The three sisters garden

I've been meaning to post for ages about my crop rotation system- and hopefully writing this will give me the guilt impetus to put fingers to keyboard- but for the meantime accept that a lot of my vegetable garden design is based on the principles of companion planting. This means putting plants together by matching their needs (eg, acid-lovers), where possible putting two plants with complementary features together (eg, basil and tomatoes), and also considering the order in which plants occupy a bed (eg, putting nitrogen-hungry brassicas after nitrogen-fixing ("making") legumes).

For a couple of years I have been reading about the idea of a Three Sisters Garden, most recently at My Little Vegetable Garden. It's a great example of companion planting, and has its origins in Native American farming. The three elements, squash, corn (maize) and climbing beans were the three major crops of cultures such as the Anasazi. These were not the nomadic "Indians" of the "Cowboys and..." stereotype, but in fact had sophisticated villages, some of which still exist, like these cliffside constructions in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.

Mesa Verde is a plateau, and is it thought that the Anasazi inhabitants who lived there between 1400-700 years ago (before the majority of European historic buildings were built) made their homes on the cliff sides to maximise the use of the arable land on the top of the plateau for farming. Up there they even had irrigation systems, and the remains of squash, beans and corn have been found in the ruins. It appears that Mesa Verde was abandoned suddenly- in the space of 1 to 2 generations- and its people migrated south, perhaps because of drought.

Anyway, coming back to the Three Sisters, the traditional view is that the three plants- corn, squash and beans- are the sisters, each bringing something into the garden to support the other plants:

- the corn stands tall, and provides a scaffold for the beans to climb on

- the squash cover the ground, shading the ground to keep it cool and smothering weeds

- the beans fix nitrogen from the air into the soil where all the plants' roots can use it

(I read somewhere that sometimes a fourth sister, a flower to attract pollinators, was included)

As you cruise the Three Sisters literature online you'll find various designs of how to lay out the plot. I think a lot of the design has to come from trial and error. I half tried last year, and my corn ended up being smothered by the rampant zucchinis. This year, in the hopes of a more harmonious sorority, I have curbed the enthusiasm of the "squash" sister by demoting it from zucchini to weaker cucurbits like melons and cucumbers (which are not without their own trials). The corn are Digger's Dwarf (so may fail on the tall front, hence the frame below) and the beans so far are Purple Dragon and Sex-without-strings (what a name!) that I picked up from a local school fair. The vibrant green shoots in the background are logan berries which believe that they should be the fourth sister.

So far things are looking ok- though I won't count my sisters until they've fruited!

Class of 2011: first planting out

Something in the air made me decide it was time.

Two zucchinis, a tricolour and a climbing tromboncino, looked like they were ready to stretch their roots indefinitely. And so out they went, dwarfed by the giant feral parsley.

Grow well, little zucchinis...

So what's been happening?

A couple more signs that Spring is only 10 days away: nectarine and fig buds swelling.

I think I've polished off my list of winter jobs in the garden:
- roses and stone fruit pruned: in my case this was 36 roses and one nectarine
- sprayed the nectarine buds in the hopes of reducing fungal infection of the fruit
- major garden restructuring jobs achieved to take advantage of wet weather and dormant plants- most of this centred around the Colorado Bed. I've also shifted a spider plant which was spreading into the vegie patch (how dare it!) and a pittosporum which wasn't doing much next to a fence
- we haven't done a lot of new planting other than annual vegetables, apart from three new blueberry plants and three strawberry crowns in the now-dedicated shade/acid lovers bed, in between the camelias.
- I've been trying to get ahead on the weeding while the soil is moist. Big Bro is starting to get the idea of weeding and while is hasn't yet met the high standards set by other children, he's keen enough to deposit pulled weeds in the bin. This will be my third spring in this garden, and I'm starting to see through some of the pseudo-ornamental weeks. Canna lillies, a bulbous grass (I originally thought it was crocuses) and a spreading ground cover have persisted long enough that they are now on my "show no remorse" list
- after procrastinating for six months, I have finally taken the advice of a stranger at Bunnings who recommended Grow Organic for home-delivered manures. Most of the beds have now had a top dressing of manure; take it from this stranger, Grow Organic manures are a great product, and they were very easy to deal with over the phone
- rosemary cuttings have been started to make a hedge for the Colorado Bed; I've had about a 50% strike rate for rosemary cuttings propagated in pots (inside or out), directly in garden beds, or in water. In future I'll probably only propagate Rosemary cuttings by putting them in water for a month or two as it seems as good as the in-soil methods, and takes a lot less space and effort
- spring vegie planting has started, albeit slowly. So far we have two zucchinis and one Minnesota melon that were germinated inside and are now joining three overwintered tomatoes in the mini-greenhouse. Capsicums, eggplants, cucumber and more melons are next on my list. I have never got a melon or a cucumber past the flower stage (and usually not even that far) but I'll live in hope!

