Day 83 - Monthly Roundup

Hello everybody! It's been a busy time around here. On top of all of my work and study, it's been a strange month weatherwise.

No temperature records were set, but we did receive a lot of rainfall. The month's total 272.4mm broke the 2000s record of 244mm set in 2003. In addition, the 121.4mm received up to 9am on the 17th was also a record.

Some plants, such as afro parsley and garlic chives, seem to love every drop of rain they receive. Others, such as spring onions just get soggy!

Considering that my deck is soaked with water, I don't spend a lot of time out there. I'll report more when I'm out there more!

Day 72 - More Rain, Less Spring Onions

If you live around Brisbane, you will have experienced the torrential downpour that we had on Tuesday. It was the most rain in a 24 hour period since 2001, and caused mayhem. In my experience, when we have extreme weather it usually affects suburbs or the surrounding countryside. This time, however, the city copped the whole lot of it. Living 8km from the city centre, my apartment (and therefore plants) took a hammering. The force of the rain was so strong that it ripped most of the leaves from my chillies. The other, smaller leaved plants fared better.

It was another bad week for the spring onions. Even with the addition of seven new plants, the yield was a paltry 5 grams for the week.

I've decided to take a new approach to the harvest of my garlic chives, spring onions and afro parsley. Instead of harvesting all that I have available, I will only take one gram each of afro parsley and garlic chives and five grams of spring onions each week (parsley and spring onion day is Saturday, chive day is Thursday). This will continue until either a) I run out of crops,  b) they grow to an optimum height (spring onions and chives) or c) the afro parsley starts going white (which it does if I leave it too long).

The amounts harvested per week are intentionally below the weekly average so far, as I hope to have some fuller looking plants. I'll keep you informed!

Day 65 - The Effect of Rain

We all know that without water our crops will die. However, I would much prefer that when rain comes it is accompanied by at least a few hours of sunshine each day. The effect that rain without sunshine has is striking: last week I cut 12g of spring onions. This week - 5g.

In other news, the jalapeno has come out of its stupor and is now producing flowers like there's no tomorrow. I think it's liking the sub-30 degree top temperatures that we've been having.

That's it for this post - expect about two per week during school terms and a bit more during holidays.

Day 61 - What's New

Not much is new in the Australian Kitchen Garden. I've gone back to school (teaching) and am almost back at university (doctorate), so I'm letting the garden do it's thing. In some ways it's going to be really good for the garden - I tend to pick anything as soon as it looks half ready, such is my impatience. Now the garden gets a break to grow during the week.

My wife picked up some more spring onions to plant in amongst the current ones. While the first bunch comprised 11 onions, this latest one consists of only 7. They are big 'uns, however. I'm hoping they don't take over the little ones, as the family's spring onion appetite requires all 18 to be flourishing!

We had quite the downpour last weekend, with a 24 hour total of about 90mm (20 of those coming in half an hour). Luckily everything seems to have survived, although things just don't grow without sunshine. Darn it!

Day 58 - The Spring Onion Experiment: Part 3

Over the previous week, I've been taking measurements of my spring onions to see how I should be harvesting. I grew two groups of crops, one harvested back to the base and one harvested so that there were shoot stumps remaining.

Day 2: No Stumps: 5.6cm each - Stumps: 5.7cm each
Day 4: No Stumps: 12.2cm each - Stumps: 11.7cm each
Day 5: No Stumps: 14.2cm each - Stumps: 14.0cm each
Day 6: No Stumps: 18.0 cm each - Stumps: 16.7cm each
Day 7: No Stumps: 21.6cm each - Stumps: 19.2cm each

It's pretty definitive - prune your spring onions back to the base and you will have better growth. I harvested them again today (this will probably be a weekly occurance) and they all went back to the base. It was pretty surprising that the results were so clear - I was expecting nothing too big.

By the way, growing spring onions is a cinch. I got 12g of shoots from one week. Why would you ever buy spring onions?

Day 56 - It's Really That Quick!

My spring onions are loving life at the moment. The picture below was taken one day after they were cut back to nothing - in other words, almost everything green is less than 24 hours old.

 

Four days later, they are still flourishing. My wife points out that they now have established roots, which means that they will have quicker growth now than when they were first planted.

Day 53 - The Spring Onion Experiment: Part 2

After the success of the previous spring onion experiment, I decided to do a little more investigation. But first a little background information. My spring onion bases that I planted back at the beginning of the month looked like a stick with roots. Over time this stick grew shoots, so the plants had 2, 3 and in one case 4 hollow cylinders coming out of the base.

