20th August – Prolific Passionfruit

So I am working from home today because I am sick. Not end of the world sick (like the average man gets with the average cold) but the “keeping my bugs at home” sick and I took some time out from click-clacking on my laptop to check out the garden after all the rain we have had. Basically my weed growing abilities have been strengthened by all that rain – and the reasonably warm temperatures for winter. But – yay – my passionfruit vine has gone crazy! There is a lot of new growth on the vines and it looks mostly a lovely healthy green and very thick. Problem is I have never pruned it or even really done much to look after it. It is only 18mths old and we didn’t have much fruit off it in the first season (I’m told that’s normal). I have given it a couple of drinks of Tui Eco-Fert in Spring and Summer last but not much since. Some people say prune it back, others say leave it to ramble – what to do and when to do it? email me with your pruning ideas and advice here I love passionfruit (and it gets so expensive) that I really want to ensure the best possible crop. Check out my garden pics.

 

Also, a quick update on last weeks entry – I have been told, nay, promised… that he will look into the raised bed construction this weekend. Unfortunately the weather forecast also promises rain.

 

If it is going to be raining at your place too don’t let it dampen your enthusiasm (pun intended). Now is a great time to start raising your plants from seed ready for planting when the weather settles. I tend to cover the dining table with Seedraising trays of vegetables like beetroot, early corn, tomatoes, courgettes, lettuces etc and of course a few Tui certified seed potatoes are there sprouting too. Many vegetable seeds can be sown direct and if your garden beds are ready and prepared then go for it but have the frost cloth or a Haxnicks tunnel to hand for those late winter/early spring frosts. You could use a Haxnicks poly tunnel to raise the temperature of the soil and protect your seeds from birds at the same time. Whatever you choose to do make sure you do something for your garden so that all that spring activity doesn’t have to be done at once.

 

Happy Gardening!





 13th August 2010 – Garden Warrior Worrier


You could be forgiven for thinking I had decided to stay in Czech Republic since it has been well over a month since I left and my last blog. To be honest I could easily have stayed there longer. We had a wonderful holiday and our family couldn’t have been better hosts – well they could have eased up on the scrumptious desserts because now I have a lot of gardening to do to remove those calories! Did you know gardening burns approximately 379 calories per hour?
 

Back to my garden in its present state and why I titled today’s blog entry “Garden Worrier” – it’s a giant mess. The weeds are growing ever so well and absolutely everywhere. But its not even the clean up that worries me – while we were relaxing poolside in Czech (brag photos at the end) Damon and I decided to build a deck and change the “backyard” at home. Awesome! We have been waiting for inspiration and it really has hit BUT the important part is action. And here is my worry… part of the new plan is to have big raised beds put on the concrete pad out the back door for vegetables, excellent idea you say and I have to agree BUT (and here comes the action part again) we need to put them there and said husband hasn’t started yet and I need to get planting soon for spring/summer harvests. Or do I go behind his back and get someone else to build them? But then what was the point of marrying a builder?
 

I could plant the existing beds but the new plan doesn’t have that in it. The terraced concrete beds are supposed to be cleaned out, re painted, and then re-planted with lovely flowers and ornamental shrubs – and we were going to make the current lettuce bed (salad bar) into a outdoor chaise lounge (how flash is that?!) so you can lie down and read a book under the passionfruit vine, amongst flowers and looking at the vege garden – bliss.
 

So what to do? Pressure the husband to start building ASAP (read: begin the nagging process) or buy some? I would attempt to build them myself but in my “condition” I’m unsure the mother or mothers-in-law would approve.
 

What about a working bee? Who wants to build some raised beds for me? I’d like them in a “U” shape like the ones below. Honestly the vision in my head is pretty awesome and I can’t wait to share the journey with you – we just need some of that action I mentioned earlier!
 

As promised, brag photos from our holiday below.
 

Happy Gardening – though most of the country will be wet this weekend, sorry about that.




 

Cerna Garden	Best view of Prague	Cerna family home
Charles Bridge	Cycling in the countryside	Watering plants
Garden style	Put to work with Mushrooms	Hradec Kralova
One of many desserts	Our village Horineves	Pool Boy
Getting water from the well	Beautiful english style gardens at Castlovice	Czech Paradise
$2 for fresh berries in Prague -yum!

