Open Gardens..... in changing times

 I have visited a few open gardens today. They are all gorgeous and the owners have done an amazing job getting them ready, with all the rain etc that we have had. Some had magnificent, old trees, some massess of prettiness, one had fabulous, very old rock walls, most had a pond.

The thing about them all was that they could have been anywhere in the world that had an appropriate climate. None of them were what I would call Australian. I know 2 gardens that say Australia, without being just natives, and that is what I particularly like.

None of them had much in the way of food gardens either or an ecosystem that encourages any life except human. One had a beautiful, gently sloping, north facing, manicured lawn..... totally perfect for vegetables, but, alas, just lawn. Clearly not a fan of Peter Cundall!

For some reason, most middle class, white people think about gardens in this English kind of way; way more English than the English in England. I had hoped that the threat of food insecurity, shortages of potatoes etc, massive crop losses from floods, endless climate change disasters, programmes about insect collapse etc etc might have started to impact people's perceptions of what a garden is and what it can do for life into the future. Sadly, here abouts, they have barely raised an eyebrow.

Well, here are some of my garlic which are looking magnificent. They are Dunganski and Music. I have never seen garlic so tall.... this makes the stems look thin in the photo but they are not thin at all. Come late January/ early February, they will hopefully have good garlic bulbs and be ready for picking.

I know where I would rather be.

Tomatoes and snow!

This is a really, really tough spring for tomatoes. I have moved mine inside for a few days, until the cold and wet and windy weather passes again.

November 2022 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

Saturation! This last month or so will be testing your garden layout, water management and soil health. Don’t blame the weather; how your garden reacts is all about plant health, soil health, drainage and the state of the ecosystem you have had a big part in creating….. or not creating! Aphid and white fly infestations, rust, rot and root diseases as well as pollination issues can be sidestepped significantly by having a garden of biodiverse plants, including lots of Tasmanian natives, predator attracting plants, bird attracting plants and nesting sites as well as a soil packed with microbes, who have spent millions of years evolving strategies to keep the soil where they live healthy.

What to do now

1.If you have garlic rust, like I do in one patch because I foolishly planted in a low spot, push your fork well down in between the plants and open the soil up a bit, to help it dry off. I have also removed all leaves touching the ground. I am going to spray over the leaves a solution of 1 part full cream milk: 10 parts water. This is a very good fungal suppressant, as used by thousands of vineyards worldwide, in preference to chemicals because of its efficacy. Observe and learn from what you see.

2. Trees do not like to be waterlogged. Fork around the dripline, not digging, but rather pushing the fork in deep then rocking it forward and back, to let some air in. This will help relieve the compaction created by so much rain. The same applies to lawns, garden beds and even paths.

3. If your chook yard is boggy, don’t try to fix it by using something fine like hay because it may become mouldy and make your chooks sick. Instead, use something inert and coarse, like coarse straw, not too thick. Dig a few holes so the water can drain into them and fill them with gravel. If the roost floor is wet from the chooks coming and going with wet feet etc, dust with a little lime or carb soda, little and often, so as not to irritate their feet.

Grass

After 12 years of gardening here on my acre I can finally say that grass is no longer the problem that it was. Sure, nothing is perfect but I am pretty happy. What did I do? Firstly, I did not expect miracles and I have used no chemicals. Mostly I have mulched and mulched and fed and mulched and pulled and mulched and then some!

For example, I try not to let grass grow within the drip line of trees. As the trees grow, so the dripline expands and more grass is mulched over. Amongst the mulch I plant all manner of flowers, bulbs and herbs and native groundcovers too. This is fabulous for fire zones as it keeps dry mulch to a minimum, using plants as living mulch. At the same time it benefits soil microbes, little native birds and beneficial insects as well as looking pretty. Yes, it takes years but eventually you have flowers and herbs and trees and lovely garden beds with very little grass incursion. Start small, where you are, use what you have, do what you can….. and keep doing it!

Codling moth

The adult female codling moth lays approximately 60 whitish grey eggs that are about the size of a pinhead, on the surface of the leaves of apples, pears and quinces when the average temperature is over 15 degrees in spring and early summer. To reduce their numbers you must act now.

