Lemongrass Haul and 'free' Magic Pudding celery

This lemongrass plant, gifted from a friend's garden many years ago, was quite neglected and definitely part feline as it had several lives and near-plant-death experiences before it was planted in one of the bath tub gardens.   Lucky lemongrass.  It went nuts in there.  Completely loopy and grew and grew, getting thicker round the girth very fast.

So I divided it up on the weekend and cut a bunch to give away (via trimming off the tops to lessen the transplant shock).  Plenty of plants for potting up, putting in different spots where there are bare patches and putting just one 'piece' back in the original bathtub.  It will be thick, lush, healthy and in need of dividing again very soon!  I am yet to make the ginger and lemongrass tea that my friend N makes, which is one of the few herbal type teas I like.  Many I like the smell of but not many I taste!

First Full Size Granny

First full size Granny Smith apple from our tree.

Another Way to 'Keep' Food

Or should I say, another way to 'deal' with food.  We can keep food in the ground in the garden, in the fridge or freezer, we could possibly 'can' or bottle our own, we can air dry things like herbs, and we can bake but the other thing I never really paid much attention to is drying food, as in, with a food dehydrator.

This post on the Milkwood blog got me thinking and then oops I clicked on this link and I was stuck.  Exacalibur indeed.  Another thing to add to my 'dreams are free' list.  With the Excalibur, such a short use of resources (electricity, which can be offset somewhat by grid solar) in a long term use machine (the dehydrator) using food you are happy to use (organic apples, say) and that results in a much more economical outcome - for example instead of $40 a kilo for shop bought dried apples (and their numbers in them) you can pay even maybe $10 a kilo for organic apples and you still come out waaaay in front even if you include the electricity cost.

I would probably have a crack at fruit leathers, dried apples, prunes, semi-dried tomato and whatever else I think we would eat.  My only question is how to store the dried foods for, and how long they store for?  Do you dry foods and if so how?

Empty Beds + New Baths - What To Plant?

Now is a bit slow in the garden.  Well, not slow I guess but a bit empty.

One bed was pulled because the tomatoes had something nasty and were karking it.  The second bed might go the same way but they are holding on and still producing.  The third bed I pulled because I wanted to put something else in and what was there was really an excuse for anything productive.  I left the spring onions and alyssum in there.

Beautiful Toms (Now if Only I Could Stop the Plant Dying)

This is today's picking.  Very pleased.  I like the 'not-ginormous' standard tomatoes for sandwiches (no one ever used that 'last bit' when they cut a tomato and put the 'last bit' in the fridge) and I really am liking the very large Beams Yellow Pear cherry toms.  They're a great size and I am definitely keeping seeds from these.  Also on the plate, are the green zebra toms that taste like tomatoes (funny that), say my boys. Seed keeping from those too, yep.

The little lemon drop cherry toms are quite a pale lemon colour so much so that I thought they weren't ripe initially, but that's the colour they're meant to be.

Little Haul - And a Day of Firsts in the Garden

Here's the little haul.  A bit pathetic really in the grand scheme of things as it's hardly likely to feed us for a meal let alone a week.  But I have to keep reminding myself that when the fruit trees are bigger, and producing more, and I manage to build the extra garden beds ... that the harvest will be slightly more.  That there is ebb and flow in gardens, times of plenty and times of not much at all.  It's just a bit disheartening sometimes is all, because the ideal of 'majority self-reliance' seems so far away.

Anyway.

Up the Tree This Afternoon

It was rather busy in the skies tonight, near our place - all kinds of birds and calls and songs going on - like the internet for birds but via the sky!  Anyway, when I went out the back, this little 'guy' and friends were having a right old chat in the gumtree.  It's times like that, if I just close my eyes, I can almost imagine I'm far away from where I am, surrounded by bush.  Such pretty sounds especially late in the afternoon and early in the morning.  A nice little serenade while watering the veges!

I guess, I'm glad the birds still have places to come to, where we are.  But I also worry that there's too many of them trying/needing to be in the same space.  Overcrowding in the branches as well as the suburbs...

