Dehydrated tomatoes

I finally have a food dehydrator, just in time to deal with the tomato harvest! My visions of making "sun-dried" tomatoes in this may be problematic as the height of the racks won't allow for halves of any tomatoes larger than a not-too-large cherry tomato, and my goodness those halves took forever to dehydrate - two days! Even the slices of brandywines and green zebras took one and a half days.

My conjoined cherry tomato triplets, and two of their normal siblings.

Two types of brandywine tomatoes part-way through the dehydration process.

The end result - dehydrated tomato slices.

The Marrowing

Before

After

A smorgasbord of seedlings

Quick seedling roundup:

Mon 22nd October - planted out a dozen broccoli, half a dozen cauliflower, and a lone red cabbage. Some of these were looking a bit iffy but perked up once planted. Since then, someone's been a-nibbling some of the leaves (in particular the cauliflowers seem to be a favourite). They are all out of sight down the end of the garden (which is all of 10 metres away).

Sunday 28th October - planted out six brandywine, three green zebra and three gardener's delight tomato seedlings. I've put these in the same area as last year as it works so well for watering, but next year I'm going to have to rotate them back into less convenient spots.

Sunday 4th November - I should have sown these a month ago but today I've finally set up seed trays for:
Tomatillo - green and purple varieties
Chilli - Caribbean and Ancho varieties
Capsicum - Marconi Red and Jimmy Nardello
Bergamot
Jamaica
Basil
Cape Gooseberry
Jicama (the first batch of these I did earlier didn't do so well, only one germinated and it died off).

In other gardening news, something has been attacking the strawberry leaves (an insect? There are all these small holes in the middle of the leaves), the coriander has bolted and been removed and the chamomile did the same - we did have several weeks there of a gently waving forest of green topped with white flowers. Still weeding through the rest of the herb garden and tidying things up ready for the planting out of the rest of the herb seedlings, I have Mexican mint, feverfew and anise ready to go in.

Oh, and three hearty courgette seedlings still to plant out!

Maybe I haven't been as slack on the gardening front as I thought.

Hidden treasure

While wandering past the herb garden today, musing to myself for the hundredth time that I really should weed it a bit (or should I? Could just call it ground cover for the winter?) I spied some unexpected varieties amongst the various weed species. The joys of self-sowing have meant that there are plenty of new coriander seedlings, a couple of dill seedlings, and plenty of chamomile - even in the segments of the herb garden furthest from where the chamomile originally was. I've weeded out the actual weeds now to give all these new seedlings a bit more of the winter light. Time to start planning what other herbs should join them in spring!

From small things......

The garlic harvest back in summer was pretty disappointing. Each head seemed really small compared to previous years, and several I just tossed out as they were too small to do anything with. Now garlic planting time has rolled around again, and I have been keeping an eye out at the organic shop waiting for some decent-sized garlic to pop up to restart my stocks. Interestingly, it seems it wasn't just me that had problems this year - their garlic is just as small as mine was, in fact one of the (partially eaten) heads I have in the pantry is noticeably larger than the biggest-cloved specimens I was able to buy! So that one has been rescued from imminent eatery and four of its remaining cloves have been planted out today, along with three each from two I purchased. Fingers crossed for better growing conditions this year and a better result come January!

Carrots - endings and beginnings

This is for all you edible gardeners out there that actually dig up and eat your carrots. You're missing out on the seed-making magic!

The same flower head two weeks ago

Scenes from the dill forest

Summer update - what summer?

It's been a somewhat challenging season so far. While I did really well getting the seeds off and running early and then transplanted out relatively promptly, it's all fallen apart since then. Most of this has been due to factors outside my control. First I was away for 3 weeks from mid-November - just when I need to be vigilant as far as removing tomato laterals, weeding, playing my favourite game of eradicate-the-whitefly, and making sure everything is establishing itself properly. Then, since I returned in mid-December, the weather has been pretty wet.

Strawberries - too wet to get many of any decent quality. I did collect around 500 grams of unnibbled berries when I first arrived back, enough to make a batch of strawberry ice-cream, but since then I'm only getting the two or three I pop on my cereal each morning.

