Something old, something blue

Only a few more sleeps until Christmas and doesn't it rush up on you? I'm looking forward to time off work and will be devoting time to the garden. The veggie patch is coming along nicely thanks to a combination of rain and warmth. There's already fruit on the Burke's Backyard and San Marzano tomatoes and I'm hoping we'll be picking the first fruit by the end of January.

For the last few weeks hydrangeas have been blooming in gardens all over the Dandenongs. The cooler climate suits them well. I must admit hydrangeas were never really a favourite of mine and like pelargoniums (more commonly known as a geranium) had that 'nanna plant' image. But looking beyond the reputation of being a little old fashioned these plants look terrific in their prime.


The ones in our garden looked rather sad during the drought years and were burnt to a crisp under the extreme heatwave conditions of February 2009. The plants responded well to some very hard pruning. Last year they came back strong and this year the leaves are lush the blooms large.


Hydrangeas come in whites, blues and pinks and colour is affected by the soil. Acidic soil produces blues, alkaline pink. It's possible to change the colours of the flowers - pink can be turned blue through the addition of aluminium sulfate to the soil. Blue can be turned to pink by adding garden lime. Personally, I'm more a fan of the blue flowers. If you'd like to learn more about hydrangeas follow this link to American hydrangea enthusiast Judith King's website.


It's been more than a year now since the Wikileeks blog commenced and I'd like to thank you for taking an interest, especially the Spain Garden Special, by far a huge hit if the page views are anything to go by! Stand by for some more garden specials in the New Year.

Blue hydrangea.

From the front, Apollo Improved, Grosse Lisse and Burke's Backyard tomato varieties.

Setting fruit on the Burke's Backyard tomatoes.

Left - San Marzano tomatoes.

Middle - bird's eye chilli, capsicum and basil.

Right at front - eggplant.

Cheers.

Going a bit tropo - Melbourne style

After a cool start in the first week of November, it's been very warm and wet of late - perfect conditions for getting the veggie patch going. The tomatoes are coming along nicely and pretty much everything has been planted. Of course this has also meant turbo growth conditions for weeds as well as bringing out lots of slugs and snails. Just got to keep pulling those weeds and the 'beer traps' have been dispatching the slimy critters.

I find the beer trap is a rather effective and safe way of protecting seedlings without resorting to snail bait. I shudder at the thought of one of the cats eating some poisonous pellets and there's the potential effect on birds eating a snail or slug that's taken some bait. I wouldn't want to hurt the magpies and kookaburras that visit our garden as they do a good job of picking off pests during the day.

To make a beer trap simply cut a slot big enough for a snail to get through into a plastic container with a lid. Takeaway and ice cream containers are ideal. Simply pour some beer into the container, put the lid on and set it partially into the ground in the veggie patch. Slugs in particular love beer, they get into the container and drown. Some of my traps have been regularly catching a dozen slugs per evening.

After a pause in the early afternoon the clouds have drifted into the gully and its raining again. It brings to mind images of places like the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Summer is almost here. It's been a great start to the season and I'm optimistic of a bountiful harvest.

Dwarf  beans have taken advantage of the warm and wet conditions - they were poking out of the ground just five days after sowing.

Cheers.

Ceding to the seedling

It's been all action in the veggie patch this week with weeding, digging and tilling the soil. I'm starting a little earlier than I normally would but I've already got tomato seedlings in the ground to take advantage of the warming weather.

You'll recall how I was really pleased with the performance of the 'Apollo' tomatoes last summer. I found a good variety of plants on offer at the nursery on the weekend and decided to give others a try. Of course 'Apollo Improved' were the first in the basket but I also picked up the ever reliable (and tasty) 'Grosse Lisse', an excellent slicing tomato for sandwiches and salads.

In the late 90s in the garden of a Blackburn rental house I gave 'Burke's Backyard' Italian tomato (Costoluto di Marmande) a try and the results were disappointing to say the least. It may have been that it was a cool, wet summer but my thought at the time was I'd never try them again. This time I've thrown caution to the wind and have decided to give them another go. I also picked up 'San Marzano', a compact bushy variety and 'Roma Toms', good for sun-drying and cooking. Oh yes, I got some Lebanese eggplant too.

