PERFECT PLANNING - 15 October 2012

I really needed some fresh air this afternoon after being couped up in my office so off to the potting table!  I try to plant out successive crops every 4 – 6 weeks especially lettuce and broccoli as we never have a need to buy these now.  In fact, I haven’t bought lettuce for almost two years!

I bought some endive seeds yesterday as I’ve never tried growing them and wanted to try something new.

So here we have:

• Yates Lettuce - Brown Mignonette
• Yates Lettuce - Frilly Mix
• Yates Lettuce - Great Lakes Iceberg
• Yates Endive - Green Curled
• Yates Radicchio
• Yates Broccoli - Summer Harvest
• Yates Chinese Cabbage - Wombok
• Yates Chinese Cabbage - Pak Choi
• Yates Spinach - Summer Supreme

I find this a far more economical way growing from seed and it only takes me about 10 minutes from start to finish as I’m super organised now!  I read recently that lettuce seeds can last for up to 3 years.  When you consider it costs slightly less for a pack of seeds than a whole iceberg lettuce at the moment – it makes sense to grow from seed!  And if we can’t eat them fast enough, I just give these away to friends and family.

REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE - 14 October 2012

Well the sun has come out and it’s a beautiful blue sky…extremely windy – but I’m going to make the most of it now and plant more coriander!  (And lots of seedlings that are also ready).  These coriander seeds are saved seeds from my crop I let go to seed earlier on in the year.  I use the seeds crushed up in curries and also a really lovely salad with cherry tomatoes, pinenuts, orzo and fresh basil leaves. 

I thought I might plant some of these seeds out too (I’ve already planted out some fresh Yates Coriander seed…so we’ll see how these go).  I use old evenlopes from cards that people give me and pop a silica gel pack in the evenlope to help keep them dry.  (These are re-used when I purchase new shoes or from burritos etc – they’re found in lots of packaging to keep moisture out).

I try really hard to keep my gardening costs to a minimum – hence re-using things out in the garden.   And when I do my shopping, I always take the packaging into consideration.  I wouldn’t consider myself a greenie, but I think we all need to do our bit to keep the planet in top shape.

 

FULL OF BEANS - 14 October 2012

Well…I was feeling full of beans this morning when the showers stopped and the sun came out to play, so I built another arch for my Yates Climbing Beans – Scarlet Runner.

I outlined how to make these on Day 29, and the first arch did not cost me a cent, but this one has…I ran out of 20mm irrigation tubing, so had to take a trip down to the hardware store and purchase some more.  The whole idea of these arches is to go vertical and give myself more room in the garden.

I thought I’d give this variety of climbing beans a try as a client of mine kept giving them to me last summer in return for tomatoes, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  Plus I think the red flowers will look really pretty growing over the arch.  When I was reading the packet, it said that they were perennial which I hadn’t realised.  Oh well – I guess I’ll just keep the arch there for them next year.

I’m going to have a wee hunt for some more climbing beans tomorrow I think as it would be nice to have a couple of varieties.  My other beans are just dwarf beans….

Right time to have a well earned vino me thinks!

 

MY FAVOURITE HERB - 13 October 2012

Today is absolutely ghastly.  We’ve received about 20mm of rain today and it has just stopped briefly now…so I made a dash outside to rescue these little herbs which are now going to stay inside on my kitchen window sill:

• Yates Dill
• Yates Thyme
• Yates Oregano

Centre stage is dill.  Dill is my absolute favourite herb.  We have it with fish, eggs, potatoes…Swedish dishes and Greek dishes mainly.  I lived in Sweden and to me, dill is the taste of Sweden.  Every time I eat it, I feel like I’m out in the archipelago on a boat during midsummer or I’m in a big forest picking berries and mushrooms.  It is a fantastic herb and I think it is quite under-rated in NZ.

Then we have thyme and oregano.  I just adore the aroma of these two herbs and I like to throw fresh oregano in particular into a lot of Greek salads.  We have a pizza oven, so I like to have thyme and oregano at my finger tips when I’m making a pizza sauce.  Nothing like the fresh stuff!  I grew all of these from seed under an old window and they are a tad bigger than the seeds I planted out directly in the garden.

Despite growing these herbs out in the garden too, I do like to have these at hand, as they’re all a little tricky to cut in the dark with a torch sometimes…

Well, I do hope that we get some sunshine tomorrow as I have a lot of planting to do!

