Slow living for the month of March

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SLOW LIVING - Month by Month March 2012

NOURISH: Really work on selecting a few favourite recipes from the piles and piles of recipes I have accumulated. Share favourites on my recipe blog . recipe blog
 I have perfected an Indian curry recipe base, and this can be used for so many different curries.  We get a seafood mix called marinara and I have never really found any good recipes for it.  Check out seafood parcels at the above site - definitely a keeper. I have also joined -the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge.  Last month was building the soil.  This month has been home dairy.  I already make yoghurt, but this month I made cheese, both ricotta and paneer. 

PREPARE:  make my lunches in advance. 
 Every weekend when I have just done a grocery shop I take out the older vegetables, mix with some lentils and stock and leave it bubbling away in the stock pot for the afternoon.  This is then dished out into containers and popped into the fridge.  I take these to work for lunch every day, and since I normally make more than five containers, they overlap and so I get a bit of variety. 

REDUCE: re-use.
 My roof at work was replaced, and I managed to be able to use some of the old roofing in my veggie garden. I am not so sure if it is an improvement or if it just looks tacky corrugated iron fence


 GREEN: 
This site is really worth checking out   http://www.care2.com  A lot of causes have been brought to my attention through this site.  I also love, love love their e-cards.  it is sooo refreshing to send an e-card knowing that you are not sending off a virus and also in a small way helping whatever organisation you chose to support.  I also made up some more orange cleaner.

GROW: 
 I began planting out my dry season veggie seeds, hoping that we would not suddenly get a deluge, but the rain continued on relentlessly through March.  Lately there has been a bit more sunshine, so I am hoping the little struggling seedlings will be happier.    Harvesting tropical fruits like pawpaw and passionfruit, and even a few limes from my lime tree! The loofas are drying and I peeled and cleaned a few, and I am harvesting lots of lovely winged beans - my new favorite veggie, although that has got some sort of bug or fungus.  I sprayed with milky, chili, garlic water. 

CREATE:   I did a bit of a cleanout and organize in our study/guest room. I moved the sewing closet into our bedroom.   It is now quite inviting for our guests coming to stay in April.  I made a duvet cover from gifted fabric and in fact have a whole roll of it so if anyone has any ideas to use up more of it I would welcome them..  It is a plain grey and quite heavy - I think it may have  a bit of linen in it.  

 Many years ago when the girls were little I acquired a whole roll of lovely cotton fabric - black with little red roses, and I used it for everything.  I looked back on a photo showing both girls in little red and black dresses, sitting on a bunk in the cabin of the boat.  The bunk was covered with a  sheet made made of - you guess it!  the same fabric!   I must make a note not to -over-use this fabric! :)  

DISCOVER:  Share titles/authors of what has been read this month.
 I love to be able to go online and peruse the new items at the library website - I put them onto my reserve list, so I always have something new and exciting coming up. This month I read  "The language of flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  I don't remember who recommended it - This is no ordinary book - prepare to forsake everything while reading this book.  It is about foster care, family and the meaning of flowers.....
I have also discovered lists of bloggers that makes it easy to find other like minded bloggers out there
Sustainable suburbia  



ENHANCE: community.
  I am volunteering at the local markets on the 4th Saturday of the month.  Our church has a large op shop and it is wonderful to be a part of the socializing that goes on. I also like having a place to take things when I have de-cluttered.  We also provide space for local growers and crafts persons to sell their ware.  It is also a great social outing for lonely people to meet and enjoy a cuppa and biscuit for 1.00.   I am so glad I started doing this!


ENJOY: life
March 19th was my birthday and we had my daughter in law and the grands around for a birthday brekkie.   It was raining so there was lots of reading and puzzle time afterwards which I always enjoy.   I got an e-reader so am figuring out some new (to me) technology. 


Thank you Christine for starting this idea - I thoroughly enjoyed doing the challenge this month and will be back for more next month.  

