Day 103... a noisy Tuesday.

Well this morning began with a knock at the door and a workman informing me they are digging up my reticulation and lawn to attach over the roads sewerage... so much for my peaceful day in the garden lol.

Brandon (yesterday) decided to quality a carrot... I do not think too many are going to make it to maturity hehe.

My morning was spent sowing the beginnings of my spring seeds until the cutter started on the road outside... then even I accepted I was beat!  Inside until it stopped *but* I did get heaps of seeds in before and got them in the greenhouse.

Tomato, Yellow Cherry - from Henriette.
Rhubarb Victoria - Yates.
Chilli, Habanero Mustard - Digger's. OOD
Capsicum Seven Colour Mix - Digger's. OOD
Basil, Gourmet Mixed - Country Value. A mix of Sweet, Lemon, Thai and Purple.
Pepper (HOT) Caribbean Blend - Johnsons.
Capsicum Seven Colour Mix - Mr. Fothergill's Heirloom Garden. Sweet Chocolate, Purple Beauty, White Diamond, Yellow Marconi, Chinese Giant, Cunabella (red) and Orange Bell.
Tomato, Tiny Tom - Mr. Fothergill's.  Small 40cm plants, good for pots.
Tomato Heirloom Favourites - Yates.  
Strawberry Temptation - Digger's. OOD
Eggplant Heirloom Mixed - Digger's. OOD
Burke's Backyard Thai Chilli - Yates. OOD

As you can see my Out Of Date OOD seeds are all getting sown... if they germinate... awesome... if not... I tried ;-)

I have heaps more I want to sow, hopefully in the next few days before the next rain hits!  There are plenty of bean, zucchini, squash, melons and other direct sow seeds that need to go in out the front but with all the work men digging up the front yard I might need to stick to seed trays tomorrow lol.

The theme of this afternoon was... FRUITY!

 The Strawberries all seem to have survived winter... in fact some seem to have missed the fact we had Winter!  We still have fruit - just don't tell the kids... I found the sweetest, juiciest strawberry in the baskets on the fence today.  Balla Balla cannot reach the pots on the fence so we might have a hope of some reaching the house!

 The Finger Lime is potted up, now just to find it a happy place in the garden.

 

Did I mention spring has sprung?  The Raspberries are exploding with green leaves (Left) and the Cherry is shooting into life! (Middle and Right)  It is all very exciting.  The blackberries (not pictured are also pushing forth lots of leaves... I hope we don't have to wait more than a year to get some berries!

Brandon's Hanging Gardens are full of coriander, parsley, mints of all types and strawberries.  In front in the plastic box are carrots and possibly some parsnips that all seem to really like their new home after being transplanted due to over crowding.

The Basil has suddenly decided it is growing... thank goodness since Woolies and Coles keep charging us MORE for LESS. (Left)
The lime is still very yellow but covered in flowers.  I have buried a couple of rusty nails at its base... although I do not think it is the soil since the lush green radishes at the base are thriving.

  

I must admit I am thankful the builders had gone home (since they are working on the roof across the road so they can see in the back garden as I am pretty sure I did a Happy Dance in the garden :-p  I have 4... yes FOUR baby Curry Leaf Tree's :-) I have tried to many times to grow them and had no success... it was only on talking to my fabulous Father-In-Law (and garden Guru) to be told I was doing it wrong.. you do not plant the seeds, they need to be exposed... so that was that... Thank you Philip :-)

 

 Beans... yes... BEANS... these ones are not only flowering but in production... and purple ;-)  Shhh don't tell Brandon but I tried one... they are lovely and sweet too :-)










 
Peas... more peas... and more peas... Not too many are making it to the stage of cooking but that is a good thing!  We are all guilty... and have even found out that Balla Balla will join in too if you pass them to her hehe.  Sweet delicious goodness.  As you can see we have carrots, beetroots, rainbow chard, sugarloaf cabbage all thriving in our little patch!  (excuse the mess I was in the middle of picking up and got distracted lol)
  The Thyme we planted is almost ready for a transplant.
  The Sugarloaf Cabbages are still being attacked by Green Cabbage Loopers... who get fed to the bird but even he is getting sick of them!  The onions planted in between do not seem to deter them at all!