Tomato - Green, Zebra and Otherwise

In the garden, some of what I could find ripening.  I also found what I think are Beam's Yellow Pear tomato fruit happening too, this morning.  I really like them esp in salads for some colour variety.

Zebra tomato - though I cannot remember if I planted the red zebra or the green zebra... oops.  So the question now is do I wait to see if it goes red, or do I think this is going to be the green ones?  I have a similar kind of problem with my Granny Smith apples.  While with the Pinkerbelle's, I know they will go read so have some idea of how to test for readiness, for the Granny Smiths, of course they're green... so no idea how to tell if they're ready...  anyone?

Beans are Up!

And growing at a very fast rate indeed!  I like planting beans in with tomato plants - they have a great something to climb up and they both seem to protect each other from the pests that otherwise have a feast.

Not the best pics as the light was disappearing over the horizon real fast (well, the buildings but you get the idea) and I just grabbed the nearest camera (phone) and attempted to get some pics.  It wouldn't let me get the angle or the proximity I wanted, to show what I was seeing but oh well...

These are purple something beans (Purple King Beans, thanks Linda!), they go green when they're cooked.  I love seeing them at the 'just stretching' stage when they come out of the ground and stre-e-e-tch themselves out and unfold.  It's pretty awesome.  I also wonder too if that's a little purple 'dot' on this one and will try and remember to check the others as they come up.  They grow centremetres overnight!

Oiling the Chooks, Wooden Eggs & Other Stuff

When we first received our chooks, I thought that chooks legs just looked like 'that'.  Unbeknowns to me they most likely had scaly leg mite.  I read around the net for possible solutions (tried several vets without luck), chooky blogs and the like, and some of them used stuff I wasn't at all happy to use on the girls because of what toxic stuff was used - possible pain for the chooks and what about if they ingested it?

Anyway, so we ended up going with olive oil the first few times we soaked their legs.  Today was day one of the next round of oiling.  I'll do their legs again this week and then each week for about 6 weeks.  In that time, we should see the old grumpy scales come off, new pink skin which then settles to happier looking legs and I guess, happier chooks.  Snow White seems to have the problem worse than the others, though her legs are improving a lot.

oh you're such a poser, Spots!   What, haven't mastered the art of riding all those bikes yet?  'Nah, but bikes are good for a quick bite to eat when you find a spider!'

'Hmm well if Spots is interested in something I better stick around', says Nicoal.

Bacon - tiniest of the girls but holds her own most days.

Mum/Dad found these wooden eggs and Mum bought them down when she visited last week and suggested to put in the chook nesting box.  We have a suspicion that in their free-ranging, the girls have a hidey spot for their eggs that we have not found.  Apparently (fake) eggs in the nesting box will encourage the girls to lay in the nesting box.  Theoretically! Can't hurt to try them.  Not sure if the girls are wierded out by the stripey egg or not...

Comby (Combless) having a drink from the bottom of the bathtub vege beds.  I knew they drank out of the buckets I use underneath the bathtubs to catch and recycle the water, but I didn't know they used the bottom of the bathtubs like a water dripper...

Comby on her way over to see what the fuss is about.

And the olive oil in a tub ready for next time.  Happy chooking!

More Barrels

Following on from our 'watertanks' that we did using olive barrels, giving us just under 1000l capacity (950l for $154.71), we have another half dozen or so barrels and I'm trying to figure out where to put them and how.  Do I put them all in one place as a big array, or spread them out a little bit?

barrel array done Sept 2011.

 So today, because I am trying to do more rather thank think about doing more, I have put the new barrels

One pair and a pair of pears

I went out to do the watering and to quietly admire the single pear on the 'cheeky face' cocktail pear, only to not see it. 'Damn... something got to it' I was thinking.  So I hunted around on the ground expecting to find a half-eaten (or worse, one bite out of it only) pear and there it was.  Whole, intact and not damaged from the fall.  So I guess it's ready.
It's meant to be a firm pear, with green skin and a red blush on one side.  Looks alright so far.  Haven't cut it yet but will. 

