organic vegetable gardening courses, growing tips and homegrown recipes.
If you haven't got enough materials to make compost in Wellington at the moment, you never will have. It's been wet and warm-ish so there are weeds, lawn clippings, chook manure, leaves and green manure crops to make a magnificent pile. Plus the waste from the kitchen and office. I use straw bales to surround the heap - they're easy to set up in … [Read more...]
The climbing beans can't decide up which stick to climb. Every time they make a decision they get blown back down. A few days of warm sunshine are what they, and the rest of the garden, need. They haven't made much progress since this photograph in mid-November. The mulching has kept the weeds down well though. I picked the first zucchini and … [Read more...]
It's early but I needed some garlic so I dug some that I'd planted in May. It wasn't really ready but it was fresh and pungent. And I'd grown it myself which is the whole point. I also dug some rather tiny potatoes for Christmas day. A small crop but delicious and sweet (I hope), if rather dirty. And that's the whole point - it's your garden so you … [Read more...]
I picked what I thought were snow peas yesterday. When I got to the end of the row I thought I'd check when I'd sowed them and discovered they were shelling peas 'progress' and I'd just picked them before they'd developed. Another reason to label things well. We have a broad bean feast (commonly known as a glut) so I enjoyed a broad bean and feta … [Read more...]
The first strawberry of the season is always the best. We'll need a bit more sunshine to ripen any more. I recommend you sow some seeds this weekend even if you're going away - what's the worst that can happen? If they don't come up you've lost nothing but a few seeds - if they do, you might have a crop when you return from holiday. Radishes and … [Read more...]
If you're thinking about gifts, here are some ideas: 1. A place on the fresh food garden course. 2. Ten packets of seeds - my pick would be: spring onions, carrots, cos lettuce, herbs, pak choi, rocket, white turnips, perpetual spinach, french beans, beetroot. With all these you'd have vegetables or salad for most of the year. $30. 3. … [Read more...]
I've tried a variety of supports for climbing beans but this is my preferred method. I cross over pairs of 2.1m bamboo canes in a line, pushed into the soil as far as I can. I secure the tops tightly to a horizontal cane with a cable tie. At the ends I use 2.1m plastic coated metal stakes. The canes will last a few years if you store them somewhere … [Read more...]
