Reclaiming veggie patch... but burned in the process

So this morning I am very sore and very uncomfortable... I am ridiculously sun burned. And yes I know it was cloudy, so I covered up, with t-shirt t, ¾ jeans and a hat, applied sunscreen before heading out, and once during the day. Cleary this was not enough as now I can hold my head with pride that my veggie patch, especially my vine garden actually resembles a well cared for, productive veggie patch. I can also say today I can barely even sit, lie down or move. As whilst I gallantly tackled my rainforest of a veggie patch, which was pretty much cultivating grass! Much to the pleasure of the pigs and birds, who benefited from the gardens invasion; or stripped invader.

Today however, I am afraid, holding my head up, involves standing up right, which also hurts! I am not expecting any sympathy, the complete opposite. I am sure many of us have been there, at one time or another.. and we all know how stupid it is. But it just goes to show how strong the UV is in this part of the world... even when over cast. And even those who are generally conscientious about being sun smart can get caught out.

Back to the plants; to my amazement the eggplant (aubergine) plants had thrived in amongst the thick grass.  I guess these hardy plants, that thrive in the tropical humidity were able to grow strong and tall, and with nobody picking their fruit continued to propagate new plants.

My tomatoes did not fare so well. But with a number of fallen fruit in the soil, I am sure these will flourish now they have the space to do so.

What hasn’t done so well since I cleared the raised beds last week is my capsicum (pepper) plant. I am hoping some plant food and mulch over the coming week will help it recover. Other than that I have a few capsicums (peppers) in the fridge that are a little over. I have held onto them, as I want to keep and dry the seeds, for future plantings.  

I hope to begin sowing seeds again after our interstate trip. As I can’t expect a house/animal sitter to look after my veggies too. But I do want to get the existing garden in top shape, so it also doesn’t need a lot of TLC in our absence. But I don’t want to have to put our garden on hold either, after all its just a few days.

So this week I have a few things still to plant out from the plants I bought last week; a punnet of zucchini and a punnet of cucumbers, which require construction of a new frame to climb. Along with a few cuts of 2 sweet potatoes that I got from a friend, that had begun sprouting. I intend to cut sections around the shoots and plant these in the lower part of the vine garden. Just goes to show, there are alot of fruit/ veggies out there that are in your cupboards/ fridge that will propagate and produce more.

Weekends work for one

Well what a busy few days I had with Matt being away. I ordered a truck of soil as I had a few things I wanted to do. We still needed to fill the areas where we had moved the tanks. I removed the Yukka tree trunks and weeded the garden bed beside the shed (that we had ear marked as a herb patch) and I wanted to build a few new garden boxes and fill a few large pots. 

So the truck I had booked for Thursday morning, eventually arrived 3:30pm. I had already pulled up and weed matted the shed half of the path last weekend. I then pulled up the mid section to allow for the truck to deliver the soil between the house and shed. This also meant taking down the dividing fence and temporarily disconnecting the electric fence.

I wanted most left in the rear garden and the rest in/ near the herb patch, so that I could replace the fence and reconnect the electric fencing, before I begun barrowing. Having it nearer the tanks, also reduced the distance I needed to move it. Made sense… This did not do quite to plan. At the nearest point, there is approx 4.5- 5mters between the house and shed. The truck driver took many manoeuvres to reach this point; damaging many of the remaining pavers in the process. To be honest I didn’t think they were anywhere near her travel path. By the end I was just grateful that she didn’t hit the house!

I did attempt to match the pavers however Bunnings offered some in that size (450mm x 450mm) in white, ours are cream at $18 odd each. So as she obliterated 14/15 and there were 2 previously cracked I decided to space out the existing and fill the remaining with stone chips, instead. So built the ‘wet patch’ up with earth, then laid weed matting (as for some reason this wasn’t done when the original path was laid). Then lay pavers and stone chipped.

I did manage to get her to dump the majority of the soil for the front in the herb patch. The rest was for barrowing and filling random wholes that we had yet to do. From the previous owners dogs and other low patches, here and there. The majority was for my veg patch.

Yesterday we moved the remaining soil from the front into my two new doorstep pots (though I haven’t got any plants to put in them yet). And barrowed the rest to my veg patch. We then levelled and planted out (and sowed) our herbs.



