Past thyme

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 24, 2012
Posted in: Autumn foods, Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Spring foods, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Work Season. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

Among the perennial herbs I have in the garden is thyme.

This bush was one of the first things I planted and has been there three years, although a month or two ago it was touch and go whether I got rid of it as it appeared to be getting past it’s use by date.

It had become very ‘sticky’ (all stems and no leaf), as it got older and it was increasingly hard to pick a nice bunch for chopping.

So, I took the shears to it very radically and it has bushed back beautifully. Maybe I’ll get another year or two out of it.  It has occurred to me that thyme would be a very attractive small garden bush or pot specimen on a balcony.   It hasn’t been affected by the frost, and it seems to be very drought tolerant, once it is established.

The Dreaded Choko

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 21, 2012
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Food, Spring foods, Spring Jobs, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Although I live in a frost prone area, I manage to get chokos on the vine every year, just before the frost starts.

Next year’s choko vine

Yes, I can hear you saying, ‘I hate chokos’.

These are a vegetable that is not worth buying in the shop and really they do have quite a short season.  In season, young and fresh, they are tasty and sweet just steamed by themselves, but if you try to use them when they are older, they are truly worthy of their bad reputation.

The best thing about them is that they take so little care and are so easy to propagate.  Even when you are picking fresh ones to eat, there will be one or two on the vine that are busy sprouting.  You can save these sprouting chokos for ages.  Just leave them sitting on the bench or in a basket and they will produce quite long runners all by themselves.

Either you can keep them until the frost season is over, then plant them out or do as I did last year, plant them out and cover them completely with hay for protection and then forget about them except for a very occasional drop of water.

Nutrition and whole foods

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 20, 2012
Posted in: Food, Health, Links to other sites, Recipes. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

There is a lot of discussion about foods and diet and everyone has a story about what works for them.

A great book which discusses why different foods are good for different people is ‘Food and Healing’ by Anne Marie Colbin put out by Ballantine Books.

The Blog  www.regularsuzihomemaker.wordpress.com follows the fortunes of one young adventurer in to whole foods, and also has recipes for the the great meals she makes along the way.

Oranges as sweet as honey

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 20, 2012
Posted in: Autumn foods, Eating Seasons, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

When we left the farm three years ago, I had to say goodbye to my beautiful orchard, which had taken 16 years to develop.

The first things we planted here were orange and mandarin trees and this is the first year we have had anything worth eating from them.

I watched for ages as the fruit developed but it never seemed to ripen and everyone else was saying the same thing…..and then we had the first frost.  Look at them now.

We have had the first fruit off the trees and they are just as wonderful as the ones from my old orchard…as sweet as honey, firm and juicy.

Very few things in the garden will repay your care as much as a citrus tree and oranges are only worth eating in season and preferably fresh from the orchard.

If you don’t grow your own citrus, then try to get it from a local supplier, or take a little day trip to the nearest orchards.

KitchenGarden International

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 5, 2012
Posted in: Links to other sites. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

 

 

Here is a great site for kitchen gardeners from all over the world.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kitchengardeners?feature=watch

I just watched the video for planting garlic and although it was Northern Hemisphere, cold climate, it did show me how to separate the garlic, which ones to plant and what time of year to try.

Well, I’m off to plant some garlic.

Five Minute Inspiration

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 1, 2012
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Food, Recipes, Winter Foods. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

We had mackerel for dinner, the last of last year’s catch. Since it is not my favourite fish and it was not real fresh, I was finding it hard to be inspired by it.

A five minute walk in the garden gave me an answer.

Chinese cabbage, capsicum, spring onion and water chestnut added up to some sort of stir fry and plenty of opportunity to disguise the mackerel a little and increase the fresh vegetable content.

Not bad at all.

Location

Posted by gardenpathfood on May 30, 2012
Posted in: Background Information. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

One of the first factors that you need to think about in establishing a garden of any sort is your geographic location.    My garden is on the Western Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia, and we are caught between a monsoonal wet summer/dry winter and the dry summer/wet winters of further south.

In summer, temperatures can reach 40 degrees, while overnight in winter can be minus 3.

So we get frosts, sometimes even black frost.

We get heat, sometimes dry, sometimes humid and we usually have a dry and windy spring, just when our water supplies are so low that we have very firm water restrictions.

My current property is on sandy red soil, that has been farmed for melons and grapes for a long time.  Not too much goodness left in it, and I’m not sure there ever was a lot of moisture holding capacity.

It is an interesting place to create a peaceful, lazy gardener’s garden.

My Garden Philosophy

Posted by gardenpathfood on May 30, 2012
Posted in: Background Information. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

The simple souls Vegie Garden- enjoyment all year round

I‘d like to point out here that I am not a food affiicionado nor am I totally dedicated to a completely self sustainable future- after all, what will the farmers do then?

I derive a huge amount of pleasure and relaxation from my garden though, and the satisfaction, both oral and mental of growing my own vegetable and fruits.

One of the commonest mistakes that aspiring gardeners make, is to plant a garden full of seedlings and then wait for the crops to come in. Unfortunately, when they do, it is usually all at once and you give most of it away or spend a heap of time making pickles. This is not my idea of fun.

The principles I stick to with my garden are simple and we’ll go into them in more detail later but here’s a peek:

  • Make sure that you have as many perennial or retoon type of crops as possible
  • Plant the things you’ll use regularly such as herbs and spring onions as close to the kitchen as you can
  • Look after your soil and it will look after you
  • Allow some things to go to seed then watch carefully for seedlings to come up- imagine your (and your children’s) pleasure and excitement when you find babies in the garden
  • Don’t use automatic sprinklers. You will find that the more accurately you water your garden, the less weeds will grow. So you spend your time holding the hose rather than weeding. I know which I prefer.
  • Have several alternate spaces in your garden so that you can rotate your planting areas.
  • Think very carefully about where you site the garden.  Look at the sun position and also consider how easy it will be to get the hose there.
  •  Remember that most of the time, you will need to pick when you cook dinner. Unless you like rustling around in the dark, make sure your everyday garden is in a spot where the lights reach.

I love to have some of my fruits and vegetables spread throughout the yard with the ornamental plants.