Wednesday 26 February 2014

Little Helpers





Our competition pumpkin is growly well in an aerial position.  Long may she hold


 I took my little helper Beau who is 3 to the gardens..  I asked him to first pose by the community pumpkin patch as a height guide to show how high the pumpkin foliage has grown.  


Next job was to harvest the Cobra runner beans that have restarted producing thanks I assume to the smattering rain over the past weeks.   Beau loves to eat the beans alfresco and au natural.  He also approves of the Pean flavour - a cross in taste between a bean and a pea.


Richard was today harvesting the last of his Peans to add to his seed stock.  He intends to distribute Peans around the country.  Richard is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to plants and the history of these gardens.

When I asked about the origin of the Pean I was quite surprised by the answer.  I thought it was an accidental recent cross but no its a heritage vegetable.  The Pean was first brought to Banks Peninsula in Canterbury by a Dalmatian family in the 1880's.

It was such a hot day that we decided to spend some time in the shaded end of the glasshouse planting some seeds.   Beau liked the job of filling the seed tray with a potting mix base that I topped up with  some seed raising mix.


As my little helper was having a well earnt lunch break I planted some parsley seed in the hope that it will germinate for our proposed communal herb garden.

A few weeks ago  Liz, Bev, Sarah and I all met  and came up with a plan for a herb garden in the perennial planting area that had been over run with fennel.   It's thanks to Liz that our previous hopeful talk about a herb garden has taken a leap forward.  Over her summer holidays she decided to take on the fennel and began to clear the site for what will become our perennial herb garden.



At the last community work day a team cleaned up the pathway so now we can clearly see the Rosemary plants that will create a hedge running the length of the perennial herb garden.
We  compiled lists of herbs that we felt would be useful either as a culinary, medicinal or scented herb.  The garden will be divided into three separate areas so that those in the community and those visiting the garden can clearly see what herbs are used for culinary, medicinal or for their scent.  All of them will provide an important habitat for beneficial insects and good for bees and this will positively affect all the plot holders.

Every posting I will  profile one the herbs we are hoping will flourish in our gardens.

First a culinary herb I am really keen to have in the garden, Lovage.

As you can see from the above photo it can grow into a giant.  I am a little worried that it may be too dry for Lovage as it is quite thirsty.  It's such a useful kitchen herb and it's size is perfect for the community area as it is just too large for individuals to have growing.  It looks a little like a giant Italian leafed parsley and quite a bit like the true Angelica.



It's nickname is the Maggi herb - because it adds a savoury flavour to soup and stews.  You can use it in moderation to replace celery in recipes and every part of the plant can be used.   Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall of River Cottage fame is a real fan of this herb and gives you lots of ideas of its uses.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall on Lovage

Sarah is contacting the local herb society to see if we can access cuttings or seeds for our planned gardens.  But perhaps you can help too.  Do you know someone with a good herb garden?  Most herb gardeners are only too happy to share plants or seeds.  We are also open to any suggestions of herbs you would like to have included.  You can either send a message via the comments or email me on Jeanniehayden5@gmail.com.



I have been admiring the plots belonging  to VJ and Clement.  I love that their tomatoes are living a truly urban lifestyle with their  many companions including basil, parsley, petunias, marigolds, cosmos and geraniums... all so tightly packed that you can't even see the soil.  It's a garden equivalent of central Auckland.  The plants seem to love it, they thrive and its a plot that's a joy to look upon.
VJ told me  everything they are growing  has been grown from seed.  It's an outstanding effort.  They share the load of tending the garden and it's visited perhaps three to four times a week.  But they have other helpers in their plots.

At the gardens we are all encouraged to plant flowers and herbs amongst our vegetables to host our beneficial insect helpers.  You may alsosee flowers in amongst the vegetables for companion planting reasons.  VJ and Clement have produced a show plot for companion planting.  One of the more unusual companions are red geraniums that you usually find in window box.

VJ said he saw online they were a companion plant so he gave them a go.  I checked up on this and he's right.....


GERANIUM: -Repels cabbage worms and Japanese beetles, plant around grapes, roses, corn, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage. Geraniums help to distract beet leafhoppers, carrier of the curly top virus.

VJ has grown three varieties of tomatoes in amongst these herbs and flowers.
First row are a very large cherry tomato that is an old favourite in British gardens called Gardeners Delight.   

 The next row has a newer mid sized but hardy and prolific grower called Tommy Toe.   

The third row has the large Beefsteak tomatoes.

 While chatting to VJ he told me of a hint for growing tomatoes.  Plant them out  lying down on an angle close to the soil rather than upright.   The tomatoes will quickly set more roots and the more root structure there is the stronger the plant will be.   