A few of my favourite things

I love to have flowers in the garden, and this little corner was not getting enough light, so I trimmed back some of the overhanging branches and open the gate when I am home to let the sunshine stream in.  We are still in the rainy season so drying out the soil occasionally is important.   At the very least it helps to slow down the mosquito breeding.

 These red gingers never stop flowering and provide constant colour.

 Right in the back corner is my very favourite flower - the sexy pink lady, and once again I have a bud forming.  Just in time for our house guests - old friends from America.  I hope the weather is kind to them. I am glad the garden is getting ready to show off  its best.

Just below the pink lady is a pink ginger - not as prolific as the red, but the same family.

Fungus, chook poo, the back fence and other nasties

I couldn't figure out what was going wrong with my winged bean and the Rosella right alongside it. I think the fact that we still seem to be in the thick of the wet season might have something to do with it.   I know my pawpaw trees have a fungal infection and they seem to get better when I treat them often to a skim milk and water drink spray.  The brown spots on the bean looks like a fungus to me, I also saw insect damage on the leaves.  I got out my handy little sprayer and mixed up a fungal spray, plus insect repellent.  20% skim milk, then chili and garlic, topped up with water.  The winged bean is using the pigeon pea as a climbing support.

 The blue triangle butterflies are back - such pretty butterflies, you would think they would be after sweet nectar, but no! .... they are attracted to the foul smelling chook poo pellets I spread around the garden.  I need both phosphorus and potassium in my garden - I like to add it at the beginning of the growing season but not while there is flooding or it will all wash away.  Lately we seem to just be getting showers, not floods, so hope it is perfect timing.  The pelleted chook poo is aged, so is safe to add directly.

 Well, since I am doing a show and tell of all the nasties I might as well show you my shanty town addition - The roof was replaced at work and I nabbed a few of the old corrugated iron sheets.  Along the back fence I have alternated between wire, bits of wood, in fact whatever I could find to keep my soil in and the bandicoots and toads out.  They burrow underneath the fence, so there needs to be something fairly substantial to keep them out.. The last of the wood was rotting away and I had a big load of almost completed compost I wanted to spread out in that area (and keep contained). The other side of the fence is my neighbours compost heap which already had corrugated iron sides, so I thought it couldn't look much worse.

 I have kept the chicken wire mesh in front so that the beans I am going to plant will happily grow up and cover the unsightly metal.  I had some comfrey growing there too, and will plant out some more plants now that it is more open.   I also put some behind the fruit trees (they are in pots) - they seem to love the sunny area.  I think I can now tidy up that area and just have a row of pots and take out the grow bags I had there before, that is assuming I am going to keep the corrugated iron.

When other people recycle/re-use in their garden it looks right, but am I creating a little shanty town in the back garden or not?  Now that I have removed the trellis with the mandevilla and passionfruit vines this area is getting a lot more light and I think soon you wont even notice the new addition.  I am going to try to keep the madevilla controlled into an arch above the fence, raising its height.  What do you think?

Sunshine - is the wet season over yet?

This week there have been a few days of sunshine and I noticed my personal solar panels are charged up and I am ready to go!  I do hope that the wet season is finally over.  I clipped and pruned and yanked and finally got rid of the pink bouganvilla.  The flowers were pretty but it was far too aggressive for that little corner.  I know, I know lots of  people warned me!  there is still one peach colored bouganvilla there, but I don't think it is quite as aggressive.  I will be keeping an eye out.

 

 Slowly the flowers will shed the weight of the water of the wet season

 their heads will no longer bow down with the weight of the water on their shoulders

I don't believe I have shown you the view out from the big gate - the little garden in the center is filling in nicely.  I wont show you a close photo right now though, as a lot of that filling in is with weeds....

 OK really, really close you can see the pretty Cordelines out there - they have loved all the rain and a bit of sunshine now makes them blush a deep pink.

Everyone assures me that the wet season is not over yet, but give me a little sunshine and I am hard to convince.  This weekend has nothing on the schedule other than gardening.....

.in the sunshine.  

Oh yes,  I am smiling.

