A fridge full of worms

Our beautiful old 50s fridge finally gave up the ghost after decades of service (I calculate we are the third owners). We couldn't bear to part with it so thought we'd give it a go as a worm farm!

Well, gotta say the worms love it! Although a relatively milder summer so far this season, the temperature inside stays fairly constant - so much so that we weren't worried heading off for a couple of weeks over the Christmas period.

Only thing is it's a bit tricky to catch the worm juice... a flat container seems to work OK. Best of all I think is being able to grab some of the castings and add to the garden every so often.

Fridge full of worms

 In addition, we also have the standard worm farm (right of picture - prefer the cricular set up to the box style) and we are currently worm sitting for the Pre-primary class (as we'd set up a farm for them last year). Both produce really well and we get a lot of juice from them, so overall the worm farming is going great guns.

If you're on the hunt for worms and are in the Perth area we have plenty to share!

Happy gardening!

Going native in the Perth Spring

Made the most of the rain today and got some native plants into the front garden.

Via BOM (radar)

 Hoping they'll survive okay over the Summer - it does get pretty harsh!

View on Flickr

 Here's a record of our plantings today, so we can see how they develop (or, if we lose any!)...

1. Grevilleas
'Little Drummer Boy' (grevillea langiera dwarf), 'Mini Marvel' (grevillea thelemanniana):
These are shrubby groundcovers that suit rockeries and underplanting, with showy sprays of flowers that you can expect from Grevilleas. Good also in coastal conditions. The Thelemanniana is endemic to West Aust.

'Robyn Gordon' (grevillea banksii x bipinnatifida) is a showy Grevillea endemic to West Aust with red/pink flowers in the classic Grevillea style of tumbling sprays of flowers. It should flower almost continuously too, and is bird-attracting. We've used it as a bit of a screen for our bins, but it sits under a large Callistemon tree - so, here's hoping it will settle in okay.

2. 'White Wave' (Leptospernum)
This is a small teatree shrub with gorgeous white 'foaming' flowers along the stems. Also bird-attracting and is good around rockeries and for small gardens as it grows to about 50cm high and 1 metre wide. There are so many beautiful teatree varieties too, from white through to deep pinks and mauves and everything inbetween.

3. 'Sea of Purple' Hardenbergia (violacea)
This is one of my favourite spreading native plants, as I grew up with it around the stunning karri bush of my hometown, Pemberton, hanging from the trees and sprawling along the understory, showing of its pea-like purple flowers! We've planted four of these in the hope we'll get a lovely visual feast of purple, plus some cover to minimise the dreadful onion weed and other weeds that spring up.

4. Groundcovers
'Purple fanfare' (scaevola aemula) has a lovely semi-circle, fan-shaped purple flower on creeping stems, with slightly serrated glossy green leaves. It's of the Goodenia family and also found in white.

'Creeping Boobialla' (myoporum parvifolium) is a creeping groundcover that can quickly develop a matting habit (actually been found as a weed in parts of the USA). Ours has pastel pink flowers and tight dense leaves along the length of the stems. Fast growing, so again hoping to keep down the weeds, as it develops. May need to prune of it becomes to invasive for other plants.

There's also a small Dianella (flax lilly) in front of the rock to the left of the path - it has gorgeous little purple-blue flowers on stems that extend above the leaves. It's a lovely native that seems to do well wherever you plant it (here's hoping!).

We'll see how it's all looking this time next year!

Happy gardening!

Weekend activities - upcycling!

Here's what we got up to this weekend in the sunshine. Perth's winter is definitely over (in fact I'd ask if it came at all!).

Hope your weekend has been just as enjoyable!

Happy gardening!

Enjoying fruits of our winter labour

OK, last post about our wonderful broccoli, I promise! Had to post this... Simon made a gorgeous dinner tonight with our freshly picked broccoli and kale. Delicious!

Here's the recipe...

Kale and Broccoli Gnocchi

Nob of butter
Splash olive oil
3 cloves garlic sliced (could also use pre-roasted cloves for enriched flavour)
Broccoli flowerettes
Kale, chopped
Basil pesto (homemade if available)
Gnocchi (homemade if available)

Boil salted water for gnocchi. Once boiling, add gnocchi and wait until gnocchi has floated to top of water, then drain and set aside. Keep warm in low oven if needed.

Melt butter and oil in heavy based pan over medium heat. Fry garlic slices until golden, fragrant and soft. Add broccoli and kale and mix through for a few minutes. Turn off heat and cover for a few minutes to steam through.

Add cooked gnocchi to pan and stir through. Add tablespoon of pesto (or more if you prefer).

