Early morning in the garden

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In this photo you can see the down pipe Hanno rigged up on the chook house. It collects rainwater from this small roof and runs into a large black bin that sits beside that white iron wall. We then use a bucket to water the garden from the bin. It's not often full but when it is, it saves us 200 litres in the rain tanks and will keep a just rained on garden going for a week.

Hanno has been feeling ill the passed few days so I've been doing his outside chores. It does me good to get out there and do some physical work and to see with a gardener's eye again. The garden is looking good at the moment. It's green and lush and happily, at this stage of the season, there aren't too many bugs. I did see the last of the white cabbage moths searching for a suitable safe haven to lay their eggs, but a quick spray with the garden hose sent them along to another garden.

This is looking towards the creek. Under that line of rain forest trees and darkness, a permanent creek flows. There are horse paddocks on the other side and beyond that - suburbia.

It does me good to wander around the garden, making sure it's all growing as it should. I was out there very early, before the sun was over our tree horizon, so the air was still hovering nicely between the coolness of the fading night and the promise of the coming day. The only noise I could only hear was the call of wild birds, mainly ducks and parrots, as they started flying around, and our chooks gently clucking as they patrolled the back lawn for early morning bugs.

One of the reasons our garden is looking so good right now is that Hanno is meticulous with his garden maintenance, so being the goodly wife I am ;- ) I carried out that task for him while he slept inside. Much of this maintenance is easy and only requires removing the outer damaged and old leaves from lettuces, cabbages and chard. All of them are thrown over the fence and the chook quickly rush over to get the best bits. We grow food for ourselves and the chickens too so they eagerly hang around on the other side of the picket fence peeking through to watch me.

Quince and Quentin, the two new Sussex girls (pictured above in the distance), are learning to eat greens. They didn't recognise them when they arrived, so every day we make sure there are lettuce, chard, cabbage leaves or radish tops for them to peck on and test taste. Chickens are creatures of habit and if you want them to eat green food, you'll need to introduce it to them early on, otherwise they might reject it altogether.

The other part of my maintenance is to remove diseased leaves. In our garden this is mainly powdery mildew which grows on squash, grape and zucchini leaves and wilt on the lower tomato leaves. If you see disease or damaged leaves, always remove them because they'll never renew themselves and improve, and leaving them is an open invitation to bugs that there is a weak plant to attack. BTW, a mix of 10% milk and 90% water sprayed over the leaves most susceptible to powdery mildew, if done when the leaves are still healthy, does help prevent it. If it gets out of hand, it's best to remove all the affected leaves and spray with a weak solution of copper oxychloride (it's organic).

One of the brandywines putting on new fruit.

It's an important part of growing your tomatoes to go around and remove the leaves close to the ground and any that are brown or with brown or yellow spots. Mulch around the tomatoes will stop water and dirt splashing up when you're watering. Soil borne diseases can be hard on tomatoes. Water your tomatoes at the base, not over the leaves. And pick out any new growth coming from the main stem and side branches. You will probably get the best growth if you have one main leader and trim off most of the side shoots, but many people, including us most of the time, don't like removing branches that look productive. I'm doing an experiment this year with the brandywines - we have two growing side by side, one has been trimmed to one main leader, the other left to grow naturally. We'll check later in the season to see which is the most productive.

I love walking through a garden that is flowering - whether they be ornamental flowers or vegetables flowers. Above are green Welsh onions, sent to me by JudiB, still going strong after a number of years, being moved around each year, and after giving away many of them to friends and family. They're the most prolific green onions we've ever grown. Jude, if you're out there, drop me a line. I have something for you.

Zucchinis with their flowers still attached and ready to pick.


Flowering lettuce set against a red cousin in the background.

And marjoram, healthy, strong and flowering after yet another winter. I'll cut this back soon and it will give us another year of fresh herbs for our tomato sauce.

When I finished picking, removing, cutting and throwing, I set about watering the garden before the sun hit it. Above is a small planting of iceberg lettuce, that supermarket lettuce renown for its crisp heart and little taste. Homegrown icebergs are a different kettle of fish altogether. They grow looser here, forming only a soft heart, but the leaves are super crisp and the flavour is superb. It's well worth trying in the home garden if you only know the limp supermarket type. That's the thing about growing organic vegetables in your backyard. Very ordinary varieties develop flavour when grown in good soil enriched with compost and manure. They grow at their natural pace and are not pushed along fast with artificial fertilisers to comply with production schedules. But I bet you already knew that.

I wonder what everyone here is doing with their gardens. Are you planting a new garden or bedding down for Winter? Either way I'd love to know what you're up to in your garden. Are you trying new things this year or, like Hanno and I, sticking to a selected group of reliables? Are you planting heirlooms? Is your garden organic? What mulch are you using? Do you make your own fertiliser? What stakes do you use for your tomatoes? Are you growing in containers? I'm going to plant up a couple in the next week. But I should end now and get ready for work. There is so much to know and share about gardening, I could keep writing about it all morning. BTW, I'm happy to tell you that Hanno is feeling much better now and is slowly getting back to normal. : - )