Living the ‘good life’ has no hard and fast rules. There’s lots of right ways to have a more sustainable, enjoyable and thoughtful life. Everyone has a different take on what 'living green' means and compost chick is all about looking at the options and adopting what works for your goals, lifestyle and budget.
SEEING the first eggs of the new year is always exciting.
It's a nice way to start off with fresh eggs for breakfast. So on January 1, I made pancakes and gave the hens the left-overs as a reward.
The little devils tried to get into the basil posts growing seedlings and the cherry and rouge marmalade tomato beds yesterday and I was just in time to stop Hilda from tearing down some cherry tomato branches.
I've been a bit lax in staking them up enough so must get into it.
ALL states bar Victoria will affected by newregulations to come in next year which may mean the end to the sharing of backyard eggs.
An article in the WEEKLY TIMES said from November, selling, trading or giving away eggs produced in your backyard could be banned.
Well, I for one am appalled.
This is serious as it means that backyard chook keepers like me who give away eggs (and those who also sell), will have our egg trading restricted.
My hens produce 4-5 eggs a day and the majority are given to friends who are unwell or I use them in my baking.
The WT article said all states and territories have signed the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code and each state has had to draft its own legislation. It added so far Victoria has an exemption from the stamping requirement until November 25 next year and an ongoing exemption for duck and quail eggs.
Different types of fruit trees need to be pruned at different times of the year.
While some gardeners like to go for the 'ground zero' approach, usually spring pruning ia lighter - more like getting a trim at the hairdresser than a buzz-cut.
IT seems crazy with all the rain we having down south to think about the long, hot summer ahead.
But it's coming, according to those lovable weather boffins at the BOM and Sir Peter Cundall.
So now is the time to turn over the compost that's been festering and bubbling away all winter and get ready to enrich and mulch your soil.
This weekend I'll compartment off my new veggie beds and keep the chooks in a section to have them fertilise and turn the soil over.
Last week I had two dangerously rotted gum trees removed and the workman kindly left behind the sawdust - but it's so saturated with eucalyptus oil which is a plant suppressant I'll have to dilute it through the compost bins before using in the garden.
While I'll probably have to wear gumboots and a rain-coat to do the weeding, I know come December I'll be glad I persevered.
He talks about how your garden over the years becomes another part of your family and your history.
Thinking back on the gardens I've created over the years, I fondly remember the roses I planted in Melbourne, my five gorgeous frangipani trees in Avalon, Sydney and the massive fruit and vegetable garden I recently moved from in Jan Juc.
Now I have another blank slate to work on and its an exciting prospect.
The old saying garden as though you have forever is a good one - but I'm thrilled and cannot wait for the weekends so I can get down and dig, weed, clear and plant!
LEEKS are one of the easiest and most delicious vegetables to grow.
In today's Weekly Times, Peter Cundall has an excellent article on growing these great vegies.
Here's a nice recipe to make and share with friends and family.
Leek and Spud Soup
Ingredients
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
1 brown onion, halved, chopped
3 cloves of garlic clove, crushed and chopped
4 medium (about 700g) peeled
desiree, pink eye or pontiac potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
2 leeks, pale section only,
washed, dried, thinly sliced
1.25L (5 cups) vegetable stock
4 thick slices day-old white
bread, crusts removed, cut into 2cm cubes
125ml (1/2 cup) low-fat greek yogurt or thickened
cream
Pinch of salt
2 tbs finely chopped fresh
chives or corriander
Method Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a large
saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring,
for three minutes or until the onion softens.
Add potato and leek and cook,
stirring, for 5 minutes or until leek softens.
Add the stock and bring to the
boil. Reduce heat to medium and gently boil, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until
potato is soft. Remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to
180°C. Place bread in a roasting pan. Drizzle with remaining oil and toss until
bread is evenly coated. Toast in preheated oven, shaking pan occasionally, for
10 minutes or until crisp. Remove croutons from oven and set aside.
Transfer one-third of the
potato mixture to the jug of a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a
clean saucepan. Repeat in 2 more batches with the remaining potato mixture.
Place the soup over medium
heat. Add the cream and stir to combine.
Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until
hot, then taste and season with salt.
Ladle the soup among serving
bowls and sprinkle with chives and top with croutons.
ABC TV Gardening Australia fact sheet advises... But in winter roses need a stronger prune to encourage good, solid, new growth. • Look for spindly stems. Follow these down to where they’re about the thickness of a biro. Then remove them. • The best time to prune is in June or July. But if you live in a really cold area of Australia, then wait until early August so that the frosts don’t knock back the new shoots.
• Look out for branches that are totally dead – any that have die back – need to be totally removed, right down to the stump level.
