Back into the garden

It's been a couple of years since I've tried to grow a vege garden.  I had some bad years where everything died, I got busy, ran out of time, so I gave up.  I have lots of excuses - just ask me :) 

Anyway, some friends inspired (read shamed!) me into starting again.  So I'm starting small with a few veges in containers. 

Hopefully this time I can keep it going and gradually expand.

Tomatoes and basil (grown from seed)

Strawberries - we've already had a couple of berries off it - yum!

Tomatoes (grown from a seedling)

Peas and snow peas

Some (maybe not-so) quick updates..

A few updates:

Re the tree - it appears the general consensus, both here and at a tree forum I posted on, is that it's an oleandar. Oleandar's are poisonous to kids & animals, so I'm not keen on keeping it around. Hubby can pull it up and throw it away.

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Re my commitments - I decided not to go ahead with teaching for next term. I'll see how I'm feeling later in next term, but I probably won't even decide to put in a course for Term 1 next year either. I have enough else in my life that I want to be doing. I have 2 more nights to teach this term and then that's it.

In the meantime, I taught a full-day course at a different community college (prior commitment), and when they asked me if I'd go back, I declined for next term but left it open for the possibility for a couple of one-day courses next year if they don't find someone in the meantime.

I've also tentatively made a decision about not continuing with something else that I do, but I will see out the year. I'm being deliberately vague on that one until I let people know that need to know :)

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Re my education - I haven't updated for a couple of weeks, but I am still firmly committed to this goal. The trouble is, I have so many books on the go that I haven't finished any of them lately!!

As well as reading, I've also been watching a free lecture series from Yale University on Introduction to Greek History. I'm halfway through the 2nd lecture and really enjoying it (although the intro was a bit long-winded at times).

I've decided for now that I'm going to focus my attentions in 2 areas - I'm going to give myself a "virtual" Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Ancient History and English, from the "prestigious" University of Kez :)

For Ancient History, my first "subjects" are:

* Overview of World History

I'm currently reading a wonderful book called A Little History of the World - it's meant as a kid's book and tells world history as a fascinating story. I am almost ashamed at some of the historical connections I had never made before.

We're also still watching The Teaching Company's Big History course.

Also on my list is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. This is more science-based I think, but I'll give it a try anyway.

* Ancient Greece

I'm watching the Introduction to Greek History lectures, and reading the associated textbook. I also have some Greek historical books and myths here that I'll attempt as well.

For English, I'm doing a "literature study of classics" - ie reading books that I regard as classics, and then following up by reading a biography or autobiography of the author.

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So that should be enough to keep me busy, you'd think!

Is this a tree or a weed? Any thoughts?

We've had this tree / weed spring up in the path in our backyard - its now about 3 or 4 foot high with a thin trunk. The leaves are long and thin - most are light green, some are red or mottled red. The leaves have a rather unpleasant smell to me, but I can't put my finger on what the smell is. Does anyone have any idea what it is? Do we throw it out or transplant it?

The garden - 1 month on..

When I rebuilt the garden last month, I threw in some seeds to see what would grow. Here's how its looking now - lots of plants have popped up! There are several pak-choy plants, some silverbeet and quite honestly, I'm not really certain what most of the others are :) I'll have to wait til they grow a bit more.

Pakchoy, silverbeet and various other mystery vegetables :)

Pot of herbs

Lettuce making an appearance

Carrots and spring onions

Garden update

Thanks everyone for your wonderful advice.

I spent Saturday morning out in the garden and got a functioning garden bed again.

Before - looking very sad and dead.

The layer of hay that was in the garden already was very compacted, so I broke it up with a garden fork, and then spread half a bag of mushroom compost over it.

I topped the bed up with 2 bags of garden soil.

And then covered it all with sugar cane mulch - much of which blew away in the strong winds :(

Looks much better now!

I planted a whole heap of seeds directly into the new bed (plus another couple of styrofoam boxes I replenished as well) - will try raising seedlings when I get to it in a couple of weeks, but I thought I'd just try it and see in the meantime..

Gardening question

My garden has been pretty much non-existent since we came back from Xmas holidays and I've been putting off doing anything.

