Healthy Soil, Healthy Food

Ending of Winter.  Time to prune and tidy up the garden for the Big Spring into Action!  We end up with unsightly heaps like this below.  Bring in the trusty little home gardener Masport mulcher.  It is the Winter gardener's Best Little Helper.  Chews up branches and spits them out in teeny little pieces which can be spread on bare ground as a weed-suppressing mulch, which ultimately breaks down over 9-12 months to feed and condition the soil.

What a mess!

Chewing through the fallout, one branch at a time.

The only downside of this exercise is that our little mulcher takes branches no bigger than 4cm diameter.  And often gets jammed, so I have to wait for the branch to dry out and shrink a bit before I can pull it out and start again, sometimes waiting 2-3 weeks for that process!!

The bigger branches which can't go through the mulcher are chopped up with my electric chainsaw, for firewood.

Smaller branches are chopped to size to keep as kindling for next winter's fires.

Mulch is distributed on cardboard for walkways, or straight on the ground around fruit trees etc.

I leave the mulch to stand for 5 weeks before distributing, as it can leach nitrogen from the soil as it decays.  It works to suppress weeds and over time, fungi decompose the woody chips and help to condition and enrich the soil.  We are also lucky enough to have a local tree chopper guy who dumps fresh wood chip for us when we ask, as we would never be able to produce enough on our own.  We used to have to pay for loads, so this is a truly valuable contact!  If he is in the area, it saves him travelling to dump it.  We both win!!

Before: A mess!  Weeds have overgrown this area of the orchard over winter!

Day 1, halfway weeded.

Day 2, job complete and area is mulched for weed suppression.

Asparagus bed and path weeded for spring growth.  I have been busy!  This area will need mulch too, if I am not to weed it all over again in 2-3 weeks time! 

Untreated sawdust makes a good "floor" in front of the bee hives.  It suppresses the weeds and is soft and spongy to walk on.  Mike occasionally collects a large bag-full from a local woodworker.

Peach tree weeded and pathways mulched.

Bee foraging garden weeded and mulched.  Note how the frosts have killed the grassed area!

All  those weeds and prunings end up returning to the soil as wonderful rich compost!

Time to sort out seeds and plan for a busy sowing season ahead!  Yay!  Love this activity!  A time of planning, renewal and growth.

Compost feeds the crops

A brown seaweed sits in water, steeping out all the goodness.  I use this, highly diluted to feed food crops, also use it concentrated, in the compost bin to help accelerate the decomposition process.  Every couple of weeks, I head down to the harbour and collect a bucket full.

Sea lettuce collected from the shores of our harbour, steeped in water or added directly into the compost bin provides a good source of sea-rich nutrients.  It can be used as a direct mulch on garden beds, however, I do not collect enough at any one time to put this into practice.

The worm farm in the foreground, provides vermicast and worm-wee tea, which is also diluted and fed to hungry growing food crops.

Winter crops fastapproaching harvest.

Celery looking good.  Healthy soil = healthy plants.

The citrus is looking good; lemons, limes, mandarins, grapefruit and oranges all ripening nicely, thanks to healthy soil!

Recently I have enjoyed making a couple of log bug-homes.  It's a simple idea I found on the World Wide Web.  Drill several different gauge holes into a section of log.  Add a hook on the top, some rope and hang it in a tree.  Now I just need to wait and see who takes up residence.  I added a roof of old floor vinyl to protect the top from rain.

I spied this wonderful sight below, while out walking in Katikati.  Someone has used big water bottles with the bottoms cut off, as mini glass houses to protect his/her new seedlings in the veg bed.  Brilliant recycling idea!  Love it!!

And lastly, talking about healthy soil, healthy food..... we are enjoying our smoothies most days - I throw a bunch of garden produce into the blender and whizz away.  Simply deliciously healthy kai!

I freeze fruit when it's in glut, for lean times like in winter - frozen blueberries and cubes of feijoa pulp.  Our one frost-surviving bunch of bananas is slowly ripening in the garden shed, fodder for smoothies over the coming weeks....

GreeNZ Health Insurance Policy

Blending made smoother!!

We did it!  Bought ourselves a health insurance policy - a Breville Boss Blender!  Yay!  I am in awe of all it can do!  Nutbutters, smoothies, green smoothies, mill flour, frozen desserts - and more!  I have always wanted to make green smoothies and our food processor just does not do the job, at all!  All itty-bitty!  It makes smoothies, but a bit roughly!!  But then, it was never meant for that!

