The farm is in a flurry

The farm is in a flurry.
The rooster caught the flu.
His cock-a-doodle-doo
Is now a cock-a doodle-choo!

MgSO4

I heard the other day that if your lettuce are bolting to seed quicker than you'd like then the soil might be deficient in MgSO4 better know as Magnesium sulfate or (MgSO4·7H2O), commonly called Epsom salt. 

 

A tablespoon in a watering can of water should fix the problem, so tis said. I will be experimenting but it is something commonly lacking in volcanic soils like I have.

Harrietta Houdini

It would seem I've hit a serious speed bump with the veggie garden as you may have deducted by the dearth of posts recently.
It would seem too, that the speed bump is not all that big either but rather crafty instead.
It would also seem this small and rather inoculate but rather crafty speed bump has taken the shape of a small red hen (aka chook, aka Harrietta Houdini).
You see this little red hen has been escaping and wreaking havoc in the veggie garden for the last couple of weeks. And we just haven't been able to work out how she's been escaping and in the meantime all the damage she has caused has left me feeling defeated re the veggies. The casualty list is long and extensive I'm sorry to say.
We've cliped her wing and pluged up all the holes (or so we'd though so) and I was perplexed as to how she was getting out but then just the other day she had gotten out and made her mess but had somehow managed to put herself back into the chook pen (god only knows why she would do this), which got me thinking, ah hah, there has to be a hole big enough for you to get in and out of but I couldn't see it. .
So today I left feeding the chooks until late and as usual she was out again so I fed the chooks that were left in the pen and kept her out, knowing how much they love their sunflower seeds and whatda ya know, she climbed her way back into the pen through a hole that (is now fixed) I thought wasn't big enough for her to fit through.

And there you have it. And with some good luck and nice weather I'll get Sunday to myself and I'll be able to put my veggie garden back together again.

Cheers and happy gardening

Stewart.

Inside the back page

 Hi, if you live outside the east coast of Australia this will probably mean nothing to you but to me it's absolutely hilarious.

I just had to laugh.

Inside the back page of today's Courier Mail it asks, Q: Will the Maroons win State of Origin II?

Then poor deluded Gauci from Redcliffe replies with 'No', and goes on to say, "Please, we should have won the first (but you didn't *giggle giggle*) game. The Maroons are a bunch of old has beens (*snicker snicker*, can you have young has beens? I suppose!! Thinking the Blues here)." He then goes on to say, "The Blues to win the series and for the next five years or so (and this is where I fell off my chair pmsl)."

Queenslander

Stewart

Plant your garden 2011

A good friend sent me this by email so I copied and pasted and crossed my fingers that it would work.

Hope you enjoy it, I thought it was clever.

Plant your garden 2011 "life is too short for drama, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly" How To Plant Your Garden First, you Come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING , PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS : 1. Peace of mind 2. Peace of heart 3. Peace of soul  PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH: 1. Squash gossip 2. Squash indifference 3. Squash grumbling 4. Squash selfishness PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:   1. Lettuce be faithful 2. Lettuce be kind 3. Lettuce be patient 4. Lettuce really love one another NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS: 1. Turnip for meetings 2. Turnip for service 3. Turnip to help one another TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:   1. Thyme for each other 2. Thyme for family 3. Thyme for friends WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE. THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW. NOT BAD, HUH?!

It had to happen

It had to happen sooner or later. There I was turtling along in my Taxi taking my customer (client) to his nominated destination when he said it, he asked me the question. So whaddu ya think of this carbon tax thing?

The majority of customers (clients) hop in the cab and just start expressing their opinion one way or the other but never ask 'the question' so I just nod and do my best uh-huhs.

 I though I'd better check if this was what he really wanted or if he was just looking for an opening to soap box like all the others but he said yes so I started to answer the question.

First of all, I said, I haven't a bloody clue if climate change (global warming) is real or not and I have bugger all authority to judge either way anyhow but, just in case they are right then I think it's seems like a pretty good idea.

