Bring on the Spring!

Its been so long since my last post. My garden becomes this depressing place to look at during the winter after all its glory during spring, summer and autumn. I hardly venture out there except to feed the chooks, check out the snow, marvel at the havoc the frost creates, and stare longingly at the sight of naked fruit trees that only recently had branches heavy with fruit...

But now... Ahhhhhh, I can breathe again and now study is done, I am out there with gusto and have chosen today to post as it is out with the old and in with the new. All the old silverbeet and spinach has been removed to get ready for preping for newbies. I have also planted corn, basil, zuc, and pumpkin today (along with painting the house and a few other dullo chores).

I also chose to post today as it will be the last time this "season" that I make Palak Paneer using my own Palak (Spinach). I love this Indian dish so much. Hmm, recipe????? Need to go find one!

ok - here is a combo recipe that serves a small army!:
1.5kg palak
2 onions
2cm chunk ginger
2 chillis
1 tspn tumeric
3 tspn ground cumin
2 tspn ground corriander
3 chopped tomatoes
1 tin coconut cream
500g Paneer

The Palak Paneer!

chop onion, chilli, ginger and put into hot oil with the spices. Cook until your nose and eyes hurt (a few minutes). Add the chopped tomatoes (add an additional few if you prefer a more tomatoey sauce) and the coconut cream (can use cream if you like and maybe some whizzed up almonds to make a creamy almond sauce!). Add the palak (spinach) and the paneer at the end and stir it in til heated and you are ready to eat!

Frost has arrived!

Homegrown home roasted tomatoes (complete with sand from the 2 year old!

Life has been so busy in the garden I almost forgot to take pictures. I have been too busy dealing with all the produce and other life stuff to be able to post. I have now finally finished processing all my summer harvest (with the exception of the last of the tomatoes - YES I know, its May and I still have a tomato plant!!!).

My little "helper"

It is unheard of (well in the history of me here) that the first frost arrives in May! There may have been a mild spattering at some point earlier, but nothing that I saw or that really impacted on the garden. Usually in early April the frost arrives, my heart sinks and I try to prepare myself for months of bleak weather and drag garden views. However, this year I feel like I have prepared myself!

I have a winter veg garden planted again. I felt so much better last year being able to see something useful growing. I have put in the usual crop of garlic. I also have onions, broad beans, broccoli, spinach, and I am waiting to see the parsnips raise their little heads above the soil! I have also moved the raspberries back to their former position. Much sunnier happier spot where they seem keen to produce oodles of lush juicy berries for me :)

Baked quince

2 batches of poached quince

It was time to finally harvest the quince. Well, I actually waited for the ones the birds started and dropped to the ground. This week I finished off their job. I had soooo many! Having never dealt with quince before (not even really ever held one in my little hands) I set to work searching the web for interesting looking recipes. I cooked up 3 lots of roast quince (2 in orange juice and sugar) and one in butter and suggar. I also made a LARGE batch of quince paste (5L), and 3 types of poached quince (my own concoction, muscat and spice, and vanilla spice). Each of these were at least double batches. I am now surrounded by jars of quince things and pesto. Hmm, at least I will have something to eat this winter if my winter veggies decide to do a whole bunch of nothing :)

Quince paste & baked quince on pancakes with cream... Mmm

How could I forget?! I also planted 2 artichoke seedlings. No and no no no. Not those Jerusalem things that do little but run rampant throughout your yard and make you fart when cooked (yeah, ok they taste ok I guess and yes I have grown them. they took 2 years to get rid of). I have grown the globe arties before, but i am excited about having another go. Next mission (well when warmer weather arrives again), I want a bed of asparagus! MMMMMM.

Pear with its sand bags

The last of the pruning and moving has been completed. The quince took a battering from my loppers :) The pear tree now has sand bags dangling from its large upright upper branches in order to assist with fruit set next season (or so I have read - even if it doesn't, at least the tree will have a more aesthetic form and will make picking easier). I moved the grape vine about 30cm and planted a few lemon thyme plants in my newish herb garden (along with a few lettuce just for fun).
 

My gorgeous little helper

Now I just need to find somewhere to put all the processed products. Many have found their way to other larders :) Happy consuming people!

