Its been a while, been a tad busy here...

The last month or so has been a tad busy with the garden and other things. Even with Autumn here, there is still loads to do around the place and it doesn't seem that long ago when I started planting my winter veg.



The broad beans are in, along with cauliflower. This past summer I had planted out about 12 tomatoes and most of them are out now, except 3 which still seem to be hanging in there. This year wasn't a good year around here for tomatoes (will admit here got a bit sick of making green tomato relish) and I wasn't the only one having trouble with getting them to ripen.

The zucchinis I had put in are still producing zucchini, yellow and black jack. There are also pumpkin, peas and normal beans in and they are all coming up nicely.

The woodheater has been fired up, although still a tad too warm to be going, its getting cooler around here and need to get some of the washing dry without having to use the dryer.

This year, I have decided to cut down on plastic bags around the place starting with using hessian bags for shopping now. At least with them I can wash them easily if they start getting a tad dirty looking. (plastic bags take forever to disintegrate into the environment)

Not only that, I have found some eco-friendly cleaning products in the local health food shop that seem to be doing really well around the house. They smell wonderful as well and are made locally where I live.. so all good.

Well that's it for now and hope all goes well in your neck of the woods.

What a busy time coming up

Well there is the new years round up of Farmers Markets, Shows and school going back for a lot of people..This post is about a local Farmers Market that has been revamped. Its the Wynyard Farmers Market and is on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. (Except for March when the local show is on the 2nd Saturday).

Its at the local Showgrounds and well worth a look at this year if your in the area. Will post about it again soon with photos etc.

Reserve Photos

Geez, I have been neglecting things somewhat

Been a little busy lately with one thing and another. Last week we had bad weather, and we had only just come home from a camping trip.

 http://picasaweb.google.com/101132301167734491853/RiverPhotos#


 Will admit tho, its not as bad here (with the flooding) as it has been in other parts of the country such as QLD and Victoria.  But bad enough for some folks here.

Anyway, will be back later to start blogging again

Russian Comfrey

Russian Comfrey

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.)

(click on name for further description)


Well giving the good old comfrey another try this year. Last year it was grown in a pot, but didnt for some reason do very well. Which actually suprised me as it is such a prolific grower normally. Yet this year I decided to plant it out in the garden. 

It is supposed to have high levels of potash, so once it is established, I will be making a liquid tea out of it and feeding things such as strawberries, tomatoes etc.  Word of warning here tho, if you dont keep an eye on it, it will take over the garden as it is evasive.

More Recipes

Actually, have done quite a bit of cooking the last couple of days....

Found an old cookery book in a second hand shop (its still in pounds and oz's which has been fun working out) and its full of really great old fashioned recipes, which I will write about in the next few days.

Another that is fast turning into a favourite here ( and I do like it myself) is:

Date Loaf

Date Loaf

1 cup of dates
3/4 cup of water
1 teaspoon of soda
1 tablespoon of butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of walnuts (optional)


Put dates and soda in boiling water and allow to stand, then mash.

Cream butter and sugar, add dates then flour

Bake for 3/4 hour in a moderate oven..



And to use up your Capsicums, try this:


Capsicum Relish

Capsicum Relish

2 cups Chopped Capsicum
2 cups chopped white onions
1 cup white sugar
2 cups white wine vinegar
3 tsp salt
a few black peppercorns
and freshly ground pepper


combine capsicum and onion, stir in the sugar, vinegar, salt, peppercorn and pepper. Mix well and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid has reduced and mixture is thick. Fill hot jars with the mixture/ Refridgerate after use. Great with cheese as well as cold lamb or poultery.

Fruit and Nut Cake

Found a great Festive Fruit cake recipe the other day in a magazine I was reading the other day and did some modifications when I made it..... Turned out really well and is fast becoming a favourite in my house.




