Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. ~ Mark Twain

It seems that quite a few people have problems germinating seeds and getting seeds to seedling stage which grow strong and healthy enough to plant out. The lovely Rose said the other day that she was having problem so I thought I'd write about my take on growing vegetables from seeds.

Food seeds are valuable items. They have the potential to feed the people of the world and without seeds, we have no corn, rye, barley, wheat, rice or vegetables. So it should concern us who controls our seeds. For the past 50 years or so, multi-national companies have been hybridising seeds so they grow to a specific type and size and in doing do they remove the ability of that plant to reproduce itself. Hybrid or F1 seeds cannot be saved at the end of the season and grown again the following year. You must go back to the store and buy your seeds every year. In the old days, before the commercial seeds market was established, people collected seeds from their own harvested vegetables and saved them for the following year. They swapped seeds with neighbours and bartered for goods with seeds - seeds were seen are a valuable commodity.


Guess what! People still collect seeds from their own vegetables and fruit, they save it and grow the most wonderful array of old time vegetables of the kind you will never see in any supermarket. These people, myself included, are growing open pollinated or heirloom seeds and they would have it no other way. Price, availability of old varieties, and the taste of these old vegetables attract people all round the world, but there is another advantage of growing open pollinated seeds - every year they grow in your garden, they acclimatise themselves to the specific conditions in your garden.

If there is ever a move by our governments towards giving seed companies control of all our seeds, that is the day we must all stand up and be counted. Monsanto, and other seed companies, already have the ability to sue US farmers who grow certain crops from last year's seeds. Whoever controls the seeds controls the food. And that is why it's important for us backyarders to save seeds and keep this valuable seed pool of old vegetables going. Our grandmas and grandpas before us have saved them all so we have this choice, we cannot turn our backs on this heritage because it's easier or more convenient to buy seedlings or new seeds each year. Please read this article on seed saving and look here for seed saving instructions. One of the concerns with seed saving is cross pollination so make sure you read all about that. There is a chart here that will help you.


BTW, I feel the same way about chickens. The caged poultry industry has hybridised chickens for their own benefit and many of the little brown chooks you buy no longer have the ability to reproduce. They're egg layers, nothing else. Those little brown chooks are all bred for the caged poultry industry, a few of the lucky ones are sold off to backyarders. Heirloom chickens are, sadly enough, known now are rare breed chickens. Again, it is the role of the conscientious backyarder to help keep these rare breeds going, just like it is with the seeds. If we don't do it, who will?


Okay, so let's get on to how you actually sow seeds. Large seeds and small seeds are generally sown straight into the garden bed. Large seeds like beans and peas are buried at three times their size - so if you have a seed that is 1cm thick, you'd plant sow that seed 3cm deep. Smaller seeds, like carrot and radish, are scattered on the surface and covered with very light soil or sand. It's better to use sand because it will indicate to you every time you're in the garden, that you have tiny seeds in that spot. All these seeds - the large and the small are best sown directly in the garden. When sowing very small seeds like radish and carrot, sow them together. Get an old spice or salt shaker, add the seeds along with a teaspoon full of fine dry sand. Prepare the furrow for sowing and shake the seeds in along the furrow and cover with sand. Water in very gently with a fine spray. In about a week, the radishes will start to germinate and will grow. While that is happening, the carrots will also germinate but they take longer than the radishes. By the time the radishes are ready to pick, the carrots will just be putting on the root growth and removing the radishes will make way for all those carrots.


It is the medium sized seeds like tomato, cucumber, lettuce etc. that can be planted in seed raising trays and grown to seedling stage before being transferred to the garden. There is also the benefit of raising these seeds to be ready to go in as soon as the chance of frost has passed.

I have written before about sowing seeds and there are guidelines here. Two important things to remember are that the seed raising mix you use must be very fine. The seeds need to be able to emerge from the soil and they can't do that if they are under pieces of bark or compost - it must be fine soil. Also, watering is important. When you plant in the garden bed, plant into moist, not wet, soil. Water large seeds once - they will absorb enough water to keep them going until they germinate. When you see green growth, water again. Small seeds can absorb much less water but will easily be dislodged if you blast them with the garden hose. A fine spray is all they need and keep them moist, spraying once a day until you see green growth. Then water as normal.

Light plays a part too. Seeds don't need any light before they germinate but when they do, they'll need strong light, not full sunlight, but enough light to cast a shadow. As soon as you see green growth, give them morning light, if possible, and keep when protected from the wind and rain. As they grow taller, they need stronger light. Just before I plant my seedlings out, I move them from the greenhouse into full sunlight in their tray. This gets them used to full sunlight before they're transplanted.

The last thing to remember about seeds is that they are a self contained unit of nutrition and do not need any assistance apart from soil and water. Don't fertilise seeds. You will end up with very thin leggy growth and weak seedling. They only need water to germinate.

Seed sowing and saving is a significant skill to have if you have a garden. Like most other things you learn it takes a bit of time to discover how to do it but it's a good investment of your time and effort. I hope you take the time to read all these links, this is an important part of sustainable gardening. And if we backyard gardeners don't do this, who will?

