Category Archives: Gardening

Not DIY

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Although we successfully do many jobs around the house ourselves, there are some things are definitely best left to the tradesmen.

Just over a week ago we had heavy rain overnight which resulted in us receiving 80mm in about 12 hours. The next day we noticed a small puddle of water on the hearth around the heater in the lounge. A few days ago we contacted a local plumber who came the next day, checked the roof and found that the problem was a couple of splits in the rubber seal on the roof. He fixed this in next to no time and was on his way. GMan does not have a long enough ladder nor is he keen on climbing on the roof so this was definitely money well spent.

The water entered between the flue and the cowling on the ceiling. Thankfully, there is no long-term damage as we noticed it quickly.

This photo shows the front of the house originally. By the time we bought it the double garage had been converted to a lounge room but there was no additional landscaping outside.

After quite a bit of discussion we decided to extend the small terrace at the front of the house to include the area in front of the lounge. We contacted a concreter a couple of weeks ago and after finalising the details of what we wanted everything fell into place quite quickly.

The slab was laid today and once it is properly cured we will arrange for it to be polished and it will closely match the finish on the existing area.

Here are a couple of views of the freshly laid concrete.

Now that this is done, we are looking forward to further developing walkways and plantings in the front garden. Since the front of the house faces north we will certainly be making the most of the sunny aspect during the winter months.

Saving Seeds

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My vegetable gardening efforts over the years have sometimes involved buying and sowing seeds but have mostly been a matter of buying a punnet of seedlings.

I know that this is not the most sustainable option for several reasons. The seedlings come in a plastic tray and they are often grown in quite different conditions to your location which does not always bode well for their success. Finally, many are hybrids which are not suitable for seed saving as they do not grow true to type.

At the beginning of October, I was fortunate enough to be given some lettuce seedlings by a fellow gardener who lives about 1km away from us. These were very successful for several months until the hot weather and then they bolted as lettuces tend to do in the warmer months. A couple of them grew to almost 1 metre tall with masses of flowers.

GMan was keen to clear out the garden bed where they were so today I checked them and found dozens of seed heads with literally hundreds of seeds. I collected them, rinsed the detritus from them and spread the seeds out on a scrap of calico fabric to dry.

Wish me luck with my first real foray into saving and replanting seed from my own garden. These lettuces have proven themselves very successful in our climate and soil conditions so I am hopeful of reasonable success.

Harvest Time

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When choosing this title I noticed that I had used it before in 2021 – except that it was in early November. It is now late summer here and everything seems to be ripening in abundance so we are fully occupied making sure that none of it goes to waste.

Here are a few of the things we have been doing in the past few days.

When we moved here we inherited two espaliered nashi pear trees which have borne prolifically. We did not net them so the parrots have enjoyed quite a feast but we have still managed to pick several hundred fruit. Once we discovered that we really like the fruit stewed, GMan has made it his mission to peel and slice the seemingly never-ending supply and the freezer is full of containers of stewed nashi which we will enjoy in the coming months.

It is now about 6 weeks since I picked the first of our zucchini and I been managing to use them at pretty much the same rate as we were picking them until the last few days. So, today I made zucchini slice. I have been trialling making them in individual serves in the airfryer for some time now and am happy that I have finally got the amended measurements and cooking times right. I will post an amended recipe in the next blog post.

I also grated several extra zucchini and have them packed in bags of 200g in the freezer for future zucchini slice making.

Meanwhile, the tomato sauce was simmering on the stove.

This was the result.

I made another of my experimental versions of basil pesto and am pretty happy with this one. Almonds instead of pine nuts. Some grated zucchini mixed with the basil makes it milder flavoured. Nutritional yeast rather than cheese makes it dairy-free, vegan and reduces the cholesterol. Yes, minimising the cholesterol intake is going to be more of a feature of my cooking in the future. I also add the juice of half a lemon as it makes it a bit less oily.

The bumper harvest has not been confined to just our garden and our neighbour’s. I picked up a bag of plums from a roadside giveaway earlier in the week. I stewed these and have some each morning on my cereal.

