G’day!

As an Australian I have never ever said G’day mate in my general life. Perhaps for a tourist or mucking about. G’day a form of hello in vernacular Australia.
G’day, good day! G’day, gardening day…so as an Australian living in Tasmania in the southern most council region of Australia. I feel it fits my post today.
A lot has been happening about my little acre. Last summer I was getting frustrated with blackberries wildly growing along one of my boundary fence lines.
My plum trees seen in foreground of first photo below were becoming surrounded by shade and the black berries were heading towards them. A wonderful neighbour and his business partner gave me a quote which seemed huge originally and I needed to think about it. I ended up thinking about how my hazel nuts were impacted last summer too. It was a necessity for harvesting and survival of them. So I agreed. I am so incredibly happy with the result. Light streaming in, and whilst the plum trees are not going to give me plums this year I have hopes for next year. The hazelnuts are incredibly happy! Growing everyday.

The last two photgraphs from my vegetable garden shows the increasre in light and water that can be seen now. It may be an issue that wind will become a big issue now that the blackberries have gone. It will be interesting to see. For hazelnuts to pollinate it is done by the wind so for my trees this will enhance pollination.

The vegetable garden is looking different this year I have put in two new beds. Corrugated iron. I have been making soil for them over Autumn and winter. I have to plant a lot of vegetable seedlings this weekend. Tomatoes, chilies, capsicums(sweet peppers), zucchini, eggplant(aubergine), beans, pumpkins and a heap of others I can not recall at present ..oh cucumbers. My hope is that I will reap more than I did last year. lol. First row of photographs below.

Photos second row above are broad beans that are producing huge amounts and are delicous. The wind has been playing havoc with them as we have had very unusual spring wind coming from a southerly direction..I had not set the beans up for that direction. The last photo is of some of my garlic. I have not planted enough of them I realise, there is always next year. I am sure there will be a lot of local garlic available. In the background of the last photo is one of several foxgloves that self seed each year. This one in the last photo stands over 180cm/6ft.

The marigolds have flowered all year which has been terrific. The fruit trees are fruiting up beautiful peach, cherries sweet and morello, (my newly planted in a pot this winter) plums, apples. The jostaberries, red currants are loaded. Blue currants in the pots loaded, not as many on the two I planted into the ground.

I thought the double grafted (two variety) apple I had planted and am trying to espalier has one side that is loaded with leaves and a few apples. I thought that the other side had died. I was surprised and very happy to see leaves coming out this week. Other apples are doing well.

A busy weekend of planting seedlings and making structures to ensure things will have supports as required.

I am so hopeful for a good year of growing home grown vegetables, fruit and hazel nuts. I have been picking some asparagus, and lettuce, green onions, miners lettuce, I have been able to pick a couple of small cauliflowers. It is a learning curve always.

The wood chips I have been using in the vegetable garden are certainly holding moisture. Which is fantastic for summer. We have just had a 32dC/90dF already this week yet ten days ago the fire was lit. This is part of the reason I have yet to plant seedlings out. Old timers always say do not put tomatoes out until after show day, which is normally about the 17th November. A bit early but they need to go in.

Happy weekend everyone.

blessings to You,

Tazzie

November 13, 2020 4

Nuts and I in isolation.

It feels like Winter is approaching faster today. It is not cold, though the sky is light grey and rain is falling steadily. The dogs are sleeping and I am listening to the rain on my metal roof. It is always welcome rain. I value rain water as it fills my water tanks of which I am totally reliant for all my water needs.

At the same time I know that this rain is part of huge mass that is also bringing rain to mainland Australia to parts that have been impacted by drought for many years. I am quite happy being inside my home for the next couple of days. I have many things I need to be doing.

Please do not think for one moment that I am not aware of how very different it is for many many millions of people across Australia and the world. Who are not living in a rural community. Who are in lock down or being directed as we here in Australia are to stay at home. I am very aware of my blessings. I am also very thankful for them.

Pantrys are amazing things if you are fortunate to have one. Problems can arise when things get put into a container or pushed behind other items right at the back. As it is raining and rather than just sit and be lost into the nether world of You Tube making the decision to go through mine was a real positive experience. Finding (out of date) nuts and other bits and pieces.

I am making a chocolate granola.

Well it will probably end up being more of a nibble food.

It is all from stuff I have had in the back of my pantry and fridge. Nothing is off. I am not afraid of using products that are out of date. I use my knowledge and common sense.

