KIG's Garden

[KIGardening]

Over the last 5 months I have been busy developing the garden on side of the house. This was completely covered in succulents, yuccas and a Bay tree growing taller than the roof of the house. The soil was just ordinary clay soil that was there since the 70's when the house was build and completely unimproved. The Yucca's went to green waste tip and the Bay tree was kept on site for reuse in the garden and meat smoker. The small Bay tree branches and leaves have been incorporated into the soil for improvement. I dug the soil out approximately 30-40 cm deep and rebuild it up. to the surface. I installed two smaller garden beds that I had laying around from a previous project where I purchased a few too many I had seedlings waiting to go into the ground in small, neglected pots but I planted it out any way as I wanted to see if I could get a small crop out of the summer season. So far it has paid off as the first tomato is growing. At the end of the side garden is my rain water tank (1000 litres) that I picked up from the curb side as well. I hooked it up a few weeks ago before we received a two day down poor. I only need to make a few secure brackets on top of the tank to keep the pipe in place as it was pushed of the top of the bricks by the immense waterflow. Yup I filled up a 1000 litre tank in a day, lol. No doubt it will need some small adjustments over time, but happy to come so far as I would have not expected to get it done before autumn.

The remains of the Bay tree resting on top of my 4 metre long iron sheets picked up from the curb side for free. These will be incorporated into a new garden project.

The pride of my hard labour.

My temporary storage for my strawberry plants.

My free rainwater tank, with a raised paver on levelled bricks to place the watering can underneath it.

Can't wait to taste this one!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wow! That looks so good! Well done, don't forget to give yourself a pat on the shoulder.
Looks like you even got ripe strawberries; fruits of your labour

 

[KIGardening]

Yep, very happy with it and more of the labour coming.

 

[KIGardening]

It is raining this weekend, but it doesn't matter for garden activities. So far, I collected over 350 litres of rainwater from the down pipes to fill up a rainwater tank in the back of the garden that is not hooked up to a shed yet. This will help with future seedlings as I like to use rainwater for the first stages of growth. During the dry periods I have pruned some shrubs back. Not that I had planned this but a ball from the neighbour's place went over the fence earlier this week and landed in a bushy shrub area that was neglected. Filled up a green bin for Friday's collection . Unfortunately, the clearing for my almond seedling will have to wait till next weekend as was planned for this weekend, but with no bin space for the weeds etc I will wait. Although kids next door are happy to have their ball back .

For the rest I have been harvesting goodies and below a small love story of two carrots .
Sow together. Grown together and eaten together.... The End .

Tonight's dinner is Eggplant Parmigiana as I have a bunch of eggplants that needed to be harvested as the two plants are full of new growth. The tomato sauce is from a box of tomatoes that I bought in the store that needed to be preserved and it contains home grown herbs as well. The passata jars are all reused jars together with the lids. When I was going to buy empty passata jars I noticed that they costed more that the passata jars that had the goodies in it. So, you can guess what I did. On my shopping list is now only a packet of new lids so I don't get caught out when the lids malfunction and loose the preserving status of it in the future. Normally you can reuse the lids a few times before the sealing mechanism fails. Always wash the lids in hand wash and don't chuck them in the dishwasher. The aggressive dishwasher soap will rust them instantly. The pan I got from an elderly neighbour who didn't use it anymore as she feels too old to do food preserving. So as a deal she saves jars and I return some of it back with some preserved home grown goodies the rest I use for my own food preserving.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Those carrots remind me of candy canes!

Oh? I don't usually see people preserve in anything other than mason jars. I didn't know you could use normal jars. I somehow thought they'd explode or something.
Mind you, I've never preserved before. It's something I hope to learn over the years though.

That's so sweet. It's a win-win for both you and your neighbour
She might even have old recipes

 

[KIGardening]

Oh? I don't usually see people preserve in anything other than mason jars. I didn't know you could use normal jars. I somehow thought they'd explode or something.
Mind you, I've never preserved before. It's something I hope to learn over the years though.

Mandy, think about this. If factories use jars to produce stuff in that is used to process hot foods, then it means they use a heat resistant type of glass that you can use at home for the same purpose, as long you don't overkill it. I don't have mason jars and all my food is preserved in jars like the one you see above or in Weck jars that I find in op-shops. Usually, they only need a new rubber.

Don't wait with learning how to preserve food. It is one of the biggest regrets I have regarding fruit and veggie gardening. I wasted so much beautiful produce through the time and in that process also wasted a lot of money buying food. Start trying it now. If you see a box of tomatoes in the shops that need to be used up because they are otherwise going to the green bin buy it and practise. Ask your family and friends to save jars for you, so you can use them to kick start of your journey.