 

THANKS MOTHER! - 13 October 2012

Well – I braved the high winds and quickly got this lovely curled parsley into the garden between downpours of rain.  I had literally just finished planting the last seedling and the heavens opened up.  Talk about speed gardening!  I just couldn’t bear not being able to get out in the garden…I hate being couped up inside!

These lovely parsley seedlings are actually from my mother.  You should see all the parsley in her garden!  It is AMAZING!  Now that I’m into gardening, it’s really nice to be able to swap things with one another (before I was always on the receiving end so it’s really nice to be able to give things to my mother now!)

I read somewhere recently, that curled parsley is not as popular and has made way to Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, but to be honest: although I grow both varieties, this is the stuff I grew up with and I just love it!

 

EGGPLANTS TO THE COLDFRAME - 12 October 2012

These little babies have done so well on the window sill…now it is time for them to head out to the coldframe to harden off before I plant them out in my polytunnel. 

This is my third year trying to grow eggplants.  Last season I managed to get two tiny eggplants before the cold weather in autumn got the better of them.  (Which was much better than the first season’s attempt where I got nothing at all…just pretty purple flowers).  I think the polytunnel is really going to help this year as they need a pretty warm environment to develop the actual eggplants.  Well here’s hoping!

 

PLANTING BY THE MOON - 12 October 2012

I have it on good authority (from Butter Bean in Bay of Plenty actually!) that today is the day to plant out root crops according to the Lunar Calendar.  I’ve been thinking about experimenting with this concept this year, but my husband who is a Physics teacher, is adamant that there is absolutely no science behind it and it won’t make a difference.  We always laugh about it…but I actually want to give it a go!

Well – he’s at school right now preparing for the start of Term 4, so I am going to make a mad dash out to the garden and get these seeds in the ground!  Luckily, I have a great supply of seeds at hand, so out they go:

• Yates Baby Beets
• Yates Carrot - Egmont Gold
• Yates Parsnip - Yatesnip
• Yates Radish - Salad Crunch
• Yates Swede - Champion Purple Top

Does anyone else use the Lunar Calendar?  I’d be so interested in hearing from you!  And thanks Butter Bean for your post – has given me the inspiration I needed!  :)

BUSY BUZZING BUMBLE BEE - 11 October 2012

It is a stunning day here in Wellington!  And all the bees are out working hard pollinating all the flowers.  Not a bean in sight on the broad beans, but this little bee is doing its’ best to help the process along!  We seem to have more bees this spring than ever before!

I’ve started learning more and more about beneficial insects since I started gardening.  There are so many insects that I couldn’t recognise until recently, and it is great seeing them all out in the garden.  The only baddies (other than the slugs) that seem to create havoc in the garden are the aphids…black ones, green ones and purple ones.  I’m trying really hard to keep on top of them though with various remedies!

I have quite a bit to plant out so hope to finish my meetings a little earlier this afternoon so I can squeeze in a bit of gardening.  My cottage garden is looking amazing and there are so many varieties of flowers in full bloom…I just wish I could post some pictures of them….maybe Yates could run a flower competition sometime?  I started my flower beds last year in an effort to attract more bees and beneficial insects.  Clearly it’s doing the trick!  :)

 

ROOM TO ZOOM AND MORE UPCYCLING - 11 October 2012

I need more room in my garden…so inspired by a French botanist called Patrick Blanc, I’m going vertical!  I made this arch for my snow peas to grow on and it’s saving me heaps of space!  I made it all from junk I found under our deck – so again…making use of old things lying around.  I’m going to make some more for the beans to grow on this weekend. 

This is so simple and you don’t need any string (except I did on my version as I found I needed to add some more trellis later…)

ITEMS REQUIRED:

• Bamboo stakes
• 20mm irrigation tubing
• plastic trellis
• scissors

HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE ARCH:

1. Space out bamboo stakes evenly and push about halfway down into ground each stick is secure (or as far as it will go into ground).
2. Slide the end of the irrigation tube over the bamboo stick, cut to desired length and leave in sun for about an hour until pliable.  (Make sure it is high enough for you to walk under).  Repeat on next stake.  I used 3 stakes on each side for a 1.5 metre length.
3. Thread plastic trellis through irrigation tubing.
4. Bend irrigation tube over to opposite side and slide over opposite stake. 
5. Plant out your climbing veges and easy peasy – cheap arch ready to go!

I’m now also exploring ways to grow our lettuce and chinese cabbage vertically between the posts of our BBQ area.  So watch this space!  I hope everyone is having lots of fun thinking of new ways to garden – I think this must be why gardening must be so good for our mental well-being.  It’s not just the fresh air, but the fact that it gets you thinking outside the square!  Hope everyone else got to get outside today!