When I was very young we would get these whole nut bags at Christmas time from Britain. We were so excited as all nuts were incredibly expensive. My parents as a special treat would buy this mixed nuts in shells net bag for our family to share. If we were really lucky there would be one type of nut each. It was so intriguing to see these edible morsels appear after the nut was cracked. Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds. Oh such foreign words to my hearing back then. My dislike of the flavour of Walnuts remained for many years.

Imagine my surprise many years later learning that the chances of those nuts being rancid was very high. They along with many other products would have been shipped to Australia. They would have been picked from all over the world, shipped to the Britain and most likely bagged there. Then shipped to Australia, where they may sit in warehouses, or shops until Christmas time.

I did not taste fresh walnuts until I moved to Tasmania. Wow what a totally different experience. Delicious.
Add to that my partner had a friend who lived in a house that was surrounded by commercial walnut trees near Swansea on the East Coast of Tasmania.

After the harvest was completed, He would take us ,with permission of the company to pick up any walnuts that had fallen since or been missed. We had huge bags of walnuts in the shell. Fresh of the trees. I can only imagine how old the nuts I ate back in my childhood were. We had enough walnuts to last us until the next year, and they were still nicer.

Similarly Hazelnuts were included in these bags. Now I grow them and the taste is very different.

I grew up way before the introduction of ‘best before’ and ‘use bye’ dates were mandatory on all products. I am so very thankful for that.

Thankful because I do not throw anything out that can still be used.

So in the pantry I found some locally grown hazel nuts, sunflower seeds, some coconut flakes, and some sultanas. (they were all in an old coffee tin air tight.) I had written something on the out side of the tin, now illegible. I have oats and cocoa powder honey and some coconut oil. So chocolate granola. Yummo!

Looking at the Rosehips seeds and pulp there is so much left. Throwing them out seems so wasteful and there is still a lot of fluid in them. My mind was ticking over, back on the stove with more water, draining again, lots of colour and the flavour is a bit different to yesterday yet lovely. There may not be much vitamin content now my feeling is it will be a pleasant coridal.

Yesterday the washing was put in the machine so it would be completed upon my return from the essential shopping. Arriving home, it was completely forgotten about. Left sitting overnight in the machine. On wakening this morning the necessity to hang the washing was high, even though it was cooler and raining steadily. So fortunate to have the stair rails to hang washing on. With all the heat being generated from the kitchen with the cooking rice for the dogs, redoing the rosehips, and baking chocolate granola nibbles, it may be OK and dry.

Poor Busby has hurt his leg. So the rain over the next day few days with steady rain keeping him indoors is much easier. He is not very keen on going out in the constant rain. So he is on toilet privileges and is now on enforced lock down. The photo below sums up how he is feeling.

Treacle would like a run, but as an older dog she is equally happy to just stay in and be dry and snooze.

blessing to you all Tazzie

April 2, 2020 11

Around the garden chase the teddy bears..or dogs

Today it is quite mild only reaching a maximum of 15dC/59dF with showers, wind and tonight a minimum of 4dC/39.2.
This weather will continue slowly warming back up again mid week.

Yesterday I was enjoying coffee and a book in the sunshine on my deck getting my vitamin D.
I sat outdoors on my deck marveling at how lovely a day it was. Watching the little puffs of clouds float bye.
The brown butterflies and white butterflied, bumble bees, honey bees and native bees buzzed about.
Birds chatter and song filled the air. Caw of crows, and songs of blackbirds. Wrens and pardolottes.

My washing was drying in my solar drier.
Whilst doonas, dog beds and blankets all aired in the gentle breeze and sunshine. So lovely to snuggle under last night. To me that is the perfect scent to go to sleep with. Bliss.

It is has been a while since I wrote about the veggie garden. So the dogs and I ventured outside in between showers. It is not really as cold as I thought lol. Just going from a beautiful sunny 28dC/82.4dF yesterday to this is a bit of a shock to my system.

I shall start with the deck. There is still quite a lot happening on the deck as you will be able to see. So many flowers still going. Cornflowers and sweet peas which I have had since late spring. A beautiful long period.

Things on the deck are doing OK even though they may be getting a bit wind blown and the chillier nights may not be to all the plants liking.

Herbs such as sage and thyme are still growing new leaves, as is the Greek oregano I have that grows about the wine barrels and path. I still live in hope that some of my tomatoes still on the vine will develop enough to ripen as temperatures are to warm up again next week.

