1stop Organic Gardening

Well, as promised, here are some more photos of veggies from my organic garden. The photo on the left is of our snow peas. I’ve sold quite a few at market - people just love them. And there’s been plenty for us. But they’re just about finished now, so I’m leaving these last few pods on the vine to dry and save for next spring.
I really should have got more in by now, but trellis space is of a bit of a premium at the moment.
Maybe hubby could put up another trellis for me??? You know…. if I ask really nice  Maybe he’ll read my blog and I’ll just walk out to the garden one day real soon and it will just be there  

The right hand photo is of one of the zucchini (courgette) plants we’re growing. This variety is “romanesque” - a pale green vegetable with ribbed sides.
I’ve also got “lebanese” zucchini growing and must get some “black jack” in soon. Zucchini is such a wonderful producer. I get so many that if I didn’t have the farmer’s market to sell the excess to, I’d have a real problem.

I’ll have more updates in another few days.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: vegetables on November 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

OK, now I have some more photos of vegetables that I’ve got growing in my organic food garden. When I say “I”, I really mean “we”, ’cause my husband has put in these tomatoes. His are a little more advanced than the plants I’ve put in. He got a bit of a head start on me, so we’ll be eating his first.
But I’ve put in some more interesting varieties. A black russian, a gold gem and some cherry tomatoes - so we’ll be enjoying all sorts.

As you can probably tell, it’s quite dry already. We’ve had some very light rain the past few days but it practically evaporates before it hits the ground.

Another way we grow some of our food plants is with nutrient film technology. Take a look at the photo below to see some of our salad veggies growing. There’s lettuce and basil in the photo, but we also grow mizuna, tatsoi, rocket, coriander and kale as pick and come again salad veggies.

So you can see we’re really steaming ahead. And that’s not all! I’ve got a few more pics to share with you in a couple of days time - so please check back in a few days.

And again, please leave a comment. Other gardeners would love to know what’s happening in your garden… just as I would.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: vegetables on November 27th, 2008 | No Comments »

Last post I meant to talk about what I was doing in my organic garden, but I got a little side-tracked. Given that a picture says a 1000 words (and that I’m a bit short on time ), I thought I could just show you how my vegetable garden looks right now.

The left photo shows a couple of artichokes. The rear one is starting to shoot - so we should be eating them soon.

The right hand photo is of our scarlet runner beans. They are a perennial bean. Once they have finished producing they die down and will shoot again the following spring. I just love perennial vegetables!
If you look hard you’ll see tomato plants at both ends of the trellis and lebanese zucchini plants along the plot. I love to companion plant.

And here in my main bed you can see the spring onions planted amongst the carrots - another great companion planting combination. I’ve been harvesting the spring onions for a while now and have even sold some at the market. I’m just pulling a few carrots as we need them….  and they are delicious!

I’ll have more photos of what’s going on in my organic garden in the next few days - so pop back for a look  

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: vegetables on November 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Organic gardening is such a pleasure through the milder months here in South Australia. It’s mid spring now and that’s why I’ve not had much time to write here… sorry!

Not only am I spending time in my veggie garden, but I’m constantly potting up my herbs to sell at the Barossa Farmer’s Market each Saturday morning.
Not to mention the other propagating I do - division of some of my larger plants, growing from seed and then there’s the cuttings that need to be done! In the picture below there are lavender cuttings on the left hand side, rosemary cuttings in the middle and several types of sages to the right hand side.

It all takes time, but I LOVE it! (Don’t they look great?) Oh, just looking at the photo now I see that the cuttings to the far right are my variegated lavender.

Just in case you’re wondering, the cutting tray is sitting on a heat bed and under two fluorescent lights. There’s aluminium foil behind the tray to reflect as much light onto the plants as possible. I took the plastic tray cover off to take the photo.

If you’ve had a go at getting cuttings to strike, I’d love to hear about it - so please share by leaving a comment.

