The thin line from disaster

Dejected is how I felt this morning. Upon entering the veggie patch, it was quickly obvious that something had found its way in through my defences. Was it a possum, a rabbit, a pademelon, a chook??? It was the Tasmanian Pademelon. The damage was not massive, but enough to have me walking around in some form of delirious anger. My 6 Broccoli "Summer Purple", which where my autumn/early winter crop has been hammered to no leaf bar the mid stem. The Kohl Rabi leaves where eaten the same however they are ready for harvest so I can cop that. Carrot leaves have been nibbled and the Radicchio also nibbled but not to badly. It seems the Brassicas were the main focus. Surprisingly the Beetroot has been left mainly in tact.

My main issue now is did they eat the seeds I planted last week. I had not checked on whether they had germinated yet so am not sure but may have to replant these also.

A pain it is but it is a good lesson to do regular inspections of the fence. It was not easy finding how they got in but there was a weak area where they made there way through in the chook wire. This has been patched up and I will add a new line of chook wire for double strength.  I have observed an increasing number of wallaby scats recently around the house and veg patch, a result of the dry conditions and less food availability for the wildlife. This is when our defenses are put to their test.

And how am I sure it was a Pademelon? Because I found their scat (poo) within the veg patch.

I will now be out of Broccoli until mid winter, and have doubled the seeds in the hot house so I have spares next planting. I am sure this will happen again and it is just part of life in a rural area (at least I don't get hammered by blackbirds). But in the meantime I am still disappointed as the Broccoli "Summer Purple" had been growing so well and was close to forming a flower head.

The evidence

The fence is not tight as I am told a possum does not like climbing loose wire!!! Floppy top for the possum also.

Broccoli eaten

This is the entry spot and the patch job

10 tips for growing Tomato

1. Don't crowd the seedlings

You will be amazed how aggressive the roots are. Follow the seed packet and if you are unable to keep water up to the plants, space them further apart. Some bush tomatoes are fine at 75cm spacings, but many large vines are no closer than 1m spacing. 1.5m is even better.

2. Provide lots of light

Tomato seedlings will need either strong, direct sunlight or 14-18 hours under grow lights. Plant your tomatoes outside in the sunniest part of your vegetable plot.

3. Preheat the soil in your garden

Tomato love heat. Cover the planting area with black or red plastic a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. Those extra degrees of warmth will translate into earlier tomatoes.

4. Plant varieties that suit your region

This seems like a no brainer but many new to gardening do not realise just how many varieties there are out there and that many are not suited to your climate, especially in Tasmania.

5. Bury them and add potash

Bury tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot or in your home raised pots, all the way up to a few top leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can either dig a deeper hole or simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun. Be careful not to drive your pole or cage into the stem. Add potash to their planting hole for strong fruit and side dress with potash durng growing season.

6. Mulch Later.

Mulch after the ground has had a chance to warm up. Mulching does conserve water and prevents the soil and soil born diseases from splashing up on the plants, but if you put it down too early it will also shade and therefore cool the soil. Try using plastic mulch for heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers if you are in a very cold area or at higher elevation..

7. Remove the Bottom Leaves.

Once the tomato plants are about 10cm tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1/3 of stem. These are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems. They get the least amount of sun and soil born pathogens can be unintentionally splashed up onto them. Spraying weekly with compost tea also seems to be effective at warding off fungus diseases.

8. Pinch & Prune for More Tomatoes

Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant. But go easy on pruning the rest of the plant. You can thin leaves to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit, but it’s the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes.

9. Water the Tomato Plants Regularly.

Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Irregular watering, (missing a week and trying to make up for it), leads to blossom end rot and cracking. Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don’t withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.

10. Getting Them to Set Tomatoes.

Determinate type tomatoes tend to set and ripen their fruit all at one time, making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make sauce. You can get indeterminate type tomatoes to set fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer.

