June 2013 Kitchen garden Guide

 

Winter has not quite set in, allowing extra time for gardening in mild temperatures and mostly sunny days. I have been busy sheet mulching. I have several shrubbed areas I’d like to keep more or less grass free to reduce maintenance so here is what I do.

1.   More or less cut the grass and weeds as low as possible. Leave them on the surface.

2.   Throw over any vegetable scraps (even fresh), lawn clippings, plant clippings and soft prunings, mushroom compost, blood and bone.

3.   Completely and thoroughly cover it all with cardboard. Dampen down. Don’t worry too much about some sticky tape or coloured labels but I don’t use the shiny cardboard as it can take ages for water to get into it.

4.   Next put old manures to hold down the cardboard. Dampen again.

5.   Lastly cover with as much straw or other weed-free mulch as you can afford; 20 cms is good. Make it really dense and not too fluffy or you will soon see the cardboard.

6.   Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, smile and survey your work!

If you want to use a similar method in your herb garden or perennial vegetable area, use newspaper instead of cardboard, as it is easier to get it around smaller plants. Lay it 10 sheets thick and generously overlapped.

If you want to make a new vegetable garden bed, then, after mowing the grass and weeds down, sprinkle the ground generously with lime before following the cardboard or newspaper method.

Winter herbs for health and flavour

Do you love pesto and lament the end of fresh basil from your garden? Well I make a wonderful pesto with chervil and almonds / tarragon and pistachios / parsley and walnuts.

There are so many lovely herbs that either grow and thrive only in winter or continue to hold their colour and flavour even in winter. The former includes the slightly aniseed chervil, with its pretty, soft ferny leaves which I grow as a block and clip by the handful, with scissors. Also in this category is coriander with its robust flavour and growth habit. A less well known and often misunderstood winter herb is angelica, with a pine-like aroma in its large, fern-like leaves. No need to bother with the stems which are traditionally candied, simply chop up the leaves and use them finely sliced with fruit or to line the bottom of a cake tin before baking. Parsley is a fabulous winter herb, readily self-sows and is useful all through winter in meals and as a wonderful source of vitamin C, in our climate where oranges are rare.

Interestingly, all these are members of the Umbelliferae or carrot family. The family also includes asafoetida, caraway, cumin, dill and lovage, to name a few.

Rocket is another herb that germinates and thrives during winter.

Herbs that hold their colour and flavour even in winter include rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, winter savory, bay and sage, although sage should be picked sparingly as it is much less vigorous in winter.

Community Help Needed

Some of us have secured the rather lovely job of revamping the Cygnet Library garden and over the next few months will be bringing life, colour and some edibles to the small, front beds.

In order to get something cheerful into the soil for winter we are asking for any donations of small flowering plants and herbs of a good size. If you can help with donations, please email me katevag@gmail.com or speak to the library staff.

As time goes on we hope to introduce signs and gardening tips as part of the library’s education arm, encouraging everyone to learn and enjoy plants in their lives. Hopefully we will be allowed to extend our plans right the way around the library and incorporate many Tasmanian plants, edible and ornamental as well as local art projects.

Bushfire Gardens

Thank you so much to those who kindly donated an amazing array of garden-related goods. They have now been delivered and I have been asked to express gratitude by the gardeners in need. Please keep donating, but only garden goodies please, to 4 Winns Road, Cygnet, behind my letterbox.

 

Books for winter reading Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison (A mammoth book of every vegetable and herb imaginable – includes history, geography, culture and cooking) The Great Herb Tour by Christina Hindhaugh (A delightful true story of travelling the world in search of herbs and gardeners).

 

Blogs and websites for indoor enjoyment www.goldenvalleyfarm.net – Alex Taylor’s adventures as a market gardener including his new DIY movable cloche/poly tunnel system ABC Landline 26/05/2013 : Sailing to Market – a superb video of the Olive May’s recent trip down the Huon, collecting produce to take to Salamanca market. The Preserving Patch – a Tasmanian blog all about preserving, by Sue who lives in the north west (thepreservingpatch.blogspot.com.au)

 

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flower annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs

Sow in trays: Brassicas Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens Jobs for June Prune deciduous trees except cherries and apricots Feed and mulch the dripline of fruit trees with anything you have, including seaweed. Collect seaweed (especially kelp) after winter storms and cover your asparagus patch with it. Brassicas also love it. Wonderful added to your compost too.

