Eight Acres

Its taken me a little while to learn this, but I think I've now figured out which veges to sow directly in the soil as seeds and which to raise as seedlings and then plant in my garden, so I thought I'd share with you what has worked for me so far. radish seedlings peeping through the mulch At first I tried to plant everything as seeds directly in the garden, but I wasn’t happy with the results, too much work to thin the seedlings and some didn’t sprout at all.  So then I tried raising seedlings, it took me a while to realise that I needed to use a good seed-raising mix, and I prefer to use toilet rolls than the seedling trays that bought seedlings come in.  I wrote more about raising seedlings here . starting veges in pots and toilet rolls (photo from last spring) Then I decided that I wanted to grow root crops, and they don’t transplant well, so I had to think about how to do this.  I observed that tiny brassicas were popping up through the mulch, and...

I love being able to keep seeds from the vegetables I grow.  Some people get upset when their plants bolt and go to seed, but I'm happy because it means I'll be able to save the seeds and sow some more. Poor Man's Beans seeds that I've saved I have saved seeds from beans, capsicums, lettuce, mustard greens, tomatoes, parsley, basil, broccoli and spring onions, as well as flower seeds.  I keep the seeds in little jars from my Damadi moisturiser and have a cupboard full of tiny jars.  I also keep the little sachets of desiccant that come with shoes and other products and drop one in each jar to keep the moisture out. My seed cupboard is full of little jars of seeds Drop in a sachet of desiccant to keep the moisture out Saving seeds from most plants is easy, just let them flower and wait for the seed pods to form and dry out.  A few tips for some of the seeds that I regularly save: Beans and peas - I just leave some large beans on the plant ...

Maybe this post should start with a warning..... once you start saving seeds its very hard to stop.  I cannot walk past a seed head without wondering if I should save the seeds.  This includes public gardens, and other people's gardens.  At this time of year my garden is full of brassica flowers, which are gradually turning into seed pods, and I know in a few weeks I will be starting to harvest the seeds.  If you want to save seeds, you need to start thinking about it when the flowers start to appear.  Don't rip out your plants right away, you could be missing out on free seeds!  Here's why and how to save and store seeds. Why save seeds from your garden? Seeds that you save are free, you don't have to buy seeds or seedlings You start to develop strains that are adapted to your climate and conditions You have something to swap with other seed-savers - more free seeds You remain in control of your food supply, not relying on seed companies poor...

Heirloom vegetables are the old varieties that have been passed down through generations.  Some vegetables have a history spanning thousands of years.  Heirloom vegetables are open pollinated, which means we can continue to save seeds and develop new species adapted to our individual climate.  Unlike the modern hybrid vegetables, that have been bred to comply with the requirements of an industrial agriculture system, heirloom vegetables are bred to taste good!  And best of all, they are open-source, not owned by anyone and can't be patented, we need to keep them alive to ensure food freedom for all. Penguin sent me Simon Rickad's latest book Heirloom Vegetables: A guide to their history and varieties  to review ( see detail here ).  Simon write that the main purpose of the book is to tell the stories of heirloom vegetables family by family.  The book itself if a lovely hardcover, nearly 350 glossy pages, with plenty of photos.  I would never...

If you want to grow your own veges on the cheap, one of the easiest ways to save money is to save seeds.  I've written a few posts about seed saving and growing from seeds, see them here . my seed collection Seeds that I have to swap Dill Poor man's beans Green beans (climbing) - "Blue Lake" Yellow beans (bush) - "Cherokee Wax" Cabbage Spring Onions (see explanation here) Leek Bok Choi Green peas - "Lacey Lady" Parsley - flat leaf Spaghetti squash Calendula Marigold Winter Tarragon Chilli Arrowroot Mizuna Snake bean Red mustard Rosella Mini capsicum Tat soi Broccoli Lettuce (not sure what its called, like a cos type) Silver beet (chard) - "heritage" Coriander Kale Thai basil Mystery pumpkin Borage Nasturtium  pea seeds ready to harvest Seeds that I 'need' Rocket Carrots Turnips, swedes, radishes (advanced seed saving!) Any herbs Flowers Broad beans All other beans and peas ...