Cygnet January Weather Averages

January Weather results are in and are as follows:

January	2013	2012
Max Avg	24.5	25.1
Min Avg	9.8	11
Highest Max	40.6	37.7
Lowest Min	5.4	5.6
Rain	27.3mm	69.3mm
Avg Wind	5.3 km/h	4.6 km/hr

It seems the warmer than usual start to summer has subsided with max and mins lower this month compared to last year. This combined with the very hot record day and dry spell might explain why the indeterminate tomatoes seem to have back off a bit in their growth compared to last summer. However the Break O'Day variety is large and covered with large toms. The Rouge de Marmande is a little disappointing in comparison to last summer so far however.

Last Sunday I planted the following in preparation for late Autumn and winter:

• Mizuna
• Rocket
• English Spinach (English Winter Giant and Tyee)
• Kohl Rabi

And seeds have been put in punnets in the hothouse for later transplanting of the following:

• Brussel Sprouts
• Cauliflower (mix from Inspirations Nursery) - I found last year this mix did well and the cauliflower matured at different times for longer harvesting)
• Broccoli (Arcadia and Purple Sprouting) - Purple Sprouting are fantastic, and the Arcadia seemed to handle the winter well and produced massive heads with heaps of side shoots which kept us in Broccoli for months
• Kale (Red Russian)

This weekend I will be planting about 10 metres of Carrots (Merida) and Beetroot (love Derwent Globe and Bulls Blood). Lettuce and Cabbage (Savouy King will also be planted. Last year I did Swede (Tasmanian Butter) however we were not hugely keen on the taste so will be skipping it this year and will do some turnip instead. The spring turnips were quite tasty steamed in thin slices.

We had 16mm of rain in the past 5 days which is more than half of our Jan rainfall. This has given things a perk up and I got out last night after the recent rain and hosed to ensure more water got into the soil thanks to the rain. Fingers crossed Feb is not as dry.

happy gardening

Jerusalem Artichoke next to cauliflower

Leeks, Carrots and winter

The next few weeks I will be busy preparing beds to plant the majority of my winter crops. Today I started with the Leeks. Last winter the Leeks were fantastic. We started harvesting around May and this continued until they started to bolt in early spring. There are little other onion options at this time of year apart from those hanging and we tend to be running out mid winter, just when the leeks are in their prime. And we also prefer the subtle flavours of leek. Leeks also do well on heavy soils, seeming to take any battering winter can throw at them.

I start my leeks on October 15th. I take a small 1m by 1m space of bed, add some mushroom compost and COF and dig over and add all the contents of the packet. The leeks come up thick and fast and by late Jan they are about the width of a pencil. A few weeks back the bed that will house the coming seasons winter leeks are prepared by digging over 4l of COF per 10m with horse manure and mushroom compost added. This settled over the past few weeks and today I created 20 to 30cm deep trenches about 40cm apart. Some well composted manure was added to the trenches and watered thoroughly. The leeks I grew from seed are then lifted with a fork, soil shaken off and then moved to their new homes. I normally have many seedlings left over to share with others. I bury these seedlings to the first leaf notch and over the months move soil up the stem to blanch and lengthen the white stem of the leek.

Leek seedlings started Oct 15

Final Leek Bed. I had many leftovers so have added more rows throughout the patch so we have plenty for winter

What else am I planting over the coming weeks. Here is a snapshot.

• 10m of carrots (Merida)
• couple of metres of beetroot (these sell well over winter at the Cygnet Markets)
• Broccoli (Arcadia and Purple Sprouting) - will be trying a new variety from Inspirations Seeds also Broccoli Marathon.
• Brussel Spprouts
• Cauliflower mix
• Kale
• Mizuna and Mibuna
• Lettuce

Last year anything planted after Feb did not generally get large enough to grow well during the low sunlight months of winter. The exception to this was some Cabbage (Spring Hero) - see Inspirations seeds catalogue.

