Ooh, can you smell that?

Fresh, homegrown, beetroot cooking on the stove.

Mmmmm

Beetroot recipe link

Beetroot - Bok Choi - Lettuce - Snap Peas

Beetroot - Bok Choi - Lettuce - Snap Peas

Catastrophes

Here it was on the 30-10-11. It had grown since.

I'm devastated, disillusioned and verging on tears, um, yes, well, that might be a little over dramatic but I will say I am disappointed at the very least.

You see, what happened is, I'd left one of my Bulls Blood Beetroot go to seed with the obvious goal of collecting the seed for future plantings. Now all has been going well, it had (notice the past tense) grown to a height of over two meters and was multi-stemmed as well as being absolutely covered in flowers that would have turned into seed for me to collect.

Now, as I mention the past tense, then you will have gathered that my seed collecting days are over, for now at least. and why might you ask?

Simple really, it got too big for it britches, or root system if you like. Over Wednesday night we had 80mm of rain in which I was rejoicing but it was all to much for the a fore mentioned Bulls Blood Beetroot. With the added weight of all the water covering the plant and the softening of the ground from the rain it just fell over and uprooted itself. So now my Bulls Blood Beetroot is an ex Bulls Blood Beetroot without seed.

Another catastrophic event, sent to test me I'm sure, was when a good friend dropped around a few Amaranthus  plants in exchange for a few I had. All was good. I put them in a safe place, gave them a water and would get around to planting them in the next few days. How wrong was I, the very next morning having my walk around the veggie garden before I went to work and there where my amaranthus reduced to three chewed up stems and not a leaf in sight. Arrrggghhh, I said to myself, the bloody possum likes amaranthus.

And just in case you're wondering about the purple dutch carrot then you'll be glad to know it is fine and you can also bet your life that I going to stake it tomorrow so as to prevent the same fate happening to it.

Barring any further catastrophes it's been all plain sailing so far and I hope it stays that way.

Cheers and good luck to you,

Stewart

So much for a come back

So much for a come back. 
My taxi's owner has been crook for the last few days and I've been picking up the extra hours in the cab, which means no spare computer or garden time for me. Oh well maybe next week.

In the meantime a super quick update. We've had 70mls of rain over the last two days so the veggie garden is very happy right now. Also some carrot and golden beetroot seed I planted only last Sunday has sprouted. Can't beat good soaking rain for bring up seed.


Anyhow I'd better get back in the cab and hopefully I'll get Sunday arvo in the garden.

Cheers

Stewart.

But wait there's more

Hang on a minuite, it must be Wednesday somewhere in the world.

Some more of the Wednesday walk through.

First up is the white Italian garlic bed with the purple podded peas at the back.

Very happy with the progress here.

Click on the photos if you want to see a bigger photo.



Some people think they are cute but, as you can see in the photos below, the trouble I have to go to to grow a few lettuce, (not to mention having all my carrot tops eaten off) I hate them.











These are the drunken women lettuce I've been growing for a while now.

The aforementioned possum has had more enjoyment from them than I have. Bloody, bloody bloody........bloody possums.








These are my Red Iceberg lettuce which I am especially proud of.

The possum got a few munches on them but I've had the rest and it's a great little lettuce for sandwiches.








Beetroot and some more lettuce which the possum hasn't found yet for some reason.













Climbing snow peas in flower.

I'm growing about 6 plants in 3 week intervals so I can hopefully have a continuous supply of snow peas until it gets too hot for them.

So far so good.







An eclectic collection of brassicas which includes red cabbage, kohlrabi, Cauliflower, 'Violet Sicilian' and Broccoli, 'Romanesco'. I think there is a normal drumhead cabbage in there as well as a normal Broccoli.

Cheers and happy veggie gardening,

Stewart

Green Harvest time

I'm lovin' these guys.

I placed my order with Green Harvest on Tuesday evening, received e-mail confirmation on Wednesday evening saying my parcel had been posted.

Parcel arrived at my front door lunch time Thursday.

How good is that?


Whoo woo, empty box full of potential!!!






First out of the box is two packets of seed.

#1 is Spinach 'Bloomsdale', an English spinach for cool weather.
It prefers a rich well drained soil with added compost, so I better get cracking with the soil prep.
#2 Is Beetroot 'Detroit', not much to say, just a good beetroot variety.
Beetroot is a heavy feeder so I'll be adding plenty of compost and Rooster Booster before I plant a Autnmn crop.





Next is the Garlic. Allium sativum

'Italian White', is a softneck garlic which does not produce a flower stem (more on softneck and hardneck in next post).

















