location

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Ahhg…the Veges are going to Eat Me

Posted by gardenpathfood on September 11, 2013
Posted in: Community Gardens, Links to other sites, Places to Visit. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I walked in to a vegetable patch recently that definitely appeared positively carnivorous. The vegetables were so healthy and aggressive they could eat me.IMAG0415

I took a little detour to visit historic Jimbour Homestead, (on the Darling Downs, Qld) http://www.jimbour.com/  and walked in to their heritage designed vegetable plot.  It has to be Heritage Design to conform with the wonderful old homestead but in spite of this restriction the growth on the plants is spectacular. The garden is spray and artificial fertiliser free, but the extraordinary growth can probably be attributed to great soil to start with (This is some of the best soil on the downs) and lots and lots of free organics from the bull paddock, since Jimbour is also a working cattle property.

The gardeners have also become really excited about different vegetables and  have at least four varieties of kale for example all growing together and looking amazingly decorative.

One of the most ornamental of the plants had to be the artichoke and this plant is a silver, grey architectural perennial that would look amazing in a pot, or in any spot in the garden, even if it didn’t have the advantage of also growing food.

For information on how to grow and eat artichokes, I will be following this site as soon as I can lay my hands on some plants. http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4796/how-to-grow-artichokes/page/all

If you are holidaying in Queensland, then be sure to come as far west as Jimbour and visit one of our most historic, (after all Leichhardt left from here on his expeditions), beautiful and now culinary (ily?) exciting spots.  It is well worth your time.

Awesome Asparagus

Posted by gardenpathfood on February 1, 2013
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Food, Health, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Spring Jobs, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

No, my asparagus does not normally look like this when I pick it.  Usually in the six to eight weeks in Spring  (here Spring is September to November) that we are picking asparagus, it usually looks like a bed of mulch with spikes sticking out of it. The trick is to eat enough so that you stay ahead of the spikes and it doesn’t get bushy like this.

Asparagus in January

Asparagus in January

This is December to August bush and it stays this way until I get out the weed eater (brushcutter) and cut it back to ground level in August.

From December to August it doesn’t get watered, it doesn’t get anything but a few weeds pulled.  In August we cut it back, throw a pile of compost, horse manure and mulch on top, water it heavily and wait for results.  Very, very tasty results whether it is eaten raw and fresh, chopped in a salad or cooked as a vegetable.

Asparagus is dead easy to grow, very hard to kill and the quickest and easiest vegetable to prepare for a meal.  What more could you want as the backbone for your garden?

Climate-wise, I grew it in sub-tropical inland Queensland as well as down here near the border with New south Wales.

The people at http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/asparagus.html list the many benefits of asparagus including ‘Asparagus is a very low calorie vegetable. 100 g fresh spears give only 20 calories. More calories will be burnt to digest than gained, the fact, which fits into the category of low calorie or negative-calorie vegetables,’ but to me asparagus is also one of the best and most satisfying vegetables you can grow.

And Double bonus!!!  We have just had floods, although my house remained high and dry, but the drenching rain has kick started the asparagus again and we have eaten it every night for the last two weeks.  Asparagus in January!!

Phoenix rising

Posted by gardenpathfood on October 17, 2012
Posted in: Autumn foods, Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Spring foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Like a phoenix rising…well not from the ashes but I do decapitate them.

Commercially leeks are usually plucked out roots and all but I cut them off with a sharp knife just slightly below ground level, and they regrow. Normally I let those go to seed to produce babies somewhere in the garden.

Although my leeks, particularly the regrown ones are not as long as commercial leeks (look at the climate I live in), each one I cut usually provides the two of us us with all we need for an additional steamed vegetable.  Instead of letting this one go to seed, I will see if we can cOctober Gardenut it and go for a third use.

I love the look of leeks and onions in the garden.  They provide structure, colour and texture.

Even pure vegetable gardens can be amazingly  decorative and look so different at the change of season but I also love the look of edible plants in the decorative garden.  See my next post.

Kang Kong

Posted by gardenpathfood on October 6, 2012
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Winter Jobs, Work Season. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

I have a water trough left over from the days of owning horses and it has just occurred to me that I can use it to grow some edible water plants.

I already grow water chestnuts in the pretty feed tubs we had for the horses so what else can I grow?

Fortunately I came across this great site (see below).  I’m thinking that Iwill give Kang kong or water spinach a go and maybe buy some little fish to keep the mozzies away. Not that I have any problems with mozzies in the water chestnuts.

http://permaculturepathways.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/get-started-growing-food-part-6-edible.html

These guys are based in Eudlo on the Sunshine Coast, whereas I am in Western Queensland but the water chestnuts do pretty well here so I don’t see why the spinach won’t. I’ll let you know when I get it going.

And maybe some more water chestnuts would be good since the more I have, the more we seem to eat.

This will be my next project.

Have you got worms?

Posted by gardenpathfood on July 6, 2012
Posted in: Soil. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

I was going to photograph my worms for you but they have suffered a slight accident and are a little camera shy at the moment. So all my wiggly worms had a half hour or so of freedom before I came home, after suffering an earthquake and probably a falling dog.

 I picked them all up and hope that they will survive since I have become rather fond of the worms, surprisingly since the smallest animal I have ever owned has been a cat.

My worm farm is not high tech, just one of those commercial black plastic ones that are sold in hardware stores, but it does a great job. The only drawback I can see is that you need to be very careful about it’s location when you live in a place with a climate as variable as this.  I had my last lot of worms for 2 years through frost and burning heat until one extremely hot day and they all up and died.

So, I thought long and hard about where they are located this time and for the last two years it has worked, in spite of some very hot days last summer.

So, I just used a cheap potting mix to set up the farm this time and top it up regularly with scraps and egg cartons and occasionally an old towel- they eat the lot. I never put in onions or citrus and I do occasionally sprinkle dolomite to combat any acidity.

The soil in this place was very flogged and has very little structure, being very sandy and I did not encounter any worm-life in the gardens at all when we set them up.  Over the last couple of years, I have managed to farm some of the worms out but also the worm liquid has often been full of eggs. I am starting to notice a lot of wildlife in the vegetable gardens now, every time I move a bundle of mulch.

Another surprise has been that once the worms established, I have very rarely had to wet the soil for them to produce liquid so I’m not sure how that happens, but the soil inside the box seems to stay a nice mulchy, moist consistency.  This may all have changed since this afternoon’s dogquake of course!

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.