Processing gluts of home-grown, gifted or foraged produce can be time-consuming but it is a worthwhile activity which helps to minimise the amount of food going to waste.

A Load of Landscaping

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This was the view of the front of our house when we first looked at it just over 12 months ago.

It was relatively unremarkable but we were not keen on the wide expanse of dusty blue metal.

We have been working on how to change it but still enable access to the driveway at the far side of the house.

Most of the plants have been removed and/or relocated as most of them were in the far front corner which has been repurposed into a vehicle parking/turning area. GMan also removed all of the metal edging from that area but since it was one continuous length we have reused it to border the new garden area.

This is a photo from an earlier blog post.

The first of the plants have been in for some time now. We had a load of mulch delivered a couple of days ago so have been busy covering the ground with layers of excess newspaper sourced from the local newsagent and then covered with a generous layer of mulch. The product we chose is called ‘bush bark’ and provides the most natural-looking cover for this area of the garden.

There are not many weeds to suppress in this area but the addition of a thick layer of mulch should help to moderate the soil temperature, particularly on extremely hot days like tomorrow with a forecast maximum temperature of 37C.

The two small raised vegetable gardens will eventually be relocated but the zucchini and eggplant are happily growing there at the moment.

We still have a small area left to finish, but not in the heat tomorrow. GMan is also creating a wire barrier to isolate the stormwater drain from the mulch during heavy rain.

We are looking forward to adding some more plants to this area to provide habitat for the local birds and wildlife.

A Hot Day

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We have had a remarkably mild summer so far but yesterday it really kicked into gear. The outdoor temperature at our place peaked at 40.5C. This is not remarkable compared to other parts of the country but it was certainly enough to make us choose to stay indoors. With the blinds drawn and a couple of ceiling fans we were quite comfortable for most of the day before turning the airconditioning on in the family room for 2 hours in the late afternoon from about 5.30pm. The temperature was set on 24C and this soon made the room pleasantly comfortable.

I spent most of the day sewing and made two bags for a friend from fabric she had given me. They were mostly relatively small pieces of linen and cotton which had been carry bags from bed linen she had purchased at various times. I am really pleased with the results and looking forward to giving them to her.

Meanwhile, GMan was hardly being lazy either. He had picked 45 Nashi pears from one of our trees the previous day. This was after the birds had helped themselves. If we get organised and net the trees next year our harvest should be about doubled. Neither of us were smitten with eating the fruit raw so he decided to try stewing them. This was a raging success as they taste just like the tinned pears we both remember eating when we were growing up. It was a huge job to peel, core and slice them all but we now have one container in the refrigerator and several others in the freezer.

Today is a day of extreme to catastrophic fire danger across most of the state so we will be indoors, staying cool and most importantly, following any emergency reports and advice.

Tomatoes – A Test Run

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I am always looking for ways to store the inevitable summer glut of home-grown tomatoes. I make tomato sauce (ketchup) but there is a limit to how much of that we need. The recipe is here if you are interested. I also used to freeze cherry tomatoes whole for use in casseroles and other cooking. I have dabbled in making tomato paste and tomato powder. These have all been reasonably successful but somewhat labour intensive.

Our tomatoes are not ready yet but the neighbours have generously shared their harvest.

I had these spread out to ripen and today I selected the reddest ones and cut them into quarters. I placed them into a round cake tin with 2 large cloves of garlic and a handful of basil leaves (all homegrown) and a drizzle of olive oil. I cooked them in the airfryer for 25 minutes at 170C then blitzed them in the high-speed blender.

I now have a couple of jars of delicious sauce which will be perfect for pizza bases, pasta dishes or adding to other dishes for a rich tomato flavour. This was super quick and easy and I will definitely be doing it again in the future. I choose not to process the sauce but simply store it in the freezer.

Some New Additions

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Today we headed to Bendigo which is about 30 minutes from home. My mission was to collect a portable hanging rack that I had found on Marketplace. I wanted one that would be suitable for taking to the weekly LETS market that I could use to display bags and other items for sale. This one is perfect as it is telescopic and the height can be about 800mm when collapsed or extended to hold full-length garments if required. It is also easy to transport without disassembling it entirely.

