true spring flowers in the edible garden

November 8, 2016 No Comments

True Spring and sleepy winter buds have burst open in a puff of pollen.

I may have been knocked off my feet with a sneaky spring cold, but this hasn’t dampened by enthusiasm for the season. Although I’m itching to transplant my seedlings, this forced time of rest and reflection isn’t so bad when there is a seat in the sun and so much to observe in just one square metre. Our garden is host to a delightful barter of nectar for aphid control with a mass of hoverflies. In the food forest the air is laden with apple blossom petals falling in snowy drifts and the trees are alive with the buzzing of bees. The Melbourne Wurundjeri calendar has 6 seasons and this is one of plenty.

Eyes itchy with pollen haven’t ruined my spring bike rides, the ravenous awakening of snails and slugs are a challenge rather than a cause of despair. Warmer mornings and stepping out of the office into sunlit evenings are indeed a recipe for sparkly eyes and spirits. Even my homemade kombucha is thrilled, its weak winter fizz substituted with an almost volcanic effervescence. My fragile winter attitude has been composted.

What is really exciting is that all those flowers promise not only momentary fragrance and beauty but delicious fruit. It’s a beginning that is not only glorious for what it is but what it will be. So I decided to try and keep that feeling going all year. The challenge? A year of flowers in the edible garden. The end game is to have as much colour and joy as I can coax into life in winter as I can. The rules only flowers from a plant that is at least partly edible, bonus points if the flowers can be eaten. I’ll try and think of some recipes to post.

I’m starting with the easiest season, it’s going to get harder from here on out so I better start planning for the oven of summer and darkness of winter. Any suggestions for winter flowers or flowery treats would be awesome guys.

Fruit & vegetable flowers

Some veg flowers are particularly surprising such as the bright red rhubarb buds and I always allow a few radishes to go to seed as their masses of pink or white flowers are a delight.

If you struggle with pests like aphids you might try letting a few of your affected vegetables go to seed. Their nectar will attract beneficial insects which will lay their eggs on nearby plants. If all goes to plan their carnivorous larvae will take care of the pests.

Checkout those fabulous stripey pepino flowers! Which one is your favourite?

Culinary flowers

Particulary beloved by bees at the moment I love all the beautiful purple flowers on the common sage and chives.

Medicinal & edible

Brushing up against sweet violets produces the most intoxicating smell, and they make a beautiful cake topper.

Aquilegia - granny's bonnet — Aquilegia – granny’s bonnet

Guides, Recipes

SPRING HAPPINESS PARTY – PART 2

September 24, 2013 2 Comments

SPRING HAPPINESS PARTY

PART 2
And on into the night

The day started oh so very dignified with a beautiful parrot and a pair of brown bears, but as night fell was invaded by a band of mischievous little monsters each naughtier than the last.

The perfect time to bring out the old Bee Pinata! Although the masses voiced regrets at destroying such a wide eyed, smiling guy all sentiments passed when the bashing stick fell into their hands.

There was a moment when all in sundry thought that the bee would never give up its inner treasures, too sturdily was he constructed of cardboard and tape. But they had forgotten we had a corporate lawyer in our midst. With three short, sharp wallops to the face the bee could take no more and spilled forth chocolate ladybirds, lollipops, summer seeds and knitted ornaments all over Carly’s rows of peas and beans.

Fire roaring the last to leave encircled the fire pit with jazz playing in the moonlight.

We gobbled left over treats of spanakopita (both vegan and otherwise), woodfire pizza with lanterns glowing pink savoring the last moment of the celebration.

All in all a most magical and beautiful day spent with new and old friends, this definitely will become an annual event worth every hour of slaving over crochet flowers and pinterest boards.

Perhaps we will see you at our next spring party dear reader.

Garden

spring harvest

May 27, 2013 2 Comments

flemington-dover-garden-permaculture-true-spring

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september – october 2012

With the thawing of the weather came a rush of lush green growth and flush of unfurling petals, but that’s not all, something momentous was happening. We could hear it, a great whirring, a low hum that ebbed and flowed, but was growing in intensity. We opened the door to a great commotion, a great whirling, tornado of bees overhead. They were swarming. The bee man Martin had said that Steiner thought that a swarm looked like the soul of a human being that has left its body…to me like ash caught in a whirlwind. They carried on all day and then as suddenly as they had appear they vanished. With unease we approached the quiet hive.

