Preparing the Garden For Rest

Last week I finally got around to pulling up the remnants of the summer garden and spreading a nice thick layer of pea straw mulch over my beds so that they can have a nice little little rest while we're away. Hopefully, the straw will compost down and leave me with a lovely bed that's ready to produce well for the next summer garden I plant.



In the meantime, my compost bin is overflowing. I suck at making compost but I chucked it all in there anyway (yeah, I suck because I don't do the whole "layering" thing quite right) in the hopes that it'll break down over time (it has to eventually, right????).

Kev's Patch

Bloggers around Australia are calling for the Prime Minister to start his own vegie garden. This has come about after much publicity about the Obama's planting a garden at the White House. Apparently the Queen has followed suit.

The things is, if he starts a vegie garden now, does he simply look like a "copy-cat". It would have been great if he'd started the big world "vegie patch" revolution. That ship has kind of sailed now though hasn't it?

Not that I think the idea of the PM starting a vegie patch is a bad one. Just that it shouldn't be for a political stunt. Not to mention the fact that he'd likely have to PAY to have it done.

Instead, why not put some of that cash he's been throwing around into a program that encourages home gardening? Perhaps a basic gardening course that gives all participants some free seeds/seedlings and other suppliesnto get started on their own garden?

There's no doubt that the home garden is making a comeback. I'm sure there are "political points" to be made in this area. I'm just not sure the PM growing his own garden will make that much difference.

Then again, I could be wrong.

What do you think?

* Image courtesy of Kev's Patch Blog

Final Pickings

I've picked the last of my tomatoes. They're starting to be a bit soft because of the cold but are still quite tasty. I am absolutely ASTOUNDED to be picking tomatoes in JUNE!!!! Awesome!!!! We've had about 6 months worth of pickings from 1 planting of tomatoes. I can't really plant any earlier due to late frosts and it would seem from this year's experience that there isn't a lot of point in planting any later plants.

I did plant 2 varieties this year (okay, technically last year when I planted them but you know what I mean) but I think the Mighty Red did a lot better than the other variety (the name of which escapes me right now) so I think I'll try them again next summer.

The single zucchini plant I planted late has produced well and finally come to a halt.

I'm still picking lettuce and will continue to do so until I get around to mulching the garden before we go away (which I'd better hurry up and do given we leave in 3 weeks).

I'm going to miss the little surprises my garden brings me while we're away. :)

Self Sufficiency On a Plate

I mentioned that the other night we were eating almost all food that we'd grown ourselves.

Here's a photograph of my plate:


Pumpkin, lettuce and tomato from the garden. Egg from our chooks and lamb chops from our own sheep. I did take the carrot off the plate for the photograph - it wasn't home grown (but was still yummy).

While this is still the exception rather than the norm, I was rather pleased with myself. :) It's all a step in the right direction and has me all enthused to get stuck into expanding the garden when we get back from our big trip.

Saved By The Garden

There isn't all that much left of our summer garden and yet the dying plants are still valiantly producing fruit.

It seems to be slim pickings and high prices in the stores at the moment too. :(

So, I've been particularly thankful for the garden in the past few days. It's so handy being able to grab a few things for the evening meal.

Last night there was just enough silverbeet for a small serve each. Enough to help pad out the other vegetables (including pumpkin, also from the garden).

Tonight there is just enough lettuce (not too many have germinated) to add to our bbq along with homegrown tomato and homegrown pumpkin (on the bbq). Add to that our own eggs and our own lamb chops and there won't be too much of tonight's meal that we haven't produced ourselves. :)

Eventually that's where I'd like to get on a regular basis, rather than an occasional one.

But for now, I'm happy that the small bits I'm still gleaning from the garden are helping pad out our meals.

International Composting Awareness Week

Image via Wikipedia

May 3rd to May 9th is International Composting Week.

I had no idea there was such a thing!!! It even includes a compost ball. Who'd a thought? I clicked on it thinking it was some newfangled way to make composting easier. LOL. Turns out it's a real live ball. You know, with food and stuff and tickets that are outside of my budget, even if I was close enough to attend!!!!

There's a big push to encourage composting to reduce landfill and the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced as a result of green waste rotting in landfill.

Most gardeners compost because of the value compost has for the garden. It's nice to think though that such a simple act is helping the environment.

Then again, there isn't much about home gardening that doesn't help the environment is there?

I love that the fresh produce from our yard has no food miles attached to it.

Not to mention the freshness and taste.

Anyway, there are heaps of interesting events being held as part of compost awareness week. Pity I live too far away to attend any of them. :(

To celebrate compost awareness week, it would be great if you could share your favourite composting tip.

Mine is:

Feed your scraps to the chooks and they'll kindly turn it into eggs for you.

LOL. I can't say that I've really mastered the other kind of composting yet. But I will keep trying. :)

So, all you wise gardeners out there, share with me your favourite composting tip in the comments section below. :)

Garden Update

Picking:

1. Tomatoes

YUM!!!! So pleased with the crop we've gotten off of the few tomato plants we planted. The plants are starting to die off now but I've heard you can hang branches of green tomatoes so that they continue to ripen. Might try this as there are plenty of green tomatoes still on the bushes.

2. Zucchini

I wasn't going to grow zucchini this year but ended up throwing in a couple of seeds late. Only 1 grew into a plant but we're getting just the right amount of zucchini from it. Not a glut. Just enough for eating. Given I'm trying to reduce what is in my freezer before we go away, I'm not after a glut for freezing this year.

3. Butternut Pumpkin

After dying back in the heatwave we had, I wasn't expecting any pumpkins this year so I'm stoked to get any. I've just picked my first one (and made it into pumpkin soup today - YUM!) and there are 5 left to come. Counting these as bonus pumpkins really. :)

Finished:

1. Corn

Well, that finished ages ago actually. Next year I'm going back to the "sweetest" variety which has the variegated corn kernels (white and yellow). It did a lot better (although this year I did have a LOT of trouble with slaters eating out the roots of the corn).

2. Cucumber

I only managed to keep 1 cucumber plant alive this year so it was a bit disappointing. It did fruit well though but finished a little while ago.

3. Button Squash

The squash has just finished. It fruited well but the size of the fruit compared to the size of the plant makes it's overall yield not worth growing in the size garden I have.

Planting:

It is so weird not planting anything at the moment. There isn't really a lot of point planting when we're going to be away. I'm planning to heavily mulch the beds before we go and give both garden beds a "rest" over winter.