Your Patch Organic Vegetable Gardening

Winter is coming!

Tim — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:01:08 +0000

We are currently starting to raise our winter crop seedlings. Over the next 6 weeks we will be first remineralizing, fertilising and topping up with compost for those customers composting at home in preparation for the winter plantout. Next maintenance will be a clearing and priming of the beds then the call after winter seed will go in, followed by seedlings the call after that. We thank everyone waiting for herbs for their patience during the summer period, our suppliers have moved premisis to Bullsbrook and as they are quite a large operation supplying many garden centers we are now only just starting to raise seedlings.

Shade is the only way.

Tim — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:43:32 +0000

It has become undenialbe now that your garden needs shade through the december-february period. We are noticing that gardens with shade are thriving while shadeless gardens are roasting and wilting. We advise all of our customers to get shade sails for their gardens. We are working on finding a suitable company with a modest price that we can hopefully strike a deal with for Your Patch customers. In the mean time we are urging everyone to take the step and sort out some form of shade for their gardens to avoid drying out and disappointment.

Scorching summer sunshine

Tim — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:23:53 +0000

Coming into summer (finally) once again, we are advising people to be very aware of their soil moisture levels. Two or three 35 degree plus days in a row can have a devastating affect on your crop if you do not handwater. While our reticulation usually provides good water flow most of the year, our summers are continuing to become increasingly hot and dry with scorching easterley breezes which neccesitates handwatering to cool down and rehydrate the plants themselves and the soil. The moisture and handwatering of your organic garden is your responsibility over summer as we can only do so much once as fortnight. We will manage your water timer settings and adjust accordingly but you must handwater on the extremely warm weeks 3-5 minutes per bed to keep optimum levels. Watch your plants, if they look like they are wilting, get out there with the hose and give them some love. They grow for you and thrive on your attention and involvement.

Christmas maintenance

Tim — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:12:07 +0000

Your Patch will be closing for the festive period this year, with our maintenance roster finishing on the 19th of december and starting again on the 5th of january. During this time you may need to move the velcro plant ties up on your tomato and capsicum stakes to keep them in check.

Picking flowers

Tim — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:46:46 +0000

You will notice on the ends of your zucchini, squash and pumkin the beautiful yellow flowers produced by the veges. Knocking these flowers off will stop them rotting back and spoiling the vegetable.

Rusty leaves on your plants

Tim — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:43:51 +0000

Due to these recent cold, moist nights you might be noticing a rusty tinge to some of your cucumber or zucchini leaves. This is a mildew caused from excess moisture at night. Removing these leaves from your plants will help control its spread as the leaves contaminate each other.

New herb order form

Tim — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:38:03 +0000

To all our valued customers, a new herb order form is now available online for your convenience

Beans are the Party Animals of the Garden

Julia Sutton — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:52:57 +0000

Beans go with so many wonderful flavours its hard to know where to start. They sizzle so well with butter or olive oil and garlic.

They party with nuts like almonds, peanuts, cashews, pine nuts and walnuts. Beans are happy to be seen with herbs like parsley, chives and mint.

Our family got hooked on a Madhur Jaffrey bean recipe years ago. You boil your beans for a few minutes and then you wok fry them in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and dried pepper and salt.

It is a bold stand out recipe that goes well with chicken. I wonder what you are doing with your bean crop?

Lettuce Give Thanks

Julia Sutton — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:51:57 +0000

November is a wonderful time for lettuce. It’s warmer but still not too hot.

I think it is worth having an organic vegetable patch just for the bliss of being able to pick lettuce fresh for your salad each evening.

If you take a few leaves from the outside the lettuce keeps producing. Having several varieties of lettuce makes for an interesting mix of shape, colour and flavour.

You can use lettuce leaves in stock as well as salads, sandwiches, wraps and rolls. Keep some mulch around your lettuce plants – they appreciate a little pampering.

So let us give thanks for the lettuce – the heart of a salad garden.

The Benefits of Organic Food

Julia Sutton — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:42:34 +0000

Barry Green's permaculture garden at Boronia Farm

There are many benefits to eating organic food, but often it is only after growing your own that you being to really appreciate them.

Barry Green, who runs the Tourist Radio network here in Western Australia, runs Boronia Farm using Permaculture principles. He has a point of view about organic farming worth hearing, and a down to earth way of explaining it:

When we apply soluble fertilizers the plant draws in water and takes on all the nutrients that are floating around in the water. Because the plant grows larger than before we think we are clever, but if people live on Coke and Big Macs they to grow to spectacular size but this does not mean that they are healthy, so too with plants. Plants fed on a soluble fertilizer diet are basically less healthy, and so attract pests and diseases that have evolved in nature to help weed out unhealthy specimens so that only the strongest survive. Having created unhealthy plants farmers are then locked into an expensive spraying program to protect the plants that no longer can protect themselves.

You can read Barry’s excellent article in full here, as well as refer to an excellent set of resources he has put together about organic farming:

Organic Farming — Putting the culture back into agriculture