 1x 125 gram packet of mixed nuts
1 x 125 gram packet of dried fruit
200 gram of dates
200 gram of cooking chocolate
1 tsp of mixed spice
5 egg whites
1 tspn cream of tartar
2/3 cup of caster sugar

Preheat oven to 160 celsisus. Place mixed nuts and chocolate pieces into a food processor and process for a few for a seconds until they are roughly chopped. Add the mixed fruit and spice and mix for a few seconds more.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and add cream of tartar. Slowly add the caster sugar while beating on high. Continue beating for a futher two minutes until thick and glossy. Gently fold the nut mix into the meringue and spoon into a greased 23 cm spring - formed cake tin. Bake for 40 minutes, turn oven off and allow the cake to cool slowly in the oven with the door slightly ajar.

Its great on its on or with a dollop of cream...


I dont have a spring cake tin anymore, so used what I had.



Fruit and Nut cake

 The left over egg yolks can be made into a homemade salad dressing:

5 egg yolks
4 cups of good quality cooking oil (can be less if you would prefer)
drizzle of vinegar
mustard to taste
salt and pepper to taste
garlic to taste
mixed fresh herbs, about a cup but less if you would like

mix all in a blender and bottle. keep in fridge

Composting

What is Composting????

Is where you turn most of your organic household and garden waste into a simple heap and enrisch your garden's soil.

There heaps of sites that go into more depth on this than I will here. To create your own compost heap, choose a site which has some shade and well drained.

What to compost???

I use normal garden waste ( lawn clippings, weeds, dry leaves etc) fruit and veggie peelings, tired potting mix from pots, shredded paper and cardboard, seaweed etc. I dont use diseased plants, meat and dairy products etc.

kitchen waste



compost bin



Interesting Fact:

"About 1/2 of what we throw into the garbage bin can be used in your compost bin".

At the present time, I am using  one of those bins that you can buy in any hardware shop that has a removable lid. (you use what you wish). When the compost is ready, I just lift the bin and move to  another part of the garden. The compost that is ready is used in plantings in the garden, in pots when I am re potting them.



Interesting Fact:

"Composting is nature's own recycling system. If you walk around a bush reserve you will see it in action."

A well composted garden wil improve your yeilds and your neighbours will be over to ask how you did it. Take a walk in any regenerated bush area and you will see how composting works naturally. There will be things working and small insects, bugs and worms all doing there bit for the environment they are in. 

Garden Update

Summer Veggie Patch

This last winter, I gave the patch a much needed rest after a full summer of planting and harvesting. There were still a few Silverbeet and strawberry plants in it, but not a lot else.

Anyway, in the last 3 - 4 weeks, Ive managed to clear out weeds and the remaining silverbeet (was a bit too woody and old now) and started planting out fresh plants for the summer. The majority of the tomatos have their own bed and three heritage tomatos are in the veg. patch. So all up about 14 tomatos. The Apollo tomatos are already starting to form tomatos. So my plant list for the start of this summer is

• Sweet Corn (about a dozen)
• Celery ( 2)
• Eggplant ( 1)
• Capsicum (4)
• Lettuce ( about 7)
• raspberry canes ( about 1/2 dozen)
• pumpkin (1)
• strawberries ( in a front garden bed and too many to count)
• Red and Black Currant plants
• Climbing beans
• zucchini ( about 1/2 dozen: black jack and yellow buckingham)

The raspberries are forming fruit along with a first picking of strawberries.

Herb Patches 1 & 2

Have been planted out and starting to take off nicely now. These beds arent too far from the kitchen which is great. Although the parsley and coriander are still in pots under the kitchen window due to the fact that I use them fairly often. Many of the herbs that I had bought last summer have now died off and wil be replaced in time over summer.

Indoor/outdoor living area

Is now starting to take shape nicely now with pots being placed around with geraniums and cactuses. There is a yellow banksia rose (rambler) and a yellow creeper planted in front of the shade cloth and once they take off it should slow down the wind and block out some of the sun giving us a bit of  privacy to read and have a cuppa.

Making your own bread

A few years back I was given a bread making machine and ended up making my own home made bread. (due to the kids still being home and bread at that stage becoming a bit too expensive)...

bread machine

first loaf

Now its been a few years since I did make any and my first loaf turned out rather well. 