The hive has become too cramped for the growing colony and its ostentatious monarch.

The old queen, feeling like a change of scenery and a more spacious castle, ups and leaves without so much as a thank you, taking the majority of the flying worker bees, along with a huge amount of your honey! You’re left with a ragtag crew of young flightless cleaners, nursers and only a scattering of workers. But all is not lost, the old queen in her benevolence has left some virgin queens developing in their queen cells (much cushier than those hexagonal ones for the plebs!). The nursers feed the larvae up and when they emerge the fight is one! If one gets out earlier enough, the sneaky minx will just sting the others to death as they doze. If she is too slow there is a fight on our hands, its a death match, winner takes all. If you are unlucky then the victorious queen may be so injured she dies, the remaining colony will suddenly find itself on radio silent and listlessly will buzz around with no real purpose, it is doomed. Well, unless you go and order a new queen online, they come by matchbox I’m told.

Luckily for us our new queen was a warrior princess, the next day everything seemed back to normal. Even better she seemed a good sort and no surprise stings were to be had. A friend of ours had a particularly nasty queen, with a short sharp temper. If you get a feisty one the whole colony takes on her snitty ways and can be quite aggressive.

bottle-brush-broccoli-flower-climbing-rose

THE HARVEST

COMPANIONS

coriander
fennel – sweet, bronze
lettuce
silverbeet/chard
rosemary
beetroot
lime balm
lemon balm
mints – peppermint, orange, spearmint, common, basil mint, vietnamese
edible chrysanthemum
violas
nasturtiums
artichokes – purple
angelica
marjoram – golden
calendula
chamomile
bay leaves
strawberries
raspberries

BRASSICACEAE

roquette
broccoli
kale

UMBELLIFERAE

celery
carrots
parsley

SOLANACEAE

chillies

AMARYLLIDACEAE (ALLIUMS)

spring onions
chives

LEGUMIONOSAE

broad beans

OTHER

eggs

INEDIBLE CUT FLOWERS

sweetpea
california poppies
salvias
lupin

Garden

SOWING TOMATOES

April 7, 2013 4 Comments

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PERMACULTURE & GARDENING
BY THE DESERT ECHO

The what when and how of planting tomatoes in temperate climates.

The beauty of the crop rotation system is that it really forces you to unlock the secrets of each plant family. A delicious puzzle to solve to attain the next level. The humble tomatoes story unfolds, its original form was tiny golden orbs from Central and South America. Coined solanum lycopersicum “wolf peach” and imported to Europe as ornamental plants that people actually thought were poisonous! What a waste! These tomatoes would have been even more packed full of vitamin C, beta-carotene and antioxidants than their contemporary descendants!

So which tomato seeds should you choose?

HEIRLOOM SEEDS

Anything that begins “Distorted and weird…” is a must have! By now we all know heirloom seeds are best. They are the juiciest, most colourful and delicious – the antithesis of the perfectly round, tastless supermarket variety! And when you read the packet they have the best descriptions and let’s not kid ourselves that the blurb is what gets us everytime.

DETERMINATE OR INDETERMINATE?

Will your tomato live out its days in a 35cm diameter pot or will it free range it in the garden?

If the answer is a pot then a determinate variety is the way to go. They stop growing once they fruit so they are shorter, fruit earlier and are harvested all at once.

If you have the space I’d encourage indeterminate varieties because they have higher yields. They will keep producing for months if the sun doesn’t fry them or frost kill them. These are the older and wilder varieties, they scramble, they climb, but if you train they upwards they won’t take over the whole garden. And if they do, then it’s really not such a bad thing.

EARLY, MID OR LATE?

