Our little Garden

It's WINTER! What Can I Grow??? Well there are loads of things you can grow, however if you're new to gardening, or not sure, then there are a couple of things that are really easy to grow, and really easy to use, without being a market gardener or a hotel chef!

1) Silverbeet / Mixed Chard / Rainbow Chard, will grow all year round. It needs friable soil (not compacted hard dirt or clay) which can be made by digging in some compost, & only if needed. It loves fertilizer (such as dried poultry manure pellets) mixed into the soil, and you don't need to over do it!
As for cooking it, whilst there are hundreds of ways, it can be as easy as dice the stems thinly, then slice the leaves into small strips about 1cm wide (like in the photo). Then throw it all into a hot, wide pan (or wok) with some butter, & keep turning it over, adding salt and pepper as you wish. Done! - That's it! Hot meal, or part of a hot meal completed. If you want to get fancy, just brown or fry some bacon pieces, chicken pieces or beef strips first, in the same pan, flavouring if you wish, then set them aside for 3 minutes while you cook the Silverbeet / mixed chard as above, then toss it all together for another 2 minutes. A hot healthy yummy meal in just a few minutes.

2) Pak Choi or Bok Choy; The same as above for the Silverbeet

3) Spring Onions / Shallots / Bunching Onions, & also Chives: The same as above, Cook by throwing / mixing in with the silverbeet / mixed chard.

Easy Peasy, Plant some seedlings 😃😃😃

Here's a thought! => There's currently a huge, rapidly increasing & dangerous food shortage going on around the world. "Sri Lanka" have stated they'll run out of food by September, and have moved to a 4 day week to allow workers to grow food in their Backyards!!!! (Yes, it's that bad). And in the mean time, this stuff grows like a w**d when you plant it - "Bok Choy" & "Pak Choi" - It's even trying to grow in our lawn! Asian greens (awesome in stir fry's) that will grow very well in your backyard, even with limited sunlight during the day. So do yourself a favour, plant some "Bok Choy" or "Pak Choy" seedlings, and find yourself having loads of yummy and really healthy fresh greens right in your own backyard. The way things are going, you could very well end up needing to rely on it faster than expected. Simply pick a few leaves off every plant, then come back in 4 or 5 days and do the same. Happy Gardening Everyone 😃

LETTUCE : Most varieties of lettuce will grow all year round. Yes they have their ideal rapid growing times, however most varieties will still grow really well, all year round. Many varieties can grow for 4 or 5 months straight, with you as the gardener simply removing a few of the outer leaves, from off each lettuce plant to make up a salad. Then the lettuce keeps opening up as it grows and producing more outer leaves. Whilst varieties like iceberg lettuce are not so accommodating in this way, the majority of lettuce varieties are, (and also taste so much better). So get planting some seedlings asap, plant more than you need, and simply harvest a few leaves off each plant at a time.

PONDS IN THE BACKYARD, for natural pest control:
The dreaded "White cabbage moth" caterpillar, wreaks havoc in so many veggie gardens. These destructive little blighters can be difficult to find as they hide during the day. Whilst netting the crop is best, some areas can be hard to net. That's where our Froggies come in.

These Sentinel Guard's sometimes take a week or so to move to the area where the moths eggs have been laid, but they then destroy the population of caterpillars in no time at all, - and they do it while we're all sleeping, when the caterpillars come out.

We placed an IBC container, cut in half (you could use anything), in the garden, filled with rain water, and let the frogs move in. Thousands of tadpoles later, our garden has frogs everywhere. Natural pest control at its best. 😃😃😃
Happy Gardening everyone. 😃😃😃

Don't forget to cover any susceptible crops with netting, to stop the "White Cabbage Moth butterfly" from laying eggs, leading to crop destruction via caterpillars. If you haven't netted susceptible crops already, now is the time to get onto it fast in cooler climates.

Basil being picked at least once per week now, and overflowing the large stainless bowl. It's growing rapidly and healthily in a wicking bed, under 40% shade cloth, in cooler South Gippsland, Victoria.
The smell is amazing 😃😃😃😃

Tomatoes: From Seeds to Planting,
(In the Garden or Larger Pots) - Our process.

*Some time ago, we grew a lot of tomatoes directly from seed, which we sowed in "multi cell" trays with a success rate of 194 out of 198 planted (We're putting together a video showing how to raise seeds more easily and successfully shortly).