I have been getting tomatoes off both areas. The deck ones I have had to pick a bit greener as some critter has been getting in under or between the netting gaps, the night before I have decided I will have those couple for breakfast in the morning.
I now I should have learnt by now never ever think let alone say out loud that you are going to pick that fuit/vegetable tomorrow.
Exact same thing happened with the grapes. I did score a few and they were delicious.

Top Row L-R Carrot seedlings: Brassicas in polystyrene, carrots seedlings in small pot, beetroot? seedlings in large pot.
Middle Row L-R Amaranth and small pansies: Egg Plant/Aubergine with flowers: Self sown Peas and a broad bean seed growing that I just popped in there.
Bottom Photo Centre in post beet root seedlings; left front lavender, right blueberry plant;

Top row L-R Sage: lemon tree in recovery: SweeAlyssum (Lobularia maritima): Corn Flowers (Centaurea cyanust)
Middle row L-R: Carrrot flowers; Spring Onion Flowers; Surprise me seedlings.
Last photo carrot seedlings

Top Row L-R Eggplant/aubergine flowers: Deck tomatoes fruiting:
Middle Row L-R Lemon and lime trees bottomerow lemon and lime tree and sad looking brassica self sown

I have been picking a few beans every day, often eating quite a few as I wander about the garden watering or looking. Similarly with the broccoli I just eat it raw at the time or in salad raw. Too nice to cook.

The corn is swelling. I did try my first cob last night for part of my dinner. It was so sweet and tasty, some of it not so developed. I picked it because I could see something had been trying to get into it. I have a few cobs left. I know that if I were to grow corn next spring summer I will not be doing it in a three season bed. Same thing with the pumpkin.
Everything grew well. Everything has produced is producing something but in tiny amounts apart from the beans. The only thing that I feel was really successful and I feel it would have been on it is own is the bean tripod.

I have self sown rocket, red sorrel and a brassica of unknown origin or type just popping up about the beds on the paths of the Vegetable garden. I have not had plantain in my vegetable garden for years and this year I have it. I am so happy about this. This does not bother me in the slightest. Gaia is so generous if we allow her.

I keep thinking I should pick some Rosehips, and make some Rosehip syrup.

The dogs enjoyed being outside between showers, and sniffed, played and rolled about in delight. As I picked and ate some blackberries. I also looked at the wild apple tree in the hedgerow and picked a couple of apples off it. They look a bit green to me.

The middle photograph in the top row is of a watermelon plant that was planted as a seedling back in November. It is only just flowering now. I do not like my chances of getting any fruit. Oh you have to gamble some times. I feel the position of this bed and the metal walls protecting it were to much contributing to it not doing well.

The middle row shows the dogs and I looking at the hazelnut shrubs. I was picking hazel nuts off the branches, and off the ground. Noting that some thing has been eating them.
It is interesting to note that almost every nut on the ground still has no nut inside. How do these critters know this?
Busby likes chewing the shell and seeing if their is a nut inside. The two he got that I had dropped on the deck both had nuts in them.
I can find it hard to distinguish if there is a nut or not. I have four different types of hazelnuts so do not understand why I am not getting fertillised nuts. Something to research.

As the garden heads further into Autumn I am thinking of what I need to do to prepare for next spring.

I have to soon plant garlic. Possibly in the next week. Peter Cundall who was one of the long term presenters of Gardening Australia on the Australian Broadcasting Commission TV. He happens to live up in Tamar Valley in the North of the state. Used to say plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest. This worked for the first few years I grew garlic but no longer. The season has changed.

These final photos are back on the deck some garlic that was sprouting (not my home grown ones but some I had bought as locally grown) I placed in the pots. The bounty of hazel nuts and all that was left on my Huonvalley Crab Apple tree. The rest show a hodge podge of pots on the deck with cos lettuce, mints, sage, brassica, flowering strawberry plants, cape gooseberry, a small pot with a self sown broad bean and pea.

I personally find gardening wonderful, challenging, and constantly requiring evaluation. I find for my mental well being it is a wonderful place to be. I rarely wear gloves (even with risks of Scorpion stings and Jack Jumper Ant bites) preferring to have my hands connect to the soil.
I call it being earthed. For me it brings a sense of well being of contentedness to Gaia. That perhaps things are not so bad in the world.

Blessings to You all Tazzie

March 14, 2020 6

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