There are now two dates available for the fresh food garden course – Sunday 7th December 2008 or Saturday 17th January 2009. The Ohariu Valley Garden tour had a glorious sunny day and proved a popular outing. It was lovely to meet so many people enjoying the gardens.

I’ve been sowing more seeds this week – brocolli, cabbage, pak choi, lettuce and spinach in pots. In the garden I’ve sown carrots, beetroot, turnips, spring onions, dwarf beans and radish. Despite the mixture of sunshine and showers, a daily gentle watering is vital to ensure they germinate well and don’t shrivel up on a warm day.

My parents are staying with us and the tunnel house in particular has benefitted from my Dad’s diligent and experienced watering skills. Bush tomato ‘tumbler’ is doing well in a pot, still with a few stakes for support. I’ve put up strings to train up my vining tomatoes and I’m pinching out the side shoots every few days. I feed them with ‘seaweed tea’ (the liquid from seaweed soaked in a barrel of rainwater) at the same time.

I had much more success growing corn in pots and transplanting it than I did with the seed I sowed directly at the same time. I’ve planted out my cucumbers and melons this week, again with strings for support. The peas needed propping up too.

We’ve picked some delicious turnips (Tokyo White Cross) and some beautiful not so delicious ones (a pink, heritage variety). When I’m asked about heritage seed I suggest trying both new and old varieties side by side to see which are best for taste, resistance to pests and size of crop.

If you live in Wellington and find building your own raised vegetable beds too daunting, Dave and Rebecca Denham in Upper Hutt can build them to order.

I’m still referring to my books for some good ideas. I always return to Joy Larkcom even though it’s English so the seasons are upside down. Dennis Greville’s Gardening in New Zealand Month by Month is good if you want some help with what to do when in New Zealand. Gardeners in the lower half of the North Island will find the ‘Organic Garden Calendar for Kapiti to Manawatu’ from the NZ soil and health association particularly relevant – you can buy it at Commonsense Organics.

Our guests have enjoyed toasted mouse muesli. Cheaper and greatly superior to boughten muesli.

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Most cereal we buy is sweetened, processed slurry reconstituted into shapes, flakes and biscuits. I’m not that keen on it, can you tell? Be kind to yourself and make your own toasted muesli to have for breakfast, morning tea or bedtime snack. Change the proportions or ingredients to suit you and your pantry. Good enough to share with your friendly chooks, doves and mice. A little of this goes a long way.

2 cups whole rolled oats (they should look like oats that someone just rolled, not chopped or mushed up – Harraways does a good one and Home Brand ones at Woolworths aren’t bad either)

2 cups rye flakes (or use another 2 cups of oats)

Quarter of a cup orange juice

Quarter of a cup honey

Quarter of a cup oil (I use light olive oil)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and / or ginger (optional)

1 cup seeds (mixture of sunflower, sesame, linseed, pumpkin)

Half a cup dried fruit (mixture of sultanas, apple, apricots, figs, dates, prunes, chopped into small pieces)

Quarter of a cup shredded coconut

In a pan, warm the juice and honey enough to combine it easily. Add the oil and spices. Tip the oats and rye flakes onto a large, flat oven proof dish (I use my grill pan). Drizzle over the juice, honey and oil mixture and mix thoroughly together. Leave to stand for at least an hour or over night. Put the seeds in a separate roasting pan. Toast both dishes in the oven at 140 degrees C. Remove both at least every ten minutes and mix thoroughly to avoid burning. The seeds will take 15 – 20 minutes, the oat mixture about 40 minutes. Allow to cool in the oven.

When cool, mix the oat mixture, seeds, dried fruit and coconut together and store in an airtight container.

Try this as a topping for rhubarb crumble.

Nobody ever says they’ve got a strawberry glut. Runner beans, zucchinis but never strawberries. They do well in Wellington as they tolerate acid soil. Now’s a good time to plant some (more) strawberries. Mulching them with pine needles keeps them moist, improves the soil and deters slugs and snails. If you don’t want all your crop to go to the blackbirds, you’ll need some sort of netting over them. I put hoops of plastic pipe (plumbing or large diameter irrigation) over mine and draped the bird netting over that to form a tunnel. Some nails in the sides of the raised beds stop the netting blowing away – even girl nailing was adequate for that job.

I’ve been spraying aphids in the tunnel house with chilli and garlic spray. If you can get them early it’s much more effective. I whizzed up a couple of cloves of garlic and a couple of frozen chillis in a tablespoon or so of water in the blender. Then I strained it through a double layer of muslin into a hand sprayer and topped it up with water. It’s evil stuff so don’t breathe it in or rub it in your eyes (or other sensitive areas). The aphids don’t like it much either. I pulled a fine crop of tunnel house carrots last week. Sown in mid June and not watered very often, they were sweet and delicious roasted. About 20 carrots from a square foot planting.

The gales have blown lots of seaweed onto the local beaches. The new vehicle collected plenty to mulch the potatoes with and to make seaweed tea to feed the tomatoes. I never worry about rinsing off the salt water. I’ve put flower pots with the bottoms cut off around newly transplanted seedlings to give them some protection from the wind.

There are just four places left on the fresh food garden course on Saturday 29th November. If you can’t make a Saturday, I’ve scheduled one on Sunday 7th December 2008.

If you don’t want to come on the course, the only time the kitchen garden will be open to the public this season is this Sunday as part of the Ohariu Valley Country Garden tour from 10am to 4pm. Tickets cost $15 and are on sale from Twiglands and LJ Hooker Johnsonville, California Garden Centre Miramar and Leaders Karori. Tickets will be on sale on the day at the Ohariu Hall, 550 Ohariu Valley Road (cash only). That will be the venue for tea and toilets too.

If you don’t want the blackbirds to eat your strawberries, keep them well covered. I plant strawberries 30cm apart in each direction, mulch well with pine needles to keep the fruit clean and to deter slugs and snails then cover with bird mesh. Nails in the side of the raised beds keep the mesh in place.

These carrots were sown in mid-June, harvested late October from the tunnel house. About 20 carrots from a 30cm square planting (twenty five seeds sown in a five by five block).

The beast has arrived at last. The kitchen garden has managed to negotiate a very favourable advertising deal. After sixty years, the Land Rover Defender 110 looks remarkably similar to the 1948 version. To celebrate the anniversary the special edition has stickers, special wheels, comfy seats and a GPS. The best four by four by far.