You may be wondering why I've not raised my tomato plants from seed. Sure they cost a few dollars more than a packet of seed but unless you're planning a large crop I see some real advantages in purchasing them this way:

1. You get to select the exact number of plants you want and don't end up with a still largely full pack of seed, which if you're like me somehow gets lost in a draw and after a few years when you eventually find them again are out of date anyway.

2. No need for spending the time raising and carefully nurturing seedlings. All this work's been done for you.

3. Buying off the shelf you can select the healthiest looking specimens and being around 30 centimetres high you've got a more if a head start for summer.

However, I don't grow all my veggies this way. Some plants prefer being grown from seed in situ, like coriander or spring onion. Others such as green beans and sweetcorn are so easy to raise from seeds planted direct where they are to grow I'd never consider any other way.

It's just the beginning and in the next couple of weeks more things will be going into the ground and then watch them grow.

Spring is well advanced in Melbourne. Iris planted in Autumn produced beautiful flowers. How good would these beauties look planted en masse?

The Dicksonia Antarctica tree ferns in the backyard have thrived because of the wet. I love the way the fronds unfurl.

Cheers

Going Tropo

Winter in Melbourne is a generally mild affair, no snow or below zero temperatures to contend with. Yet it's still wonderful to get away to somewhere warm and relaxing. I've had the fortune to visit two such places over winter in a short space of time - Noumea, New Caledonia and Darwin, Northern Territory, also known as Australia's 'top end'.

Thinking of the tropics brings to mind beaches, coconut palms, bougainvillea, frangipani and lots of green vegetation. And that's what you get with Noumea and Darwin, or pretty much anywhere tropical for that matter. However, the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens really opened my eyes to the diverse variety of tropical plants, both native and imported.

The gardens feature plants from various tropical terrains such as rain forest, savannah and woodlands. It's also right next to Mindil Beach famous for its sunset market every Thursday and Sunday during the dry season. The Fairweather Coastal Walk section of gardens was particularly informative about the uses of indigenous plants by local Aborigines for bush tucker, medicine and for making everyday items like baskets. OK, we're getting into Bear Grylls territory here but without biting the head off a foul tasting grub.

I couldn't think of two better places to visit than Noumea and Darwin, relatively close flying time but so different to Melbourne. Noumea felt like a piece of France transplanted to this island so far away from Europe, relaxed and friendly and the food was sensational. Darwin was laid back and yet surprisingly vibrant for such a small city. I'd love in particular to go back to the top end and spend more time exploring the landscapes there.

Back to reality - Spring is here, so much to do, so little time! I sowed some coriander and also planted out in the garden a small potted rhubarb plant given to me by a work colleague. The Vietnamese hot mint went wild over winter and has been seriously chopped back. There's work to do to get the garden beds ready soon for planting. And I look forward to the warmth I had a taste of in Noumea and Darwin.

Why knock down the palms to make way for the pool when you can have them in the pool? Parc Hotel Noumea.

Ansa Vata Beach Noumea. How could I resist the silhouette of a palm against a tropical sunset?

Government House Darwin.

A neatly clipped hedge of bougainvillea, Government House, Darwin.

Some enormous Mahogany trees in Smith Street 'downtown' Darwin. They were planted as part of a re-vegetation program in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy which devastated Darwin in December 1974.

A stand of palms, George Brown Botanic Gardens Darwin.

The Darwin Botanic Gardens also has a thriving community garden. Regular vegetables are grown along with tropical fruits. The yellow strappy leafed plants at the front are young pineapples.

Recycling to the max in the community garden. Scarecrow or 'crowbot'? 

Cheers.

Back into it

It's been a while and I can assure you I haven't been abducted by aliens. Intense study for a graduate certificate has kept me away but it's finished and looking forward to graduating.

In the meantime the summer plants have finished off and it's time for turning over the soil (great exercise) and thinking about what to plant in spring. Apollo tomatoes will be on the list since they performed remarkably well over a challenging summer. We picked the last of the tomatoes in early May, normally they would have finished long before then.