Codling moth eggs hatch after 10 days and the small caterpillars emerge to feed on the leaf surface and make their way to the fruit. They burrow into the fruit and head for the core. They will spend about three to five weeks inside the fruit feeding and putting on body mass until they are ready to emerge. This is the stage that we see, when fruit displays the tell-tale hole which leads to brown insides or early rotting when stored.

My mother’s remedy works well but annually led to her becoming embarrassed at her frequent visits to the local bottle shop every spring! She had a stash of tins, such as from tinned tomatoes, through which she drilled holes and tied string so that the tins can hang in a tree. Into each tin she put a dash of port and a double dash of water. She hung 2 or 3 tins in every apple, pear and quince tree. The male coddling moths are attracted to the port and drown in it, reducing the number of fertile eggs laid by the females. My mother topped up the liquids regularly.

There is more, information and several non-alcoholic controls outlined on the fantastic Global Net Academy website. Search for Tasmania.

November is beans time.

Add a handful of potash and a good spadeful of compost per square metre and fork them in. Sow beans into damp soil and water only once until the first leaves appear. This year I will wait until things have dried out somewhat or they may rot.

Climbing beans: Pole beans WILL blow over unless the structure is secure. I tie one end of my frame to a sturdy fence post. I especially love flat beans and have found some seeds, at last.

Bush beans: Bush beans are great for Tasmania as they produce faster than pole beans and aren’t as bothered by spring winds. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from and saving seed for next year is simply a matter of letting some of the pods mature fully and dry off before picking.

Cygnet Spring Garden Market: Sunday Nov. 13th, 11 – 3 @ The Cannery. 39+ garden stalls, 5 presentations, Cannery farm plates & bar, food vans and stalls, coffee, tool sharpening class (BYO tools to sharpen), Seed Library pack & chat, Children’s activities. Consider parking at Burtons Reserve, a 2 minute walk away. Details on FB and Instagram.
Jobs for November
Sow indoors to plant out later: Cucumbers, zucchinis (Romanesco), tromboncino, corn, pumpkins. Almost anything but it is too late for tomatoes! Sow in the garden: Beans (after frosts), salad leaves (not just lettuce!), brassicas (cover with moth netting), most herbs, salad and spring onions, beetroot, fennel, carrots, celery, parsnip, sunflowers and lots of other flowers.	Plant out frost tender seedlings, including tomatoes, late Nov. Check your hose fittings, watering cans and irrigation equipment. Share excess seedlings with friends. Check out Crop Swap Cygnet and Surrounds FB page for dates and doings. Most of all, enjoy the garden, the warm sunshine and life😊

August 2022 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

August heralds the coming of the light, where the sun is a little higher in the sky and daylight hours are lengthening. Lengthening days and strengthening sun bring energy to life in the southern hemisphere. Along with climate trends and weather variations, these are what influence the arrival of spring. Here in Cygnet, cold winds often arrive, just when we start to enjoy a bit more sun so provide shelter for the edible garden, using hay bales, for example.

Insects, fungus, birds and other annoyances

We walk in the forests and marvel at the beautiful fungi but we don’t like curly leaf appearing on our fruit trees, as a result of other fungi. The difference is that, in the forests, life is in balance. If anyone starts getting too big for their boots, other creatures will bring things back into line.

We can toss cold ash from our fires about the place in autumn under fruit trees and use a woody rather than straw mulch. We can attract predators, like lacewings, by planting hiding places and breeding places for them, near or under our fruit trees. We can let the chooks range in about the fruit trees, to pick off emerging coddling moth larvae. We can net individual trees to keep the birds and maybe the possums off during fruiting but we do need the little wrens, silver eyes and others to hop about on the bare branches all winter, picking off insect larvae, aphids etc and even those pesky blackbirds, rummaging about in the mulch, are doing more good than harm, during winter and spring. I do all these things and rarely have insect or disease problems but there are 3 relatively benign sprays that I use. Nothing is totally harmless. Do not be fooled by chemical companies that claim otherwise!

Curly leaf is best avoided by applying a copper spray several times before bud burst, after which it is too late. I use Burgundy Mix, as described many years ago by Peter Cundall:

1. Dissolve 50 gram of washing soda (from supermarket) in 2.5 litres of warm water.
2. Dissolve 50 grams copper sulphate in a separate 2.5 litres of water.
3. Slowly pour the dissolved washing soda into the dissolved copper sulphate.
4. This is Burgundy mixture. It is at its most effective strength when freshly mixed so must be used immediately or within a couple of days.
5. Spray thoroughly over and under the bare branches of peach, nectarine and other stone fruit trees to help control leaf curl and brown rot disease. It is also useful when sprayed over raspberry canes in late July/early August for control of raspberry rust and on apple trees that had scab last year.