I came to harvesting today and wondered whether to cut back to the base, or to leave a few millimetres of each shoot. I could see reasons for both - plants often respond to savage pruning, however saving them the effort of creating a new shoot must mean something.

Anyway, I'll see how the differing plants respond over time. Keep an eye out for details!

Day 52 - Monthly Roundup

Weatherwise, not much happened this month. In contrast to my predictions of rain, rain and more rain it's been quite dry with only 47.8mm of rain (compared with a 2000 - 2009 average of 118.9mm). No temperature records were set, and the averages were only slightly higher than usual.

I had a mixed bag with the crops, although I'm pretty happy with the results so far. January concludes with the garden being $27 in deficit. For details on individual plants, read on:

Jalapeno - The last of the original three fruits was picked as late as possible, just before turning red. Unfortunately, it still didn't have that much heat, although the taste was good. One baby chili and two flowers point to a continuing crop.

Habanero - The three fruits ripened in quick succesion, but have not been replaced with flowers. The leaves have curled up, which may be an aphid problem.

Sweet Basil - The crop that grows itself - my basil plants are doing very well. One plant in particular is growing exceptionally (10cm taller than all of the others with strong leaf growth). I'll have to look up how to save the seeds from this one!

Afro Parsley - This crop is still growing - I've left it to thicken up for a while. I'm aiming to have a dense hedge of parsley, but I reaslise that will take time. So time I will give it!

Garlic Chives - Growing slowly! This is another one that needs time to thicken up.

Coriander - See previous entries... it's all too depressing to repeat!

Spring Onions - Doing very well, with each plant growing on average 1cm per day. The second crop that grows itself.

And finally for the blog itself: I've written about 2500 words this month and have had about 150 page hits. Thank you for reading!

Day 51 - The Spring Onion Experiment: Part 1

Folks, it's a piece of cake. Get some pots and potting mix, add roots of onions you've already eaten and watch them come up. But how much room do they need? I did a little experiment using 4 sizes of spacing to see if the extra room resulted in extra growth. I've labeled the pot sizes A (26 square cm each), B, C & D (largest 157 square cm each). All pots had more than one plant in, so I've given them numbers.

A1: Day 23 = 26cm, Day 26 = 30cm
A2: Day 23 = 22cm, Day 26 = 26cm

B1: Day 23 = 37cm, Day 26 = 38cm
B2: Day 23 = 27cm, Day 26 = 30cm
B3: Day 23 = 33cm, Day 26 = 35cm
B4: Day 23 = 12cm, Day 26 = 14cm

C1: Day 23 = 19cm, Day 26 = 23cm
C2: Day 23 = 19cm, Day 26 = 24cm
C3: Day 23 = 39cm, Day 26 = 43cm

D1: Day 23 = 29cm, Day 26 = 35cm
D2: Day 23 = 38cm, Day 26 = 43cm

So, for day 23, the size averages were 24cm, 27cm, 26cm & 34cm. In day 26 they were 28cm, 29cm, 30cm & 39cm. So it's pretty clear, if you want bigger onions, give them more space. However, the smallest onions only had one sixth of the space of the largest, so I wouldn't hesitate to plant them in tightly. At the density of pot A you can fit 385 plants in one square metre, but at the growing rate of 1cm / day, who needs close to 4 metres of spring onions every day?

Day 50 - Why My Coriander Bolted: Part 2

I've been reading up about coriander recently, as it's been my only failure as a crop so far. At the beginning it wouldn't stand up and when it did it went to seed almost straight away. It now appears that three things contrubuted to this:

1. Coriander hates heat. Soil heat over 25 degrees Celsius will speed up bolting.
2. Coriander hates transplanting.
3. Even if you take perfect care of your plant, it still won't last long.

So, what do you do? Well, the easiest option is to plant the seeds. The folks at Gardening Know How have some tips that I may follow if I have the time. Basically, if you want a plentiful supply of coriander, you're going to be doing a lot of planting - in the shade.

Day 49 - Hot Deck: Part 2

Below is the graph of temperature over time on the 26th of January. The red line is the shade temperature and the blue line is the temperature on my deck. I knew that it got hot out there, but what surprised me the most was the tenacity of the heat - it was over 40 degrees for 5 hours, and over 50 degrees for 3 1/2 hours.

