This is probably my best organic gardening secret – the thing that makes my vegetable garden so successful!!! Pea straw…  yes, pea straw. I cover the soil with it everywhere in my garden. It’s readily available here in South Australia. Some of the benefits that fill my mind with delight include:

• prevents soil erosion – especially useful in windy locations
• increases moisture retention – great for hot, dry conditions
• adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down completely over a year
• adds nitrogen to the soil and feeds the soil
• almost eliminates weeds

Wow! What a great list of benefits. And so, you might ask…  “What’s the best way to apply this mulch?” I like to use an old baby bath. As I write this, that last sentence seems really wierd. What does a baby bath have to do with pea straw mulch? I’ll show you…

I like to make my mulch really soggy before laying it out around my plants. Mulches can absorb a lot of water and you don’t want a dry mulch sucking moisture away from your plants. So I make sure it’s really wet by placing a section of the bale in the bottom of the baby bath and covering it with water. I let it sit for a few minutes and then put it out where I want it.

Just on a re-using note… this was my daughters baby bath (she’s 19 now). Over the years it has had a few different uses, but has been of most use as a gardening aid. The two main uses are for wetting the mulch and I also use it to make up batches of potting mix – it’s the perfect size. I’m always thinking of how to re-use things. If you’ve got any good “re-use” tips for us, please leave a comment.

If  organic gardening is a new concept to you, take a look at my e-manual.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

I’ve just taken a tiny bit of dirt right next to my kitchen door that had a rain water tank sitting on it, with a bougainvillea growing next to (and through) it. We had plans to use the tank, but when we moved it we discovered that the bottom was entirely rusted out. So with a bit of hard thinking, I reakon it’ll make two great duck or geese ponds once it’s cut in half and the bottom of each half lined with a cement base.

So here’s a photo of how the area was when I first bought the farm. It’s to the left of the photo. You can also see the entrance to my kitchen door – that’s how close it is.

Now this next photo is once the tank and the bougainvillea have been removed. That plant survived 30 or more years without any care whatsoever. What an amazing plant. But I would never plant such a prickly and rampant plant so close to a path or entrance – silly people!

Yes, it’s messy, but it didn’t take me long to clean it up once I got started. Oh, and it was hot too!

Below is how it looked after the clean up. I dug up the “soil” (code name for really hard, compacted dirt) because where the tank had been sitting nothing would have grown. It was almost like concrete. But I’m a firm believer in dirt becoming soil over time. Just keep adding organic material.

I also raked over the area quite a bit to try to get some kind of medium tilth as I planned to sow seeds directly in the soil. I removed all stones and broke down any large clods of dirt.

Now came the really fun part. I cheated a bit and bought a punnet of mixed lettuce and planted them. But everything else that went in was from my own seeds that I had saved from last (or previous) year/s. I put in radish, red salad onions, coriander, basil, lebanese zuchinni…  think that’s it.

Once the planting/sowing was done I covered the rest of the area with pea-straw mulch. Mulching has so many benefits for the garden. And the main benefit I needed immediately was for the area to stay moist for as long as possible.

I don’t have mains water here, so I’m watering EVERYTHING with a watering can from rainwater that I’ve collected. I tell you, it keeps you on your toes. Now I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want to grow your own food and don’t have mains…  well, what’s a girl to do? Use a watering can!

The mulch is about 7 or 8mm thick (3 inches) I suppose. The other thing I urge you to do when sowing your seeds is to label them with the variety and the date they were sowed. If you don’t remember when you put them in, you might just be tempted to have a dig around to see if anything’s happening. BAD MOVE! Just label them and wait. If they don’t come up, just put more in, simple!

So that’s my new plot, right next to my kitchen. I love it being so close. Of course there are more things to consider when you’re creating a new plot. If you’re a beginner to organic gardening you might be interested in my e-manual “Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual“, to help you get started.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

I don’t have much growing at the moment. The lack of available water on my property has been a HUGE problem. But I have managed to keep a few things alive. The rosemary and savoury are growing vigorously. The parsley is past its best, but still usable. A couple of sage plants have pulled through and the peppermint pelargonia is pretty much indestructable. Garlic chives are doing better than the plain chives.

But I’m putting in another small area of garden with lettuce, raddish, parsley, coriander, rocket, basil and a lebanese zucchini. I know it’s late for zucchini, but I think it will still produce something – they usually grow until May or so for me here, so I’m giving it a try.

I’ll have photos next post.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

It’s the middle of our summer here in South Australia, so we’re in the middle of our gardening season – but if you are in the Northern Hemisphere you’re in mid-winter, the perfect time for new years resolutions for your garden. Winter is the perfect time for reflection and planning your next growing season. I love spending long hours curled up by the fire thinking about what I want to grow the coming season. And how I can expand my garden to include plants I’ve never tried to grow before.

Do you have any new years resolutions for your garden? Are there things you haven’t grown before that you’d like to try? Do they have any special requirements to help them thrive? Planning really is the secret to a successful food garden and winter is just the perfect time for planning. I have a section on planning in my e-manual “Organic Food Gardening Beginner’s Manual” if you want a little help.

So don’t put it off any longer – especially if you’re thinking about going organic and growing your own food. I guarantee you’ll love it. You’ll love the connection you feel with the earth. You’ll love the sense of accomplishment. You’ll love that you are providing your family with living, healthy food. You’ll love the TASTE!

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

I want to take a few moments to wish you a very merry Christmas and thank you for taking an interest in my blog…  and even more to the point, for taking an interest in organic gardening. The more people that choose to grow their own organic fruit and vegetables, the healthier both this planet and each of us organic gardeners will be.