The mixture colours the sprayed plants blue. The spray can withstand light rain but should be re-applied after persistent rain and done at least twice before any buds open. Do not spray once the leaves and flowers open. Read about copper accumulation in the soil and about lime sulphur alternative, on the Deep Green Permaculture website.

White oil

Into an empty jar pour a cup of ordinary cooking oil and ¼ cup of dishwashing liquid. Give it a good shake. It will turn white. That’s your white oil concentrate. It will last for a year or more. Label the container with the correct dilution rate – ‘one tablespoon per litre of water’. I use this for scale on my undercover, potted citrus and on indoor plants that get scale. It is very effective and simply blocks the pores of whatever it lands on.

Dipel

Dipel is a biological insecticide containing the naturally occurring microorganism Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki, that only effects caterpillars. It is wonderful sprayed on your brassicas to reduce cabbage moth caterpillars breeding up in spring and summer. It does not harm any other insects or animals.

Sowing Tomatoes

My favourite tomatoes for growing in chilly Cygnet are Black from Tula (big, black, solid, luscious, delicious and surprisingly reliable), Rouge de Marmande (medium, reliable, long season), Jaune Flammé (orange, medium to smallish, delicious, very prolific, long season). Many others are suitable too. Check out Dave’s Seeds website and facebook page.

I have written about sowing tomatoes many times. The gist of it is:

1.   They really do need bottom heat for good germination. Use a brewer’s mat or terrarium mat or silicone terrarium tube or lash out on a heated seed raising kit.

2.   Covering the seed tray with a sheet of glass before germination keeps moisture in and rodents out. This applies to all seed sowing.

3.   Once germinated, they need LOTS of sun plus the heat mat. Water sparingly. Use warm water. Water with a weak liquid feed every couple of weeks.

4.   Pay attention to how they look. Spindly = need more sun. Yellow = too much water. Not growing = need more warmth or food.

Herbs

“Herbs maketh the meal” Kate, 2022

Parsley and walnut pesto, sage leaf chips, salsa verde, tarragon and orange salad, rosemary sourdough, pistou soup, dill cucumbers, bay leaves in vodka etc etc all need to be in your mind when you think about your edible garden. Herbs are not just extras, they are integral to making food memorable.

In these days of rising prices, grow what is expensive to buy. Herbs grow so easily and are so much more tasty picked directly from outside your kitchen door, rather than from a shop. Don’t just plant one of each, plant 6! Put aside a whole garden edge for garlic chives, fill spaces between young brassicas with parsley. Create an area solely for evergreen herbs like rosemary, sage, marjoram, fennel, sorrel and be adventurous. Lovage is fantastic!

 

Plant and sow in August   Plant rhubarb, strawberry runners, raspberry canes, asparagus and get all deciduous trees and shrubs in before they leaf.   Start sowing summer vegetables with bottom heat: ·         Tomatoes ·         Capsicums ·         Chillis ·         Eggplants…. Good luck! And while you are waiting for them to mature, why not grow some sprouts in the kitchen for a nutritious and delicious treat for your taste buds and body…. lentils, chickpeas, fenugreek, buckwheat   Sow now in trays to plant out later: ·         Onions including red, salad, spring and most others ·         Broad beans (it is not too late) ·         Coriander ·         Brassicas ·         Asian greens ·         Lettuces ·         Peas to eat and as pea shoot microgreens

August 2020 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

July was terribly dry, with mild nights. Today it is forecast to snow almost to sea level, with plenty of rain elsewhere. This winter at the bottom of the world will test the plants and seeds in our gardens as they try to work out if it is time to grow or best to stay dormant a while longer. One thing we can be sure of is that it is time to sow tomatoes, as far off as a summer harvest seems.

Tomatoes

I have written about sowing tomatoes many times. The gist of it is:

1.   They really do need bottom heat for good germination. Use a brewer’s mat or terrarium mat or silicone terrarium tube or lash out on a heated seed raising kit.

