Organic gardening Week 1

Welcome to my Garden!   This may be the first of many weekly updates on organic vege and fruit growing... So I may as well start by labelling it 'week 1'...

One of my many passions, (Other than art!), organic gardening is very fulfilling. We moved house at the beginning of the year, and sadly left behind a very large and productive garden, and its taken us all year to get settled, and start again... But slowly slowly, we are getting there! 

Location: Brisbane bayside
size: 600 square metre, small suburban block

Fruit trees planted:
3 mangoes
2 apple
lychee
Avocado
Fig
Pomegranate
5 banana
4 pawpaw
Blood orange
Tangelo
Navel orange
Washington dwarf orange
Passion fruit
Mandarin
Existing : lemon (with large thorns!), and  orange which isn't  in a good place,  + a macadamia and olive tree just along the fence on the park side.

Still in pots- 2 dragon fruit

Vege garden beds: 21m, + small existing bed for herbs

In the garden today ...

- Watered fruit trees and vege garden - its been a dry, windy spring and the thick mulch really makes a huge difference.
- sprayed zucchini with Eco fungicide - well really my daughter did, she came out and asked "is there anything you want a hand with Mum?"...hehe well actually yes, you can...anyway, we have been battling powdery mildew for weeks... finally got around to digging out The spray. i thinned out the infected leaves (to go in the bin), but i need to check how long these plants usually live for... maybe they are finishing anyway and i should pull them out?
- harvested cucumbers: I love growing these Lebanese cuc's they are quick, and relatively tidy, for a cucumber that is!
- killed the first 28 spotted lady beetle for the year! Haven't seen one of these critters since Bundy last summer. Mind you the vege garden is only 8 weeks old.  We will have to do a leaf check and squash any larvae we find.

 

To do:
Soak seed for planting i.e. okra, rosella...
Replant empty areas - corn, beans, carrot, 2nd round of zuc and cuc plants for summer harvest
Plant lettuce in shady part for summer
Water with fish emulsion and seaweed for leaf strength against pests

You can see the very, very sad looking zuchinni, and butternut pumpkin along the fence!  Oh, and my washing too! (quick - someone go out and pick up that shirt thats fallen off!)

This small area has 2 beds that are 1.5m x 3m, and 2 that are 1m x 3m.  We ended up choosing to use treated pine, after much conundrum, and research... but decided to paint the inside and top edge with a timber sealer to stop any potential 'leakage' of chemicals into the soil or uptake by plants. 

I tend to plant things close together, and usually end up with no rows.   Currently we have: spinach, egyptian spinach, eggplants, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, lettuce (variety), corriander ( left gone to flower to attract good bugs), spring onion, butternut pumpkin,  those poor zuc's,  and cosmos flowers. 

Just harvested: beetroot, purple carrot.
Produced/ producing this week: daily pickings salad, zucs, cucs, & cherry toms, 3 jars of pickled beetroot, 1 large cucumber salad

There is something very satisfying about growing, picking & eating, pickling, and then drawing  

the same thing!

linking to Art Every Day: Day 15

Apples, Travel Art Kit, and sunsets

"It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree 

is connected with that of man."

Henry David Thoreau

Wherever we go we plant a fruit tree, and I love that.  A walk through the garden this afternoon, and I stopped to admire our apples.  Considering this tree was planted in Bundaberg 2 years ago, then transplanted and spent 6 months in a pot, and was only planted in the ground this July - I think it's doing remarkably well!  Covered in cute little Tropical apples, we are just waiting for them to grow bigger and ripen.

My Peerless Watercolour Palette... This is what I used on my recent travels to sketch while on the move.  I essentially followed the instructions using this youtube clip, but I used the whole width of the card, and wrote the name of the colour lightly in pencil.  I also have a second page by adding a 'flap' of watercolour paper into the middle using the washi tape.    As a lucky accident it was the perfect size for my small watercolour landscape moleskin journal, and it tucked beautifully inside ready for travel!

So - my travel kit, that I used on the Marvelous Melbourne Holiday...

of course I sketched it too...

What I used:
1 small, cute kitten pencil case ( the cute kitten part is optional)
1 small, landscape watercolour Moleskin journal
pilot V pen (runs with water which I like to add a little more atmosphere to sketches)
Artist Pitt pen, medium, black
prismacolour pencil, in a earthy red
Charcoal pencil
2 aquabrushes
copic marker, medium
mechanical pencil
My Peerless Watercolour Palette
A bit of eraser
A small piece of flannel cloth ( not pictured, used to clean brushes, dab up excess etc)
A small watercolour set - optional, but I like to take it

This was pretty perfect set-up.  Most days I took with me in my handbag  the journal, a pencil or pen, the watercolour palette, and an aqua brush - so easy for a quick sketch at the cafe!  When we got back to the apartment,  I did a little journalling or sketching from photos I'd taken that day, or what I could see around me.  If I was going to change anything I would leave out one of the black markers, but otherwise I'm really happy with this set-up. 

Artist Playroom challenge this week is Sunsets!   One of my favourite things - Sunsets here in sunny Queensland, Australia are often rather spectacular... so I can't help but share a few photos...

And how fortunate for me, I already had this work in progress!   Acrylic taken from the view from our local bay, at sunset, 

with the reflections on the water...

Wishing you all a colourful, sunsetty, applely kind of day! :-)

sourdough bread and pawpaw jam

Just out of the oven, nothing beats homemade sourdough bread, freshly buttered and topped with homemade pawpaw and passionfruit jam!
This is the last of the jam I made last year - from our very own pawpaw and passionfruit.   We certainly lived like kings last year - when I consider we would eat a pawpaw a day straight from the tree.   At over $6 a kilo in the fruit shop I treat us to a 1/2 one a fortnight and we share that as an afternoon treat!  We have brought potted plants with us, and I have started planting seed.  All we need is to choose a suitable place to plant them in our new garden, and I know in 6 - 8 months we'll be picking our own red pawpaw again!

Bounty from the garden

I went out to the garden early this morning ( Well actually 1.11.2011), and discovered a basketful of produce to harvest: sweet potatoe, capsicums, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, carrots, parsley, celery, mint, kohlrabi, and some asian cabbage.  But to look at the garden , at first glance, it looked rather bare, as I have not visited much lately, or done any new planting for summer as we are selling our house and the new people may not even want a large vege garden.   It pays to look a little closer, and to look slowly!   I feel sad to think I'll be leaving this behind... but it is easy to start a new garden - and I know within a short season it will be producing just this this one did.  Unfortunately the three little peaches you see will be it this year - the dreaded fruit fly got the LOT!  I think we have had a handful that did not get stung.  But that was my fault as being so involved with house renovating, selling the house, and of course being in the studio - the garden was very neglected over spring - right at the time I needed to be setting out baits, netting or bagging, and spraying. 

Simplicity

Some of the harvest from my garden this morning.  Eggplants, okra, chilli, capsicum, pawpaw, and our very first mandarins - so sweet and super juicy!   There is something very therapeutic about being in the garden, pulling a few weeds, a little pruning of things that are finishing, planting a few more carrot and kohl rabi, and pea seeds, while enjoying the sunshine on a cooler autumn morning.    I was able to coax my youngest to come out of her sick room and sit in the sun.  She looked at flowers, investigated new plants, and pulled a few weeds.   I am struck by the simplicity of living - my needs are basic - fresh air, water, a space for a garden, a time for creativity, a chair for finishing a great book, fulfilling friendships... and I am happy.