organic gardening

Planning your Organic Garden?

2010-04-08T22:32:00.000+12:00

Planning your Organic Garden?

How to start your organic garden so that it keeps on providing your food with the minimum of effort

About Kapiti Business Blog « Kapiti Coast Business Blog

2010-04-02T11:55:00.000+13:00

About Kapiti Business Blog « Kapiti Coast Business Blog

Why Grow Your Own Organic Food?

2010-03-09T22:02:00.000+13:00

Why Grow Your Own Organic Food?

A magazine that is worth subscribing to with ongoing columns by yours truly

Bring on Autumn

2010-02-20T08:26:00.003+13:00

Has this summer been total crap in the garden or what? I have had heaps of flowers on the tomatoes and have eaten one.
The beans and peas gave up after one pod each.
I planted lettuce and by the time I turned around with the watering can it had gone to seed.
My strawberries have been delicious but between battling the slugs, the birds and the kids I have barely seen them. The raspberries did well in that week when the sun came out but nothing since.
On the positive side the silverbeet has done well and I have plenty of herbs. The pumpkin are showing all the signs of fruiting well but I am a little worried about the moisture rotting everything. I have new lettuce in which seems to be doing much better and my new mandarin tree has plenty of fruit.
I hope that my cabbages do better over the autumn and winter

Permaculture Activist Magazine

2010-02-16T09:43:00.002+13:00

Permaculture Activist Magazine

Just found this site which seems to have some great resources especially books, dvds and articles

The Copenhagen Accord - Will It Save the World?

2010-02-11T14:10:00.000+13:00

The Copenhagen Accord - Will It Save the World?

The latest pubished piece from yours truly.
If you like the magazine why not subscribe

http://greenlifestylemagazine.net/info/subscribe.php

The Age of Stupid

2009-11-18T22:51:00.000+13:00

The Age of Stupid

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

A great organic lifestyle website

2009-11-05T11:00:00.002+13:00

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

2009-11-05T09:34:00.003+13:00

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

2009-10-22T19:11:00.005+13:00

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

2009-10-18T16:34:00.000+13:00

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

2009-09-30T11:43:00.000+13:00

English no problem

Organic Insecticides

2009-09-29T11:05:00.000+13:00

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

5 Reasons to Garden Organically

2009-09-28T14:03:00.000+13:00

5 Reasons to Garden Organically

Hub Pages

2009-09-28T13:59:00.003+13:00

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

2009-09-28T13:59:00.000+13:00

compost making

Mulching Your Container Garden

2009-09-28T13:58:00.001+13:00

Mulching Your Container Garden

Worm farming for beginners

2009-09-28T13:58:00.000+13:00

Worm farming for beginners

Organic Soil for Containers

2009-09-28T13:56:00.000+13:00

Organic Soil for Containers

Spring time is nearly here

2009-08-23T11:30:00.002+12:00

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

2009-05-03T15:47:00.004+12:00

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...

2009-04-06T14:41:00.003+12:00

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

2009-03-21T10:35:00.002+13:00

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

2009-03-11T13:39:00.004+13:00

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

2009-02-06T08:54:00.003+13:00

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

2009-01-14T10:47:00.006+13:00

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

2009-01-02T11:26:00.003+13:00

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?

Merry Xmas

2008-12-24T13:02:00.004+13:00

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Its Christmas Eve and in keeping with tradition our Southern hemisphere summer has come to the party with constant rain. It saves me getting out in the garden with a watering can but also stops me doing anything else. The tomatoes are appreciating it though and so are the cucumbers, both of which are swelling nicely. I have heaps of green stawberries on the plants but none ready for dessert tomorrow. I got enough lettuce for twelve people to have for tea last night. That wasn't all we had but I'm sure everybody thought it was the best bit! I have had some peas ready this week but they can't seem to make it to the pot, I just have to munch them straight off the bush, out of the pod and into my mouth. YUM! I planted some Borlotti beans two weeks ago and now have the beginnings of a bean hedge but just 10cm high. I dug a small new bed for them about 1.30m long and about 30cm wide (that's four foot by one foot in old money). It's a bit shaded so I don't expect the growth will be that rapid but they look very healthy so far.