Have I forgotten anything? Bring on Spring!

Third sign of spring

More a sign of my spring mindset than real spring weather:

the first glimpse of a germinating zucchini seed.

This year I am hoping to stagger my vegetable planting to avoid feast-and-famine harvests... and to avoid watching everyone else eating homegrown tomatoes while mine aren't yet flowering. So hopefully this will be my early zucchini crop! Time will tell...

Static garden

The garden has been having a quiet patch at the moment. I'm waiting for the last climbing beans to dry, and I am deciding what to do with the eggplants that only just flowered, too late for any harvest (I'm hoping that I might be able to overwinter them in a pot). I've been gradually shifting the leaf drifts onto the garden as a cheap mulch, and pulling out the last dried remnants of the zucchinis and tomatoes. I'm having a mental break too. I have all sorts of things on my to-do list- plant the vernalised tulip bulbs, plant broadbeans, order a delivery of manure, plant more brassica seedlings- but to be honest, the kitchen is a more inviting place at the moment. I think I was a bear in a former life- hibernation sounds like such a good idea right now.

Four things to do with giant zucchinis

I've come to that fulfilling landmark in vegetable growing where I am faced with overgrown zucchinis. Sadly a glut seems unlikely (maybe next year?) but I still have a good amount of home-grown zucchini that I would be sad to see go to waste. Giant zucchinis lack the tenderness of their little siblings, but there are still plenty of uses for them in the kitchen. Here are four fates of my giant zucchinis.

1. Cryopreserved, aka frozen

Meet Mr Plump (1.5 kg) and Mr Tall (40 cm and 750g). My Magimix grater attachment quickly turned them into 10 ziplock bags of summer essence to be added to winter soups or casseroles. New address: deep freeze, next to the aliquots of pesto.

2. Reduced

I've been keen to get into the Animal Vegetable Miracle recipes in good conscience with my own harvest, and the "Disappearing Zucchini Pasta" (I used shells rather than the recommended orzo) seemed like a good starting point. It's essentially a cooked zucchini pesto- and the "disappearing" could refer either to the reduction in volume of the zucchini or the rapidity with which the pasta is consumed- in our case, both were noteworthy!

3. Disguised

At this stage of parenting, I don't really go in for the "my kids will eat healthy food if they don't know it's there" strategy: I'd prefer to work on the optimistic assumption that my boys will enjoy tasty, well presented food, whatever the contents. Optimistic, yes, but after my zucchini triumph, I think it's well founded. At least for now!

Despite this, I was keen to give Animal Vegetable Miracle's zucchini choc chip cookies a go, more for the novelty than anything else. Big Bro did most of the stirring, so the inclusion of a cup of shredded zucchini was certainly no secret from him! I also had the brainwave of making the most of a fine day and doing the mixing outside, where the mess is easier to deal with!

The cookies came out slightly cake-like (a bit like a North American "scone"), but quite moist and edible, though the inclusion of chocolate is, to my mind, the wrong direction for the batter. Next time I'll add a few more spices and replace the choc chips with sultanas.

4. Celebrated

Looking at one giant zucchini I thought, "it's about the diameter of an eggplant", turning on the mental light bulb over "eggplant dishes". Consuming Passions' moussaka won (without the bechamel): alternating layers of thin zucchini slices (pre-baked with a light coating of olive oil) and meat-tomato sauce, topped with cheesy breadcrumbs. Even B, the last standout of the "I don't really like zucchini" brigade, had to admit it was pretty yum!

This post was rewound at the Fibro.

Zucchini Season

Two months ago, this was my cucurbit bed, which I described as having "micro-zucchinis".

With plenty of warmth and water, this is it now: micro has become macro!

We've started harvesting from the three plants from the Digger's tri-colour mix which, as good fortune would have it, are three different colours.

Harvesting zucchinis means converting zucchinis into edible form, and this has taken a bit of culinary convincing for Big Bro who thought he didn't like zucchinis. For the first meal I sliced the zucchini finely and sauteed in butter, then topped it with grated cheese, and christened it Cheesini (or Zucheesy). I felt a bit of a fraud to be disguising the zucchini so much, but Big Bro was convinced, and asked for seconds! My plan is to gradually scale back the additives until perhaps he will happily eat a naked steamed morsel. We shall see.

A few days ago I changed tack and made pikelets with grated zucchini, onion, mushroom, parsely, silver beet and leftover Christmas ham. Another victory!

So now I'm on the hunt for other delicious zucchini recipes: how do you like yours?

Cup Week in the garden 2009

Tuesday was the first Tuesday in November, which means that in Melbourne we (well, most of us) get a public holiday for "the (horse) race that stops the nation". I usually ending up switching the telly on at 3pm to see the race, just in case something particularly exciting happens, but otherwise Melbourne Cup Day is a marker on my garden calendar rather than anything else.