This day wasn't chosen because it was particularly hot - it just happened to be a day when I wasn't going out, and was able to measure the temperature every half hour! The maximum was 57.5, which was quite a bit short of this year's maximum of 58.8 degrees (137.8 in the old scale). I'm convinced that I'll see 65 (150) before the end of February.

Day 47 - Self-Sufficiency Sizing Stuff

It's a question that is posed all over the internet: how big will my garden need to be to provide vegetables for my family? Unfortunately, no two families have the same appetites, so the answers can vary wildly. According to one of my gardening books ("Your Vegetable Garden in Australia" by George Seddon) 335 square meters are required for a family of four.

At the moment, my total possible gardening area (including window sills, edges of steps etc.) is about 2 square metres. Luckily, my wife and I are buying our first house at the end of this year, which means I will have much more room. However, the garden will not be just a food-producing facility. We have to take into consideration the dog that we will be rescuing from the RSPCA, the kids that we will be having and the flowers that I will be growing for the Sunday table!

At the moment I've got no idea of how much area would keep us in fruit and vegetables. The good thing is that I have a cunning plan. Since January 18th, I've been maintaining a document containing details of all fruit and vegetables purchased. After keeping this record for a year, I'll know how much we go through annually. Then it's just a matter of finding average yields for these plants and their areas required and I'll have a total figure.

My guess is 200 square metres considering that we don't eat a lot of potatoes. Reader guesses are very welcome! The closest guess wins my congratulations!

Day 44 - Hot Deck: Part 1

It turns out that life on my back deck is a lot hotter than I thought. The days following my last observation have all recorded temperatures above 45 degrees, with the hottest day showing 54.2 degrees. This on a day when the shade temperature did not exceed 33.

Knowing this, I am not at all surprised that my coriander has gone to seed. I also have great respect for the hardiness of my other plants!

The first of the habaneros and the last of the jalapenos ended up in a very nice chili con carne. Despite turning reddish at the base, the jalapeno provided very little heat. No such problems with the habanero!

Day 40 - Extreme Weather: Part 1

It wasn't the extreme weather that I was expecting, however. Yesterday we experienced our biggest drop in temperature (this year) from the hottest part of the day to the coolest part of the night. The peak temperature was 35.1 and the low point was 17.4 (only 0.4 higher than the 2000 - 2009 record).

During this month so far, the discrepancy from peak to low point has averaged 6 degrees, with a record of 10.3 degrees. Compare that with yesterday's 17.7 and you can see why my plants are looking quizzical (either that or I'm going a little loopy).

Day 39 - Why My Coriander Bolted: Part 1

The picture says it all. While the shade temperature may be 35 at the moment, this figure means nothing to my poor kitchen garden which sits on a concrete deck in full sun. I put my mercury thermometer out with the plants, but got alarmed when the mercury rose rapidly towards 50, which is the top of the thermometer! I've been in a science class when a thermometer exploded and am not keen to repeat the experience. Instead, I substituted my digital thermometer, which has now hovered in the 46 - 47 degree area for about an hour.

My chillies are loving the heat with the jalapeno thriving. Coriander, on the other hand, is not a fan of heat. According to http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com extreme heat causes a flower stem to grow and leaf production to cease. That's exactly what's happened here as you can see to the right of the thermometer. The good news is that coriander seed is edible (and tasty). The bad news is that I have heaps of coriander seed that I bought from the shops a while ago. I don't have any fresh coriander!

Day 36 - A Surprise Visitor

Because I only have 2000 square centimetres of garden, there is no need for me to use a hose to water. Instead, I have this cute little purple watering can that has been around as long as I can remember.

I was filling up my watering can from the kitchen sink tap (my garden is on the kitchen balcony) when suddenly a 5cm long lizard jumped out of the watering can and onto my arm. He proceeded to run and jump around until I persuaded him onto a chopping board which I carried outside. It all happened too quickly for me to get a photo, but he's a regular around my apartment, so I'm sure I'll be seeing him again. But I won't be seeing him jumping out of my watering can as I'll be checking next time before I start filling it up!

Day 33 - What Price A Good Crop?

Way back on Day 1 I said that I wanted to grow crops that would normally cost a lot to buy in a supermarket. Herbs ended up being a good choice, as the price per kilo is quite high (although I don't know many people who buy herbs by the kilo). Just in case you were wondering, here are the prices that I got from my local supermarket for the herbs in my garden (prices are for fresh, not dried produce).

