Independance Days Challenge Update

Planted: My apple trees and a Mulberry tree. It's one of my favourite fruits and the tree I bought is already covered in fruit. Can't wait for it to ripen in spring. Maybe I'll get two rounds of fruit.

Harvest something: My cousins harvested all the remaining oranges on one of the trees, and I have been harvesting eggs from my new chickens!!!

Preserve something: Nothing again. It's just the wrong time of year. If I can get a box of cheap tomatoes (end of season) I might do some pasta sauce this weekend.

Store Something: Polenta.

Manage Reserves: Thinking I will buy some extras of staples, as the truckie's strike looks like it is going ahead.

Prepped: Put a deposit down on a self pollinating almond. I'll pick it up after it comes into leaf, so I know it's healthy. The nursery said they prefer to do this. If it doesn't look good they'll give me another. Also bought some asparagus crowns which I hope to plant later this week. Collecting Newspapers for laying under the pebbles in front courtyard, that needs to be finished this weekend as well and the remainder of green manure sown.

Worked on Local Food Systems: Went to Organic food co-op meeting. Went to TEAR fund conference this weekend. Looking at starting a group for Christians in my area who are interested in environmental issues and social justice with a couple I used to work with in Sydney and have moved to my area.

Reduced Waste: Reducing other people's waste. Handing out icecream containers for scraps left right and centre. The chooks love it and the leftovers go to the worms and the compost. The garden will love it too!

Cooked something new: Roast vegetable salad. I'll do it again soon and take photos! It was delicious.

Learned a new skill: Drilling holes in metal, clipping chicken wings

Independance Days update - for two weeks.

Planted: Green Manure, where the lawn used to be. Photos tomorrow maybe? Brocolli and silverbeet seedlings. Jerusalem artichokes, along back fence. May plant another batch somewhere else as I am finding it quite a dry spot.

Harvest something: Cherry tomatoes. It's the middle of winter, but in cleaning up the chook pen I found a bowlful of red cherry toms, going into salad tonight. I will also harvest some lettuce, coriander and parsley for the salad.

Preserve something: Nothing

Store Something: Chook feed!

Manage Reserves: Kitchen now sorted, and is much easier to access. I have a small amount of benchspace.

Prepped: Picked up chickens from a friend rather than the layer pullets. They are Barnevelders and are very pretty. Should lay every one to two days and I have 3 so that's more than enought for me and some to give away/barter. Had a day off Friday and fixed up chicken yard. The gate was broken. Made a temporary nesting box until I can get an old mower catcher. these are great for nesting boxes as they are dark and dry and have a handle on the top to pick them up with.

Worked on Local Food Systems: Went to a working bee day at Harmony Farm on the southern highlands. I think I'll try and go at least once a season. They have lots of fruit trees and I can learn a lot from them.

Reduced Waste: I got chickens. Now I can give them meat and dairy scraps instead of throwing out!

Cooked something new: Didn't cook anything new for me, but did cook with my two year old friend. She wore her special apron and helped me pour pre-prepared ingredients in and to mix and put everything into the container - result. Delicious apple crumble. However she didn't eat hardly any of it. I did though and so did her mum and dad. Cooking with kids is lots of fun, but you do need to pick the recipe and be prepared.

Learned a new skill: Grafting. At Harmony Farm yesterday we had a grafting workshop and I grafted 5 different apple varieties and am now praying for them to take. They say their apples graft the best so I started with them and maybe will try pears or something stonefruit next time.

independance days update

Planted: More lemon grass, native mint and marjoram. Brocolli seeds, Jerusalem Artichokes. Transplanted my first batch of lettuce from a pot where they were not growing well to the garden. Banana sucker.

Harvest something: Coriander for a soup

Preserve something: Nothing

Store Something: Hmm, this one's hard as I'm trying to get through what I already have.

Manage Reserves: Have gone through almost all my food supplies and only kept 1-2 of anything in the kitchen cupboards, moving the rest to the stockpile. My kitchen is returning to some sense of order.

Prepped: Have been digging out agapanthus from where I am going to plant my espaliered fruit trees. Went to a friends who has horses and picked up three large feed bags of horse manure.