We are now picking Tomato daily, The first of the Roma's has been harvested from the Hothouse with the majority coming from the "kotlas" and "gold nugget" plants. Steve Solomon's greatly talked about "Legend" looks close to ripening and both bushes are packed with good sized toms. The Riesenstraube seem a couple of weeks off also, but when they come in we will be overloaded with cherry toms.

Tomato "Legend" - Looking forward to picking these soon.

The unknown hill billy tom (I sourced this from Kate at Vegetable Vagabond)is covered with good sized fruit. I believe these are a yellowish fruit so will be interesting to see how they taste, but they look like they will bear a very large yield of fruit.

Tomato "Hill Billy"

The indeterminate tomato vines seemed to have the growth checked from the hot weather and 41 degree day a few weeks back. I am not sure but from hearing how some other peoples toms are faring this may be the cause. They have a number of fruit on them however I am sure they are not as large vines as last year. The dry weather may also be a contributing factor but I did space my indeterminate toms no closer than 1m by 1m to assist with the possibility of a dry summer. We still have Feb and March left so I am sure we will all be picking buckets of indeterminate toms by late feb. I hope so as we are planning on making a great deal of sauce and chutney's.

After my early corn set back due to some thieving from either the avifauna  or slug/snail damage, the replacements are now coming on well with a number now setting their corn. While my spring/early summer broccoli was a fizzler this year (last year was the exact opposite), I am trialing a new variety this summer called "Summer Purple". They were planted late December and seem to be growing with all guns blazing.

Summer Purple Broccoli

 

Corn (The middle 4 rows are the 2nd plantings. The first were hammered by birds/snails or a ghost. The sides are top-ups not planted till early Dec (hope they ripen before the cold arrives)

The bulbing onions trial

In mid August, I decided to try red (red sheffield) and brown (creamgold) onions directly seeded in a pre prepared bed. Basically I prepared the bed 4 weeks in advance and did this.

- broadcast the equivalent of 4 litres of COF (Complete Organic Fertiliser per Steve Solomon)
- added a thick layer of mushroom compost
- dug the bed over and raked it level

I have heard of others successfully grow decent sized onions this way so I thought I would try it out this year tho I was skeptical as the temperatures in the Huon Valley are still quite chilly and frosty during August and this is generally a cloudy month. If I was to sow the seed direct at the ideal time of July, the cold wet soils would not allow for germination. Sowing direct in August I figured would not allow enough time for germination (they are slow) and growth to a good size before they start bulbing after the longest day of the year (Dec 21).

My trial is now complete. The crop was a fizzler proving to me that there is not enough time generally to grow big onions via direct seeding in mid August. At least on my soils anyway. Added to my delima was the invasion of the weed sheep sorrell which i believe came in the sheeps poo that had been added to the bed the previous summer. I was forever weeding out the tops to no avail as the roots extend quite some distance underground (see an earlier post dedicated to this weed). The dry weather over the past 2 months may also not have helped and due to being on tank water, I did not irrigate a great deal. I was going to leave them to keep growing, however I pulled the plug when most leaves fell over and also needed another bed to prepare for the winter crop.

The yield I got was 2.5 kg from 2 packs of 'creamgold' brown onions. The yield is not worth even discussing from the red onions.

the small creamgold onions

Next year I will raise seedlings in the hot house early July for planting out mid August and will see how that fares. Two years ago I did plant a punnet of brown onions and finished with some large onions that are worth the space in the patch. In Qld I used to grow onions from seedlings successfully also. However I will rely more on my preferred onion, the potato onion for the majority of my onions harvest next year. No that is not two vegetables or mis-spelt. Potato Onions are grown from the bulb and each bulb expands to about 8 to 12 new bulbs. And are much more suited to my climate. I only grew a handful of potato onions this year as I was two late in getting the bulbs to plant in April/May and planted what I had for re-planting next year.

And now to a picture of the yields from the red onions. Goes to show that no matter how long you have been gardening, some times you have wins and sometimes losses. But I always learn more from the losses!!!!

