Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue #11.6 - 2021 i Good Organic Gardening

We have two olive trees in our vegie garden. One was a gift from friends moving OS and it came to us potted, so we planted it in the ground some years back. On its own it gave about one large cupful of olives for a few years running. Now, I’ve always believed that, like us, trees need friends — and, besides, what was I going to do with one cup of olives every year? So I bought another tree that was advanced enough to almost match the original tree and planted it nearby. Both trees really flourished and produced better crops, except the first year every single olive disappeared from the newer tree just when they were nearly ready to pick. Birds? But why were so many left on…

Here’s a garden that’s unusual in that it graces a rental property whose owners agreed to allow locals to use the land to grow vegetables. A community-based organisation run by volunteers in Norlane, Victoria, it’s called The Farm Next Door. I spoke to Clarrie Smith, whose pal Lachie started the initiative. Clarrie lives a few doors down and works in the garden every day. His philosophy echoes economist Ernst F Schumacher’s dictum: “An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.” When Clarrie moved to Norlane about 18 months ago, Lachie introduced his friend to the project and now, with the help of volunteers, Clarrie runs the show. He puts his energy into maintaining the soil while the others run workshops on tool maintenance, seed saving,…

COOL & HIGHLANDS MARCH beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chives, collards, corn salad, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, pak choy, radish, rocket, salsify, shallots (eschalots), silverbeet, swede, turnip APRIL Asian greens, beans, broad beans, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chives, collards, corn salad, garlic, kale, leek, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, onion, parsley, radish, rocket, shallot (eschalot), spinach, turnip TEMPERATE MARCH amaranth, Asian greens, beans, broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, burdock, cabbage, carrot, chives, collards, daikon, endive, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, radish, rocket, salsify, shallots (eschalots), silverbeet, spinach, swede, turnip APRIL Asian greens, beans, broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, burdock, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, chives, collards, corn salad, endive, fennel, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, onion, peas, radish, rocket, shallots…

Broccoli is often called the healthiest vegetable as it’s packed with nutrients. Rich in vitamin C and high in fibre, it also contains valuable antioxidants and minerals. The dark-green colour of a head of broccoli also indicates that it’s rich in carotenoids. One of the easiest of all the brassicas to cultivate, broccoli is grown for its buds, which form tightly packed heads. Not only is it easier to grow than, say, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts; it’s also quicker. Expect to harvest the first head 12–16 weeks after sowing. There are several traditional broccoli varieties grown for their large green heads. ‘Winter Harvest’ is a variety that thrives in cold months. The early heads can be 20cm in diameter: enough to feed the entire family. Side shoots appear after the…

Though carob is sometimes touted as a healthier alternative to chocolate, its taste tends to divide people. You either love it or hate it — and I adore it. But even if you don’t, you can still grow and appreciate this beautiful tree. Originating from the eastern Mediterranean where it’s thought to have been cultivated for over 4000 years, carob is a hardy, drought-tolerant, evergreen beauty. With glossy green leaves and flowers in summer followed by seed pods in autumn, carob trees reach a height of up to 10m at maturity, depending on the variety. The perfect small-to-medium-sized shade or windbreak tree, carob is commonly grown in permaculture food forests because it flowers throughout winter, providing a much-needed food source for bees. AS A MEMBER OF THE LEGUME FAMILY, A…

As much as we love our pets and our wildlife, they can do heartbreaking damage to our precious plants and gardens just by expressing their instinctive behaviours. Whether it’s indiscreet pooing or weeing, digging up plants or eating the produce, sometimes they really test our love. There are, however, some easy and mostly inexpensive measures you can take to solve these problems and still have pets and welcome wildlife to your patch. DOGS Ultimately, the best way to protect your precious garden against dogs digging, pooing and weeing is to build a fence and create an exercise area that has no plants or other elements your pet can destroy and where your pooch can roam freely. Building a fence can be expensive, however, and not something that suits everyone and…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • Keep picking beans, corn, cucumber, squash, tomato and zucchini. Share, swap, bottle and preserve excess harvest — you’ll be glad of it when winter hits.• As autumn progresses, summer plants begin to die back and crops get smaller. Zucchini is usually the first to give up as it becomes weakened by powdery mildew, which appears as a dusting of white over the leaves and stems, causing the leaves to wither.• Tomatoes may also die back due to russet mite, which causes progressive browning and death of leaves and stems from the base of the plant upwards. Don’t try to control these problems — they are a clear indication that it’s time to clear the space for new crops.• Start planting for winter and spring harvests…

90 Olives cured with caustic soda, the Abruzzi way 91 Olives in brine 92 Olives in oil 93 Garlic olives Recipes from Preserving The Italian Way by Pietro Demaio, Published by Plum, RRP $39.99, Photography by Chris Middleton This bestselling classic has received a modern update. First published in 2008, the book is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to preserve their own food, reduce food waste and help keep cultural traditions alive. Pietro Demaio has meticulously collected family recipes handed down from nonne and nonni all around Italy. They include how to preserve vegetables and fish in oil, vinegar or salt; how to make cheese, cure meats and dry herbs; and traditional methods for making bread, wine and liqueurs. Plus several more ways to preserve and prepare olives.…

