Backyard Gardening

A place to discuss health and fitness, including healthy diets, etc.
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

Thanks Kim & Ayu. I've been doing yard work all day again to keep my mind off hospital on Tuesday. Tomorrow is my last day of work before hospital & I'm a bit scared as I've never been in hospital before. It's not a particularly big operation but they're going to knock me out & I'll be out of work for at least a month afterwards. On the plus side I'll have plenty of time to practise.
DGA
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by DGA »

shaunc wrote:Thanks Kim & Ayu. I've been doing yard work all day again to keep my mind off hospital on Tuesday. Tomorrow is my last day of work before hospital & I'm a bit scared as I've never been in hospital before. It's not a particularly big operation but they're going to knock me out & I'll be out of work for at least a month afterwards. On the plus side I'll have plenty of time to practise.
May your fresh eggs and garden produce lead you to a very speedy recovery. Hang in there!
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Hickory Mountain
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Hickory Mountain »

Kim O'Hara wrote:Thanks, Ayu,
Your reference is to a different plant - my sweet potato is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato. It should have been a heavy feeder, I guess, to produce lots of leaves (which it did) and lots of tubers (I wish it would!), but that may not make too much difference in my situation because I am constantly adding compost and mulch to the bed.
Carrots and spring onions sounds good anyway. :smile:

:namaste:
Kim
If you don't eat them already, the leaves off a sweet potato plant are pretty much the best leafy green out there. My wife works for a school garden, and when they pulled up their sweet potatoes, we got a bonanza of leaves that we've frozen and will be enjoying all winter long.
Namo Amitabha
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Hickory Mountain wrote:
Kim O'Hara wrote:Thanks, Ayu,
Your reference is to a different plant - my sweet potato is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato. It should have been a heavy feeder, I guess, to produce lots of leaves (which it did) and lots of tubers (I wish it would!), but that may not make too much difference in my situation because I am constantly adding compost and mulch to the bed.
Carrots and spring onions sounds good anyway. :smile:

:namaste:
Kim
If you don't eat them already, the leaves off a sweet potato plant are pretty much the best leafy green out there. My wife works for a school garden, and when they pulled up their sweet potatoes, we got a bonanza of leaves that we've frozen and will be enjoying all winter long.
Thanks for the ... reminder, I guess, because I had read that somewhere but forgot it and never tried them. I will now.
Do you eat them raw, or steam them a bit?

The purple Okinawa spinach is still going okay but the tomatoes have grown as well as they were ever going to, and mostly died, without producing much fruit. If we relied on the garden for food, we would starve - but if we relied on the garden for food I'm sure we would put heaps more time into it!

:namaste:
Kim
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Hickory Mountain
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Hickory Mountain »

Kim O'Hara wrote:
Hickory Mountain wrote:
Kim O'Hara wrote:Thanks, Ayu,
Your reference is to a different plant - my sweet potato is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato. It should have been a heavy feeder, I guess, to produce lots of leaves (which it did) and lots of tubers (I wish it would!), but that may not make too much difference in my situation because I am constantly adding compost and mulch to the bed.
Carrots and spring onions sounds good anyway. :smile:

:namaste:
Kim
If you don't eat them already, the leaves off a sweet potato plant are pretty much the best leafy green out there. My wife works for a school garden, and when they pulled up their sweet potatoes, we got a bonanza of leaves that we've frozen and will be enjoying all winter long.
Thanks for the ... reminder, I guess, because I had read that somewhere but forgot it and never tried them. I will now.
Do you eat them raw, or steam them a bit?

The purple Okinawa spinach is still going okay but the tomatoes have grown as well as they were ever going to, and mostly died, without producing much fruit. If we relied on the garden for food, we would starve - but if we relied on the garden for food I'm sure we would put heaps more time into it!

:namaste:
Kim
For fresh greens, I toss them in a little olive oil, then salt and pepper, or bake them on pizzas, or just toss them in with spaghetti. They're pretty flexible and behave a lot like spinach.

To freeze them, we blanched them, then stored them in fist-sized balls in bags in our freezer.
Namo Amitabha
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

The Melbourne cup has been run & won for another year & it's usually about now that I put in my tomatoes, because of some surgery I had to have I put them all in a while ago. Yesterday I gave them all their last prune & today hooked up the hose from the washing machine to the vegetable patch. Every time the missus does a load of washing our veges get watered. So it not only saves on the water bill but it also saves on time & effort the soap also deters aphids & thrip, so all in all it's not a bad move.
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

It's lunchtime in Australia as I type this. There's thunderstorms predicted for later this afternoon. I'm hoping the prediction comes true as it's been terribly dry here. Soon I'm going to throw some organic fertiliser around before the rain comes. Everything's looking ok at the moment, I'll spray after the rain, probably on Sunday. It won't be too long before we get some silver beet, another month or so would be my guess. I find it much easier & far less stressful to work in with the weather. But I'd never swap luck for skill LOL.
Good luck with whatever you're doing in your garden at the moment.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Kim O'Hara »

An environmental group I volunteer with has its office in an old (1920s) house and the backyard had mango trees (every gardener in NQ from 1900 to at least 1950 started his garden by saying "Let's plant a mango tree here") and a patch of bananas. They were left alone when the rest of the garden went into low-maintenance mode (lawn in sunny areas, mulch under the trees) and I have just spent half an hour beginning to clean them up, prompted by the sight of a bunch ready to pick.
So now I'm home with a bunch of bananas :smile: and a moral obligation to go back and finish the clean-up.