Season lightly with salt and pepper and serve in warmed bowls immediately!

It's the simple things really... sigh! :o)

Happy gardening!

Worms go on the move

On Monday this week, I went to Clancy's school to help the kids set up a worm farm, as part of their gardening set up. They currently have a large raised garden bed (shown below planted out in February this year), a small rainwater tank (set up by the ever-resourceful Daddy, Simon), and now have a lovely worm farm to complete the cycle!


I grabbed a few set up tips from the Town of Cambridge worm farm fact sheet and draw up a worm-inspired sign, so the kids can be sure they are keeping a good eye on their worms.
So, these are basic facts for keeping your worms happy and healthy:

1. Worms love sweet, not sour (i.e. not citrus, onions, garlic, etc).
2. Worms love dark not light (keep in shaded position with lid on and carpet or cardboard as a cover).
3. Worms love moist not dry (test by squeezing a handful of castings to test for moisture - that's fun!).
4. Use "worm wee" 1:10 (or 1L to 10L water) for your plants - they'll LOVE you for it!
5. Feed small amounts frequently to avoid a smelly worm farm (it should smell like a damp forest or fresh earth).

I used coco for the "bed" layer on the first level, then we gave the worms some edible items on the second "kitchen/dining" layer, using some old leaves, soggy cardboard and some green weedy scraps. We covered the layer with wet newspaper and then let them settle in for the week before giving them further food, which the kids will now do on Mondays and Fridays.

The kids loved holding the worms and feeling them wriggling in their hands - they were so keen! They thought the idea of "worm wee" was pretty funny too! Love the happy curiosity of kids!

Happy gardening!

Broccoli success

Well, it seems we can grow broccoli in Perth! At least in the winter months. I last tried around spring last year and the white cabbage moth was everywhere. I had experimented using moth shaped white plastic decoys, but I'm not convinced they worked.


We planted some dwarf broccoli in a small bed which gets a lot of sun throughout the day and we've had success! The magpies and crows thought they were pretty nice too - so we draped a bit of bird netting over the broccoli to protect the small heads.

We didn't get too many slugs or snails either - in general, all quiet on the bug front!



I'll be monitoring the change in seasons more closely in future, to really capitalise on the relatively mild winter and the absence of the cabbage moth more so!

Happy gardening!

Capers: stems, seeds and soil!

Found this great post on Michelle Hamer's blog, From Seed to Table, on growing and propagating capers - great to have some firsthand experience of growing these amazing plants. I've been looking for some good info on propagating capers and this is the best so far.

We had our first caper berry a couple of months ago - a lovely plump specimen! The bush itself is probably some 12 months old and doing okay so far, in a pot. I'd like to try and propagate some more plants from seed, so when it comes to our new landscaping, we can plant out some caper bushes as part of a rockery.

I'd love to know of anyone (especially Perth locals) who has given capers a go, maybe as a rockery plant, with some success!

If you're new to capers like I am, you might find this site useful too.

Happy gardening!

Preserved lemons a success

preserved lemons a photo by margoc on Flickr.

We tried our preserved lemons last week on a couscous salad - delicious! Salty, tart, sour and very lemony! :o)

Fake it: cabbage moth or not?

Spring gardening a photo by margoc on Flickr.

I'm a tad averse to growing Brassicas, as they get destroyed by the very efficient and hard-to-spot green larvae of the Cabbage Moth.

However, I got some leftover seedlings of Red Chard and Red Cabbage from my mother-in-law and they seem to have taken off well.

So, I thought I'd try an experiment as seen on Gardening Australia recently: I've made some fake white cabbage moths out of white plastic for the cabbage patch and over the tomatoes too (we'll see what happens between each of them), as they seem to be territorial - err, the moths that is, not the vegies. :o)



So far, we have seen but one green caterpillar on the cabbages - it's looking promising! Will remain vigilant though as these green monsters are very determined creatures!

If you're not sure about pests in your garden, check out the GA website for lots of great tips, starting with this list from Sophie.

And speaking of pests, how's this for a haul of Slaters? Good work Clancy! :o)



Happy gardening!

Spring gardening for 2013

Spring gardening a photo by margoc on Flickr.

Well, I can't recall a springy-er Spring than this one for some time - Perth is actually having a proper Spring! Lots of rain, warm days and nights, with the odd cold snap in between (well, by Perth standards at least). It's been simply lovely in fact!

So, apart from our renovations and the ongoing mess that it creates, we have still managed something of a vegie patch.

Today, Alfie wanted to plant some Beans, so we used 5 big pots (which recently housed our snow peas) to plant some Dwarf Beans and we scattered some in amongst the tomatoes and flowers (i.e. the top side of the photo here). He was quite chuffed I think.

