Big Red

TOMATO time is here again.

Last night I spent a couple of hours weeding and getting rid of dead plant leaves in the Cluckingham Palace tomato bed which is chock-full of cherry tomatoes.

Sweetbite bite cherry tomatoes

It's a fun time of the year with the different varieties of tomatoes are ripening at different stages, so there's a constant supply of yummy types.

Rouge Marmalade tomatoes

 

The free range chef Annabelle Langbein has a great recipe for Harvest tomato sauce...

 

Rotate

CROP rotation is critical to growing healthy food.

In an old basket in my garden shed is a tattered back issue of Gardening Australia magazine permanently open to the an article on rotating garden beds.

Torn, smudged with soil and looking more than a little weathered, this back issue is my mantra when it comes to planting a new garden.

I've made notes about what I have planted and where so I can be sure to not plant the same species there next season.

Six bed are the ideal but now I am in a downsized garden this time round rather than having eight beds spread out over 100sq m, I'm going for smaller beds placed in the best area for sunshine - all wired off to keep the feather riot out.

This is my tomato bed and at the

rear I have planted broad beans

			Keeping a garden diary is fascinating and prevents you make mistakes.

Dig it

DIGGING in a new vegetable bed or three is so satisfying.

 

On the weekend I finally planted out some vegetables including three varieties of tomato - Tommy Toe, Rouge de Marmalade and Burke's Backyard best - kale, climbing beans, basil and broad beans.

 

 

Preparing the beds took longer than I thought as previous owners have dumped bricks, stones, china, plaster and all manner of rubbish in the yard and sifting and removing the junk form the soil was a job and a half.

 

Luckily I managed to get this all finished just as the rain started.

 

Roll on summer!

 

Here I have put in paths using some of the old pavers I found stacked

under some grass clippings.

 

Rouge de Marmalade planted in front of the beans which will grow and hide the back fence.

To the right are some jacaranda trees and an old fuchsia whose days are numbered as I have to dig out the surrounding running-bamboo.

 

The hens commence digging up the lawn for my new tomato garden.

Composting

NOW spring is here I'm ready to get my new compost heaps humming.

So far I have simply been layering green waste such as lawn clippings with food left-overs I can't feed the hens and torn newspapers, etc. Two bins are full and quietly simmering away in it's full position, while the third is about 1/6th complete.

The old garden was much bigger and its unrelenting clay soil meant seven bins were constantly on the go, but now I figure three will do for this smaller plot.

There's also a heap of sawdust left-over form the removal of two old, rotted gum trees which were removed before they fell on the hen-house. As eucalyptus oil is a growth inhibitor, I'm going to run the sawdust through the compost bins to leach it and convert it into something useful.

So this weekend I'll commence turning over the mixture and ensuring the balance is correct - hopefully encountering some worms along the way!

As usual, Gardening Australia have some useful tips - you can never know it all with composting!

Vine awakening

WITH blossom on the fruit trees, pansy, jumping jack and lobelia flowering like mad in the hanging baskets outside the kitchen windows and various bulbs showing their faces all over the garden, it's good to see spring has also woken up the grape vine.

 

The vine is growing up the north-west facing side the deck divide and until a few days ago looked like dead wood. But now it's putting out leaves at a rate of knots to shame to the two passion fruit vines at the other end of the garden.

 

I have no idea what type of grapes this plant will bear or if they are ornamental or edible as the previous owner left no tags on or near any of their plants when they moved out. This is a shame as I always leave tags on my trees.

 

So I hope the new owners of my old home will look at the fruit trees and be excited about the four varieties of apples and realise the enormous New Dawn rose climbing up the deck will soon explode in a mass a scented blooms.

 

What I thought looked like hyacinth bulbs have turned out to be bluebells, which is a nice surprise.

 

But for now, I'm happy to wait and watch and see what the vine produces - gardening is always such an adventure. 

Garden memories

EVERY time you work in your garden you are adding to its development and creating another memory of its creation.

Yes, that sounded pretty serious and profound for a Tuesday morning post-coffee blog, but I've just read Peter Cundall's latest column in the Weekly Times and it's a cracker.

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!

Good times are ahead with this garden.

Passion(for)fruit

LAST weekend was so sensational; warm, sunny and bursting with spring energy I was inspired to get a couple of passionfruit vines for my new garden.

