In the garden today

The weather is getting colder, and I have been putting off some work in the garden. Today I finally got around to doing what has needed to be done for a few weeks now.

On a recent visit to Bundanoon I was gifted some seeds...they are out of date, but I planted extra to allow for that. Thanks Maree for the seeds.

It's a bit of a reach over the dog fences, and with aches from the cold weather;
I was a bit sloppy with planting the Peas, but they are out of date, so extra won't hurt.
Using a tomato steak to make the planting line and cover seeds helps to eliminate bending.

Gifted Radish Seed Tape....I have never used seed tape before.

Red Spring Onions.....make a deep line for planting.
Place each seedling in separately, then gently fill in with extra soil.
The seedlings will soon stand up and be happy
once over the shock of being transplanted.

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 Spuds, Spuds and more spuds......

I bought some Kipfler potatoes a few months back, 

and kept the larger ones aside for seed.

Storing them in a brown paper bag is good, 

as they don't like the light.

See the one that is cut in half.
If you have a seed potato with two eyes spaced apart from each other,
you can cut the seed in half and get two plants from the one seed.

Tub #1: A large pot

Tub #2: A 20 Litre bucket with a hole cut in the bottom....
last used for an hanging upside
down  tomato plant which wasn't so successful.
The tomato plant used all its energy to turn
the right way up, and didn't produce much fruit.

Tub #3: A Potato Bag, gifted to me by Mum.

 I have added about 20cm of soil to each tub, planted the seed potatoes and covered them with another layer of soil. Once the leaves start to show through the soil, I will add another layer of soil, thus producing another layer of potatoes. I have never planted potatoes before.

I must be doing something right, I have been finding a lot of lovely
fat worms in my composted soil.
Last time I was in the garden I was finding them even bigger than this one.
I am wearing gloves because I have some bad cuts
on my hands that I am trying to protect.

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 Mice and Rats hate the smell of baked egg shells.

I sometimes have trouble with rats eating my young seedlings, 

I have since been told that they can't stand the smell of baked egg shells,

so they got sprinkled where I planted radishes and a few rows of Carrots and Peas today.

Newly planted Radishes from seed tape.....
behind is some almost ready to pick.

Newly planted Peas along the fence
and Carrots up the end.

Vermin & Basil Harvesting

No luck with the rat traps last night...why would a rat eat dog food off a perfectly loaded rat trap...when it can eat my fresh juicy almost ripe butter beans?
They wouldn't !!! If I had to choose I would pick the beans too....but Please......get out of my garden...I beg of you !!!!

 I haven't even eaten one yet....now that gets me peeved....

 A midnight snack for one rat

I have two of these beds of butter beans coming up, all flowering and new beans almost ready to pick...Here is a photo of one of the butter bean beds.

After trying rat traps...I have thought long and hard about introducing a poison into my garden...I don't like the idea, but I can't continue sharing my garden with the rats, they are so destructive. If it looks like rain, I will bring in the baited cans....I do not want this poison leaking into my soil...I just want the vermin to eat it. 

I salvaged a few empty cans, and have placed a bait in each....These baited cans are now in my garden...and all I can do is wait and hope they eat the bait, and not my beans.....

Have you ever had vermin in your garden?

What did you do to get rid of them?

Did it work?

I would love to hear all about it.

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WHEN BASIL IS IN ABUNDANCE 

DON'T LET IT GO TO WASTE.

I have an abundance of Basil in the garden at the moment....and not wanting to let it go to waste...I harvested the largest plant today, leaving the smaller one to grow more....and pick from.

BELOW: I will let this plant keep growing to harvest from later. 

BELOW: The beauty of this Basil is that I didn't even plant it, it self seeded in the gravel. 

Wooo Hooo...free Basil. I love free plants.

Free Basil self-seeded in the gravel path.

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HOW I DIDN'T LET MY BASIL GO TO WASTE

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MAKING BASIL PESTO

Harvest your Basil

Gather together all the ingredients needed to make Basil

Carefully toast the Pine Nuts. 

Once they start to turn a lovely golden colour, remove from the heat and sprinkle nuts onto a cool plate to stop them toasting more.

I have done my research and this is the cheapest way I can buy Pine Nuts,

sorry but at this time I don't have the price, but I will fix that next time I go to Cole's.