I picked up some cheap Cosmos and Cornflower seedlings last weekend at the local nursery for some colour and insect attracting goodness. The Cosmos is already about to burst into flower.

At the same time, I found some Chocolate Capsicums, a Diggers Club variety which are small and sweet. Can't wait to try them! (Neither can Clancy who is the chocoholic in the family!).

The potted garden is looking fresh after much rain and the recent sunshine too. I've dosed up some of the larger pots like the olives, citrus and ficus with extra compost and some old sheep and cow manure. They also get a dose of worm juice too, as our worms are doing really well after being devastated following the hot Summer at at the start of the year.

And finally, Clancy's lettuce seeds have taken as well - she has a planter full of them (a mix batch) which will serve her well for her salad making adventures.

What a perfect Spring!

Preserving lemons

My sister has just moved to a new house and although it only has a small courtyard (a triplex) it has two wonderful citrus trees that are doing very well. One is a lemon (I'm guessing it's a Meyer) and the other is a kaffir lime. She reckons they get about a dozen or more dropping on the ground each day. So, ever resourceful, the kids and I grabbed a bagful!

What to do with a bagful of lemons? Preserve them of course! I've always wanted to try lemon preserving but never really had a bulk of them to try.

So, today was the day! I used Stephanie Alexander's recipe which also includes bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon (I had none so used cardamom pods).



Thirty lemons and a three litre jar full later... All looks good!


Can't wait to watch the transformation in the coming weeks and months!


- Posted by Marg on the move!

Construction, production with chooks and compost

A constructive day in the garden today. . .

Simon built a compost heap using reclaimed pallets. Good timing too as the mulberry tree is now dropping its copious amount of leaves for autumn. So we now have our chooks, worms and compost going well. A side note, my Mum is providing us with a top-up of worms, as hers are going great guns and need dividing. Good for us, as our worms took a hit over the summer months.

Simon's compost bin from reclaimed pallets.

In terms of compost production, I'm hoping we can bulk up a bit more by getting leftovers from the nearby markets. This can also help to feed the chooks, as our kitchen scraps are pretty meagre really.

I also put together a lightweight chook tractor. I used polypipe and the pipe fittings to make up the frame, plus some some bird netting from our grapevine, as there's plenty to spare. It's a bit on the flexible side (and we did have an escapee for a short while), but at least we can move it about easily and wedge it into some of the confined spaces in our backyard as needed. The girls didn't know what was going on at first, but then they didn't seem to mind as they got stuck into the long grass! They are so cute. :o)

Chook tractor made with polypipe and bird netting.

We are hoping the chook tractor idea can help us to keep the grass down a bit (it's patchy at best and we don't have enough to warrant a lawnmower), plus keep the pest population down a bit. Our seeds were systematically chomped by slugs and snails as they pushed through the soil! Come on girls, get eating! Hoping they'll keep the slaters down too, plus leave their valuable manure around.

Happy gardening!

Raised garden bed and autumn plantings

Raised garden bed Autumn a photo by margoc on Flickr.

After celaning up our building remnants, we got to work on our raised no-dig garden bed and have since planted a range of seeds. We've over-planted with the expectation that some will not surface and others will suffer from the slaters and millipedes - natural attrition in other words!

So, we have from top left to right: yellow beans, radish, Swiss chard, climbing beans; Middle L to R: baby carrots, leeks (Musselwhite), peas; Bottom L to R: pansies, beetroot, peas.

The radish and beetroot have both sprouted so far (not quite a week since sowing the seeds), they got a head start with the warm weather and the bit of rain we've had since.

We've scattered a healthy layer of coffee grounds too, to try to deter the slaters and millipedes and are keeping our fingers crossed. I'm going to try to bring in the potted mints to see if that will help deter pests too - worked a treat in our Canberra garden, I recall!

Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year: everything seems to rest, the weather goes calm and if you make it to the beaach, the water is like glass for much of the day. Stunning!

Happy Autumn gardening!

Capers (capparis spinosa)

Picked up some more compost and manure today and found a caper bush.
Love capers but don't know much about them as a plant. I didn't realise there were native Australian varieties as well, but called a wild orange (or pomegranate).

 

Capparis spinosa
Caper. Wiki Commons

There's an organic producer based in South Australia that is doing some nice capers, plus the caper berries and also the leaves (check out their range) - yum!

Be interesting to see how capers go in the Perth humidity. At least they require little water (once established anyhow) and a bit of compost love every so often. Now to find a nice spot in the backyard for it.