June 2018 Kitchen Garden Guide

 Winter is just beginning to set in, allowing extra time for gardening in mild soil temperatures and mostly calm days. The winter forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology for southern Tasmania is for warmer than average temperatures and average rainfall. This is pleasant for us humans but not so good for fruit set, much of which requires a serious number of cold nights.

Cold winters ensure a good crop of apples, cherries, pears, nuts and berries, which have a chill factor. This means they require a certain number of hours below 7C to ensure an even bloom period. However, during mild winters, as is forecast this year, the chilling requirement may not be met and could result in uneven bloom, and hence uneven pollination and less fruit set. The table below suggests the chill hours required by various fruits. Of course within, for example, apples, there are hundreds of varieties, each differing slightly in its requirements but this table gives a general guide.

Apple 300 - 1200	Chestnut 400 - 750
Apricot 300 - 1000	Almond 400 - 700
Cherry – 500 - 800	Walnut 400 – 1500
Fig 100 - 500	Avocado NONE
Grapes 100 - 500	Citrus NONE
Kiwi 400 - 800	Pear 150 - 1500
Peach 150-1200	Persimmon 100 - 700
Pecan 150 - 1600	Plum 275 - 1000
Nectarine 150 - 1200	Quince 100 - 500
Pomegranate 100 - 300	Olive 400 - 700

 

 

Winter Sheet mulching

Now is the perfect time for sheet mulching. I have several shrubbed areas I like to keep more or less grass free to reduce maintenance so here is what I do.

1.   More or less cut the grass and weeds as low as possible and leave them on the surface. or trample down flat.

2.   Throw over any vegetable scraps (even fresh), lawn clippings, plant clippings and prunings, mushroom compost, blood and bone.

3.   Completely and thoroughly cover it all with cardboard. Dampen down. Don’t worry too much about some sticky tape or coloured labels but I don’t use the shiny cardboard as it can take ages for water to get into it.

4.   Next put old manures to hold down the cardboard. Dampen again.

5.   Lastly cover with as much straw or other weed-free mulch as you can afford; 20 cms is good. Make it really dense and not too fluffy or you will soon see the cardboard.

6.   Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, smile and survey your work!

If you want to use a similar method in your herb garden or perennial vegetable area, use wet newspaper instead of cardboard, as it is easier to get it around smaller plants. Lay it 10 sheets thick and generously overlapped.

If you want to make a new vegetable garden bed, then, after mowing the grass and weeds down, sprinkle the ground generously with lime before following the cardboard or newspaper method.

Winter herbs for health and flavour

Do you love pesto and lament the end of fresh basil from your garden? Well I make a wonderful, winter pesto with chervil and almonds / nettles and pistachios / parsley and walnuts.

There are so many lovely herbs that either grow and thrive only in winter or continue to hold their colour and flavour even in winter. The former includes the slightly aniseed chervil, with its pretty, soft ferny leaves which I grow as a block and clip by the handful, with scissors. Also in this category is coriander with its robust flavour and growth habit. Parsley is a fabulous winter herb, readily self-sows and is useful all through winter in meals and as a wonderful source of vitamin C, in our climate where good, organic oranges are rare.

Interestingly, all these are members of the Umbelliferae or carrot family. The family also includes angelica, asafoetida, caraway, cumin, dill and lovage, to name a few.

Rocket is another herb that germinates and thrives during winter so add a few to any pesto. Nettles are wonderful with walnuts or pistachios in a pesto, or as a pot of delicious tea; one of my favourites. Wasabi greens are a new addition to our gardens and give a great little punch and flavour to any dish, raw or lightly cooked. Easily self sows.

Other herbs that hold their colour and flavour in winter include rosemary, thyme, oregano and marjoram (but they do die down to a flat ground cover), winter savory, bay and sage, although sage should be picked sparingly as it is much less vigorous in winter.

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Sow in trays to plant out later: Brassicas Globe Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens

Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flowering annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs Asian greens Lettuce Spinach

 

Books for winter reading

Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison (A mammoth book of every vegetable and herb imaginable – includes history, geography, culture and cooking) The Generous Earth by Philip Oyler (A beautiful book about peasant life in the Dordogne after WW2; the natural cycles of the farming and foraging life before commerce and tourism.) Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (How a modern, young American woman married a Japanese farmer and learned to eat from the farm and cook by the seasons….. and so, so much more)

June 2019 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

At last winter has arrived! Rain, hail, snow and cold winds have streamed across us but will it last? The BOM forecast is for a drier and warmer than average winter, with plenty of frost (because of clear skies). This frost bodes well for next season’s apples, pears, cherries and berries, all of which revel in plenty of cold temperatures while they are dormant. But the warmer day time temperatures may interfere with that! Frost is also excellent for developing carrot and parsnip flavour and for enhancing the amazing colours in vegetables such as rainbow chard and red chicories.