Worked on Local Food Systems: Friend with horses also gave me some of her chooks eggs. Made contact with local cafe who have bought a block of land for a community garden and beginning to liase with them around setting up a local food forum. Whilst digging up agapanthus plants I also pulled out some buffalo grass runners. Went to list agapanthus on freecycle and as an afterthought added the buffalo grass. I had a quick response not for the aggies, but for the grass. Soon worked out the person I was talking to is a local permie I had been trying to contact, and she brought some guys around today to remove my entire front lawn. In return I will go and have a tour of her garden and get some cuttings!! She is also keen to set up a food and growing network to share excess and plantstock.

Reduced Waste: Gave away plants rather than disposed of them. Composted.

Cooked something new: I cooked a sweet potato soup I made once many years ago when first living in a share house. It was very popular but I lost the recipe and found it on a blog last week. It was delicious. I had leftovers for lunch today. Next time I want to make it with my own dried beans rather than the tinned variety.

Learned a new skill: How to get rid of a lawn. Give it away and let them dig it up.... lol

Around the house

This is the delicious cauliflower soup I made this week.
Cauliflower, potatoes and onion (and I added two turnips) chopped up and put in the pot.
Add a tablespoon of oil and 1/4 cup of water, heat until bubbling then cover and cook on medium for ten minutes. Veges should be steamed and softened, but should not be dry.

Add tblsp grated ginger, crushed clove of garlic, 3tsp turmeric, tsp ground coriander, tsp cumin seeds s+p and cook stirring on med-high for two minutes (this is the point at which the photo was taken. The veges all got more yellow still. Then add 1Litre vege stock and simmer 20mins. Puree before eating.

This got praise from all my siblings, my brothers girlfriend and friends. (and I thought it was pretty good too.

The other night I made Risotto and there was some left over so I made some risotto balls. Just got some mozzarella and put a small piece in the middle of a chunk of risotto and molded it much like a meatball, then rolled them in breadcrumbs.

I think traditionally they would be deepfried but instead I sprayed them in light oil and baked them while a cake was in the oven. Delicious fresh and reheated. Great way to use leftovers.

In the growing challenge I have some sprouts emerging from my seed trays. Broad beens lettuce, and peas of some kind (I can't remember if they are snow or ordinary.) I also planted some more and mostly things I haven't grown before: pidgeon peas, chicory, thyme, dill, warigal greens. Can't wait for them to come up. I do need to get some silverbeet in too, as it's so good in winter.

I'll also explain my potting cups. These are the cups you get coffee in, and I get all my coworkers to rinse their cups out and keep them for me, I then rip the bottoms out and fill with potting mix and seedraising mix. They do need to be in a sealed container such as an ice cream container or plastic tray to keep the soil in but by the time they are planted out the roots generally are holding all the soil together.

Because they are waxed they do not wick the moisture away from the plants like the newspaper pots can sometimes do, and when they are planted out they provide a small barrier to protect tender young seedlings from the slug attacks that used to decimate my plants. they then gradually breakdown and add to the organic matter in the garden.

Now I have to wait for the ground to dry out a little, (it's been raining since the weekend) so I can prepare some more garden beds to plant out all these plants.

Also on the weekend I went out to our local tip which has a buy back centre and found a perfactly good electric mulcher. I have been thinking about getting one of these for a long time, but the cost was prohibitive. This was only $15 and was thrown out a branch was jammed. The tip manager just dislodged the branch and hey presto as new mulcher.

I promptly went home, got a cord to fit and mulched some weedy trees. I believe they are a native legume so I will use thema s mulch and in the compost. I also picked up some cheap concrete reinforcing wire. One of the sheets I have set over the broad beans and will support them as they grow. I simply folded it into an a frame shape and the wire was cut off with spikes that I pushed into the ground.

You can see the broad beans have grown a lot since the last post You can also see my sexy gumboot (there are two) that I got in new zealand. There is another sheet of wire I will use to grow the snow peas on and then I'll have to go back for more.

