not a lot for 5 adults.

As far as stockpiled canned goods go - let's just say I need to do some serious shopping on this front.  Awhile ago I did start to put together a stockpile of these sorts of things - pasta and jars of sauce, canned veges, soups, flour, sugar etc.  I had intended on having 2 top shelves in the pantry dedicated to these things.  The urge to do this lasted about 2 weeks and then I forgot about it. I now have absolutely no idea what is in storage at the moment.  I know 1 of the kids found some oats and was having them for breakfast.

My fresh vege garden is currently a joke.  there are peas growing, beams recently sprouted and lettuce and spinach going to seed.  The tomatoes are still only large seedlings too.  Oh and the plum tree has been eaten over by cockatoos.  So no fresh vege/fruit to speak of.

God help us if anything like ever happens to my family.  We are going to need it.....

Peas and Beans and Worms

The pea seedlings are doing ok - they are starting to flower and I even had 1 pod.  The poor plant is only 6 inches high and yet it is fruiting - if that's the right term.  I ate the pod straight from the plant - very tasty.

A number of the peas seedlings have been eaten by something - I presume snails or slugs.  So I put down more snail bait and planted a few more seeds.  Hopefully that will do the trick.

My beans seeds have started to sprout.  8 very healthy looking seedlings of 1 variety and 6 of another.  Yay!!  And I noticed that the carrots are beginning to sprout too.

I bought some more capsicum seedlings yesterday too.  I will have to plant them later today - after I have done the costumes for Sunday's photo shoot.

I haven't fed the worms in a few days.  I figure they have enough to eat with all the newspaper and cardboard and leaf litter that was in the box before they go put in.  No Worm Tea as yet - probably not enough Worms and a lot of dry leaf litter/paper to soak it all up.  Must check on them.

I have Worms!

So that probably sounds really wrong and is something you think I shouldn't let the blogosphere know.  But seriously I have worms!

Ok, not the sort that a dose of medication will fix.

I have compost worms!  There, that does sound better.

500 live wriggling compost worms.  Not many I know, but money is a bit tight and that many is all I can afford right now.  If I have to I may get another 500 in a couple of months.

Apparently there are eggs in with them and I have heard/read that worms breed quite quickly, so maybe I won't have to but more.

For the moment they are happily (I hope) in their new home.  I have laid down some newspaper and some paper that I sprinkled water onto to make it moist.  I also added a thin-ish payer of potting mix for them to spread out into.  They also have a blankie to keep them warm and in the dark.  Though I spose the lid on the plastic tub will do that job.

I am going to let them settle in for the day and give them their first 'meal' later today after I have cut up veges for our dinner.

I love new pets....


The other day I planted out some small potatoes that were left over from last year that were too small to cook and eat.  I noticed today that I have 2 spud plants that have self sown from the compost/soil/straw mix that I tipped out into the pansy bed - this mix was what I used to grow spuds in last year.  It will be interesting to see what happens with these.  I must remember to pile up some dirt/manure/straw around them.

Today I put out some carrot seeds - for want of a better word for it.  These are Heirloom Carrots and apparently are different colours - purple, yellow, white as well as the usual orange.  They are in with the first lot of beans.

I also got 2 trough pots and planted out some Sweet Peas - just for a bit of extra colour.