raising a no-dig garden

With our raised beds we are building no-dig gardens. Our garden is built on the site of an old quarry and has very heavy clay, so we have had to build up all our gardens, so a no dig garden is the only answer for us.

No-dig gardens are sometimes also called sheet-mulch gardening as layers of organic material are built up on top of the soil, often right over the existing grass. I have seen them built over cement also!

 Lucerne or hay is often used as the base component of the garden, but other nitrogen rich materials, such as grass clippings or sappy green prunings may be used. Straw, sugar cane mulch or other high carbon material can be used on top of the garden.

If you are building your own frame for a garden, or planting on an open space, to build a no-dig garden of approximately 2mx3m it is suggested that you will need:

• 4 bales of lucerne soaked in water
• 1 barrow of compost
• 1 barrow of combined animal manure, blood and bone and chicken pellets
• 1 bale of straw soaked in water
• Wet newspaper
• Water

I suggest slashing, mowing or even digging up and grass or weeds.

1. Water the area to be cultivated
2. Lay down a thick layer of newspaper. We found that a complete paper thickness works best in the long run.
3. Alternate thin layers of lucerne, compost and manure, until all material is used ensuring each layer is wet thoroughly
4. Then spread the straw over the top to form a mulch, also wetting thoroughly.
5. Leave for at least two weeks before planting, re-wetting when necessary.

To plant, just dig small areas within the lucerne layer and fill with compost. Plant into this compost, and replace the mulch around the new plant.

Vegetables such as silver beet, spinach and lettuce do well in no dig gardens. Root vegetables that require depth for planting will need to wait for several seasons until a good depth of compost lucerne has been built up.

June: vegetable planting guide – Australian zones

June planting – Australian zones

Subtropical and warm temperate climates planning guide

Amaranth spinach

Arrowroot

Artichoke

Asian cabbages

Asian salad greens

Asparagus

Beans

Beetroot

Broccoli

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrots

Cassava

Cauliflower

Celery

Celery-stem taro

Chicory

Chrysanthemum greens

Coffee

Endive

Florence fennel

French Sorrel

Garden Sorrel

Garlic

Kale

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangel wurzel

Nasturtium

Onions

Parsnip

Peas

Perilla

Peruvian parsnip

Pineapple

Potatoes

Radish

Rocket

Silver beet

Spinach

Surinam spinach

Swede

Sweet potato

Tea

Tomatoes

Turnip

Vietnamese mint

Watercress

Tropical climate planting guide

Amaranth spinach

Arrowroot

Artichoke (Jerusalem)

Asian cabbages

Asian salad greens

Asparagus

Beans

Beetroot

Broccoli

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrots

Cassava

Cauliflower

Celery

Celery-stem taro

Chicory

Chilli

Chrysanthemum greens

Coffee

cucumber

Eggplant

English spinach

Florence fennel

Garden Sorrel

Garlic

Hibiscus spinach

Jicama

Kale

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangel wurzel

Nasturtium

Okra

Perilla

Pineapple

Potatoes

Pumpkin

Radish

Rocket

Rockmelon

Silver beet

Strawberry

Surinam spinach

Sweet corn

Sweet leaf

Sweet potato

Taro

Tea

Tomatoes

Vietnamese mint

Warrigl greens

Water spinach

Watercress

Yacon

Temperate and cool climates planting guide

Artichoke (Globe and Jerusalem)

Asian cabbages

Asparagus

Broad beans

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Celeriac

Celery

Chicory

Endive

French sorrel

Garden sorrel

Kale

Peas

Radish

Spinach

Swede

Tomatoes

Dry Temperate (Mediterranean) climate planting guide

Arrowroot

Artichoke (globe)

Artichoke (Jerusalem)

Asparagus

Broad Beans

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Celeriac

Endive

Kale

Peas

Radish

Spinach

Swede

Turnip

Semi-arid and arid climates planting guide

Arrowroot

Artichoke (globe)

Artichoke (Jerusalem)

Asian cabbages

Asian salad greens

Asparagus

Broad Beans

Broccoli

Cabbage

Celeriac

Chicory

Endive

Garden Sorrel

Onions

Parsnip

Peas

Radish

Spinach

Swede

Turnip

the friend of sun and sky

 What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants the friend of the sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;

The shaft of beauty towering high

--Henry Cuyler Bunner

starting a new project

The raised bed kits were on special, so we got two for the usual price of one! Twice the excitement!
I wanted to race and set them up, but Sunday had other things marked in its diary, so it may need to wait a day or two. However, the project can't be postponed too long, because I may have already a few things to plant...