With the wet and warm conditions lately I have been in constant battle with the slugs and snails. The coffee and pine needles seem to have stopped being efficient so I am back to beer traps and nightly patrols with the torch. Some of the little buggers still get through though. I'm still holding off on the derris dust but I must admit that the bottle left over from last year (before I gardened organically) is starting to look tempting. Surprisingly, since the slugs destroyed my seedling courgette the ones I have grown from seed have escaped the carnage so far.

My kettle full of baby carrots is just about ready so I think I will harvest in the morning to use raw with dips at the family xmas lunch. Just trim wash and crunch. The beetroot that I allowed to seed is huge and has heaps of green seen on it but I need to wait until it has dried out a bit. Fat chance with this rain. Ditto the lettuce. My capsicum and chilli are still minute but a friend has told me that they will take off all at once. Hope so.
Once again Happy holidays to you and yours. Paul

Its been a while...

2008-12-15T12:01:00.002+13:00

...since I wrote in the blog. Things are going well. This morning I have harvested the first pot of baby carrots. They are sweet and crunchy.YUM! The broccoli is starting to head up, at least the ones I haven't sprayed with Nature's Curator have, the sprayed ones look OK but no sign of any budding yet. The tomatoes have little marble sized fruit on them and the strawberries are fruiting in plenty again but nothing red at the moment. Still going strong with the same lettuce plants but I have allowed two to go to seed rather than cutting their leaves. Hopefully I will get good crops from these as well.I have also let one beetroot go to seed. Potatoes are high but the tubers are small at the moment so I'll let them go further. Spinach is up and getting ready to be harvested but the silver beet is still looking pretty sorry for itself. I don't understand how "the easiest plant to grow" as so many people tell me, just won't take off. Cucumbers have tiny fruit on them - I wish I could remember which ones were the long ones and which for pickling. I'll have to wait I suppose. The courgette in the barbecue is thriving and beginning to flower as is the coriander there. The wicker basket has plenty of spring onions but everything else looks pretty small. It's a constant battle with the Chinese cabbage to stop it going off in a long stem, I pinch it out almost every day.

In the garden again

2008-12-05T08:29:00.003+13:00

Every thing looks pretty good this week. I harvested one lot of radish which had grown too fast and split and one lot which were marble size and delicious. I think the trick with the next lot will be to try and harvest somewhere in the middle. I had a pea plant which gave up the ghost immediatley after I picked the pods - within hours it looked dead so into the compost heap it went. Tomatoes are all flowering and the ones in deeper soil are much healthier looking. Planted out some capsicum seedlings which were looking very small but have doubled with a bit more room. Courgettes are coming on and the cucumber plants are in flower and racing up the strings. I gave up on the square foot carrots, recomposted and planted chinese cabbage in that square. The chilli plants are still a bit small but look healthy, and the potatoes are in rampant bloom. Not so much sun this week so I only have green strawberries at the moment.
I seem to have finally got the hang of the compost heap and the last lot that I took out was looking almost perfect. I'm still amazed at how hot it gets inside a heap, especially when I throw the grass cuttings in. While turning over the compost heap I came across a rubber plant that my wife hated and threw out last year when in went straggly. It has developed a very large root ball and had two green leaves, it was at the back of the heap so was not completely covered but still it was pretty much in constant shade. Incredible that it was still alive. I'm going to put it back into a pot and see if I can sneak it into the house. Such determination needs recognising.

Update on Nature's Curator

2008-11-30T12:00:00.002+13:00

Ten days into my trial of Nature's Curator and mixed results so far. The tomato plants are actually a couple of cm smaller than the unsprayed ones so far. However the black krim is looking much healthier and is flowering now. For the broccoli its the same, both plants are smaller than the unsprayed one but the one that had been slug eaten has developed some new leaves and is looking well. So the spray is living up to its claim to improve the health but not doing it in terms of bigger size.
Baby beetroot for tea last night was delicious with burgers. The mesclun is growing so fast I am having trouble eating it all. The cut and come again is working great. I just take some scissors out and hack away. Within a few days its like I haven't even been there. I really should have planted more than 6 strawberry plants as I am getting two or three ripe strawberries a day but not enough to feed the family. Especially when the kids keep nipping out to the deck to help themselves. I have to say though, that they are the sweetest strawberries I have had for a long time. I had a look in a couple of garden centres this week but I think I must have missed the boat as none of them have any more strawberry plants. Oh well, there's always next year.
My pot of one pea plant has given me some lovely pods, and I have munched away on the raw peas. However I'll have to wait for the other plants, in the square foot garden, to come in before there's enough for a proper feed.
Potatoes are flowering- so I might get a crop for Christmas. Capsicum in small pots looks healthy and should be ready to go into the beetroot box as that finishes. Chilli is still small and I think I may have had some pumpkin seed in my wormcast as that seems to be whats coming up in the barby. Surprise!

