Daily Diary 09/09/2020

 9 September 2020

Today isn't meant to be much of a day, weather wise, but to me it's perfect. Not too hot and not too cold - its just right. Look at me sounding like the 3 Little Bears! If it wasn't for the gale force Nor' Westers. I can barely stand up let alone my poor wee chickens hanging on for dear life! And the soil is getting blown into my eyes with each spade full that's turned over. Flag that!!! I have plenty of other jobs I can be doing instead of peeling my eyes out with windblown dirt! 

Such as planting some Blackcurrent cuttings...

This is cuttings I took in June. It is now 4 months later and the start of spring is upon us. The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer. Blossom is out on the plum trees and the apple and apricot trees are in bud and starting to bloom too. The new growth on these blackcurrents is pleasing and should be the start of a beautiful high yielding blackcurrent bush. I'll transfer them to big pots and make room for more.

I desperately needed a compost bin or two however looking at these I think I need another one! This was just from one raised garden and a small area where the compost bins are now sitting. Now that's shocking!!! I guess it is 5 years worth of weeds. I'm surprised there wasn't more.

We made this out of 5 pellets and some nails.  The pellets were free from my husbands work and the nails cost next to nothing. I just need to cut one pellet in half now for the front and it's finished. I'm stoked with how much its tidied up that area and better still its creating more soil that my gardens so desperately need.

Next on the cards was to turn over my little Courgette garden. This was when the wind hit hardest and with each flip of the shovel, dirt was spraying straight at me and straight into my eyes. So bugger that!!! Looking at it in this photo it looks bloody terrible actually... like a grave!!! Omg! I will so sort out a border of some sort tomorrow. I can't wait to get some plants in there and get them growing.

My poor grapefruit could do with a haircut. Everybody is surprised at how well it grows here being that I'm almost as far south as you can go.... in the world!!! They don't call us "down under" for nothing. But never-the-less here it is. One grapefruit tree growing off the edge of my deck. Pity I didn't like grapefruit!! Oh well, someone might.

And then you've got my lemon tree on the other side of this grapefruit and we've gone the opposite...

Ummm... excuse me? What is that?? Granted it has had a very terrible start to life. It's been broken more times than I care to remember and I think it may of been run over by the lawnmower at one stage? So I guess it's not going too bad considering it probably shouldn't even be here. Oh well. That's one thing I will invest in this year is some lemon and possibly lime plants. I'll get some decent sized buggers this time and get a good start on life. I have a spot down my hill that I'm considering on growing them on but I think it may be a little bit too windy. I shall do some research before I go willy nilly and plant them where ever.

And then the wind turned cold and the rain started to set in and it was time to go inside. Just as well I got a few photos of todays measly missions so I could spend the afternoon creating more pins for Pinterest and more content for my blogs.

Edible Plants You Can Grow In Water

 

Even if you have no land or no soil you can still grow plants to eat in a cup of water!

I know right! Whaaaat??? You say. Yep, it really is as simply as put some water in a cup, jar or tray and grow your own veges. What's even better is that you can regrow them from your vegetable scraps! Ideally rain water is best or if you don't have access to that then water from the tap that has been left to sit overnight is ok to use. The chemicals in the chlorinated water are not very plant tissue friendly. 

Another thing to be mindful of is that roots from the soil are different from the roots that grow in water so a transition from soil to water may not be possible. But hey, I' an open minded person and believe anything is possible. Sometimes even growing soil rooted plants in water! So far I've only had luck with vegetable scraps and cuttings. The roots also like to grow away from light so consider a coloured jar or bottle or you could wrap a piece of paper around it to darken it. This helps to prevent algae fgrowth. While it is not harmful to the plants it just looks ugly!!!

Here's a list of things for you to try at home...

• Lettuce
• Beets
• Kumara (Sweet Potato)
• Celery
• Onions
• Carrots
• Parsnip
• Garlic
• Bok Choy
• Spring Onions
• 
  

Harvesting Seeds

 

Once you've had the best out of your vegetable, let it go to seed!

A good idea once your plants have done their dash is to let them go to seed and harvest the seed when it's ready. Or you can just leave them be and let them self seed on their own and replant the new seedlings in their designated area.

The start of spring has fallen upon us here in New Zealand and while there are no old plants in my garden for me to harvest any seeds or seedlings, I can still use the seeds I get in my fruit and veges from the supermarket. 

How To Do's...

PUMPKINS

This was easy peasy to do. After scooping the seeds out of the center of the pumpkin I put them in a container and placed them on the windowsill to dry out for a few days. Once completely dry I rubbed the flakey layer off so they were nice and smooth and popped them in an envelope for later use.