Water feature? inside my house

The joys of owning a new old house. Now for me but old. Structurally it's very sound but somethings are past their useby date. The paint in the kitchen for one. The hot water system for another. While I was planning to replace this in the next year, I wasn't planning on doing it in the first two weeks. However, I woke up to a water feature in the hous, As there is a drain next to the system the damage is very limited, but I couldn't turn the tap off to the system and had to turn the mains tap off. So no toilet at the moment. Going home to try a shifter on it, and the plumber is coming around for a quote first thing in the morning, and if I haven't turned it off by then he will do it for me.

I am going to replace it with an instantaneous gas system. It's environmentally cleaner, and will use much less energy as I only heat the water I need, not storing large amounts ad infinitum.

On the gardening front, I planted my onion sets this morning, behind the broad beans (hoping they companion okay. After I planted them out I realised the mains was turned off so I used my saved washing up water. Then thought they would die without more, so I went and met my neighbour Dan, who seems like a nice neighbour to have (and he has a mandarin tree that's overflowing.) Street community here we come!!! He said he tried to visit another day and say hi when he saw the car there, but I wasn't home. That's the wonderful thing about living in town. I don't have to drive the car most of the time.

Gardening and Food - What more could you want!

Also on the weekend I had a friend over for dinner. My second guest. And my fridge arrived, so of course we had to go and buy ice-cream. :)

I cooked a baked caseroley thing. Sliced up one onion, two potatoes, two carrots and a parsnip and added lots of cherry tomatoes from the garden, a cup of vege stock and then put four marinated kangaroo steaks on top and put them in the oven. Cooked for around and hour on a medium heat, delicious. I think Kangaroo is my favourite meat at the moment. In Australia it is really the meat that makes sense in being environmentally friendly. They don't compact the soil like cattle and sheep, they eat native grasses (keeping them trimmed preventing bushfires) and they don't require as much water or care. I also think that the quality of meat we get is much better and cheaper than the quality of beef and lamb we get in supermarkets. And I got these reduced to clear so half price the normal price.



For dessert we made up some chocolate muffin mix, but I read the recipe wrong and we put too much water in and worried they would be puddingy we made them in some coffee cups I had.....

perfect!




This morning I planted some more, after wrestling with a huge IVY plant growing THROUGH my fence from next door. It's so rampant I think I'll have to speak to them/weed kill it or it's going to damage the fence. I then dug the weeds out of the back garden and planted two rows of Broad Bean seedlings (not yet from seed I know, but something new) I also have a punnet of red onions that I'll plant out tomorrow.

I thought I'd show a photo of my Kaffir Lime tree now...


I watered in the broad bean seedlings by hand (watering can was a Christmas Present from Mum a few years ago. My siblings thought it was a strange gift, but it's been wonderful. Also fished out a rectangular basin from the garage I use for paper making to put in the sink for washing up so I can recycle the water onto the garden and it fits perfectly!!!


And lastly another photo of Choc muffin coffee cups, and my friend Deb, because they were so yummy, especially with Creme Brulee ice cream...

The Growing Challenge - Kaffir Lime

I had a great weekend, my first in the new house, and took the advantage of mostly good weather to do some gardening. I have not put any beds in yet, so am limited in what I can do, but I went to the nursery to buy seed raising mix and came back with a Kaffir Lime tree. These are lovely trees and well suited to being in a pot, so that's where mine is at least for the moment. Later on it may go into the ground. There were a couple of large pots left when I moved into the house so I cleaned one out and potted it up into that, with my compost!!!! (The first lot I have ever successfully produced.) It was watered and left to grow.

The good thing with Kaffir Limes is that you don't have to wait for them to fruit to use them. Many Thai and asian dishes call for finely sliced Kaffir Lime leaves. They are predominately used for their leaves and zest, as they do not have much juice, but the juice can be used again. They are easy to recognise because of their double leaves and are usually grafted onto some reliable rootstock. I was careful to pick the one with the strongest looking graft and lots of bunching branches rather than a straggly looking one.

When looking for a photo for this post (as I forgot to take one) I found out that they are useful in green cleaning as well...

