Mum and Dad's garden

I was inspired by the recent post on Skippy's vegetable garden to do my own about my Mum and Dad's garden in Wales, UK.

Here is a pic of just a small part of it, taken about a month ago. They have a fantastic, huge garden with veggies, fruit trees, berry bushes and chooks.  Dad raises seedlings and grows tomatoes and grapes in his greenhouse, and has always gardened organically -  I remember the piles of steaming manure that used to arrive each spring.

There are lots of other memories too: waiting for the first frost before we ate the parsnips, to make them sweeter; picking warm cucumbers from the greenhouse; and bowls full of fresh gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. When I was growing up all our meals were accompined by home grown veg and more often-than-not a triumphant cry of "no pesticides here!". With the excess produce Mum made jam or pickles, or it was frozen and that lasted us until the next summer.

 

I didn't appreciate this nearly enough when I was younger, especially during my teenage years.  I questioned why we couldn't eat perfect, plastic-wrapped veg without holes and dirt, just like my friends, and why couldn't we just BUY dessert in a shop instead of making our own?!.  It's only since I've become interested in growing my own veg in my (much smaller) garden, and am a mum myself that I realise how important it is to produce your own food. I've still got a lot to learn but am really fortunate to have had such a good start - thanks Mum and Dad!

Harvest Monday - June 28th

A teeny harvest today - just some small leeks and baby carrots.  Oh well, enough to go into a veggie soup.   The garden is still in the " in between stage" - lots of seedlings are planted but growth is slow this time of year. The broccoli went in quite late and is just starting to form small heads, and the spinach is still recovering from being pecked by birds. I did rig up some bird defences: net over 3 of the beds and fishing line strung between bamboo poles over the other, with some tinfoil twisted through it for good measure.  No idea whether it will work - the idea is that the combination of the humming of the fishing line in the wind and the shiny paper will scare them off - but it adds a certain decorative element to the garden!

 

And look what I found today - the first pea flower of the year (Roi de Caroby, isn't it beautiful?). Ooh peas, I can't wait!

Building a no-dig bed

The thing about growing veggies and fruit is that it is addictive. Every available part of my backyard has been planted up with edibles but my seed collection was starting to burst out of its box and I had trays of little seedlings with no where to do.  The solution: build more garden beds!   This weekend was set aside for the big  project - to create a no-dig bed in a sunny spot, extend an existing bed and box in two other beds.  MMSTL worked like a trojan all weekend and my lovely neighbour Mr B also helped out. All the beds were made from recycled materials; the sleepers were cast-offs from another neighbour, and the other bits of wood came from the old fence.  The only things that I bought were some hay, some lucerne and a couple of bags of sheep manure: total cost $40.

For the no-dig bed  we measured out where we wanted it to go and cut the sleepers to size - 2.7m long by 1m wide. We made sure that it was accessible from all sides for easy planting and gathering of all the lovely veggies :).  After a bit of trial and error we joined the  sleepers by cutting a piece of hardwood stake to the same height of the sleeper, putting one in each corner and screwing through it into each sleeper. There is probably a more elegant way of joining the sides together but this worked and meant that we didn't have to drill really deep holes and use very long screws.

Once the frame was solid we started adding the layers.  Sometimes this is called lasagna gardening because of the alternating layers of green (nitrogen rich) and brown (carbon rich) materials.  We covered all the grass with thick (at least 6 pages) layers of wet newspaper and cardboard, overlapping them. No picture of this stage as it was getting dark!

The next  layer was pads of lucerne - watered lightly, then a layer of sheep manure (about 3/4 of a bag), then a layer of chopped up leaves and some loose straw.

 

Next, another layer of manure

Finally some compost.  I made some holes and filled them with compost so that I could plant out some of the bed with lettuces, brassicas and spinach straight away.  The whole lot was watered in with some seasol. As this is a bit of an experiment I wanted to see what would work best.  Apparently seedlings work the best at the start (rather than seeds which get a bit lost) and peas/beans and roots should also be planted after the soil has broken down.  The rest of the bed will be left until it's time to plant potatoes.  The idea is that the worms (which there seem to be HEAPS of in the garden) invade and start breaking down all that lovely organic matter into rich soil, and organic matter - mulch, compost is added to the top to keep the level up. It's all quite exciting to see how it will work.

As well as the no-dig bed we extended an existing small area to make a nice big new bed. The soil here is quite light, unlike the heavy clay that I have in much of the garden so it is ideal for root veg.  So, in here I have carrots, beets, turnips and radish as well as some coriander and shallots.

Hooray!  So much more growing space and especially good in the winter when the other garden beds are too shaded. Now, where did I put my seeds :)

Food swap - lemons galore!

Yesterday I went to the monthly inner northern harvest food swap.  I took along some
Wong bok, leeks, capsicum, garlic chives and some eggs and swapped them for:  bread,  rhubarb, kaffir limes, lots of lemons, lettuce, spinach, hot chillis, rosemary, and bean seeds.

Not bad!