2.   Covering the seed tray with a sheet of glass before germination keeps moisture in and rodents out. This applies to all seed sowing.

3.   Once germinated, they need LOTS of sun plus the heat mat. Water sparingly. Use warm water. Water with a weak liquid feed every couple of weeks.

4.   Pay attention to how they look. Spindly = need more sun. Yellow = too much water. Not growing = need more warmth or food.

5.   When you pot up, add some blood and bone and sulphate of potash to the mix. Only pot up to tiny pots, then slightly bigger and so on, and ONLY when they look too big for the pot they are in.

6.   In Cygnet, I plant mine out in late Nov or early Dec. They should then be strong, dark green and flowering.

7.   Make sure you prepare the soil now, in your garden, for planting out. Get all your supplies now, including this next suggestion….

8.   I make 750mm rounds of sturdy, 100mm-square, wire mesh, 900 – 1200 high. It comes in 30m lengths. Cut lengths of 2400mm and you will get 12 rounds. Whites is the only brand I have found here. Chicken wire is too flimsy for this job.

9.   I now have 2 x 30m rolls. It’s a big outlay, but I put them around clusters of raspberries and any plants needing support. They will last forever and never get tangled or squashed etc. Helpful to reduce swearing in the garden!

10.                I plant my tomatoes 750mm apart and put a mesh circle over each one, joined one to the next, for strength. I bang in one stake at the edge of each, for more strength in our windy summers. In the centre, with each tomato plant, I put a twirly, metal stake (from Shiploads). I keep all the tomato growth within the circle. I have used this method forever and it is foolproof. You will find dozens of uses for these circles, after the tomatoes finish, I assure you.

 

 

 

Annual, biennial, perennial …. in the kitchen garden

Annual means grows to maturity and sets seed in one year = lettuce, basil, tomatoes, pumpkins. These plants readily self-sow if you allow the full life cycle to complete. Easy to save the seeds (but some will cross).

Biennial means it takes 2 years for the whole life cycle to complete = kale, sprouting broccoli, beetroot, celery. These will also re-sow, given time. Easy to save the seeds (but some will cross).

Perennial has 2 meanings:

1.   Always visible (but may be deciduous), doesn’t die down, lives for many years = fruit trees, currants, wasabi, herbs like rosemary, bay etc. These are generally best propagated by cuttings or grafts.

2.   Grows, dies back to the ground then comes again next season from the same roots = artichokes, asparagus, rhubarb, tarragon. This should be labelled herbaceous perennial. These are best propagated by division.

Curly Leaf

It is time to see that the early fungus that causes leaf curl on peaches, nectarines and related fruit trees does not get a hold, by spraying every nook and cranny of every branch, stem and bud with a copper spray. Peter Cundall recommends Burgundy mix, which you can make yourself, because it does not clog up the spray nozzle, like Bordeaux can.

Burgundy Mixture:

1. Dissolve 50 gram of washing soda (from supermarket) in 2.5 litres of warm water.
2. Dissolve 50 grams copper sulphate in a separate 2.5 litres of water.
3. Slowly pour the dissolved washing soda into the dissolved copper sulphate.
4. This is Burgundy mixture. It is at its most effective strength when freshly mixed so must be used immediately or within a couple of days.
5. Spray thoroughly over the bare branches of peach, nectarine and other stone fruit trees to help control leaf curl and brown rot disease. It is also useful when sprayed over raspberry canes in late July/early August for control of raspberry rust and on apple trees that had scab last year.

The mixture colours the sprayed plants blue. The spray can withstand light rain but should be re-applied after persistent rain and done at least twice before any buds open. Do not spray once the leaves and flowers open.

Plant and sow in August   Plant rhubarb, strawberry runners, raspberry canes, asparagus and get all deciduous trees and shrubs in before they leaf.   Start sowing summer vegetables with bottom heat: ·         Tomatoes ·         Capsicums ·         Chillis ·         Eggplants…. Good luck! And while you are waiting for them to mature, why not grow some sprouts in the kitchen for a nutritious and delicious treat for your taste buds and body…. lentils, chickpeas, fenugreek, buckwheat   Sow now in trays to plant out later: ·         Onions including red, salad, spring and most others ·         Broad beans (it is not too late) ·         Coriander ·         Brassicas ·         Asian greens ·         Lettuces ·         Peas to eat as pea shoot microgreens