Heirloom tomatoes : Black Russian!

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

gently does it

I read the following quote recently on Martha's Whole living site and for once couldn't argue. Healthy soils simply means healthy plants and food. What is good for the earth is good for us! No brainer!

Good fertilisers help ensure that your soil stays healthy. Yet applying too much, especially at the wrong time of year, will cause runoff, leading to groundwater pollution. Additionally, nitrate-based fertilisers (which are synthetic) often contain a high salt index that can cause root burning and dehydration. The alternative is to use organic gardening products judiciously. (To gardeners, the terms "organic" and "natural" mean products derived from a plant, animal, or mineral source, not those containing USDA-certified organic materials.) Organic fertilisers won't dry or burn your soil; they will rehabilitate soil quality and improve the general health of your garden. 

For the love of lemons

Our lemon tree is giving us a bumper crop this year. Lots of very large juicy lemons. So many in fact, that I am starting to run out of variations for their use! However, I continue taking it one lemon at time, so this morning I made lemon muffins. For a bit of a twist I baked them in a friand tin, as I am not going to ice this batch.
.

However, they are lovely with orange icing (recipe at end). The recipe can also be used for a lovely dessert cake baked in a square pan

Lemon cakes 

100 g canola spread (or butter)

¾ cup caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted

Zest and juice of one lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare muffin tins

2. Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and creamy.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition.

4. Fold in flour, lemon zest and lemon juice.

5. Spread into prepared tin

6. Bake 20 minutes

7. Cool in tins before turning out onto cooler.

If desired ice with Orange Icing:

1 cup of icing sugar, sifted

10g margarine or butter

1 tsp orange zest

2 tbs orange juice.

1. Combine icing sugar, butter, orange zest and juice in a heatproof bowl

2. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until the icing is glossy and smooth,

3. When the muffins are completely cool drizzle icing over and allow to set.

Makes 12 muffins. Recipe can also be made into a cake using a square cake pan, and extending baking time to approximately 45 minutes.

sweet, sweet patience

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.  R.W. Emerson

PETAL POWER

Recent research confirms that flowers might be the perfect pick-me-up for millions ... who do not consider themselves morning people. Participants of a behavioral study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed that they feel least positive in the early hours -- but reported being happier and more energetic after looking at flowers first thing in the morning.

I know that I do! My grandmother always kept a vase of fresh flowers from her garden on the dining table and it is something I have continued as much as I can. I find that just looking upon them for even brief seconds provides me with an instant mood lift.

Another good reason to garden, as if I needed one!

Stirring the soil

Gardening for ladies, and, Companion to the flower-garden (1851)

Author: Loudon, Mrs. (Jane), 1807-1858; Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1815-1852

Volume: 1851

Subject: Gardening; Flower gardening; Plants, Ornamental

Publisher: New York : John Wiley

The first point to be attended to, in order to render the operation
of digging less laborious, is to provide a suitable spade ; that is, one which shall be as light as is consistent with strength, and whichpenetrate the ground with the least possible trouble. For this purpose, the blade of what is called a lady's spade is made of not more than half the usual breadth, say not wider than five or six inches, and of smooth polished iron, and it is surmounted, at the part where it joins the handle, by a piece of iron rather broader than itself, which IS called the tread, to serve as a rest for the foot of the operator while digging. The handle is about the usual length, but quite smooth and sufficiently slender for a lady's hand to grasp, and it is made of willow, a close, smooth, and elastic wood, which is tough and tolerably strong, though much lighter than ash, the wood generally used for the handles to gardeners' spades.

 The lady should also be provided with clogs, the soles of which are not jointed, to put over her shoes ; or if she should dislike these, and prefer strong shoes, she should be provided with what gardeners call a tramp, that is, a small plate of iron to go under the sole of the shoe, and which is fastened round the foot with a leathern strap and buckle. She should also have a pair of stiff thick leathern glove, or gauntlets, to protect her hands, not only from the handle of the spade, but from the stones, weeds, &c., which she may turn over with the earth, and which ought to be picked out and thrown into a small, light wheel' barrow, which may easily be moved from place to place.
  