In other developments the downpours of early this year convinced us it was time to replace the ageing roof on the house. We signed up in early April and after many rain delays we got it done just this week. We've gone from a light green to a dark blue, looks great and because the house is on a slope below street level it's the first thing you see of it. The colour blends surprisingly well with the surroundings of the green of the eucalyptus trees. Something to take into consideration, blending the colours of the house with the garden.

Being Winter in Australia now's the time to prune roses. Pruning isn't as difficult as one might think. Roses are tough plants and are particularly forgiving of a hard prune. As a general rule I reduce the plant's size by a third. They put on a lot of growth this year due to the rain and I think I'll cut them back by half.

Here are my tips for pruning roses:

• Use sharp secateurs and wipe blades with methylated spirits before moving on to the next bush to minimise the potential spread of disease.

• Make a clean angulated cut about 5mm above an outward facing bud sloping away from it.

• Thin out inner branches of the rose bush to promote air circulation, important for controlling fungal problems like blackspot in warm humid conditions.

• Dispose of prunings in the green waste collection or the rubbish bin, not in your compost. As with the secateurs, hygiene is important here. Infected rose clippings in the compost bin could transfer disease and create problems down the track when the compost is spread on garden beds.

The roses will look like thorny sticks coming out of the ground. Spring is not too far away now and before you know it these sticks will be sprouting lush new leaves and the promise of delightful blooms from late October.

Prune roses by making a clean angulated cut above a bud sloping away from it.

 For colour a camellia is a welcome sight on a grey Winter's day.

This potted orchid was given to me by my parents more than a decade ago.  It really delivers a star performance at this time of the year.

Cheers.

I Say Tomato

It’s been a long time coming but the tomatoes are ripening all at once and the cupboard is filling up fast - 16 at the latest count. The recent warm spell has done the trick. I love Autumn with its mild days and soft light. Time to plan for winter and spring and my wife has already put some Dutch iris and tulip bulbs into the ground. Cineraria will be going in shortly for some winter colour.

Getting back to the tomatoes, I don’t want to waste any of them. I enjoy them served up as bruschetta, on lightly toasted ciabatta bread with shaved parmesan topped with tomato, a little finely chopped raw red onion, salt pepper and some roughly torn fresh basil drizzled with olive oil. So simple and delicious.

A staple pasta dish I cook is a great way to use up tomatoes and the sauce can be made ahead and frozen for future use. Onion, garlic, dry white wine, salt, cracked black pepper, olive oil, chopped tomatoes and some gentle simmering is all you need to make a lovely sauce base for seafood served up with a pasta of your choice.

Adapted from a spaghetti alle vongole (clams) recipe in an Italian cookbook we own, I use prawns instead of the clams and fettuccine instead of spaghetti. Lots of fresh parsley and basil from the garden is added at the end of cooking to finish the dish.

Try it once and you'll soon find this recipe will become a staple of yours too.

Fettuccine with prawns, tomatoes and white wine.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, very finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped

400g chopped home-grown tomatoes*

2/3 cup dry white wine

1 cup of water

300g prawns peeled and de-veined (or substitute seafood of your choice, but heck, you can leave it out and go veg if you like)

Fettuccine (or pasta of your choice)

Good hand full of chopped parsley leaves

Good hand full of fresh basil (sweet, lemon or a combination of the two) roughly torn

Salt and cracked pepper to taste

Method

Heat oil in heavy based saucepan, add onion and gently saute stirring frequently for 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for an extra 2 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, wine and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, give it a stir and turn the heat low. Cover pan and gently simmer the for 40 minutes stirring occassionally. The original recipe says simmer for 20 minutes but I found the extra time really draws out the flavour of the tomatoes and delicate sweetness of the onion.

In the last 20 minutes of cooking boil water and cook pasta according to packet instructions. Drain pasta when cooked. Raise the heat on the sauce and add prawns, cook until they're done (should only take about 5 minutes).

Stir in parsley and torn basil. Serve with the pasta and a glass of dry white wine.

Some home-grown tomatoes prior to going under the knife.

Cheers.

*This dish works really well with good quality tinned tomatoes too. I prefer Annalisa brand Italian peeled tomatoes.