What's happening in the boxes?

2008-11-25T09:22:00.003+13:00

The last three days of warm weather and showers has made a real difference in the gardens. My rubbish bin full of potatoes has gone mad with the plants at least 40 cm above the top of the bin now. I hope they flower soon or I may have to tie them up to passing planes. The cucumber plants have doubled in size but no sign of budding yet. I have enough lettuce and mesclun to feed an army this week. Still not much hope of getting the kids eating it though. The barbecue and wicker basket are full of first leaves - always a difficult thing for me to realise that I have to hold off weeding as I will probably pull out the things I want. The earth gems look very lush and the tomatoes are getting lovely thick stems and a few buds. The only difference I have noticed with the Nature's Curator plants so far is that one of the tomato plants budded a few days before the others but other than that there is no change. In fact the unsprayed broccoli looks a bit bigger than the sprayed one although the slug battered one is picking up. But early days yet.
I have just thinned my pot of oregano, and I think there will be baby beetroot for tea this week. The garlic and onions keep plugging away.
In the square foot garden I have sprouting spinach, quite large calendula, peas that need staking today, chilli that is looking well (if much smaller than everybody else's I know), lush sage and a rapidly thickening tomato. On the down side there is still no sign of the silverbeet, about half of the carrot seeds did not germinate and I have a feeling that some of that 'grass' I pulled out of the spring onions may not have been grass at all. And no green bits in the courgette square.
A friend saw my motley collection of pots, buckets, kettle, recycling bin (shush don't tell the council they gave me two) nail boxes and home made planters and came up with a really good idea. She went to the Warehouse and bought some nice looking square buckets for less than $2 each. She has filled these with compost and put in seedlings of various herbs and veg from her thinnings. These will become her Christmas presents to her family. Very green and encouraging I thought.

Nature's Curator

2008-11-21T12:06:00.003+13:00

I was approached last week by a company called Nature's Curator. Having read some of this blog they wanted me to test out their product. Yesterday, I received a small bottle of this liquid which is diluted and sprayed onto your plants. It only takes 10ml to mix with a litre and they state that it is completely organic. This stuff is not a fertilizer nor a pesticide but is supposed to stimulate both growth and resistance. They have asked me to perform a six week trial complete with photos. As well as giving them the information that they need I will also be logging results here. Yesterday I sprayed two tomato plants (one the Black Krim with which I have so many problems and the other a moneymaker which is the same size now as the others in my deck planter; and two broccoli plants, one the same size as the other in my square foot garden and the second a little larger but much abused by slugs). No change this morning - but I really didn't expect results quite so quickly, hehe!
I am interested to see if this product will work as claimed and you can be sure that you will get an honest review here. If anybody has other products that they would like to have reviewed I am happy to do so but with the warning that I will be completely honest and I refuse to endorse anything that does not live up to expectations. Bear in mind too that this blog is about organic gardening so I don't want to try any chemical solutions.

Tie up tip

2008-11-18T09:04:00.003+13:00

When I got home from work yesterday not only was my garden freshly watered from all the rain but it was looking a bit windswept. Luckily nothing had been broken but it was a reminder about tying up the taller plants. I have large flax plants in the front yard so I cut off a couple of leaves, split them lengthwise and used them to tie my tomato plants to their stakes. I also used the vertical method from the square foot gardening book. For my cucumbers I have an inverted u-shaped frame and from this I have tied strips of flax to the bottom of the plants and then twisted the flax around the stems. I'll let you know how things are going.
My heirloom Black Krim tomato was looking very sorry for itself last week and I was on the verge of pulling it out and composting it. The leaves were yellowing and curling up and the veins had become very prominent. I decided to give it a last shot and mounded the base with seaweed. This didn't seem to have much effect so as the last resort I mulched it with coffee grounds. The lower leaves died and I removed these and threw them in the rubbish but the upper leaves are looking very healthy now.