The thought of the perfectly timed Flemington roses always (well, in the last 3 years) has me thinking how mine are going: the standards are in full bloom this year, and are on the list for deadheading.

As for the vegie patch, Cup Day is one of those mystical days on the local gardening calendar, the day to plant the summer vegies! (In Hobart it was Show Day, which was a reliable (but not failsafe) marker of the end of the frost season; I don't quite know whether Cup Day planting has any such logic behind it).

But who am I to question the logic?

But first things first, the beds needed to be topped up with a bit more compost. So last weekend I received a small delivery...

It's a generous cubic metre of mushroom compost. With so much, of course I needed a helper...

Unfortunately both boys thought I had ordered a sand pit...

Hmm... I am glad I ordered compost rather than manure, given Little Bro's desire to taste test everything these days...

But we got there, and it was time to plant out some corn and micro-zucchinis!

As hot weather was forecast on Monday, the final job was to set up a shade- nothing more than an old sheet tied up at the corners. Does a great job!

So here's to Cup Day winnings, of the garden type!!

Digger's comes good...

Back in August I ordered my summer seeds from Digger's. When they eventually arrived (beyond the advertised delivery window), I was a bit disappointed to find that of the thirty-something Tricolour Zucchini seeds, six were cracked or chipped enough for me to think they may not be viable.

6 out of 30+ doesn't sound too bad, until you consider that the package is a mix of three varieties, so potentially I had lost 6 out of 10 of one variety. So on September 9th I emailed Diggers to inform them of the problem.

And waited. (And muttered unhappily about Diggers to myself.)

Finally, on 14th October, I had my first correspondence on the matter, which was reasonable enough for me to forgive the delay: I was to be sent a replacement packet of seeds, and could I let them know what packaging my original shipment had used (box).

A couple of days ago, I received the replacement. All but two seeds passed visual inspection this time, and those two had pretty minor damage.

My conclusions: as for all my recent dealings, Diggers don't work fast, but they did do the right thing.

Will I shop with them in future?

Hmmmm, stay tuned...

Two steps forward, two steps back

I'm too sad to post a photo...

But remember my two Minnesota Mini Melons that germinated a week ago in the mini greenhouse?

They had opened out into two nice pairs of cotyledons... two nice, crisp, juicy cotyledons, until my garden's Something (I suspect a mouse in this case) had another attack of the munchies, and left me with two cleanly cut, rapidly wilting stems. Strangely, but thankfully, the zucchini was spared. Needless to say, it has been drenched in all manner of smelly and embittering potions and moved to a higher shelf.

*sigh*

On a brighter note, the silver lining is that it makes another chance for Big Bro to do "more seeding", as per his daily requests.

Woo hoo 2!

Every successful seed germination gives me a small thrill, especially at this early stage of the season when I am impatient and anxious about whether I have used the right medium, watered too much or too little, used seeds that are too old, planted too deep.....

So here are two tomatoes:

And two melons and a zucchini:

Of course they have a long way to go before I can declare success or failure, but it's good to get out of the starting block!

Meanwhile, at the other end of the continuum, we are getting oh-so-close to our first broadbean harvest. The recent warm wet weather has pushed the pods from being Little Bro-finger size through to bigger-than-Dada-finger size in only a week. Big Bro has been nagging me to pick the pods, so I have promised we will when we can count 20 that are of an acceptable size. Any day now, I hope...

Spring update

The warmer, wet weather has given the ornamental garden a boost- suddenly I've deadheaded most of the daffodils, and the tulips are taking the stage.

I was excited to find some iris buds while taking this photo- my love of irises is worth a post of its own when they're out...

The roses have jumped up, too, and suddenly have buds! But happy roses mean happy aphids... *sigh*. A friend suggested planting garlic between the roses to deter the aphids (rather like a garlic clove in your socks prevents colds? Or at least keeps the vampires away. Maybe the latter analogy is more appropriate for aphids?)

As predicted, Big Bro was eager to start planting our Digger's order. Four zucchinis and two mini-melons in DIY jiffy pots, and a pot of basil entered the mini greenhouse. This was enough for Big Bro and my concentration and energy levels (and Little Bro's hunger levels!), but is nothing compared to Scarecrow's recent efforts! I'm under no pretenses that we are anything but the most amateurish amateurs!

Meanwhile, the nights are still cold enough to paralyse an AWOL bee- she was stuck in a shadow at 10am, still alive but not going anywhere. I have a soft spot for bees (perhaps because I've never been stung?) so I hope that once the sun hit her she was able to find her way home.

Finally!!

A crummy day was much improved by this little box in the letter box.

Hooray!