 

POPEYE TUCKER - 10 October 2012

“That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!  I’m strong to the finish when I eats mespinach I’m Popeye the sailor man! Toot toot!”

LOVED Popeye and LOVED spinach when I was a kid.  And as an adult I always think of these Popeye quotes when I’m planting out my spinach seedlings and it makes me giggle.  I love to use spinach now in a myriad of dishes (most fav dish has to be Ricotta & Spinach Cannelloni!)  But of course it is absolutely magnificent in salads.  I freeze surplus harvests in snaplock bag and just crush up the frozen leaves in the bag and put it in winter casseroles.  And when I’m super organised, I’ll blanch it, squeeze out the excess water and freeze it – and then it’s ready for pastas etc.  (Actually, I even put it in my fresh pasta when I make it from scratch).

Incredibly high in iron, spinach is such a versatile and beneficial vegetable.  Even the slugs think so – they tucked into my seedlings planted out four weeks ago….I just keep planting this out every four weeks: can never have too much!

 

LOVELY LEEKS - 9 October 2012

Bit of a strange day here today…one minute it is sunny and the next minute: rain.  However I have managed to plant out my little leek seedlings!  I have never managed to get nice thick leeks like you find in the supermarket (mine are usually about half the size), although the flavour is sensational!

My mother bought me the little dibber tool so I’ve used that and followed Monty Don’s rules (fromBBC) for planting out:

1. Use a dibber to make a hole.
2. Place seedling about two thirds of way into hole.
3. Do not fill in hole.
4. Water in.

In a couple of weeks I’ll mound them up and I’ll keep doing that until they hopefully (all fingers crossed) get nice and thick over the next few months.  I keep planting leeks all year round as I use them in a myriad of recipes.  These ones are Yates Leek – Welsh Wonder.

Right – had better not procrastinate any further and get back to work.  I love reading everyone else’s progress in this challenge and learning new tips, but it can be a bit of a distraction!  :)

 

A TASTE OF SPRING - 8 October 2012

I just stepped out to my garden during my brief lunch-break and found my first snow pea! Hurrah! I love these so much. Our local supermarket sells them…from ZAMBIA! This seems completely crazy to me when they are so easy to grow here in NZ…it makes no sense importing veges from this far away…absolute madness.

I’m growing a mixture of Yates Snow Peas – Climbing and saved seeds. Best eaten before the peas mature in the pod, I treat myself (and my husband if he’s lucky!) to these when I’m out gardening but of course most find their way into our meals especially in Asian dishes.  I have also made amazing salads using these par-boiled and raw and also use them in Mexican dishes…We have oodles of flowers over all the plants, so hopefully in a few days, I can harvest sufficient for our first meal!  (This one didn’t even make it into the house!)

6 TOMATOES, A PLUMBER AND A WEDDING - 7 OCTOBER 2012

Today’s post is about the story of how I got into gardening and my guide to a successful crop of tomatoes….

THE STORY

Three years ago I was about to get married and my plumber gave me six tomato seedlings the month before my wedding.  In a previous post I mentioned how I used to almost cry when my now husband suggested I help in the garden with weeding etc…So of course I had no idea what to do with these seedlings. 

Not being able to bare the thought of leaving the seedlings to shrivel up and die, I shoved some compost from our compost bin into an old concrete washing tub out the back of our house and planted the seedlings.  The funny thing is that I broke off the tops of thetomatoes a few weeks later in error and I made a break-through discovery, that you can just shove them in the ground right away and hey presto!  New plants!  (You don’t even need rooting hormone!)

In the weeks leading up to our wedding, I popped out each day to check on the tomatoes and weed etc.  It was great stress relief and made me feel really good each day.

The day after our wedding and reception (about six weeks after planting out the seedlings), we had our guests join us for a relaxed BBQ in our garden.  Everyone kept asking what was planted in the concrete tub – I think most people were really shocked that I had actually planted something…that summer we enjoyed copious amounts of tomatoes and the thrill of growing something far surpassed my previous fear of gardening.  I was hooked and I spent the next winter dreaming up plans for a full vegetable garden and landscaping project which saw the removal of a huge pond.

Needless to say, thanks to my plumber, gardening has become a way of life for us now.  We don’t buy any veges whatsoever, and eat everything we grow.  And some days it only requires 10 minutes of attention!  I freeze and preserve excess veges and of course, give lots away to friends and family when we have an excessive glut.