little extras

2008-11-17T09:08:00.002+13:00

I decided to tidy up a little in the garden. There was one area that had become a rubbish dump with stuff being prepared for the tip. In this mess were the old barbecue which had seen one rainstorm too many and given up the ghost and an old firewood basket coming apart at the seams. Both have now been filled with compost, a little clay and wormcast and are new garden beds. In the barby, I planted parsley,(from some I had in a pot that was looking sorry for itself) coriander seeds, chive seeds and courgette seed. I am hoping that this effort with the courgette might avoid the slugs as it is raised about a metre. As for the basket I have backed it with a bit of old trellis and planted peas, tomato, spring onions and calendula.
So now my rubbish pile which was nearly a trailer load and ready for the landfill is back to a quarter the size again- she who must be obeyed is not overly impressed that I have avoided throwing stuff out again but I tell her its about saving the world, reducing my footprint and becoming more environmentally conscious. She says it about me being a hoarder and too tight to spend out on the landfill fees.
I was surfing the net a few days agao and found this website
http://weathersfieldorganics.co.nz/

They are supliers of organic herb seedlings and are looking for new franchisees. I liked their little newsletter with tips on what to do this month.
As for today the rain has started coming down quite heavily which hopefully will be jst right for the seeds I planted yesterday.
Happy gardening

Beer IS an answer

2008-11-14T07:10:00.002+13:00

Despite my best efforts with coffee, pine needles and the torch, our weather cycle of a few warm days and then a few wet ones means that it is a constant battle to beat the slugs. I really do not want to use derris dust if I can possibly avoid it (anything that smells that bad can't be good to put on my food). So I decided to sacrifice some of my precious home brewed beer and set out slug traps. A little plastic pottle with a couple of centimetres of beer in the bottom and dig it into the ground a bit to give the slugs easy access. On my first attempt with only 1 trap, I caught 9 slugs and the second night I caught 12. Inspired by this, last night I put three pottles around my square foot garden. And the result? Three slugs! Oh well, I suppose the hard part was having to drink the remaining beer each night as the sun was going down.

Battling the slimies

2008-11-10T10:05:00.004+13:00

Much as I thought that the slugs and snails had died down they were back with a vengeance last week, so over the weekend I added some more pine needles around my square foot garden. I was speaking to a very nice lady who sells organic seedlings at our local market and she had a great idea. Coffee grounds also repel slugs and snails but it can take a while to get enough grounds to make a difference. So this morning I went to my local coffee cart and asked them for their rubbish sacks full of coffee. They were very happy to let me have a couple of sacks which I have layered over the top of the pine needles but still left a few centimetres of needles between the coffee and the beds. There were a few milk bottle tops and receipts in the sack but it only took a minute to remove them. Our particular cart uses organic and fair trade coffee so I am compromising neither my organic nor my ethical values and I am recycling what would otherwise be destined for the landfill.
I have also planted some capsicum, some more beetroot and some spinach. The mesclun just keeps on coming and I am eating green salads almost every day. Now the challenge is to get the kids eating them too.

Things are growing

2008-11-06T15:00:00.003+13:00

The rain and wind this week have not been too good for me but my garden has loved it. The tomatoes that I planted out Labour weekend have taken off, I have now filled the bucket of earth gems and the bin of potatoes with compost. The cucumber are reaching for the skies and my onions and garlic are tall and lush. In the square foot garden the sage looks great, the chilli have germinated as have the peas, radish, carrots and marigolds. I think the spring onions are coming up - either that or I had grass seeds in my compost, always a possible given that I compost my lawn clippings and put some of them in the worm farm. The carrots are just poking their heads through. Three out of four broccoli look very healthy but the fourth is a bit sorry for itself. I gave it a spray with seaweed tea to try and perk it up. The courgette gave up the ghost after being dealt to by the slug and I have replanted that square with dwarf silverbeet. I kind of guessed at how many to put in the square and decided on 9 as the seed packet recommends growing them 5 cm apart. I was down at the beach this morning and collected some of the compost like 'seagrass' that gets washed up after bad weather. I have used it to mulch the beetroot which were poking their beets above the surface of the soil, but I think I will be able to harvest them in the next week or so. The strawberries and their companion parsley are doing really well although one of the six plants still has no fruit and I still have no idea why.
I went to visit someone who lives by the beach yesterday and their garden seems to be about a month in front of mine. It's amazing the little microclimates that form - my friends who live in the same street as me never get frost whereas I, living at the bottom of the hill, get three or four quite hard ones every winter. But, hopefully, the frosts are completely over and now its growing time. And harvest time. I have had several salads from my mesclun and lettuce and I am looking forward to being able to eat my own cucumber and tomatoes too. Oh yeah my kettle full of carrots is doing great too and I repotted my chick peas into a larger pot.

