Fancy growing kale? Add some kale to your garden now that the cabbage white butterflies have gone. Winter super greens. … [Read more...]
growing salad greens in containers
Whatever else you have in your garden, a salad within easy reach of your back (or front) door are always welcome. This tray of pots is outside my back door and sheltered from the rain. It might need moving somewhere more sheltered if it gets really windy but I can pick a few leaves without putting my shoes on which is my sort of convenience food. … [Read more...]
fettle your strawberries
Strawberries work hard all summer. If you're lucky you might have picked a few recently due to some sunny weather and plenty of rain. I renew my strawberry beds every three years with the second season being the most productive one. That means I pull out one third of my strawberry plants each autumn and in the spring plant a similar number of … [Read more...]
zucchini walnut loaf
When you want to fill the tins quickly, a loaf is better than muffins. You can cut it into small pieces to feed a crowd and those who want more can have second or third helping. This loaf doesn't need butter as it's moist and sweet. It tastes like banana cake. Choose the freshest walnuts you can find as they quickly go rancid. New Zealand produces … [Read more...]
quince jam
A friend's generous gift of some fragrant quinces demanded another outing for the Let's Preserve It book on a wet morning. Listed under 'Q' were quince cheese, jam, jelly, marmalade, preserve and chutney. Plus some preserves where quince is combined with apples, cranberries, pears, marrows and pumpkins. I chose the simple approach of simmering the … [Read more...]
let sleeping cabbages lie
This red cabbage was languishing in the garden. It clearly hadn't read the seed packet label as it was supposed to be a 'red express' but I'd sown the seed in October and after six months it weighed in at 850g. Cute as a button, perfect and solid, but hardly speedy. It harboured a few slugs but was untouched by cabbage white butterfly … [Read more...]
pear, ginger and chocolate bran muffins
Pears and ginger are a wonderful combination of flavours. A kind friend gave me some marvellous dark-chocolate coated ginger and I decided to enliven a couple of windfall pears with the few remaining pieces in a muffin recipe. I thought it would stand a fairly robust texture so used an oat-bran muffin as the base. They freeze well. 150g plain … [Read more...]
seeking compost perfection
Do you create great compost? Have you got some trusted, tried and tested methods for compost making? Is your recipe something special? Do you tumble, turn or layer? I'm doing some investigation into how to make the best compost with the minimum of effort and in the shortest possible time and in a real garden with typical ingredients. If you're … [Read more...]
more winter crops
You'll see most of these winter salad crops in the demonstration raised bed we'll have set up at the Festival of Flowers and Music 'market day' in Thorndon, Wellington on Saturday. Endive, red mustard, mizuna, mibuna, claytonia (miners' lettuce), misome, red chicory, turnips, radishes. … [Read more...]
mulching and green manure – keep your garden warm in winter
We like to snuggle under a duvet as the nights draw in. So does the soil. Covering it up stops it being washed away by the rain and blown away by the wind. Covering the soil helps keep it aerated and gives a better environment for the microorganisms and worms to live in. … [Read more...]