MY GUIDE TO PLANTING OUT FOR A SUCCESSFUL CROP

So here are our tomatoes (Yates Tomato ‘Grosse Lisse’ & Yates Tomato ‘Small Fry’) and 2.4 metre stakes!  Trust me, our tomatoes go crazy here and need those long stakes.  I find it best to put the stakes in when you’re planting, so you don’t disturb the roots later on.

I then plant them out in our fabulous compost mixed with manure, leaf mould, pea straw, potash and mustard dug over from winter.  And use my special mix when planting out for each seedling:

• one old banana per seedling
• 2 tablespoons crushed eggshells
• a cloche over the top of each one (using 1 litre juice bottles)
• watered in using diluted Yates Nature's Way Seaweed Emulsion
• pea straw place over the soil as a mulch

…and now the wait begins!  Basil and marigolds will be planted out later with the tomatoes.

 

FREE PEAS! - 6 October 2012

I was just about to start digging over the designated bed for my tomato seedlings and discovered all these self-sown peas from the pea straw I laid about a month ago.  Awesome!  I have moved them all over to join my Yates Peas – Novella and we’ll see how they go.  I have no idea what variety they are…I just know the pea straw comes from the Hawkes Bay.  As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many peas! 

The garden bed is all dug over and FULL of worms (I was quite surprised at just how many were in there) and it’s time to make a start on planting out the tomatoes!

 

LUSH LEAFY GROWTH - 6 October 2012

I just had to share this picture of my lovely lush tomato seedlings prior to planting them out:

• Yates Tomato 'Grosse Lisse'
• Yates Tomato 'Small Fry'

I planted these seeds out on 28/08/12 and five and a half weeks later, they look perfect.  I’ve had them hardening off for just over a week and they are definitely ready to plant.  I can almost taste the cherry tomatoes bursting in my mouth right now!  And I can’t wait to make my tomato sauce using my mother’s secret recipe to send to my younger sisters overseas. 

It is so windy today, so I will have to ensure that I pop a cloche on each plant to protect them.

 

REMEDY FOR CAT PROBLEMS - 5 October 2012

Many people seem to be posting about problems with cats…and I can’t find a Yates product to suggest, but this is the ultimate remedy:

• a used teabag
• cayenne pepper

I grow Yates Chilli Pepper – Long Red Cayenne.  We always have far too many to eat so I freeze them whole and dry some out too.  The dry ones are great to help deter cats.  I crush them right up into a powder in my mortar & pestle and sprinkle them on used teabags and place them all around the garden.  It really does work!

I have to use this method in my flower beds predominantly as cats don’t tend to bother plants in our raised beds due to the size of the plants.  Most of you will find that cats won’t disturb the garden later in the season when your plants are more established.  It seems to just be everyone’s precious little seedlings.

If you don’t have an dried chillis to crush up – you can just use the packet stuff.  Pictured are some dried chillis I grew last season.

I really hope this helps you all.  I got this tip from BBC Gardener’s World and it really does work a treat and doesn’t hurt the cats at all.  Speaking of chilli plants…mine should be ready to plant out in a week or so.  Wahoo! 

 

MONSTER BROAD BEANS - 4 October 2012

I really don’t have time to do any gardening today, but looked out the window and saw that my broad beans have had a massive growth spurt, but were growing all over the place thanks to the wind.

So I quickly shoved some stakes in the ground and put some twine around them.  Hopefully this will be sufficient.  I’ve seen other peoples broad beans in less exposed places that grow all nice and straight.  Wishful thinking!  A lot of plants happen to grow all over the place I’ve noticed here due to the wind. 

The weather forecast is for high winds tomorrow, so I’ll hold off planting my tomatoeswhich are ready for planting….they look sooooooooooooo good!  It is exactly one month and two days since I planted the seeds, so I think that is pretty good going!

 

BLOOD & BONE AND A LITTLE TALE - 3 October 2012

Upon recommendation from an expert gardener, I have bought some Yates Blood & Bone today as my garlic, shallots, leeks, red onions and spring onions are all going brown at the tips.  I definitely haven’t been over-watering them and we haven’t had much rain at all, so I guess something is missing from the soil.

I have never used this before, so will let you all know if this will remedy my issue.  I found it easily in the garden store as the packaging hasn’t changed for years!  My Grandfather used to swear by this.  He was an avid gardener and I think some how I have managed to absorb all his wonderful skills because I really don’t know where I get all my gardening knowledge from.  From a really early age right up until I was at university, I used to just plonk myself down and talk away to him as he carried out all his tasks in the garden but I never, ever helped.  He loved his garden immensely and everyone in his street would know when he fell ill as the garden would never look as bright.  Neighbours even would stop by to help Grandma to get it looking nice for him when he came home from the hospital!