Mainly because the area around it looked like this (that is supposed to be a clear path area!):


Do you ever get paralysed in starting something because the first step just makes you feel overwhelmed? And the longer you leave it, the worse it gets?? That's how I was.

I spent a productive hour (that's all it took) over Easter and cleared a substantial part of it:


Now I'm feeling inspired again and am ready to start planting. I'm going to concentrate on what I know we'll eat rather than trying to be adventurous and spending a fortune on seeds this season! I still have most of the seeds I need (and quite a few that I don't!), so I'm not renewing my Diggers membership this year - will review the situation next year.

So now I'm ready to start planting, it brings me to my question..

The garden bed on the left desperately needs some nutrients. I think the season sucked all the goodness out of the soil, and by the end of the season everything was succumbing to diseases and pests. I had a lot of cutgrubs, and the tomatoes particularly were suffering from some sort of rot and a black sooty mould.

Given that they were so many problems / diseases with it, should I dig the existing dirt out and start fresh? Or will it be enough to get some manure / fertiliser etc to try and rebuild the soil, and maybe mix it with some fresh soil? If I do that, how long will it be until I can plant in there?

Menu Plan Monday - 3rd Nov

Notes on last week's menu:

I didn't put a menu up last week as I didn't get to write it until later in the week. Nothing outstanding though.

To use up this week:
* roast chicken
* thai curry sauce
* tin pineapple

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - meatball subs
Tuesday - chilli con carne & rice
Wednesday - bahama-mama pork chops with veges
Thursday - thai chicken patties with salad / veges
Friday - Mum & Dads?
Saturday - in van - we're off on holidays!
Sunday - in van

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.



Eating from the garden:
* Everything has pretty much gone to seed except for the tomatoes which are still green. Getting the odd couple of strawberries but only enough for a snack

Planting this week:
* plant out malabar spinach
* plant cucumber seeds - leave til we get back

See my "Quick Updates" over on the side to see what I've been up to in the garden lately.

In the garden

A few recent changes to the garden:

Pete & a mate put up a trellis for the hops - they are straight, it's just that we're on a hill :)

So the hops have now been transplanted to their new home and hopefully they'll like it.

The 'tater patch is looking good and has had a serious mulch.

Much of the vege garden has gone or is going to seed, apart from some tomato plants that have fruited - I'm stuck in a bit of a dilemma at the moment though. We're going away for 3 weeks - I don't really want to start too much now and leave it for someone else to have to look after, but on the other hand I don't want to miss the planting boat... Hmmm...

Gardening HELP!

I planted one lots of seeds in toilet rolls in the mini-greenhouse - and they're all covered in a white mold and have fungi growing in with them!!

Do I ditch the lot and start again or will they be ok to plant out?? What did I do wrong? Not enough drainage holes in the bottom of the container maybe?

The potatoes are in!

Finally!! I spent some time Saturday morning pulling the major weeds out and getting the watering system working again. It was quite a hot day so I waited until the afternoon when it was a bit cooler to swing the mattock and put the taters in. I'll do some major mulching once the plants appear.

And Pete has made a start on the 'fruit grove' - we're moving some of our existing citrus around and adding some more citrus & blueberries into more of a 'grove' type area (a la Jackie French)

I need another garden bed!

This is the main garden bed that was looking quite pitiful not that long ago - with the warmer weather everything has just gone wild! The main things in there are bokchoy, silverbeet, lettuce & a few beetroots. There are still some radish but I think they are so big now that they'll be quite unpalatable. There are also some self-seeded tomatoes in there.

I managed to squeeze a couple of mesclun lettuce seedlings into that bed today. I cleared out two of the styrofoam boxes - the one that had peas in it now has spring onion seedlings and carrot seeds, the one that had broccoli & cauliflower now has bloomsdale spinach.

I also potted up a tomato seedling and planted some more snow peas, planted the rhubarb that arrived in the mail the other day (hopefully it didn't dry out too much), potted up the comfrey and a bay tree cutting that my neighbour gave me.

I *really* need to start a new garden bed though because I also sowed the following seeds:

* capsicum
* eggplant
* chilli
* basil - thai & sweet
* oregano
* mini cauliflowers
* broccoli de cicco
* mini cabbage
* jaune de poitou leeks
* rosemary
* climbing malabar spinach

I have no idea where I'm going to put them all!