13th July - Katie Karrot’s carrot blog take over


Well I had better introduce myself… I’m Kirsty and I consider myself very much so a novice gardener.
I recently took my chances with growing carrots and thought I would share my results. These pictures show my first harvest – not a lot of hope is held out for the rest of the crop!

Katie is still away in the Czech Republic so I hope all the blog readers don’t mind the blog take over 
but I thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss my carrot related troubles with others.


      


Has anyone else had a dire crop like mine? I would be interested to know please email me at kirstyl@tuigarden.co.nz  Also if you have any carrot growing tips – we could put this on the Tui Veggie Club to help all other beginner vege gardeners.So this weekend I’m off the garden centre to get more carrot seeds (however I might wait a few weeks to plant as I think it is still a bit cold).

Next on the agenda….. attempting spuds – wish me luck!


Hi Katie/Kirsty,

It would be a benefit to add a lot of river sand to your soil in the place where you want to grow carrots.
You don't fertilise an area before you plant carrot seeds. Just make sure you plant in a place where say cabbages grew beforehand and before you put them in, the area was fertilised. Only ever use compost and blood and bone on any part of your garden, for fabulous taste and to encourage the worms.

Karen Perri





24TH June – I’m leaving on a jet plane….

     

Don’t know when I’ll be back again. Actually I do I will be back to share my travel stories with you on Monday 19th July. Between now and then I will be relaxing in the summer sun in Czech Republic. Horineves to be exact. My in-laws live there and we have decided to visit them and there vegetable garden!
 

I’m afraid I don’t have much to report on my own vegetable garden. The onions are growing, it looks like some of the parsnip from last year has self-seeded and growing well (above ground anyway) we’ll see what happens below ground. Silver beet is giant and so far safe from slugs and snails and the weeds are out of control and of course it rains and rains. But I don’t mind because its winter and “I’m leaving on a jet plane…..”


 Happy Gardening everybody – talk to you again in three weeks xx




21st May – Planted and looking good!

As promised the camellias have been planted into their new home and what a job it was. Unfortunately Damon had a man-cold and couldn’t help me so I had the satisfaction of getting muddy from head to toe all by myself. I was very lucky with my timing, it was a grey murky morning and I started as soon as I had finished chatting with Helen Jackson and Tony Murrell on the Kitchen & Garden Show Radiolive and just as I was finished with the last one the heavens opened properly. Perfect timing to water in my plants.

So here’s the lowdown on how I planted them; once the weeds were cleared (holy big black bugs and healthy looking centipedes!) I loosened all the soil and dug in four bags of Tui Organic Compost 40L with generous handfuls of Tui Blood and Bone and a dose of sheep pellets. What I did notice was that about two thirds of the way along the garden bed the soil changed from being reasonably good (moist, friable, dark albeit full of rocks/weeds) to being incredibly dry and dusty. I put this down to that third being towards the corner and most likely a lot more sheltered from rain. I thought it was quite amazing how the change in soil quality was so defined. It just goes to show that you really do need to pay attention to the soil throughout the garden and the situations you are planting in. Needless to say that end of the bed got a lot more compost dug into it. I planted all three trees into holes filled with Tui Garden Mix. These Camellias have been given the best possible start in my garden – let’s see if they flourish.

I still have a corner of this garden bed to plant. One side runs under the lounge window and is very sheltered – I was thinking of a fragrant shrub so we would get the benefit in the lounge. I’d be happy to receive any suggestions folks. The L shape is about 1.5m x 1m and there is nearly approx 1.5m between ground and window. Email me here

I’m working this weekend so I’m not sure I’ll get much time for gardening but I do want to plant more broccoli and cauliflower. I’m in love with them. I made beautiful cauliflower soup for dinner last night recipe below:

Heat 1 T of oil in a large saucepan, add 1 chopped onion and cook until clear. Add one rough chopped head of cauliflower and 3-4 cups of hot vegetable stock (I use Vegeta brand and it’s awesome). Season, with salt and pepper, then leave to cook through. Blend in food processor then return to saucepan. I added a can of Carnation Light & Creamy evaporated milk and heated it through. Serve with crusty dinner rolls. Yummy! And it only took about 30mins start to finish. This made more then enough for Damon and I for dinner and lunch and a small “entrée” serve again tonight. Awesome.