VJ and Clement have been disappointed with their eggplant progress this summer - until they enlisted the help of some rocks.  Placing rocks around the plant increased the available heat for the eggplants and retained the soil moisture.year.  After placing the rocks the plants just took off.








My little helper Beau wisely said it was just too hot to be in the garden so found some shade. He was joined by Latika who had been helping Ramesh harvest their chillis.   I never realised that chillis are in the same family as eggplant, tomatoes, and petunia.


So next posting I will be exploring chillis with Latika and Ramesh.

Another community work day this Sunday the 2nd of March when the community helpers will be planting out more of the autumn and winter greens in the community patch.




Thursday 13 February 2014

Our pumpkins are growing, growing...gone!

It's a time of year when the zucchini, squash, cucumber and pumpkins start to dominate our gardens.
This is the most beautiful of squashes or pumpkin - not sure which - that
I found growing in the Gardens.  Would be keen to find out more about it.

We have entered the Auckland City Council's "PumpKing Growing Competition. We got the official 5 seeds and we planted three plants in an area separate from our community brand of pumpkin.

 Trevor proudly showed me how large the pumpkins had already grown a month ago.
Trevor proudly showing me the fast growing pumpkins and how
the vines can cover up an ugly area of the garden

 Here is the pumpkin he showed me..

Sadly later that week we all got an email from Trevor saying that our two largest pumpkins had been stolen.  They would have been useless for the thieves as they would be unripe but it has put us on the back foot in the competition.
Then - suddenly they disappeared...

The vegetation was trampled in the area where the thieves took our two largest pumpkins.

But these plants are vigourous and they put energy into the two smaller plants that are enjoying an aerial life inside the fence.  At the end of January I photographed the largest pumpkin so that we can follow its progress.

Pumpkins love to climb - another pumpkin is growing against the wire fence
taken two weeks earlier

Today I visited the pumpkins again and it's difficult to show the growth on a photograph but it has again increased in size.

Photo of the pumpkin today - growing strong

We planted these competition  pumpkins to be kept separate from the others and in the process tidied up  an area and made a dead ugly wire fence attractive.

One of the loveliest things about the Cucurbit family are the bright yellow trumpet flowers.
This one is being visited by a friendly bumble bee.

The pumpkin seed we have used in the community plots has come from Christine and Arthur Winterton.  A pumpkin plant that just appeared in their plot and they were so impressed with the flavour of the pumpkin and the number of pumpkins it produced, that they saved the seed. The germination rate was 99% from the seeds we planted.  So thanks to Christine and Arthur everyone should get the opportuntiy to taste the Winterton pumpkin.   I look forward to seeing them mature over the next few months.

The pumpkin seedlings were planted out in late
November where the broad beans had been harvested.
The broad bean stalks were left to break down so that the
pumpkins could utilise the nitrogen produced by the beans


Pumpkin seedlings were planted early December in the area where the broad beans had been harvested ( you can see some of the broad bean stalks still evident).

The pumpkins late January

These were the pumpkin's progress the third week in  January.

The pumpkins are now flowering and the ground is
covered with pumpkin foliage.

And today 3 weeks later flowers are appearing.

But looking around the gardens there are some glorious lots of pumpkins far ahead of the community plant out, as well as sorts of squash, scallopini and courgette.

Yellow courgette f/g and in the back an attractive yellow and green
striped squash

Scallopini - worth growing for the shape alone

This one has a royal life with a carpet to lie on - a good idea to keep the pumpkin
skin dry to avoid rot and weeds under control.



Update on plantings from Work Day

Well it's been two weeks and I am pleased to report that the mass planting of Beetroot and Silverbeet
is doing really well.

The glossy leaves of the Silverbeet seedlings

Bulls Blood Beetroot
 I was surprised because we have had so little rain but Sarah told me today that they have  been giving the plants extra care and attention with a couple of feeds of seaweed and  bad weed tea.


One plot that caught my eye this week was John's planting of Bok Choy - they are a cheerful patch of leafy greens and look no insect damage - only problem is that they are all ready at once.  I can vouch for the flavour as I was lucky enough to receive one and if you visit my latest posting on my Jeannie's Kitchen blog you can see the Bok Choy and my beans featured.  

 I have never had much luck with Bok Choy but looking at John's success I might give it a try in our plot.   Also Bev informs me we will be planting a variety of winter greens including Bok Choy.


Saturday 1 February 2014

January Work Day and getting to know Oxalis




First up today I wish to share an inspirational TED talk by Garden Guerilla Ron Finlay from Los Angeles.

Last Sunday it was a morning of digging or turning over the soil in the large community area that was planted in potatoes last year followed by a green crop that was cut back a couple of weeks ago.  

