The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid

A review of one of the best documentaries I have seen on global warming

A great organic lifestyle website

Just had some contact with the very friendly and knowledgeable people at Wilderland, an organic permaculture educational trust. They certainly know what they are doing

http://www.wilderland.org.nz/

Check them out

Spring time In the Organic Garden

I am one of the few people I know who held off planting too much outside at Labour Weekend. I bought a plastic greenhouse (very cheap from the Warehouse) during the winter and I have tomatoes, chilli and cucumber in there but out in the garden I am waiting a little until the obligatory November cold snap is over. I do have some potatoes in and I am trying something new this year. I saw something at http://www.nzgardener.co.nz/ about potato cages made with chicken wire and bamboo. Not having any chicken wire I improvised by recycling plastic bags with the bottom cut out and filling them with well rotted compost to mound up my spuds. Because I only have a small area for spuds and last year was not especially effective using the rubbish bin I thought I'd give this a try. The plants look very healthy so far but only time will tell if I get a good crop for Christmas.

Recycling for a more sustainable lifestyle

Hi there I have been publishing quick tips on my page at tip drop. Have a look here

http://tipdrop.com/tipsheet/recycling_for_a_sustainable_lifestyle


Or if you want to write your own tips try this one

http://tipdrop.com/ref/cally2

Recycling for a sustainable lifestyle

Recycling for a sustainable lifestyle
Many of the things that I have learnt while organic gardening can be put to use in other parts of my life

English no problem

English no problem

Organic Insecticides

Organic Insecticides
Just some ideas about keeping down the nasties. Check it out and become a fan.

5 Reasons to Garden Organically

5 Reasons to Garden Organically

Hub Pages

I have started writing longer articles and I am publishing them on

http://hubpages.com/profile/cally2

head on over and if you like what read then sign up and become a fan.

Looking forward to hearing from you there

compost making

compost making

Mulching Your Container Garden

Mulching Your Container Garden

Worm farming for beginners

Worm farming for beginners

Organic Soil for Containers

Organic Soil for Containers

Spring time is nearly here

Its a lovely spring day and I have been out in the garden at last. I bought a small greenhouse during the winter and have some seedlings growing there now. Tomatoes and chilli peppers are sprouting well and I also have some very healthy looking beetroot seedlings. My winter crops are just about over. I have to say that I have been disappointed with my broccoli. the heads have been very small. I think I will have to have another look at things to do to improve the size. I have also planted cucumbers and water melons in the greenhouse beds because my plastic cover will keep things very huimid in there during the summer. No sign of them yet but they have only been there for a week or so. This afternoon I will plant some borlotti beans in the garden bed. Hopefully the garden is sheltered enough to miss any late frosts

Winter is coming in and there is less to do in the garden. I have raked up the leaves from the big trees and prepared a leaf mulch for next year. Easy enough to do, I just ran the lawnmower over the piles of leaves and emptied the catcher into black rubbish sacks. I added some water to the leaves and tied the sacks with flax. Then I made some holes with a stick and left them to rot down.
I have made a couple of new beds and prepared them with compost and last year's leaf mulch. I also planted some peas which I don't expect will have much fruit with the weather cooling like it has been but will provide a green manure base for the veges I grow there in the spring.
For the winter I have planted lots of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and silver beet. And this seems to be doing very well.
I have had a couple of feeds from my spinach and this morning I picked another dozen tomatoes. Probably the last of the tomatoes I think but I have had a good run from them and I am pleased that they have done so well in what has been a poor year for tomatoes for many people I have spoken to.
Amazingly I am still picking one or two strawberries! However there was a frost this morning down on the flat nearby so although I didn't get it yet here on the hill I expect that I will soon, so they will go to sleep.
I have a pot full of parsley that I planted from my own seeds at the beginning of autumn and although it's not big enough to harvest yet it will do me good for the spring. I still have lots of seeds that I will plant by the patio in the spring in the hope that it will keep the sand flies away. Not sure if that will work but I read an old gardening book that recommended it so here's hoping.

