What's in my Curry?

I have two chilli plants in the garden, growing into small shrubs. The chillies themselves are still green, eventually to turn to red. But of course they can be picked while still green (the flavour is slightly different). Keen to try them in my curry, I picked three big beauties.

The picked chillies next to garlic, also from the garden. I'm glad I deseeded them before throwing them into the curry. I had a small bite of one of the chillies - it was unbelievably HOT (and I love spicy hot food). Much hotter than I expected.

You Know You're Old When...

These ideas have been floating around in my head for months.

You know you're old when the last music you bought was a CD. Neil Diamond. Greatest Hits. Five years ago.  



You know you're old when you stand around the water cooler at work and instead of talking about last night's TV or football, you talk about arthritis. (click on pic above)



You know you're old when you watch reruns of Happy Days and think that Ritchie Cunningham's mum is HOT.



More Garden Pics

See, I told you this trellis would soon be covered. The runner bean tendrils are coiling up and up. And the cucumbers are also thriving. These pics were taken this morning before work, and it's raining! Which is good news.  

In this pic can be seen tomatoes on the right, pots on the left, and a new box bed of French Marigold seeds in the centre. Some have germinated.

In my main tomato bed the plants have been planted in the standard way, but the two tomato plants above have been planted using a different method. When I bought the plants, which were tall, I laid them on the lawn on their sides, with the stems parallel to the ground. Over the course of a few days, the foliage on these plants turned at right angles, growing towards the sun. I then dug a trench and planted the entire stem and root ball in the ground, leaving the foliage exposed. Roots will then grow out of the entire stem length. The results can be seen above. I must say they look healthier than the standard plantings. In the foreground are capsicum (sweet peppers). I have never had much luck growing capsicum (for whatever reason) but am determined this year to get a decent crop.

My potting table. In the seed tray are basil seeds. Foreground are cucumbers. Behind these are more capsicum. At the back are squash. I mean to plant out the squash this weekend. I only have to find somewhere to plant them (they will need training up a trellis of some kind).

Hope you like my pics. Remember to click on each one for an enlargement.

Garden Update

Hello everybody. It's been a while since my last post, but a lot has been happening in the garden. You can see in the photo above new plantings. From left to right: runner beans on a trellis - very vigorous. Radishes - French Breakfast - surrounding two chilli plants. The chilli plants, contained within housebricks, have lots of fruit. Spicy fruit! Then another upright trellis with two tomato plants. Just behind the tomatoes are 4 capsicum plants. I only planted them yesterday so they won't move for a while yet. Then some open ground, before we get to my teepee trellis. See pic below.

The teepee trellis. On each leg of the trellis is a runner bean plant. Then between the runner beans I have planted a couple of Lebanese cucumber. I have wired netting over the closest three legs, for the cucumbers, but left the far side open so that I can get to the fruit. I suspect that this trelllis will get pretty crowded later on.

Another photo of the established runner bean, radishes and chillies in foreground.

This is my main tomato garden. On the extreme left, in two square pots, are baby carrots. To the left of the carrots, hidden, is a long pot of germinating lettuce seeds. Six tomato plants, all different varieties. Extreme right is a cherry tomato plant. The rest are standard varieties, although one will produce purple tomatoes and one will produce yellow tomatoes. In the bottom left corner, where the soil looks darker and fresher, I have planted sweet basil seeds. I intend to plant some more around other plants, and also plant some French marigold seeds.

Another view of tomatoes. The cardboard is an attempt to suppress weeds. I intend to pave this path (which will be a lot narrower than this wide cardboard) between the rows with decent pavers, but haven't the money nor the time at the moment.

Well, I hope you enjoy seeing my garden. Remember to click on these pics for enlargements.





Typos of the Month

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. After a number of health issues, and general laziness, I'm going to blog more often. And of course our weather is turning warm so it's easier to take some interesting photos.

When I'm out and about in the community I often encounter typographical errors. These are often hand-written, whose erroneous nature is sort of understandable, but are sometimes printed. I find the latter a little inexplicable.  Here are some I snapped in the last month or so:

My local gym. For the pain we about to receive, may be be truly thankful.

Are you going to join the club, or stand apart?

Garden update

It’s been a while since my last post. I don’t post anything from home. I do it from elsewhere and just haven’t got around to taking any photos to show. Anyway, I finally have some more.

A couple of weeks ago we pulled out the scrappy garden bed from the front of the house. The lavender was lovely for a while, then became leggy and unattractive. The whole area was replaced with roses. You can see our first flower above. Gorgeous.

I’m in the back yard. Behind me you can see a nice cabbage in a square pot. It’s thriving well, but has been attacked by snails/slugs lately. The good thing about the pot is that I can pick it up and move it away from the snails. Jasmine grows on the fence. Hopefully it fills up the entire boundary. Is that a new tree to my right? No, it’s my patch of broad beans! Around 7 feet high and cropping heavily. I really don’t know why this year’s crop is a foot taller than last year’s crop, but I’ve had to tie them securely against this month’s strong winds.