Have a great weekend and remember the rain is here so keep an eye out for slugs and snails and get rid of them with Quash Slug and Snail Stoppa.


14th May – Planting Camellias
 

Tomorrow I am planting my camellia trees. I have too – they have been sitting out the back in their pots for weeks. The problem is I need to clear the garden bed they are going into and I’m feeling a bit lazy. See the before picture below – and hopefully I’ll have an after picture for you next week!
 

I think I might go ornamental this year. I have so many garden beds that need “attention” and they can’t all be edible (though it will always be uppermost in my mind). One bed at a time though, I have a lot to learn about this side of gardening. So the bed under our bedroom window was first and I wanted something that would suit a dry area that is shady in the morning (and in winter) but gets full sun through those long hot summer afternoons. The soil is currently “icky” in my professional opinion as a novice gardener. So first things first it needs oodles and oodles of lovely Tui Organic Compost and some blood and bone and sheep pellets. This will condition the soil, add organic matter, nutrients, aeration, better drainage but also some level of water holding capacity.
 

So what plants to buy and how did I come around to camellias? Mum and I trotted off to the garden centre one Sunday (as you do with mums who need an airing on a Sunday). We happened upon some very helpful staff who looked at the photos of the garden bed from every angle and asked lots of careful questions like “hmm whats in there at the moment love?”, answer “loads of rubbish weeds”. Right – moving on blank canvas!
 

I had a few pre requisites; reasonably low maintenance, I didn’t want to have to drag the hose around there every day or be fertilizing once a week, or have big pruning issues. I also wanted year round solid foliage (almost a hedge) and some fragrance as it is right under our bedroom windows and I didn’t want to wait years for it to grow. Not too demanding right? So that was the question and the answer was, camellia. Obviously I’m not so novice that I don’t know what a camellia is but did you know just how many varieties there are out there? I ended up with Camellia Transnokoensis it has a smaller flower then your average camellia, a lovely fragrance and the specimens they had at the garden centre were covered in tiny little buds and they were the perfect height and a total snip at $30each. I took three.



One bed nearly done, apart from the labour part. But I think in my marriage it should be known – I do the buying he does the work. Will that work out for me? Well not so far because they still remain out the back in their pots. But watch this space people, watch this space.
 

Happy Gardening!



4th May – Guavas everywhere!

I have so many guavas on my fabulous little tree this year that I am tripping over them – literally! Last year we rigged up a net underneath the tree to catch them as they fell. We needed as many as possible to make jars of guava jelly as our wedding favours. This year we didn’t really think about it and they are falling off the tree in their hundreds and rolling down the driveway – walking up the path in the dark isn’t safe anymore, many an evening I have smooshed guava into our lovely carpet. Husband not happy with me!

So far I have picked about 6kilos of fruit and mum has made about 16 jars of jelly. But you can’t even see a dent in the fruit on the tree. I think we have at least another 10-15kilos on there if I can pick them before they all fall off and get munched by the lawnmower man. The harvest is so much bigger then last year and I put it down to a couple of good feeds of Miracle Gro Maxfeed and a couple of long soaks with the garden hose. That’s all I have done in terms of maintenance and all of that in the last six months. Not bad going. It is an evergreen tree so provides great screening from the roof of the neighbour’s garage – how do they get so much junk up there?


The best think to do with guavas? Guava Jelly for sure and mum’s recipe is the best.

Happy Gardening!

LIZ BURNSIDE’S GUAVA GIN JELLY

1.5kg whole guavas
270g (approx. 2small) apples, roughly chopped
250g (approx. 2) Meyer lemons, roughly chopped
2 litres water
sugar
1x 70g packet pectin or jam setting mix (optional)
250ml (1cup) gin
1 lemon, sliced and blanched

Place fruit in large saucepan with water. Cover, bring to boil and simmer for 40 mintues or until pulpy. Place pulp and liquid in a jelly bag, suspend over a large bowl and allow to drip freely overnight.