You can tell its the weekend...

2008-11-01T12:45:00.003+13:00

... because the rain is coming down. After a lovely few days of sunshine Saturday limps along with drizzle and high winds. My tomatoes are planted out and I have surrounded my square foot garden with pine needles and mulched the bigger plants with ponga leaves. It seems to have kept the slugs and snails off for now but I'll have to get out there with the torch tonight with this weather. I planted some more chilli seeds during the week as the first lot seem to have disappeared and not sprouted. The radishes, carrots, peas and marigolds have sprouted in the SFG. No sign yet of the spring onions. My dustbin full of spuds is going great guns and has had to be mounded with compost twice this week. I also have a bucket full of "Earth Gems" -small yellow and purple potato-like tubers- which are also going well. Lettuce and Mesclun are sprouting away and my kettle of baby carrots is looking well- I thinned some out the other day and the discards, although tiny, tasted just like carrots used to before the industrials recycled them in plastic bags for us.

organic gardening

2008-10-26T17:34:00.000+13:00

https://www.kable.com/pub/enmg/newsubsa.asp?src=QHA665

2008-10-26T17:25:00.000+13:00

Bloody slugs

2008-10-24T23:06:00.003+13:00

Bugger. Just when you thought it was safe in the garden along comes a slug . I've just been out with my torch and my brolly and caught a big fat slug eating my courgette. It has made a helluva mess. It's munched just about every thing except the stems. Early tomorrow I am following the advice of Sister Loyola and putting pine needles all around my square foot garden. Sister Loyola is NZ's 2008 gardener of the year check out her video here:

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_windows_skin/2223331

This lovely nun has been a fulltime gardener since she "retired" at the age of 72. Now 86, she only does organic. And man just look at her compost heap. She has a lot more land than me but she feeds a lot more people too.

On the bright side I have had several lovely green salads this spring already from the deck. Baby mesclun , lettuce and beetroot leaves, a squirt of lemon juice and a touch of salt. Yum.

Looking Forward to a Long Weekend

2008-10-24T10:35:00.003+13:00

YEEEAAAAH!!!
A long weekend coming up here in NZ. And it is the weekend most spoken of in the gardening books. Labour weekend. Time to plant out lots of things. I have eight Moneymaker tomato plants that I have grown from seed and now stand about 15cm high with lovely dark purple stems. Two of them I am going to plant in my home made planter on the deck next to the (flowering) Black Krim that I bought as a seedling.Four will go into one of my adapted 'fishing boxes'. These are 50 litre black plastic bins that were on special at the Warehouse earlier on in the year. I drilled holes in the bottom and then layered them with ponga stems, horse manure, wormcast and topped them off with some potting mix that I had left over from last year. (Yes I know it's not completely organic but I refuse to waste things). The other two will go into the gaps in my square foot garden. I also have some seedling basil plants which apparently need to go in at about three per tomato to improve the flavour of both.
I tried to sprout some red kidney beans from the pantry this week but they just went mouldy. Time perhaps to throw out the old stuff in the pantry? I'll tell the wife to get it done. (And probably end up wearing the pantry!)
No sign of any shoots bursting through in the SFG yet but the broccoli and courgette look like they have settled in. If the rain stops and things warm up a bit over the weekend I expect I'll at least see the radish this week. During a dryish bit this week I managed to get some mulch around the seedlings. I used the small fronds from my ponga. I have lots of ponga in the garden it causes shade and the leaves are a hassle to clear up but I do love the look of these fern trees. And now I have found a use for the bits that compost slowly. Amazing how I can justify myself to myself.

Follow this blog

2008-10-22T10:35:00.003+13:00

Don't navigate away from this blog and then never be able to find it again. Use the follow gadget on the top right to be able to follow the best organic gardening comments and news.