Herb patch, being watered in



Herb patch planted out

I was surprised by the stock of seeds I had accumulated, ready for our herb patch. We transplanted an exisiting Basil and Mint plant (from my veg patch, a second reamins there as a back up). We rehomed the Bay tree, central to the patch, so it should have ample room to grow . As well as planting out a few chives and oregano recently purchased- I have had no luck raising Oregano from seed? We also planted out the two chillie plants we had had in pots on the patio table along side and a ginger plant. And then the seeds; Tarrogan, Lemon Balm, Cumin, Corriander, Parlsey, Dill, a few varying types of Basil and a scatter of lavender along side the shed door.

Madog making the most of the view

The mound out the back had shrunk. Some of this will fill my pallet veg boxes. Once I have them solid and secure. The remainder will fill around the tanks, as this is going to compact and need topping up. Til then it makes a great observation point from which Madog can watch the world go by.

In other farming news, Matt agrees our ‘Christmas ham’ (a Berkshire cross Saddleback pig we picked up at the beginning of the year, for the freezer whilst we waited for our own piglets and pork supply) is looking a little podgy. Given I witnessed Smokey (our resident Berkshire bore) mount her just over a month ago. This could mean she’s expecting… This would be both exciting and problematic.

Exciting in, especially if my dates are correct; she would be due a few days after my family arrive to visit. And in that after much waiting we would have piglets here. Problematic, however in that our lack of piglets to date could be put down to Smokey (our resident Berkshire gilt) and that Smokey is evidently 'working'. And we wil not being having our ‘Christmas ham’ for Christmas dinner wiith my family, as planned .

So I guess this leaves us with what to do with Streaky? She is now almost 14 months old now and ‘primo’ size for pork. Yet we have still seen little action and she doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of being in-pig and I am still unsure whether she’s even coming into season. We did think we saw a difference in her the other week, and Smokey was sniffing around her. But I am not sure if we are seeing what we want to.



'Christmas ham', Smokey & Streaky



We did initially set out to breed Berkshires, so if we have her for Christmas instead we have to look at replacing her. Again this leaves us with a decision to make- do we get another young piglet from a breeder (given there are only two within a reasonable distance and we can not use the one since our male came from there. And the other we’ve already had little luck with. And then we wait again, putting in more time and effort. Or do we search for an established sow; that we don’t know and have not raised.   And if I’m honest, we bought a breeding pair so that we could rear them from young, build a relationship and become more attached… Can I be objective about it? If she’s not producing the goods, can I eat her?

I also attempted to re-shuffle my birds. As the young Sussex cross chicks are now fully feathered and the brooder box was becoming crowded. The original four Indian Game chicks are also fully feathered, but still far too small to be placed in the outside run- as they could easily make it throught he chicken mesh. It’s amazing how much a of a size difference there is between these and our Sussex cross layers.

So to move the Sussex crosses out, I needed to make room. Therefore I decided it was time the English Game cross hens made their way into the main chicken run.

I had completely forgotten how athletic their father (our temporary resident pure Old English Game rooster) was! He initially escaped from the run and vanished for almost a week. Returning, where I eventually coaxed him into the general run. Where he stayed as he had food and girls. However he still roosted upon the 8 foot fence posts and was too fast to catch.

These were traits we had neglected to consider when we incubated the eggs this arrangement produced.

Putting more research into the bred, Old English Games are ideal for free ranging and require little food, as they are more than capable of sourcing their own. Unfortunately whilst I am happy for mine to ‘free range’ they are confined to an area of the garden during the day away from the dogs- for their own safety.

One o four colourful Old English cross hens

I did attempt clipping their wings last night. This was not successful as the hen immediately proceeded to scramble up the chicken mesh and roost upon the fence post. So most were returned to the enclosed run last night. The few that had made their way into the hen house we allowed to remain and I clipped their wings this morning. In an effort to limit their ability to make it into the dogs realm. Confinement for these birds is definitely not a long term solution and something I am not comfortable with. However as Matt pointed out, he would rather eat them himself instead of them becoming dog food… So I guess I have to give their future with us a little more thought, a pity given the colours that this cross over produced were varied and stunning! However a life of confinement is not acceptable to me and the chick run (whici is only meant to be a temporary solution until they are large enoughto stand ther ground amoungst the bigger birds and protect them from preditors- butcher birds, hawks, kookaburras etc) is becoming increasingly over crowded!