The massive red onion harvest (Note I did abort two rows due to their woeful size on Dec 21)

On a more successful note, my garlic harvest was what I have come to expect since moving to Tasmania. Those amazing purple Tassie garlic that are so easy to grow.

More Garlic than the kitchen can use, however I also use garlic for preventing worms in the chooks and pigs.

Western Tasmania and tiny things

Next week I am off to north western Tasmania, The Tarkine Wilderness as many would know it by. My work fellows and I are off looking for something no bigger than 2.5mm long by 2mm wide. This little creature is a hydrobiid snail and we hope to discover the presence of one or two (more if we are lucky) threatened species in water catchments. What are hydrobiid snails. Read this to get an idea. click here.

To get to these creeks where these snails may occur, you need to cross hell and back. Tasmania's rainforests contain some very difficult vegetation to bash through. Coming from Queensland where you might bash through some Lantana for a while, or detour past a thorny dry rainforest community, nothing still comes close to what is in front of you out in beautiful western Tasmania. Gahnia and Bauera is arguably the worst. The best way to get through this dense thicket is to fall forward and pick yourself up in the extreme cases. However horizontol (Anodopetalum biglandulosum) is my pick for the toughest. My frame lends itself more to bashing through gahnia/bauera thickets, than climbing over 1 to 4m high horizontal branches and popping up and down looking for craps to crawl through. Last year my colleague and I could not climb under due to a mushy waterlogged deep clay bog and flowing creek, so we had to climb up to 4m in the air carefully guiding ourselves over this horizontal.

If you want to take that windows desktop picture, this is the country to do it. Literally every 5 mins you could stop for one of those perfect pictures. Here are a couple from my last trip.

Hope to survive and blog soon!!!

Bacon, Prosciutto and home made snags

As soon as you feel sad to see the pigs you have raised free range from 6 weeks of age head for the abattoir, the meat arrives and the rewards of the 6 months of rearing is felt. Yesterday we picked up the meat from 2 of the 3 pigs and spent the evening preparing a leg for prosciutto, the belly and loin for bacon and shoulder minced with some added backfat to prepare some sausages.

I have adopted the preserving rules that are set out by the well known Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall of River Cottage fame. The preservation of the bacon goes something like this.

Bacon
- 2kg of salt
- 1/2 kg of brown sugar
- bay leaves crushed up
- lightly crushed juniper berries (20 or so)
- cracked peppercorns

The above is all mixed and rubbed into the bacon. The bacon is left in this mixture in a box and each morning and night the liquid that is drawn out is drained and the bacon is left on its otherside. This is done for 3 or 4 days. The salt is all washed off and then the bacon is hung covered in muslin to dry for no less than 4 days. If the bacon is left in the salt for longer than 4 days, the bacon can be a little too salty for a rasher, but this can be rectified by placing the rashers for breakfast in water when you get out of bed and this will extract some salt before cooking. I highly recommend River Cottage DVD called Pig in a day for people interested in curing pork or making snags. The flavour of the bacon is fantastic and not tainted by the nitrates pumped into bacon these days.

The sausage making is a real delight. I have learnt there is a real art to this, but a little practice and you do get the hang of it. And I highly recommend you fry up a little of your mixture before making a sausage to taste you have the mix right. One of our sausages is a paprika style snag and I am really looking forward to eating these. If you have the money, a quality machine is worthwhile. Our sausage maker is a little basic and slower, but it achieves the same result (however we were still making sausages close to midnight!!!). We also use natural beef intestine for the casing.

The prosciutto is simply buried in a lot of salt (25 kgs). It is left in the salt for 3 days per kg of weight with a day taken of. so about 23 days for my leg. It is then hung for around 9 months. This is a long term project and the first time we have tried this so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Oh, and we had the first roast pork for dinner. And it was delicious. I think I could almost taste apple in the meat as they were feed a large quantity of apples for breakfast.

The sausage maker

The final snags which hang over night to dry off before freezing