Menu Plan Monday - 11th August

Notes on last week's menu:
I missed doing last week's menu plan - just basically winged it for the week, which is not a good way to go! From the previous week - the sweet & sour sauce was quite nice, will use it again. The beef stew was nice but too salty - our bacon is quite salty so next time I'll leave the extra salt out.

To use up this week:
* roast beef
* pumpkin

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - snags, eggs, mashed potatoes & veges
Tuesday - some sort of stew in the dreampot (we're out most of the day and then I go straight to work)
Wednesday - meat pie with rest of roast
Thursday - steak & veges
Friday - chicken curry for grownups / nuggets for kidlet
Saturday - Pete not home - will just have eggs or pasta
Sun - roast pork baked dinner

* I need to make a pumpkin soup for lunches

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.



Eating from the garden:
* various herbs
* radish
* lettuce
* bok choy
* odd handfuls of snow peas / peas

Planting this week:
* need to buy potting mix

See my "Quick Updates" over on the side to see what I've been up to in the garden lately.

Bits and pieces

You know you've gotten carried away with the seed catalogues when they arrive and *that's* when you think "uh oh, where am I going to plant them all??!"

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I started clearing the back vege patch this afternoon in preparation for planting my seed potatoes that arrived a couple of days ago. The cheeky magpies were having a wonderful time sitting right next to me grabbing the bugs I uncovered - I threw quite a few big fat cutworms (or similar) to them which they were most grateful for!

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This is what you find when you miss harvesting all of your potatoes a couple of seasons ago!! I think there's about 1.5kg there. I love "free" food!

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In other exciting news, I met Crazy Mumma today! It was only briefly but I think we both felt like we already knew each other. She very kindly gave me a yacon tuber and rhizome - the yacon tastes so sweet raw, and met with approval here - it was declared "my favourite vegetable ever - can you grow some of those please Mummy?!". It reminded me of a nashi pear or of an old style 'china pear' that we used to get from my uncle's family farm. We ate half raw and cooked the rest up as part of a mixed fruit crumble. In the crumble it kept it's crunch which was unusual but nice!

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Updating my 'no supermarkets for 4 weeks' challenge, all I've bought this week was meat (from the local butcher), bread (from the local baker & our local independent servo, made by a local bakery).

I may need to buy some fruit this week but will see how we go.

Belated Menu Plan Monday - 21st July

Notes on last fortnight's menu:
The frittata was nice but it made quite a lot. We only ate half and the rest got wasted as no-one seemed inclined to eat it as was, and I couldn't think of any way to disguise it or use it in something else. (Any ideas?)

I blogged about my success with the plymouth pie, so it's a definite keeper. The thai wraps were quite yummy - I think they'd make a good lunch.

I swapped a few meals around last week. The chicken pie with herby cobbler topping turned into a chicken laksa as I didn't feel like cooking anything 'heavy'. The braised beef with herby dumplings was delicious. The roast chicken carcass made some more stock which then turned into a vegetable soup to go in the freezer for lunches. I ate all of the creamy potato soup this week so I need to make some more of that too.

I also made all of our bread products for the fortnight - quite chuffed with myself about that! I made some normal bread, tortillas, the one hour french bread I've mentioned before, and made up a beer bread to go with the chili con carne (worked beautifully with it!)

To use up this week:
* Bit of Bacon & scrambled egg
* 1 piece of crumbed chicken

Menu Plan this week:

I'm getting a bulk order of beef & pork tomorrow so menu planning is very sketchy until I see what we have there.

Monday - crumbed chicken and chips
Tuesday - some sort of casserole I've pulled out of the freezer - it doesn't have a label!
Wednesday - steak & veges
Thursday - pork?
Friday - fried rice (using bacon, egg and leftover chicken)
Saturday - ? not sure if Pete will be home for tea
Sunday - roast pork & veges

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.



Eating from the garden:
* various herbs
* radish

Planting this week:
* haven't decided yet - have heaps of seeds coming from Diggers this week (yay!)

See my "Quick Updates" over on the side to see what I've been up to in the garden lately.