Garlic Chives - $98.00 / kg
Coriander - $54.00 / kg
Sweet Basil - $43.78 / kg
Afro Parsley - $30.30 / kg

Spring Onions are really cheap, coming in at $6.30 / kg. However, mine were free i.e. we ate them and I planted the roots, so anything I get out of them is a bonus. They're going very well, with one of them doubling its size in the last eight days.

Day 30 - Spicy Tomato Bowl

Unfortunately I only grow a couple of the ingredients in this quasi soup. It's really easy to throw together, tastes good and is healthy to boot.

Note: my cooking skills are far worse than my gardening skills. Eat at your own risk!

Ingredients:

1 can of diced tomatoes
5g basil leaves
1g coriander
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp cracked chilli (or to taste)
1 tsp sesame seeds

Method:

Shred basil and coriander. Place ingredients in a microwavable bowl. Microwave for 4 minutes. Enjoy!

Day 29 - First Photos!

As promised, here are some photos of my kitchen garden:

Chillies: (from left to right) - habanero, jalapeno seedlings, jalapeno

Spring onions - the green sections have grown since planting

Garlic chives (left) and the newly healthy coriander

Afro parsley (top) and sweet basil

They aren't normally set out like this!

Day 28 - Fixing Splattered Coriander

I don't quite know what happened to my coriander plant. It looked nice and perky at Bunnings but the 5 minute trip home knocked it about a bit. When I planted it, all of the stalks decided to lie down flat. I thought that some sun would pick it up, however the sun decided to hide for a couple of weeks. Thinking I was going to lose the plant if I didn't act, I decided to go in for some large scale pruning. I cut off the last 80% of every stalk, chopped them into 5mm lengths and left on the soil (my primitive attempt at mulching). The plant loved it! New growth appeared the next day and went vertical immediately. Now the coriander looks more like a bush than a couple of stalks lying on the ground.

Day 27 - What's Stopping My Chillies?

Lack of sun (I think). The jalapeno had fruit on it when I bought it, but the habanero didn't. A couple of days of sun and I had lots of flowers, culminating in three chillies which are still maturing. For the last three weeks, however, we have had a heap of cloudy days and not that much sun. I guess that I'll know for sure when I pick the habaneros and jalapeno. I should get a flourish of buds, flowers and chillies - if I don't then I'm in a bit of trouble with these crops!

Day 26 - Different Starts for Different Plants

I've been thinking about the different ways that I could start some plants off. So far I've come up with four ways:

1. Buying seedlings / mature plants
2. Growing from seed
3. Making cuttings
4. Growing from supermarket root stock

There has to be a better way to describe number four! What it means is to buy food from the supermarket with the roots attached, cut off the top and plant the roots. Yesterday I tried that with spring onions. The tops were cut off with the roots and about 3cm of stalk remaining. These were placed in a glass of water until they were planted. So far the spring onions have grown out from the middle - that is that the centre of the stalk has grown faster than the exterior. In a day they have grown about 5mm. I've planted 11 spring onions and I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

My jalapeno seeds are going well, ranging from 4cm to 7cm tall. I'm not going to thin them out, rather I will see which ones take over, if any. The best thing is that if they don't work, I can pull them up and start again!

I plan to work on some basil cuttings later to create a type of basil 'hedge' in my 40x10 planter box. Much more research to be done on that!

On a technological note, I will be adding photos to The Australian Kitchen Garden shortly. Not only do they illustrate some of my points (much more succinctly than I can), but they will show the growth rates of plants. Fun times ahead.

Day 25 - A Dollar Earned...

My garden has earned its first dollar! Yes, it's cost me $31 to set up, but shouldn't cost anything to maintain - assuming I manage to keep everything alive (not guaranteed). The cash crop is definitely basil. Costing $7.28 to set up, the basil has earned 53 cents in one week. With basil costing about $43/kg in the local supermarkets, it's really worth it. Add to that the fact that it pretty much grows itself and you'd be mad not to add it to your kitchen garden.

Day 23 - Chilli Harvest Update

So I picked my second jalapeno, two weeks after the first. It had the corkage marks running down the side which the first did not have, however it was still not hot. As all three jalapenos came with the plant when I bought it three weeks ago, I've no idea how old they are. I guess I'll just have to wait until the habaneros turn orange.