I have several books about food preserving and fermenting that I use a lot. It is a thing from spending my lunch breaks in book shops. Reason I have books is so that if the power and the internet go off, I still can learn or fall back on knowledge to cook and preserve, as I can cook on electricity, gas and wood.

Also, this YouTube channel gives me a lot of inspiration https://www.youtube.com/c/MoatCottage/videos

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's very true. Yet somehow it never quite clicked in my head like that until now.

I've not grown up in a household that preserves (or really gardens, for that matter), so it's such an "out there" topic for me. I don't know anything about it, much less what I need to even start the process.
Currently my garden has taken a massive hit due to the weather, so I don't really have anything growing that actually produces. It's mostly herbs or plants that take years to grow (lemonade tree, pineapple, etc). I'm working on completely turning an area around and clearing space near our septic tank (the only area near the house not completely filled in with horibble blue metal gravel), but have yet to work out if that could damage the tank in any way.

Do you have any books in particular you would recommend to a beginner? And do you follow their numbers to the dot, or do you kind of eyeball it mostly.

Cheers!

 

[KIGardening]

Don't worry Mandy. I didn't come from a gardening or preserving background either. I just started to watch Costa & the Garden Gang every week and just as everything goes in life when you have no experience... trial, error and learn from it..... By default, you stuffed up, so don't pressure (can) yourself!

Personally, I would stay away from a septic tank area as they do need to be emptied from time to time. Not sure if you own your place or renting one but you might want to think to place a weed mat or something similar and build on top of the gravel. That way if you ever need to move out and bring it back to its normal stage it is easy to do.

Three books that I just started to use are:

• Preserving The Italian Way - Pietro Demaio
• The Noma Guide to Fermentation - Rene Redzepi & David Zilber
• Smoking, Curing & Drying (The complete guide for meat & fish) - Turan T. Turan

There are many others out there so just take your time to scroll and find what fits your lifestyle. The internet is full of preserving tips and recipe's as well. I do use the recipe's as good as I get, but I when I work with fractions of the recipe, I do use the hand dandy calculator to calculate the ratios. Sometimes I get stuck and need to stretch it a bit, so I do eyeball sometimes.

I also have a mini oven with a dehydrator option in it, so I can dry my fruit.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha. I started when Woolworths did their seed pot action. I still have a tonne of those pots, though I doubt the seeds are any good anymore. My first plant was a cherry tomato plant, which looked a bit unhealthy but it lived. And from there it kind of snowballed. We bought a couple of small plants and then my mother-in-law donated a large pot with green beans and two or three pots of different tomatoes.
I quickly learned that the only reason the tomato plant looked unhealthy was because I used poor quality soil. Nowadays I get quality stuff and many things just grow on their merry own! The only reason many plants die (except for strawberries, the bane of my existence) is because I try to grow plants unsuited for my location, or disease.

It's owned by my grandfather-in-law (whom I care for). So I can make whatever modications I want so long as I have his permission, or I think it will improve the property. It does not need to return to a certain state upon his passing or if we moved out for some reason.
How far away would you stay from a septic tank? We've had it pumped out once before, but it had a fairly long hose and easily reached from a further distance (as it used to be behind a tractor anyway, but that got towed away recently).

I'll have to have a look into those books!
I think what I'll need first is any sort of pantry. Currently we use an old table and shelf underneath for pantry but we've kind of run out of space ahah.

I'd love a dehydrator one day. I notice I never cook with turmeric or ginger because I feel like it takes a lot of work, but if I dried it and pulverised it to powder I could use it more easily I think.
I've thought about sun dryers but then I might have the issue of high humidity in my area. I've tried drying herbs by hanging them in the house (tried various locations) and it takes MONTHS for them to dry.

 

[KIGardening]

I will stay away a few metres from the tank and related infrastructure including pipe work so that it can be easily fixed, if necessary. You could still think of having pots around it that can easily be taken away. You could also think to use the section where the pipework runs to use as a path. That way you know you have easy access and it is functional.

Since you can pretty much do what you want, I would not be put off with the gravel. You can easily design a garden and reuse the gravel for paths between the garden beds. It only takes a bit of imagination and some muscle power. I guess there is plenty of opportunity to improve the appeal of the property. Just make sure that you keep granddad in consideration and use wider paths so he can walk around with support equipment if that is needed and a have a few sitting areas around the place.

High humidity is a bit of a problem to keep things dry. I have no experience with that so I would go more for fresh produce to invest in.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hmm... I might have to dig the surrounding area up and figure out where all the pipes go to. I have no clue and granddad will just tell me to divine for it (something I will never tell him I don't believe in and have never done). I don't even know if the septic tank has a drain pipe or anything like that. I mean, not that I know of... but still.

