Garden Update

The garden and I aren't motivated to produce much at the moment. It seems we are preoccupied with events, heat etc. My seedlings mark II have been another dismal failure. In our last place my cucumbers took off, but in this place it seems to be much harder work. I think also have the veggie beds spread out makes it less motivating to take care of. But anyhow, here's how things are:

Strawberries

We discovered that our strawberry in pipes would have worked except we planted running strawberries rather than the regular sort. These babies love to run, but had no where to go, so Nate knocked up these awesome planter boxed out of 'acquired' pallets.

The two plants that survived are thriving and running, so we should have more soon. The plants in the other planter died, BUT some other goodies, we're not sure what yet, have sprouted from the compost!

Fruit trees

We had our first delicious nectarine the other day. It was perfectly juicy and we shared it between the three of us. There are no other fruit, but in a year or two we look forward to that tree spoiling us in Summer.

The other trees aren't ready to fruit yet, but have got lots of leaves and are doing well. A few weeks back I took some mint cuttings from Grandma's for ground cover. Quite a few weeds and other average looking plants started to make the area look shabby, but all it took was 20 minutes of editing and it went from this:

to this:

Vegetable Beds:

I have successfully grown heirloom carrots, spinach and lettuce. They are so pretty and colourful. I think we have really lost something by streamlining what colour, shape and size all vegetables should be.

Our corn is also coming along nicely and I replanted some watermelon and rockmelon (cantelope) and I see one healthy shoot! It's disappointing as I planted four, but I've got to take what I can get!!

Our grass invaded sweet corn.

Finally, a melon sprouted!

Our garden bed has got a lot of grass growing in it, so I have trialed zero weed kill directly on the grass in our garden beds to see how it goes before attempting to do it near the veggies. I'm waiting for this crop to be over before doing it. I'm also tempted to try the old boiling water trick.

Tomatoes

I caved and sent Nate to get seedlings. They have done so well and have been delicious  I'm starting to think seeds don't like me as they know I love to eat them!

Terrible photo, I know!

Not much better, but you can see the little orange glow peaking out begging to be eaten!

And that's it, our garden in the middle of Summer. How is yours going?

How not to kill seedlings...

This nifty $1.95 gadget could have saved 64 lives...

[Source: Diggers Club]

After our tragic family loss, 64 seedlings, I am pulling all my strength together to do it all again!

I visited my beloved Diggers Garden Shop today and got some advice on what went so horribly wrong. From my studies and expert advice, here's what not to do:

1. Drown in water love. Be that watering the babies too fast and too much or leaving them to soak in a tray of water for days, either is going to end in rotted seedlings, not a great ending for anyone involved.
2. Close the vents on the incubator! If it's a sunny day like we've had, those incubators will cook your little seedling babies!
3. Leave your seedlings out over night. In the harsh, windy, cold elements. You get the drift, it's obvious!

Thanks to the wonderful man at diggers here's some hot tips on how to get your seedlings flourishing:

New look Green Lifestyle Mag!

1. Give them the best start in a nutrients rich soil, especially tomatoes. The new look Green lifestyle mag this month has a great little article called Tricks with Tomatoes. It is written by Kirsten Bradley from milkwood permaculture and gives you the formula to winning soil for growing tomatoes.
2. Water them by soaking the seedling tray in water for about 15 minutes. This will let the roots draw up the water they need.
3. Water then let it start to dry out. Weather is a cycle and in nature plants are rarely kept constantly wet. Watering every few days by soaking is better than drowning! If it's particularly hot and the darlings are looking like they need a drink every day then do so, but don't water everyday just to keep them wet. If you feel they need a water from the top or you want to get the kids involved this nifty little watering bottle top is the answer! 
4. Seedlings need warmth, but don't cook them! Make sure the soil can heat up but make sure they aren't getting burnt. At night bring them in to somewhere out of the elements, you don't want  a midnight trip out to save them from filling up with rain!