"Kaffir lime shampoo leaves the hair squeaky clean and invigorates the scalp. It is believed to freshen one's mental outlook and ward off evil spirits. Kaffir lime has also been used for ages as a natural bleach to remove tough stains. When I was growing up, mother did the wash entirely by hand, and nothing worked better on stubborn stains than a few drops of kaffir lime juice, mixed with a sprinkling of detergent. Not only does it clean effectively, it is inexpensive, natural and sweet-smelling. For rural villagers, a single kaffir lime tree supplies enough limes to keep the whole house and family clean.

In folk medicine, the juice of kaffir lime is said to promote gum health and is recommended for use in brushing teeth and gums. The essential oils in the fruit are incorporated into various ointments, and the rind is an ingredient in medical tonics believed to be good for the blood. Like lemon grass and galanga, the rind is also known to have beneficial properties for the digestive system."

(From this website)

Unpacking and Planting

See the sold sticker. I had to leave it up to take the photo. Now I can't take it down because I hurt my hand, more on that later.

Spent most of this weekend moving house. It was great weather (Thanks God) and had help from wonderful family and friends who I couldn't do without, especially mum, brother and his girlfriend and deb :)

Above is my kitchen, however it won't look that way for too much longer. I have ordered a fridge to fit that space. Should arrive early next week. Also I am going to repaint as that colour scheme doesn't really fit the rest of the house. I am thinking Paprika kind of colour for the doors and white for walls, Unsure about possibly adding some light orangy yellow for the wooden features, corner shelf just visible on the left and the window frames. Suggestions????

The paint is so thick I think it will be a bit of work to get it off. Perhaps scraping rather than sanding? The other thing I am thinking about is replacing the kitchen sink and it's unit as it is really quite old and decrepit, and the drawers are too small and not on runners. Brother's girlfriend works at a kitchens place so might talk to him about it. Cost will be a factor, the bank balance needs to stay healthy at the same time, and there's a mortgage to pay now :) Maybe I'll just repaint and wait and see.

Below is the sunroom, which needs new curtains or ideally blinds but is lovely and warm, but lots of ventilation for summer. Shade will eventually be provided by my almond tree which is on order for winter (Growing challenge). Thanks to my sisters boyfriend for use of his ute pictured in the background, and my work colleague for hers (not in picture)

Well, I couldn't handle moving in and not planting anything, so I went down to the nursery and bought a small punnet of lettuce seedlings which I planted in a pot out the back, so I can pick some food soon. There are a few cherry tomatoes left as well from previous tenants planting, and some oranges ripening on the trees.

Thats all for today....

Happy Gardening

Hannah

I've bought a house!!!!!!

It's official, I am buying this house. I signed the contract yesterday, and I paid the deposit at lunch today and as I write this I expect my solicitor should be exchanging the contracts. It's all very exciting, but I feel more relieved than excited right now, I just was not looking forward to having to look for another house and going through all the stress of inspections and negotiating a price.
It is a solid brick house, with a sunroom added on the back and a new steel fab garage out the back. It is three bedrooms, and has two living areas, plus a seperate dining room. The bathroom is redone, but not the kitchen, although I'll be looking at repainting initially rather than putting a new kitchen in.

It's a great block, the house is set with the living areas to the north and the garden areas are all north facing too, and on a north facing slope so should be great for growing. At the front the brick wall is about 5-6 foot high, (I can't see over the top of it) and I see great potential for a courtyard mandala type garden here with some espaliered fruit trees and a garden seat.
The back is also on a slight slope and there is already a chook run which needs a few repairs behind the garage. The car won't be allowed in the garage of course, it will be some storage and then a workshop/creative area. Oh the possibilities, I'm even thinking of planting some of my growing challenge winter seeds now before I can even move in. Then they will have time to grow before I move in so there is food straight away. actually there are already a couple of citrus trees (not in great health though) a paw paw, a grape vine some herbs and millions of cherry tomato plants. (I have been going around there and picking food already :)

Saving seeds and so much more (Growing Challenge)

So....Why was I in Gulgong???