The best way to peel garlic is to cut the hard core off the end, then place your knife blade flat on the garlic and press down on the blade with the palm of your hand. The skin will come away easily.

My Parmesan Cheese had seen better days. I grated all of it. 

The recipe called for 1/3 cup. So after measuring that out, I placed the rest in the freezer.

This way none of the cheese will go to waste. I can use the larger pieces of 

'rind' in a soup that needs a bit of thickening, and the grated Parmesan will be used as normal.

Now you have all the measured ingredients placed in the whizzer...

set it on pulse for a few times until roughly chopped. 

Then put the whizzer on the lowest setting, and while the motor is running, drizzle the olive oil into the whizzer.

Label the jar clearly, and pour the mix of pesto into the jar. Pour some more on top of the pesto to stop the basil from oxidising.

I have stored this in the fridge to be used on pasta and other dishes.

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FRESH BASIL FROM THE FREEZER

With the left over Basil, I have prepared this for the freezer. When Basil is not in the garden, I have Basil cubes in the freezer to use. Each cube holds 1 teaspoon of Basil,

once thawed it is like the day you chopped it.

Chop up an amount of Basil and mix with lemon juice to help hold the colour of the basil. I placed one teaspoon of chopped basil in each ice-cube. 

Pour water into each cube with a small jug. Using a label in one of the ice-cubes, pour water over that one too. This way if you are doing different herbs, its easy to keep track. 

Once frozen I will decant these cubes into a labelled press-seal bag.

I may not get back here for a few days, as I am attending a cheese course over the entire weekend..My mum paid for this course for me as a birthday present.....My birthday is on Wednesday.

 I look forward to getting back to my blog to tell you all about my cheese weekend. Over the entire course I will have made and bought home 10 cheeses. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. 

If you have an abundance of Basil, harvest it for later use before it spoils on the bush.

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I'm not alone

Walking around my garden this fine cool morning,

OH NO!!!! WE ARE NOT ALONE

On closer inspection of my sweet chillies, I see we are not alone..they are back, Yes Rats!! Low down dirty hungry rats.

I should have listened to Rusty yesterday, when she was hunting the gardens.....

She found the last lot, which did heaps of damage....

I had tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, even radishes......Oh they don't like the skin on a radish, it gets spat out, and left on the ground,....as for the beetroot, they don't like the stems, and leave them standing upright so you are unaware of their presence, The carrots all got eaten or distroyed. There was nothing to salvage when they went through my garden....although they didn't eat the herbs.

It certainly made me lose my gardening spirit for a while, but I am back and they're gonna die.

I agree with Rusty, a good rat, is a deads rat.

Last time we had damage like this, I trapped and killed 6 rats, and 5 mice

all in a week

Apparently  next door has decided to get chickens.

I'm setting the traps again tonight.

Rusty says, "Let me at 'em mum, I can smell 'em."

I'm really sorry that I never picked up on what she was on about, I just thought she was after lizards again, as she does this daily. At least I have caught it early.

Sorry Rusty, I will be more attentive in the future.

I continued to take stock of what was happening in the garden, taking photos, to keep a record of what still needs to be done..
the seedlings are all looking fantastic...

But the strawberries are looking really bad, It seems I may have put too much moisture keeping products on them, even the eggshells to stop the slugs is growing algae...I will have to get onto this shortly.

I have a lonely Jam Melon, It was a surprise, so I planted it, not knowing anything on growing them,...It has bearly done anything, up until now. In the last few weeks it has taken on all the new leaves that are green....Yes it was totally neglected...and  planted in very poor soil...I only potted it to see what would

 happen, I am not expecting any fruit from it, but the leaves are so unusual, I may have to press some in my flower press. ( a post for the future)

The 7 year bean seeds need to be harvested, and remove the vine., I must remember not to pull the roots out, I believe they come up again for about 7 years. Cool, will just have to wait n see.

The climbing butter beans are doing well, they like the cane sticks I gave them

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I have two tomato plants that are about the same height as the butter beans, they have started producing flowers...so if the good warm weather keeps up, I may get some tomatoes to harvest again before the cold sets in.

I have a mix of salad leaf seeds I also need to harvest....

at least I will get the beds back for the winter crop.

and the rest of the celery seeds to be harvested.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my garden, I enjoy sharing, so If you like something, or have a question, please don't hesitate to leave a message..