 

After having a great deal of frustration and failure at my previous garden, the Jan Juc Surf Farm, I'm very hopeful Geelong's friable soil will be kinder and result in more fruit. Not to mention my own wild-bee hive just a few metres away above the garden shed.

 

However, as the feather riot are often free-ranging, protecting these precious vines is critical if I am able to enjoy Panama Red and Nelly Kelly on my breakfast porridge down the track.

So some of the left-over avian wire form the new Cluckingham palace has been used to create a barrier to keep the hens away.

This time I also skipped the usual bury-the-lamb-heart under the vine strategy and have gone for diluted chook poo instead.

Hopefully this time next year the passionfruit will be falling off the vine buy the bucket-load and the fence will be covered in healthy flowers, fruit and leaves.

Bamboozled

I NEED to borrow a goat.

Last Sunday I chopped down metres of bamboo to clear out the side of the chook shed and studio.

Hard work but so worth it as I also have a zillion bamboo lengths to use as stakes for the tomatoes, peas and beans I'll be planting next month.

Now a goat would be useful as they eat anything, including bamboo which is notoriously difficult to remove bar nuclear fusion.

The feather riot get stuck into the bugs hiding in the bamboo leaves.

The chooks were very helpful in eating all the insects who rushed out of the bamboo leaves.

Now I face the onerous task of digging out the bamboo roots. Once this is down I'll lay down some crushed rock or topping and I'll have a good place to keep the rubbish bins.

If you know anyone with a goat for rent, let me know.

DIGGING IN

A NEW garden is a heaven of possibilities.

Now I've moved from my established fruit and vegetable patch to a garden which consists mostly of level lawn, a few old sheds, massive eucalyptus and a rose bush in need of a good prune, it's time get out the secateurs, space and garden fork.

The first thing to do so I can sort out wat i want to grow where is to look at the soil and drainage.

Jan Juc was chock-full of clay, whereas my new abode in Geelong seems to have a really nice friable dark brown soil.

Bliss.

It took seven compost bins in high rotation to combat the clay so I reckon I'll be right with three.

But just to be sure, I've been noting during the recent rains just where the water is draining to.

As usual Peter Cundall is on top of this topic.

Seaside compost

ONE of the benefits of living on the coast is collecting seaweed for compost.

It sounds like a conundrum - adding something salty to the garden, except it isn't.

Read this great article by Peter Cundall in today's Weekly Times...

I usually run the seaweed through a compost bin before adding it the garden - it breaks down really well.

You need to check with council if you plan on taking away a heap of it.

Check your local beach after a storm or some wild weather and you'll be amazed at the variety available to help out your garden.

Pruning the roses

PERFUMED roses are one of the most rewarding plants to grow.

Their exquisite fragrance, dazzling colours and beautiful flowers bring a smile to my face whenever I walk outside.

But they do require a bit of thought about their pruning in order to make sure they will bloom this spring and summer.

The latest column by gardening expert Peter Cundall in the Weekly Times talks about knowing your rose before you prune.

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.

Online gardening

THERE'S a plethora of fabulous gardening resources online.

One of the best is the monthly newsletter from the good folk at Sustainable Gardening Australia.

Plus SGA has developed four informative booklets for home gardeners: Home Harvest, Sustainable Gardening, Waterwise Gardening and Gardening Self Audit.

They have other excellent resources so you can plan your spring planting and beyond on those days it's too wet and cold to pull on the gumboots and dig.

Chooks are a great way to get greener in the garden - they love turning over the compost!

One off-line choice to get some hens.

They are less trouble than you think, provide gorgeous eggs, manure for the compost bins, eat bugs, provide an amazing way to de-stress because they are so hilarious and will happily turn over an old veggie bed to prepare for the next planting.

Now it's winter it's a great time to plan your new chook run, hutch and investigate what type of chickens to keep.

 

Hakea heaven

A COUPLE of years ago I planted a hakea bush on the front nature-strip amongst some grevillias and now it's a blooming delight.

Bees make straight for the nectar as do honey eaters and other native birds and the flowers are such a lovely beacon on these grey winter days.

It is not simply a gorgeous shrub with its beautiful flowers, fast growth and thick foliage it is also a marvellous screening plant.

Recently the local council put in footpaths on my side of the street and they dug up most of my nature strip garden, despite not needing to place the concrete there. In their wisdom, the workers dug up most of the plants leaving the grevillias roots to the sky.

