GreenCreations

Due to a huge number of spam comments I have decided not to post any more blogs – at least for a while. May start another… I am saddened by this.

A lot has happened since the last post and there hasn’t been much time to write. But it is pouring and has done all day so this is my chance! The garden is powering, even though it is experimental and I am constantly learning and trying new things. We have managed to have something from the garden every day and even whole meals.

The chickens are now in the third sector (of six). The first has mostly gone to seed but still has broad beans, peas and zucchini. As well as some wild rocket I snuck in later. The second section is full of potatoes only – just laid out under thick mulch. The thirds has new seedlings but this time we are going to pack it full. So waiting for those seedlings to come up!

Three sectors of chook palace

This has been planted with rockmelons, capsicum, corn, purple beans, loads of leaf, and tommy toe tomatoes. So far we have only covered a tiny area!

The fruit trees keep wanting to flower even though they have only been in since the New Year. We have had a few raspberries and there are loads more on there – I thought they would be done by now. I even had my first rose (a long standing wish of mine is to have a rose garden). I gave it to Nanny when we visited her in hospital yesterday. Check this ambitious avocado out that KK and Liam put in! Flower power!

Avocado tree in bloom

Meanwhile we are still in the shed while Mark slogs away on the house. But as you can see it is starting to look like a house. And we even had some visitors sleeping in there! Hey Mitchells!

House taking shape!

And in the meantime, on this great adventure, I have been attempting some sourdough bread. The first efforts were reasonably successful…

Sourdough bread with chia seeds

and were eaten up faster than I could rise bread. But my starter seems to have died. Maybe it’s all this rain. I feed it and feed it and it is as flat as a pancake. No bubbles, nothing. Any suggestions?

Have read Monty Don’s Ivington Diaries and was truly inspired by his love hate relationship with the earth. Review at www.meapcareers.com.au will be coming soon!

This morning I noticed that one of the potato plants in a bag had withered so I went bandicooting. I found tiny ones, but massive ones too. I also decided to harvest some of our heirloom radishes, which I am going to pickle!

Bountiful roots

Ingredients
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
250ml malt vinegar
250ml white wine vinegar
200g caster sugar
2 teaspoons celery salt
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bunches small radishes

Method
Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add the coriander seeds. Shake the pan for 1-2 minutes until the seeds pop. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the vinegar, sugar, salt peppercorns and 300ml water.

Return to the heat and bring the liquid to the boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.

Add the radish and take off the heat. Allow to cool in the saucepan before transferring to a sterilised jar and refrigerating.

The radishes can be eaten after 24 hours but are best left to pickle for 2 days.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Thanks to foodbyjessica.com.au for this one!

It is cold, cold, cold. But the peas, potatoes, broad beans and garlic are powering. Unfortunately our seeds and seedlings are not. A few weeks ago I lost all 200 seeds I planted – little furry creatures dug up the seeds and munched the lot. Well wouldn’t you – it’s comfort food! So I replanted the whole lot and they took the opportunity to have a second feast. Third time lucky me hopes.

Fort Knox for seedlings

We pulled down the loofah and gourd wines and hung them under the trees to dry.

Gourd-art

Yesterday I stripped the loofahs, de-seeded them and hung them up to dry. The Noamster was the first to test one in the bath. Her skin was zinging!

Loofahs varying in quality

The chicken palace has been planted out with all sorts of goodies, and we installed a solar light by the tyre ponds to encourage the frogs to visit. And sure enough we hear them chatting away in there; they sound like they’re having a party.

The first palace planting

The other beds are thriving with dragonfruit, tomatoes, zucchini, herbs, red cabbage and the ever lovely borage.

A confusing mass of goodies

I even started experimenting with green manures and here is a chickpea.

Chickpea happiness

We woke up this morning to the magnificent sight of the trees glinting over the guards. No dew, no mist and it wasn’t cold.

What a mornin'!

At 9.30am we liberated the chickens…

First steps under the watchful eye of Mia

They took their time coming out, but when they hit the open space they literally spread their wings. So after two weeks of work constructing the palace it is now operational. But I will not forget the stress of wrestling with 15 metre lengths of netting and figuring out how to cover the roof… There were a couple of altercations about that!

Mia also managed to sneak into the tractor yesterday, so perhaps the freeing has been timely. My hands were shaking as I thought she was bound to try and kill one (or two). But no. She lay down in the middle of them and hardly moved. Perhaps, as Dozza suggested, she actually thinks she is a chicken too. The Noamster came to the rescue and got Mia out safely. The chickens couldn’t have been too bothered either because our single layer produced an egg not long after.

Now we have to focus on seedlings and times to plant and rotate. The experiment begins! (Crossed fingers).

Wow! This 15-metre diameter chicken palace is almost ready for its first princesses (one of whom started laying this week – little, brown, warm fuzzy eggs).

It has six openings and they will be moved fortnightly to fresh grass, greenery and a water pond. We are hoping the 12-week cycle will work in terms of timing. But perhaps winter is not the best time to test it out. We’ll see.