* Once these tomato seedlings grow to around 10cm tall, we take them out of the multi-cell trays and plant them each into small plastic pots, filled with cheap old potting mix, and a small sprinkle of pelletized organic poultry manure (very cheap). - Many are given away, some are kept.

* Once these grow to around 30-50cm tall, we then take them out of their small pots, and plant them directly into the main garden, OR place them into larger pots, (usually around 10 - 12 inches or 25 - 30cm wide).

* We fill these larger pots with a basic potting mix and a generous helping of the organic poultry manure pellets (surprisingly inexpensive).

NOTE 1: Often you will see extra roots growing at the sides of the main trunk, just above the soil surface. When repotting or planting, these should be covered / planted below the new soil surface level. This will aid additional root growth and therefore increase the plants ability to uptake nutrients and produce better / greater volumes of fruit.

NOTE 2: It is important to ensure the contents are then slightly firmed down, & that the potting mix / soil is not too loose. Firming down assists the roots to grow well & gain future nutrients whilst also offering structural support to the plant. It cannot do this properly if the potting mix is too loose.

NOTE 3: Trim off any leaves which are touching or close to touching the soil, or the pot in any way. Trimming these lower reaching leaves off, greater prevents some diseases from travelling into your tomato plants, and also aids in ventilation at the bottom of the plant which again is vital in preventing diseases in tomato plants.

* Then, the plants are then either staked (if planting in the garden), or trained up a trellis, OR, for those still in pots we tie them up to an overhead support. We do this by suspending a string from above and tying the plant to it. This offers the plant support, especially when heavy laden with fruit.

* Water in well, remembering that sometimes a tonic type product such as Seasol, can help.

If remaining in pots, tomato plants & many other veggies also, can benefit greatly from a liquid feed (we use "Power feed"), once each week or so.

We hope this helps someone in some way. 😃
Happy Gardening Everyone. 😃😃😃

We finally got out to do a spot of gardening today, and to say that Millie was into everything would be an understatement. It was rather funny watching her steal a lump of coir, and take off running through the garden like she'd struck gold. The funniest part however was watching my wife chase her through the garden to make sure she didn't eat it. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. And then Millie decided to help with the w**ding 😁😁😁😁😁 Happy days.

A few varieties from the over 200 tomato seeds we sowed just a few weeks back. Coming along nicely, (Every single seed has germinated and grown well).
The idea was to let them get a little bit leggy, before transplanting a little deeper than usual, to aid in extra strength and root growing ability, as well as aid in greater nutritional uptake when needed. Below are some Roma, Daydream, Cherokee Purple, & Tigerella.

Just a few of the 200 tomato seeds planted, coming along nicely. Several varieties of colour, flavour, size, fruiting times etc.. Should be lots of seedlings to give to friends and family.
Happy Gardening Everyone 😀

Shelf racking made, using 40mm x 40mm galvanized RHS (square steel tube). All set to carry 4 different levels of shelving for all of our veggie plants and veggie seedlings, both now, as well as right through winter in this amazing Sproutwell Grange Green House that we were lucky enough to purchase second hand.
Now just to make up the shelving & we'll be set to load them up with all the seedlings and plants we've had growing in there.
Note: This morning it's 11.2° C outside, but is 24.6° inside the green house.

Installing a Mains Water Pressure Garden Tap inside the Hot House, by connecting to an Existing Garden Tap. *** What we did and how we did it. 😃
I hope this helps someone who may be interested. I cannot imagine not having a tap inside the hot house now. We have two taps and a third outlet for a future misting system inside our hot house, with incredible mains water pressure.

Please forgive my steep learning curve in making a video, and please forgive the way You Tube has messed up the sound when uploading to YouTube! - I shall endeavor to produce some better videos with increasingly good content to help share any knowledge and experience we have gained in our gardening, to help you in yours.
Feel free to comment below or on the video & tell us what you think, or ask any questions you think we might be able to help with and we'll do our best to answer them.
Happy Gardening everyone 😃

Installing a Mains Water Pressure Garden Tap, - By connecting to an Existing Garden Tap. In this video we show the components needed to install a new mains water pressure tap, inside a hot house, and the process of connecting these to an Existing...