What happened to summer!

Well, its been a while and its been busy. Tis the busy garden season I guess. So much to pick, weeds doing their thing (lots of them) and moving into getting ready for winter planting! I love planting.

Out with Lomandra and in with herbs!

I am in the process of destruction and creation. I decided that it is time to start the lomandra transformation! I put these hardy little fellas in so that I don't have to peer out at doom and gloom all winter long (all 6 months of it!) into a world of brown. These guys have provided me with little rays of greenness that can be enjoyed from inside. However, their demise has now commenced! I have removed the closest ones to the house and have composted, mulched and planted an assortment of herbs. There is currently common thyme, oregano and a lonely rosemary (more of that one to come). I am planning on putting in some other varieties of thyme, more rosemary and a lil patch of English lavender (this variety seems to cope quite nicely to a continual barrage of minus 8).

Whats pickin'!?

Basil awaiting harvest

Well, while I have been picking tomatoes (very tasty ones) there are still quite a lot of green ones. I can feel some green tomato pickles and chutney coming on!!!! I have been picking basil amd making the most delish pesto and just love deliberately brushing against it to obtain that delicious fragrance! It is almost time to harvest the lot to make the big batch of pesto to freeze for the winter - I love it! A day of beautiful smells...

What else??? Hmmm, oh how could I forget those zuc's. I left a few to accidently get a little too big (because I couldn't quite remember what I planted - thought they may have been pumpkin, and they could well have been). It turns out they were mediteranean zuc's. I also have the yellow variety of a standard shape, so there were no probs there. Yummo. I have also been eating the male zuc flowers cooked in a tempura batter and fried (I tell my son they are zuc chippies and so he eats them :)). There are purple beans and I have picked the last of the corn. I need to work on my corn picking skills! I have been leaving it too long or not long enough - need more practice!

The unforgetable mediteranean Zuc's

I still have celery (not something I use a lot of) and silverbeet (which will take me through the winter). I used all the onions and have decided that it is well worth it to grow them, so will plant more this year along with my usual mass patch of garlic.

A venture into fruit world last night saw me picking pears (the birds decided they were ready, so I thought I should beat them to the rest of them!). I have saved a few for when my son gets home. He would be most upset if he couldn't pick some. The same has been done with the Nashi's. I am awaiting the aroma that I have been told comes from the quince, before I pick them. I have still been battling pear slug, but you get that. The grapes this year were basically a no go! Too much rain and too many fungal diseases attacking them, which I didn't pick up til it was too late. So I shall be on to it next year (they were so amazing last summer!!!). I have pruned and pruned and pruned. Was given some sound advice that I should prune now. So now it is done (except the quince - will wait til after the fruit).

The reason we do it!

 The joys of playing with compost. It is such a beautiful batch! The chooks do a great job and the worms finish it all off nicely! The post summer spread has begun, mulch has been spread and planting has just started. I have put in a few brassicas - broc and those hideous little things (brussel sprouts!). I am growing brussell sprouts for my son to try cause I can't stand them (maybe because I can't cook them??). Oh yeah, my chooks are all back to laying again and they are no longer suffering from scaley leg, so are once again a happy bunch!

Today will see me continue weeding and getting ready for planting seeds next week! Hooray!

The Summer Garden

 There isn't much to do in the garden at the moment, except enjoy!

It has been a hot and very wet summer. Because of this I am having a few fungal issues in the garden. The grapes have an issue (possibly fungus and too much wet) and I may be lucky enough to get one small bunch (unlike last years soo many bunches I didn't know what to do with them all), the apple tree is fungus city and I am going to sacrifice what the birds have left and give it a serious prune (coming soon!). I did get some very tasty raspberries, nice and sweet, but there were really only a handful. I am considering moving them back to their previous location and just deal with their rampant behaviour (the bountiful fruit makes the effort well worth it).

I have even had pest trouble in the native sections of my garden! I have had to remove an Acacia terminalis and A. buxifolia as well as a Dodonea. Not sure what happened to the Dodonea it just up and died. The A. terminalis had some weird thing attached to it that I was watching and wondering what it was, and then it started to kill it. I think the A. buxifolia was just nearing the end of its useful life as a garden plant after 6 years. So a trip to the local native nursery is on the cards this week!

