Goodies In The Garden...

Just managed to snap a few quick pics in the garden before the camera died...

Nasturtium flowers which are giving bold colour to the garden and will be an attractive addition to my salads. Both the flower's and leaves can be used, the leaves giving a peppery taste.The young seeds can be eaten as well and even contain a quantity of vitamin C.

Borage just about to burst out in flower and another welcome in my salad...but I will leave some for the bees.The young leaves and flowers can both be used and have a cucumber taste to them. The flowers used to be candied years ago and it has alot of medicinal properties. It is used frequently as a bee attractant but is most valuable as a companion plant for tomatoes, strawberries and squash.

Rhubarb growing happily in the recycled bucket...When I first got this from another freecycler it was limp and looked half dead. It has been in this tub about two months or so now and what a difference! Have many fresh stalks but still not much length on them so I am hoping as the plant grows it will get some height and then I can have some stewed rhubarb for pudding.

Jack-Be-Little pumpkins showing their recent spurt of growth from all the sunshine...I cant wait for these to grow! Im looking forward to cutting the top off them and stuffing them with yummies and baking them. Even roasted, how could you beat having your own roast pumpkin all to yourself?

Catnip And Compost...

Its days like today when I see Mr happily sunning himself outside in a catnip induced coma that I am so thankful he came to live with us. Sadly, Mr was a refugee of the Christchurch earthquake and so for awhile had a very uncertain future but luckily for us he ended upcoming to stay. Both he and Diesel nibble at the cat grass but it’s the nip that gets the top vote. Apparently it is soothing for both cats and dogs so I’m going to try to get the plants as big as I can before letting the boys loose on them. Once I have a good supply I will dry out a sizable bunch and make some catnip toys. I had some coffee sacks given to me from another recycler that I made  a very cool onion bag from and with the leftover sacking I can sew some toys up and stuff with dried nip for the haven puss’s I visit every week. I would love to put a plant in the outdoor area for them but I need to come up with an idea where they can enjoy it but can’t destroy it...and we don’t want any “deposits” no matter how well intentioned they are!

This morning after a few months of contemplation, I finally conquered the compost bin. Instead of wrestling with the tray, I just tipped it over and pulled everything out of it onto the concrete. It gave me a chance to turn it all over properly and then clean out all the air/drainage holes in the bin and then put the compost back in. Apart from some odd objects (why anyone would think a plate would make good compost is anyone’s guess) it looked like really nice compost...lots of worms, lots of big ones too so they must be very happy in there, I hope they forgive my sudden intrusion. After all that I had to get the hose and clean down the tools and concrete so I don’t cringe when looking out my kitchen window at the mess left all over the place. Will give it a couple of weeks and that will be the next job, spreading the compost onto the garden. I now chop all my kitchen waste into small pieces so they will decompose quicker than usual, some goes into the compost bin, some goes straight into the garden as advised by my mother who regularly digs a hole and drops her kitchen waste into it. I am trying both to see what is more productive. While undertaking the compost mission, one poor little Queensland blue got flattened. I will hope it recovers from being trampled by my big hoof, but the sacrifice made was worth the compost, either way I can live with it.

While weeding the back garden so that the corn and
beans have some more room, I noticed my nasturtiums, even though only planted a few weeks back now have their first flowers on them. I am thinking of all the gorgeous fresh salads I will be making with all these beautiful flowers mixed in...Will leave some for the bees though. The potatoes are flowering so hopefully baby potatoes for Christmas? I think there are finally a few parsnips come up too...Mmmm, Christmas roasties! The borage, beets and tomatoes are doing well and the mix I used the other day for my black boy peach seems to have worked as the ants don’t seem to be attracted to it anymore. I ate my first red currant today, I was so proud until the moment I popped it into my mouth....a little tart for my liking but then maybe I just need to wait a tad longer.

Home Grown Heaven...

I re-potted the sunflowers today and also a couple of trays of marigolds. The small plastic tubs you get supermarket salad in make very sturdy saucers for under the pots and are a good way of using them. Everything in the garden seems to be enjoying the warmth of summer and it is encouraging seeing the growth. Even the little strawberry plants I put into the herb planter recently have got a few flowers on them, considering what they grew from, I’m quite chuffed! I have had a couple of berries from the other plants but my procrastinating to get some netting lost a few to the birds again. My little limes are holding steadfast on the tree so this will be the first year I have had fruit from it. I’ve had it for about two and a half years, because it is in a pot I feed it every three months with a slow release fertiliser just so I know it’s getting the goodness it needs...the name escapes me at present but I buy it in a small bag (great if you are on limited income and can’t afford the large bags and it is specifically for fruit/citrus) and that seems to do the trick. All my fruit are in pots which always need a little extra care but I rent at present and want to be able to take them with me when I move to my own piece of paradise so that is the price of it.

Found a fabulous site (imperfect homemaking) for making the most gorgeous rag quilts this morning. There are all sorts of great simple living and recycling ideas on it and I have definitely bookmarked so I can spend some time perusing it. Of course they wouldn’t be made from rags but the potential is endless for what they could be made from...old clothes, keepsakes, t-shirts, anything really. The best part though, was that because of the design anyone would be able to make and sew them easily and oh so pretty! The quilt squares are sown seams out so they will fray and leave a lovely frayed frill around each one. Such a good way of using scraps of fabric or pieces that have a fault, but still have useable bits on them. By reading some of the comments, these have been made by many people but I hadn’t seen them before so thought it was a great idea. Was quite inspiring actually as I have lots of pieces of gorgeous fabrics that I was at a loss for what to use them for...now I have a great idea on how to use them up and make them into a pretty and useful item. These quilts would make a lovely gift, especially if made from special items but to be honest even if they were made out of old tea towels I think I would still love them!