Because the national seedsavers conference was there of course! About 50 people from Australia and overseas met at the Gulgong showground to be fed the delicacies only the show society wives could dream up (think homemade scones with homemade jam and cream, homemade lamingtons - far cry from the packaged variety, lunch plates with over 15 types of food on the plate, and all of it delicious, oh and trifle for dessert)

Oh and there was the whole seed thing. Seedsavers was set up my Michael and Jude Fanton and supports and teaches seedsaving in australia and around the world. I am part of my local seed network in the Shoalhaven where we distribute seeds and other plant stock at the Tomerong Markets each month.

We had some great speakers, David Murray on Genetic Modification - widely known Australian Author (I had actually borrowed one of his books from the library the week before and was surprised to realise he was the author, and that he only lives an hour away from me.) Peter Andrews was another speaker who was brought to Australia's attention through an ABC program Australian Story (I remember when presenting for Permaculture at the Royal Easter show last year everyone talking about him (you can see an excerpt from the show if you click on his name) I watched the show and later purchased his book, in which he talks about Natural Sequence Farming, his way of studying the hydrology and nutrients in the land to amazing results.

We also had workshops on developing local seed networks, saving different kinds of seeds, both edible and native. Sue Pridmore, a local from near the Gulgong area came and did some basket weaving, which was intrigueing. I have decided that after I work out weaving on the loom, it will be my next project.



My friends and I camped in the showground under the cattle yard roof without tents and this was the view from my sleeping bag when I woke up....


Utter Bliss! New friends made, and lots of exciting seeds swapped to give me lots to plant as soon as my house is mine....Please pray for the sale to go through this week, I am signing the contract today but the solicitor needs one more piece of information before I can exchange and the owners are starting to grumble about the time it's taking.

Eco House

On the way home from the hike we dropped in on a friend. He and his wife have a property in Nerriga which is inland from Nowra on an unsealed road to Canberra. There is a little cottage where we shared a cup of tea and saw his rough set up with car batteries powering a 12 volt lighting system and his portable dvd player, and gas used for cooking and refrigerating, but only when they are staying there.

They are building their dream home, and once finished plan to live there almost full time, but a lot of the preparation and work is being done by him and I think he really enjoys being a hermit in the bush, but was still glad to show off the house.

They have excavated large areas visible in the bottom photo, the house will be on two levels and once completed the earth from the excavation, currently in piles at the top of the hill will be pushed back over the roof and native grasses grown.

This first photo is of their water tank, the structural parts internally are made of reinforced steel with concrete brick surrounds and once complete will be filled with concrete and the timber frames removed. this is done because the house will be built on top of it. They are planning to use solar power for lighting and heat pumps to heat water and provide air conditioning in summer at the same time. They have a worm farm and reed bed system for sewage and then using the water to irrigate the fields down by the creek where they may look at growing some of their food, although it looks like it will be a battle against the critters, white ants demolished their orchard that was her 50th wedding anniversary.
It was great to actually see the place after hearing about it for a long time.

My house process is continuing, just waiting for all the red tape of title searches and bank approvals and valuations, all of which are not concerning, just time consuming. . . more updates soon.

The Growing Challenge

I have decided to join Melinda's growing challenge. I was going to wait until I was somewhere I could start planting, but when she said she was so close to 100, I thought I could join and start planning my planting. I know that's always a good idea :)

The garden challenge is that you commit to growing at least one thing from seed this year that you have never grown before. You also have to write at least once a week about how it is going (or growing). There are now at least 98 people joined and Melinda writes a report on some of the gardens each week.

You have to identify your zone. I went to this website which is part of the Botanic Garden's website, and you can look at other interesting things, like records of native plants and their uses amongst other things. It says that my zone is 3-4 in Australian standards. One of the good things on this site was that it showed a comparison for American zones. In USA I would be in zone 10-11.

The difficulty is that a zone is a large area, and you may find micro climates in that zone, or even on your property created naturally or artificially to grow things with very different requirements. For example to grow something that is frost sensitive in a colder zone, I had a lemon tree growing in my house in Parramatta, Sydney which frequently had frosts through winter, but as it was in a north facing spot and had a mango and a lilli-pilli sheltering it above, it fruited all year round. I think the best way of working out what grows well, is as the author of that site says. Look at plants with similar growth requirements. If lemons can grow where you are, then look at the zone requirements for lemons, and then you should be able to grow other things within that zone.