   [A Lady's Gauntlet of strong leather, invented by Misa Perry of Stroud, near Hazleraere. ]   

Lady's Wheel-barrow.
 A wheel-barrow is a lever of the second kind, in which the weight
is carried between the operator, who is the moving power, and the
fulcrum, which is represented by the lower part of the wheel. If it
be so contrived that the wheel may roll on a plank, or on firm ground, a very slight pov/er (?) is sufficient to move the load contained in the bar- row ; particularly if the handles be long, curved, and thrown up as high as possible, in order to let the weight rest principally upon the wheel, without obliging the operator to bend forward. When, on the contrary, the handles are short and straight, the weight is thrown principally on the arms of the operator, and much more strength is required to move the load, besides the inconvenience of stooping.
 All the necessary implements for digging being provided, the next
thing to be considered is the easiest manner of performing the opera-
tion. The usual way is for the gardener to thrust his spade perpen-
dicularly into the gi'ound, and then using the handle as a lever, to
draw it back so as to raise the whole mass of earth in front of the
spade at once. This requires great strength ; but by inserting the
spade in a slanting direction, and throwing the body slightly forward
at the same time, the mass of earth to be raised will not only be much less, but the body of the operator will be in a much more convenient position for raising and turning it ; which may thus be done with perfect ease.

A gorgeous, blue sky, autumn day with the sun so warm that I could garden quite happily in short sleeves. I took my tools from the garage and finished pruning the murrayas (Murraya paniculata) that are in the garden that runs down the side of the drive way.

It has taken me about 3 weeks to complete, between family and the need to protect my weak back, so to complete it today has been a real sense of achievement for me. Gardenia are planted in front of the murraya and so they got a prune as well, as it is the new growth that flowers each season.

I love the glossy, green foliage and dense growth habit  as well as the gorgeous, perfumed white flowers that both murrayas and gardenias provide. I have found both easy to grow in Brisbane’s sub-tropical climate, through drought and extended rain periods and on a heavy clay soil! Both are long lived plants, even for me!

Murraya will grow to about 3 metres in height and become quite sparse and woody if not pruned. I love a plant that responds to good pruning. I find it so therapeutic to prune and then the sense of satisfaction I feel as I watch the plant blossom from my efforts is not easy to describe. Simply, I get to feel like a superior person for a week or two, secretly congratulating myself every time I catch sight of the new, thick growth!

That is what I love about gardening, that flush of achievement and joy in a job well done. The garden is a kind mistress, as it responds to care and attention with green bounty and glorious perfumes.

I should not get carried away, as that is not the only garden with either murraya or gardenias yet to be pruned! I just hope that I can walk tomorrow to continue!

 Murrayas (Murraya paniculata)  or mock orange

• creamy white flowers smell just like orange blossom.
• flowers are produced in abundance in spring, again in late summer or early autumn, and tend to appear after heavy rain
• dense, twiggy habit 
• Murrayas grow best in warm climates from Sydney to Perth and areas north.
• prefer a sunny position in well-drained soil enriched with organic matter.
•  prune lightly two to three times a year in spring and summer. Give a final prune in autumn after flowering.

rare sight

SILVERSWORD IN BLOOM…this rare plant in Haleakala National Park, on Maui Island, sports a blossom ten feet high.

 “The SILVERSWORD—a member of the composit family, grows from 4 to 20 years—finally sending up a flower stalk 1 to 9 feet tall—then dies. Hawaiian name is “Ahina Ahina” which means Silver Hair. The Silversword is found only in Hawaii.”

did you say spathe?

“At the left of picture is the male blossom, a sprig of which carrying pollen is bound within the female blossom, the cluster of buds in center of picture, and tied with string by the grower. This is done after removal of the brown husk (Spathe) seen at right of picture. About seven months after pollenation, dates are ready for picking. The male and female blossoms are produced by different palms.”

sheer joy to have everything we need...

Don’t play with your dinner; or how to pluck a chicken!

Chickens roaming the back yard in their chicken tractor is quite the fashionable thing for many a suburban garden these days. We all know how the chickens eat insects and provide us with lovely chicken poo for our gardens.

However, few people stop to think about other uses for these chickens  - chicken meat. Poultry. Sunday dinner.  It is the one way to really know that your chicken is organic!

As I child I was quite familiar with my Dad plucking the chicken that was to be our dinner the next day as my parents kept a chicken coop for most of my childhood. We soon learned not to get too attached to the fluffy little chickens that arrived on a regular basis. Lesson number one : Don’t play with your dinner!

