Now that, hopefully, the torrent of crap is subsiding can think about pleasanter things.

Gardening—I used to do this a lot, even pulling up most of the front lawn for flowers and veges. Flowers—couple nice old fashioned roses. Dunno if I will have roses in Tassie, climate is OK for them but too much work. Still, when I look out my bedroom window and see a massed display of roses it is nice. They smell nice too which is what I wanted. (Got them from Diggers, forgot what varieties.)

But my main gardening interest has been veges. One year I made 4L of passata (tomato sauce aka pasta sauce) just from tomatoes from my garden. In winter always sowed broadbeans, love them and when you grow your own you can pick the pods when they are 10–15cm with tender beans in them. Steam with a bit of speck or bacon rind and fat and some tarragon—delicious!

Used to get enough fruit to preserve some, preserved peaches, picked at perfect ripeness, poached in light sugar syrup with a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves and a bit of lemon zest, yummy in the midst of grey dreary winter, the sun in my bowl!

Now, some weed trees have shaded my fruit trees and I don’t know what to do. Could get a mob with chain saw to cut them up but I don’t want to spend the money. The trees are in a tricky spot, close to the side fence. Just leave it, when I sell the house will likely be bulldozed anyway to put up more units.

In Tassie I will grow fruit trees. Cherries OMG! Cider apples so I can make cider! Yeah! Cyser too, yeah! I will see what needs to be done to have a bit of shade on the north side of the house in summer, not having verandahs. Will have a “covered atrium” on the south side with the wall right on the south side made of cement blocks, soak up the sun, radiate the stored heat at night, be able to keep more frost–tender plants there.

So my house and garden will be designed together, function together, related to sun and local conditions, not fighting them.


I have had a huge interruption to my gardening: first arthritis in the right hip, now in my shoulders. Still, have worked out a way to cope, almost anyway, and have started gardening again. Have a patch of broadbeans going and now have a couple of egg cartons filled with seed raising mix. Tomato seeds will go in there and the cartons will be placed on my homebrew heating pad (hardly ever used it for beer, didn’t push them on my customers: make high–malt content beers, aerate properly and pitch 11 grams good yeast—fermenter just needs a blanket or something around it) to keep it all warm at night.

The advantages of growing at least some veges yourself: some satisfaction and pride at a good harvest but more importantly you know no nasty chemicals went in there. keep chooks and they will turn your scraps (and bugs from your garden) into tasty fresh fresh fresh eggs. You can have a real ecology in your garden.

I have a 1800L fishpond in the garden, stocked with water lilies etc and small native fish, Murray River Rainbows etc. Need to turn the water over—turn it over plants not doing too well and boy do they respond well to pond water with deelish fish poo in it 

The REAL benefit of growing some veges yourself: grow heritage plants instead of bland hybrids. My sauce tomatoes will be Amish Paste with a few costoluto genovese. You would never pick the last as an eating tomato but mixed in with sauce tomatoes they really boost the flavor of the sauce. I will plant later, as bought seedlings then save the seeds, the BEST slicing tomatoes I have ever eaten: Cherokee Purple.

Soon I will get some rock melon seeds started: the luscious, sweet, aromatic and delicious French Charentai melons and some musk melons. Probably all I can manage to get planted this spring but will ensure I have some beds ready in Feb to plant stuff like kale, broccoli, cauliflower, chard of 2-3 kinds etc. Root crops such as carrots, garlic, onion, swede and parsnip etc to go in when the summer crops are over.   

Can spend your time in much worse, less productive ways!

Some blokes I suppose don’t want to say they might plant a tree for the flowers it will bear. Well, there is one tree or shrub you should bloody plant for the beauty of its flowers: crepe myrtle.

This bears masses of flowers and in the fall the leaves turn a really nice color. The flowers do OK as cut flowers:



Because the crepe myrtle is rather blah in winter you wouldn’t plant a hedge of them but in a copse, like Sprint’s butterfly forest, they will certainly add beauty and variety to your garden and your house. Also attract bees something chronic.

In the above picture I added lemon verbena leaves/flowers for a bit of a contrast. Lemon verbena leaves have a strong, pleasant lemony scent when crushed, make a nice lemon tea.

The crepe myrtle in my garden:


Can’t wait to plant a heap of tulips in Tassie!

(The vase in the photo is an example of “fat lava” if not a particularly distinguished example    )

Remind me not to hire you in Tassie 

Well, I have looked all that up. Will be fine.

Jovial Monk wrote on Jul 30^th, 2017 at 9:48am:



Jovial Monk wrote on Jul 28^th, 2017 at 11:39am:


Ah, so you have made a revision to your plans. Well done.

Some of the sauce tomatoes I am going to peel (hot water bath 1 minute, into cold water, remove the skin) and fill into clean jars. Press down a bit until juice fills the jar, seal the jar, pop into a hot water bath and boil for 60 minutes.

Why?

Why—salsa, of course.

Will grow some habaneros and jalapenos. With onion, some spice, lime or lemon—make some great salsa. Tomato and chili with a bit of this and that makes great salsa! Lime or lemon juice gives the acidity to protect the salsa from the dreaded and dreadful botulism.

LOVE salsa, eat with corn chips. Sour cream, if you like, not my thing I will say. I prefer plain corn chips, home made salsa and (preferably) home made beer. I will try to add some monterey jack cheese to the chips in a hot oven.

Anyway, that is getting away from gardening. Home gardening is “feast or famine” but with some knowledge of preserving and food hygiene you can use all your produce. (stuff like broadbean, spinach etc has to be parboiled and frozen, some other veg can be dehydrated but you will need (chortle) to look in Food for info ahahahahahahahahaha!

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 1^st, 2017 at 12:17pm:


Yes. I grow flowers, not vegetables.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 1^st, 2017 at 5:32pm:



I have a "green thumb" ... I can break a bit off a plant, plonk it in the ground and it grows.

My Mother, who was a Horticulturalist, spent much time carrying on about Ph and so forth ...

Just about every plant can be grown from a "cutting".

I love flowers, butterflies and bees.

I don't feel the need to grow vegetables to give away to the neighbours because it makes me feel like I have produced "something?