Bring on Autumn

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

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.

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?

In the garden again

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.