I always thought I would eventually succumb and buy a smoothie maker, even went to an in-home demo of a Thermomix - what a machine!  It did all, including washing itself and cooking the food!  But at NZ$2 500.00, I could definitely not justify buying one!  Hell, that would be half the deposit on a mortgage of a modest home!!

From this.........

To this, in seconds!

Best basis for any smoothie: 1 or 2 bananas, very ripe, for max flavour and texture.

We checked out models on the net, compared performance tests, prices, functionality........... simply, to totally confuse myself!  Then we decided to head on into the Big Smoke to see what a Boxing Day sale was all about!  After sitting in traffic for half an hour longer than necessary (accident en route) we were amazed at the shopping frenzy!  I checked out the blenders - and then I saw him!  The Boss!  And I knew it was love at first sight!  At $100 discounted, the price was less than half of the Thermomix, still pricey but I knew it was the one for me!
  

Banana, frozen peaches, vanilla and gooseberry blend.

So, so smooth.  A real smoothie!

A little coy smile, a wave of side hair tendrils and my husband was convinced.  We brought the Boss home and it took 2 days before I could bear even opening the box!  My first attempt at a green smoothie was less than mind-blowing, but as I was limited to ingredients found on hand, it was not bad.  The taste test of a green smoothie is all about texture!  My processor would whisk away at a 1/4 of the speed of the Boss, and leave you with unblended, stringy green gunk, totally unappetising and unconvincing to say the least!  Albeit a bit green-tasting, my Boss-made-green-smoothie had the smoothest texture and I know I can improve on flavour as I get more green-savvy!

First attempt, using ingredients on hand.....

Apple with skin, cucumber, silver beet, kale, celery, carrot, lime,
blueberries, stevia and coconut water.

May not look inspiring, but a powerhouse of nutrition
at a quick touch of a button!

Looks like a mug of spirulina but tastes a lot better!

 The Boss is the health insurance we have bought into and is the powerhouse of nutrients that we will be consuming, hopefully at least 2-3 times a week, full of chlorophyl, Vitamins A,C and K, potassium, magnesium, manganese and iron! 

The garden is bursting with fruit; nectarines and berries: strawberries, black currants and blueberries.  All great for eating fresh, or in a smoothie.  Yum!

Soaking calendula flowers in coconut oil for balm

Strawberry cage, netted against marauding birds.

A typical berry harvest every 2 days.  Great for smoothie making!

First harvest of nectarines comes in!

To die for; fresh, succulent sweet nectarines!  Taste sunshine!

After bouts of blending, it's out into the garden, weeding, mulching, planting, sowing, watering, picking or just watching!  I LOVE summer!

Phewf!  After all that blending, I need a holiday.  

Shanti stands guard over the emerging seedlings, watches them grow!  She looks exhausted from the hard work!

Guess Shanti thinks she needs a break too!

  

Home Holidays

Rosemary framing the sun plaque

There is just one thing that I enjoy next to Tropical Holidays - that's Home Holidays!!  Time out of a busy routine to get stuff done!  What kinda stuff?  Anything and everything!  There is a ticking clock inside of me - one that wants to make time stand still, and in the absence of these magical powers, to make the most of every minute of my waking hours.  The lack of routines, getting dressed, to work on time, deadlines, general weekday business seems to shift and change gears.  I vacillate between making, creating, reading, fixing, planting, tending, contemplating and drinking endless cups of tea, dandelion and coffee!  Pure bliss!  And it is made all the more exciting when you can cross off the lists (yes, I am a listy-kinda-gal) and view all that you have achieved at the end of a busy but productively relaxed kind of day! And being a geeky list gal, I even add things onto a list, that weren' on the list, but that I achieved anyway at the end of the day and feel smug with myself!   Bet I am not making much sense to the sane ones reading this............ it's just that I have an awful lot of things I wish to do and achieve before I die.  Holidays are good times to catch up on those things!

The first up:  a whack of hand and body balms.  I have been running skinny on this since I finished my last one a few weeks before the end of the school term - and no time to make any up till now.

Simple body balm ingredients:  about 2 TBspn beeswax, cup of cold-pressed sesame seed oil and olive oil and essential oils of choice.  Lip balm is also another option to make with the same ingredients, just use more beeswax to oils, and use "edible essential oils like peppermint.   Easy peasy, and I make enough to keep me going for a good few months, and some extras to give away.

Ingredients for hand and body balm

Finished tins of hand and body balms.  Great for tucking one in a handbag,
one next to the bed and one on the windowsill in front of the washing up sink!

