House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

Here's a few more pics to get you salivating. The wife has done up an instruction guide for friends on how to make NO KNEAD bread. Let me know if anyone is interested and I'll post it here:

 

Yes please! I would have spoken up if you hadn't offered

I will get baking this weekend!

 

No Knead recipe please

 

Yum. My wife can't eat wheat so it's not often I enjoy bread, can you make it in small batches? I hate the waste of buying bread as I never finish a while loaf

 

Not sure. It keeps for a number of days. We usually enjoy it fresh on day one / two but then it makes beautiful toast after that for a couple of more days.

Trouble is when bread is this nice it's hard not to Pig out on it. Hence it doesn't last long.

 

Ok here's the "no knead" bread instructions - see attached. You will need a cast iron Dutch oven with a metal lid handle. We picked up a medium sized oval one cheap from Harris Scarf.

Like all new instructions it seems harder than what it is. The work involved in rediculously simple and easy. But you need to plan as the fermentation process takes 14 plus hours. So it's simply a case of time, not effort.

 

That loaf looks perfect. Crusty/crunchy on the outside and fluffy and airy on the inside. Been following a similar recipe for many years now and the only difference is the way i cook it. I've never used a hot pot or dutch oven but heard results can be great with them so might as well try it next time.
I usually put a a few ice blocks in the oven at first to create steam to get some nice crust forming. Putting the dough in the fridge to even further slow down the fermentation process also results in a much tastier loaf .

Great instructions btw

 

Blueberries and Lunchbox Peaches getting ready

 

Our 7 blueberry bushes (3 varieties) are absolutely loaded this year so should be in for a bumper crop soon. Must take a photo.

 

We've two varieties (3 bushes) one crops later than the other 2 so a bonus

 

I caved and bought two new blueberry plants! I have three plants already 1x Blue Rose and 2 unknown (bought from supermarket).

Now also have 1x Brigetta and 1x Denise.

All only babies about one foot high.

 

Well, I dug out a scrap patch of weeds and old rose bushes last week, freshened up the soil with some of our own compost that's been brewing for a while and planted 5 different tomatoes, some chillies and some capsicums plus a whole bunch of marigolds.

Home made compost - Instagram post by Numbnuts • Sep 29, 2017 at 4:28am UTC

Out with the scrub, in with the veg! (click the right/left arrows for step-by-step) - Instagram post by Numbnuts • Sep 29, 2017 at 4:32am UTC

Freshened up the old bath and plated mint, basil, corriender, thyme and more chilies (again, clicky the little arrows for all the pics)- Instagram post by Numbnuts • Oct 1, 2017 at 5:59am UTC

Turned over another patch of garden border for veg last week, plated more chilies, capsicums, kale and marigolds. Amazing to see how fast these things grow! Went away for 4 days came home expecting a jungle of fresh veg, only to find the local resident possum had eaten all the kale and all the leaves off the marigolds leaving only the single flower stalk and lonely flower atop.... so had to quickly knock up a cage to keep them off! I'll have to sort our some netting ready for the tomatoes in the first border as I'm pretty sure possums are partial to those too...

Instagram post by Numbnuts • Oct 9, 2017 at 4:52am UTC

I'm not much of a Gardner, most of our garden is self seeded and jungle like, I'm going to tidy up more of the borders of the next few weeks and the ones that get the most sun we'll turn over to veggies.

 

Thingd are ticking along, the PakChoy is already to pick as is the lettuce and the Tommy Toe tomatoes are budding already !

The PakChoy



The Lettuce


The tomatoes


Oh yes.. .the Purple King beans are getting their grown on too

 

All my Bok Choi have flowered. Even the small ones. I read that you can eat these, so I have cut most of them, but left the stem in case it wants to keep growing. I have left a couple sitting there to see if I can collect the seeds, but a bit disappointed as only one of them got as big as yours did. One of our Silverbeet looks like it's going to do this as well. We haven't killed the tomatoes & have a few plants that look good, but the capsicums & beans don't appear to be growing well at all. They look kind of healthy, but don't appear to be getting any bigger.

We also have 4 zucchini plants, and one of them looks great to me, while the others aren't as big.

What do you have growing in the toilet rolls?

 

The tight row to the left is the herb Thyme, its tiny to start and slow growing.

The open row to the right is a mix of baby leaf lettuce's : Tatsoi, Mizuna, Roquette and Beetroot. Picked small they make a great and colourful addition to a salad.

We use toilet rolls as tiny planter pots for things that dont like getting their roots disturbed. You fold over the ends and fill them with potting mix and plant the whole thing when the plant is big enough. They also work as bird guards to stop the Black Birds from digging up the seedlings.

@skater I still think your soil needs testing. If you're watering it ok then it must be lacking something of its PH is way off.

 

When you plant one of these in the vegie patch, could you post some photos?? I'm interested in this approach, and I'm thinking it would be half above the ground, and half below. I would have thought that the small plant might sweat without the breeze blowing past the small seedling.

Cheers,

 

How do you test the soil?

 

Just discovered this thread . Great stuff .

I remember watching “ the good life “ growing up and I think the thought of doing something along those lines has interested me ( though maybe not to that extent ) .

One thing that I didn’t see mentioned was recycling with worm farms . Is this something that people have got involved in , found necessary .

At the moment , we’ve got a blank slate in our back yard ( Sydney ) . Recently replaced the fences and contemplating what to do while we do some work on the weekender . Up to now the limit of our edible plant growing has been herbs which we ( or should I say my wife ) is able to grow with out killing .

At the moment we working out what we want along the boundaries . We have established plants along one side and ( so the neighbour don’t think we’re too weird ) have camellias down the otherside , ut I’m thinking of going with fruiting bushes / trees across the back fence which is around 15 m . Some slight shade at one end but mostly full sun .

Austing . You seem to have nailed the fruiting tree aspect

It makes sense to have a variety of different plants . What have you found are the easiest to grow and maintain ? From what I can see , blue berries grow well in Sydney and I do like them , though you have yours netted . Is that just something you need in rural areas or would they need to be netted anywhere ?

Any other thoughts re spacing , trees that work well together ?

Cliff

 

Fruit trees can be a lot of work especially in QLD where netting is required for birds and fruit fly.

Cliff the netting over the Blueberries is for bird protection. You will likely need it. It's only needed when there's fruit on. So far the fruit flies have left them alone.

Blueberry shrubs could make a nice hedge up to 2 m high.

To be continued.