"Quiet Weekend"

I started writing last night and decided that I shouldn’t blog about a whole weekend on Sunday night/ Monday morning. Because what may have been a “quiet weekend”, means that we spent much of the weekend getting stuff done around the place and I have now realised there is quite a bit to say.

Friday was my RDO (Rostered Day Off), I love this concept- work and extra 45 minutes a day and get every other Friday off… would probably struggle to go back to working 5 days every week. We usually get so much done on these long weekends. This week I had no errands or appointments there was plenty to be getting on with. Especially when the last of the fruit trees I had ordered (Ebay: Rockies Nursery) arrived in the post.

It was like Christmas, I had hoped they would arrive, as the other had come earlier in the week and as they were “dry root” had been soaking in water since Thursday evening. These were delivered in perfect condition, in individually sealed bags- rootsm, soil the works. So Friday involved the finally planting plan and preparation and digging. In total I planted around 40 trees

The previous owners had planted a few palms at the front, a few unsuccessful evergreens at the back and a few citrus trees (2 dwarf orange, a lemon and a lime). In addition we had planted a lemon tree (for Griff) last year and a dwarf mango, which was a house warming gift, but had always planned to expand this. With the intentions to move the tanks and our visit from the local land care we decided more screening on the roadside would be nice. Particularly along the pig pen, as this could provide more shade. As well as expanding the “mini orchid” surrounding the Enviro tank- a soak away from recycled water. But we decided that if we planted there had to be a purpose, a benefit- shade, wind break, scent, FRUIT! Think this is what they call edible landscaping.

 So to add to the native varieties sourced from the Landcare- unfortunately some of these (35 originally) had not weathered too well in their tubes on the patio. This may or may not have had something to do with Madog’s insistence on marking them! I had ordered 5 Lychees, 3 Carob (yes the dog chocolate stuff), 2 Cumquat (which turned out to be 3- thanks Rockies Nursery), 2 Brazilian cherries, 2 Passion fruit, a Pomegranate, a Mulberry, a Macadamia nut, a Cardamom and a Ginger (well its not exactly a tree).

So I decided the Passion fruit and Coastal jasmines were to be potted temporarily (until they can be transferred to the fencing around the new chook pens)- these I am hoping to train as screening and eventually shade; whilst hopefully providing scent and fruit. I also potted temporarily was the ginger- to be planted in the herb garden (once its cleared) and the cardamom is to live permanently on the patio (as it requires shade).

The Cumquats, Cherries and Pomegranate were to add to the orchid, whilst the Mulberry and Macadamia were planted at the corner between the house garden and the pig pen- supplying shade and food. This I extended by planting the lychees and carob (being evergreen and quite large) were to go along the fence line near the pigs and carrying this on upon the inside of the fence. Then interplanting native Mangosteen (which are apparently edible), Wattle, Laurel, Frangipani’s and a smaller shrub that’s fruit is supposedly edible- and I can’t remember what it was called.

So plans made, to allow them to establish I got Matt to mow the relevant areas. So I have time to make tree protectors (since most are only 4- 45cm) and shouldn’t have to worry about them being mowed over or slashed on accident… The mower made it half way and stopped! We bought this ride on shortly after buying the house, and in its first 6 months it spent 3 in the shop! I rang the store, as its still under warranty, as the previous problem had been with the rear drive mechanism breaking in 2… this time the front has done exactly the same thing, only it had ripped out power plugs etc to boot. Now don’t get me wrong, when it running it’s a great machine, but for a 12 month old mower we’ve had nothing but problems with it. So its booked in for Friday- fingers crossed they can get the parts easily this time.

So the outside trees were planted in the slightly thick (but not yet untidy) grass… I found most of them yesterday when I was watering- better not leave it too long with the protectors. By the way, as we are moving the water tanks as they were on the neighbours, we found out the fence is not our boundary either; we own up to 2.5 meters outside- so guess where ½ the fence line trees are going?

The others being inside, so I tried to space them evenly only to find a bald or obvious circle in the grass every few meters (where I was planning to plant). It was in keeping with the alignment of existing palms along the front of the house, whilst allowing the mower to run between it and the fence (when it is working). So I begun to dig, was clearly a previous planting spot… one or two still had pots in them! No wonder the few remaining trees at the far end of the garden didn’t survive. The previous owners had planted trees all the way along, just they hadn’t grown as they had left rubbish and plastic in the holes, so the roots didn’t stand a chance!