Tomato Staking aka frame.

This is Mum's rigging while she was here, for the tomato plants to grow up and through.  Given that our tomato plants take off and create a jungle, hopefully this will keep them a little more manageable.  As always, thanks Mum.

the lemongrass plant in the corner has been taken out, divided up into a dozen+ pots and was put back in the tub as a single 'plant'.  As you can see it didn't mind too much and is now beefing right back up again.

The frames are made from mulberry tree prunings (another use for prunings), sticks from the park and I think some bamboo stakes either in this lot or the much taller framework out the front.

Mum also fed and watered and wet-soiled the plants so they'll be sitting there 'nom nom nom' and about ready to take off given the weather we have had.  I'll have to post some 'in progress pics' in a few months time.  I reckon you won't even be able to see the fence in the background.

Cornberries

In the middle of the corn is the self-sewn strawberries just doing their own thing.  Bonus is that when the fruit grows through the corn/around it, it keeps the berries off the ground and whether it's that or the heat, the slaters and slugs haven't touched them.  I'll be in that!

photo-bombed by a spring onion

Which means the humans are getting to eat some of the berries.  I don't mind sharing, just so long as it IS sharing and not 'all for the slugs n slaters'.

Banana is IN! + fruit tree list

This was my Christmas present this year from Kids and Husband.  Oh and three bags of poo (manure) and a bag of potting mix.  Isn't it a wonderful thing when bags of poo are a welcome Christmas present eh!
Jokes about poo and bulls were being made as I was lead out the back door on Christmas morning, with my eyes dutifully closed, with the child leading me so carefully ... into chook poo. ha!  thanks for that - THEY were so keen to get me round the corner to the potted present that they weren't watching where I was going!

Anyway, after the weather we have had finally it's been sane enough conditions to plant.  So here 'tis.  Actually should I say, ~I~ didn't plant this.  Very strange (nice though) but it was planted for me.

But this is how it started, first off... pavers were cut and lifted.  New border laid.  This opened up a little bit more dirt in which to put something to grow...

Benefits of Branches (prunings)

Most of us know that prunings can generally be used in the garden.  As mulch.  Sometimes as stakes if you strip them down.  But if you don't have a mulcher, then it's not as easy, and a mulcher uses power etc.  I have found that when I prune the mulberry (for the sake of neighbourly relations), I lay the mulberry prunings down under the mulberry tree and by the time the tree is next due a prune, they're just not there any more.  Mmm... so that's good.

But there's more than just the 'back into the earth' benefit of prunings.  I found they're good to keep chooks off certain areas.  For example, there's self sewn melon/pumpkin plants coming up under the apples and the peach/plum/avacado/ area.  Usually in their scratching efforts (we have almost zero weed issues out the back thanks to the girls) they accidentally kick up the plant, exposing the roots and it dies.

Apples and Peaches

In the last week, I have been checking on my peaches.  I had made up a little 'cage' for them, to keep anything off them that might eat them or damage them.  We had just one peach last year and this year the wind blew all the tiny peaches off on the west side.  So with just two peaches remaining, two tiny little furry-bum peaches, I was aiming to get them to picking size!

I took the little cage off today and this is the beautiful sight that greeted me.

Oh... Can you Smell THAT...

I can't even begin to describe the smell.  I think I might have to gaffa tape it to my top lip just so I can smell this in all it's deliciousness, all day.

And I haven't even tasted it yet.

Tri-colour Carrots

Enjoying the last of these...

Tri-colour carrots.  Purple on the outside, and orange or orange/white on the inside.  Fresh from the garden and washed.  Very very carrot-y taste!  will gladly grow these again.

Purple Carrot Pants & Strapples

Well, tri-colour carrot pants to be more precise.  Tri colour carrots (purple outer, and orange or orange&white inner).  Easy enough to grow and I will be planting them again... now that there is a bit more time because EXAMS are finished! woot woot! Although I am still in the 'quick, gotta get study done' mindset - that will take a few days to wear off.

And the list of 'to do after exams' is more than long enough.  Some serious work to do in the garden, among many many other things.