Pumpkins

One vegetable that does not like the cold is pumpkins. If frost lands on them and freezes even a tiny spot then that spot will go soft and eventually rot. So, for best storage, pick them when the stems have completely dried and browned off. This has not happened with mine this year. With all the warm autumn weather the leaves have stayed green. Nevertheless, the time has come to collect them up and bring them inside to dry and harden, upside-down, in a warm place like on the mantlepiece above the firebox. Cut stems at least 15cms long as cutting them closer to the pumpkin before they are dried off may let fungus creep into the pumpkin and it will rot from the inside. Once the stems are fully brown and crisp, you can cut them short. Store them on their side for best results.

Beetroot

Beetroot is related to spinach and red chard, but did you know it's also related to quinoa?I am growing quite a bit of beetroot this winter and, with staggered sowing way back in Jan/Feb/early March, it will keep me going for months. You can also sow it in spring as it is very carefree and loves the cold, cool and warm weather but I prefer to eat it in winter. Beetroot goes well with apples, walnuts, rocket, lentils (all autumn and winter crops), basil, balsamic vinegar, goats cheese, and gin herbals (juniper, cardamon, coriander, cinnamon, citrus and also the Tasmanian pepperberry). It also makes a wonderful probiotic drink called kvass which, like all fermented foods, is packed with enzymes and microbes for gut health and immune boosting.

I peel beetroot for kvass because it has little bumps and hairs that may house microbes that can affect the fermentation. Once peeled, chop 2 large organic beets coarsely and place in a 1.5 litre jar. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 litre of water. Put the lid on and shake. Label with the day, leave on the bench for 5 days then refrigerate. Drink daily. You can refill once with water when it is all gone but then you need to start again. Delicious!

Winter greens and mulch experiment

Why are my winter greens (kale, chards, bok choy, wasabi greens, chicory, spinach, mizuna) especially strong and healthy this year? Because I added inoculated biochar, compost, blood and bone, lime and hay. Before planting I had intended to add more hay but I added a thick mulch of old sheep manure instead because I watched a video by Charles Dowding in which he mentioned using old sheep manure as a mulch in very frosty areas.

Seaweed in winter

As winter storms in the roaring 40’s send high seas crashing onto the shores of Tasmania, kelp and other sea plants are strewn on the beaches. I heard on the radio that we are allowed to collect seaweed from most beaches at the rate of 100kg / day in Tasmania. Seaweed is heavy, so that is not as much as it sounds. I have some great ideas for using it! Seaweed contains trace elements which we often neglect to think about in our food gardens (and our stomachs).

1.   Wash it and eat it; either raw (if tender enough) or cooked or just put a piece in when you make soup then discard if its too tough. I have eaten many local seaweeds, especially from south eastern Bruny Island where the water is pristine.

2. Place tubs or large buckets here and there in your garden. Half fill them with seaweed and fill to the top with water. Cover if you like. Keep a ladle nearby. Whenever you see some plants looking a bit weak or off-colour give them a tonic of 1 part seaweed water to 9 parts water, in a watering can. Pour over the leaves.
3. Completely cover your asparagus patch with a thick layer of seaweed during winter. Leave the rain and the worms to do the work.
4. Seaweed is a wonderful addition to mulch under fruit trees.
5. Add it to your compost heap.

Winter herbs for health and flavour

Do you love pesto and lament the end of fresh basil from your garden? Well I make a wonderful pesto with chervil and almonds / rocket and pistachios / parsley or nettles and walnuts.

There are so many lovely herbs that either grow and thrive only in winter or continue to hold their colour and flavour even in winter. The former includes the slightly aniseed chervil, with its pretty, soft ferny leaves which I grow as a block and clip by the handful, with scissors. Also in this category is coriander with its robust flavour and growth habit. Rocket is a favourite everywhere. Parsley is a fabulous winter herb, readily self-sows and is useful all through winter in meals and as a wonderful source of vitamin C, in our climate where oranges are rare in our gardens. The latter includes rosemary, Tas. Pepperberry leaves, bay leaves as well as fennel fronds and flowers.