Organically growing...

a community! I went to the Sustainable Home and Garden Show in Paraparaumu on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised that the show seemed to be well organised and that there were a huge amount of people who were willing to give information rather than just try to sell something. I have made some great contacts and have been asked along to something called a Seedy Sunday in a couple of weeks to exchange seeds and ideas with other like minded organic growers. Of course I picked up a few freebies such as seeds, sprouts, eco light bulb and some information about various organic and sustainable groupings. It pleased me to realise how many people in our district were obviously interested in a more sustainable lifestyle. And of course the weather came to the party with a beautiful autumn Kapiti day.
In my own garden I have planted out most of my cabbage, broccoli, Chinese cabbage and spinach seedlings now and I am hoping for a bit more sun to ensure that I can get some beans in for the spring. Looks good today so maybe when I get home from work. Although with daylight saving I am not sure what time it will get dark.
Happy gardening

Autumnal days

The sun is out but it's not too hot. The passion fruit from next door's vines have come through my fence and are dropping their fruit on my side. It would be a shame not to eat them so I had one on my cornflakes this morning. Yum. My basil is growing really well so I will harvest some this afternoon and make up a pesto to eat with a little pasta and a nicely chilled chardonnay.
My poor old lemon tree which I hacked into, and nearly killed, several years ago has really responded well to my organic treatments of coffee, manure and wormcasts plus a monthly spraying with seaweed tea. It now has more lemons than I can remember it ever having before and of course they are in different stages so hopefully I won't get a glut all at once.
Tomatoes are still ripening and the pumpkins are still swelling. My seedling greens look healthy and hopefully will be strong enough to withstand the frost when it comes, probably in about 6 weeks or so.
Unbelievably I am still picking strawberries almost every day. This has definitely been my best ever year for them - I reckon that manure base and regular feeding has been perfect for them.

Back to blogging organically

I am sorry for not posting here regularly of late. I've been a very naughty boy and have just been out enjoying my garden rather than writing about it!! :)
The tomato harvest has been great and it is still going well, and although it has calmed down from the boomer days when I was picking 10-15 tomatoes a day I am still getting three or four good sweet toms every day.
On the not so great side I have been feeding a wonderful crop of cabbage white butterflies with my broccoli. I seem to have finally got on top of them with repeated sprays of rhubarb leaf and garlic but the broccoli plants have great stems and... er that's about it. Never mind, I have planted some more seeds and I hope that these will keep me in greens in the early spring before the caterpillars return. I have also planted lots of spinach which should be ready during the winter, Chinese cabbage (hopefully these will not bolt to seed at this time of year).
My cucumbers gave up the ghost a week or so ago. I think they did not appreciate being close to my tomatoes despite cropping OK they have died before many of my friends' plants have. Next year I will separate them and see what happens.
I am still getting a few strawberries too which seems like a very long season to me. Next year I will plant lots more so that I don't just get a couple of fruit at a time. The kids have loved helping themselves but I would also like to have a few proper feeds on them.
It's autumn here now so I am gearing up for winter crops like carrot, parsnip and the greens that I mentioned. My Borlotti beans are almost ready and once they are harvested I will cut off the stems and leave the roots in the ground to nourish my winter greens.
My compost has worked really well this summer and almost everything I have cut or trimmed has rotted down great. In fact I have had to start a second heap because I can't use it fast enough! The worm farm is also producing lots of nutritious worm casts now that I have finally persuaded the whole family to put food scraps in my collection box.
Looking forward to the next few weeks I expect to harvest pumpkin, tomatoes, onions, basil, oregano, beans, lettuce, potatoes and mint. That should keep me out of trouble with all the drying, cooking and storing that I will be doing.
Oh by the way my parsley seeded this year so I have planted lots of seeds around the place as apparently it is unpleasant to sandflies. I just hope that all of it comes up in time for me to be sitting outside next spring. Happy gardening:)