If you have ever experience the frenzy of bottling that occurs when all your tomatoes fruit at once then you will know the importance of planning. Working out when your tomato varieties are likely to be ready for harvest means you will not become a slave to the tomato sauce production line and suffer the inevitable deflation of tomatoes giving up the ghost in unison. My little collection will keep me in a steady stream of tomatoes from High Summer through Early Winter with a single sowing in True Spring. If things look patchy I will just take some cutting in High Summer, but no more sowing is required.

Days to harvest are taken from time of transplant. If you have only a short growing season where the days are consistently above 10C then consider only plant early-mid varieties. Sow 6-8 weeks before planting out, early planting is essential as later plantings will have less time to bear fruit and can often fry in the hot summer sun. I sow in September to plant out in November.

DAYS TO HARVEST

Early: 45-65 days
galapagos, gold dust, kotlas, stupice, swift, whipper snapper
Early-Mid: 45-85 days
anna russian, break o day, eva purple ball, golden dust, gregon’s altai, indian river, jaune flamme, snow white, thai pink egg, tigerella, tiny tim, wild sweetie
Mid: 65-85 days
beam’s yellow pear, black cherry, broad ripple currant, brown berry, burley gem, camp joy, campbell, cherry roma, costoluto de marmarle, earl of edgecombe, earl’s faux, golden gourmet, golden sunrise, green zebra, harbringer, kellogg’s breakfast, livingston’s golden ball, manapal, mary italian, nebraska wedding, new big dwarf, olomovic, perron, pineapple, pink ping pong, principe borghese, purple russian, red pear, riesentraube, rose quartz multiflora, schimmeig creg, soldaki, stor gul, sutton white, taxi, tommy toe, tropic, valentine, wapsipinicon peach, white beauty, wonderlight, yellow perfection
Mid-Late: 65-105 days
amish paste, arkansas traveller, black krim, black russian, bull’s heart, cherokee purple, druzba, german johnson, green grape, grosse lisse, lemon drop, mortgage lifter, oxheart red, oxheart yellow, pink brandywine, ponderosa pink, red cloud, red russian, reisetomate, rouge de marmande, san marzano, verna orange
Late: 85-105 days
beefsteak, blue ridge mountain, debarao, german gold, granny’s throwing tomato, hillbilly, periforme, tasmanian yellow

plastic-juice-bottle-greenhouse-propagation

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When seedlings grow their first set of true leaves it’s time to thin out the weaklings!

SAUCE, SALAD, SLICING OR STUFFED?

This is the final consideration and perhaps the most important. Choose a diverse selection of tomatoes so that you won’t get bored. I grew way too many stuffing tomatoes one year and just ended up using them in salads and whilst they had lovely robust skins to be filled full of delights they really didn’t stand up on the taste front.

Cherry
Wild Sweetie, Beam’s Yellow Pear, Riesentraube, Red Fig, Christmas Grapes, Brown Berry, Broad Ripple Yellow, Mexico Midet, Gold Rush, Sweet Pea, Sugarlump, Tiny Tommy, Yellow Pygmy, Lemon Drop, Cherry Roma
Salad
Tommy Toe, Tigerella, Black Russian, Wapsipinicon Peach, Purple Russian, Green Zebra, Speckled Roman, Jaune Flamme
Slicing
Black Krim, Grosse Lisse, Mortgage Lifter, Big Rainbow, Brandywine Pink, Costoluto Genovese, Periforme Abruzzese, Hungarian Heart
Sauces & Pastes
Amish Paste, San Marzano
Stuffing
Schimmeig Creg
Dwarf Tomatoes (Determinate)
Principe Borghese

Finally time to get dirty. We’ve chosen a selection of early, mid and late tomato seeds and worked out how many we need to plan, but how many do we need to sow? Formula for success:
Number Plants Required x (3 seeds x 2 milk cartons)

THE NURSERY

Tomatoes don’t like transplanting, moving house too many times is jut too stressful! Milk cartons allow enough room for them to grow until they are ready for the garden bed and then all you have to do is pop out the bottom and plant. This saves you the hassle of pricking out delicate seedlings as well. You know I am all for minimising work and maximising dozing in the sun! You have provided them with food, water and warmth now it’ just about maintaining the balance.