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Sow in trays to plant out later: Brassicas Globe Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens

Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flowering annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs Asian greens Lettuce Spinach Fireside Reading “The Veg Doctor’s Illustrated Field and Fork Guide to Potent Plants” by (Tasmanian) Hazel MacTavish-West

 

The hose and the skein of autumn

Autumn is that season when we may have the last of our summer vegetables still ripening while the nuts are starting to fall, but, as the days shorten and cool, the first of the new season’s leaves are emerging too. It is a glorious season for the home gardener and one I think a lot of people let slip by, unappreciated.

Life is like a skein of wool; keep it whole and you remain cosy and protected. The more you unravel it, the more you have to deal with the consequences but also the more opportunities it reveals. And so it is with the food garden in autumn!

I find the hurly burly of the spring garden stressful. I never seem to get ahead. Christmas looms, in a flash the grass is as high as an elephant's eye and seeds need to be constantly sown and seedlings tended to ensure a long summer vegetable harvest.

As I stand with the hose this dry autumn day, I am relaxed. Dew makes everything look fresh, flashes of red of the last of the tiny, wild strawberries and regular ones too are dotted about, enticing the gardener to wander further, nibbling here and there as I water. Fully ripe, the deep red, delicious, Chilean guava fruits are so abundant that I put the hose down in order to gorge on them before moving on.

I am careful not to stand on any self-sown chicory plants which colour the paths with their brilliant greens, reds and various markings, all of which are being constantly and gently harvested to add to my salads. Soon, their bitterness will recede with the cold of winter and larger leaves can be picked. Chicories are the beauty queens of the winter garden in Europe but are vastly under-valued here, despite my almost daily exclamations of delight to whoever will listen! I especially love the French “endive” (also called witlof by the English, but which is far superior in France than anywhere else), and the French “chicoree frise” which wear vast bonnets in the fields of France and emerges sweet and crisp but which I love, even without its blanched leaves, if picked young from your own garden.

While I wait for the very last of my bean pods to crisp up, brassicas such as broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli and red cabbages are growing in pots in my greenhouse, ready for transplanting to the resulting nitrogen rich bed. I am not watering these old bean plants now, so I turn the nozzle off and fossick through the dilapidated mass, searching for brown, crisp, dry pods, plump and ripe with dried beans inside. Leaving them to hang there too long results in insects burrowing in and having a feast. I put the half dozen pods in my pocket to add to my inside stash later and pick up the hose again.

Next is my winter greens bed, planted out a few weeks ago and looking fabulous, despite the encroaching shade from the lower angle of the sun and the frosty hollow that it occupies. Winter leaves are thoroughly adaptable to shade, frost and even snow, bouncing back up and throwing off the weight of ice in the hardest and coldest winter weather. The trick is to get them well advanced before mid-May when the short day length, the soft light and cold nights reduce their capacity to grow without big solar panels to capture every second of good light to make growth, not just survive.

This bed was well prepared with compost and deep hay. Consequently, it needs very little watering and I have started picking a few leaves from the lettuce, mizuna and wasabi greens already. I pick and nibble and leave the hose for now. The tomatoes also have needed very little water, with this deep hay method, despite it being warm and terribly dry for months. I have never had so many huge, luscious, delicious tomatoes and the plants are still deep green and healthy in mid-April which is incredible.

I water an unmulched area of kale and coriander and celtuce. Why did I not include this patch in my deep hay experiment? Goodness, I don’t know and now wish I had! It is much easier to plant into a mulched garden than to mulch it later. Oh well, I water it well and move on….

I find it is important to be constantly planting parsley or risk the cook’s nightmare of running out in winter, when it is too late to sow more! This seems to be an excellent year for parsley as not only have I planted consecutive crops but also it has self sown in thick patches which are growing dark green and fabulously; much better than those I planted.

Just about back where I started, I water the walking onions a friend gave me recently, which have now shot out wonderfully and look strong enough to get to a good size before mid May. Lots of fennel are coming up around the edges of the deep hay so I water them too. The Tasmanian purple garlic are in and should emerge soon but I won’t water them until they do.