After the ground was cleared, I had the job of using a cultivator to mix in a light scattering of sieved compost, then the team followed up with planting silver beet seedlings.   

We share our Silver beet with the animals at Auckland Zoo.  A member of the community drop off as many greens as is available each Wednesday. 

Where we had broad beans growing last year beetroot seedlings (Bulls Blood) were planted out.


Rampant Oxalis

While digging over the green crop we were collecting buckets of oxalis.  It's starting to flower so we timed it well to try and get out as much as we could.  I have been overrun in my own plot with this voracious little weed that no matter how many times I try to dig they still pop up.  
The white bulbets or bulbels underground is the start of a new plant.  A few leaves on top
usually unmasked a clump of oxalis.
I am always keen to see if I could use weeds in some way so that I don't have the same level of resentment to them.   You have to admire this little plant's tenacity to reproduce and grow so quickly.

Pretty tiny pink flowers with four leaf petals that look like a
four leaf clover or shamrock.  Another common variety has pale pink flowers
and rusty red leaves.

Oxalis is a member of a very large wood sorrel family.  It naturally occurs in forest situations in Europe but it manages to live every and anywhere in New Zealand and is a curse for the home gardener.  

The leaves and flowers have an astringent fresh taste, similar to garden sorrel.  While its called sorrel, garden sorrel and oxalis are not in the same family.  Their only relationship is that both contain oxalic acid.

True in very large amounts oxalic acid may be considered slightly toxic interfering with proper digest and kidney function.   However oxalic acid is also present in more commonly consumed foods such as spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprout, grapefruit, chives and rhubarb.  General scientific consensus seems to be that the risk of actual poisoning from oxalic acid in persons with normal kidney function is "wildly unlikely".

And yes it has been an edible wild plant consumed by humans around the world for centuries.  Kiowa Indians chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst, Cherokee ate it to help mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois used it to help cramps, fever and nausea.  I feel better about it already.

I know its a tradition in France to seat sorrel soup in early spring to cleanse the blood.

So you can eat the zingy four leaf clover shaped leaves and the delicate pink flowers as an interesting addition to your summer salad.  

Of course yams are also in the same wood sorrel family and you know that once you have yams you will never ever be without them.

But in the gardens the oxalis has to go or at least being limited.  As we are a closed system where we deal with as much of the weeds and materials on location as we can, we put the invasive weeds into large plastic bags where they stay for at least 2 years.  After they completely break down and rot then the plant material can be added to the composting system.

Good news there are other ways of naturally getting rid of them.   These other methods are not really practicable for our large community areas because it relies on not digging or disturbing the soil.   But in your own plot or home garden you could try to conquer it by any of these three methods.  They all work on the principle that the leaves take energy from the sun so if you keep killing the foliage the bulb will eventually die. 

- Baking Soda Spray - 2 Tablespoons of baking soda, a squirt of dish washing liquid  and 500 ml of water.  Spray on a hot day.  Repeat to weaken regrowth until gone.

- Pour boiling water over the leaves.  Continue to do this every time new shoots come through.

- Cut off foliage - new leaves will appear and you will need to cut them off each time they appear before they can get the energy from the sun.

The bad news is that either of these methods could take up to 2 years to get rid of it.  I have found the baking soda method has worked but I haven't been consistent with it.  One thing is for sure digging and even sieving will not be a solution.

While I was on the digging team, others worked at putting down carpet, on the path and around the Rosemary hedge bordering the herb garden.  The carpet isn't so pretty so wood chips were piled on top.



 

Its amazing what you can  achieve in 3 hours with a good number of people.  That's what community gardening is all about and after a physical morning we all enjoyed a delicious shared lunch.

The birds have been feasting on our sunflowers and on Sunday there was harvest day for the beans growing up the sunflower stems.   

Here is a mix of my very productive Cobra Runner beans from King's Seeds, with the purple beans that have been twining around the sunflower stems in the community garden.   Unfortunately as soon as you blanch the purple beans they turn into a dark green.  However when young these beans are incredibly sweet and crunchy to eat raw.  You could slice them into salads or couscous but you need to keep them raw if you want to keep the colour.  My grandson Beau would never eat the beans cooked but I left a pile from my garden collection on the table and he began just munching them raw.  

My featured garden plot photo this week is Richard's plot.  I love the combination of colour here
that actually looks better than the photograph portrays.   Red and yellow dahlias with purple amaranth
and in the background peans - a cross between a pea and a bean (more on peans and amaranth at another time).

While I was at the gardens today I met four or five groups of people who were enjoying the transformation of this land into such colourful and productive gardens. I realise that I am indeed privileged to be a part of the Sanctuary Community Garden.