Africanaussie

Once again I have not posted since the garden share collective.  This month is supposed to be about preserving.  The only thing I have preserved is the peppercorns that I preserved in brine.  Whenever I see a new stalk I pick it and pop them into the brine. Easy peasy. Certainly not going to keep us in pepper for a year though.  I read that the peppercorns only fruit on the lateral branches, and since the vine is sending shoots out, I thought it might be a good idea to put up a trellis.  Hopefully those will climb up and spread out and then it will be easy to harvest.  Only one aspargus plant has been really succesful - the purple asparagus, so I moved the other two onto that side of the trellis and will see if they do ok there.  I have harvested some of the asparagus already this year and it is the most amazing aspagus I have ever tasted.  Even if I let them get too long they are still tender all the way to the end.   The other side...

My favorite gardening show Gardening Australia talked about growing plants solely for mulch.   A waste of space I thought while watching it.  I recently cut back my lemongrass for mulch, but still harvest it for cooking and tea.  One plant that has not been used for much is the cardamom.  I was so excited  upon finding my first plant.  Gosh I could grow my own cardamom seeds ... but no!  It seems that the only cardamom I can grow here is called false cardamom.  The leaves have a very strong smell, and I suppose you could use them in cooking, but mostly the plant gets overgrown and I eventually cut it back and use it as mulch!  I set some aside to see if any of my neighbors want some.  I have the idea (totally un-supported) that strong smelling leaves such as lemongrass and cardamom used as mulch will chase away bugs.  I plant...

I received an e-mail from Mr Fothergills  asking how my seeds were faring.  So I guess it is time for an update. I was hoping to have huge flourishing leafy plants to show, but the weather has been a bit strange this year. These are the seeds I originally received: Climbing snow pea - climbing up the back fence and looking quite healthy - I have successive sown some more seeds about a week ago. Basil seed mat  - doing really well in my herb spiral. Carrot seed tape - I have put these tapes in different areas - alongside the harlequin carrots, and between the tomatoes as they are good companion plants. They look very neat in their evenly spaced rows and are very easy to plant - great for children. Carrot Harlequin - these look very robust and are doing very well - I keep assigning more space to them - in fact all the seeds are now planted out! Parsnip Gladiator - sent to Sunny corner farm Radish beauty heart - I need to figure...

My fellow gardening blogger from Year in a  Gippsland garden blogged about accepting the yates challenge to grow some spring vegetables from seeds.  I took up the challenge and am starting some beans.  As we come into the wet season here in Far North Queensland there is a limited amount of vegetables we can grow.   Some of the problems we face are mildew and bugs, any plants that cant stand wet foliage are out, so that is the end of our tomato crops.  I sitll have a few cherry tomatoes growing, but have to continually cut off any yellowing foliage to allow lots of air to circulate.  I have chosen beans to grow and in the past have not had a lot of success with beans, so am holding thumbs.  I am planting them in between the pigeon peas that I have growing in a  line down the centre of my veggie bed.  The pigeon pea seeds were innoculated which means they add nitrogen into the soil every time they are cut back.   This bed w...

When I returned from my five weeks away the veggie garden was a little overgrown.  Cherry tomatoes everywhere, and as I carefully put in some stakes and tied branches back I discovered that the capsicum        plants had been buried underneath them.  Hopefully they will perk up now that they can come up for air.  I don't know why I have such trouble growing the large bulbous capsicums that you see in the store.  Oh yes I do!  They are capsicums on steroids or hormones or something!  My little organic ones are very tasty though!  Supermarket produce can give you such an unreal expectation of what your garden should produce.  Isn't that sad. they should be ashamed of themselves. My lettuces have essentially lain over and gone to sleep..... on long leggy stalks.  Anyway I planted some seeds and we will see what comes up.  Snow peas, lettuce, radish, silverbeet, green beans, gemsquash, amaranth.  Our ...