Rodents in the garden! After going for so long without rat or mice problems, we've somehow had a huge influx of both. This one caught in amongst the Bok Choy, and others caught in amongst the broccoli, beetroot, and Bok Choy also. We decided to test out a few different traps and baits to see what worked well, and what was less effective. We'll put together a little video showing the results and effectiveness and place it up on our page here.
Happy Gardening Everyone. 😃

One of our "Pick & Pick Again" sections of the garden. Harvesting the outer leaves of these plants gives you healthy produce & food, whilst leaving the plants to keep growing and producing for you over several months. We can currently harvest from this section of the garden every second day at least, and not make a dent. Gardening is great. Home grown Food Production is Awesome!!
Bok Choi, Red Curley Kale, Curley, Parsley, Continental parsley, Spring Onions, Mixed Chard, and more.

We manage to produce an incredible amount of produce in our backyard, and we love sharing how we do it. Unfortunately, Facebook can be a bit challenging at times to upload videos to. We also have many people who don't use facebook, but who would like to watch some of our videos showing what we are doing, & how we are doing it.

Therefore, after much persuasion from my family (mostly the kids), I have decided to produce some better quality videos, and upload them to a new "YouTube" channel (as well as uploading many of them here). I've started the YouTube channel by uploading some existing videos, and will begin producing more videos very shortly. We will give it a go for a while, and if we get plenty of people clicking on the "Subscribe" button and liking the videos, then it will make it worthwhile continuing to produce the videos, and uploading content of increasing quality and value.

Thanks to all of you wonderful people who have been so kind and supportive in your lovely comments on here. We look forward to producing more great content for you on here as well as additional content for our You Tube Channel.
Thanks a Million everyone. 😃😃😃
If you feel like it, please head over and give the new You tube Channel a looksee and a Subscribe. The more subscribers it gets, the better the videos we will be able to make for you guys. You can find our new You Tube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM4AKCm5vPEgvSsfzsJrdsg

Don't forget, Asian Greens go really well at this time of year. Great in stews, veggie soups, and stir fries, the Pak Choi & Bok Choy will be harvested a few leaves at a time from each plant, which will continually grow and renew for months, and the Wombok cabbages will be harvested as needed.
Happy Gardening Everyone 😁

Salads are not just for summer. Growing very nicely in the Wicking Beds, in cold Southern Victoria, these lettuce varieties will be used for hamburgers, dinners, kids lunches, and more. These varieties will be harvested a few leaves at a time, thus allowing the more central leaves to keep growing upwards and outwards. Less than a week after harvesting we find they're usually ready to pick a load again. This wicking bed will keep our family of 6 in lettuce for many months. 😃
Happy Gardening Everyone. 😃😃😃

Fresh Beetroot Recipe? Try grated fresh beetroot, with equal parts grated carrot, & grated apple, and a little grated ginger mixed in. A friend gave us the recipe mix, and it's yum 😁 A little bit of lemon or lime juice can help with the apple. And be warned, the beetroot could have you looking like you've just committed a crime 😂

I have a very large hand, yet this beauty dwarfed my hand. Given to me as an un-named seedling, I'll be sure to save some seeds from this ripper. This is just the average size of tomato on this plant. If only I had more of these ripen early on the season. Fun and games in our area this year for tomatoes.
Happy Gardening Everyone 😁

Almost at the end of our tomatoes this season with this lot going into the oven. Have a great weekend everybody. Happy Gardening 😁

Green House Update:
I had the pleasure of speaking with the staff at Sproutwell Green houses and Hot houses this week, in regards to the "Sproutwell Grange" unit that we purchased second hand a few weeks back. Their customer service was fantastic, as was their great advice, and they have already emailed out some materials to assist in the building of the unit.
We have a few things to do to prepare for the construction process, including removing the old poly tunnel hot house (hopefully completed today), & cleaning up the spot where it will be constructed. We are taking loads of photos and putting together both a written & a video review of the process and also the finished product, to assist anyone else who maybe contemplating putting in a hot house. We even have loads of veggies and plants ready to place into the unit as soon as its up. We can't wait. We'll keep you posted 😃
Note: Photo below is a stock photo we borrowed from the Sproutwell site, as it looks better than our full trailer with a tarp over it 😄

Just some of the seedlings going in this weekend: Green Cabbage, Red Cabbage, Wombok Cabbage (currently $7 each at our local supermarket), Fennel (even just for the texture and smell in the garden it's worth it), and what seems like a sea of Spring Onions 😃

You can never have too much Beetroot 😃 Growing quite well, despite our weird growing season here in South Gippsland, like many other places.