Remember to click each pic for an enlargement. Hope you like these photographs. I will post some more soon. Cheers.

Some Funny Pics from the Net

I Have Survived

Last Sunday I was preparing dinner. Spicy meatballs with pasta. I decided to add some chillies. I wasn't concentrating like I should. The knife slipped. The chillies were diced. And two fingers. Well, actually the tips of my second finger and thumb. I laughed it off. But when, two hours later, the bleeding would not stop, my wife insisted I visit the hospital. The photo above was taken in the waiting room, kitchen paper towelling saturated with the red stuff. The result was a couple of days wearing a massive white bandage.
But ... I survived!

Note: after the accident we ate the spicy meatballs and pasta.
Never did find those fingertips.

New Vegetable Bed

It's winter. There's not a lot of planting and harvesting to do in the garden, but I'm still pretty busy. I'm back at work, but had the last two weeks off for holidays (benefits of teaching!). I wanted a raised bed for my vegies, so sourced some hardwood timber railway sleepers. People told me that treated pine would be suitable, but I don't feel comfortable growing food near chemical treatments. And hardwood looks great - weathered and natural. Anyway, I found 4 sleepers and positioned them where I wanted the bed to go: near the house but getting full sun. A raised bed is important since drainage in this location is poor.



Once positioned, I needed to level the timbers. I borrowed a spirit level and removed turf from beneath the sleepers until level. 

 

The corners were fixed. I used galvanised plate and screws. A simple job but effective.

 

I toyed with the idea of digging up the grass turf inside the bed (the bed was set into a lawn). But instead decided to lay sheets of newspaper: quite thickly (but not too thickly). This should kill the turf and deter weeds. Then a sprinkle of blood and bone. Then a thick layer of sugar cane mulch. This mulch is nice to work with. It's finer than pea straw mulch, and opportunistic peas won't be growing in this bed! You can see the result above, with the newspaper clearly visible.

The mulched bed is above. About 8 feet square. So a possible problem will be reaching the centre of the bed from the edge. It's best not to walk on garden beds too much; compression of topsoil is not a good idea.
So I'll be getting some chunky pavers and laying a small path from the edge into the bed.

Leaving room for the path, I lay thick strips of compost over the mulch. In this case 6 strips. See above. Into these strips I planted broad beans. Why broad beans? And why not fill the beds with more compost? Broad beans (and all other legumes) can be used as "green manures" - grown, slashed just prior to pod formation (as the flowers are dropping), left on the surface of the beds (perhaps dug in slightly, but not "turned over"). Broad beans are "nitrogen fixers" - they store nitrogen in nodules on their roots. This nitrogen can then be accessed by subsequent plants grown in these beds. When the beans are about a foot high I'll heap more and more compost around them to encourage root formation. So compost will be added to the bed gradually.
And of course the slashed beans will add to the mulch.

Anyway, this vegetable bed will be ready for spring and summer.

You can see broad beans above, to the right of the picture. This is the rest of my vegetable garden mid-winter. These beans are being grown for food, of course. From extreme left to right - lettuce, row of radish, peas under trellis, 4 cabbage, row of chinese cabbage (slugs and snails love these!), broad beans, jasmine on the fence.
Behind the beans, hidden, are plant pots of cabbage.

Ok, hope this was interesting. Remember you can click on any of the photos above for enlargements.
I'm looking forward to planting out my new spring/summer vegetable bed!

Carrots - First Crop

I harvested my first carrots on the weekend. Long and straight!
I used carrot tape (seeds, evenly spaced, embedded in a light paper tape) but can't remember the variety.
Dad gave me the tape. Thanks Dad!

Latest Garden News



My vegetable garden at the start of winter. From left to right: peas about to climb their trellis, in front of the peas are lettuce, to the right and behind the peas is a big basil bush, snow peas climbing their own trellis, a row of young radish, clumps of carrot, two rows of chinese cabbage, two rows of broad beans. To the right of the broad beans are small pots of cabbage and a long pot of strawberries. The whole area is mulched with suger cane mulch.



Close up of carrots, chinese cabbage, broad beans. The white squares are offcuts from a kitchen cabinet someone was building in the neighbourhood. I happened to be driving by and scrounged them immediately. They serve as somewhere to stand when watering and weeding. Pretty handy.



My snow peas are cropping well. Every morning I pick a big handful to add to my lunch the same day.
Fresh and sweet, and totally organic.

Hope you like my pics. Click on any of them for a larger view.



Some people don't deserve to drive



I saw this pic on the internet. The note was left on the car.
You may have trouble seeing it. It reads:

"In this super-packed parking lot, I applaud your ability to find not only one spot, but four.
You, sir, are envied by all douchebag parkers." 

Some people don't deserve to live drive.



