Natural Material Insect Hotel from Dahlia Stems

After clearing out the Dahlia plants, I thought their stems were thick and have adequate size holes to be made into insect hotels. There are lots of bees in the garden. I'm trying to attract ladybugs and other beneficial insects as well.

The large and thick stems were bundled together. I hope the bees will utilise them.

I placed it under a medium size Camelia bush so it's sheltered.

I also collected and bundled together the thinner stems for the smaller insects:

And I placed it under a small bush rose in between the stems and shallots:

Dahlia Tubers Harvest and Storing for Next Spring

The Dahlia plants were ready to be cleared. This is the first time I harvested the tubers as they have grown into a big clump and had popped out of the ground. So I thought they need bigger space for next Spring. In the space of roughly 25x80cm, there were this amount of tubers:

So, they were overcrowded. After cleaning and dividing I stored some for next Spring and put up the remaining for sale.

Ready for storing:

I put a thin layer of soil at the bottom of this box. Place the tubers and covered them with more soil. Ready for storing in dark and dry spot over winter.

These are the actual Dahlia plants:

And flowers:

Saving Potatoes Plants from Garden Clean Up to grow in Growbag.

After clearing out the remaining of potatoes, I saved a few of the large looking plants and transferred them to grow bags. They were looking limp for a few days but seemed to recovered. Fingers crossed they will produce. I'm not sure, but I didn't want to throw away a decent size plant. Call me thrifty!! Or plant loving.

I do need to get more garden soil though, or check if I still have some ready compost from the bin.

Last Batch of Tomatoes in the Garden

There are still a few more tomatoes to ripen in the garden. I think this will be our last batch of tomatoes. I'm hoping they will ripe at around the same time so I can make sauce or roast them for preserving in jars.

From the back garden:

The plants at the front garden are shorter, but produce more fruits. I think because of the ample morning sun exposure:

Autumn Planting April Update - Snow Peas and Purple Garlic Shoots Emerging Autumn 2020

The long awaited moment had come. Most of the snow peas have sprouted and reached a good height. We had to rush and tied them to the pole with soft plant ties because of the strong wind in Melbourne 2 days ago. See my post here on making your own soft plant ties. 

The soft plant ties provide the much needed support while holding the plants gently and allowing them some space to grow thicker and taller.

On another note, the purple garlic bulbs that were planted a week ago are now showing their shoots.

This is my second attempt at growing garlic bulbs. I'm hopeful it will have higher success chance this time as I'm using this garden bed with soft soil. 

Dinner From the Garden - Quinoa Beans Potato and Tomato Salad

We cleaned up another garden bed at the backyard to install the Birdies Raised Garden Bed and harvested a few remaining potatoes. So, they became our dinner. 

Potatoes, tomatoes and beans from the garden. 

I added in boiled eggs for the boys to keep them happy. 

Making Homemade Olive Oil Infusion from Organic Home Grown Flowers and Herbs

Infusing Olive oil with different herbs and flowers is simple but yet rewarding activity. The oil can be used for all sorts of things from cooking to natural homemade beauty treatment. I use them heavily for soap making and salve making (mixing them with melted beeswax).

The Rosemary bushes at the front garden have been thriving and needed a bit of a prune. I took this opportunity to take a few sprigs for propagation, drying for cooking and a few for the oil infusion.

Rosemary infusing in Olive oil.

Lavender is another beneficial floral infusion that I use for soap and salve. I gathered this from the front garden, but still leaving a large amount for the bees to indulge in.

Lavender flowers infusing in Olive oil.

There is no fresh roses at the moment in the garden, but I use dried rose petals that I kept from last spring and picked a few fresh Calendula flowers for this infusion. All parts of the Calendula flowers are used in this.

Dried Rose Petals and Calendula Flowers infusing in Olive oil.

Lastly, the Violet plants have been growing like weeds in the back garden. I found one way to control this is to keep picking the fresh flowers before they had the opportunity to seed. The leaves of this plant is also beneficial. I use this mainly for eczema salve and it works like a charm.

Violet Flowers and Leaves infusing in Olive oil.

This is a fun and simple activity with so much benefit. And remember to always try to grow your own plants without the use of chemical. This will minimise your chance of getting any allergic reaction from the infused oil application on your skin.

Not only beneficial, but looks pretty too.

Autumn Front Garden Clean Up and Preparation for Winter Crops Planting

As the weather is cooling down here in Melbourne, I thought it was a great opportunity to do a bit of clean up and preparation for my various garden beds for winter planting.