If you’re new to organic gardening, you might like to learn about it from my website.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Herbs on November 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

Just a quick post here to let anyone in South Australia know about a gorgeous garden I had the privilege of visiting recently. It’s at the Jacob Creek Retreat in the Barossa Valley. The great news is that they are having an open garden weekend this weekend coming - that is Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November. Yes, it’s open to the public! And you will be awe-struck by the beauty of their gardens.

They have their own website (not sure how often it’s updated though) so you can have a sneak preview here, but I must say it really doesn’t do the garden justice.

I’ll be there myself after I’ve been to the Barossa Farmer’s Market where I have a stall every Saturday. I should be there after 1pm on Saturday and all day Sunday. I’ll have my stand of organically grown herbs and other edible plants available for sale. Please say hello if you’ve read my blog! (sometimes I think I’m writing to myself)

OK, so to find Jacobs Creek Retreat take a look at the map on their website, try Nitschke Rd, Barossa Valley on Google Earth (it’s at the end of Nitschke Rd) or give them a call for details on 08 8563-1123.

Maybe I’ll see you there   

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Herbs, Uncategorized on November 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

My mum’s been away travelling around Australia, through the desert mostly, during our winter. Now to say my mum’s not a gardener is a bit of an understatement, but she might read this - so I better leave it at that.

When she got back I offered to help her with a few of the fruit trees she’s got in her back yard. She hasn’t lived in this property for very long and the fruit trees have been seriously neglected.

The thing is, most older fruiting trees can be greatly improved and go on fruiting for years more after a little bit of TLC if they don’t have any serious problems. Here’s a photo of me in my element. I’ve pruned back all of the dead and diseased wood as well as any that crosses over itself and probably another third of the tree.

Then I pulled up most of the weeds, added a fertilizer all around the drip zone, mulched quite thickly with pea-straw and gave it a good watering.

All of this was done at the beginning of spring, before the tree started to flower. I don’t expect it will bear much fruit this season, but next year should be a beauty!

I’ll have to ask mum how it’s going now…  it’s been a couple of months since I was there.

There’s not really much more to it than what I’ve written. So if you’ve been neglecting your fruit trees or inherited some sad specimens, don’t despair - try a little kindness (winter or spring is the best time) and they might surprise you with bumper yields.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Uncategorized on November 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

Wow, I’m a bit embarrased to say that I’ve hardly posted at all in my blog this month. Now it’s not like I’ve been slacking off or anything. Spring is just so demanding on organic gardeners.

Not to mention the fact that I’m producing potted herbs to sell at the market every week and of course they’re selling like hot-cakes now that the temperature’s warmed up. Everyone wants to get their herb and vegetable gardens into full swing now.

So just what have I been doing in my veggie garden lately?

I’ve planted tomatoes (and staked them), basil, flat and curley parsley, beetroot seeds, perrenial beans, several varieties of pumpkin, zucchinis and cucumbers, globe artichokes, spinach….  I’m sure there’s other things that haven’t come to mind just now too.

I’ve even got hubby out in the veggie patch too. He’s planted more tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, basil, leeks, watermelon and eggplant. Plus he’s set up a hydroponic system so that we can grow a heap of unusual herbs and strawberries. Any strawberries we grow in the soil here are devoured by millipedes before they are really ripe - little buggars!

Then there’s the other very satisfying task of harvesting some things. Take a look below at how tall my broad beans grew this year! And I’m 5′7″.

This is my second picking (about 3kg). I picked about the same a week ago. The beans are tender enough at this stage to eat the pods too. I’ve sold most of them at the market, keep enough for ourselves of course. And they’ll keep producing good size pods for at least a few more weeks yet.

I’ve also been harvesting parsley (see it next to me in the photo going to seed) and leeks and numerous herbs for market, oh and snow peas too. People love the fresh produce.

And we now have 23 hens and 2 roosters. So we have eggs for market too. Can you tell I’ve been a little busy? And because it doesn’t get dark now til after 8pm… well it doesn’t leave time for much else once I’ve made dinner and cleaned up a little. Not complaining though. I love being in my garden.