These memories all came flooding back today as I was browsing through our bookshelves and came across a little book titled, Back in the Day by Michael Powell as he devotes two pages to the procedure of plucking a chicken.

Powell starts with a warning that plucking a chicken is “messy and smelly”, and I must confess that I can still smell the chicken and feather aroma after my father had dipped them in hot water. A necessity if one wants to raise chickens for the table  

Procedure for Plucking a Chicken

1. After killing the chicken, hold it upside down by the feet and submerge it in a container of very hot water for between five and ten seconds, making sure that you soak all the feathers thoroughly (any longer and the bird will begin to cook), This loosens the feathers so that they can be plucked more easily.

2. Grab handfuls of feathers and pull to remove. The flight feathers on the wings and the tail feathers are the most difficult to remove, so begin with these and then move on to the rest of the bird.

3. Some birds are easy to pluck and can be stripped back within minutes; others may have many pinfeathers and take longer.

4. An old bird needs to dipped longer than a young bird. When plucking a young bird be careful not to rip its skin, which is more tender than in older birds.

5. Killing birds before the cold weather sets in is recommended as they will have less pinfeathers.

6. Wearing textured rubber gloves will give you more friction with which to grab the feathers.

7. Singe off the most difficult pinfeathers by passing the bird over an open fire.

Powell suggests skinning the bird taking off skin and feathers at the same time as an alternative, but this can lead to a dry chicken when cooking.

Powell provides no recommendations as to how to “wield the axe” to arrive at the dead bird, nor does he provide further instruction on gutting and preparing the bird for cooking.

Some things are best left to the imagination, I think! I buy my organic chicken from the butcher!

Back in the Day: 101 things everyone used to know how to do by Michael Powell, pp54,55.

Observations on Vegetables

“The quality of vegetables depends much both on the soil in which they are grown, and on the degree of care bestowed upon their culture; but if produced in ever so great perfection, their excellence will be entirely destroyed if they be badly cooked. With the exception of artichokes, which are said to be improved  by two or three days keeping, all the summer varieties should be dressed before their freshness has in any degree passed off (for their flavour is never so fine as within hours of their being cut or gathered); but when this cannot be done, precaution should be taken to prevent their withering. The stalk-ends of asparagus, cucumbers, and vegetable-marrow, should be placed in from one to two inches of cold water, and all other  kinds should be spread on a cold brick floor. When this has been neglected, they must be thrown into cold water, for some time before they boiled, to recover them, though they will prove even then but very inferior eating.”

Eliza Acton, The Elegant Economist, page 61

What is my zone?

So many times as a child I would witness my mother going on a trip and returning home with all types of plants and cuttings that she eagerly planted in the garden, only to watch them wither and die, or flourish until the winter frosts arrived and blackened the poor struggling plants.

Now I realise that part of my mother’s error was to fall in love in a plant that looked lovely in one climate zone, but was unsuitable for the zone where we gardened. A better understanding of the various climatic zones would have resulted in more success for my mother.

There are a number of climate zones:

• Tropical
• Subtropical and warm temperate
• Semi-arid and arid
• Dry temperate (Mediterranean)
• Temperate and cool

Each zone or climate has its own characteristics, obviously, and so will dictate what you can plant and when.

• Tropical

Distinct wet and dry seasons

Rainfall up to 4000mm per year, mostly falling during summer

An average winter daytime temperature of 30 Celsius

An average summer daytime temperature of 32 Celsius

Equal hours of daylight and darkness, regardless of season.

           

• Subtropical and warm temperate

Some distinct seasonal changes

Rainfall of up to 1200mm per year, mostly during the summer

An average winter daytime temperature of 10-20 Celsius

An average summer daytime temperature of 20-30 Celsius

Mid-winter day length minimum of 9.5 hours ( 14.5 hours of darkness)

• Semi-arid and arid

Hot days in summer and cold nights in winter

Rainfall of more than 250-500 mm per year, mostly during the summer

An average winter daytime temperature of 20-33 Celsius

An average summer daytime temperature of 34 Celsius

Mid-winter day length of 10.5 hours (13.5 hours of darkness)

• Dry temperate (Mediterranean)

Hot, dry summer

Rainfall of more than 600-800 mm per year, mostly falling in the winter

An average winter daytime temperature of 15-18 Celsius

An average summer daytime temperature of 30-33 Celsius

Mid-winter day length of 10.5 hours (13.5 hours of darkness)