Is Naomi being helpful?

In the meantime, I have been experimenting with different ways of planting, as well as planting different kinds of edible plants.

This is a drumstick tree in a tyre. It was very unhappy and almost died because I think it got waterlogged. But I told it everything was okay and it sprang back!

Broccoli in...a broccoli box!

The first seedlings all got eaten so I planted tons of seeds and confused the hungry mob. The second generation is looking more happy and will be ready to transplant into the palace shortly.

Potatoes in the ground…love that ground. And potatoes in a (grow) bag:

It is a race to see which plants produce!

The thing is we have read so much about what other people do and plant, but realised that as vegetarians not only do we save lives, we are also not as interested in run-of-the-mill vegetables and fruits. So we are starting to cultivate alternative or unusual edibles.

Our first okra - waiting to become a bhaji

I mean why plant the same old stuff  – at this time of year we can also plant peanuts!

Caged for their own protection - dog paws!

Dragonfruit is going hell for (vegetarian) leather:

We have pink and red

And finally we have one of my new favourites. The only plant that has a true blue colour in its flower (ours hasn’t flowered yet):

Borage (sounds like porridge)

I’d forgotten I’d planted it, but after this magical discovery I did some Google searches and came across German Gruene Sosse (look it up on Wikipedia!). It was delicious and I don’t think I will ever be without this wonderful cucumber-flavoured leaf again. Isn’t it amazing that there are so many things to plant and try?

So when someone tells you to plant carrots, potatoes and peas, you can see where they are going. But if they tell you that you can eat the leaves, roots and fruit of a drumstick tree, you should be filled with the excitement of something new.

Oh, and one last thing. The Noamster seems to have lost some of her fear of the dark.

Trampolining by torchlight – yahoo!

p.s. Okay, okay, I have a confession to make. I am planting potatoes, carrots and peas too. Mash and peas are Dad’s favourite.

At last we have protection from the rain!

The 'house ship' and the rowing boat

Before the clean up

After this photo was taken the Naomster was paid $3 an hour to clean up. She did really well. But she also had to make a shop in the corner which sold all sorts of goodies, made of bits of wood. Later the shop became a laundromat.  To buy some milk and fish was way more expensive than having a week’s worth of washing done.

The next day I attempted to bless the house by playing the whole Tai Chi Chuan long form in here! Great place for it – if only I could get it right!

Crops on the go at the moment are (and most come from Isabell Shippard’s fantastic place in Nambour): drumstick tree, pandan, okra, peanuts, sweet leaf bush, nettles, peppercorn, shelling peas, amaranth, tomatoes, silverbeet, broccoli, snow peas, dragon fruit, cinnamon, starfruit and sweet potato (everywhere!).

And who would have thought that someone as inept as me could make this:

Turn into this:

how jammy is that?

I wonder what the next trick will be? Moving into the shed perhaps…

We drove to Woodford last week to collect eight of these lovely point of lay light sussex chickens. All housed in McCallums’s master tractor. And they love it! Check out how much grass they’ve disposed of! Thanks girls.

A certain eight-year-old loves them to pieces

And a certain dog was pretty curious too!

By the time Naomi had shown this, the littlest one, around the place and played with it on the bed – until it accidentally wet her – it was time to do something else.

'Make' crystals out of river pebbles...

And so we had a great weekend – roasting marshmallows, picking a cucumber (number 2!) and watching the rain fall and fall…

The summer has been horrible and against all odds Katoiam built a veggie patch with straw bales right under the stringy mango tree.

It has had some successes:

Loofah!

Eggplant!

Gourd!

Unfortunately some things have not done so well.

Bok choy and its friend, the funghi

Corn which decided it preferred to be stunted

Hey ho. We are enjoying the cucumber we harvested though! Betel leaves and ceylon spinach are powering and we are waiting for the rest of the tomatoes to ripen.

Talking about ripe tomatoes – check out these guys on the building site! They have endured melting sun, belting winds and pelting rain and they are still standing! Thankfully so is the house!

Mark and Dan - back view of the house

Caught in deep discussion!

They call Dan 'The Mexican' for some reason...

And so, as it has started to rain, I have been manically planting fruiting trees. Ignoring moon charts in my desperation to get them into the ground, we now have: avocado, cherry, custard apple, lychee, walnut, guava, raspberry, lemon, lemonade and mandarin. In a few years’ time hopefully we will be picking, squeezing, licking and munching!

Small but beautiful!

Build it right up to the sky!

Meanwhile Kato has come home! She has insisted that we start getting seedlings together and a worm farm. And so it was done! We also have several 15kg bags of 8 month old cow and horse poo.

Our seedlings popped their heads up surprisingly quickly. But the sunflowers were eaten by a hungry critter as soon as they were smiling at the sun!

I know that seasoned farmers will laugh at my naivete, but hey – I’m just learning!

We had a couple of crazies jump into the dam for a swim at the weekend. They found blue claw in there.  And I got friendly with a tick who burrowed into my back. Luckily emergency rescue (aka Poiter) got it out,  head and all.