Measure strained liquid into a preserving pan and set aside ¾ cup sugar for each cup of liquid. Bring liquid to boil; remove from heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Return to a brisk boil and add pectin mix (if using – note that some varieties of quava contain less pectin), stirring to dissolve. Return to heat and boil briskly, skimming off any froth. Pour in gin as jelly gets close to setting stage. To test setting, drip jelly from a wooden spoon. When 2 drips connect, jelly is ready to set.

Once at setting stage, remove from heat. Place a slice of blanched lemon into each sterilised jar and pour over guava jelly. Equally delicious on toast or creamy Brie or blue cheese and served with Pinot Gris. Makes approximately 6 x 330g jars.



19th April – Official announcement of Grow Off Winners!

The Tui Great NZ Grow Off Champions are the 6 families who worked hard together to create ‘Vinces Veges’ in Paihiatua. We just loved to see such a large group of people working together to grow there own wholesome vegetables and even take it that step further to being able to sell the surplus crops to fund further seasons. These sorts of gardens should exist in every neighbourhood. ‘Vinces Veges’ have won for themselves a Garden Master Shed loaded up with $1000 of Tui Products and also a trip for two to any garden show/event in NZ in the next 12months. If you would like to see more of their story and their garden please click here.

Of course the category winners also deserve mention for their gardening efforts and it was certainly very difficult to pick winners this year.

Best use of space – Margaret McGuigan, who stole my vote when I saw she had squeezed in a couple of chickens to her central Takapuna home on Auckland’s North Shore. Everywhere I turned there were pots, planters, new garden beds and hanging baskets – they certainly made the most of their small space. Not only is Margaret reasonably new to gardening but she and her partner have caught the bug so much that they have in fact enrolled into Horticultural papers at Open Polytechnic. Well done guys!

Heritage Homage – Christine Smith
Nestled amongst Christine’s rambling rural garden is a special spot for her heirloom vegetables. Framed by huge skyscraping sunflowers (with edible seeds) were rows of beans, tomatoes, and corn all raised from heirloom/heritage seed. It’s a subject close to my heart heirloom varieties. Many of them are disappearing in favour of the convenient and easy varieties that are so readily available. Many of these varieties are great but they don’t seem to have the same flavour and unique qualities that many of the heirloom varieties do – and of course some fantastic colours are available. Anyway, Christine did a wonderful job with her heirloom crops and had fantastic harvests.

First Time Gardener – Andrew & Donna McLaughlan
This Christchurch couple had the opportunity of realising their dream of a large garden alongside a playground for their daughters when they moved house. Donna attended a night class to learn how to transform their large empty backyard into the thriving edible garden it is today. The cleverly integrated the playground into the garden so that when Andrew and Donna are gardening Nicola is never far away. However Nicola reportedly spends more time gardening than she does on the slide. I’m sure new baby Caitlin will show the same curiosity when she is big enough to lend a hand! ;) Congratulations!
What Donna and Andrew have achieved in their first attempt at gardening is truly amazing.
Donna continues to research gardening and planting information and is proud that her daughter is showing such an interest in gardening.

Community/Group Project St Francis Aroha Community Centre
There is a real sense of community, sharing and team work in this early childhood and support centre.  As the children grabbed our hands and proudly showed us their ripening tomatoes, giant beans and busy raised garden it demonstrates the importance of running competitions like The Tui Great NZ Grow Off. The spin-off benefits of a group garden are evident from the shared lunches made from harvested vegetables and the seed saving and cuttings distributed to families encourages families to start a garden at home. A truly inspirational environment that teaches the gardeners of the future!

Am soooo looking forward to the next Tui Great NZ Grow Off – bring on spring I say!



5th March 2010 – garlic, garlic, garlic, where for art thou garlic?

I have had a slight nagging sensation about my vegetable garden since I came back from Europe but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Until I realised I hadn’t harvested my garlic! I rushed out to where they should be and the bed was empty. No tops dying down, nothing. So I assumed they had been pilfered while I was away. That’s okay, I don’t mind sharing but how rude to take the whole lot and where are the accolades on how great my homegrown garlic is! So I stormed up to mums (actually we wandered up after work for dinner) and demanded (asked politely) to know the whereabouts of my garlic. I was pointed in the direction of the laundry to “a bowl of something-or-other Steph put there” only to find it was my onions drying out. Thanks, I’ll be putting those back in my pantry! But in the meantime where is my garlic? After a bit more digging, I went back to the garden last night and… well… did some digging and lo and behold my garlic was in there. The tops must have died right back and no one knew it was there! So apologies mum and big blister – you didn’t steal my gorgeous garlic after all, can’t wait to try it!