Tomatoes - I'm still waiting for any tomatoes to ripen up. I had to do some major pruning on the plants as they had become quite overgrown, and I don't think the bees had been able to get in to pollinate! The tomatoes on the plants seem much smaller, and fewer in number than in the past. I've now also done some serious removal of the lower leaves in an attempt to make sure any sun that does make an appearance can get in to the actual tomatoes.

The various chillies and capsicums are coming along - no sign of any fruit as yet though.

And a trip down the end of the garden in between the showers today revealed the scent of garlic in the air. I suspect these are ready to harvest, but in order to do that we need a good week of dry weather, and there's no sign of that any time soon. Hopefully they are not starting to rot underground.

Herb garden

(Have just found this October post lurking in my drafts and not posted- oops!)

After much hard working digging in bricks yesterday 23 October I now have an official herb garden. So far there's sage and rosemary in one panel, and chives and german chamomile in another...and subsequently basil, oregano, hyssop and mexican mint seedlings have been planted out and are all growing (well, except for one basil casualty). And now I have the brickwork done I can sow the seeds for the few herbs that are direct-sown.

23 October:

12 November: (watch that chamomile patch grow! The transplanted chives are also flowering)

 

I've also transplanted four Russian Red tomatoes, three Green Zebras and two Gardeners Delight, and subsequently three tomatillos, three ancho chillis and four capsicums.

Down the bottom of the garden I've also transplanted a Cape Gooseberry. I have a couple more of these to go in a neighbouring bed but that bed needs reweeding first. My wrists and knees weren't up to that after establishing the herb garden!

Last year I had grown some forget-me-nots in a pot sitting by the front door. These are now flowering again and I even have one plant that has crossed the concrete path and popped up in the main garden in the perfect spot by the edge of the path. Thanks Nana!

Sage in flower

A good proportion of the first two batches of seedlings have been transplanted from the seed trays into individual pots now, ready for planting out starting from next weekend when the tomatoes will be going in the ground. It's just the capsicums and chillies still in the seed trays now, germinated but not quite ready for the next step.

I've also marked out the herb garden with string. Next weekend I'll be bricking out the segments then planting out some of the seedlings. I'll also be transplanting the chives - yes, the chive seed that I sowed last summer that didn't do anything at the time has now popped up and I have four healthy plants to move.

Still on herbs, one of the sage plants has been busy over the last couple of weeks, progressing from this:

(that's my soon-to-be herb garden behind the sage)

to this:

The sea of waving purple is so pretty!

Seeds - batch 2

But first, a report on batch 1: Tomato (Russian Red) - wonderful peasant stock! All germinated, all hardy-looking, all coming along nicely Tomato (Green Zebra) - the number that I actually wanted have germinated and have their first true leaves now which is good news Tomato (Gardeners Delight) - as always, the cherry tomatoes are the weaklings of the bunch. They did mostly germinate, but were a bit spindly - still got a couple of more sturdy-looking ones so hopefully they will continue to thrive. Cape Gooseberry - today the first couple of seedlings have poked their heads through, hurrah! Parsley - the problem child of this a particular batch. Still plenty of time to resow though. Chamomile German - fertile wee bunch, and oh so tiny Peppermint - like the Cape Gooseberry, the first couple have just poked their heads through Oregano - we have germination, I am shocked! Now to keep them alive. Marigold (Mexican Mint) - three or four germinated here, will probably need to sow some more as I wanted a big group of these this year. Now on to batch 2: Sown today for the Mexican garden were Chilli (Carribean Blend, hoping for some Scotch Bonnets in here) Chilli (Ancho - as per last year) Tomatillo (as per last year) Epazote (hopefully they will germinate this year). And for the ordinary garden were Pepper (Topepo Rosso) Basil Bergamot Hyssop I have a space and a plan for a proper herb garden this year, just need to get some bricks or something to outline the segments.