Sydney Royal Easter Show



Last week we visited Sydney for a couple of days, to shop, visit the Royal Easter Show and just get away from home for a while.  The pic of the Opera House above was taken from the Contemporary Art Museum.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance.



The entry gates to the Show. As you can see, the show is massive. And very popular. These kinds of shows feature fairground rides, arts and crafts and community events. But mainly these shows feature Rural and Regional competitions across all categories - farm animals, domestic animals, fruit and vegetable produce.
A way for the city and country to mix. It's all very interesting.



We travelled home via the local train which I have christened ProleRail. The level of comfort and luxury can be be seen in one of the exclusive rail booths above. All hail ProleRail!



Aussie Bugs

Last week I was at work outside, supervising students at Sport. I was talking to some kids when I felt a pain on my leg. I swatted at something attached to my leg, and the bug above fell off. I took it inside, took a photo, used a pencil for scale.
Check it out! Check out the mouth parts on this little bastard! Zoom in.

My leg after the bug was removed.
Yes, the red bit... that's blood. MY blood.
If you live in Australia you have to be prepared to get bit! 

Vegetable Garden Update

An overview of the main vegetable patch. In the foreground is a lone basil plant - a leftover from the tomato cull a couple of weeks ago. Behind the basil are three rows of carrot, covered in moistened pea straw mulch (it's important to keep carrot seeds moist during germination).  Behind the carrots are two rows of snow peas. A wooden frame stretches wire over the peas. Behind the peas is waste ground. Then a number of flowering plants. At the far end of the garden is my monster pumpkin plant.

A close-up of the snow pea frame. Simple but effective.

The Revenge of the Monster Butternut Pumpkin. Ok... a couple of weeks a go I posted a pic of this plant growing around the compost bin and slowly taking over. The bin in the above photo is at the right, house brick on lid. Every couple of days I have to hack a path though the jungle to get to the bin. And of course all the while watching out for snakes.

Click on each photo for enlargements. Bye.  

Latest Post

OK, it's been a while since my last post. And I have more pics, but will post them soon. What's been happening?

Ok... the tomatoes are no more. The crop ran to a tired conclusion, so I pulled them out (all except one plant which is still fruiting - bizarre). I them removed all stakes and wire and weeded the entire area. I applied some compost, then a light sprinkling of blood and bone. In went three rows of carrot - Manchester Table variety - using carrot tape (seeds embedded in light paper strips, like tape, which makes thinning easier).

Then over the last two days I've been constructing a wooden frame to support flattened rolls of wire mesh. In went the snow peas (also known as sugar or snap peas), well mulched with rotted straw and watered with weak fish extract. I planted the peas yesterday morning, and by that evening they had already attached themselves to the mesh! Amazing.

Ok, some pics to come soon. Bye.

To all those harmless lambs out there

I read this today at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-15/saudi-heart-breakers/3830624

I don't know if this is sad or funny:

Saudi Arabia's religious police have arrested more than 140 people for celebrating Valentine's Day.
The Organisation for Promoting Virtue and Discouraging Evil says officers have punished those caught so far, and that its campaign of arrests is continuing.

In a six-page statement, the religious police said they were saving women from "deceiving men", who used the day to give the fake impression that they loved a woman while pretending to be a "harmless lamb". The religious authorities say Muslims who take part in Valentine's Day are in fact weak, lacking imagination, and far removed from the "sublime and virtuous" objectives of their religion.

The organisation has also confiscated all red roses from shops.

Make me Smile

Welcome to the Land of the Mullet



As tough as a wet tissue



God this is funny

Sydney Holiday Pics

After Glenelg we flew to Sydney for 3 nights at the Four Points. The first pic above was taken from our balcony overlooking Darling Harbour. The rain had eased and the rainbow was a nice welcome. The second pic is shot from the same balcony, early evening. In the forground, three minutes from our hotel, is the Sydney Aquarium, Wildlife World, and new Madame Tussauds which is to open in May. The bridge across the Harbour leads to the Maritime Museum and Star Casino. Lots of restaurants and bars surround the Harbour, with plenty of playgrounds and activity centres for children. 

The Chinese Gardens is close to Darling Harbour and we spent a couple of hours there. The pic above is of one of several waterfalls in the Gardens. Very peaceful.

Our holiday was very special, but all things must come to an end. Before we left I had a small pumpkin plant sprouting near the compost bin. When we returned, the result can be seen in the first pic above. Wow! I'm not sure what to do with his plant - prune back, retaining as many fruit as possible, or train across the fence? Who knows.

The second pic above shows what happens to tomato plants in 10 days. My wife's parents kindly watered and harvested our garden while we were away, and the results can be seen above. The large steel bowl on the left is full of cherry tomatoes! Four large containers full of fruit, in 10 days! And after that photo was taken I harvested another full container! I guess I can turn much of it into tomato sauce. Guess what we're having for dinner tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night ....

Hope you liked my pics. Stay tuned.