Granddad designed this place in a very odd way. A lot of space is necessary for vehicle access due to poor planning, which means that building up in the gravel areas is simply not worth it. I think I'd like my garden to be more close to eachother, rather than having to go from one end to the other.
I do think that one day I might reclaim some areas in the back that are currently for the cows. But not whilst they are still alive.
I think granddad mostly enjoys looking at the plants, rather than walk amongst them. He loved horticulture though, and much prefers ornamental plants. So on the patio we have orchids, for example.

Haha it sure is. I have to keep my spices in the freezer (no space in the fridge). Otherwise they clump like mad, and I had to replace them frequently. Now they are reliable whenever I need them. Though I wish I kept some space for icecubes, haha. It's quite the small fridge; so hopefully I'm able to replace it with a bigger one someday. I'd love to keep more fresh produce and get full use out of my tupperware that I've been collecting.
Oh gosh... I now fully understand tupperware parties that people used to have...

 

[KIGardening]

An update on my side garden. The plants are growing well and fruit is forming. The tomato plants are doing very well. The zucchinis are a running behind, so we will see what will happen with them. The back garden is still in progress with preparing for the winter crops as the summer crops won't be a good investment seen the timeframe. Filled up 3 green bins full of weeds for collection this week. I did hang some old bedsheets over the crops to protect them from the burning sun.

This morning (at first daylight) I harvested the potatoes from the front garden as it will be mid 30's today and I don't feel to be sun blasted while harvesting. Beside that they were ready, the local ant gangs decided it was the perfect place to make some nests and feed on the delicious goodies. I don't mind sharing, but don't be greedy ants! Anyway I had a good crop, so I'm happy. I also got a few carrots in the process. It took me about 2 hours to dig all of this out by using my hands so I didn't cut into the goodies. I will have a cheeky snooze this afternoon . Glad I did it this early as by the time I was finished I could feel the burning sun already and it wasn't that hot yet.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It looks great!
Your plants look really happy and healthy - good on you

Do you help the zucchinis by hand-pollinating them, or do you have plenty of pollinators around?

Yummm potatoes. One day I'll try growing them again. I've had a crop once, but that was in my very beginnings of gardening, and I think I kept them too wet and they rotted.

 

[KIGardening]

I got plenty of pollinators around, so I let mother nature sort it out.

Wet soil can be a problem for potatoes. I did notice this when I harvested mine. The top half of the soil was dry to slight moist, but the bottom half was wet. hat made me thinking of using potato bags next time as a experiment. Beside that its seems its easier to harvest.

 

[shep]

mandy,
a good you tube channel regarding preserving is "Grow and Preserve"
shep

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Ah, it's always good to have lots of pollinators around @KIGardening . We lost a native bees nest near us 1 or 2 years ago, so I've noticed that things aren't pollinated quite as well (nasty spiders built webs all around the nest - they didn't stand a chance, and we simply couldn't keep up without disturbing the beesnest).

Potato bags might be good. I'm considering growing them in one myself as well. I feel like I could almost tip the bag out and harvest the potatoes easily that way.


Cheers @shep

 

[KIGardening]

Thank you, Shep. I have bookmarked this one for later exploration

Mandy, I guess I'm lucky as I have a producer of honey nearby and when I drive by one of its hive places I see on average 8 - 12 hives.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Ohh that's lovely. We used to have a neighbour with many beehives once upon a time, but he moved away (and whilst he left the bees, throughout the years they didn't fare too well without any care).
I'm hoping to keep my own bees in the future, but for now that's too big of a learning curve for me to even attempt, whilst trying to learn other things at the same time.

 

[KIGardening]

@Mandy Onderwater if you can't keep bees yourself for what ever reason then try to see if you can team up with a beekeeper and loan your place out for a hive or two. Just an Idea

 

[JP 1983]

@Mandy Onderwater , you can boil any jars for use as jam, ferments or pickles - they're hardy enough for that and it will eliminate any troublesome fungal spores that might otherwise spoil whatever you intend to put in them.
For a long time we bought 3 Threes brand sweet spiced gherkins and built up a pretty decent jar stockpile. Now we just buy cucumbers from the markets and make our own pickles (my wife also lives pickling radish, onions and garlic). Any time we have a glut of (bad) fruit (e.g. like a 5 kg box of mostly rotten cherries we bought from a dodgy merchant in the Flemington Markets in December last year), we turn it into jam. Currently got apple jam, mango jam and cherry jam sitting in the fridge waiting for my morning toast.
Our fridge is currently overloaded with mangoes, nectarines and apples, so its only inevitable that we'll jam some more with our eternally reused 3 Threes jars.