:namaste:
Kim
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Ayu
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Ayu »

Since nearly one month I wanted to share this:

Image
Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria)

Shows, we are in deep autum now. This mushroom is found in fairytales and childrens songs. And it was a basic ingedience of the flying ointment that helped the witches to fly to their gatherings. :stirthepot:
Some animal nibbled from it. I hope this mouse or slug still lives.
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

Hi Ayu. Mushrooms hold a very important place in a lot of cultures. Sometimes the kids get a box of mushrooms that you grow yourself from the nursery. They grow wild here in autumn especially at the holding paddocks near the sale yards. The one in your photo looks a lot like a death cap mushroom that are found usually growing under oak trees.
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Ayu
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Ayu »

Yes, it is poisonous, but it is not the death cap. It is brightly red with white spots. There is a big fir tree besides.

I'll do the last winter preparations now and stop gardening in december. :twothumbsup:
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Kim O'Hara wrote:An environmental group I volunteer with has its office in an old (1920s) house and the backyard had mango trees (every gardener in NQ from 1900 to at least 1950 started his garden by saying "Let's plant a mango tree here") and a patch of bananas. They were left alone when the rest of the garden went into low-maintenance mode (lawn in sunny areas, mulch under the trees) and I have just spent half an hour beginning to clean them up, prompted by the sight of a bunch ready to pick.
So now I'm home with a bunch of bananas :smile: and a moral obligation to go back and finish the clean-up.

:namaste:
Kim
I went back on Monday morning to finish the clean-up and found another bunch ripe enough to cut down, and brought half of it home, leaving the other half for the Centre staff and volunteers.
They are good bananas, although I'm not yet sure which variety they are. They are not the (nearly universal) Cavendish, nor the Ducasse I already have growing at home. They may be what we call Lady Fingers, although they are even shorter and fatter than most Lady Fingers I have seen. I will dig out a couple of suckers once the wet season gets under way and plant them in my own garden.

:smile:
Kim
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

Just a guess Kim but if it's a small banana and exceptionally sweet it may be a variety known as sugar banana. The only way to find that I can think of is to ask a banana farmer or a green grocer if there's any left where you live. Where I am the major supermarkets have knocked small specialised shops for a six. It seems as though another shop is closing the door each week.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Kim O'Hara »

shaunc wrote:Just a guess Kim but if it's a small banana and exceptionally sweet it may be a variety known as sugar banana. The only way to find that I can think of is to ask a banana farmer or a green grocer if there's any left where you live. Where I am the major supermarkets have knocked small specialised shops for a six. It seems as though another shop is closing the door each week.
Thanks for the suggestion, Shaun, but (in this part of the world) the Ducasse variety is commonly known as a the sugar banana.
I have tried half a dozen unusual varieties here in the last few years, mostly from a local farmers' market, and this one still puzzles me - partly because the clump is so old and (as far as I know) there were only one or two varieties in circulation here that long ago. Lady Finger is one of them and it's the most likely answer here but doesn't quite seem right. As you say, maybe I should take a few in to the market and ask.

On another topic: I have just been to a talk by the guy behind this project - http://spurtopia.blogspot.com.au - and found him full of enthusiasm and food gardening ideas. You might like his website.

:namaste:
Kim
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Ayu
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Ayu »

Freezing temperatures are coming now. To work in the garden gives me a feeling of christmas - because the feet start to get really cold... :smile:
Today I cut down the last roses and packed them into heaps of humus and leaves, so they will not freeze to death. Tomorow I will do the last workings for this year, I think.
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

Ayu wrote:Freezing temperatures are coming now. To work in the garden gives me a feeling of christmas - because the feet start to get really cold... :smile:
Today I cut down the last roses and packed them into heaps of humus and leaves, so they will not freeze to death. Tomorow I will do the last workings for this year, I think.
I've never lived anywhere that cold. It's the opposite for me, at the moment we're getting high temperatures all over 30 Celsius. At the moment there's an afternoon storm bringing some welcome relief.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Baby steps ...
I planted some turmeric roots in a couple of pots a few weeks ago and I now have half a dozen healthy shoots, 15 -20 cm high.
I did the same with ginger a few months ago and I have just re-potted it into a bigger pot. When it gets too big for that I will put it in the garden but at its present size I might lose it and pull it up by mistake ... :emb: :crying:

:namaste:
Kim
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

You know Kim, because of your tropical climate you might have a bit of luck with asian vegetables/varieties. The Other thing I've heard and have no first hand knowledge of is that Roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes do well in tropical climates. How are the sweet potatoes going. Have you managed to dig any up yet.
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Ayu
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by Ayu »

Just now I made a mistake: I bought a good looking dark green silverbeet. Seems, that was no good idea in wintertime.
When I cut it for cooking, I tried one raw peace from the outer leaves. :shock: Its taste was completly salty. I also tasted some inner leaves: the more inside, the less salty taste, but still salty enough. No need for any salt to this food. :?
The dish didn't smell good after cooking, almost like I took fertilizer as spice.
And my throat feels like I swallowed fertilizer.

In winter, because of the lack of sunlight, the cells in the leaves are not able to convert nitrite to nitrat. I suppose, this silverbeet dish is very unhealthy.
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treehuggingoctopus
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by treehuggingoctopus »

Drats, them aphids again. This year they are munching on my spindletree and the newly planted sycamore. Does anybody know how to convince the buggers to relocate? I will not kill them but the plants do need to see them gone.
Générosité de l’invisible.
Notre gratitude est infinie.
Le critère est l’hospitalité.

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