shiukopuppy's Blog

Three varieties of peas
Oct 17, 2007 | 2:21 AM PST
Tags: peas , snowpeas , poppies , toad flax , calendula , Sweet Peas , raspberry , garden beds , pyrethrum , wormwood , rue , feverfew , rosemary , chickens

The blossoms have dropped on the apple, pear and cherry trees. The pomegranate hasn't fruited yet. I've continued to harvest peas and today we realized that we were harvesting three distinct types of peas. I was happy that all three of the varieties that I planted are cropping - the telephone peas, greenfeast peas and the no-name snowpeas.

Today I planted some more flowers - poppies and sweet peas. I felt inspired as I was planting out seedlings I had raised from seed - calendula, toad flax, poppies, native bluebells and sweet peas. I hope that they survive long enough to flower so that I can take photos.

I've been reading how to manage my chickens naturally, and tore off some wormwood branches to keep in their coop along with fresh leaves of rue, feverfew and some rosemary stems. I also scattered pyrethrum and wormwood leaves in their dust baths. Smells lovely and they ran around and investigated the shredded herbs.

I bought a new raspberry to replace my dead raspberry plant. I still need to prepare the lettuce beds for the seedlings I'm raising, and want to make my garden more ornamental for viewing as well as for eating. I think I'll be moving into an apartment next year, so this will be my last summer with a garden - how sad!!

winter food projects
Jul 6, 2007 | 7:29 PM PST
Tags: Pomegranates , almond , pak choi , gai laan , shungiku , raspberry , red currant , black currant , pear , onion , coriander , cilantro , spring onion , olive

It's winter in Australia and very frosty with misty days. I used to do nothing in the winter, just play playstation, watch movies and ignore the garden, growing only herbs and lettuces on the window sill. This year I decided to see what could be done at this time of year.

Herbs wise, I have planted some coriander (cilantro). It's doing very well; in the summer it often went to seed. I also planted lots of onions. Usually I only grew spring onions and shallots (yum!) but recently I tried growing red onions and they were so delicious that I planted out white, brown and red onions again. I bought some flat pickling onion seeds but they need to be sown in warmer weather, alas!

I planted several varieties of winter hardy peas. I was pleasantly surprised as they are now a few inches tall. Winter spinaches are doing well, as well as pak choi, choi sum, gai laan and shungiku. Some winter lettuces are also growing but they are very small.

I also bought some dormant plants - raspberry, red currant and black currant canes. An almond tree, a couple of olive trees and I bought wintry flowers: snapdragons and foxgloves. Today I want to buy another pomegranate tree and a multigrafted pear. It's been busy and I never would have thought that a winter could be this fun.