If you want to share what’s happening in your garden, please, please, please leave a comment.  

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Herbs, vegetables on October 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

Here’s a photo of an area of our organic garden that we haven’t used previously. We have terrible soil and have had to bring in soil and build raised beds to have any success with growing our organic veggies.

Our soil is non-wetting, sandy soil. In fact it’s just like beach sand, without the shells. The water doesn’t penetrate into the soil. It just pools together and runs off, without going in at all!!!! But there are ways around difficult soils.

Raised beds are one way - especially if poor drainage is your issue.

As you can see in the photo above, we’ve dug a trench along the fence line where we’re going to plant tomatoes, capsicum and basil. We’re filling the trench with a mix of organic soil and organic compost - both available from a local landscape supply company.

This way the plants will get the moisture they need, as well as nutrients from the good soil. Of course we’ll be adding organic fertilizers as our veggies are growing. This is really important for plants growing in sandy soils as many nutrients are leached out of sandy soils when it rains or you irrigate.

So I’ll be bringing you an update when the veggies are doing well and producing great yields.

And just by the way, the fence on the right hand side of the photo is sheep fencing, with the addition of budgie wire along the bottom to prevent our chickens from taking their “fair” share of our veggies while they’re free ranging.

So don’t despair if your soil isn’t perfect - there are ways to improve it. One of the other best ways to amend your soil over time is with the addition of organic matter to the soil surface. Compost (organic matter) will even level out pH levels. Get my free composting guide to start your own compost pile. And don’t be put off by difficult soils, just learn the best and quickest ways to improve it or work around it.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Uncategorized on October 13th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve made the time to post - but there’s so much to do in my organic garden in spring. Yes, spring has arrived here in South Australia. And not a moment too soon I say. I’ve had enough of winter…. brrr

One of the many little jobs that has taken up my time recently has been to thin my spring onions. I had some spring onion seeds on my workbench under our back verandah and when it rained they got soaked. So I decided to throw them all in the garden. I wasn’t even sure they were viable as I’d saved them about 5 years ago.

Anyway, sure enough, they all came up a few weeks later. Now I confess…  I find it really hard to thin things out and throw them away. So some things that I’m pretty sure will do all right, I’ll transplant. So many came up that I had to do something!!!

So I made rows of spring onions. Think I’ll have enough to sell a few bunches at our local market.

The row you can see next to the irrigation is the one I have thinned. Yep, still plenty to thin even further, but I’ve run out of space.

The onions at the front left-hand-corner are perrenial bunching onions.

Anyway, before you thin out your veggies, think about if they’d take transplanting. It’s always a better option than pulling them out. It seems such a waste to me. Root veggies like carrots and parsnips won’t do very well, so don’t bother. But give others a go

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: vegetables on October 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

I’ve alway thought that having chickens is a great advantage to any organic gardening /permaculture system. I mean they provide you with eggs, meat (if you’re that way inclined), chicks if you have a rooster, fertilizer - and they eat bugs and weeds if you’ve got somewhere for them to forage.

Trouble is, they can eat things you don’t want them to, unless you protect it well. Below is a photo of one of our raspberry plants, with our rooster eyeing it off. You can’t tell in the photo, but the fruits are starting to form now and I don’t want to share any of the plant with the chooks.

You see, I grew this plant from a couple of sticks….  oh, all right, several divisions that I took from my husband’s grandparents home.

I clip the right hand wing of all of my chickens. This stops them from flying over the fence, but they can jump / fly enough to make it to their perch each night.

We have also run some budgie wire along the length of the fence. It’s only about 45cm (20inches) tall, but it’s enough to stop the chooks from sticking their heads through or under the fence and eating whatever they think looks good at the time.

Now we can plant all the way along the fence line, without having to worry about the chooks decimating our hard work - CAUSE THEY WILL!!! (if they can)

Again, if you’ve got the space to include chickens in your organic gardening system, then I highly recommend you get some. They’re truly wonderful!

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Uncategorized, chickens on September 28th, 2008 | No Comments »