The Silverbeet and Rainbow Chard is looking healthy and COLOURFUL :-)  (Left)
 I spied a Yellow Beetroot in Tom's bed today... small but healthy! (Right)
The Lazy Housewife Beans that the boys planted during Autumn (because they couldn't wait) didn't die... in fact against that wall they thrived so it is extremely hard not to pick them so we can get the seeds to replant.  As you can see (bottom right) some of the beans are quite HUGE!

You remember the Royal Blue Potatoes in the "potato bag" from Bunnings?  Well I think it might be a happy!  Let's hope it makes some tubers!

Ok that is it from me tonight *hugs*
Sarah

Tea's and other recipes...

With all our herbs and other edibles coming along, I thought I had best get some ideas of what to do with all that we hope for...  Before trying the herb teas etc do a search online on the leaves and find out if you should take them... some have "do not drink if..." warnings... these recipes are for my benefit as I know I can have them ;-)  On this subject though, on reading about herb teas I never realised I had so many medicines in my garden!

Blackberry... well the berries, I doubt I will get too many to the kitchen this year... they will go straight into mouths!  The leaves however are a resource not too many think about...
 Dry the leaves... steep 2 Tablespoons in a cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes.

Raspberry... as with the Blackberries I do not think I will get many Raspberries into the kitchen but again the leaves can be dried and then steep 1 Tablespoon in a cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes.

Strawberries... Strawberries are likely to not make it to the kitchen either hehe... which is a good thing, my kids eat well and healthy :-)
Strawberry leaf tea - strawberry leaves must be used either fresh or all the way dried - NOT in between as these can cause stomach upsets!  2/3 Tablespoons fresh leaves or 1 Tablespoon dried leaves in a cup of water... add cream (or NOT in my case) and raw honey to taste.

Basil Mint... took some searching but recipes and care instructions at Mountain Herb Estate .
Now my Basil Mint is going great... we used a little in the "mint peas" that the kids devoured... flavouring potato salad... hmmm maybe... maybe not.  Chicken stuffing... well the kids would kill me as the only "real" stuffing is "Mum's sage and onion bread stuffing."  Boiling leaves with cabbage... now that we might try for something different. According to the above website we can use it in pesto, flavouring fruit and tomato salads and making flavoured water.  I am assuming the "diet water" that I keep seeing on Facebook...

For tea - fresh or dried.  5cm sprig in a cup of water or more... I think we might need to try this one to find out if we need raw honey or stevia.

Chocolate Mint... IF we are allowed to pick leaves... Hot chocolate can be infused with this or simply drop the leaves in a cup with hot water then add some milk (or soy) and sweeten to taste... preferably NOT with white sugar ;-) .  Preserve in vodka - oh wait I guess that would be FLAVOUR vodka... stick leaves in vodka... leave for 3 weeks... strain and drink... Ok maybe I wont do this one... lol.

Blend with ice-cream or with milk, this will give choc-mint ice-cream or milkshake... without the added fat/calories... although we might need to sweeten.  I can steep the leaves in hot water and allow to cool then add them to our Dairy free cake recipe to make choc mint cake... that's one worth remembering.

Peppermint, spearmint, common mint... lots of info here http://wellnessmama.com/5267/herb-profile-peppermint/ Leaves can be used in a bath or a tea used on an upset scalp.  Peppermint tea is good for digestion and liver too :-)  Mint leaves fresh or dried, hot water & sweetener - either raw honey or stevia.  Mix with milk, ice-cream, cream - strain if needed for minty yumminess. Mix some strained mint-tea with icing sugar for mint icing.

Mint sauce!  I need to make this - we ran out!

3/4 cup-ish of mint - chop until teeny tiny! (Blender if time pressed)
2 Tbl Sugar.
1/4 cup of boiling water - put the kettle on!
1/2 cup white WINE vinegar - not white vinegar ;-)  Otherwise very bitey!

Bottle or jar - sterilise with boiling water/ cheap vinegar or both!

