Wilsons Promontory

June 16, 2013 2 Comments

[mm-insert-title]

part 1
a winter escape from the city

Ididn’t realise the city had such a tight grip around my lungs until we got away from it. That high chested, frenetic breath deeped and lowered as my lungs filled with fresh air of the Prom, that southernmost of scenic experiences. Of course when we got to the hiking up mountains part it turned to a wheeze and a gasp, but that had nothing to do with the location and everything to do with my winter lazybones (they burn with outrage at the mention of activity, I told them to shut up).

It was Dylan’s birthday holiday and his natural inclination to being the best at everything saw us setting out as lightweight explorers. Streamlined down to a single change of clothes and dehydrated food, the delicious lightness of our packs made it feel more like a day walk than a three day camping trip.

Wild bees and birds and orange lichen coloured rocks in an azure sea welcomed us at Oberon Bay.

Those tiniest of birds, puffed up like haughty waitstaff in their brightly coloured vests flitted around us at the campsite. One moment here, then there jerking their heads like stop motion stars. One second for us must be a thousand years to them as they danced in the fading light of unseasonably sunny day, that would earn us some bragging rights back home in dreary Melbourne.

The dehydrated food took only a few minutes to cook and was surprisingly delicious! Initially skeptical of Dylan’s powdered offering I was quick to retract my raised eyebrows when the coconut curry rice proved to be the most gourmet camping food I had ever had. Birthday chocolate and tea was devoured and then to bed by 6 as the sun vanished. Then the drums began a consistent thundering beat on our tent as the skies wept.

As always I took way to many photos so I’ll space them out over a few posts these next few weeks to give you a breather. But with such breathtaking scenery who can blame me? What’s your favourite city escape?

Garden

HOMEMADE NEWSPAPER POT MAKER

June 12, 2013 3 Comments

[mm-insert-title]

high summer preparation
free, easy mulching solutions for the busy gardener to replenish nutrients in their soil and protect their plants form the hot weather.

materials-required-making-newspaper-pots

Recently I was asked by MINTI to do a workshop for their Harvest Festival on making newspaper pots for seedling propagation. It was obvious that not everyone has a lovely newspaper pot maker like myself, so I decided to make one. And guess what? It worked way better than the bought one!

Give rubbish new life! Learn how to make an eco pot!

WHEN TO USE MILK CARTONS

Newspaper pots aren’t good for all plants. They disintegrate very fast so not for plants that need a lot of time in the nursery. They also tend to collapse when you make them too big so not for larger plants like pumpkins, zucchini and eggplants. For those guys you might as well use a nice sturdy milk carton pot.

WHEN TO USE NEWSPAPER POTS

But that ability to disintegrate is why they are so great for the fast growing, quick to transplant seedlings. There is virtually no transplant stress and unlike with the milk carton it will completely disintegrate into the soil.
Try: lettuce, spinach, tatsoi, mustard, dandelion, amaranth, silverbeet, coriander, mizuna

If it fruits then it’s bigger and prefers hot weather, if it leafs then it’s faster and newspaper’s the answer.

INGREDIENTS:

1 glass jar around 6cm diameter and 12cm+ high

3 jar lids 6cm, 5cm and 3.5cm so they fit inside one another

Blu-tack or glass/metal glue

Electrical tape

Newspaper

Scissors

POT MAKER METHOD:

1Blu-tack the smallest lid inside the biggest. This should leave a groove big enough for the middle lid to fit into loosely.

2Tape these to the bottom of the jar with the bottom facing out.

NEWSPAPER POTS METHOD:

3Take your sheet of newspaper. I find a double thickness 42x20cm rectangle to be optimal. That is a broadsheet folded in half and cut into thirds along the long edge, or two tabloid pages cut into thirds. I like to fold over the top edge to strengthen it.

4Roll the paper around the jar with 6cm extending over the bottom. Fold this into the centre.

5Place the remaining jar lid on a stable surface bottom facing up. Then seal your pot by placing the jar on top and pressing down firmly. It’s that simple! No need to pay $20!

I make my pots 6cm because that is the size hole my bulb planter makes, I just dig a hole, lift out the soil and drop the pot in, so easy!

My pots end up being around 6cm diameter x 12cm high and can hold up 2 months before needing to be planted.

Garden

CHOP & DROP MULCHING

June 7, 2013 11 Comments

chives-parsley-basil-sage-dandelion-milk-thistle-rosemary-mulch

[mm-insert-title]

high summer preparation
free, easy mulching solutions for the busy gardener to replesh nutrients in their soil and protect their plants form the hot weather.

The seaweed mulch we covered the garden beds with has been decomposing nicely, shrinking away to nothing. adding nutrients to the soil. However the companion plants haven’t grown large enough to cover the bare spots and the cool weather crops are ending. On the otherhand the herb border went wild during the Spring Flush!

What to do… let’s chop & drop!

Herbs accumulate a lot of micro-nutrients in their leaves, especially the perennial ones with deep roots, they’re pretty sneaky and can get hidden nutrients out of even the worst soil. So if you can’t eat them all it makes sense to chop up the leaves and mulch with them, as they decompose they’ll make those nutrients accessible to your annuals. A lot of these are also great compost activators and some plants like legumes actually accumulate nitrogen from the air! I use trimmings of the River Wattle bushes we have in our food forest as it is nice and fine. Always finely chop your herb mulches so they breakdown easily and in the case of nasturtiums don’t start spouting! You can even use leafy kitchen scraps, but don’t let your chooks/worms go hungry! Add crushed eggshells for additional calcium.