I know it is going to take a few years before we see the benefits of these trees, but the sooner we plant them the better.

I did manage some other gardening on Sunday. Since the rain appears to have stopped I took the opportunity some weeding and transplanting done. Best time is before it dries out, as the weeds tend to come out easier and new plants/seedlings don’t seem to get so stressed, as they have nice moist soil.

I focused mostly on my more “organic” patch. Now not as in sold in the shop labeling, more because its contents appeared more naturally…. To be honest this half of what was my waterlogged attempt at a patch last year I have ear marked for vines, potatoes etc. and so far have made little effort with. Everything in it has either germinated itself (mostly coriander and parsley so far) from last year’s crops or there are a few tomatoes and pumpkins I have attempted transplanted (from the recovering section of the pig pen) and I have sown a few watermelon and cucumber seeds (which we aer yet to see any signs from).  But I had noticed a few Eggplants (Aubergines), they just needed weeding around.  These I had great success with last year, but thought they had been lost when the garden was waterlogged. So I began weeding and to my surprise there were over 20 different plants coming. As some were clumped together I have thinned and transplanted them, in the hope that they will survive. This is great since the Eggplant seeds I purchased have yet to be successful!

This weekend I also harvested my first capsicum (pepper) and lettuce for 2012. As well as another kilo of zucchini’s (courgettes) [so more Zucchini recipes to come ;)], spinach, rocket, some silver beat (though most went to the pigs as the bugs had had their share first) and 2 dozen Welsh bunching onions- I just pulled the largest, as they were becoming too big, so I can split and replant some smaller ones.
I was excited to see my first Butterbean and Snow peas growing. Actually the bean vines are doing quite well, although I am yet to pick any. There are also signs of radishes and cabbages and the broccoli and cauliflowers are coming along nicely (though it will be a while before I can pick these).

 

As for the animals; the chicks and the ducks are doing well. The chicks are developing some of their feathers already, and they’re quite unusual- so we’ll hopefully get to keep some pretty hens (sorry boys)- though I suspect the prettiest are probably all males.

I cleaned the little ones out Saturday (which isn’t something I would normally comment on) other than our area there appears to be a shortage of sawdust in the area at the moment. We have always used sawdust for our birds, although they will nest in other things. So the older birds currently have a combination of hay and some of the ½ bag of sawdust we have left. Whilst for the little ones I’ve used old news papers and shredded paper. These are just as affective and the birds are not as likely to get paper in their water- Which has been a recent problem and the sawdust soaks up the water. I do still like to line the brooder box first (using old livestock bags- woven plastic), as it makes it easier to clean them out and stop so much moisture from seeping into the wooden box… so all round effective recycling! And when I’m done I will still be able to compost it as paper breaks down quicker than sawdust… So just have to make the composter. This is something I’ve been putting off, as I’m wary about the rain and humidity here for composting, but as it’s the dry season (excluding the past months weather) I have no excuse. And another note to add to the to-do list- bring shredded paper home from work.

 

Other than that we did venture into town for our social bike ride Saturday morning with the intention of hanging around for a look at the local food and wine festival. This allowed for a browse of the electrical stores!

I’ve been chasing a mixer, for my sourdough and I had scoured the internet, so time to have a look locally… We came home (expectedly) unimpressed by the festival but with a Sunbeam Mixmaster compact! So shopping was bit more successful than the festival.

 

As you can see we have been a little busy this weekend trying it out. Matt made a few cakes and it definitely made this week’s sourdough much easier. You just place all the ingredients in and turn it on. Then tip it out on to a floured surface, mold it into a round, then put it back in and whack on the lid- it even has its own lid. So if you have a mixer with dough hooks there’s really no excuse!!
I also found a few more sourdough recipes on another blog- Simply Self Sufficiency… am looking forward to trying out the pizza dough soon.

With the miserable weather Friday and Sunday consisted of some cooking and gardening.

Following my post on Friday I finished my chutney and this is maturing nicely in the cupboard- made 6 jars!

Recipe: Green Tomato & Zucchini Chutney

700g zucchini, peeled & diced

700g tomatoes, peeled

300g apples, peeled & diced

300g onion, finely diced

300g sultanas

300g brown sugar

600ml cider vinegar

2 tsp chilli flakes

Tbsp grated ginger

12 cloves

2 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp coriander seeds

Blanche tomatoes, run under cold water and then remove and discard skins. I do this over the container you are collecting your tomatoes in, as they may burst out during this.