Saltbush is one smart shrub. It has adapted to the most inhospitable of climates and soils and as a result is valued as a perennial native stock feed and an important groundcover plant. It’s widely used as a natural fodder crop in inland sheep-grazing areas such as in western New South Wales and parts of Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, where the leaves provide minerals as well as protein to animals. As saltbushes are adapted to dry conditions, they don’t grow well in regions with high rainfall, especially during summer, or cope with poorly drained soils. However, they do tolerate alkaline and saline soils. While saltbush grows naturally in many areas away from the coast, it can be difficult and expensive to establish as a fodder crop as it…

It might seem odd to make such a humble weed this issue’s power plant, but you may be surprised to know how much it is valued for its nutritional qualities and culinary uses in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Although it occurs worldwide so is a cosmopolitan species, common purslane is widely regarded as a native. As such, it was valued by Indigenous Australians and early European settlers alike. These days, however, gardeners largely dismiss it as a weed and in agricultural settings it’s undoubtedly considered an invasive weed. Some years, I have had this plant running quietly rampant in just one vegie bed — not affecting the other beds at all — and you probably have, too. I used to pull it out constantly over summer and throw it…

“A SENSIBLE GARDENER TAKES CARE OF THE TOOLS; A WISE GARDENER TAKES CARE OF HIS OR HER BODY AS WELL.”~ JENNI EVANS As an ageing gardener I’m always on the lookout for tools and strategies to ensure my gardening days can continue into older age. Like many others during the COVID period, I’ve been doing more gardening than ever and have come to the conclusion that the long-term sustainability of the gardener is often overlooked. We often forget the greatest tools we have as gardeners are our bodies. While we all develop ways of doing things and learning self-preservation techniques, the truth is most of us push ourselves beyond our limits and pay the price with aches, pains and injuries. This isn’t a lasting strategy! As an overachiever in the…

Autumn is feijoa season and it’s time to either get your excuses ready not to accept proffered fruit or start to investigate tasty ways to eat them. That’s because feijoa is the zucchini of the fruit world: once the plants start to crop, they are bountiful and everyone has plenty to give away. Although it’s not native to New Zealand — it actually comes from Brazil — our near neighbours have embraced the feijoa almost as enthusiastically as they prize the kiwifruit. They seem to grow more feijoas than anywhere on the planet and have the recipes to match for jams, jellies, pies, crumbles and, of course, feijoa chutney. Just check the web if you think I’m exaggerating. Despite its huge crops, the feijoa (Acca sellowiana), also known as pineapple…

Though most of us use it every day, many know little about pepper, a spice derived from the peppercorn, which is actually a fruit produced by the flowers of a vine. Pepper is native to South India and Asia but is grown commercially in many tropical areas, in particular in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is a major producer. Used for thousands of years both as a taste enhancer and medicine, pepper has the honour of being billed as the most-traded spice. As a sign of how important it was and how widely traded, pepper from India reached Egypt before 1213 BCE, as it was found in the nostrils of the mummified Ramesses II who died in that year. It was also known in Greece by 400 BCE and has similarly long…

There’s nothing most gardeners want more than to have their bit of earth populated with birds and bees of all kind. The best way to achieve this is to make your garden a welcoming space. Habitat creation is not much of an issue when you live in or near bushland, though water is something to consider. But what about the suburbs and small urban spaces? What can you do and what should you know about the natural world around you that will help you turn your garden into a fauna-friendly space? Observation is the key and there are so many birds, insects, marsupials, amphibians and reptiles to know about. Where do they nest? What do they eat? When is breeding season? Are they endemic to my area? What can I…

When it’s time to bring in new fowls, people usually seek point-of-lay pullets or, if the household includes youngsters, chickens. Young stock offers value for money as there should be a long laying life ahead. But there is another viewpoint. A Christmas present of two bantams for my daughter prompted me to hunt around for year-old hens, birds no longer needed at the purebred stud. OLDER HENS ADAPT EASILY AND QUICKLY LEARN THE ROPES. THEY KNOW THE SCORE; THEY JUST NEED TO LEARN YOUR ROUTINE. Year-olds? By now, surely their working life was half over. Let’s see how the benefits of young pullets stack up against the assets and issues of older birds. BREEDS TO MEET NEEDS Everyone has different expectations of poultry and sorting through your requirements will help…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • Collect seed from open-pollinated crops to save for sowing in spring or early summer. Make sure seed is clean and dry, then store it in an airtight container. Clearly label the seed and include the date it was collected.• It’s probably time to give up on tomatoes but don’t waste the unripe fruit — green tomatoes can be used in chutney or may be ripened indoors.• Ripe pumpkins are heavy and sound drummy when rapped with the knuckles. To store over winter, harvest each with a sharp knife and with a small piece of stem attached. Before storing, inspect each pumpkin and only store undamaged fruit. Select a cool, dark, airy spot away from heating or air-conditioning units. Check stored pumpkins regularly and use up…