I made cheese! - Urban farm challenge month 2

I somehow just slipped into this challenge Urban Farm challenge and this is my second month.  The first month was all about soil building, and this month is all about home dairy.  I already make my own yoghurt in my yogi thermos system, but I have always wanted to try to make cheese.

Ok so this weekend I did it!  I made cheese!  I read up so much about it and  then in the end just dived right in.  (It was raining and so I couldn't get out into the garden)  I pretty much followed the instructions from Eating rules but used citric acid in water instead of the lemon juice. I started with three liters of milk. I wanted to make paneer and it seemed that you make whole milk ricotta and paneer the same way.  After it was drained I reserved half for the paneer and the only extra step was to press the liquid out and then cut it into squares.

With the Paneer I  made  Pea and Paneer curry, and the one good thing I did for this curry was to make up a curry base and put half aside for another curry. Curry - many ways recipe  I like this idea as most of the time involved in cooking curry is all the chopping and sauteing, this way you only have to do it once for two curries. I have the other half in the freezer to see how it freezes and will update when I use it.
So back to the ricotta - I now realize just how much salt must go into cheese that you buy over the counter.  The ricotta was pretty bland until quite a large sprinkle of salt was added. It was good on crackers, but we try to shy away from things like cheese and crackers.   We had some broccoli that needed to be used up, so  I made pasta with broccoli.  I boiled it in some of the whey as the whey retains a lot of the water soluble nutrients.
Next month is gardening, anyone want to join me on this challenge?

Does blogging make you a better gardener?

I was being a bit reflective today - (it is my birthday and that tends to happen as I think of myself getting yet another year older). I live in a very remote area, and very few people other than the family actually ever see my garden.
The grands love to run around and play and I have to bite my tongue when they pick pretty flowers to bring me.  I do want them to grow up enjoying nature, and knowing where their veggies come from, and enjoy the taste of a sun warmed tomato straight from the bush. I don't want them to think the garden is un-touchable.  I think it is working - my 4yr old grandson loves to garden.

Hence the little friends that share my garden with me...






With blogging though, I bring hundreds of people into my garden - an open garden every day....  I do think that has made me a better gardener.
 I think "oh my angel wing begonias are looking just as pretty as Bernie's"  I love how she has them hanging all in a row!

An orchid flowers and I just know that Desiree will post a lovely comment about it, even though she has a greenhouse full of orchids that seem to flower all year, while mine have a mind of their own.

I start to clean the mildew and moss off the pavers in my path and think of Missy running through the path in "her" garden chasing lizards.  For sure she would slip and slide on these!

I send out cosmos seeds and then see their flowers popping up in everyone's blog - I did warn everyone they could be a little weedy!  They have taken off on the side of the pool fence and formed a cheery border.

Now I have started joining in a few things which keep me accountable and on a bit of a blogging schedule one is the Urban farm handbook challenge that you can read more about here .  I won a pair of gardening gloves in the first month which was rather nice....  Last month we were building up the soil and this month making cheese. I have wanted to make cheese for so long, and this just gave me that extra shove.

Christine from slow living essentials has put out another challenge slow-living-month-by-month- and I have been enjoying doing this.
On the 5th of the month I post my harvest photos and link to garden bloggers harvest day
Then of course on the 15th I am linking to garden bloggers bloom day and then pretty soon after that to follow up foliage.
Suddenly I have a full blogging schedule....Oh dear, am I setting myself up for failure?   I think not - bloggers are very generous and don't come after you with a whip if you don't make the meet up, and I am finding it quite fun to have a few themes, memes or whatever you want to call them.
My first adventure into blogging began when I joined Kitchen Gardeners International, and suddenly there were all these gardeners willing to share their wealth of knowledge.  I posted a few photos and discovered that one could do the same thing on a thing called a blog.  I stumbled around learning how to post photos and follow other bloggers.
What a wealth of information I found out there and such great support cheering me on to become a better gardener, with their advice and support.
 Thank you everyone!
Does anyone else want to share how they started blogging?