I also discovered that my watermelon is actually growing watermelons. How neat. I have two types Sun, Moon and Stars, and also Golden Midget – best I feed the plants with some Tui Eco-Fert and to make the most of the fruiting stage and really give them a kick in the pants. They’ll need a lot of water too. Meanwhile the pumpkin vines are off like rockets. I have a couple of Marina Choggia pumpkins on the go and also the Baby Bear is coming along nicely. They’ll need a good feed too – I can’t believe how quickly they grow, not to mention the vines taking over the garden again. Well at least it hides the weeds! So it turns out that when I thought I was planting melons along the driveway and pumpkins out the back I was totally wrong. Does it matter? No not really.



The Great NZ Grow Off has closed as of 28th February and wow we have had some fantastic entries this year. I’m off next week to judge the finalists and find our winners and of course our overall Tui Grow Off Champion. I love visiting the finalists, they are always so enthusiastic and dead chuffed that their efforts have won them recognition on a national scale. Did you enter? Maybe I’m coming to visit you? The winners will be announced in April and I sincerely hope you all enter again in September for the 2010-2011 season. Don’t forget to let your local school know about the Schools Grow Off too. Every school in NZ should have a productive food garden and we aim to help them get there.

Next week I’ll be at the Ellerslie Flower Show in Christchurch followed by two days in Auckland AND you can come and talk to me at the Parnell Farmers Market Saturday morning 13th March from 9am where I will be talking about growing vegetables in a small space with a garland grow bed. I’d love to see you there.

Happy Gardening everybody!

26th February – Kitchen and Garden Show live in Whangamata

Hello everyone from Whangamata! Last night we had the Kitchen and Garden Show – LIVE ON STAGE in Whangamata. It was a fantastic night and a lovely location to be “working” in. For those of you who don’t know the live show is with Tony Murrell and Helen Jackson, the gardener and the foodie radio hosts from Radiolive Kitchen and Garden Show – Saturday mornings 6-10am. They talk about gardening and cooking and it is an evening of fun, information, inspiration, prizes and laughter. I swear those two were an old married couple in a former life, they have such a good rapport and the stories they can tell – it’s too funny. Click here to see when there will be a live show in your area.

So what is happening in my garden? Hurrah for my lemon cucumber which I managed to train partially up the guava tree before the lawn mower man snipped the end off and it went into shock. Double hurrah for my yellow nectar beans. I thought they had done their dash and were ready for the compost pile but this is not so. I found a whole bunch of juicy beans hiding in there. Maybe they heard me coming with my garden waste bag? So the beans live to see another day and we continue to have fresh summer vegetables.

I have a new autumn planting plan as follows:

1) Garden bed by the house
Onions, Beetroot, Carrots – March/April/May

2) Old “salad bar”
Celery (now), Spinach, Winter lettuce, mizuna, salad leaves, cos?,

3) Bed under orange tree
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage – March/April/May

4) Bed behind clothesline
Brussel sprouts – now! Peas, Leeks – March/April

5) Front garden where tomatoes and eggplant were
Broad beans – April and May

6) Bed behind Garland Grow Bed
Kale – March/April/May

7) Bed under bedroom window
Cover crops (lupin) – this soil is not great and needs help.

8) Garland Grow Bed
Chinese Cabbage – March/April/May

9-15) Haxnicks Patio Planters
Potatoes, Lettuce, Radish, Carrots, Beetroot

I think that should about do it. I will be busy this weekend with bags of Tui Organic Compost, Tui Vegetable Mix, and Tui Seedraising Mix and of course my garden shed basics Tui Super Sheep, Saturaid, and Quash!