Place them in a spot that gets direct early morning sun, but as the days get hotter protect from midday and afternoon sun. You may need to move them into a sheltered spot if days are climbing towards 30C. Somewhere near a high thermal mass wall that gets morning to noon sun and then is sheltered is ideal as tomatoes need heat more than direct sunlight.

SOWING STEPS

1. Calculate number of pots/milk cartons required
2. Fill the folded cartons up to the top with homemade potting mix
3. Use a small square bottomed pot to firm it down to prevent sinking
4. Fill the space left with Seed Raising mix and firm this down too
5. Place 3 tomato seeds per carton in a triangle shape 30mm apart for ease of thinning later
6. Cover with seed raising mix to a depth of no more than 2 x seed size.
7. Firm this down gently
8. Water with cold chamomile tea to encourage germination and prevent dampening-off, gently sprinkle or mist to avoid washing seeds to corners of cartons
9. Place in a container filled with 20mm of water. This will wick up through the soil and keep seeds moist, no need for top watering
10. Place Plastic juice bottle with bottom cut off over the carton to keep heat and moisture constant

NOW UNTIL PLANTING OUT:

1. Keep water in container topped up
2. Adjust position for optimum warmth/minimum frying
3. Once they have germinated add a little mulch such as coconut coir around them to stop the soil drying out.

Now’s your chance to indulge in some ruthless destruction!

Once the first set of mature leaves appears thin each carton to the strongest plant, if you have ever saved tomato seeds you stop feeling so sentimental, one tomato will give you seeds enough for years to come. Simply pinch the tops off the lesser seedlings (no need to pull them out and disrupt the soil) Grow these on until they are ready to plant out (8-12 weeks) and choose the best specimen and give the lesser back-up away (shh..don’t tell they’re getting the runt of the litter).

PESTS

If snails are a problem drill small holes in the top bottle and put its screw top lid back on, but otherwise that’s most of the hard work done.

I needed 9 tomatoes for my raised garden bed. (2×9=18 cartons)
Galapagos – 45-50 – Cherry
Valentine – 70 – Cherry
Wild Sweetie – 70 – Cherry
Beam’s Yellow Pear – 70-80 – Cherry
Purple Russian – 70-80 – Salad
Schimmeig Creg – 70-85 – Stuffing
Amish Paste – 70-90 – Sauce
Mortgage Lifter – 80-90 – Slicing
Granny’s Throwing Tomato – 90-100 – Salad

THE OTHER SOLANACEAE

And what of the other solanaceae? They seem to be getting ignored.

The key to crop rotation is that plants that share the same family often have very similar requirements. The tips for sowing tomatoes can be followed for both eggplants and capsicums. Chillies are perennial plants in our garden so left out of the crop rotation. Potatoes exudate something from their roots that stunts tomatoes growth and they in turn make potatoes more suseptible to blight so potatoes have been banished from the bed.

I sowed 4 cartons of mini sweet capsicums for 2 plants and 2 cartons of little finger eggplants and 2 of florida market for 2 plants.

Happy growing!

True Spring and sleepy winter buds have burst open in a puff of pollen.

Fruit & vegetable flowers

Culinary flowers

Medicinal & edible

PART 2 And on into the night

Fire roaring the last to leave encircled the fire pit with jazz playing in the moonlight.

september – october 2012

The hive has become too cramped for the growing colony and its ostentatious monarch.

THE HARVEST

COMPANIONS

BRASSICACEAE

UMBELLIFERAE

SOLANACEAE

AMARYLLIDACEAE (ALLIUMS)

LEGUMIONOSAE

OTHER

INEDIBLE CUT FLOWERS

HEIRLOOM SEEDS

DETERMINATE OR INDETERMINATE?

EARLY, MID OR LATE?

DAYS TO HARVEST

SAUCE, SALAD, SLICING OR STUFFED?

THE NURSERY

SOWING STEPS

NOW UNTIL PLANTING OUT:

PESTS

THE OTHER SOLANACEAE

PART 2
And on into the night