Mini zuc's

What is going well??? Well, the basil is recovering from the bruising it copped from a big hail storm a little while ago. The nashi, pears and quince are coming along well (so far). I have been getting a good number of yellow zuccini's (one plant is producing mini zuc's, maybe there is a new market there???), the corn is coming along and the stem lettuce is going to seed ready to provide me with lettuce next year. the celery has been great as has the silverbeet. The blueberries were producing some nice big sweet berries, but one small boy reached his little hand in and harvested all the fruit while a friend was looking after him :( No more berries this year!

Quince

Pear

Nashi

Lots of garden learning this year. I have been researching getting a couple of mulberry trees (not sure where in my small yard these large trees are going to fit, but there is a will and I will find a way :)). My chooks have scaly leg (something I have not encountered in any of my chooks in the past) and I am learning how to treat this. I am learning about pruning and setting trees up to produce maximum fruit. And I am thinking about grafting extra varieties of pear to my pear tree, so the process of grafting would be new (something I have always wanted to learn!). I am looking forward to more playing and re-arranging.

Raining and picking

I have certainly found empathy for the poor farmers at the moment. They just can't win. I have bloated and rotting strawberries thanks to the rain and I assume they taste.... well tasteless!

While our farmers are having troubles with their grain crops, damaged bloated cherries and stone fruit, the rain is exacerbating many of the issues I have eg Apple Scab (which is on both my quince and my apple).

On a brighter note, I do have some tasty things that have been coming out of the garden and onto my table. Lettuce galore! The chooks have also been feasting on this very productive stem lettuce. I also have some delicately flavoured celery. The two most productive things in my garden have started their travels to my table - silverbeet and the yellow zuccinin's. The silverbeet isn't "big" yet, but it is lush looking and tasting. We have already made and devoured a fresh silverbeet and fetta quiche. To date the yellow zuccini's have been a little on the small side, but they are slowly increasing in length - Yay!

Baby bean plants

Raspberry flowers

What is well under way? Hmm, well I don't think the beans will be far off from the start of their harvest. Raspberries can't be too far away (though I think the rain may impact on their size and flavour), and the corn is powering along. Tomatoes are slowly chugging along (perhaps I will get some kind of a crop off them???) and there is a tiny cucumber on the tiny cucumber.

I have some pumpkin vines starting to do their thing about the yard. Will have to wait and see just how much of the yard they devour this year! I have avoided pumpkins for a couple of years due to the amount of yard that I have left once they have engulfed it, their pretty lame flavour and development, and due to a large harvest a couple of years ago I haven't been too keen to actually eat pumpkin, but I am ready again this year :)

I can't remember whether or not it made it into the last post, but I have finished the roads around my yard! I can get from my backdoor to my shed without getting my feet dirty (unless the chooks have been out and have burried my paths). I have a lovely new section of paving and a beaut ramp that has been designed for the purpose of one small child cruising down and round the garden on his bike (and the transport of goods and services around the yard by wheelbarrow (especially a small red wheelbarrow).

The red pears are causing people confusion in my yard. People seem to think (or dream) that they are figs, even though their shape couldn't possibly be confused with any other shape - a pear is a pear! Nashi's are growing well (even after a pair of small hands removed a few!) as are the quince (despite the attack of pear slug and some kind of fungal disease on the leaves, possibly apple scab).

There are always so many things to do in the garden. The best chore's at this time of year have got to be watching, harvesting, and consuming (while watching)! Mmm perhaps yellow zuccini fritters for dinner???

Paitently waiting... or not...

Watching the garden grow can be like watching a kettle boil...

Everything seems to be taking forever to grow at the moment. Some things have really taken off - the Nashi, Apple, Quince, and Pear, also the beetroot (YUMMMO!), one yellow zuccini and the lettuce. The lettuce is definitely better this year than last year, I like to think that is due to the shade frames that I built to shelter them from the harsh Lithgow sun (when it appears!). Everything else seems to be struggling, especially the capsicum, silverbeet (which makes NO sense at all given the growth of the beetroot!), the corn, and the most of the zuccini. Don't know what their problem is, but I really wish they would get over it and just grow...