Garden bloggers bloom day March 15th

I presume every one of my readers is tired of hearing all about rain and the wet season, but unfortunately it still is not done!  I was doing some reading and it seems as though La Nina years means that our wet season is wetter and later in the year.  About three or four years ago I can remember everyone planting out over the Easter weekend and it was always dry and sunny by that time.  I don't see it being dry and sunny by Easter this year, but I remain hopeful.  We are having houseguests just after after Easter and I want the weather to be nice for their visit.
I ventured out into the soggy, muddy, mosquito ridden backyard to take some photos of what is in flower for this garden bloggers bloom day  -  I hope you have some repellent on, otherwise those mozzies will get you!

The variegated costus seems to be forming a halo above the bromeliad flower - doesn't it?

 Here is a detail of the bromeliad flower.   Don't you just love those purple tips, and then the tiny yellow blooms starting to peek out at the bottom?

 I am often tempted to cut the lady Di Heleonia and bring them inside, but if you leave them on the plant,  they continue to grow bigger and better, until the weight of the flower is too much and they fall to the ground. this is a triple one..

 I call this my poached egg orchid - such a pretty little thing.

 The leaves of the variegated hibiscus go more white than green in this weather, and contrast so nicely with the flowers.

Angel wing begonia stretch out such long branches at this time of year - as if they are reaching for the sky - maybe that is why they are called angel wings?  They reminded me of a saying I read the other day, I have no idea where it first came from,
"When your roots are firmly planted in the ground your branches grow closer and closer to heaven."

the cats whiskers are starting to flower - the little honey-eaters love these and they are conveniently right next to the birdbath. 

 also buds on the stephanotis are opening up, and behind that is an orchid bud - exciting!

Out in the veggie garden the jicama is flowering, but I must remember to cut off those buds so that maybe this year I can harvest some big juicy tubers.

Sometimes I get frustrated with all this rain, but then I venture outside with the camera and come back in again with a smile of my face.  So that reminds me of yet another anonymous quote
"bloom where you are planted", and I will endeavor to enjoy today and not wish my life away hoping the wet season will end soon.

Moon planting - wierd or not?

I first heard about moon planting from my 90 year old neighbor when I came to Australia 7 years ago.  He was our landlord and grew the most amazing vegetables.  He also sprayed chemicals to kill the bugs, so I did not agree with everything he was doing.  I put the moon planting in the back of my mind as mumbo jumbo.   Moon planting always seems to be portrayed with illustrations that quite frankly made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  Then I began to research the subject a little more, and it all seems so logical - not mumbo jumbo at all!

The moon has tremendous pull on the earth - it is the moons force that pulls the mass of oceans back and forth creating the tides. In order to get to understand the whole subject I had to put it into simple terms, and for some people this might be simplifying it too much, but bear with me.  While the moon is waxing (getting bigger) the force pulls plants that grow above the ground up into the atmosphere.  While the moon is waning (getting smaller) the force pulls plants deep into the ground.  I found this website that has a little calendar alongside http://aussieorganicgardening.com  telling you what you should be planting on what date. Much easier than trying to figure it out myself :)

 I will give this a try, mainly because I was planning on planting out some carrots and root crops anyway this weekend.

 All these seeds came from Mr Fothergills , and I am interested to see how the seed tape works, as in the past I have always overcrowded my carrot beds.  The harlequin carrots seem amazing to me, and I cant wait to see all that color on my plate!  I lose track of how many times we tip out the rain gauge - it seems a waste...  I want to get the carrots in though because they take soo long till harvest - I should be harvesting these in July - yipee!

 My seedlings are growing long and leggy, and I suspect they need a good dose of sunshine.

 the silverbeet especially are very unhappy.  If this weather continues I might move them inside under some lights.  I can't imagine doing this in the tropics.... surely the rain will slow down soon.

 I also had some green bean seeds soaking ready to plant out and this is supposedly the wrong time to plant them - oh well.  Hopefully the green beans don't ascribe to the moon planting schedule and the carrots do!