Walking past the main herb garden I stop to nibble on the flowers of the garlic chives and put some in my pocket too, to add to my salad for lunch. They are crunchy and sweet and very garlicky; almost enough to make my eyes water! While I water them, even though they don’t ask for it, I notice the red-ribbed dock is again coming up from its summer hibernation. In a frosty, winter garden it shines like a beacon to me when I am at the kitchen sink. Even if I never ate it, I would still love it.

Out near the front door, the quince is laden with enticing, big, yellow globes, attracting attention from every visitor, to some of whom I give one or two…. if they are drooling! Many artichokes and cardoons are now shooting and growing like the wind. Also by the front door are my saffron bulbs which are in full production of the earthy saffron filaments I adore. Last night I put my own fresh saffron into my tagine dinner. How exciting, even though I only had 9 threads. I did add a pinch of bought saffron but I am sure mine tasted better :-)

There is much more, like the Cape Gooseberry jungle in my greenhouse, with fruits that have not stopped for nearly 2 years, the new goji berry by the fence, the limes ripening on the front verandah, the lemon which I am protecting this winter with a courtyard of hay bales around it, the sweet potato experiment and the tamarillo about to burst out through the top of the greenhouse and I am not sure what to do about it…… and so on and so on.

As I sit here in the dawn at my computer, with the imaginary hose in my hand, it is such a joy to wander vicariously through my garden, unravelling the skein of garden food, friends who have given me plants and life’s images from where I first had vegetable experiences in far off countries. Life is short; get there fast then take it slow. I am there and really enjoying the slow life of autumn in the food garden.

Pears, Eggs, Mulch and more

I love cool days; I can get so much done. I love where I live; it is rarely brown and dry and the creek through my garden mostly trickles and tinkles all summer long.

I had a problem with my mulcher this morning so, while I thought about how to fix it I took to the lawn mower…. then I had a bright idea, which worked and I felt very pleased with myself as the mulcher once again roared into action.

After I had reduced the whole pile of sticks and prunings to a nice heap of mulch to spread on my paths, I decided to continue my fix-it session and move the latch on the chook yard gate to a more ergonomic place. I also took out a large, spiral steel rod I have and, over and over again, screwed it into the compacted stuff in the cut-off rain water tank where I throw garden waste for the chooks. That is very satisfying as, when I pull it up, it loosens up the lovely composted waste below and puts it on top of the new stuff. The chooks have been in there with their bottoms up and beaks down, ever since, finding all the grubs and worms that have made it home since I last aerated it.

On my way inside for lunch I collected eggs, picked another armful of pears and dug up a huge, self-sown parsnip that had grown up through the debris that I had mulched. I have never had one that big in my garden before. What a great morning.

I will have been here 5 years on March 10th…. and only now am I ready to make some changes to some parts of my garden. Up until now most of it has stayed more or less the same, except the makeover I did early on to make a vegetable garden, herb garden and chook area.

After lunch my brush-cutter and I make short work of slashing the retched grass that is the curse of the Tasmanian gardener as it grows a mile a minute and forms thick clumps with hundreds of small nodules that are impossible to eliminate, if you leave it for even a few weeks. At least slashing it makes it look nice for a while!

All today’s work has been in one area; a particularly secluded spot which gets full winter sun and very little wind…. and up until now has been entirely ornamental. This was such a pretty, shady, ferny area when I came here but a couple of years ago the beautiful willow tree fell into the creek, removing all the shade. At first I was horrified and it became unkempt and ugly until I realised not what I had lost but what I had gained.

Oh lalala wait until you see what I have in mind to make it a key part of my food garden! What I discovered as I removed a temporary, chicken wire fence I constructed to let the chooks in to dig it over but to keep them from wandering further, involved tall, lush grass tangled in the whole length of the bottom of the fence…. and that the soil there, at the bottom of the slope, was fabulous. I know only too well how dry and barren the soil is just a few metres further up the slope…. so…. brain ticks…. terrace it along the contours…. with straw bales of which I have plenty…. like the slope of my vegetable garden in Adelaide.

The reason I need more food garden is that the oak tree near the chook yard has roots that have crept into some beds of my irrigated vegetable garden, turning them to dry dust, no matter how much compost and water I add. So I will have to think about what to do there…. maybe a few big pots…. or something!

Sadly there are no before and after photos to brighten up this monologue!

 

 

I love lacto-fermented vegetables…. Here is a jar of radishes well on their way and a jar of zucchini pieces and fennel seeds being made.