When I was making it many years ago, I had the machine working overnight so we could have fresh bread first thing in the morning and made another during the day.  Now that bread seems to be  even more expensive than before and not really knowing how many added nasties they are adding to it, I am back to making my own again. But as usual with me, I have lost or misplaced the original recipe book that came with it....<sighs> but not all is lost, I have found a site where I can buy books on making bread with bread machines...<grins> ...someone actually posted the site to me on another forum which will be useful when I  go to buy it.

They really arent that expensive to run, if you have the machine going overnight when the electricity rates are usually cheaper. So now I am off to make more and have taste testing with different recipes...

What a world we live in

Here I sit on reasonable sunny morning having my cuppa and reading about the floods in New South Wales and Victoria etc... Geez it was only a couple of months ago that I was up that way visiting family and friends and thinking how much greener it was looking after years of drought. (These days I travel by train through these states so get to see a bit of the country side.)



taken from the train

Now, from what I can gather from the news reports:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Much_of_inland_New_South_Wales,_Australia_affected_by_flooding?dpl_id=226323



http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/up-to-2000-people-leave-as-floods-worsen-across-new-south-wales/story-e6frfku0-1225966206699



it seems to be going so much greener in these parts of this great big country of ours.

Makes you wonder how the farmers just keep going  when it becomes so wet. Its either a feast or a famine with them. When I was last up that way, the crops were looking so good and here I was thinking that they were going to have a wonderful year, how wrong I was. Well, after growing up as a farmers daughter, I should of known so much better. You can have years of drought, then get downpours in summer and end up still wearing gumboots to get around. But they, the farmers, just keep getting on with it. Its a way of life for them as well as a business. Its there homes, and I dont mean just a house, that is affected by the constant changing weather..and people in the cities and larger towns say they should just get on with it.. hey you try it and see your hard work and money go down the drain. It can be heartbreaking to se0 e all that effort end up lost for another 10 years.

After 10 years of drought, it can take another 10 years to catch up and start making money again.

Indoor /Outdoor living area

Actually, this idea has been floating around in my head for a while now. I have a verandah that faces South and gets hit by the afternoon sun most days. (It does get quite hot there during the summer months).

Anyway, this morning after thinking about it, the work that I had done out in the front yard would work in quite well. All that was needed were about 1/2 tall wooden garden stakes that you can buy just about anywhere and some shade/wind cloth to attach it.

It has had some fine tuning since the photo was taken.

From the side.

Now, I didnt want to spend a whole lot of money and wanted it to be something that was moveable and taken down quite easily if needed.. (not sure how that will work considering that there will be creepers growing all over it) .. but by next summer it should be a cooler place to sit, have a cuppa and read the paper or a good book. <grins>

Now all that is needed is some good plants hanging in pots to help make it a greener, cooler place tos sit.. 

Oh Boy, the heat drove me inside....

wind break/shade cloth



banksia rose transplanted







Yellow creeper transplanted



and again

Horseradish



Ornamental Sage



Quite a busy morning until the heat drove me inside....Its a warm 34.5 degrees here (thats celsisus) and made run for the shorts...<grins> . Not only that it was way past lunchtime and my stomach was complaining ...ugh. But not too bad of an effort.

The shade cloth is attached to large stakes with wire and the one above the yellow creeper is also attached to a bamboo edging (which you probably can just  see in the photo.)  Now I'm no carpetener at all (nor can I spell at times) but the shade cloth contraption doesnt look too bad. At least it will help a bit during the summer months as the Yellow Banksia Rose and yellow creeper get going properly.  The day will come when it will be quite nice sitting out the front and being able to watch the people walking past and having a little privacy...<grins>

Horseradish is something I have been wanting to grow for quite a while now. Found the little fella at a friends place and got it. Might just add here that is where the Ornamental Sage came from as well. (It has a pretty pale yellow flower)



Zen Garden Elements - Feng Shui Gardens - Fire Water Earth Wind - RealEstate.com

Zen Garden Elements - Feng Shui Gardens - Fire Water Earth Wind - RealEstate.com

The Mist has lifted for now

Floribunda Cafe (Rose Cafe)

Well after a misty start to the day, it has managed to lift from around the house..Anyways, off to the Nursery I goes for a bit of a look around and came home with more veggies and another Rose, Floribunda Cafe (Rose Cafe).  Its a quite nice Rose and has been potted up and is sitting by the back door... Guess I have a bit of a Rose Pot garden happening now as there are three roses in pots now.