there's a book coming

Hi everyone.
I've been a bit lax with writing here lately as I have have been busy with the new school year. I have also started writing an e-book about organic gardening in a small space. It should be out in the next couple of months and of course I will let you all know the details of how to get it. In the garden its harvest time and my tomatoes are going great guns and keeping the family supplied. The lettuce that I allowed to seed has finished and I have heaps of seed some of which I have planted already and some I will keep planting as long as this glorious summer weather lasts. I had a good crop of potatoes but they are now just a distant memory. My spring onions are delicious and the strawberries just keep on coming. I have planted more potatoes and have a couple of pots of broccoli that are looking very healthy. In my square foot garden one of my tomato plants turned into a tree and went over in the wind. It hasn't died though and I have laid it over an old tricycle that the kids left in the yard. It's still flowering and giving fruit but it does look a bit untidy. My borlotti beans are flowering and I'm looking forward to a good harvest from them in the autumn.
happy gardening folks
and keep an eye out for the e-book.

Nature's Curator

The six week trial with nature's curator is over and I can't say that I'm particularly impressed with it. The Black Krim tomato which was very sick is now healthy and has two fruits on it but I'm not sure that two tomatos on a plant is particularly great. The money maker tomato has more fruit than that but is smaller than the untreated plants and has a few less fruits. The broccoli has recovered from the slug attacks but has not yet budded whereas the untreated broccoli is on to its second budding already. All the plants were in the same sort of conditions and for the tomatoes they were in the same planter as the untreated ones. To be honest I seem to have more success with just the seaweed tea rather than NC and the tea. My comment is that if you have sickly plants then this stuff could save them but at $80 a litre (which admittedly dilutes to 100 litres) it could be an expensive way to go. Probably a better idea to make sure that your soil is healthy and contains plenty of compost, is mulched well and you feed the plants regularly.
On the upside my strawberries are still fruiting well but I know that next year I will plant a lot more of them as I don't seem to get enough for a proper feed all at once, especially when the kids go out and help themselves every day.
My cucumbers all seem to be the small pickling type, which is a bit of a disappointment but they are yummy raw and in the next few days I will have enough to pickle a couple of jars. The Courgettes in the barbecue are just coming into flower and there looks to be plenty of fruit coming. I ate all the spinach last week and I even had a feed of silverbeet (chard) at last. No sign of fruit on the peppers yet but I have a couple of healthy plants. The potatoes are about ready to lift and the spring onions are doing well. I lifted three large white onions which grew from one that sprouted in the pantry and they were delicious.
I had a bit a problem the other day after some really strong winds. One of my Tomato plants fell over and snapped the stake at ground level. The stem of the plant was creased so I put in a tripod to hold up the plant and mulched the bottom 20cm or so of it, seems ok so far. I have planted some more potatoes, some in a bucket and some in the square foot garden. I will hopefully have some more planted in the next few days. To be perfectly honest I think my best crop has been marigolds, which I only planted to keep the nasties away but I have been able to cut flowers almost every day.
A friend told me that he has a greenhouse that is surplus to requirements and all I have to do is take it away and its mine. I just need to borrow a trailer now and hopefully I will be able to continue growing right through the winter. I also met someone else who has a greenhouse for which he bought a small solar panel that is sufficient to run a heater. That looks the way to go. A place to hide from the kids in the wintertime!!

Happy New Year

I've been away for a few days camping and the garden is running rampant. I'll get out and sort things out in a minute after I have written this. My strawberries have decided to go for the large look but don't want to get red. Plenty there but they are teaching me patience. One of the broccoli has gone to flower but the others are all still without buds so pehaps I just got a bolter for that one. I'll cut off the flower and see if it grows other heads. Tomatoes are swelling and just getting the first tinge of colour change, cucumbers are swelling nicely and should be ready to harvest in a while. The basil has doubled in size and so has the oregano. I thinned the oregano last week and used the thinnings on top of home made pizza, lovely flavour. Onions are just about ready and the bin full of potaoes is starting to die back so nearly harvest time there. Garlic is still coming on well and the courgettes don't have proper sized fruit yet but I will keep a very close eye on them, I don't want marrows. The beans are growing steadily but still no sign of my silver beet. What do I do wrong with these things?