So I wish for you and your loved ones all your hearts desires. May your heart and your garden be filled with love, beauty and growth in 2010. And now I’m heading off to be with my family and loved ones.

* Merry Christmas to you *

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Anyway, it reminded me that I had not got any mulch down around my plants that had managed to survive the harsh winds and rabbits. My plants were suffering (just as I was) in that consuming heat.

So in the cool of the evening I got to mulching my herbs. I like to use pea-straw for my mulch. I make sure it’s really wet before I mound it around the plants. I soak it in an old baby bath and then when the water has really got it in, I place it about 8 to 10cm thick – that’s about 3 or 4 inches for those who use imperial.

That way I know the plants are not only benefiting from less soil erosion and moisture evaporation, but they’re also getting a good drink when I first apply it.

And I also use the pea-straw mulch for other things in the garden. For example, I have a gorgeous stag horn that I add a couple of generous handfuls to each summer. It prevents the stag heart from drying out on really hot days. I use it in a few of my potted plants too. Pots can dry out really quickly in summer, so it’s a great application. You just have to remember to keep the  base of the plant clear of the mulch, or it can rot.

Another benefit of using mulch is that it gives your plants a little supplementary food as it breaks down.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

But at the farm… well, they’re just everywhere. Move a bit of tin on the ground, a rabbit runs out. Walk a little at dusk, a rabbit or even two run past. And their presence is obvious in the garden. Through winter I planted several rows of red onions. ONIONS I tell you! All (over time) nibbled down to the ground. Who would have thought rabbits would take a liking to onions?

Not just the onions. I tried leeks too – all eaten. They ate my wild strawberries right down to the ground. They’re not that keen on herbs, so I might be OK with them (although they had a good chew on the flat-leaf parsley). And they didn’t go for the broad beans. But you can’t live on herbs and broad beans, can you?

I tell you though, I don’t mind a bit of onion with my rabbit stew! So they better watch out! This means WAR! I’m pretty sure it’s rabbit season here all the time. Don’t know how I’m going to catch ‘em yet, but I’ll come up with something – and my vegetarian days are over (at least for the time being).

So there you have it – these are the main challenges that I have with my organic food garden here at the farm. None are going to stop me growing our own food plants on the farm in the end. Each challenge will be addressed in turn and we’ll go from there.

I can already see a gorgous and productive garden (in my mind), and I believe that if I can see it in my mind, I can create it in my world. I hope you can overcome any obstacles you might have in creating your own gorgeous and productive organic garden. If you need a little help, take a look at my Organic Food Gardening Beginner’s Manual.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

I think I’ll probably end up building a walled in garden area, but in the mean time I’ll be planting a lot of trees and understory plants to allow the wind to pass through more gently before it reaches the house and garden areas. I’ve also been looking at a product that is woven plastic and is used over frames. It allow wind, rain and sun to permeate, but protects at the same time.

When it’s really windy the wind burns the leaves of plants. And worse than that – in summer anyway – is that the wind dries out the soil, which compounds the watering issue. Of course, using a good thick mulch pretty much prevents the drying out problem, but there’s still the burning of the leaves.

You wouldn’t think so, but even low growing plants suffer from hot summer winds, so even they need protection. The taller plants take the brunt of the drying winds though, so I’m going to have to put a lot of thought into planning where trees, shrubs, flower and vegetables beds are going to be best placed. The more tender the plant, the more protection they’ll need.

More on another problem next post.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

This is our first growing season on the farm and we haven’t got any water system in place yet. The farm has been abandoned for probably 30 or 40 years, but they must have survived with the water system they had. There are two main unground water storage tanks, one that uses a large shed for water collection and the other uses the house. Both tanks hold about 45,000 litres (about 10,000 gallons) each.

We cleaned out and re-roofed the shed tank and it has been collecting rain water for part of the winter. We didn’t finish cleaning out the other tank before the winter rains, so it’s filled up with fairly yucky water now, which we’ll have to pump out, clean out and re-roof this summer.

So we have some water in this tank, but haven’t got a system to get it out of the tank and onto the garden…yet! Of course having no mains power adds an element of difficulty. But hubby has added a connection to my car battery which allows me to run an inverter (240Volts) so that I can plug in a pump or whatever other appliance we need.

By next winter we’ll have the other underground tank restored and by the next growing season I’ll have irrigation set up for all my veggie plots. Plus we’ll probably have 3 or 4 above ground tanks that will collect rain water from other out-buildings on the property.

I’m really sad that I won’t have much growing for some time….  I just love having my hands in the soil, but it’s really disheartening to see your much loved plants start to grow and then get wiped out by a few days of extremely hot weather. So I’ve made the hard decision to not grow veggies this summer. (sniff!!!)

But I will still be posting with tips and chatting about how the farm’s going. Next post I’ll talk about some other issues with my new “garden”.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

We’ve bought a small farm in South Australia, just on the outskirts of the Barossa Valley. It’s 111 acres, though about 100 acres of it is share farmed.

We got it for a great price, but the drawback is that there’s no mains water or power. We’re going to have to get quite creative to give this old homestead back it’s life.

The photo to the left is a small section of garden I’ve started on. I’ve just planted herbs as they’re the toughest plants around. Though I’m not sure if even they will survive given our sudden and long burst of very hot (spring) weather we’re getting here.

This week the temperature is all over 35 degrees C (95F) with a bunch of days in a row of 39 degrees C (102F). Bucketing water in this heat is a real strain. So it seems summer has hit us early – very little spring. Our seasons seem to have been going directly into the extreme weather without much in the way of autumn or spring these past few years.

There are also quite a few challenges to growing a beautiful and productive organic food garden on this piece of land that I’ll be talking about in my next post.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…