Tomorrow I'm replanting in my incubators:

• capsicum
• celery
• eggplant
• leeks
• zucchinis
• tommy toe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes)
• grosse lisse tomatoes (salad tomatoes)

I'm also planting direct into my garden beds:

• more carrots (the first lot seem to be doing well, and I'm planting more as we go through heaps!)
• lettuce
• Lebanese cucumbers, (my first lot haven't come up, but I did plant a bit early and I'm worried they dried out).

Today I got hanging baskets! I'm hoping to stock them full of tumbling red tomatoes as a bit of an experiment. I've heard a few reports that you get a big crop, so here's hoping! I've got the smallest basket possibly for tomatoes (30cm) so we are going to have to keep them hydrated. Hmmmm... hopefully I'm not setting myself up for another disaster.

Feel like joining me in the garden? What are you planting?

A trip to the Diggers Club

Diggers Club retail shop in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens [Source]

I was like a kid in a lolly shop! On Sunday afternoon we took a quick trip into the Botanic Gardens to play in the tree roots and visit the Diggers Club shop. They were so great there with all their heirloom veggie goodness and abundance of gardening know how. The girl working there was extra lovely and helped us with all our start up questions.

Missy Moo investigating these magnificent trees. She told me last week that she hadn't climbed a tree so I thought we better rectify the situation!

For organisation fanatics such as myself this store will take you to your happy place! All the seeds are perfectly lined up and have little tabs for those that can be sown now. This made it so easy, a little too easy, to pick up many, many seeds that I could go home and plant!

Ready to sow!

I also became a member. Which gives you 6 magazines per year, chock full of info and tempting catalogues to order seeds, trees and other gardening goodies. Membership also gives you discount on their goods, which is lucky given that I may have splurged a little.

Some of the perks of being a Diggers Club Member, these were ALL free!

I bought a fantastic book "The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden" by Clive Blazey & Jane Varkulevicius. The thing I LOVE about it is inside it details how you can grow ALL your own fruit and vegetables in a suburban block! We're in a duplex, but I reckon we can go a fair way to being self sufficient for fruit and vegetables with a bit (ok, A LOT) of creative planning. I'm super excited and can't wait to get into it.

Stay tuned, hopefully I'll have a garden plan soon!

Seed & nut bars

I'm all about nutrition at the moments, it's my latest fad - look forward to seeing many phases of obsession as this blog develops! And although I eat (most of the time) a fair amount of veggies getting a wide range of nutrients I probably fall short. Enter nuts and seeds! It turns out that these humble friends have a whole host of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. But, I still don't crave them like I would sugar, bread or cheese. But then I discovered home made muesli bars. A girlfriend got me on to this great recipe.

Last night Missy Moo and I gave it  shot and it worked really well. We didn't have any brown rice syrup, so we substituted maple syrup instead. I think I will get some brown rice syrup as it's suppose to be "liked by health buffs" according to the Cook's Thesaurus. Apparently, it's lower GI, so it's absorbed more slowly. I also think I heard Sarah Wilson from I Quit Sugar fame, talking about it. But my adventures of quitting sugar are another story for another day! Here's some of the magic that took place in our kitchen!

The great thing about this recipe is that the first few ingredients are all 1 & 1/2 cups, so for kids they can practice doing the measuring all by themselves. I'm currently reading a book called Bringing up Bébé which is about French parenting. It suggests cooking with kids is a great way to teach them patience. Many preschool children can bake a yogurt cake by themselves! It's been a very interesting read and way better than the bossiness of most parenting books. Plus reading about being in Paris raising a beautifully behaved child is more of a fictional fantasy than a self help book!

All the dry ingredients get thrown in the bowl then mixed. Then you boil the wet ingredients for a minute, mix over the dry ingredients and press into a dish. I'm not really one to stick to a recipe (I have many, many, hilarious stories about the outcome of my cooking as a result!) so I just used the dried, fruit, nuts and seeds that I had on hand. There is cranberries, hazelnuts, not enough almonds and a good dose of random seeds such as pepitas, sunflower and ground linseed in no particular quantities! I just made my seed and nut quantities add up to 1 & 1/2 cups of the listed toasted sliced almonds.

Then it's refrigerated for an hour and done! 

I can recommend this one and it's interesting enough to take out to a night in with the girls without too much healthy judgement!

What snacks do you love to make?