• Try and open up the centre of the bush, so there’s more air circulating.
• Look out for any water shoots – these are an olive green or even pink colour – and are absolutely essential. Take care of the water shoots because these are the young growth and this is where the rose will have its flowers. Just prune it lightly, so it will shoot out and produce more flowers.
• Never be afraid to remove large sections of the rose bush. Do this every couple of years to rejuvenate new growth. Remove any old branches, or any stems that look warty and crinkly.
• If you’re a timid person, prune about a third back, but, if you’re a radical like me, get out your secateurs and prune back by about half. Always from the top. And if you do that, you’re going to find you get many more good shoots for flowers.
• Look for an outward facing bud and cut. The new growth will then grow outwards and produce flowers around the outside of the bush. If you cut to an inward facing bud the direction of the new growth will cluster in the centre.
• Aim to cut at about a 45 degree angle and make sure that the cut is sloping away from the bud so that rain and dew won’t collect in the area where the bud forms onto the stem. This will help stop fungal disease.
• Heritage roses don’t need a lot of pruning. Just prune them to shape and tip prune regularly. Remove any dead bits.
• Ground cover roses are easy to prune - so easy that you could practically run over them with a motor mower. But if you are using loppers just cut them back, almost to ground level. They will re-grow by spring, particularly with some fertiliser, and mulch.
• Fertilise about three weeks after you’ve pruned.
• Remove the clippings and prunings from the garden. Clear them up. Don’t put them into the compost, but into the rubbish bin. This stops the spread of disease.
• Spray them with lime sulphur while the plants have no leaves and are dormant. That gets rid of scale and other fungal type diseases.
NEXT week it's winter as Peter Cundall notes in his latest Weekly Times column.
He notes that in the southern states it's a good time to plant broccoli and garlic.
So as along as it's not raining, I'll be out there in my gumboots and hand-knitted cable pure wool fluro orange jumper ($3 at the local op shop courtesy of someone whose grandma or aunty's fabulous knitting skills), turning over the compost and sowing some spring crops.
I'll also be harvesting some pumpkin to make soup and pumpkin risotto - yum.
Not to mention chasing the moulting chooks about and encouraging them to eat any caterpillar or aphids still handing about.
This pumpkin is now even bigger and about to turned into soup!
Check out the excellent Weekly Times article on adding nutrients to your soil.
Despite the wonderful rain, I'll be in my wellies and sou'wester and the chap will be similarly attired this weekend, as we work as getting the garden beds in shape.
As Sir Peter Cundall writer, minerals are the food of plants. Some are required in relatively large quantities while only tiny amounts of others, called nutrients, are needed.
I know it's cold outside, but it's a great time get out and enjoy the garden before the winter chills really hit and the soil becomes too cold and hard to dig.
If the rain ever stops, I'll be in the garden this weekend...
This weekend I'll be cleaning out Gidget's chook shack, which means bundling the little darlings out into the run while I don disposable gloves.
After removing all the soiled straw and newspaper, I give the floor a brush and a wipe, line it with fresh newspapers and straw. If I have any garlic skins or lavender flowers then I'll toss them in to help repel insects.
Then all the hen house sweepings of manure and hay go into an old salvaged steel rubbish bin and i cover it in water, leave it for a few weeks and hey presto! Great fertiliser which goes straight into the compost.
Plus the hens have a sweet smelling hutch.
There was also a good article in the Weekly Times on the hen health, including hutch design and cleanliness.
St Peter of Cundall has some excelllent advice regarding fertiliser in his latest column of the Weekly Times.
He gives some wise words on how a slow-acting fertiliser is crucial for adequate plant nourishment in the colder months.
Read.
Follow his instructions and we cannot go wrong.
Bless you St Peter.
Harvesting your own garlic is one of the joys of gardening.
Pulling up the bulbous cloves, hanging them to dry, sharing with friends the scrumptious taste of your own garlic – well, it’s up there with growing heritage tomatoes with basil, keeping chooks and eating passionfruit straight off the vine.
St Peter of Cundall has a great article on the ‘stinking rose’ as it is sometimes known in the latest Weekly Times.
Always plant more than you think you will want - once your mates get a taste they'll be asking to swap you some of their extra pumpkins / lemons or homemade bread for it. The more garlic you plant the better it gets! I find that it’s a good plant to have around roses too.
Don’t use supermarket garlic as planting corms – unless you are sure that you are purchasing 100 per cent certified organic they could be full of nasty chemicals. Better to get them from a reliable supplier such as your local nursery or someone like Diggers.
Start planting garlic and once you tatse it you’ll never go back to horrid, supermarket garlic again.