I love having a variety of meals I can make quickly using what I have in the pantry and garden. This is an old standby that I make every month or so - salmon mornay. I grew up eating this, although in those days it was considered a sophisticated and fairly expensive meal, even though it's made on tinned salmon. I remember loving this when I was a child, so I think it might be a good meal to encourage children to eat more fish, which is always a good idea.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over heat and add the flour, salt and pepper. Mix together into a paste. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the milk, stirring while you do it. Keep stirring to prevent lumps forming. Place the pan back on the heat and when you have a nice smooth sauce, add the cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted and take off the heat.

I always use brown rice in savoury dishes. It has a delicious nutty flavour and is much more nutritious than white rice. Even if your children don't like brown rice (or have never eaten it before) put it in because when this meal is cooked they won't be able to tell if it's white or brown. I used to sneak in all sorts of food into these dishes when my sons where small boys. It helped them develop the taste for good food without us arguing over what they should eat. I think there is a lot to be said for camouflage. BTW, both my sons are now fine dining chefs.
1 finely chopped onion, 2 finely diced sticks of celery, ½ capsicum (bell pepper) already cooked in a little olive oil
1 cup corn
1 tin of red or pink salmon 415 grams/16ozs
a few sprigs of finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all this together then add the cheese sauce and mix in. Pour into a greased baking tray and smooth down the top, sprinkle over about ½ cup cheese and bake in a moderate 180C/350F until the top is golden and bubbling.

Serve with a nice fresh salad from the garden. The recommendation now is to eat five serves of vegetables every day. This dish has the five vegetables (onion, corn, celery, parsley and capsicum), adding the salad is extra for that day - which is always a good option.

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.

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).

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've been making cold pressed soap for a few years now and I had always wanted to add liquid soap to my shelves too. The first hurdle I had to cross was to find potassium hydroxide. That is the type of lye used when making liquid soap, whereas sodium hydroxide is used in hard soap and is easily found at the supermarket.

I think it's illegal in Australia to send potassium hydroxide through the post so you'll probably need a supplier close by where you can go and pick up what you need. Don't use the lye you buy at the supermarket, it won't make liquid soap.

I finally found a supplier close to me and a couple of months ago I picked up my supplies. The only thing standing between me and all those bottles of handwash, shampoo and dishwahing liquid was my own trepidation. I read the instructions and stopped, too afraid to go further.


I read about the lye groaning! And it being much hotter than the other lye, and to use a double boiler. I didn't do anything for a while, then realised what an idiot I was being, and made myself start up again. Well, the lye did groan but I didn't use a double boiler, I used a crockpot, and I didn't noticed that the lye was hotter than before. Imagine that - it all went according to plan and apart from being much more of a drawn out process than the cold pressed soap, it went well.

It turns the water white, just like bar soap does, but it retains a lather for a few minutes. The best thing though is that it cleans the dishes and pots really well. It cuts through grease. I think it's better than bar soap for washing up, but not much better. If you're thinking that this is going to be the same as detergent, it isn't. But it does the job it's intended for and it isn't made with petrochemicals, like every detergent is.


It's great as a shampoo and hand wash. It retains the natural glycerin, so it's not drying on the skin. My next test will be to wash some pure wool with it. I'm going to add some eucalyptus oil to the soap and use it as a wool wash.


As you can see, there are several uses for this soap. It does take a long time to make but you only spend a fraction of that time actually doing anything, there is a lot of waiting. I chose olive oil, rice bran oil and coconut oil but I won't give you the recipe I used because I have to fine tune it, when that is done, I'll post it. It made up about four litres (quarts). This is a useful skill to have under your belt, but you should make cold pressed soap before you make this. I'm not sure if I'll continue using it to wash dishes but I really like that it is also shampoo, hand wash and wool wash - all cleaning liquids that are quite expensive. I can already see a lovely cleaning basket gift that this features in.

Are you making liquid soap? I'd love to know how yours turns out. And if you have a fail-safe recipe, please share it.

I have noticed something about myself since I started reading blogs and again when I started the forum. I wonder if some of you feel it too. It is that when I see productive work in others, it motivates me towards similar work here in my home. I see many photos of beautiful sewing and knitting and it inspires me to pick up my needles and knit, or start cutting out a project to sew. When I read about women (and sometimes men) canning or making jam, I want to do it too. The most mundane and simple tasks, when shared, make me want to join in and do my fair share of the work. Of course, my work is being done here, yours is done in your home, but blogging and writing about it on the forums moves me away from the computer and towards the broom.

I wonder why that is.


Yesterday when we shared what our collective days would hold, it motivated me to bottle my ginger beer, test wash up with my newly made liquid soap (more about that next week) and rearrange recycled jars and bottles in the cupboard. I had planned on spending some time posting on the forum but those words compelled me to scrub and bottle those drinks and organise my spaces better. Why?

I wonder if others feel it too.


I've been thinking about this overnight and I wonder if seeing the work of others or reading about productive work being carried out in homes stirs something deep inside that has been buried so long that it struggles to see the light of day. Maybe this motivation I feel is a remnant of those times when we - women and men - worked together in fields, or when women joined together for sewing and quilting bees, maybe it's something akin to the Amish and their barn raising. Is it the knowledge that when many hands work for the same cause, the work is done faster and the work itself is lighter? Do we have an inclination to work in groups?