Oh, hang on! How could I forget about the amazing strawberry patch?! I have never seen so many strawberry flowers. All I need to do is protect them from the "reaching" little hands of my son, who is keen to eat them regardless of their colour and stage of ripeness (or lack there of!!!).

I haven't really done much to the veg garden over the last couple of weeks (except for a weeding session the other day). I have been busy though! I finished my garden gate (not that attractive, but happily functional) and fence. I have also carefully pulled down (brick by painstaking brick) the brick fence at the front of my house. I have had plans for a while to use these beautiful Lithgow bricks to finish building my garden path out the back (didn't really want to pull the wall down as it was a beautiful feature, but it was too dangerous to stay put).

Today was spent paving... and I finished. I am pretty happy with the result, despite not following the instructions given to my by my father (yeah, I know, I will probably regret it later when it sinks and warps). It is sort of level, but needed to bend and slope to a certain extent to work in with the world around it. It looks happily rustic...

Unfortunately I ran out of bricks, so I will need to extend my modestly built and kinda quirky (and not so level and strait) deck. A job for tomorrow perhaps????

I have also spent the last couple of days on my local orchid mission. I went up the hill a couple of times over the weekend with my son in search of some new ones. There was success yesterday, but I neglected to take my camera with me, so today I took the opportunity (and what a great excuse to delay paving!!!) to head back up the hill to capture these beautiful specimens on modern "film". I am up to 7 obvious varieties so far, and there must be loads of time left in "orchid season". I shall post some pictures of what I have found soon.

So many options for jobs to do tomorrow while my son is at daycare...

New Growth

Well, study is done for the year, so now I can concentrate on the things I really enjoy - gardening, walking and music!

The instant I finished my last essay, off I went out into the garden to see what had been happening over the last few weeks while the books had taken over my life. Things have grown, snails and birds have been destroying, the weeds have been slowly advancing, the citrus trees are slowly recovering from the winter harshness, some flowers have burst into bloom, while others have made way for the beginnings of hopefully tasty fruits!

This is the first year that fruit has set on my pear tree! I am pretty excited as its not your average pear. It is a red variety that I can't wait to taste (can't remember what, but something like Sensation Red - I will endeavor to find the missing links). I will be working hard to keep the pear slugs off it and my other trees this year.

A couple who visit the local bowling club each year around this time with their sturdy seedlings have been and I have come home with my usual purchases - capsicum, tomato, silverbeet, and lettuce. I pretty much grow these things from seed myself, but I need to be better organised to get things planted much earlier than I have in past years, plus the sparrows don't seem to do much damage to their hardy seedlings as they do to mine!

The seeds and seedlings I planted earlier all seem to be doing well - with the exception of the capsicum (haven't had much luck in the past, but I will keep experimenting) and I have lost some of the cucumber and zuccini (which is fine as I only really need a couple of plants of each). The self-seeding stem lettuce are really benefiting from the shade trellis' I have provided for them! The two corn varieties are up and doing their thing.

Strawberries!! There is going to be a strawberry bonanza in my yard this year. I have never seen so many flowers on them. My son is going to absolutely love it. I am personally not a fan of the strawberry, but nothing compares to home grown strawberries for flavour - just ask the resident snails.

I am still not sure what the blueberries and raspberries are going to offer this year. The blueberry flowers are plentiful, but the plants are still relatively young. At least there is no dog this year to remove branches and whole plants from their lodgings... As for the raspberries, flower development has just begun. Hopefully the dust storms and severe winds will stay away and I will get fruit set. They are in a different position than they have been in past years, due to their "wandering" tendencies, and they were still settling in to their new bath last year - will have to wait on the outcome of this little experiment.

The natives in the garden all seem pretty happy and I am extremely excited to announce that I am going to get flowers on the waratahs for the first time! I have waited about 5 years for this. The Prostanthera have been out for a few weeks, and the Pelaleucas and Olearea have just started flowering. With the flowering of the fruit trees now finished the colour from these is welcome!

It has also been pretty amazing at the moment out in the bush for orchids. I have been up the hill a few times each week to collect images of the amazing orchids that grow up there. I have seen more this year already than past years combined (I am actually making a concerted effort to go and record what is there week to week!).