I used to cry when my husband suggested we get stuck into something in the garden three years ago…….it never interested it me at all.  But I had an interesting thing happen 3 years ago, which I will share in another post some other time.

Unfortunately Grandad passed away 5 years ago, and I wish I could share my passion for gardening with him now and talk about our successes and failures together.  I know he is probably smiling away now from wherever he is…so today’s post is dedicated to my inspiring Grandad who I miss so much.

 

TWO YEARS IN THE WAITING...- 2 October 2012

This time two years ago, I planted outasparagus crowns.  I was just out harvesting some lettuce for lunch and saw that two spears have appeared.  I am so excited because we will be able to eat them for the first time since I planted the crowns!  I do hope it will be worth the wait!

I have so much work to do today and I wish I could be outside enjoying the sunshine in the garden instead.  Maybe if I work exceptionally hard today, I might reward myself with a couple of hours in the garden tomorrow.  I have lots oflettuce seedlings ready to be planted…

 

MOVING ON OUT TO THE COLD FRAME - 1 OCTOBER 2012

Ever eager to upcycle – I made this little cold frame for my seedlings from an old laundry tub and a FREE window from the Wellington Tip Shop.  I have always meant to paint it and attach some hinges to the window, but haven’t quite got around to it.  I hope to make this happen sometime this summer….

For the past year, this has been a temporary home to my baby seedlings for about a week or so prior to planting them out.  I prop the window up during the day and close it at night to keep them all snug.  I have oodles of lovely flower seedlings in here at the moment and it is also housing my Yates Parsley – Italian Flat Leaf, Yates Sweet Basil, Yates Dill, Yates Tomato ‘Grosse Lisse’ and Yates Tomato ‘Tiny Tim’.  The tomatoes will be in here for a week to harden off and then they should be ready for planting out this weekend.

Using the cold frame has been a great way to ensure that my seedlings can cope with the weather when they move from the comforts of indoors to outdoors and since I’ve used this, I’ve found that I have had much more success with the seedlings growing on into healthy plants.

 

MARVELLOUS MANURE - 1 October 2012

Hmmm….not the nicest pic I’ve posted, but here is the evidence of today’s work: horse manure.  I’ve been letting this break down for the past year or so and it should add some fabulous nutrients to the garden for my gross feeders such as courgettes, cucumber, squash and pumpkins.  I have dug this in and inadvertently added it after I’d planted the seedlings over the weekend…I should have really added this to the garden two weeks ago but hey!  It’s a had a chance to rot away for a year, so it shouldn’t be so bad.  Here’s hoping!

CABBAGE DISASTER - 30 September 2012

I have been pretty happy with the amount of growth my cabbage has had in the past two weeks (the biggest I’ve ever managed to grow in the past couple of years). 

Today I thought I’d check out how it is hearting up…but alas!  It has gone to seed!  I see other growers have had the same issues, and I can’t figure out why this has happened to mine too!  The only thing I can think of is that it has been over-watered, but I’ve been pretty cautious about that.  This is Yates Cabbage ‘Sweet Eureka’.  Thankfully I have a couple of seedlings that are almost ready to plant out.  I just hope I don’t have the same problem again.  If anyone knows what can make a cabbage bolt to seed – let me know!

 

THE CLOCHE EFFECT - 29 September 2012

My squash and courgettes are planted out now and have their little cloches over them to keep them nice and warm.  Of course, my choice of cloche is an old 1 litre juice bottle with the bottom cut off.  I popped my finger inside the top and it is really hot inside there!  Hopefully the temperatures will help to get them off to a good start!

I have oodles of these cloches ready for my tomatoes which have moved outside today to start hardening off.  It is so lovely and warm today and could feel the warmth in the soil as I dug it over.  I do hope that it’s a sign of good things to come this season!

 

2 MORE WEEKS UNTIL PLANTING... - 28 September 2012

It is so lovely and warm today here in Wellington.  I think it is helping my tomato andeggplant seedlings grow nice and fast on the window sill.  The tomatoes in particular seem to be growing like weeds!  I think I’ll be planting these little babies out in two weeks…will pop them outside in the next week to harden off though.  The eggplants will need a little longer and then they’re headed for the polytunnel.

Oh it is so great that Friday has arrived!  I have lots of planting planned this weekend, so hopefully the weather stays just like this!