While at the Nursery I also bought some more veggie seedlings for the Veg. Patch....Sweet Corn, Eggplant, Capsicum, lettuce and some Red Leg Spring Onions,  all of which are now planted out.

Actually, I have never grown Eggplant before this, so giving it a try and see how things go with it...

Oh well, thats the veg. patch sorted for today anyway.... that could very well change tomorrow <grins>

Yellow Banksia Rose

Yellow Banskia Rose

Bought this today and thought it would go rather well somewhere in my yard. Just not entirely sure where just yet, that is to be decided.

The birds are still getting the better of me with the strawberries: the netting will need some readjustments. Yet managed to save three of them late this afternoon.. <grins>

I am hoping this year to be able to beat the birds a bit more and get more of these yummy berries for me.<grins>

rescued strawberries (only 3)

In between shopping and the rain today, I actually got to plant out some Cucumbers and more Zucchinis

(see below)



zucchinis





cucumbers















Ned Kelly Passionfruit.

 And bought another Passionfruit vine and planted this one out in the corner of the Veg. Patch. So hopefully in a few weeks time it will start to cover the side fence. <grins>

Tomorrow will be another buying day with a bit of luck and the local nursery will start to think that I live there..<sighs>

Pumpkin and Strawberries



Pumpkin in pure compost and lawn clippings



Strawberries covered with netting to keep the birds off.





The pumpkin was given by a neighbour and is now out in the veg. patch. The strawberries are now being covered with netting, the actual netting is one of those cheap flyscreen door covers you can buy in any $2 shop around the place. Although not completely covered as yet I still have some out the back in my little store of treasures waiting to be used some place.. <grins>

Seaplane

Not very often do we get seaplanes flying out from our local river. Yet when I was walking home from the local supermarket this morning it was being transported down the street to be able to get to the river. (Damn I didnt have the camera with me at the time)

Aparently, they come up our way to get serviced at the local airport, the plane is owned by one of  the seaplane operators on the west coast here and they do scenic tours.

Yard Update



Angelica and Catnip




Veg. Patch




Itis




Passionfruit



Yellow Creeper



White Jasmine



The yard is now starting to look a bit better now than it did..The veggie patch has been cleared of the weedy mess and the Silverbeet from last summer now in the compost bin along with the weeds....(said compost bin is groaning with pleasure <grins>)

Right now its getting a much needed soaking, even after the rain in the last week or so, there are still patches where its a bit harder to dig over. Must be time for some more seaweed to help over the coming summer months... Hopefully, in the next week or so, more veggie plants will go in. Such as Sweet Corn, beetroot, lettuces etc.

The Herb patches are now starting to come along nicely. The Garlic chives got a much needed haircut and the Catnip and Angelica are loving being in the ground instead of pots at the back door.

The raspberries are now starting to form fruit, along with the strawberries. Later today the strawberries will be covered with netting to keep the birds of. The birds have already gotten to two of the ripened strawberries and they are for me to eat, not the birds.. <grins>.

The side  fence has been planted out with Iris's, Jasmine, Passionfruit and a yellow creeper. In a few months it should to look great... (the side fence I am  talking about is just near the loungeroom window, so the jasmine of a night should smell amazing)

Veg. Patch

Beans

Celery and Silverbeet

HotHouse

Generally other plants and weeds.

  

 

 Above is some photos of my veg. patch which badly needs some work doing in it. After being away for about 3 weeks, I think somehow today is the day it will get some much needed attention before I get too busy working for other people...<grins> ... we all need the cash to live eh.  The weeds need to go.. <evil grin>.

I have in it Currant Bushes, Beans,Silverbeet, Raspberries, and a few other things.

The Hothouse is where I have any plant that I am establishing to be planted out. It is a cheaper, movable one that I bought a couple of years ago. At the moment it is just outside the kitchen window and tied to the drainage pipes due to windy conditions here. (that is usually from about August to February) Tying it down seems to be the only way to keep it in one spot and it is sitting on a cement path to add warmth to it.

Raspberries



Weeds need removing