Somehow amidst the carnage the bottle-brush and hakea survived.

I managed to save a couple but the majority have died.

But every morning when i walk outside and see the hakea in flower, I'm grateful it's still there.

Rain on me

OK, it's been raining long and hard and I'm ready for some serious sunshine now so I can get outside and weed, turn compost and chase chooks.

Tomatoes are still popping up and I'm pulling them out as fast as I can.

The tank is overflowing and the lemon trees are looking fantastic considering they are in such clay-like soil. This is probably due to all the composting I've dug in over the past few years, because they struggled when first planted ans spent a couple of years sulking.

Looks like there's a break in the rain so I'll pull on the wellingtons and do what i can before the next cloudburst.

Winter gardening the go

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!

Pumpkin chutney

WHILE scrunching up papers to light the wood heater the other night, the Australian's weekend magazine fell out of the pile and landed open on David Herbert's always interesting recipe page.

As I tossed in the pine cones, I noticed an intriguing recipe for pumpkin chutney.

Mmmm.

As my pumpkins look ready, I shall pull on my wellies and scramble about the veggie beds tomorrow, tapping on their thick hides for one that sounds hollow.

Hopefully the results will resemble this...

But even if they don't, I'm sure they will taste amazing.

Herbert is akin the Matthew Evans, Jill Dupleix and Stephanie Alexander - you know that their recipes will also ways turns out delish - even if my humble efforts don't good as wonderful, they always resemble the photo!

You can't ask for more than that.

Minerals

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...

Pumpkins

THE pumpkins are looking more and more like footballs as they lie in the garden beds growing bigger and bigger.

So large in fact, he hens simply walk around them now as they are too big to step over.

This year there are Queensland blue, Jap and a heritage variety are sprawled about and I can't wait to make roast pumpkin soup with blue cheese garnish. 

Pumpkinsare amazing to grow - the seed is so small and the results fantastic!

This year I used seeds from the 2012 crop and it's been great to see them pop up all over.

Autumn in your patch

THOSE stalwart folk at Sustainable Gardening Australia are at it again - this time with heaps of good ideas for getting our veggie beds all sorted.

But although my veggie garden needs some attention - and more rain, I concentrated on the front non-food garden today.

Not a lover of chocolate, after breakfast I spent Easter Sunday weeding and replanting the front nature strip garden after it was decimated by the local council when they constructed the (unwanted) footpath in our street.

Good old native iris - it divides easily and is a great plant, enjoy and neglect options and produces lovely flowers.

Thankfully, while the poor old grevillias were upended roots to sky (they have been replanted but it's not looking good), the bottle brush and hakea survived. So this afternoon I divided and planted out loads of native iris which if grows a smidgen as well as it has in the front garden, will soon grow nice and bushy and keep any weeds out.

Hopefully we will see some rain tonight and the grevillias will recover, thrive and survive.

Pumpkin training

KEEPING a pumpkin vine inside a garden bed is akin to herding cats.

While it is exciting to see my vigorous vines swarm around the garden, it can be a bit disconcerting to have to evade their tendrils when walking around chasing chooks or doing the watering. 

Gidget checks out the pumpkins

Growing pumpkins is so easy, their triffid tendencies can get out of control.

Constant vigilance is the key, otherwise you wake u one fine autumn morning and realise a cucubit the size of a VW bug is sitting in the middle of the grass and moving it will require a forklift or at least a friend with bigger biceps than I.

But the joy of seeing these amazing vegetables grow is unbelievable.
  
Now my pumpkins are looking pretty good and each morning I do a dash about and tap them to see how ripe they are.

A good way to to work out when these pumpkins are ready to be harvested is similar to spuds - when those big elephant ear like leaves start to look wiltered, miserable and sparse, this is a sign. A reliable method of testing for pumpkin ripeness you give them a sharp knuckle-tap. If your pumpkin sounds hollow then it's ready to be cut free and cooked or storied.

Another sign I picked up from (Sir) Peter Cundall, is when pumpkin stalks begin to shrivel and wrinkle and form tiny, vertical cracks, it means the darlings are fully mature.

My little darlings are stored in and on a wooden box, close together but not touching. By leaving them exposed to full sunlight for a couple of weeks it completes their ripening, hardens up their skin and ensures long storage so you can enjoy them all winter long.