While we were out and about and with no time constraints I checked out a few op shops that I had not been to previously.

I was fortunate to find a pair of black canvas casual shoes which appear to be unworn. They have a decent sole and are well-padded so a good buy at just $7. Whilst they are not required right now in the summer, I can see plenty of wear for them with jeans once autumn arrives.

I found this pretty blue linen top which is significantly oversized despite being marked as ‘Small’. There is a lot of fabric in it and I am planning to refashion it to a different style.

We also went to a native plant nursery where we bought 9 shrubs and groundcovers. I think tomorrow might be a day in the garden. More about those once they are planted.

A Summer Garden

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The past 10 days have been an alternating mix of warm, sunny days and some significant rainfall so the young seedlings are enjoying the conditions. The zucchini plants which I planted at the beginning of December are literally doubling in size overnight. You can see what they looked like in this post.

This is today. The eggplant in the adjacent bed are doing well, too.

The cucumbers and new lettuce are also getting established.

Then there is the basil. Some in pots.

And more in the garden bed.

The basil is going to be trimmed this afternoon. I am planning to make a pesto/green sauce to serve with grilled eggplant, capsicum and pasta for dinner. As usual, this a creation I have have dreamed up. If the reality is as good as the idea I will hopefully have a recipe to share in a future post.

Gifts For the Garden

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Well, Christmas is over for another year and I do hope your day was pleasant, however you may have spent it.

We had a quiet but enjoyable Christmas. GMan received a gift voucher from our daughters which was for a garden nursery that he was planning to visit.

So, today we went to check out what was available that he might like. A specific focus was dwarf varieties of citrus trees and he was pleased to get a grapefruit and an orange tree. These will go in large pots on the front patio along with an existing citrus which he previously rescued from an unsuitable spot in the garden. We are not 100% sure but we think it may well be a lime tree which is very exciting. He also chose an olive tree which is a small variety which is supposed to grow to about 2m x 2m rather than 7m x 7m like many of the other varieties.

Finally, we added a selection of Australian native plants for the new area to be landscaped at the front of the house. There is a mix of different sized flowering shrubs and groundcovers which are bird-attracting. We will add more over time as it is quite a large area but we are starting with 2 banksias, 2 callistemons and a grevillea.

This is what it looks like at the moment. We recently repurposed and repositioned the rusted steel edging. There will be updated photos in due course, once we have added plants and mulch.

And yes, the sky today really is that blue. It is a welcome change after having received over 100mm of rain in 24 hours on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. Thankfully, it was just rain and not the wild storms/tornado/cyclonic conditions which have hit other parts of the country.

Getting Growing

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We have reaped the rewards of a few fruit and vegetables that were already planted when we arrived here. Lemons and raspberries have been prolific as well as some beans and chard. I recently harvested the garlic that I had planted early in the winter and we are picking lettuce for summer salads.

In the past few days we have taken some more steps to increase the amount and range of produce that we grow.

This citrus tree was languishing rather sadly in amongst some other plants behind the fish pond. GMan rescued it a few weeks ago and potted it in an old plastic bucket as an interim measure. It seems to be coming good. We believe that it may be a lime tree.

When we were in Melbourne yesterday we bought 4 large green plastic pots for the princely sum of $9 each. So the as yet unidentified citrus is now repotted and placed on the north-facing terrace outside the sewing room.

Another pot now holds a relatively advanced Roma tomato plant which we also bought last week. It is at the other end of the terrace.

Our other purchase was two raised garden beds which we have placed just inside the front fence for the time being. The landscaping at the front may change once the driveway entrance is eventually relocated but we decided that we really needed a bit more growing space now. These have been planted out with zucchini seedlings in one and eggplant in the other.

All of these plantings are in a mix of garden soil and organic compost which we sourced from a local supplier in Castlemaine. We have also topped up the raised beds in the back garden and planted out tomato and basil seedlings.

The remainder of the soil will be used to turn the disused fish pond area into a herb garden. More on that another day.