More 'Italian White', six bulbs all together leading to approx 48 cloves to plant.












Then the Shallots. Allium cepa var. aggregatum syn. Allium ascalonicum
Synonyms include Golden of French Shallots, Eschallot, Potato Onion.

I've never grown these before so I'll be keeping a curious eye on them as they progress.

According to Green Harvest the bulbs are a culinary onion with a superb mild flavour. They can be eaten raw, boiled, baked, or fried. Golden shallots are long keeping and will store for up to 12 months.




Last but not least, more Garlic.

'Monaro Purple' is a hardneck or top setting variety which usually produces a flower stem in early summer.
It is suitable only for cooler areas (I hoping I'm cool enough here, fingers crossed, time will tell. I know I get bloody cold).

So there you go three thumbs up for Green Harvest.



PS. At the time of writing this I could not connect to the green harvest web site, I'm assuming they are having server trouble.
So if the link does not work, please come back and try again at a later date.
Thank-you.

Beetroot

Beetroot anyone. Visit Sustainable Gardening Australia.
This is an excellent web site.

There is still time to get a late crop in, in most areas.

Sustainable Gardening Australia's, Vision, Mission, Purpose & Values

Vision

Sustainable Gardening Australia envisages a world where people cultivate their gardens in sympathy with the environment by following the seasonal rhythms of the land, its ecology and climate.

Mission

Sustainable Gardening Australia works to protect and enhance the Australian environment by promoting the benefits of sustainable horticulture.

SGA Statement of Purpose

The principle purpose for which the Association is established is:

(a) the protection and enhancement of the natural environment to ensure its sustainability; and

(b) the provision of information or education, or the carrying on of research about the national environment and the practices of Sustainable Gardening.

The principle purpose is enhanced and supported by the following purposes:

(c) to continually improve the gardening practices of all Australians so that they are more appropriate to the prevailing conditions of the local, Australia and global environment;

(d) to raise awareness of the environmental issues relating to Sustainable Gardening;

(e) to reconnect people to the natural world through gardening;

(f) to encourage responsible gardening practices and design to lead gardeners to respect the earth and the reality that we share, not own the land;

(g) to formalise links with and interaction with the local government and to work with local communities to achieve environmentally sustainable outcomes relevant to that community and the local government;

(h) to provide advice to the gardening profession and home gardener on sustainable gardening practices;

(i) to ensure people develop an understanding of their connection with global communities and the indirect impacts that some gardening decisions can have on the environment well beyond their neighbourhood.

SGA Statement of Values

1. The core business of SGA is to focus on garden businesses with face-to-face contact with the home gardener and those involved in decision-making relating to private or public gardens.

2. SGA will develop business systems to ensure that gardening professionals and garden businesses provide home gardeners with accurate and consistent advice on environmentally sustainable gardening.

3. SGA will develop widely recognised standards that are effective in delivering continually improving environmentally sustainable outcomes by influencing the behaviour of gardeners.

4. SGA will develop extensive Australia wide market-awareness of sustainable gardening that has the twin aim of an uncomplicated and environmentally sustainable gardening outcome and genuine value.

5. SGA as an organisation is to be ethical, decisive, focused and effective, compassionate and flexible while continually adapting to changing circumstances.

6. The culture of SGA and the systems of SGA will enable and encourage those people committed to reducing environmental damage to have the opportunity to contribute to the organisation and to communicate without fear or favour.

7. The goal of SGA is to maximise numbers in all categories of subscription for all people and organisations that have genuine environmental values.

8. The team culture of SGA will prioritise environmentally sustainable objectives over the interests of the individual.

9. SGA will have a financially conservative culture always focused on protecting the long-term effectiveness and financial independence of SGA.

10. SGA will work collaboratively, not competitively, to reduce potential environmental damage caused by gardening products and practices.

11. SGA will maximise the environmental value to home gardeners, garden businesses in the community, sponsors of SGA, the Government and other parties by delivering real and not perceived outcomes. SGA wishes to ensure that the total dollar invested in the environment by the community is most effectively spent.

12. SGA will not be unduly influenced by single-issue groups or vested interests and will always address the totality of environmental problems that relate to all gardening products and practices in a balanced way.

13. SGA will be continually looking at the long term and at the present so that the development of SGA will not be compromised by short-term enticements.

14. SGA will encourage innovation in the garden industry.

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Seeds of redemption

After the embarrassment of So, ya wanna' sow some seed do ya!!, I've been busy redeeming myself by getting it right for a while.
So it is that I can report some pretty successful seed raising results.

