First day of a new year!

The weather is lovely and after a marathon pruning session 2 days ago, there is so much more light coming into the patch. The sunflowers are finally seeing the sun (which is helpful if you are a sunflower!), the raspberries are getting some more light and the cucumbers continue to climb to the sky.....

It is amazing how mild the weather has been so far this summer. There have been very few really hot days, only one storm with hail (so far! I am NOT tempting fate here.), but it has been warm enough for things to get on with their growing. So today we have a selection of pics from the patch on the first day of 2012

Serendipity!

my Delbard rose

my coloured carrots...... yum!

today's harvest

my raspberries escaped their enclosure and now run freely under the peach tree!

what's new in the patch?

I have been waiting for my new seeds to pop up and a few days ago, they did just that. I have been planting seeds in egg cartons, that way, there is really no transplant shock at all when they go into the garden. All I do is separate the carton into its 12 sections and the whole lot goes into the soil in the patch. By the time the cardboard has decomposed, the roots of the seedling are ready to go exploring.

As it is summer, I keep a ready supply of lettuce, spring onions and cucumber..... I am most proud of the spring onions as they are seeds I saved from the flower head of the previous crop..... yah!

cucumbers, lettuce and spring onion seedlings

Meanwhile, there are some other interesting things in my seedling nursery.....

seedling nursery

I have some micro basil, some slow bolt corriander and some mini tomato bushes, each with one single fruit on it...... how cute......

how cute..... wonder how big they will grow when I plant them in the patch?

today in the patch

My alliums are finally opening. They have been struggling along for months now, emerging as tiny fragile single stems. Now they are almost a metre tall and the ball of fluff is about to explode

ref: the-grazer.blogspot.com


Ultimately, they should look like this:

Tiger , Tiger

I found Number Three in the foliage this afternoon...actually, it was the cat nip, so he was in 7th Heaven!

yesterday, he found the cane sugar bale..... what a life!

today in the patch

rain and storms have been threatening all day, but so far, the weather has held out and the patch has had a chance to dry out. everything continues to bloom and harvest is getting closer by the day. I was surproised to see a lovely bloom of Woburn Abbey this morning:

Woburn Abbey

I added some more labels to my patch this morning too.....

I love the furry carrots tops behind the label....

almost a metre tall now.... keep going baby!

climbing Blue Lake beans

introducing the team

No patch is without a dedicated team - a team that puts their heart and soul into weeding, turning, planting, harvesting and composting. This is continuous work that happens in all weather and requires blood, sweat and tears. So, without further ado, here is the team behind the Tamborine patch:

One...

Two.....

and..... Three

As you can see, they are hard at work and keen to keep the patch producing yummy food for the Mistress of the House!

xmas wish list

Dear Santa

This year I really want some worms. In fact, I want 1000 worms to put in a worm farm. So Santa, please bring me a worm farm with worms this Xmas.....

something I prepared earlier

I have been pondering my previous post about plant labels. There are certainly some wonderfully creative people out there who are doing wonderfully creative things. So I thought I would have a go. Recently a wonderfully creative friend of mine got me into beading... well, the bug has well and truly caught and I have combined both my passions.... beading and gardening.

"eggies" these are my little Asian eggplants...... round balls of yum

my chocolate capsicum..... notice my little choc capsicum on the bead string?

cherry tomatoes... these guys self seed every year and supply me with kilos of free toms

what does 2 days of rain look like?

well......

verdant and getting verdant-er.........notice the tomato spilling over the edge of the planter!

my corn... otherwise known as TRIFFIDS! They have doubled since Monday!

good enough to eat

I have been following Sonya's permaculture blog for some time now and I was thrilled to see her extend into handmade soaps. Now, they are for sale and they look amazing. Perhaps one day soon, i will get up to Eudlo to look for myself! For now, I will keep up to date with her newest blog.

http://www.ishbarnsoap.com.au/index.php

macadamia ginger.... soap!

the best tropical fruit cake

Pineapple and Banana Cake

2 med bananas, mashed
1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple (save juice)
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
1 2/3 cup self-raising flour
2 tspn ground cinnamon
2/3 cup oil (try rice bran oil)
1/4 cup pineapple juice (from the can of crushed pineapple)
2 organic free range eggs

icing:
250 g cream cheese
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
fresh fruit to decorate (eg mango, pawpaw, pineapple

destructions: Preheat oven to 180. Line 23cm round baking tin with paper. Place bananas, pineapple and sugar in large bowl. Add sifted flour and cinnamon. Stir to combine. Whisk oil, pineapple juice and eggs together and add to banana mixture. Stir till combined and smooth. Pour into prepared timn. Abooth surface and bake 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.. Leave in tin for 10 mins then turn out on wire rack to cool.

icing: beat cream cheese and icing sugar with electric beaters till smooth.

ref: family oven.com

assembly: cut cake in half horizontally. Spread 1/3 of the icing mixture on bottom of the cake. Spread remainder on top and arrange the fresh tropical fruit to suit.

note: this cake will keep up to 4 days in airtight container. Refrigerate during hot weather

(ref: The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook, 2004)

gift from the garden

This year, the Japanese maple tree that is near my patch lost a large branch and after I dried it out, I thought I would put it to good use. I have a few Xmas decorations that I have collected from my travels over the last few years. They get a little lost on the tradition tree, so they get their own tree this year.

decorations from all corners of the globe

Have a cool Yule

labels, tags and signs

I am going to make a much more concerted effort to label where I plant my seeds and at the same time, add some colour to the patch. So, I am on the look out for cute, interesting or utlilitarian-with-a-twist plant labels.... here is what I have found so far..... and to all you garden bloggers out there... YOU ROCK!

http://www.allsopgarden.com/original-garden-tools/plant-tags/

http://littlegreenfingers.typepad.com/little_green_fingers/2009/03/making-child-friendly-plant-labels.html

http://ghostmyst.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-make-rustic-plant-labels.html

http://gardenhistorygirl.blogspot.com/2009/05/garden-history-image-of-weekvictorian.html

Summer 2012

the patch

we got off to a great Spring/Summer season this year. It was warm and dry which resulted in a bumper rose season and good cropping of my summer seedlings. Regular watering was required as there was not enough rain. Now the rain has arrived - as well as the cold - and I can hear the veges drinking it all up. So I have got my Blue Lake beans in the blue tub as an experiment as I want to keep the soiled conditioned after a crop of kipfler potatoes. I planted plenty of bok choy, but am having some problems with white cabbage butterfly and so I think it might be too warm now for theses little boks. Rather than start spraying (organic sprays, of course) I will just plant other options, or maybe plant amongst the marigolds