Spain Garden Special

Some time ago I promised a Spain garden special featuring photos from the trip to Europe in late August/September last year. My desire to show these pictures has been spurred on since reading Dee Nolan's wonderful book A Food Lover's Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (published by Penguin, Lantern). I knew I had I had to have this book after hearing Dee Nolan interviewed last year on the 'Dirty Deeds' gardening program on Melbourne independent FM station 3RRR (102.7). Her pilgrimage route took her from Arles in southern France (which I revisited after twenty years) to Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain, not far from the fishing port of Finisterre, thought in medieval times to be at the edge of the world.

The book takes on a number of themes, one of a personal emotional journey for the author but also looks at the importance of caring about what we eat and how food's produced. I find Nolan's approach to food affirms the importance of growing one's own and that's ultimately about having the freshest seasonal produce at hand, food that satisfies body and soul. An edited extract from the book can be found here, from Qantas The Australian Way magazine, December 2010.

Nolan's book focused on green and wet northern Spain and I may not walk the camino but I would really like to sample some of the places on the route. In contrast, our trip took in the sunnier places many would be more familiar with; the vibrant capital Madrid, Granada with its stunning Moorish architecture and buzzy Barcelona by the Mediterranean.  Whilst it was a short trip we took in the time to look at parks and gardens, and the highlight of the whole trip had to be the Alhambra and to see one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, The Generalife.

Here is just a tiny selection of photos (we took heaps). I hope you enjoy and take inspiration from them as I have.

Rose garden, Parque de el Retiro, Madrid.

View of the magnificent Alhambra from the Albaicin, Granada.

On the walk up to the Alhambra.

Blue spikes of salvia, Patio de la Acequia, The Generalife, Granada.

The narrow pool and water spouts adds sparkle to the Patio de la Acequia.

Water spout, The Generalife.

Water is a key feature in the gardens of the Alhambra and The Generalife and an intricate irrigation system keeps its pools and fountains full. The Escalera de Aqua stair bannister doubles as an aqueduct that carries water down hill water to a lower section of the garden. I think I want one!

Near by the Nasrid Palace of the Alhambra.

Court of the Myrtles, Nasrid Palace.

Court of the Myrtles - simply stunning.

A Nasrid Palace courtyard, so cool and inviting on a hot summers day.

I love the incorporation of the greenery in the Font Monumental, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona. Apparently Antonio Gaudi worked on it as an architecture student. He's the man behind the ambitious and yet to be complete Sagrada Familia. Love him - or hate him as George Orwell did - he's left a mark on the city in more ways than one.

You would be forgiven for mistaking this for the entrance of a surrealist's theme park. Not quite, but the entrance to Guadi's Parc Guell, Barcelona. Interestingly, I see elements of the Font Monumental here.

Parc Guell. Love the use of bold strappy plants.

Palms complement the terraces.

Ok, perhaps it is a surrealist's theme park after all.

Cheers.

Now we're getting somewhere

It was showery and cold this morning and starting to feel like autumn, not that we had such a great summer to begin with. There were some warm days during the week and a great looking weekend is coming up. Whether it was from the protestations of last week's blog post or the warmer weather the tomatoes have taken a hint and started ripening at last! Hope to picking some by the end of the week. And my prediction was right, the sweetcorn was ready before the tomatoes, never had that before.

This season I planted the Kelvedon Glory variety. Being an early cropping variety, it's ready a couple of weeks earlier than other varieties such as Supersweet. The cobs are about 15cm long with smallish kernels that are tender and juicy when cooked. Cobs are ready for picking when the 'silks' protruding from the cobs turn brown. I find the best way to eat it is to cook it shortly after harvesting before the sugars in the kernels convert to starch causing the flavour to deteriorate.  This is the only way to eat corn on the cob in my view, a taste preference developed from childhood when my father would pick some corn and straight into the pot it went. Corn that's sat on a supermarket shelf pales in comparison.

To cook, I simply simmer the sweetcorn in water for about 15 minutes and serve with lots of butter and salt. Perhaps not so healthy but delicious, a real late summer/early autumn treat. I will also try out a corn chowder recipe this year, there's quite a few cobs on the plants and want none of it to go to waste.

