What's For Dinner?

It's been a while since I've done a feature on What's For Dinner?...here we have a sampling of some greens and veggies to add into tonight's mix.  Radishes are still growing really well here.  It's simply a matter of planting some seeds, waiting a few weeks and then planting some more seeds; that way there's always a crop to be harvested.  Some parsley and chives to add some flavour to the relatively bland kale.  Some silverbeet that I stir fried with the kale, and some lettuce for a salad.  Organic gardening is so easy, and tastes so good!

Inspiration for Summer Shades

One important factor to remember while gardening through the summer months is the intensity of the sun on those scorching days.  Here in the Byron Shire, we've had some pretty strange weather patterns lately, with some early morning sun and heat, really strong afternoon winds, heavy rains from passing storms.  While protecting your vegetables from the wind and rain can prove worthwhile, I've really been tempted to implement a new shading system to lower the shock to some plants during the summer.  During my time volunteering at the Mullumbimby Community Gardens last week, I came across this structure...

On the left side of the frame, the shade is pulled over the top and is providing shade while still allowing any wind to pass through.  When you want to protect your plants even more, you can simply pull down the shade (at an angle) to go over the edge of the raised bed.

Growing inside is all sorts of green goodness: broccoli, silverbeet, bush beans, and a friendly reminder to respect the nature we got all of this greatness from.

So, now to build a structure similar to this one, based on the dimensions and location of the raised beds here at home; I'll keep you posted...

For now, keep track of the upcoming event I've been planning: #4Good Brekky in Mullumbimby at The Empire Cafe on Thursday 7 November.

Crystal Greens

Tucked peacefully up in the hills southwest of Mullumbimby in the Byron Bay hinterland is a labyrinth of gardens filled with beautiful flowering plants and some gigantic crystals.  I thoroughly enjoy the tranquil spirit flowing through this space, The Crystal Castle.  Something new I found this time grabbed even more of my attention...the vegetable garden!

There are nearly ten raised beds here on this sunny hill, with a variety of vegetables, herbs, greens, and inspiration for home-gardeners.

This rainbow chard is a mix of different colors and varieties, and everything looks healthy and happy here.  I wonder how these vegetables would look growing at the foot of some of the massive crystals around here...any thoughts @CrystalCastleBB?

The best part of this vegetable garden, and a design I plan to incporporate soon into my north-facing garden, are these sun shades.  Perfect for some of the more vulnerable lettuces, young seedlings, tomatoes; all vegetables that are subject to sun stress.  The sun is a really important element to growing food for myself all year round, but there are times that my plants could really use a bit of shade, and these screens are going to be a great solution.

What's For Dinner?

I've used this title for a post before, but after harvesting some things from the garden to prepare for dinner tonight, I had the idea for a new series...What's For Dinner?

Here's what's going in to tonight's dinner...
- snow peas
- rosemary
- cherry tomatoes
- silverbeet
- kale (red russian)
- radishes

What's For Dinner?

Before preparing dinner every day I step out to the garden first to check what fresh veggies I can base my dish upon for the evening.  Tonight, what's for dinner? GREENS!

These greens were all planted about a month ago from seedlings and they've taken off...I can easily pick from any of the varieties daily.

Above we have Silverbeet, Asian Cabbage Tokyo Bekana (crazy name I know), Basil, and more Cabbage.

Rocket and Bok Choy in the other bed.  I've been adding Rocket to my hummus lately and it's delicious.

Tonight I'm going to add Bok Choy, Silverbeet, and Asian Cabbage Tokyo Bekana to a yummy pasta dish...hope my friends coming over enjoy it!

UPDATE

Friday 13 September, 2013

This post has now become the first in a series focused on some of my daily harvests from the garden.

Check out What's For Dinner?

The Power of Juicing

Fruits and vegetables are an integral part of your daily intake; we've heard all the rules about how many and when specifically during the day, but to me what really matters is just making sure they go in one way or another.  If you have ten minutes to spare each day for the sake of consuming something delicious, juicing could be a good way for you to spend that time.  Here's an example of what goes into my juice...

The workstation: cutting board with heaps of delicious fruits and vegetables, compost bucket for food scraps, power juicer, juice collector (I prefer a measuring cup).

A good portion of what you see comes from the gardens and fruit trees at home: chives, kale, silverbeet, starfruit, roma tomatoes.  The oranges and carrots are both organic juicing products from local health food stores.

And a delicious finished product.  I'm not a nutritionist, and don't want to pretend to be a preacher of healthy living secrets...I am, however, a very healthy vegetarian who experiences the delight of consuming fresh fruits and vegetables first hand.  You can read more about what other's have to say here.

Back To Life

After 17 weeks away from home you can only imagine the state my garden was in.  Although there was a couple renting the house for the better part of 14 weeks, and although they seem to be hobby gardeners, there was certainly plenty of work to be done.  It's now been almost 8 weeks without a serious rain here in Northern NSW and man does the soil tell the story...rock solid. Another surprise I came across were ashes from the fireplace that had been added to the raised beds.  Turns out ash can be used as a great input for compost as it adds valuable nutrients and can deter insects & weeds from accumulating.  I started by forking the beds in order to loosen the soil and prepare all the areas where I planned to @addmoregreen.

Below is a display of how we have the compost setup at home.  On the left are two small trash bins that are used on a daily basis for kitchen scraps such as orange peels and egg shells (only Guy eats eggs though).  When those bins are full we add their contents (usually quite smelly) to one of the larger bins on the right.  The triangle shaped bin takes much longer to process as the contents sit stagnant for much of the time unless you have a compost turning tool.  The tumbler on the right is our greatest piece of compost equipment.  When I go out each day with the kitchen scraps to add to the trash bins I give the tumbler a good six or seven spins which speeds up the process...nearly twice as fast as the triangle bin.

Next, I took the contents from the tumbler which were ready after our 17 weeks away from home and added them to the areas I already forked.  To this mix I added Yates Dynamic Lifter and Searles 5 In 1.  With freshly forked soil and natural fertilisers added to the beds, I stirred it all together using my garden fork again and then gave the beds a nice drink of water to settle the fertilisers in place.  Now that the soil was ready for new plants I spread out the "starts" in an arrangement that would allow each to get an optimal amount of sun while also working off each other in a permaculture sense (basil near the tomatoes, etc.).

And finally, I got my hands dirty...NO GLOVES!

I hope this post has been a great example for turning your old and worn out soil into something more useful and beautiful.  Let us know what you thought about this post in the comments section.  Take a peek at the pictures below to see exactly what I added to the garden.  Also, be sure to check back for upcoming posts as I will be posting more pictures as all of these plants progress!

Lettuce- Mignonette Mixed

Found these vines growing in two different pots when I got home.  Initially, I thought it was pumpkin but a friend added her input stating the vines are watermelon...I suppose we will have to wait and see when these plants begin to produce.

Tomatoes!

Lettuce- Mixed

Roma Tomatoes

Silverbeet- Fordhook Giant

Eggplant