In the garden

I took advantage of a bit of sunshine this afternoon to get out and take some photos of the garden at the moment.

Radish is growing well. I have it in a container and also in patches in the main bed.

A couple of flowers on some of my strawberry plants.

Some tiny lettuce seedlings.

Overview of the main bed with clumps of radish.

Pansies in a pot - a bit of colour in the garden.

I planted some peas in this pot yesterday.

I *think* this is baby arugula (rocket) but I'm not certain.

Another unknown - possibly beetroot or parsnip. I planted them both at the same time.

The sunflowers Billy planted in 'his garden'.

Broccoli has started forming a head.

One of the hop plants has some leaves on it.

So there you go - a quick tour of the exciting things in the garden today.

Menu Plan - 7th July

Extreme $21 challenge update
I stretched my $26 to buy:
* 1 whole chicken - $5.66 - I was hoping for a few more marked down, but that was the only one, so I only got 1.
* 3L milk - $3.19
* Butter (500g) - $2.18
* Butter (250g) - $1.15
* 1kg tasty cheese - $6.29
* 600ml cream - $2.04
* Yeast (280g) - $3.75
* home brand scotch finger biscuits - $1.18 (a treat for the boy who was helping me)
TOTAL - $25.44

I forgot about the 1kg of beetroot I also have so can add that into the veges on hand. Also a pear that looks like it's been carried to & from work a couple of times, a couple of bananas turning spotty and 2 passionfruit. There's also bacon in the freezer.

Notes on last week's menu:
The chicken did extremely well - dinner, fried rice, a couple of lunches, chicken & spaghetti bake, and then I made chicken stock with the carcass & used the stock to make a wonderful creamy chicken & potato soup with the little bits of chicken I picked off the rest of the carcass. (Well I thought it was wonderful anyway!)

The maple glazed sausages were ok but nothing spectacular. Same with the chicken & spaghetti bake. Lasagna with homemade pasta was a bit overcooked but still very nice.

To use up this week:

Menu Plan this fortnight:

I've been going through the destitute gourmet books I got for Mother's Day so if anyone has the books they might see a lot of familiar recipes!

Monday - frankfurt bake
Tuesday - not home
Wednesday - not home
Thursday - frittata with beetroot & orange salad
Friday - plymouth pie, mashed potatoes & vages
Saturday - wraps with thai beef salad
Sunday - roast chicken & veges

Monday - chili con carne & rice
Tuesday - chicken pie with herby cobbler topping
Wednesday - Sambal stiry fry
Thursday - homemade fettucine & bacon & tomato pasta sauce
Friday - braised beef with herby dumplings
Saturday - Bacon quiche & salad
Sunday - leftovers if there are any, otherwise there is still 1 lot of mince

Breakfasts will be as normal - toast, 'dippy egg' (poached egg with toast soldiers), porridge or cereal (generic 'weetbix' or 'rice bubbles')

Lunches will be leftovers, soup (heaps in the freezer) or cheese sandwiches for Billy & I, chicken or sausages and salad, or soup for Pete.

For more menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.



Eating from the garden:
* various herbs

Planting this week:
* pot out the almond tree
* do some more weeding & plant more herbal groundcovers

See my "Quick Updates" over on the side to see what I've been up to in the garden lately.

Menu Plan - 30 June

Notes on last week's menu:

We didn't get to the quesadillas on Wednesday night - I didn't make the tortillas. We had chili on Thursday night as the casserole. Nothing inspiring about the week except the Thai chicken curry was a perfect level of heat.

To use up this week:
* roast chicken

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - fried rice with leftover chicken & rice
Tuesday - maple-glazed sausages & mashed potatoes (in honour of Canada Day)
Wednesday - chicken & spaghetti bake & garlic bread
Thursday - blade steak & veges
Friday - hamburgers & potato wedges (in honour of the US 4th of July)
Saturday - Pete away - we'll just have eggs or pasta
Sunday - lasagna

For more menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.



Eating from the garden:
* spinach
* various herbs

Planting this week:
* pot out the almond tree
* do some more weeding & plant more herbal groundcovers

See my "Quick Updates" over on the side to see what I've been up to in the garden lately.