Using recycled mint tins.

A quick jar refill of Gardeners hand and foot scrub: add 6 TBspn organic sugar to a jar, mix in 2 TBspn olive oil and some peppermint essential oil.  A teaspoon of this can be used to exfoliate hands or feet to produce the softest of skin - the key to romantic back massages from a gardener!

Hand and Foot Scrub

Last weekend, I pulled out some berries left over from my smoothie making expeditions, and combined gooseberries with strawberries to make a mixed berry jam.  Looks yum, haven't tried it yet but no reason why it shouldn't taste as good as it looks!  Jam is sooo easy to make - I use 1kg fruit to 750g sugar (organic golden).  Boil it up till it gives the setting test (actually, I don't bother too much about this - some of my jams don't set as well as domestic goddesses would have you strive for, but it still passes the taste test.  This is mostly due to the fact that I like to use less sugar than conventional jam-making would advise).  

Frozen berries

Gooseberry/Strawberry jam

And whilst the jam is bubbling like a witch's cauldron of spider legs and frog spawn, a spin of the blender produces some damn fine parsley pesto - I'm hooked!  The time has arrived in that gardening calender, when we can go into the garden and start picking our salad ingredients: small kale and silver beet leaves, nasturtium flowers and leaves, parsley, calendula flowers, lettuces are growing nicely....... add a few sun-dried tomatoes, olives and home-made pickles and pesto in the salad dressing............ yay!  Summer living is the way to go!  I know it's still spring, but knowing that summer is beginning to peek around the corner is thrilling!

Parsley pesto

Home-grown salad

The garden is definitely awakening, seedlings are popping up out of their soil substrate and flowers are brightening up the corners of the garden.  The last week and a half has brought the infamous spring equinox weather - evil spiteful winds and whipping rain showers.  But when the clouds part and the sun shines through, there is hope.  I am amazed that the garden has not been damaged ... seems everything has withstood the battering and ramming weather bomb and come out without too much bruising.  We did have to take our garden chimes down, as they were keeping us awake all night through the wind storms!  Clang, clang, clang - like living in a Buddhist monastery where they are constantly banging the lunch-time gong!

Beautiful baby sunflowers

The colour of these un-named flowers brings a smile to me!

Seed saving:  I have collected many seeds for spring/summer planting.  Pumpkins, kamo kamo, beans, coriander, dill, corn, nz perpetual spinach etc.  Many of my seeds are 5th or 6th generation GreeNZ seeds.  Meaning, I have been collecting them each year, from the same original parent seeds.  If you keep on doing this, the theory is that the plants become stronger for your growing conditions that they have been acclimatised to.

Saving seeds.  My daughter looking over my shoulder has insisted I
add that she cleaned and sorted these ones in such a lovely way!
(It was worth it for the kiss I just got as thanks!)

Holiday Gardening To Do List:

• Mulch blueberry bed with untreated cedar sawdust.  Check.   Done.  No weeds to pull for a few months.

Sawdust-mulched blueberry bed

• Pip fruits collared and pheromone-trapped.  Check.  Done 2 weekends ago.  Hopefully catch those buggery coddling moths!

Pear tree with cardboard collar to lure coddling moth ladies

Pheromone trap for coddling moth guys

Another cardboard collar to lure female coddling moths to lay their
eggs in here instead of the apple blossoms

• Set up tomato trellis for planting time.  Check.  Quite a good sturdy system even I say myself.

Trellised bed for tomatoes.

Seedlings hardening off outside.

• Plant out and protect salad garden.  Check.  All collared with anti-slug and snail deterrents and Quash bait.

Outdoor salad bed with lettuces, mibuna, rocket and brassicas.

Old catering size tins make great wind breaks, as well as snail deterrents.
The snail bait, Quash, is organic copper-based and non-toxic.

Lettuces in the hothouse.

• Mulch and suppress garlic bed.  Check.  Found some old wool fleece left over from building.  I think the garlic is cosy, warm and happy.

Snugly bedded garlic crop

Not sure why I added the frame, just like the sculptural effect.

• Sow seeds.  Check.  Have tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, beans, chillies and kale, cabbages and caulis all waiting to be planted out.  Next round coming up soon.  Just direct-planted my beetroot today.

• Get mike onto bamboo harvesting for stakes and support structures.  Check.  He did that with our German Helpxchange a little while back and they are ready to use.

Bamboo supply for garden structures

What now?  A good holiday read perhaps.  Lucky me!

Fatcat Shanti sun-bathing in the spring sunshine

Bliss!