Then place all ingredients in a large pan and simmer for 2 ½ - 3 hours. Leave to cool and then transfer contents to jars and seal for at least 4 weeks. The longer this matures the better the quality of the chutney.

I also attempted my Sourdough bread- with mixed success. This hasn’t put me off; quite the opposite. As I now know where I went wrong- had I just done it by hand as per the recipe it would have been fine.



More successful,
but still room to improve



Makes 2-3 loaves

Sponge

650ml warm water

500g strong bread flour

 

Ladleful of sourdough starter

Dough

Sponge (see above)

600g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting

25g salt

Dough in breadmaker

Once you have your starter, you need to activate it. So if it is refrigerated like mine get t out a day or two before hand and feed it.

 

Also make the sponge the day before, so it can prove over night- place in a bowl in plastic bag.



Now I attempted one purely using my bread maker- this did not work at all.

  

unsuccessful Breadmaker version



So I made a batch using the mixer for the dough, I think this “knocks it back” too much. As the recipe says to knead it for 10mins, then leave to prove for an hour each time (4 times in total)- this is the “knock back” . The dough setting takes 90minsutes, each time, so think it knocked to much air out of it. This was more successful than the version make totally in the break maker, but was still a little dense. So I’m going to make the next lot entirely by hand.

   

Frozen Chicken Stock



Easy store/use- Best Chicken stock!



This weekend I also cooked one of our home grown chooks for dinner. So, as to make the most of the bird I also make some stock from the carcass. Simply by placing it in a stock pot with a few carrots and sticks of celery, cover with water and simmer (on a low heat) for a few hours. I wanted to add this in, as this is a great way to get great tasting stock and is something you have available anyway. Once I am happy with the flavour, just leave to cool. Then this is my storage tip- Place freezer bags over appropriate sized freezer able containers (plastic dishes, tuppaware etc). Carefully fill the bags to level of container (or near enough). Leaving enough of the bag to tie it off.



Then place in the freezer, til frozen and then you can remove the containers and store the bags- use when required.

Other than that Sunday I managed to get some weeding, sowing and mulching done. In preparation for the warmer months approaching. Whilst it wasn’t the most pleasant day, it wasn’t cold and the drizzly rain was probably ideal for new planting.I was also quite excited as the “vine garden”- the section of the veg garden we dug out last year (that became water logged) and has not been built up. So where I intend to grow tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers etc- so vines. Had 2 plants growing in ti, which I am sure are eggplant/aubergine plants! We had great success with 4 of these that I bought as seedlings last year; only they were lost in the wet season- or so I thought!



Whilst I was busy Matt made a start on clearing the bed beside the shed. This had a few drought tolerant plants and yukka trees in it when we bought the place. Unfortunately the trees are becoming too big- both blocking the light to the shed, as well as its roots are going to become problematic to the shed’s foundations. So whilst we had hoped to re-locate these trees, unfortunately this was not possible. Hopefully we can save the few smaller trees still.

But other than the stumps this bed will soon be ready for planting, we decided this is to be the herb garden.  It’s close to the house, good sun and partial shade, whilst hopefully providing a welcoming aroma when approaching the house.





We've officially be in 3 months!

Well on Friday was our 3 month anniversary in the house... and what a journey it has been so far!

Unfortunately that does mean that this coming Friday it has been 3 months since we lost our gorgeous Griff. We actually planted a dwarf lemon tree to mark his resting place last weekend, not that well will ever forget where he rests.

Anyway this weekend was pretty busy, with a few further milestones. Friday saw the moving of the first, and largest of the 3 water tanks. This was necessary as one of the many challenges we have faced todate include finding out that the fencing was all in the wrong place. Meaning our tanks were on the neighbours property!- Lesson learned when purchasing rural blocks (well for that any block), make the contract subject to survey.

But it is, what it is and our neighbour has been very good about the whole thing. So we will get it sorted, just in small steps. So step 1- move the largest, above ground tank- done!

Next step is to pump all the water out of the 2 semi-submerged tanks, then begin exploring the underground piping and work out how to move them and where... but we'll get there one step at a time