Winter Vegetables!

As you are thinking (and myself also) surely winter vegetables are difficult to grow. They have to cope with the challenging weather conditions of rain, wind, and frosty mornings. That’s gotta be enough to make the plant shrivel up and die! That’s without the worry that some little pest is going to come up and munch on the cabbage leaves. The amount of sunlight is an issue and not to mention water logged soil. To overcome these problems adequate drainage can be put into place to ensure well – drained soil. Using mulch on the garden beds can allow the vegetables to remain in a relatively constant temperature environment which in return should increase production. 

Here is a list of some winter vegetables:

• Beetroot

• Cabbage

• Garlic

• Silverbeet

• Leeks

• Pumpkin

• Spinach

• Sweet Potato

So why not plant out a few of these winter wonders and see what happens, with a bit of luck you'll be producing heart warming dishes within no time!

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes

As you all know and have heard we grow potatoes, and lots of them!

Potatoes originated from a region in the Andes over 400 years ago. There are many different varieties of the spud from Atlantic to Zebalu with 4000 others in between, which allow them to be extremely versatile when it comes to eating them. Whether you’re mashing, boiling or making crisps out of them, the key to a great taste is using the right variety.

Here in Catani, we grow approx 100 acres of spuds which included the varieties Denali, Trent, and Atlantic. We supply them to Snack Brands Australia to be used in crisps – so if you’re eating thins, samboy, kettle, french fries, or generic home brand varieties like coles and aldi brands, they could be ours!

As most of our farm is used for potato production and for making hay and silage for the cows there isn’t a lot of trees in sight. Trees and barb wired fences just weren’t practical when it came to using a lateral irrigator to water our spuds, so yes they had to come out.  By looking at the google image (mainly in the centre of the pic) below you will notice that there arent any trees around - this indeed creates a boring landscape that is unable to make houses for native wildlife.

Although as you can see its not just our property that has cleared land. Its a common occurance right the way through the swamp. By not having trees to look at you need to look elsewhere to find the beauty in our landscape.

Watering your garden!

After hearing about the Smart garden watering website I decided to log on and have a look. While I was exploring the site it told me a thing or two about water use in the garden. I calculated how much water my garden would actually need and this is what it suggested. So my garden at the moment consists of a cool season grass called perennial rye grass, we have a spray system installed, and the conditions are ; sandy soil, on a flat slope, full plant coverage and its positioned in full sun.

After taking in all those considerations the website http://www2.smartgardenwatering.org.au suggested:

I water the lawn each time for 35 minutes and during:

January – water once every 6 days

February – water once a week

March – water every two weeks

April –October: no water required

November – water only once

December – water once every two weeks

Obviously the results above are estimations as the amount of water you apply to your garden depends on what type of weather conditions you have had or what season you’re coming into. This year has been a terrible year (as you know) with above average rainfall which would certainly affect how much water you would use on your garden.

Do I think the website is useful? I found it difficult to manouvre around this site but I believe it could be a handy tool if you know how to use it correctly. I realize that it’s essential to have the right measurements and accurate information to get the most out of it.

My Wonderland!

Lush grass - thats due for a cut!

Looking beyond the patio and the good old Aussie bbq, my backyard is nothing more than a lush green grassy haven of Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass), which is home to a few wild pigeons. Pigeons that like to eat the newly planted grass seed making the lawn patchy in some spots. You may also see a glimpse of some raphanus raphanistrum inundated within the tall thick grass. Then if I look beyond that, I can see plants of potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes, and then the picturesque hills in the distance. 

A lot of mud - and less cars than normal!

As I imagine some people would think that is quite boring –then the area out the front isn’t a great deal better. It is renowned for being the family carpark so unfortunately it’s a very gloomy entrance to our new house. Beneath the puddles of mud lay a lot of compressed soil/sand mixture certainly not fit for a thriving landscape. There is definitely quite a bit of work ahead to say the least. 

Below is a diagram of what we plan to turn this so called ‘carpark’ into. I would love to use some classic plants such as the box hedge, roses and a grass (Ophiopogan japonica) with a stunning water feature in the middle. Around the border use a large paver, and lastly fill the surrounding area around the garden bed with more perennial rye grass. 

 

Wondering why so many driveways (in the pic on the right) - the driveway on the left is more of a track to access our property, the centre one for all our visitors to use and the one on the right is to drive up to the garage. Lots of lawn and a few trees to the right are in store!

Neglected orchard.

There is another element to our garden and that is the very old and neglected orchard (yes our yard is quite large approx 2 acres). Behind the long grass the orchard has a mulberry tree, a lemon tree, apple tree, quince tree, orange tree and an old grape vine. There is also a very sad looking outdoor bbq (brick structure) and a fallen down hills hoist! 

Site of the vegi garden to be.

The proposed site for the vegetable garden also lies within the perimeters of the orchard. The area is 12m x 15m and together with my brother we are going to (hopefully) grow everything from asparagus to watermelons! obviously expanding as we go. 

Main entrance.

 To brighten up the main entrance into our property, we are going to plant some fraxinus ornus.

As you can see there is a huge challenge ahead of us to make our boring landscape into something spectacular but one I am looking forward to with my mums help and my dads money!

A Hidden Treasure

Here goes for my blog – a little insight of my small, quiet community.

I live in a small country town called Catani which is part of the Cardinia shire, and is a town that has a grand population of 500 people. The township itself consists of only a handful of houses, which are full of weird and wonderful people, a church, a community hall, and a recreation reserve. Catani is so small that the only public transport that travels through it is the local school bus! You could say that Catani definitely lacks when it comes to parks and gardens, unless of course you are talking about private gardens with the only street trees being the gums and pines that surround the local footy oval. Instead of the manicured landscapes most communities display, Catani is home to other kinds of large open spaces called properties. Properties that produce large amounts of vegetables such as asparagus, potatoes, broccolini and some cereal crops such as wheat and maize in the off season. As Catani is part of the KooWeeRup Swamp the ground we walk on consists of rich peat soil which is excellent for growing crops in. So who knows what the future holds for this hidden treasure, the resident horticulturalist to be could transform the not so interesting main street into something majestic and rejuvenate the old couch around the church and make it spectacular.