Will keep you posted!

Happy gardening!

Some Autumn Rejuvenation

OK so maybe we don't need a building site in the backyard :-).

We spent the weekend cleaning up the brick and limestone rubble extracted from our bathroom. We separated the good stuff for reuse and have a "throw out pile" as well. Amazing though how small the pile became once we looked at what we could reuse.

I also put in some lemongrass, galangal and wormwood cuttings around the chook shed and fence line to catch some of the water run-off and give the chooks some extra foraging. They will keep the winter grass down around our mulberry tree too, as it crops up after the rains. As long as the cuttings survive their scratching and digging they should be good!







On another note, our worms took a hit over summer. We've moved them back under the mulberry tree too. Hoping they'll replenish their numbers in the coming (cooler) months. Another reason to get some more green crops in is to feed the chooks and worms better as they compete for our meager food scraps right now.




We topped up the pots including the lemon, lime, fig, olives, guavas and more so they too can make the most of the rain when and as it comes.

Next, our no-dig patch gets a work over.

Happy gardening!

Preserving and jams

I made some plum and fig jam recently - both with beautiful fruit - figs supplied by our lovely neighbour and plums from the local markets.



And, just look at the colour!!





The plums are Santa Rosa and have red-black skin giving the jam a dark, rich colour. Normally I look out for Blood (Satsuma) Plums, but only saw them one weekend and they were quite expensive. The Santa Rosas weren't too bad, about $3/kg.

I'd like to do more preserving once our renos are done and we have some pantry and laundry space!

Happy gardening!

No garden!

Well, forget about a no-dig garden, we simply don't have a garden at the moment! Thus, it's been a loooong while since I've posted to this blog.

We have begun some renovations on our house which has, until recently, turned our productive backyard into a building site! We have built a deck that transitions out to the garden, but there's still some work to do to finish things off and re-connect to our gardening activities.

Thus, we are researching ideas and designs for our backyard, as we have an opportunity to "start from scratch".

I've been reading up on Permaculture Design (Simon gave me Bill Mollison's lovely book recently) and we are turning our thoughts to a sustainable garden that can produce things for us but also for itself to keep it self-sufficient (you know, mulches, composting, seasonal mixes, etc).


So, while we are keen to put in rainwater tanks and a grey water system, we need to also think about the layout and the slope of the property and use the best areas for the best fit to our (outdoor) activities. And of course, we need to look after our little ladies who are keeping us in a fine stock of eggs!

We also want to maintain our worm farm and also a space (or theme) in which the kids can play and explore.

Between now and then (likely about 12 months) I am gathering together plants, propagating things we like the look of, eyeing off secondhand bricks, sleepers and limestone blocks and researching ways to generally make our garden summer-proof here in Perth - and ouch, what a summer we've just had! Hot, dry and simply bears NO fruit/veg wihtout constant water and shade (two things we don't as a constant).

So, wile we will maintain a small garden bed over the coming cooler months, our focus will shift more to our bigger plans in creating a backyard garden to cherish.

Happy gardening!

Propagating plants

I haven't spent much time propagating plants but in the past few weeks have given it a go with some geraniums, pelargoniums and bougainvillea. The geranium is a gorgeous red-pink miniature cluster of flowers. The pelargoniums are both scented, one a cinnamon and the other a rose - I simply love the scented ones as previously posted.




The bougainvillea is a deep pink colour with dark green leaves.



All of these I've struck from cuttings. They look to be taking okay, but no doubt still have a way to go. Hoping they'll survive the summer okay too.

Lastly I've struck some Wormwood cuttings. Wormwood seems to be good for chooks in keeping insects at bay, as it is a natural insecticide.

I want to plant a couple of bushes close to our chook shed and have also spread some branches on the floor of their shed.

The other cuttings, once robust, will go around the kids' playground area and hopefully add to their sensory explorations!

Happy gardening!

Seedlings amongst friends

Nothing like sharing the odd seedling with others. Thanks to our friend Kels for these lovely, healthy cucumber seedlings. Apparently lovingly reared from the compost heap (as all good seedlings are) ;-)



Now to find a place to plant them!

Happy gardening!

Rose-scented Geranium (Pelargonium 'Graveolens')

Rose scented Geranium a photo by margoc on Flickr.

There are so many lovely scented varieties of Geranium, but the Rose-scented Geranium (Pelargonium 'Graveolens') has to be my favourite. I am propagating some to put around the kids' sandpit and play area, along with another variety which is Cinnamon scented - it's amazing!

Apparently, these varieties are not true Geraniums but are Pelargoniums, native to South Africa - what an import, I love 'em!