Germinating Pumpkin Seeds...

Pre soak your pumpkin seeds in a cup of warm water for no less than 6 hours.

Put your Easi Grow Pellets in a tray of water and allow to fully expand.

Place two of the biggest, plumpest seeds into the slot in the top of the pellet and press firmly. Plant approximately 1 inch deep. If planting directly into the ground, place 4 - 5 seeds in hills, 4 - 8 feet apart.

Cover with soil by gently squeezing the top together and bringing the soil over the top of the seeds.

I've just put mine on the bench by the window sill so it keeps at a nice warm temperature. Add a bit more water if the pellets start drying out.

Germination should happen within a week and pop up out of the soil between 5 - 10 days.

Daily Diary 08/09/2020

8 September 2020

Great day for gardening today. Spring is definitely here with the warmer days and blossom starting to bud and bloom on the fruit trees. Morning started off with a frost and sun was shining brightly by 7:45am with occasional cloud in the afternoon.

Raked all the sticks and straw off the paths and threw the last of the pile of weeds into the compost. Dug a small garden for Courgettes and a new garden, possibly for herbs. Its currently growing 2 Rhubarb plants but my daughter can have them as I already have about 15 of them in my big garden.

Before: Looking particularly messy if I do say so myself.

After: With a lot of elbow grease and some help from my chicken friends, this area was tidied up over the course of 2 days. Red Chicken is breaking up the small garden for my Courgettes/ Peppers.

I have taken to watering the garden at about 4pm when the day is nearing an end so it soaks into the ground overnight as opposed to watering in the morning and have it evaporate throughout the day. I'll make adjustments to watering as needed. For now I'm trying to get the grounds saturated enough so that when summer does hit at least the water is not going to either run straight off the garden or just sit on the top layer and not penetrate down into the roots.

Planted the last of the Silverbeet in the garden with the brassica's and tightened the netting up to keep the chickens off them. The ground is majorly lacking in any nutrients and has very little organic matter in the soil. I'll add compost or manure of some description to start building the soil back up again when I can locate something that's affordable.

Started filling pots with soil for Blackcurrent cuttings. Must do sooner rather than later and get them going.

Started writing this blog!!!!

Time To Get Prepared

 Time To Get Prepared.

"My GOAL is to tame and maintain my unruly garden and turn it into a edible work of art for everyone to enjoy at next to no cost!"

With all this Coronavirus stuff happening and the economic crisis I think now more than ever it's important to prepare ourselves for what may come. Already we're seeing the effects of lock down on households and their financial issues becoming more and more desperate. But never fear, we can all do something to help out our situations, being mentally, physically and financially or that of someone else's all by simply putting in a vegetable garden.

You don't have to have a lot of ground as there are many compact gardening solutions you can easily achieve all with a simple pot or bowl, bucket or cup. Tyres in particular are excellent for growing potatoes. You can buy cheap and effective glasshouses from places like Mitre10 or The Warehouse (New Zealand). And if you're anything like me and have chickens roaming everywhere then unfortunately you will have to invest in tunnel houses or netting to cover your gardens otherwise your plants will end up like mine!!! A good place to look for netting if you're on a budget is your local Recycling Center or Thrift Shops. Or ask a friend if they have any old netting lying around the place that they don't want anymore. Trade Me is a great online option if you live in New Zealand as is your local Buy, Sell and Exchange page on Facebook.

Before: Looking beautiful and growing nicely.

Wrecked!!! Totaled by my darling feathery friends.

However I really can't complain too much because they help break down my soil that hasn't seen a spade in over 5 years and eat all the grass grubs and bugs that could be harmful to my vegetables.

There is no limit to the size of your garden. You can utilize the windowsill in your kitchen and grown herbs like parsley or spring onions in cups of water. Click here for a list of edible plants to grown in water.

Along with growing our own vegetables we may also need to start keeping the seeds!! I bought a Sweet 100 Tomato plant the other day and it came with a warning label that due to the Coronavirus they were unable to source the seed they usually grow from and therefore had to make some other breed out of god knows what to resemble the plant we thought we were buying! At least it came with a warning, I guess. So that got me to thinking *lightbulb moment* that maybe we need to start being smart with our gardens and not only grow to eat but also keep to grow lol if that makes sense! So somewhere in this blog of mine i'll have a section dedicated to harvesting seed.

In fact, I've already started with the pumpkin I had for tea the other night. See here for how to harvest your pumpkin seeds and germinate them again ready for planting.