Seeds - batch 1

Garlic report - the organic shop didn't have garlic that looked any sturdier than mine, so all eight cloves I planted out were from last year's harvest. All eight have germinated and are coming along nicely.

Seed report - today I sowed the following into seed trays:
Tomato (Russian Red)
Tomato (Green Zebra)
Tomato (Gardeners Delight)
Cape Gooseberry
Parsley
Chamomile German
Peppermint
Oregano
Marigold (Mexican Mint)

This year I've resisted the temptation to plant the more unusual varieties (the Purple Calabash from last year cured me of that, at least for this year!) so I've gone back to some faithful varieties, a red, a green, and a cherry. I'm planning on planting out five of each.

The beginning of another gardening year

The winter solstice snuck up on me a couple of weeks ago, which means another gardening year is here! Time to plant out some garlic. Last year I didn't plant very many so we ended up with the right amount for consumption - however this year that means I only have a few spare cloves to plant out, so I need to visit the organic shop down the road to pick up some more. I also have to decide where I should plant them this year - and, of course, in order to do that, I need to have some idea of what else I'll be planting and where it will all need to go - aaarrgggh!

Summer of 2010 update

Busy with harvest time at the moment.

Tomatoes - loving the cherry tomatoes, and the green zebras (as always). Not so much in love with the Purple Calabash (these don't make good 'eating' tomatoes, and seemed extra attractive to snails and the like so suffered a fair bit of damage) or the yellow plum (which turned out to be cherry-sized, and are good cooked or in sauces but not so tasty to eat fresh), so I probably won't bother with those ones again. I must confess that although I started the season dutifully removing the laterals my routine slipped at some point in December and the tomato patch quickly became an overgrown forest that collapsed in upon itself in places. This was obviously Not A Good Thing, and I had powdery mildew on the branches for the first time. On the plus side, we did grab a couple of triple-stake triangular frames and these gave those couple of plants much more support, so I'll definitely be picking up more and doing all my tomatoes like that next year.

Tomatillos - went in a bit late but are now doing beautifully. A very photogenic plant! Looking forward to them ripening, so we can see what they taste like.


Also in the Mexican garden went some chilli seedlings, but they haven't really grown that much. Now that I have a decent mini-greenhouse I'll be sure to get these started earlier next year. I also planted jamaica flowers - these are used to make a drink. I think these went in a little late as they are only just starting to show the first signs of buds, and again I'll try harder next year to sow these earlier.


Cape Gooseberry - similar lanterns to the tomatillos but much smaller. The first few of these are ripening up now, and we love them - so tasty! A definite to keep in the garden.


Courgettes - the year of the marrowing. This year's variety seemed particularly sneaky and quick!

Herbs - coriander went to seed quite quickly so I've managed to save a lot of seed for next year. Dill and chives were direct-sown in late December, took a long time to germinate and are only now starting to be recognisable. The parsley is doing well (not as over-the-top as last year, thank goodness). The existing plot of sage is continuing to be thick and lush, and one branch of my rosemary has been successfully bent over to grow its own roots so we can now get rid of the giant woody mass that is the old bush. This frees up the corner that I want to be my entire herb garden, not just my rosemary garden.

Carrots - fresh from the soil this morning was this funky fellow. He was a decent size, almost 200grams. Now he's carrot cake :)


I'll also share with you one of my neighbour's sunflowers, which we could see back in December waving at us across the fences.

Roundup

Finally got around to the final sowings today.

Direct-sown into the salad garden was three varieties of lettuce, along with corn salad and spinach. Into the herb garden went chives and dill (I also transplanted in a parley yesterday). And into the Mexican garden went jamaica, a variety of hibiscus that makes a tasty drink. I also sowed another row of peas, and transplanted the watermelon.

Into seed trays went: ancho chilli, Marconi red pepper, tomatillo and epazote (all for the Mexican garden), plus basil, bergamot and passionfruit. I'm hoping it's not too late for these Mexican additions, I should really have had these underway a month ago.

A quick trim of the citrus trees to remove some of those lower small branches attracting the whitefly, and done for the day!