Planted some peas and broad beans a couple of weeks ago and they are starting to emerge. Also have some argula, parsley, silverbeet growing under plastic - a make-shift polytunnel that will be improved (ie to look nicer than it does now) and hopefully extend our growing of greens through the winter. Got to get the garlic in before the soil gets too cold.
I also ordered some seeds for autumn/winter including some green manure seeds that will go in soon. These are yet to arrive however, the next job for me is to move 1 cubic metre (about a tonne) of mushroom compost from the top of the driveway to the back garden.
The slope is steep and it all has to be carried up in buckets or tubs. I’ve done it before and will do it again. (Motivation - little red engine-ish)
I have avoided this job, however, for the better part of a week. Tomorrow.
Mercifully, this man is NO relation to our idiot PM. He is/was, however, an organic gardening guru/visionary. He took a wholistic view of plant growth and the soil. Soil health as paramount. His book “The Soil and Health - A Study of Organic Agriculture” has been re-released after about 40 years. It has been out of print for so long. I have been searching for a copy for years.
Anyway, this is a new edition has an introduction by Wendell Berry. I’m also a fan of Wendell Berry’s writing - ok the deep christian stuff creeps me out but he takes stewardship of land seriously and writes with elegance and clarity. Got my copy of Howard’s book yesterday. Looking forward to reading it.
This is a picture of the middle section of my front garden/yard. Some serious work is going to be started here soon. Last year, we cut down 3 huge radiata pines and that put a sizable dent in the gardening budget. Those trees were strangling the eucalytptus, taking all the water and light. The only things that could survive, in the deep shadow of the pines, were other invasive species. At this stage, the plan is to incorporate more rocks (dig anywhere here and you have heaps of them - crowbar territory) and grasses like Lomandra longifolia, Stipa and Poa sieberiana.
My mother has always had a vegetable patch. She’s very good at growing lots of different things and she’s an excellent seed saver. My favourite thing about her seed saving is that the seeds are often named according to who gave them to her - so Asian snake beans are known as “Beans from Nevenka” and so on. My mother and her network (read cronies) are great at swapping seeds, produce, giving each other excess seedlings and the like. They do buy seeds and trial them and then pass them around. I love that generosity.
My mother is going overseas soon, so I get a chance to look after her patch. That’s good for me as winter in Blackheath is often a slow time in the garden but down in Sydney you can still grow and harvest quite alot. I’m looking forward to it. The last time she went away, one of my sisters and I looked after and did a big maintenance job on the yard. My mother’s friends would visit (often in our absence) to “check” on things. Whilst their ‘nosey parker’ act was somewhat annoying, they agreed that our mother had raised some gardeners. My sister and I were pretty happy we’d passed the test.
This eggplant came from my mother’s garden. This summer is the first time that she grew them. She very proudly gave it to me. Yum! Eating fresh garden produce, smelling gardenias and roses is really what got me hooked on gardening - a great sensual pleasure. Sure there is digging, lifting and hard work but somehow it seems worth it. The other thing I love about gardening is gardeners……oh and I’m very lucky that my dear mama is one of them!
It’s starting to get cooler overnight. Mushrooms and assorted fungi have been appearing for the last few weeks. I’ve pulled out non-producing tomato plants - the Brandywine tomatoes were a non-event. This was a great shame since I was very keen to try them after reading Joan Dye Gussow’s book. The Tigerella tomaotes are slowly ripening. The few we’ve eaten have been the perfect combination of tart and juicy. I didn’t expect the seeds to germinate, as I’d had them for a long time and hadn’t stored them in optimum conditions. The yields haven’t been spectacular but we are just lucky that we can go to the shops to buy food.
This makes me think of my forebears who were subsistance farmers - Croatian peasants. They knew both crop failure and hunger. Although there were shops, without surplus to sell, you had nothing to buy it with. You needed great skill to live that life.They could make everything from cheeses to ropes. I recall the stories told by my parents and am in awe. I like to think my gardening (among other things) is an attempt to continue those skills.
To increase yields and plant health, I need to improve the soil - it’s very sandy. Most garden beds will get the green manure legume treatment (over winter) to prepare for spring planting.
There is always something to do.
Saturday morning is not a good time to go the supermarket. There are lots of people and the contents of their trolleys (yes I’m a nosy parker and judgmental too) fill me with despair.
As a general rule, we avoid the supermarket. The co-op is our place to buy food and the like. More and more local stuff from farms, gardens and dry goods etc in bulk too. I love that. Bring your own bags and (glass )containers and your away. Unfortunately they do not carry items such as toilet paper, so the supermarket is unavoidable.
So back to the supermarket - over lit, smelling of plastic and strong chemicals. It is anxiety making. Our approach is like a sting operation -go to aisle #?, get the said items and quickly assess which checkout will offer a speedy exit. On this particular visit, something went wrong and we got stuck. Person ahead of us required a price check for a dog collar.
This gave us time to observe the usual trolleys piled with crap, over-processed foods (I use that term loosely), soft-drinks etc. We also spotted a new trend - the purported environmentally conscious trolley filled with unbleached toilet paper, no phosphate washing liquids, microfibre cloths but the ‘food’ products were all processed and instant-ish meals. Risotto mix - just add water, nuke ‘em lasagna and so on. Care about watercourses? Sure, but where do they think the waste products of their ‘food’ consumption ends up?
Okay, this is probably not the sort of conversation you want to have in a checkout line and that combined with the fluro lighting caused something in us to SNAP! Once outside we turned to each other and said, “&$%^*&()() I can’t stand it. Can’t go there again”
I have now found a small company that sells recycled paper products, so with any luck the hell hole will be a distant memory. If that doesn’t work, I’ve got a couple of options - one involves sending the bloke to do the buying, the other involves old phone books!