First cab off the rank is some of Mr. Fothergill's, Evesham Special, Brussels Sprouts. And how many did get to strike I hear you ask, well only 100% I say(patting myself on the back).

The Brussels Sprouts are flanked by the tomato's I planted at the same time as I did my So, ya wanna' sow some seed do ya!!
Just a note on Brussels Sprouts. I'm no expert on growing these and as of now I am still to produce a viable crop, but I keep planting these things earlier and earlier. My trusty, 'fruit & vegetable GARDENING in Australia', by The Royal Horticultural Society advises me to sow late Summer early Autumn, but I'm getting in ahead of recommended time. What I hoping is that planting seed now will mean the Brussels are forming in the coldest part of winter and not bolting or over producing leaf as they have in the past. So, watch this space.


Now as reported in So, ya wanna' sow some seed do ya!! update. #1 I had planted my digger's seeds into punnets, some Five colour Silverbeet, Listada Di Gandia Eggplant, Rouge D'Hiver Cos Lettuce(red brown var.) and Red Iceberg.

Apart from the Red Cos(3 from 5) I also had 100% strike(so far so good eh!)









Of the remaining seeds planted everything went very well also.

The first carrots to arrive were the Early Chantenay which after 10 days from sowing are doing exceedingly well.

Very happy Jan









Also doing well after a good strike rate are the Beetroot Chioggia which I'm dying to try.
















And last but not least the carrot Top Weight were a little sporadic but all came up and are a little slow compared to the Early Chantenay. The proof is in da eating as they say.

anyhow I hope these successes have helped me redeem myself and for now I'll just let myself feel fairly pleased with myself.






Just a photo of a happy lilium. A yellow one of course

So, ya wanna' sow some seed do ya!! update. #1

Link for the Original So, ya wanna' sow some seed do ya!!

Hi all,
I been avoiding this update due to the unmitigated failure of the seed to germinate.

It's not very clear in the photo(far left punnet) but I only had two out of six Cos lettuce seeds germinate.
Now I'm not going to blame myself because at the same time I planted up three punnets of three different Tomatoes with varying success, ie six from six, five from six and one from six.

So at this stage I'm going to blame the viability of the seed.

Now while I'm on the topic of seeds and planting I had a very productive day of seed planting yesterday.
First off was carrots of which I have not been that satisfied with the flavour of.
The current variety of carrot I've been growing is named 'All year round', so I planted two different variety's named Topweight and Early Chantenay to see if I can find a more flavorsome carrot.
If anyone has any suggestions for a more flavorsome carrot or a personal favorite, please let me know.

Also my digger's seeds arrived last week so I planted into punnets some Five colour Silverbeet, Listada Di Gandia Eggplant, Rouge D'Hiver Cos Lettuce(red brown var.) and Red Iceberg.

I also planted another couple of small rows of Beetroot Chioggia.

Baby carrot thinings

Just picked(pulled, lifted, thinned? whatever)!!

My carrots were overdue for thinning, but now I'm thinking steamed baby carrots for dinner.
I just need to work a meal around them.

I haven't had chicken for a while and I've got fresh beans, cabbage, beetroot and baby carrots of course.
ummmmh sounds good to me.
God I love gardening.

You can't beat a Beetroot Pickle

From this, to












this, with a little help from this.

Just some going ons.

Progressive plantings of carrots. I have four short rows planted about 2/3 weeks apart and need to get another in the ground very soon.
I'd like some prospect of rainy weather as I find carrots shoot very easy in showery/rainy weather.













Beetroot now and then. Last photo right down the bottom















Turnip ready to eat. Anyone got some interesting recipes for turnip I can try?














Another flower. How did that get in here?

















Now and then.

Things are really moving now

4mm of rain overnight has freshened things up around here and will make watering a little easier.

Seed report.
On Thursday 11/09/08 I planted a follow up row of Beetroot
Sunday. Seeds I've planted that have sprouted are Capsicum. Pak Choi (planted 8/09/08), Tiny Toms, Lettuce and Cabbage.

Sporadic sprouting of Chilli. I planted 16 and have 5 but am hopeful the rest will follow. I want to plant these in a flower border as a compromise between ornamental flowers and useful vegies, even though I can't eat them I can give them away to friends who can.

Cheers

Talk about spoilt!

These are my Cabbage, Lettuce and Turnip that are about half grown and I decided to give them a treat. My Beetroot and Brussels also got the same treat.



First I added a light side dressing of blood and bone at about a hand full per sq/mtr.














































Then a side dressing of compost. I used about a bucket per sq/mtr































And then I covered it all over with my mulched prunings, again about a bucket per sq/mtr.