Just like us plants need a balanced diet to be disease resistant and healthy. In nature leaves fall to the ground adding nutrients back to the soil, some are eaten by animals and insects, but they too add to the soil in the form of manure. How can we expect the soil to remain healthy when all we do is take and take? A diet of sugarcane mulch alone is just not enough! To avoid problems of malnutrition, spread your herb mulch throughout the garden to evenly distributing a broad specturm of nutrients.

So why waste time and money buying fertilisers and chemical additives?! You just need to follow nature’s example, chop & drop the leaves where you found them! It’s not lazy if it’s smart! Ha!

NOTE: Some herbs have negative allelopathic effects on other plants so should not be used as a mulch. These “anti-companions” release biochemicals that stunt growth, cause plants to bolt or just outright kill them dead. Why would they be so cruel? Perhaps as a defense mechanism to ward off herbivorous animals and insects, but is that really an excuse?

green-mulch-lettuce-seedling-angelica-eggshell-acacia

micro-nutrients found in some common herbs

If you know of anymore please share with us, let’s add to the list!

PERENNIAL HERBS

MARJORAM – calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, trace amounts of manganese

OREGANO – calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, trace amounts of zinc

ANGELICA – potassium

ROSEMARY – phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium

THYME – potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc

CHAMOMILE – calcium, potassium, phosphorous

COMFREY – nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, silica

ANNUAL HERBS

PARSLEY – calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, trace amounts of phosphorus

BASIL – calcium, iron

NITROGEN FIXERS

ACACIA – nitrogen

VETCHES – nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, copper, cobalt

LEGUMES – nitrogen

LUPINS – nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium

WEEDS

THISTLES – potassium

NETTLES – calcium, iron, copper, sodium, sulphur, nitrogen, potassium

DANDELION – iron, copper, potassium, sulphur, manganese

PLANTAIN – calcium

EDIBLE FLOWERS

SUNFLOWERS – potassium

PRIMROSE – magnesium

YARROW – copper, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous

BORAGE – potassium, calcium, silica, phosphorous

NASTURTIUMS – sodium, fluorine, sulphur, magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, iron

Garden

HARDENING OFF

June 5, 2013 4 Comments

high summer preparation

dandelion-seaweed-mulch-dried

amaranth-seedling-hardening-off-summer-preparation

And then in an instant the rain is turned off at the mains and it just gets hotter and hotter, it’s High Summer. It’s dry and water is scarce, the snails and slugs of spring fade away to be replaced by the dreaded mosquito – good for the garden, bad for the gardener! Mulching your garden to prevent moisture lost is imperative!

You would have planted out all the “all season” plants like lettuce and silverbeet in True Spring under cloches to keep them safe from snails, but now it’s time to plant out the warm weather crops. Here is Melbourne November doesn’t dip below 10C so it’s ideal for tomatoes.

Get as much as you can planted out now, it will be a frenzy, but worth it when your plants have grown large and lush enough to look after themselves when it gets really hot. In late December you want to be enjoying an ice cream on the beach, not worrying about your entire crop turning to ash.

HARDENING OFF

But just look at those little seedlings in your nursery, they’re spoilt aren’t they! Soft and delicate little things, they won’t be able to hack it in the real world, just one stiff breeze will send them crying to the ground!

Tough love time – they need to be hardened up!

But in all seriousness transplanting can be very traumatic for our delicate seedlings if not done right. The shock can stunt growth or cause your plant to bolt to seed prematurely. If you are really unlucky it will just flop over and die. A sudden change from a cosy nursery to an exposed spot in full sun or freezing rain is likely to be a shock it will never recover from.

“Hardening off” off means introducing them to their new home gently, over a week or two. Only for a few hours at first, let them get use to their new microclimate, but protect them from extremes. If in a greenhouse I begin by removing the lid. Then I like to pack everything going into the bed in a poly box for ease of transportation (a trick I learnt from my permaculture bible) and to offer a little insulation from said extremes. By the end of the week I just leave the seedling sitting where I will plant it.

Keep them well watered, drying them out before transplant is also a death wish and choose a nice mild morning or evening to do the deed. A drink an hour before planting out will help soil stick to the roots, a little bit of water in the hole they go into will make sure the soil is nice and moist. Morning is good in cooler weather as they have a day of sun to get use to their new spot, and evening in summer so they have the night to drink up water and settle before the hot day.

Do you have any special tricks when transplanting?

eggplant-seedling-milk-carton-spring-summer-preparation

Mushroom foraging family

Baskets from the garden

Eco dyeing and printing

SPRING HAPPINESS PARTY – PART 2

Wilsons Promontory

[mm-insert-title]

part 1
a winter escape from the city

Wild bees and birds and orange lichen coloured rocks in an azure sea welcomed us at Oberon Bay.

HOMEMADE NEWSPAPER POT MAKER

[mm-insert-title]