Contents:

SILVERBEET FIVE COLOUR MIX (restocking)

ZUCCHINI TRI COLOURED MIX (Black Beauty, yellow, and pale green)

ZUCCHINI TROMBONCINO (climber, according to P at ilipilli, "it rocks!")

CUCUMBER, MINI WHITE (chosen as an early variety)

CAPSICUM SEVEN COLOUR MIX

SWEET CORN DWARF F1 (chosen as an early variety)

ROCKMELON MINNESOTA MIDGET (another early variety, and compact- for one reason or another, I have never grown a melon past the flower stage! Maybe this will be the year...)

BASIL ORNAMENTAL (a mix of four types)

SHIRLEY POPPY MIXED

WILDFLOWER MEADOW MIX (do you think ilipilli's header had anything to do with the last two choices?!)

Big Bro will be super-excited- after last week's efforts, he has been nagging me to sow more seeds!

Introducing the Garden and Gardener

I thought at this early stage of blogging I should tell you a bit more
about the garden side of things.

Firstly, the gardener, who is mostly me at this stage. I'm not one of those people who loved gardening from the time I first picked up a shovel. As a child living in Hobart I grew various bits and pieces- wall flowers, a blackwood tree, plumbago and peas come to mind. But nothing quite got my attention, until one August when, aged 18, I was cutting a pumpkin and decided to see what happened if I put the seeds in some potting mix on the kitchen windowsill. They germinated, I was determined to see what came next. My mother offered me a crummy corner of the garden, probably thinking that my interest in this garden project would wane as it always had previously. For some reason, it didn't, and that year I grew pumpkins and zucchinis. And I was hooked.

The next year I claimed a better space for my pumpkins, and built retaining walls so that they could grow in a metre depth of rotted sheep manure. With the encouragement of my friend and garden mentor, J, more varieties of edibles crept in, and in my third year of serious gardening I was a member of the Digger's Club, and experimenting with vegetables from aubergines to zucchinis.

Then I moved to Melbourne.

Melbourne isn't a desert- it's even the capital Australia's self-proclaimed "garden state". But as a graduate student, time and space for vegetable gardening weren't forthcoming. One summer I grew potted vegetables in a west-facing courtyard of my rental property, but long days at work meant that I wasn't there for the vegies when it hailed or when they were roasted by summer heat. B's parents kindly let me plant a few things in their vegie plot one year (and nurtured them in my absence) but it wasn't the same.

And then we moved to Denver, Colorado. This wasn't such a dramatic upheaval to my horticultural habits as moving to Melbourne had been- we moved from one garden-less apartment to another. I did join my apartment building's garden committee, meaning I helped out at some working bees, and took responsibility for a planting pot about a metre in diameter over one summer. I filled it with herbs and Habanero chillis, and it thrived with the aid of daily watering by the building's janitor. I harvested and used or stored stored all the herbs I could, and it felt good.

Back in Melbourne, and with a new addition to the family, B and I now needed a place with space for Big Bro to run around- and so we ended up here, at our house-with-a-garden.

We live on an old fashioned quarter acre block in the suburbs of
Melbourne. Our house is like most in the area, with a front, back and
side yard, and our garden plan for the front and back involves a
central lawn surrounded by beds.

Most of the garden structure was put in after the previous owners
renovated the houses few years ago, and it has left us some
interesting surprises- patches of building sand or mortar amongst
areas of clay and a drier dustier soil; concrete foundations for
former structures, brick retaining walls and pipes that presumably
used to lead to long-extinct taps; the remnants of rubbish middens
revealing our predecessors to be consumers of oysters and breakers of
china and glass. My favourite item that we have unearthed is a
yellow toy car, circa 1950?

The jumble of soil types in the garden has been a challenge for me. My
first summer was close to a horticultural disaster- as soon as the hot
weather hit, many plants I had eagerly planted shrivelled in the water-
repellant soil. A year after we moved in I realised that some patches of soil were so horticulturally repugnant that plants put in by the previous owners hadn't sent roots further than the pot-shaped confines of the potting mix in which they were planted. Since then I have enriched the soil with organic matter in the hopes of improving things. Two years on, I think I can say we're getting there.

So what sort of gardener am I?

Growing edible plants has been my first passion, but now that I am in charge of a whole garden I am gradually learning more about ornamentals. And now that we've established ourselves somewhere for the long haul I have an interest in my garden's infrastructure- especially irrigation.

I'm definitely an amateur gardener- I couldn't name all the plants in our garden, and I'm sure I stun the local nursery with the dumbness of some of my questions. If you're a serious gardener reading this blog, you'll probably be stunned by my naivety too! But I love getting out in the garden and poking around, and I love the sense of satisfaction that I have when I say to B "did you realize we grew everything we ate for dinner tonight" So if you have the same reasons for hosting the chemical reactions that are photosynthesis on your patch of dirt, then I hope you'll enjoy sharing the gardening journey of This Growing Life.