My first priority is the small section right in front of my entrance door. This section was previously occupied by Geranium plants, but I decided to utilise this small patch for an additional garden bed for vegetables. So, this is now my Garden Bed 6. I cleaned up the middle part of the section to make way for Brassicas, such as Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage and Cauliflower.

For the border, on the right we have a few Lavender plants that are doing well and have been attracting lots of local solitary bees. They are doing a great job in pollinating my crops. The Geraniums that were planted in the middle of this section had been moved to the back row. The left border has been allocated for the annual Zinnias (the ones with pink flower) and I sprinkled Marigold seeds as well. The front row has a few Chrysanthemum plants that have been doing well after I propagated them from cuttings.

The next section that I cleaned up was the half circle garden bed at the front of the house. This section was originally planned for flowers, but the vegetable plants had ever so slowly crept in. I discovered that this section has the best morning sun exposure and thought it would be an awesome spot for a few veggies. So, this is now my Garden Bed 5. In Spring 2019, I planted Zucchini, Pumpkin, Broccoli and Tomatoes here. I didn't pull them out, I just cleared some of the dead leaves to open the space. Also, a few months ago, I transplanted some of the Strawberry runners here and they have been doing quite well after the transplant.

The plan for this bed is Strawberry plants to remain at the front most, followed by Marigold and Chives (apparently great companion plants for Strawberry). I sprinkled a few Cos Lettuce seeds behind them and followed by the Borage plants at the back.

I haven't pulled out the Zucchini plants yet, as they are still flowering and fruiting at the moment. So, I wanted to extend their growing time as much as I can. So, I sprinkled the Marigold and Lettuce seeds around them.

 

The same goes with the Tomatoes and Pumpkin. Both are still looking like they can still produce, so, I left them be for the time being:

Looking forward to harvesting these tomatoes.

The next section that I really wanted to clean up (because it's so messy) is the section  under the Olive tree. I planted Poppy plants around the tree in Spring 2019 and the seed pods had spread seeds everywhere. So, Poppy seedlings had grown all over the place. I've been waiting for them to get to a manageable size for transplant. The left side of this section now has a few Lavender plants that I propagated from cuttings. 

I haven't harvested the Red Cabbage and Cauliflower yet, but I will be soon. I have also cleared up the front part of this section for a few Japanese Buxus plants that I'm still propagating from cuttings. I'm hoping they will be ready for planting in a few weeks.

The Poppy seedlings transplanted to the right spot:

The left side of this section was previously occupied by row of Calendula plants. I pulled out the old plants, collected the seedlings and moved them to the back row:

And with that done, all the work I planned to do at the front garden was accomplished. I really hope I will see lots of new seedlings popping out soon, especially the Lettuce.

Weeknight Harvest, Beans, Parsley, Broccolini, and Tomato

Another weeknight harvest, we are definitely blessed this year as this garden provided us with ongoing supply of vegetables. This time we harvested green and purple beans, parsley, broccolini and tomatoes.

I can't remember what I cooked them with. I usually prepare and freeze a small amount of mince of meat for weeknight dinner. I would thaw them and reheat them on the stove with the vegetables from the garden.

One Month Growth of Raspberry Bush After Pruning

One month after the Raspberry bush was pruned and tidied up. The new shoots are now covering most of the trellis and looking lush.

It really does like being pruned after all and I hope it will produce lots more berries later this year.

Another Vegetarian dinner, Zucchini Pesto Spaghetti.

This is one of my favourite dish that is simple, low cost and delicious.

The zucchini is from the garden of course. We always have this dish when the zucchini is in season. 

I mixed in the homemade pesto that I froze in small little jars and added in chopped almond for a bit of texture.

Tidying and Picking Remaining Boysenberry

Tidied up my boysenberry bush and I found a few last berries to pick.

A week later, two of the berries at the top were ready. Here's one that I managed to commemorate before my little helper popped it in his mouth.

Cleaning Up Tomato Plants Garden Bed 3

My original intention was to pull out the tomato plants to make way for Autumn crops, but there are 2 plants that are still producing. So, I didn't remove them and let them grown for another few weeks. 

Before:

After:

Cleared up the dried leaves and stems at the bottom. There are still tomatoes and flowers:

Collecting Sunflower Seeds Autumn 2020

We had a few massive sunflowers this year and I was looking forward to collect their seeds. That time had finally arrrived and I'm so happy that we ended up with so many seeds.

The initial harvest:

I checked a few other spots and got more dried sunflower. So we ended up with this lot:

With this amount of sunflower heads, I have to get my little helper:

A dinner plate full of sunflower seeds.