Then he replied but nobody else has a carbon tax why should we and I replied that someone has to be first and if we are going to be first at something then I'd rather it be this.

Then he suggested that it will be at least ten years before America even looks at some sort carbon adjustment scheme and I thought to myself, Grasshopper you are making this all to easy for me.

And I said this is even more reason for us to get going now so as we can get the ball rolling thereby giving us the moral high ground thereby increasing our ability to influence others to do something similar so we can, metaphorically speaking, circle our wagons around the USof A and say well the rest of the world has cleaned up its act now it your turn.

And then he made it even easier and said that still leaves us with the biggest polluter of them all, China.

To which I replied, and who sells them all that coal to pollute with? Us, all the more reason to get this thing happening.

Please don't shoot me, these are just the thoughts of a low income Taxi driving veggie gardener who believes and hopes that one way or the other someone somehow somewhere will make reasonably informed decisions and come up with something that works for the majority of us all.

Cheers and stepping off my soap box now,

Stewart

P.S. and if Tony Abbot can make that tree planting thing work then I all for that too.

I did it, I made it

I did it, I made it, just like I said I would. And yum-o to boot.

The severely attacked Savoy cabbage that kindly offered up it life to help me complete my coleslaw.




Cheers

Stewart

Ruby Lou

Ruby Lou. That's the name of the variety of potato I had mashed with tea tonight. Home grown and freshly dug today of course and tasty as.

The carrots are for the coleslaw tomorrow night.

Well hello Ruby Lou
good-bye heart

And here is the handy Broccoli that I had with Ruby Lou, sadly though I over cooked it somehow.

Mostly weeding in the garden today though I did plant some parsley that I'd grown from seed and some thyme that I struck from cuttings.

Fertilized the Strawbs and put some 5 in 1 around a couple of caulies.

The garlic I planted last weekend has sprouted and seems to be doing fine but and escapee chook made a mess of the shallots I planted.

More rain is predicted for the weekend so it looks like I'll be chasing more weeds around in a fortnights time.

Anyways, cheers and happy gardening.

Stewart

'Hey Presto' and Bobs your uncle

Oops' how naughty of me, I didn't get within a bulls roar of the veggie garden today and the coleslaw didn't get made either (I've got Tuesday penciled in for that).

You see I'd forgotten all about the annual flower garden that I'd told my darling wife I was going to plant out for us on Sunday. And so it was I had to forsake my beloved veggie garden for some flowers.

Not that I mind of course, seeing as it was my Grannies flower garden many, many years ago that got me started on all this gardening stuff in the first place.

 I've been preparing the soil for a few months now so today it was just a matter of slipping down to the plant nursery and picking up some punnets of Alyssum, Primulas, and Violas and a packet of Nemesia seeds. And then I just need to fluff up the soil bung in a few seedlings add some water and 'Hey Presto' and Bobs your uncle or instant garden.

 If everything goes alright I'll be able to post some super duper photos of a pretty flower garden come spring.

Cheers and happy gardening

Stewart.

Bestest Coleslaw

Tomorrow, I'm going to pick the biggest, baddest, meanest ol' savoy cabbage and the best of the biggest, baddest, meanest ol' carrots and make me some of the freshest and bestest coleslaw going around. Yee haa!!!

I'm going to the farmers market first though because they have been advertizing German sausages for sale which should just go swimmingly with my coleslaw.

This is the simplest recipe I've found for coleslaw and it's yummy. Click here for recipe.

Cheers

Stewart

Born to knit

Save the Children want to knit 15,000 blankets & they need your help!

Share your creativity with a child who needs your warmth. Your blanket could help save a life.

Born to knit

Let the knitting begin.
Guidelines for knitting your blanket:

• Please use 4mm needles
• Please use 8ply 100% pure wool
• A perfect-sized blanket is made up of 16 knitted squares
• Each square should be about 20cms x 20cms
• The final blanket size should be around 80cms x 80cms