Or is it more simple than that? Is it that seeing others work reminds us to get our own house in order. Maybe it's similar to the nesting instinct that many woman experience in the last stages of their pregnancy when they start rearranging, planning and fluffing the nest ready for a new baby.


I doubt I'm the only one who feels this motivation because I often have emails from some of you saying you love to know what I'm doing because it inspires productivity. This is not a one way street, I feel it too! So do you feel this pull towards work when you see or read of others working? And if you do, tell me, why is it so?

After two busy days at work, I'm at home, alone, today. Nice. Hanno is taking our friend to the doctor in Brisbane and I will be left to my own devices here behind the closed gate. I intend to have a quiet and gentle day with a mixture of things I like doing, mingled with a few chores I'd rather not do.

It's almost 5 am now, soon I'll feed Alice and Hettie and let the chooks out. Breakfast with Hanno will follow and then he will head off to have a haircut and pick up Bernadette. I'll clean up the kitchen, make bread, sweep the floor and make the bed. The main bathroom needs a clean today and I have to do a spot of ironing, so I'll do that before I go out into the garden to see what happened in the two days I worked. I want to see Quentin and Quince with the older chooks and if I'm lucky, I'll bring in some eggs. I'm not sure what we'll have for dinner tonight so while I'm in the garden I'll see what needs to be picked and that will determine what we eat.

I think it will be time for tea then, so I'll have that on the front verandah and do a little knitting. The weather is comfortably warm at the the moment and it will be something to look forward to. Later in the day I'll will make up a batch of ginger beer (recipe here) from the plant I started last week, I'll write and catalogue some photos. I have been taking photos here every day for a few years now. I need photos for various writing assignments and I'm wasting a lot of time going through the un-named folders. It's a tedious job, but one that must be done, so I'm doing a little each day.

I'll be dropping by the forum too as time allows today. I wanted to write much more than I have in there but the setting up has taken time. Hopefully I'll do that today. I want to get acquainted with you all and get inspired by what you're doing. There are so many interesting threads of conversation in there it's surprised me how quickly it's taken off. I just checked - exactly 300 members. Amazing.

Hanno will come home late in the afternoon, probably as I'm preparing our evening meal and we'll go through the routine again of feeding the animals, collecting late eggs and closing the door on the chooks when they put themselves to bed. It's going to be a fairly slow day but I'm happy to be working at home, pottering around at my own pace, and feeling useful and content in my home. What will you be doing today/tomorrow?

I've just about given up on TV. I enjoy watching the cricket during summer, I'm still faithful to Time Team and there is the occasional fine program that gives me hope but overall I think TV programmers are asleep at the wheel. However, I did watch a good program on SBS last week called Family Feasts which featured a large Italian family who gathered for the annual cooking and bottling of tomato sauce. I enjoy seeing these traditions being passed on and as I record most of the TV I watch, so I never have to see any advertising, the side benefit is that I can replay certain parts and study what they do.

Another program recorded last week was Compass. I think I've passed on links to Compass before when they featured the Amish. Compass is a program about ethics, belief, faith and values and how various people live true to what they believe. At the moment there is a series of three programs called The Good Life where three prominent Australians talk about their beliefs and why they live as they do. The first was about Ian Gawler, a man who is a long term cancer survivor, next week's is about philosopher Peter Singer, and last week's featured Gay Bilson, well know for cooking at a couple of famous Sydney restaurants. I expected interest from the Gay episode, I got much more than I expected.

Gay lives alone in South Australia now. She celebrates her solitude, takes pleasure in cooking and baking, she grows food in her garden, and reads. There are several delightful parts of the program where she reads from her wonderful book, Plenty. I have to tell you I love this program. I've watched it three times so far - I become a tad obsessed with certain odd things at times - I asked Hanno to watch it with me and he said "... she is just like you.".

We do have a lot in common, I adored seeing her kneading bread in her wonderful kitchen and yes, I have slowed the vision down so I could study every nook and cranny therein. I love to be alone and Gay brings that aspect of her life into almost everything she talks about, but if my truth is told, I am too frightened to imagine myself being alone now because of the dire circumstance that would bring that solitude to me. Nevertheless, on an intellectual level, if not a physical one, I do understand that need for solitude.

I love what she says about generosity, her daily domestic tasks and how home cooking and restaurant food differ. But there are so many parts of this wonderful program for me to recommend to you, let me stand back and just give you the gift of it. For Australian readers it will be replayed on ABC 2 this Friday at 6pm. For my friends further afield, there is a link to the program here. It runs for 30 minutes so get yourself a cuppa, sit back and enjoy this treasure.

ADDITION: Pebbledash has alerted me to the fact that this cannot be viewed by anyone outslde Australia. Thanks Diana. Sorry everyone. Maybe you could satisfy your curiosity by reading Gay's award winning book - Plenty.

ANOTHER ADDITION: International viewers need to "download" to view this. :- )