Wet bits in NZ

2008-10-21T07:45:00.008+13:00

Well the spring rains have come. Softer and warmer than the winter ones but still stopping me going out to do too much in the garden. I am creeping around my pots at night with an umbrella and a torch looking for slugs and snails but (touch wood) I seem to have done a reasonable job of wiping them out for now. I have moved some plastic sheets and large pieces of timber over the last couple of weeks and have found hundreds of snails and quite a few slugs. My organic method of dealing with them has been to put them in a bucket and smash them up with a thick branch. The resulting pulp I have buried deep in the hottest part of my compost heap in the hope that at least some of the nutrients they have acquired can be returned to my garden. The snails and slugs I have found recently tend to be very small so I am hoping that I have destroyed the breeders. But I know they will return.
I have been spending my time reading up on organics and found some interesting books from the second hand book sale last week. Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening has been great but I have also been reading Organic Gardening in New Zealand by Richard Llewellyn Hudson which give some interesting information on NZ conditions as well plant by plant descriptions.
The other book that has been a regular companion is The Fruit and Vegetable Gardener's Handbook edited by Robin Wood from material which appeared in Grow Your Own. This has very detailed plant by plant descriptions but best of all clear instructions on when to harvest. Other gardening books tend to say harvest when ripe or mature or something and for a beginner like me it's not always easy to tell when that is. Both the latter books I have were published in the early 80s but the information still seems goood.

things to do today

2008-10-18T21:00:00.004+13:00

I planted out most of my square foot garden bed today. I have one square each of peas, courgette, radish, marigolds, sage and spring onions, two squares of carrots and chilli pepper and four of broccoli. Two squares are left over for my tomato plants next week. I also pricked out some chick peas I have sprouted and put them in pots. I'm really looking forward to making completely home grown hummus with my own garlic, lemon and chick peas. The only parts I can't grow myself are olive oil and salt. The broccoli I have grown from seed and put into the bed now that they are about 15cm high. the sage and courgette were seedling impulse buys from the garden centre today. All the rest are from seed, packets for the most part but the chilli is from my friend up the road (she of the huge cauliflowers). If everything comes up I should have wonderful harvests throughout the summer and autumn.
I am a bit puzzled about my strawberries. I have six plants in two buckets. each bucket also has a parsley plant which is looking fantastic. Five of my strawberries are setting fruit and flowering every day but one is is just growing lush leaves. No flowers nor any sign of them. It doesn't look a bit sick so maybe I'll just have to wait and see what's happening. While I'm on the subject of strawberries the birds that ate most of my strawberries last year left me a little present. I have a wild strawberry coming up in the front yard. It has already set some flowers but as it is under the ponga tree I don't know if it will have enough sun to ripen. Another wait and see.

Towards Square Foot Gardening

2008-10-15T14:38:00.005+13:00

Last week I was given a book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It contained details of a way to garden without the hard digging. It promises bumper harvests and reduced land and water use. While not entirely organic it does certainly suggest that organics is the way to go. You can check out some of the details here:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

So after work on Monday the sun was shining (its a lovely spring here in New Zealand at the moment) and I was inspired by Mel's words to have a go. I had been eying a patch of scrubby lawn that gets between 6 and 8 hours of sunshine a day. My soil is hard compacted and boggy clay but that's not a problem with Mel's instructions. I measured a four foot by four foot square out on the grass and laid into it with the spade. An hour later I had removed the top four inches of clay and loosened the soil below to the depth of my fork. Sweat was running and I was thinking hard about this no-dig stuff!

Mel has a recipe for soil mix on his website but I will have to source some vermiculite at the weekend. Being the impatient type I decided that I would use what I had on hand. A couple of bags of rotting horse manure looked good to start with so on that went. Then I covered that with a big sack (about 30-40 litres) of worm casts that I had pulled out of my worm farm a few days before. I had tried to be careful and leave all the worms in the farm but there were still quite a few wriggling around in my garden bed so rather than leave them open to the sun I covered them with a couple of inches of compost. Enough for one night I thought. Checked the bed next morning and thought it needed something else so on the way home I stopped by the river and grabbed a big sack of sand. Mixed that into the compost with a trowel and noticed that the level of soil was still a little below the surrounding grass. I added another couple of inches of compost and a sprinkle of lime and another of wood ash. Things looked a bit dry then so I gave the whole lot a watering can full of of dilute seaweed tea.

