My Kitchen Garden is breaking all the rules!!
My kitchen garden is a hive of secret activity, it is doing a great job of re-seeding itself!!
I have broccoli Raab, rocket, arugula, Belgian white carrots, purple dragon carrots and goodness knows what else popping up all over the place.
In some instances it has even done a good job of stock rotation and re-seeded it’s self into another location in the kitchen garden!!
As a nurse I have always been aware of the positive power of touch. sometimes a simple hand on an arm can convey more than a thousand words. I was always hugging, comforting and massaging my patients when it was needed.
I have always been a tactile person and I used touch to comfort my patients and their families when I worked in the ER. I found it to be a great healer, calming influence and somehow gave even the most ‘tough’ person a boost, sort of ‘I know how you feel and it’s ok’
So when I read or rather listened to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, I usually read through my eyelids and snore at the same time so I tried the audio version and it was FANTASTIC, the guy who read it was brilliant.
As some of you know, last spring was my first ‘real’ growing season in my Kitchen Garden, and I learnt some lessons and encountered some interesting problems.
I thought you would like to hear more about some of the trials and tribulations…
(more…)
The herald of spring last year was an exciting time for me, it was a culmination of years of hard work and I have to admit I was stressed and excited all at once…
I was time to get productive for my first growing season, and now it’s over and I have had time to sit back and digest how things went.
I would like to share with you some of the lessons I learnt along the way, some lessons you will only learn from experience.
(more…)
In part one of What Do Minerals and Trace Elements Do, we looked at the main ‘big three’ minerals needed in your soil: phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. And we also looked at some lesser known trace elements needed in our soil: calcium and magnesium.
In part two we will continue to look at the lessen known trace elements, this will give you a better understanding of just what is needed and when, to make your soil brim with health.
(more…)
The aim of all gardeners is to grow healthy plants and vegetables, often it is a mis-construed idea that you have to feed the plant in order to make it healthy.
This, however is not the case, it is the soil that needs the nutrients, in conjunction with, the correct pH so the roots of the plants and vegetables can feed themselves and their plant at the correct time.
Understanding what you are aiming for, when you are conscientiously putting compost, organic matter and mulch on your soil, will give you a better understanding of how things work underground.
So, just what nutrients should be in your soil?
(more…)
Look in any gardening book, under the section that deals with descriptions of how to grow individual cultivars, and they will invariably have some reference to the soil pH for that particular plant.
Infact, soil pH, for the most part, is just slotted in to a description, almost like an after thought, usually between the:- likes a sunny position and how tall the plant grows.
For something SO important and vital for the survival of the plant, I am amazed the subject is often overlooked, or just a brief passing comment is made.
(more…)
This is what I love about growing my own food – making discoveries like Maori potatoes. I can see this becoming an obsession!!
The most ‘famous’ Maori potatoes are, the dramatic purple/black ‘Urenika’ a stunning potato with a beautiful flavour, but, and this is the bit I love, there are 49 other varieties of Maori potatoes to try, and when you do, you will understand why the Maori have kept them a secret for over 200 years!!
Maori Potatoe: Kowinwini
Planting by the moon has earned itself a certain mystique, for some, it conjures up naked bodies dancing under a moon lit sky. For others, ancient complex ceremonies of secret cults with pagan rituals and unknown symbols.
But in reality, for many centuries for travelers and, in particular, gardeners and farmers it has been a way of life. They firmly believe that vegetables should be planted, cultivated and harvested at certain times of the moon cycle and on particular dates of the lunar cycle in conjunction with the other planets.
Those who plant by the moon attest that, by following ancient traditions handed down through the generations, that the food they cultivate from the land tastes, grows, and looks better. Is there any truth in their beliefs, or is it just hocus pocus?
Huge stems and enormous brightly coloured flowers that follow the sun are only the tip of the attraction of sunflowers.
They are usually the first seeds our children grow in school, they are depicted as characters in children’s books and are a pronounced splash of colour in many vegetable gardens.
They represent ‘a happy smiling face’ to many people and stand to attention like soldiers when they guard our vegetable plots.