Its time to start planting for spring, and the cheapest way to grow your own vegetables is ito start from seeds (and even cheaper if you save those seeds yourself), rather than buying seedlings. Here are a few tips for starting seeds. Plant into small pots in a dish rather than directly in the soil For all my seedlings, I use shallow trays, and then depending on the size of the seedling, I may also put the seeds into toilet rolls and small pots for easier transplanting, or straight into the tray to be separated later. I prefer to use the shallow dishes so that there is always some water in the bottom of the dish to keep the seed-raising mix moist, otherwise a small pot may dry out too quickly. As the seedlings grow, I separate them and plant them into larger and larger pots until they are ready to go into the garden. I prefer this method to planting directly, as I find that slugs eat many of my direct planted seeds. I only plant root crops directly in the soil, as they d...

Its that tricky time of year again, in between seasons, where I try to guess the optimal time to give up on summer crops, and make room for winter veges that will survive the frosty mornings.  At the moment, I still have a few green tomatoes which might ripen in time, a few eggplants, chillis, capsicums and lots of basil. At the same time, there are brassica seedlings and parsley popping up all over the garden!  I am moving them all to my nominated brassica garden bed.  Its great to have volunteers, but I'm not sure which are which yet and I worry that I won't have one of everything.  I think I will still have to plant a few of each variety, just to be sure I don't miss out, but I definitely have a headstart on a few of them, there is broccoli and tat soi doing well already. We had a difficult summer, with several months of very hot and dry weather.  The garden didn't really start producing well until we got the 300 mm of rain in late January, even thoug...

It seems like lots of people have spare seeds in their gardens at the moment.  I like to try to give away my favourite seeds in the hope that other people will propagate and save them too, so if I ever lose them, I might be able to borrow some back again! There are currently seed offers on the following sites (feel free to link others in the comments): http://lifeatarbordalefarm.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/organic-seed-giveaway.html http://sunny-corner-farm.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/paying-it-forward-seeds.html http://www.africanaussie.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/seeds-of-freedom-and-giveaway.html I also have some excess seeds that I'd like to give away.  Like the others, I don't expect anything in return, but if you do have something to swap, that just adds to the fun and helps us all to build up a generous seed bank.  Obviously I can only send within Australia (excluding WA and Tas). I have the following seeds to give away: dill, parsley,  bok choy,  t...

Following on from my post the other day about starting from seeds , here's the next step to cheaper veges, saving your own seeds.  The advantage of saving your own seeds isn't just the money you save on seeds, it also allows you to breed plants that are more adapted to your climate and soil conditions.    drying seeds from spaghetti squash, button squash, roma tomatoes, beans and spring onions, I always have lots of little trays in the kitchen waiting for the seeds to dry. I was never taught how to save seeds, I just started leaving plants that had bolted and seeing what happened.  Actually it seems to be quite difficult to find information about seed saving,  much easier to just buy seeds, but I find seed saving interesting and usually quite rewarding (I found one good step by step guide here ).  All my gardening books explain how to grow seeds, but none discuss saving seeds, although I believe you can buy entire books just on the topic of seed ...

Planting seeds rather than seedlings is a significantly cheaper option (if you think about it, for some vegetables you get about 6-8 seedlings for $2 or about 100 seeds for the same price), as well as giving you so many different heritage seeds to chose from.  Even better, if you start saving your own seeds its virtually free, apart from a small amount of time and effort.  This is truly sustainable gardening and way easier than it sounds. I have had very limited success with planting seeds directly into my garden, I think its just the clay soil, its too  heavy and the clods are too big, I also blame the slugs which have eaten baby seedlings to the ground before they get a chance to grow!  Strangely though, things that I haven't planted intentionally keep sprouting up in odd places this year, like beans and tomatoes, so I don't know what I do wrong when I WANT to plant things!  Anyway, this means that I mainly stick to planting in separate containers and tr...