In the past I have tried to keep track of planting and harvest time, so will try that again on an excel spreadsheet.  I know that Erica at   Northwest edible life  in Seattle does that in a big way - (I would never keep this updated) does anyone else do that?  Since I also want to continuous sow the carrots every two weeks I will be able to monitor whether those seeds planted outside of the moon time grow any differently.

We live in a remote area and the night sky is always marvelous to look at - no big city lights dimming the twinkling stars in our backyard!  I looked up at the moon the other evening and that is what got me thinking about this subject.  I have often taken comfort in these words, knowing that the same moon shines down on my loved ones scattered around the globe.

I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me

Under the shade of the old oak tree

God bless the light that shines on me

and shine on the ones I love...

Garden bloggers harvest day for March 5th

Barbie and Christine from the gardening blog in South Africa is running a harvest day meme on the 5th of every month, and  I thought I would join in. This is the month when most of the "normal" type of vegetables have not yet been planted, I have some tropical wet season type of vegetables to share.   I wouldn't call them "abnormal" but some of them sure are different!
I have been wanting to grow winged beans for the longest time, and  eventually got some seeds from  a Brisbane forum.  They have a faint taste of snow peas, but the main reason I wanted to grow them is that they are so pretty, and the fact that they taste so good is an added bonus.

 Here they are growing up a tepee and then over a makeshift support down the center of the veggie patch.  They are just under a pawpaw tree, you can see passionfruit and loofah hanging from the vine in the top left, and off to the bottom left is the asparagus.

 I sent some loofah seeds in exchange - I wonder how they are doing down there in Brisbane? - should be good as they got lots of rain this year! Loofas will grow as high as you let them.  I sometimes eat the smaller ones, but mostly let them dry to use in the bath.  On my to do list is to make soap one day....and incorporate some loofah.

This has been a good year for ginger and turmeric, and galangal, and lemongrass.  I don't harvest them all in one go- just dig up whatever I need and let the plant do its thing.   I did dig up a bit of extra ginger because I wanted to make a batch of ginger beer.
 You can see the ginger in the photo below- it needs to sit out a little bit in order for the flavor to develop.  Also I want to use the front of this bed for planting tomatoes.  I wonder if they will taste gingery?

The sweet potatoes and jicama are not as prolific as I would like.  I started cutting back the green shoots vigorously in order for all the growing to take place underground.

I have started some seedlings so that I can move straight into the next season with no break in between.   Bok Choy, mignotte lettuce, silverbeet - they should thrive in this temperature as the humidity starts to reduce.  Barbie has grown some magnificent silverbeet this year - called swiss chard over there.  I hope mine is a good crop - from seed they always seem to be very long and spindly, and never quite take off from there.  This year I am going to persevere until I get a good crop.

we harvest pawpaw and passionfruit year round, and that is my favourite breakfast - yummy!

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is harvesting all over the world.

So much rain, my garden is dripping

I cant believe that a couple of weeks ago I thought things were drying out and we were going to have an early dry season.  Shows what I know!  For over a week we have had torrential rain, with water over the roads blocking access, and the back yard a total bog.  My little veggie seedlings are slightly protected , but not getting any sunshine other than the liquid variety.  Some wet scenes from around the garden....
The variegated hibiscus goes very white at this time of year, and I love how that contrasts with the flowers that dangle wetly from the ends of the branches.

 This bromeliad is quite prolific at this time of year - the colours are quite delicious.

Even the Cordelines show off their hot pink leaves.

 The weight of too much rainwater has made this tall one collapse.  I will cut the top off and it will re-shoot.

 The red ginger flowers out the back that I have been meaning to thin  are sending out new shoots.  I have anchored these (still attached to the plant)  into a bucket of soil before and a new plant will grow from that.  That form of propagation is called layering.

I looked back on my blog posts for last March and it was just like this - lots of rain - why am I surprised?  that is the reason I started this blog so that I could have a record to look back on.  I guess I just got excited about  planting veggies and didn't do the research. Next question - do I plant out my lettuce seedlings into the ground out in the open where they will get more rain, but also more sun when it shines, or under the shade-cloth which will protect them a little from the heavy rain?  I am leading more towards under the shade-cloth.