Right dead easy... take chopped mint and sugar... in the big jug... heat tolerant.  Add the boiling water (enjoy the smell!) and stir (still enjoying the smell).  Add the vinegar and mix some more ;-) then pour into the bottle or jar - mind your hands - use a sterilised funnel if you need to ;-) .  Allow to cool and use... or seal and stick it in the fridge.  I read this can last 6 months however I doubt it will last in our house. :-)


Ok I have a lot more work to do but this is a start... thats it from me tonight... *hugs* Sarah

Day 93... A Saturday Garden Party!

Today I headed to Lizzie and Tertius' place to meet more of the lovely people from PERTH Show us YOUR gardens!  I met some great people and made some new friends.

They have a wonderful tropical type garden undercover but out the back is the best bit.... a vege and fruit garden!  I do love edible gardens :-)  I have to say we all ate well and I came away with so many garden things I feel guilty... yes I took Choc Mint to swap and food to share but I came home with Spearmint (I think), a Sweet potato runner, sunflower seeds, coriander seeds and some zucchini's!  Oh, Henriette also shared some yellow heirloom tomatoes for seeds and brought some seed trays and striking powder from up the hill at Julie's!  So I now know what I am doing tomorrow :-)

*hugs*  Sarah

Day 92... TGIF :-)

This morning began with a quick trip to the garden... salad for the kids sandwiches!  A mix of lettuces, basil mint, nasturtiums and a few coriander leaves to be packed into a ham and salad sandwich for each boy.

On my morning excursion it officially became spring in our garden... my cherry tree has sent out its first leaves!

This afternoon I got to have a garden tour with Brandon in "HIS" garden lol... HIS purple beans are producing!  As are the Lazy housewife beans... it's very hard to convince everyone that we need the seeds and not eat them all straight out of the garden!

This believe it or not is a Curry Leaf Tree!  Fingers crossed it doesn't keel over :-p  They are very pedantic!  


Next we had a rather passionate discussion that I could share a few cuttings of the chocolate mint... you would think I was asking for gold!  We did however end up with two cuttings and Brandon even parted with some Peppermint and Basil Mint leaves because they were needed to go in his peas for tea!  As you can see mint peas was met with some enthusiasm! :-)

 

Peas... yes I mentioned peas!  We actually got some to the kitchen!  Lizzie the ones in the pot were your gift at our last meeting... they are now flowering :-)  Our other peas are flowering and producing much to everyones enjoyment.  There are few greater kitchen pleasures than fresh peas!  

Cabbages... well you know the old saying "one persons trash is another person treasure"... well in our house that is definitely true.  We took 6 Cabbage Loopers (Green Caterpillars) that have been eating holes in our Cabbages and took them in the house... straight to the bird cage... one very happy bird who let us know he caught them all by himself ;-)  The Cabbages have been making great progress despite the holes... fingers crossed we can keep up with our pests!

In the root veges our progress is slow and steady in our first year... baby purple carrots got pulled and nibbled on.  Rainbow Beetroots are growing nicely and I think we have tiny parsnips... I think we might need to give a side dressing of some more fertiliser since the soil is so sandy.

 My poor Sublime is still quite yellow (ignore the green leaves at the bottom they are radishes!)  but boy are there flowers on the branches.  I will just keep on feeding and watering and hope it recovers.

Onward to the front garden... The Cape Gooseberry is flowering!  It is still less than a foot tall but looking quite happy :-)  The Purple Artichokes are looking happy (middle), sadly we lost a few of the green ones to some mystery pest, which I suspect is our ever present giant crickets.  The Blueberries (right) are flowering prolifically.  Again I am not sure if we should let it have fruit the first year but again we will see what happens.

 

Deleware Potatoes are looking strong since the last hilling up.  If nothing else we will have great soil out the front!  Sage is looking well after all the rain and still my rhubarb struggle onward... once more I believe my foe to be the blasted crickets!

Last but not least our new bed is looking happy after the rain (if not a tiny bit wonky after settling).. it even has new leaves!  So that is where we are... getting a few bits out of the garden, enjoying the promise of more and a great bond a garden brings to all members of our family.. including the bird lol
*hugs*
Sarah