Some friends popped in for a cup of tea and a chat and were most appreciative of my efforts so far. Her tomatoes are the talk of the town and her cauliflowers are nearly too big for one person to carry so I was proper pleased.

Didn't get home from work until late tonight so all I did was replace the soil and remove the present that our cat had left for me in one corner of the bed. Doncha just love 'em!

I'm going to mulch the lot with chopped Ponga leaves tomorrow. Ponga is New Zealand's tree fern and it is quite slow to compost but the soil in our native forests is usually very lush so eventually I hope to have the same in my bed.

Ups and downs in a Kiwi spring

2008-10-14T09:02:00.000+13:00

A gorgeous spring weeekend saw me out in the garden for most of it. The strawberries are coming on great and flowering like mad. The onions and garlic have long green, lush leaves. Some of the tomato seedlings have fallen over and died but I still have eight healthy looking specimens that I grew from seed plus the seedling Black Krim I couldn't resist at the garden centre and planted out in my planter box on Saturday. Potatoes are poking their heads through the soil and it won't be long before I have to fill up their bins. Basil has germinated and should be ready to plant out Labour weekend. Cucumber plants are about five cm tall and looking well under their makeshift cloche. (I twisted some chicken wire into a bubble shape and covered it in gladwrap - works a treat!) Mesclun is looking ready to harvest next week onwards. On the down side my Bok Choy bolted straight to seed. It took me hours of surfing to find the reason - I had planted it too early. Apparently if it goes into cold soil and then warms up rapidly stalks with seed are what you get. Now I know. Broccoli has sprouted in the pot but will need transplanting soon.

Most fun was going to the garden centre with my young son. Like 11 year old boys everywhere he is more interested in his bike, his mates and his xbox than anything green. However the thought of devouring flies had him spellbound so I bought him a venus flytrap which now has pride of place on the sunniest window sill in the house. His mum is not too happy that not only is her deck rapidly disappearing under a sucession of planters and pots with veggies in, but her dining room is now home to a flesh eating housplant. Oh well, I suppose she'll forgive him. Me? I'm not so sure. Our other purchase at the garden centre was some swan plant seed which he planted as soon as he had fed a dead fly to the trap.

Embarrassing moment of the week was realizing why my carefully sprouted chick peas had died almost instantly after planting them. I hadn't waited long enough for the sprouting and only had roots showing. My genius excelled itself by recognising these as shoots and promptly planting them upside down. I have a new set germinating which I will try to keep alive this time.

Green Mass Murder

2008-10-07T10:03:00.000+13:00

I am trying to be more green. I turn off lights. I walk to the mall. I have planted vegetables. I am using wormcasts, seaweed spray, horse manure and compost. I want to live in more harmony with my environment. I don't want to use pesticides, agri-chemicals or wonder blast fertilizers. But every time I walk into my garden I become a raging inferno of murder lust. Snails never used to bother me. Now I am compelled to stomp them. Until recently I had never touched a slug. Every night now I pick them off my lettuces put them in a bucket and pour boiling water on them. Then I feed the slop to my carnivorous strawberries. Clover and ragwort used to be just green stuff. Now they are the enemy of my garlic and THEY MUST DIE! I tear them from their hardwon homes and hurl them into a heap with every intention of using their rotten carcasses to flavour my food. I encourage ladybugs and hedgehogs on the understanding that they will kill,kill, KILL! Kermit was right. It ain't easy being green.

Introduction to organic gardening

2008-10-06T12:13:00.001+13:00

Hi
My name is Paul Callaghan and I am a newcomer to the world of organic gardening. Earlier this year I had some problems with my digestion and decided that I was sick and tired of going to see the doctor (as well as being sick and tired generally). I have been interested in organics for a while so I decided that a way of being healthier is to eat better. I have cut down on the amount of meat that I eat and I am moving towards an organic food diet. The trouble is that organic food is so expensive in the shops. Only way to fix that is to grow my own, so in July this year I started to prepare for our Southern hemisphere spring. Some garlic and onions had started to sprout in the pantry so I put them into some compost in pots and put them on the deck. My garden is small and quite shady so I will do most of my growing in containers on the deck so that they get some sunshine. The garlic and onions look very healthy and so I have added lettuce, mesclun, beetroot, spring onions, carrots and peas to the containers. I also have tomatoes, cucumber, chilli and basil growing inside waiting for the end of the frosts which I can get until the end of October here.