And my own challenge? I would like to try some eggplant this year which I have grown from seedling but never from seed. I would also like to grow more varieties of lettuces, Pidgeon Peas, and banana passionfruit, which I remember my grandmother growing at the back door of her house when I was much younger.

Until I can start planting. I will plan to post some of the techniques and ideas I have learnt about gardening over the years, some permaculture techniques and propogation techniques. Until then, happy gardening.

Hannah

I've been away

Hello,

I thought I would just explain my leave of absence for those who come to my blog. I am around, but life has been very hectic with the holiday period, some leave during which I led on a camp for highschoolers in my local area, (http://www.campconqueror.org/) and my mother starting her chemo therapy program. She has unfortunately discovered that the drug's ability to exacerbate the effects of exposure to the sun (some 20-30 fold) can in fact act retrospectively. She is now suffering from third degree burns to her shoulders, arms and legs as a result of a seaside stroll three days before her last batch of chemo. Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts, we are praying there will be no lasting damage on the use of her legs especially due to scarring, and tell people you know going through similar treatment to be careful.

I am looking forward to this saturday going to our local markets at Tomerong this weekend, doing some shopping and helping at the seed savers and the local organic food co-op through the day. It's a wonderful local market where there are lovely people to make friends with, food to eat and bargains to find, and a chance to talk to people about living sustainably, especially in regards to the food they eat. In seed savers we grow and save seed from heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruit in order to preserve their existence and also encourage people to grow varieties that thrive in the local climate. Our local group gives away seeds and seedlings grown from those seeds with donations welcomed, and helps people with questions that they have about their gardens. We are affiliated with the seedsavers network www.seedsavers.net which was started by michael and judy Fanton and run courses and a seedback in northern new south wales, in Australia. Their handbook is a great resource for anyone interested in growing and saving seed, and also has instuctions on how to use some of the more unusual varieties. I can highly reccomend it. Does anyone have any unusual or rare species that they grow, perhaps we could do a swap? (unfortunately this would be geographically limited due to customs and quarantine restrictions.) I think I could swap with anywhere else in Australia but WA?? Correct me if I am wrong.

I wanted to write a post on the benefits of flowers and water. This is a shot of my friend's front yard. She owns her lovely home, and I am still sharing while I am looking for a place to buying and continuing to save. The benefits of flowers and water in your garden are significant.

It makes it a pleasant place to be. This is not an ordered garden, It just grows as plants self seed or as she puts cuttings in and tends them. I am sure that some of these were there before she moved in. Some people want ordered gardens, I am more of the casual look, but can appreciate an ordered garden as well. My grandparents have every different plant in it's own bed and seperated from the next species. Whatever it is your garden needs to be somewhere you enjoy being. Put some ornaments, mosaics etc around. I love having a place where I can hang a hammock under a deciduous tree, it can shade me in the summer and be a warm sunny place to sit in winter.

It brings life into the garden. Flowers and water attract insects who come and perform an essential role in pollinating your fruit trees and vegetables. Many birds also come to eat insects, nectar and hide in the safety of the plants from predators. Kate from Our Red House (see links at the side) has just written in her blog about a nest of baby birds they found in their garden. Growing up we had a family of magpies who would generally produce at least one set of offspring each year. We had a bird bath and natives with flowers outside and could watch as first the parents sought food for the baby and later brought it out to learn to fly.

It keeps your garden healthy. Many of the insects who are attracted to the flowers you are growing will assist in managing the pests in your garden, rather than you needing to resort to a chemical spray which is dangerous for you and your family, and kills off the good insects as well, leaving your garden more susceptible to attack.

If you can build a small pond, you will possibly attract frogs into your garden, who are great company and also great at managing your pests, especially the slugs and snails, which can be harmful for chickens in larger numbers.

Hmm, that's all I can think of for now, but if you can add anything please comment on this post. Ta and talk next week.
Hannah