It looks like a sputnik, tastes a bit like broccoli and is grown and enjoyed all over Southeast Asia, but kohlrabi no doubt comes to us from northern Europe. The common name (pronounced coal-rah-bee) is a combination of the German words for cabbage and turnip and it’s true that, like its close relatives cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale, it originates from the wild cabbage. But its only resemblance to the turnip is its spherical shape. Unlike turnip, kohlrabi is not a root vegetable but the swollen stem base (or bulb) of a shallow-rooted brassica. Unknown in Europe until 500 years ago, kohlrabi was first mentioned in print by botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, who wrote in 1554 that it had “come lately into Italy”. By the end of the 16th century,…

If their names sound familiar, it’s because we visited Simone and Dave Jelley two years back (Good Organic Gardening Vol 9 No 5) on Macleay Island in Queensland’s Moreton Bay, where they were farming edible flowers for the restaurant trade as well as hosting the occasional tour of their farm. Around 12 months ago they moved their three children — Sasha, Emma and Thomas — and Buster the dog to the mainland where, on eight acres in Canungra, they combined their business Pretty Produce with a new venture called Wild Flower Forest. So why the move? Simone says they simply couldn’t sustain the farming enterprise with the land they had. Besides that, “Water availability was too fickle, with the bore running dry during periods of drought. Then there was the…

MARCH 2021 Mid-autumn in most of Australia means there are still plenty of daytime high temperatures, which in turn means lots to plant in your vegie patch and herb garden. APRIL 2021 April brings more autumnal conditions as the days become shorter and the nights cooler, heralding the end of the wet season in northern tropical areas When the moon is waxing from new moon to full moon, it is increasing light and drawing sap flow upwards. During the waning from full moon back to new moon, light decreases and sap is drawn downwards. This movement of sap flow has an influence on how well new plants will grow. There are four phases, each lasting seven to eight days. Sowing, planting and taking cuttings should not be done in the…

The best way to restore your soil over autumn and winter is to sow it with green manure. A green manure crop is one grown specifically to be dug back into the soil, returning nutrients and adding organic matter to improve soil structure, water retention and soil biology. They are ideal short-term crops to follow hungry feeders such as tomatoes and corn or before voracious consumers like brassicas. Green manure crops are generally sown as seeds and there are a number of special seed mixes for “Autumn Green Manure” on the market. Ideally, autumn-sown green manure crops should contain a mix of legumes and cereal plants. Nitrogen-fixing legumes like peas, fava beans and sub clover are essential to the mix while cereal or grass-like plants, including oats or rye, are…

It’s an exciting time for the many Australian gardeners exploring the ever-increasing array of bush-food plants available through mainstream plant retailers. There’s a handful of species that are very well established in Australian horticulture such as the macadamia nut, with many named cultivars available as grafted plants. However, a number of other species are now becoming easier to find as nurseries master their propagation and growing requirements. Most of the species we look at here are ornamental as well as edible and can be planted into general garden beds if you want to save the vegetable patch for less attractive edible species. It’s important to acknowledge our First Nations people and their traditional knowledge of the Australian flora, as they have been using it for tens of thousands of years…

Growing annual vegetables can be laborious. At the end of every summer and winter, after harvest, vegetables have to be pulled out and put into the compost and the soil prepared for the next season’s crops. That entails digging in finished compost from previous seasons to repair the soil structure along with some manure to restore fertility. In late spring, a layer of mulch is usually applied to conserve soil moisture during the coming summer. The cycle is repeated year after year. If we looked at this as if it were an industrial process, with the intention of optimising it, we would quickly discover that a lot of effort is expended removing plants from a garden bed, moving them to another location for composting then returning the compost to replace…

IN SEASON MARCH FRUITS Apples, bananas, berries (raspberry, strawberry), breadfruit, dates, figs, finger limes, grapes, guava, kiwifruit, lemons, limes, mangosteens, melons (honeydew, rockmelon, watermelon), nashi, nectarines, olives, oranges (Valencia), passionfruit, pawpaw, peaches, pears, plums, pomegranates, quinces, rambutan, rhubarb, tamarillo, watermelons VEGIES Asian greens, beans, broccoli, capsicums, celery, chillies, cucumbers, daikon, eggplant, eschalots, kale, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, nuts (chestnuts), okra, onions, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn, Swiss chard, tomatoes, witlof, zucchini IN SEASON APRIL FRUITS Apples, avocados, bananas, cumquats, custard apples, dates, feijoas, figs, finger limes, grapes, guavas, kiwifruit, lemons, limes, mandarins (Imperial), nashi, nuts, olives, oranges (Valencia), passionfruit, pawpaw, pears, persimmons, pomegranates, quinces, rhubarb, tamarillos VEGIES Asian greens, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, capsicums, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chillies, chokos, cucumbers, eggplant, eschalots, fennel, garlic, ginger, kale, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms,…

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