Thinking it might be time to make some more marmalade and maybe some lemon honey. The last lot of marmalade was received very well and considering it was my first ever, I think it went pretty well. Some was gifted, some traded and lots I ate myself. Months ago I brought a few new jars (ok, over a hundred but in my defence they were a great deal), fifty metres of cheesecloth, a dozen glass flagons and a large preserving pan. Does seem quite alot but I considered it an investment as I won’t have to worry about buying any for a very long time and I can reuse them over and over. I also save jars and buy new lids online for them from a chap that sells alot of craft items. That way I can choose the jars I want to save and just buy one or two specific sized lids...op shops are great places to find jars too. I found a great book on homemade wine and old fashioned cordials that I hope to put to use this summer, I can just imagine how refreshing they will be on a hot day. Hoping to find some old wooden chairs and maybe a table for the garden too...would be nice to have something to relax on with that cold glass of homemade cordial.

Recycling, Upcycling And Saving Our Landfills...

I often wonder why some people think it is belittling or somehow degrading to buy or inherit other people’s unwanted (cast offs) items. A post on a forum I came across recently said just that which astounded me, this was my reply to his post....  I have dignity and self respect, yet I have no problem with recycled goods or clothes. I brought an old church pew for $20, have nearly stripped it back to complete Rimu...just beautiful! It will sit proudly in my house, not as someone else's cast off, but as a treasure unearthed and I'm always in fashion...just not when everyone else is lol. People get too hung up on materialistic rubbish, its a long fall from the pedestal!

Now this is more than just personal choice, it is personal responsibility. Hey, if you can afford to buy everything new and you choose to do that, then that is great for you but be thoughtful in your choices of the disposal of your old items. There are many recycling sites, charities and organisations who would happily accept and use these unwanted items instead of yet more, still useable products choking our already over used landfills. Things that take years to break down, that’s if at all. Things that poison our waterways with toxic runoff. I wonder if in years to come how many of our cities/housing developments will be built on old landfills because we need to keep making new ones? Will the world just become one big landfill?

One less item in the landfill is essentially one less product needing to be made...

A Delicatessen In My Kitchen...

Been a very busy week so far but not because I won the big one or in fact anything hehehe... still love my old penny though! If the truth be known, even if I did...the only thing I would really want is a modest little house with tons of room for gardens and the boys to frolic. I would make all sorts of gardens full of fruit, vegetables and herbs to be eaten, dried, and preserved. Cupboards lined with jars of jams, jellies, pickles, fruits, cordials and chutneys. The preserving pot I regularly bash my noggin on in my present kitchen would spend more time on the stove working, than trying to do me in at any opportunity! A meal could simply be a walk around the garden nibbling on fresh fare. Knowing what you are eating, where it has come from, how fresh it is and how it has been grown...that simply can’t be beaten.  I would have water too, maybe a stream so diesel could swim his days away or by the beach so he could run for miles along the sand, splashing through the waves and chasing bits of driftwood. Ahh, dreams...the one thing that doesn’t cost a thing.

I brought some seed from a certified organic grower in Taranaki which finally arrived this week. Seven small brown paper bags (just like the pay envelopes from the good old days) containing fresh organic seed, country gentleman corn, celery, red orach, Takamatua black seeded bean, Caigua, strawberry popcorn and bright lights beet. Some of the growers I am purchasing seed from have been really helpful by sharing tips and ideas without even considering it and some don’t want to give any knowledge away but I have been finding a really good place to discuss all these kinds of things is on some of the internet forums. Someone suggested flour as a snail/slug deterrent today, apparently it gums them up and they can’t move. Talc keeps ants at bay and a mix of golden syrup/baking soda attracts the ants but once they feed on it, the soda blows them up. I will experiment with these and post the results. Right now I have a mix of syrup and soda in a small container at the bottom of my peach tree which in the last few days has become a haven for them. The poor little tree is only a few feet high in a pot and it is covered in them...hopefully the mix does the trick!

My books on herbs and organics also arrived earlier this week, hopefully I will find some quiet time to have a good poke through them because what I have glanced at so far looks to be very helpful. Everything else is growing nicely which is probably down to all the nice weather we have been getting lately. My rhubarb looks gorgeous, corn has grown twice what it was, jack-be-little’s are starting to get good growth and I can see them hanging down from the sawhorse soon. The melons are growing slowly but the indoor sunflowers are so big I will need to re pot tomorrow. I am going to have a good supply of mixed lettuce, the bok choi pot I dropped on the floor the other day (and quickly stuffed it all back in the pot) has come away again and I  have two luffa's popped up now. Tomato and capsicum in the garden are growing but not doing alot but the two sunflowers get taller everyday...I can’t wait for their happy little heads to show full of seed. I have lots of marigolds coming up which will make a colourful addition to the garden and a good attractant for the bees to visit. Still no passionfruit or flowering banana passionfruit appearing but I do get a little impatient sometimes so I will wait a little longer. On advice from a few people on the forum, I took some of the lime buds off the other day. There was so many on it and apparently that can prevent good fruit if they have too much on them. I sort of brushed them gently, letting the ones that were loose fall off, the rest I gave some gentle persuasion so now there is a much more realistic number on it...and they are getting bigger. I may just get those fresh limes this year after all.