I love going to these swaps. Not only is it an excuse to eat yummy cake made by the lovely organisers Emma and Alicia,  it's an opportunity to talk to other veg growers - some of whom have been gardening for years and have a wealth of experience.   I've learned  about wicking beds, propagating from cuttings and how to make ginger beer. It's also interesting and useful to find out what people are growing locally.  It's amazing how much home-grown produce is around: one guy brought a whole pram full of lemons!

More softies - hello little bug

This little guy is  a present for MMSTL's nephew.  He's another pattern from the Softies book and he turned out quite well. It took me a few goes to get his legs sewn in properly and he has a bit of a humpback but I'm working on that being part of the home-made quirky charm.  I especially like his eyes! I really have a lot of fun making these little toys out of fabric scraps. They a great way to use up bits and pieces from other projects, or from the op shop. His legs are made from an old pillow case (keep a look out for vintage sheets and pillow cases as they often have interesting floral designs are usually made of nice soft cotton) and his body is from some fabric left over from cushion making. All in all the whole project took a couple of evenings to complete. 

Harvest Monday - June 14

What a beautiful day it was today. I spent most of it outside, mowing the lawn, doing some tidying up and a spot of planting (more peas and bok choi) while little FB and his friend played noisy boy-games in the back yard.   I've been having trouble with birds - mainly sparrows and pigeons which have been digging up all my seedlings, as well the usual nibbling bugs - millipedes, earwigs and slugs so the veggies are looking a bit worse for wear.  On top of all that, the chickens escaped and dug big holes in the middle of the onion patch and ate a few broccoli seedlings.  Naughty girls.

Today's harvest was a few beets, a meyer lemon, rocket and a potato which I must have left in the ground and had began to sprout in the middle of the pea bed.  The girls are laying quite well and  we are getting 1 -2 eggs a day (good job seeing as they are in my bad books for the garden destruction).

I think it must be the colder, dark evenings but I've been making more deserts than usual.  Tonight we had apple and raspberry crumble (easy recipe, just core, chop and peel 4 apples, add 1/2 cup frozen berries and top with the crumble mixture: 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 70g butter rubbed to a rough crumb consistency).  Bake for 30-40 mins at 200C.  Serve with cream and plan to do more digging in the garden to burn off the calories :) 

Spicy thai soup for a cold wintry day

Brrrrr!  It definitely felt like winter today.  I even left my bike at home and took the tram to work.   I got home just before it got dark and rushed out to pick some ingredients for a warming vegetarian tom yum soup: wong bok, chinese cabbage, coriander, lime leaves, chilli and  basil.  Other veggies would work here too -  bok choi, pak choi and chinese broccolli for example.    Initially I wasn't sure about adding the coconut milk but it added a nice balance to the hot/sour/sweet/salty notes of the other ingredients and the flavour wasn't overpowering at all.  

The soup was packed with flavour, and super-healthy: definitely a make-again recipe. 

Recipe (adapted from About Thai Food)

Ingredients(serves 2 greedy people)
6 cups vegetable stock (I used veg stock power)
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped and bashed in a pestle and mortar until almost a paste
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 cup tofu, sliced into cubes
1-2 red chilies, shopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 thumb-size piece ginger, sliced into thin matchstick-like pieces
1 cup fresh mushrooms sliced
2 cups wong bok , leaves separated or chopped if large
1 cup broccolli florets
1/4 packet thin rice noodles
1/2 can coconut milk
1 tsp. brown sugar
2-3 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 fresh-squeezed lime
1/2 cup fresh coriander and 1/3 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

Method
Pour stock into a large pot.and add prepared lemongrass, plus the lime leaves, chili, garlic, and  ginger. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, or until broth is very fragrant

Add the mushrooms, broccoli and noodles .Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the wong bok.  Gently simmer 1-2 more minutes.

Reduce heat to low and add the coconut milk, sugar, soy sauce, and lime juice. Finally, add the tofu and herbs and gently stir.  Adjust to taste, adding more lime, soy sauce or sugar as necessary. 

 

Toasted muesli

Winter:chilly mornings, dark evenings - time to warm up the kitchen by making a big batch of yummy nutty toasted muesli. Basically you can use any combination of nuts seeds and dried fruit that you like, just remember to add the fruit after the toasting process.  This time I used raisins because that's just what was in the cupboard but dried apple, coconut, dried figs and dried cranberries have all made an apprearance in the past versions.

Basic recipe - feel free to adapt
6 cups rolled outs (not the quick cook kind)
1 cup quinoa flakes (optional)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup flaked almonds
1 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
Tbsp oil
1-2 cups dried fruit, chopped if pieces are large

Mix the oats, seeds and nuts together in a large bowl.  Melt the honey, oil and maple syrup together and use to coat the oat mixture. Spread over baking  trays and toast in a 200C oven for about 15-10 minutes.  You will need to keep moving the mixture away from the edges so that it browns evenly.  When the muesli is nice and toasty remove from the oven, cool and mix with the dried fruit.  Delicious served with yoghurt or milk, or eaten as a snack straight from the jar!