• Temperate and cool

Winter frost and/or significant snowfall possible in some regions

Rainfall of more than 600-10000 mm per year, depending on latitude and distance from the coast

An average winter daytime temperature of 5 and 13 Celsius

An average summer daytime temperature of 16 and 26 Celsius

Mid-winter day length of 8.5 hours (15.5 hours of darkness)

Source: Annette McFarlane, Organic Vegetable Gardening, 

May: vegetable planting guide – Australian zones

The autumn month of May in Australia is the time to plant the following smorgasbord of vegetables. The variety of vegetables available to us throughout autumn and into winter is amazing, especially in the warmer subtropical and tropical areas. I can smell the aroma of thick winter vegetable soups and stews now!


Subtropical and warm temperate climates planning guide

Amaranth spinach

Arrowroot

Artichoke

Asian cabbages

Asian salad greens

Asparagus

Beans

Beetroot

Broad beans

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrots

Cassava

Cauliflower

Celeriac

Celery

Celery-stem taro

Chicory

Chrysanthemum greens

Coffee

Endive

Florence fennel

French Sorrel

Garden Sorrel

Garlic

Kale

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangel wurzel

Nasturtium

Onions

Parsnip

Peas

Perilla

Peruvian parsnip

Pineapple

Potatoes

Radish

Rocket

Silver beet

Spinach

Strawberry

Surinam spinach

Swede

Sweet potato

Tea

Tomatoes

Turnip

Vietnamese mint

Watercress

Tropical climate planting guide

Amaranth spinach

Arrowroot

Artichoke (Jerusalem)

Asian cabbages

Asian salad greens

Asparagus

Beans

Beetroot

Broccoli

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrots

Cassava

Cauliflower

Celery

Celery-stem taro

Chicory

Chilli

Chrysanthemum greens

Coffee

cucumber

Eggplant

English spinach

Florence fennel

Garden Sorrel

Garlic

Hibiscus spinach

Jicama

Kale

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangel wurzel

Nasturtium

Okra

Perilla

Pineapple

Potatoes

Pumpkin

Radish

Rocket

Rockmelon

Silver beet

Strawberry

Surinam spinach

Sweet corn

Sweet leaf

Sweet potato

Taro

Tea

Tomatoes

Vietnamese mint

Warrigl greens

Water spinach

Watercress

Yacon

Temperate and cool climates planting guide

Artichoke (Globe and Jerusalem)

Asian cabbages

Asparagus

Broad beans

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Celeriac

Celery

Chicory

Endive

French sorrel

Garden sorrel

Kale

Peas

Radish

Spinach

Swede

Tomatoes

I knew that there were different types of bees, such as bumble bees, honeybees, carpenter bees, and parasitic bees, but apparently they also have nationalities!

Well, at least according to Lady Winifred Fortescue who wrote in  her 1935 book, Perfume from Provence that her friend Monsieur Pierre claimed that,

“           …a friend of his imported queen bees from Germany, Egypt, England and America, The German bees, he told me, always works overtime, and fill the cells of the comb so full of honey that it reaches and permeates the outer wax, thus spoiling the look of the sections, so that they cannot be exhibited. The Egyptian bees work well, but are fierce and uncertain of temper – mefiez-vous! The English bees work well, but only for a certain number of hours; and the American bees are brilliant but erratic, sometimes working feverishly and sometimes taking a day off.

            Extraordinary, I thought, that bees should have absorbed the characteristics of their countries”(p 36)

More interesting to me was a small detail that Lady Fortescue mentioned regarding the Provencal custom of planting two cypresses at the end of a rose garden, as we have two pines planted just outside our front door. The trees, paired as they are, represent La Paix and La Prosperite (peace and prosperity). She wrote that the La Paix cypress did not “prosper as well as its brother” to which her gardener replied that it was “because there is no peace in this world “(48) .

I was left to wonder about this possibility as both our trees have been either attacked by nocturnal animals, or nocturnal mischief makers on more than one occasion, leaving both trees always looking somewhat sad as they try to heal their wounds. Every time the poor pines start to look slightly decent again, they seem to suffer another attack. No wonder we have experienced little peace or prosperity in recent years!

Perhaps I should go and buy some tree guards to safe guard not only the trees’ future, but our own as well!