Now that summer is drawing to close, a reminder to people in the hills to cut down and dispose of agapanthus flowers which are now past their glory and turning to seed. Agapanthus is a feature in many gardens in the Dandenongs, they look particularly good as a massed display or as a border. We have a row running across the front of the property by the road side. A plant originating from southern Africa, it thrives in the hills to the point of being a serious weed in bushland, as the result of illegal dumping of the rhizomes (the fleshy root system) and seed heads in garden waste but also from birds ingesting the seed from the pods and spreading it through their droppings. So people, do your bit and cut down those flowers! For more information the local council  (Shire of Yarra Ranges) website has a section listing major problem weeds in the hills and tips on controlling them including agapanthus. 

Check out some new photos of the veggie patch and the terraced garden project. I must say I'm rather pleased with the way it's going.

Dwarf beans (front), Vietnamese mint (left), capsicum, parsley, sweetcorn and tomatoes (rear).

Sweetcorn, tomatoes, sweet and lemon basil (bottom right).

Kelvedon Glory sweetcorn cobs. The browned off 'silks' protruding from the cobs means they're ready for picking.

Just a faint blush of red, now we're getting somewhere!

Blue fescue, pelargonium (front), pennisetum, lavender (middle), salvia (rear) and rosemary (top rear) set the scene in the terraced garden.

Cheers.

Patience is a Virtue

After the drama of the 'great flood' of last week it's back to normal around the garden. This meant some weeding around the veggie patch and applying organic fertiliser and the fortnightly application of diluted seaweed and fish emulsion. I felt a bit silly 'watering' the plants considering how damp the soil is after the deluge. The rain this summer has been amazing. In previous years we would have been well into the fire danger period, hot days on end without rain and the grass browned to a crisp. The lush green of now is a far cry from the horror conditions of two years ago that brought Black Saturday and a few weeks later a large fire right here in the neighbourhood that threatened homes in Upwey, Belgrave and Belgrave South.

However, the rain has brought cooler conditions which is great for bushfire safety but not so good for the tomatoes. I planted Apollo tomatoes which I've learnt are an early season variety with fruit that sets in cool conditions. Perfect for the cool nights and mornings in the hills and last year they performed really well. They've have been fruiting for a while now, there are lots on the plants and lots more on the way. But I've yet to see a single one ripen yet - in other years I'd be picking them from mid January. The way they're going we'll be eating the sweetcorn before the tommies. On the other hand, I 'm hoping the long maturation period will deliver superior fruit in quality and flavour then patience will be truly rewarded!

Meanwhile, I'm already thinking about giving some other tomato varieties a go this spring. On the web I came across the Greenfingers site that has a comprehensive list of tomato varieties. So many to choose from, but give me a home grown tommie anytime, even if I have to wait!

Cheers.

Wikileeks - leaks edition

Not a great weekend for gardening after last night's and this morning's massive downpours courtesy of ex-tropical cyclones Anthony and Yasi. Who would have thought weather systems in the far north of the continent could have such an impact here in Victoria? Large areas of the state have had a drenching. Mildura has had record rainfall - usually bakes under 40+ degree heat day after day at this time of year. As I write Koo Wee Rup residents are being advised to evacuate due to rising waters of the Lower Bunyip River.

The hills around Belgrave and the south east suburbs of Melbourne were hit pretty hard. The Dunns Hill weather bureau station not far from here recorded 150mm in 14 hours, must be some kind of record. The house did have a couple of leaks in the kitchen and dining area but thankfully nothing serious. The garden is soaked but everything looks fine. Stepping out on the deck this morning after the rain stopped I could hear the sound of water coming from the bottom of the gully. It was Monbulk Creek in flood. Usually it's just a small creek, no more than 2m wide in most places. But today I could actually see the waters flowing past the  Christian College. First time ever.

With nothing better to do my wife and I grabbed a camera and headed off to have a bit of a sticky beak...

Monbulk Creek in flood at McNicol Rd, Birdsland Reserve, Belgrave.

Old man Monbulk Creek.

Birdsland Reserve.

Kaola St landslip.

Wife contemplates crossing bridge. Monbulk Creek at Belgrave Lake Park.

Park bench that bore the brunt of flood water.

Belgrave Lake Park weir overflow.

Flood damage downstream of Belgrave Lake Park.

This was a footbridge, smashed by flood.

Just goes to show what nature can do and we're not immune to its effects even from events so far away.

Cheers.