Green and Thrifty

One way to keep the dandelions down is to pick them and put them in a vase before they go to seed..

So much glorious weather this week, all the sun, and now gentle rain, the most perfect combination of weather events for kicking along the vegies that I have put in the garden recently, which need to bulk up and heart (in the case of broccoli and cabbage) before the cold weather sets in. Fingers crossed I got them in early enough. Weather pundits are predicting a cold winter, but who would know? In the Little House on the Prairie series, a long winter was predicted by a)the local native American people and b)beavers. I do not have access to either of these sources of information. There must be clues in the landscape and knowledge passed down for generations, but I am at a bit of a loss as to how to come by either. I feel like it is important information we should all learn - how to live in our landscape, what our weather is doing. Knowing when the rains are likely to come (generally end of May), when to plant winter veg (generally slightly earlier than I tend to get around to it). Here is a useful piece of local information which always works for me: plant peas in Spring when the wattle first comes out. Also plant peas now, and they will sulk all through winter, then burst into flower in spring for the earliest peas. This information is really only useful for local gardeners though. Which is true of most gardening advice. Local knowledge is golden, and that's what gets lost if generation doesn't follow generation learning the secrets of the one that has gone before.

Phew, rant over for the day.

One of the marvellous things about Partner Paul is that he has fabulous friends, who now get to become my fabulous friends whether they like it or not (my fabulous friends also get to become his, because sharing). So Paul's fabulous friend Bron gave me a box of pears from her tree which I cut up and put in the dehydrator, so now I have lots of delicious dried pear chips to nibble on and put in the muesli.

Having finished off last year's walnuts a couple of weeks ago, I have been filling my pockets with the first of this year's walnuts as I walk the dog of a morning. There are three walnut trees that I know of on my dog walking round, and I am getting a pocketful or so each time. Into the muesli they go.

Speaking of foraging, my friend Karlin was telling me about her friends who picked 250kg of roadside apples the other day and made it into cider. I am not normally a jealous person, but right now I want to go apple picking and get a cider press..

I planted lettuce. Finally.

I came home one day to find a packet of parsnip seeds at the front door. I had planted a packet of commercial parsnip seed but only eight parsnips germinated. Parsnips are tricky like that. They germinate reliably only from absolutely fresh seed. But once you have a few parsnips in your garden, you will always have them, because they self-seed prolifically. My friend Maria offered some seed from her parsnip forest, and now that has gone in and will hopefully fill out the gaps in my parsnip rows.

I cleaned out the shed. Why is this green and thrifty? Because I found several things I needed and didn't know I had. Two tap timers. This is good because I often accidentally leave the sprinkler on. A bunch of hose fittings, also good because mine are getting old and the taps have started dripping. Now the shed is nearly ready to house the wood pile for winter. And, it is tidy. I can find all the things that I need. It is a joy to go in there. Before, I dreaded climbing in over all the things and hunting under bags and boxes and having other things fall on my head.. I am going to give away the electric mulcher, a whipper snipper, the bike that none of us have used in two years. So many things I have in my pared down life that are still excess to requirements. Let it all go..

I love my garlic braid. This is the first year I managed to make one that stayed together..

Having said that, my parents have been cleaning out their garage and keep sending me texts asking me if I want paper from the moving boxes, and egg cartons to use as firelighters, and the plastic from covering the furniture when they moved. They wondered whether I would like it to make a little green house. And of course, I said yes. It is all on the way to recycling, so if I don't successfully turn the plastic into a green house, I will just send it on to the recycling centre at the tip, but until then it might warm up my tomato seedlings in the spring.

I cut back the lemon verbena bush as it is getting hard to walk past it. It is growing in a large pot along the walkway at the front of the house. It is so gloriously perfumed, both the leaves and the lovely delicate white flowers, which waft their scent seductively as I walk past, tempting me every time to stop and smell.. because the good life consists in always stopping to smell the lemon verbena. I hung up the cuttings in the shed to dry for tea. This winter I will be drinking the memory of those delicate white summer flowers.

When I arrived at one of my gardening jobs this week at my friend Katherine's place, I discovered that as well as leaving the whhelbarrow out she had also left a bag of vegies from her garden for me. Thanks Katherine:)

This week from the garden we have been eating potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, garlic, rhubarb, lemons, tarragon, basil, rosemary, Cape gooseberries, pineapple ground cherries, and the first handful of green beans. I don't have many green beans because I planted them too close to the tomatoes and the tomatoes swamped them. We live and learn.

Tell me about your green and thrifty projects this week :)