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful group of people come to the Cygnet Community Garden on Thursdays. I especially like the food each of them brings to share at the end of the gardening session!

It is darn easy being green, you know.

It’s a funny thing but I never cease to be surprised and delighted by self-sown vegetables popping up just at the time when I am thinking I really must sow some. Today I weeded an unruly and neglected patch, leaving various things that are setting seeds. I long for an empty bed to rake to a fine tilth and sow with nice neat rows of something, like I see on TV, but I never get one because of all the things I let go to seed and the things I see germinating. At the community garden, however, I am a bit more ruthless!

It is quite windy lately and pleasantly warm so I sprinkled a fine layer of mulch over the weeded area, after thoroughly wetting the soil and adding some blood and bone, just to help along the tiny red cabbage and leek seedlings emerging here and there. I expect lettuce will appear soon and maybe some kind of Asian leafy green; frilly mustard I hope.

In September I planted out some garlic that I bought from a local market gardener who told me that this hard neck garlic, planted late like this, is what keeps him in garlic for months after the rest have finished. Well they are still growing well and I am eating the scapes some of them have produced. I look forward to multiplying this variety to more than the 6 cloves I managed to plant last September.

This is the first time the nashi and the Bramley have produced fruit and what a picture they are!  I love an espalier because they are so easy to maintain and pick and look so gorgeous. The nashi are a lovely yellow colour, very juicy and a nice change from all the soft fruits this time of the year.

The Bramley is an enormous apple which turns to a delicious mush inside, when baked whole (as I did tonight). I can only eat half of one at a time! These photos are deceiving!

What a lovely day in the garden and another tomorrow, I hope.

A gorgeous day in the winter garden

I still get just as excited as ever when I spend the afternoon in my garden and see self-sown things coming up, others growing tall and strong and still older plants regrowing unexpectedly for another season. It sounds corny but it soothes my soul and brings an inner peace that I find hard to feel elsewhere.

Every year at this time it is the red cabbage that makes me smile most. It is certainly the colours and texture of the leaves but it is also the fact that several of them are approaching forming their third crop of red cabbages, with odd branches draped here and there like a small tree, and one is even older. I cut most of the side shoots off and just leave those that look most likely to form a heart. The oldest of them now only has one cabbage forming so this may be its last year. I will be sad to see it go as it has been here almost as long as I have!

The late afternoon light in winter is soft and casts long shadows through the garden. When a flash of sun appears from behind a sea of dark clouds it highlights whatever catches the late rays. Sometimes this is a deep red chard leaf or a bright yellow chard stem or the fine leaves of the lime green frilly mustard. Sometimes it is the bees on the brilliant yellow flowers of the bok choy flowers.

The sky seems enormous in winter here; I think because there are many layers of clouds; some white and shooting across the sky, others dark and menacing and sitting down on the mountains while still more sometimes seem to be going in the opposite direction, all at once. Being in the garden, feeling the breeze come up and being aware of the sky as I potter about is one of my greatest joys. I love the feel of mizzle, that unique cross between drizzle and mist that happens in Tasmania, and the way its chill feels on my lips and cheeks.

This chilly, damp air is what I came here for, from the dry air of South Australia. Mizzle brightens your cheeks, settles on your eye lashes, turns your hair frizzy and softens the light but is not quite wet enough to have to put on a jacket, which is perfect for gardening.

Everything old is new again in the red cabbage patch	Marigolds seem to flower all year round
I love miners lettuce and let it self-sow	The darkest of the red chards
	This self-sown bed is now clear of weeds, fertilised with mushroom compost and chicken manure pellets then covered in straw to let the worms and microbes enjoy turning the soil for me.
Self-sown lettuce amongst the new coriander	Tools of the trade + a bucket of leek seedlings removed and ready to take to the community garden tomorrow.
Straw bale chook house I made for 2 new chooks I am getting soon	I love this wooden bucket of water for the chooks. It has azola growing in it to keep the water fresh.
Why is she taking photos of us?	Chicory would have to be one of the most beautiful and varied winter vegetables in my garden….
	In winter it is brilliant in salads

May in my garden

The autumn light is a delight for photography and I have been spending a bit more time in the garden again, since the weather has been so wonderfully cool and sunny. What happens is that, by the end of an afternoon in the garden, I have made all sorts of plans for what I will do the next day.

Then, the next day comes. I saunter out into the garden, grab my tools bag on the way and before I know it I have ditched yesterday’s wonderful plans and am launching into another, never-before-even-considered project. With gusto and enthusiasm I work away, searching out the bits and pieces needed, from every nook and cranny of my fabulous acre.

Today I took to the area under the oak tree. For 3 years I have tried to improve the soil and tried to grow various tough vegetables such as broad beans and then sunchokes. All have more or less failed to thrive. The soil remains dry, hard and barren, even after applications of compost and straw as well as constant summer watering. I wish I had a ‘before’ photo but it was never worthy of any photos and I did not expect today to bring such satisfaction that I would look back and wish for such a photo.

But one thing leads to another and it happened that the beautiful terracotta pots I brought from Adelaide a couple of years ago, which had been stacked in a corner until I had decided how to use them or sell them, were shifted yesterday, to make way for something else. As I came outside this morning they immediately caught my eye and thoughts swirled around until one took root. So obvious, in retrospect. Where the soil is hopeless, put pots.

In the back of my mind I have wanted to have somewhere in my vegetable garden to sit and look out over it…… a sunny, winter coffee corner….. out of the wind…. and it all gelled today, under the oak tree.

I removed everything that was there…. which wasn’t much…. wheelbarrowed in some poplar mulch and a few stepping stones (both from the tree I had removed last week)…. dotted the pots about…. installed a bench from elsewhere in the garden…. made a little table (also from the poplar) and I thought it looked quite nice…..

I went back to my proper Tuesday plan which was to dig up and transplant dozens of self-sown leeks…

Then, part way through that job, I had an urge to go back to the oak tree and use the seat for my coffee break….

Looking at those pretty pots was nice but they needed filling with plants….. hmmmm…. two parts of my brain collided as I remembered I had some seedlings ready to go, in my hot house.

 

So, I planted them all into the pots…. lovely winter things like coriander, chervil, garlic chives, bok choy, frilly mustard and shungiku.

Liz came around to collect her milk and I showed her, as I knew she’d love it too, but she was way more ecstatic than I even imagined. Isn’t it lovely when someone else sees things the way you do!

 

 

Leeks, from tiny bulbils in the soil	I dug up the clumps and washed all the soil off, trimmed the leaves and roots and separated them out…
… then wrapped the bundles in damp newspaper, ready to give away.	Tray of winter seedlings needing a home!

Poa grasses

In South Australia I often heard people talk about the old days when they had a poa grass lawn, before everybody watered their lawns. Poa is a group of grasses native to parts of Australia and some are drought and/or frost hardy, ranging in location from river banks to alpine regions. I have never seen a poa lawn, however, and wondered why nobody seemed to sell the seed.

At the food forest here in Cygnet one of the first jobs was to remove all the poa grass which at one time somebody had planted. Everybody seemed to know what this was except me but I soon understood.... it was those huge clumps of dead looking stuff! This must be different to the SA poa grass, surely! Like the others, I threw the clumps into a big heap as Celia told us to..... but later I discovered her plan. You see, the long, brown, dry, reedy grass can be harvested regularly through the year, simply by giving the clumps a hair cut, and used as an excellent, fine mulch which does not break down as fast as straw. They were almost a metre high when we cut them.

So, at the end of the gardening session, we each cut and left the mulch to use next week, and took the clumps home, with soil attached, to plant in our own gardens to give a supply of mulch for next summer. Here in the photo are my shorn clumps, all planted. Well, why aren't we doing this in our gardens in SA?? I know there are grasses in the nurseries but I did not know much about using them.

 

Already the poas I planted after the first garden session have sprouted new growth and I look forward to having a border around my lawn before long but more, I look forward to harvesting my own mulch when I need it.

 

 

Both of the photos below have links that will take you to the source of the photos and to wonderfully interesting native Australian plant nurseries.

Poa Labillardieri or 'Large Tussock Grass' is a clumping species to nearly 1m with grey-green leaves. Hardy, frost tolerant and drought tolerant this Poa is great for borbers and landscape plantings. Poa australis or 'Blue Tussock Grass' is a smaller growing species approx 30cm. and like all Poa is attractive to birds. Poa sieberiana is the 'Grey Tussock Grass' and is found in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

The S.A.State Flora Nursery at Belair has an incredible range of plants including the poa labillardieri, on page 34 of the extensive but not very user-friendly online catalogue.