19th February 2010 – Reminders people

I know it’s hot and steamy (the weather I’m talking about) and you may think the vegetable garden is full of bugs (lets be honest it is) but this is not the time to give up. Do not stop. There are things you should be doing right now to prepare for Autumn vegetables and you still need to keep those late summer crops well watered and mulched and bug free. Look after your capsicums, chilies, eggplants, late season courgettes, and pumpkin vines – and they will look after you. Spray regularly with Tui Eco Pest and Eco Fungicide to keep the white fly and powdery mildew at bay – combine them in the one sprayer for maximum efficiency and better results. Like most things “they work better together”.

I cannot believe the success of my two chili plants this year. I was given two seedlings last year as a Christmas present by my good friend Belinda. She used to have a cracking vegetable garden but they sold their house and she hasn’t yet set up roots at the new place. Anyway, she (“She is the cats mother”, my mum would say) raised a whole lot of chili plants from seed and gave them all away as gifts. Fantastic idea and I was ever so appreciative – except …….. I left them at her house and then they were out of season and a bit wilted and should have been repotted into separate pots. Should-would-coulda-didn’t (I am a bad friend). However: I guilt-nursed them through winter and spring, repotted them in October, put them out into full sun in November, and halleluiah – loads of little chilies growing and by the number of flowers many more to come. She is going to be so pleased with me when I show her. They are fantastic little plants to have on the balcony – they don’t take up much room and are really attractive. Just remember they like heat and they need to be kept moist particularly if they are in pots. When they are ready to harvest you can freeze any excess – watch out for the seeds they are the hot bits! A cooking tip: Mix chili and chocolate for a fantastic sauce for savoury dishes try these recipes http://www.chocolateexpert.co.uk/recipes-for-savoury-chocolate-dishes.html

This weekend I am clearing out the old in preparation for the new. The petunias are finished (gosh they were glorious – I really like my flower garden now and expansion is planned) so they will be pulled out along with the remains of the brassica patch, courgettes and some of the tomato plants. But definitely not the cherry tomatoes they are phenomenal little providers. Check out our dinner at mums the other night.


Another brag photo is of my gorgeous orange dahlia – it just flowers and flowers and cheers me up every time I pull into the drive way. Who knew flowers were so much fun, I thought it was all about vegetables but there is room in my heart for dahlias now. Thank you Mary Parkinson of the Monarch Butterfly Trust for giving me this plant to grow. She had faith I could grow something other than a fruit or vegetable and I did!


Okay I’m off now its Friday afternoon and people are skiving off early so I am too. Happy Gardening!




12th February 2010 – Last of the summer wine?

My apologies everyone – I think I stuffed up while I was away because none of my blogs have been showing up. Or I could have stuffed up a while back. I’m not very good with the technical side of blogging so I’m getting more lessons. I’m sure all five of my regular readers (thanks Mum and Damon’s mum) are devastated at the lack of updates but it should be good as gold now.

I’m back and I’ve had a week to get over the jet lag. Do you know what is really funny? I had Monday off thinking I might be too tired to work having only landed the night before and guess what? Wide awake – but Tuesday/ Wednesday/ Thursday at work I’m shattered! Sods law right? Well I have a lovely weekend away with my husband to look forward to now so I’m not complaining.

How is my garden you ask? Well ‘s’alright’. It definitely needs some TLC next weekend. The yellow courgettes and sunbeam squash have definitely done their dash; the last red cabbage would have been awesome but it’s now split and housing many an earwig; and the beans are done. But they can all be replaced. That is the beauty of vegetable gardening. There is always something new to plant, a new season to plan for, and new varieties to try out. So I’ve pulled out my trusty Tui NZ Vegetable Garden Guide and I’m going to make a planting plan this weekend (yes I know on my romantic valentines weekend away…. He’ll probably be surfing anyway and we all have our addictions!) and swing into late summer action next weekend. How does red brussel sprouts grab you? Or am I too late for those? Who cares I’ll plant them anyway and see what happens. How exciting!



What else is exciting? This is the last month for the Tui Great NZ Grow Off competition. You absolutely must get your entries in for this fantastic competition by 28th February. The Tui Team will be getting out and about the length and breadth of New Zealand judging the finalists in each category and coming up with the winners and of course the overall Tui Grow Off Champion! Remember Finlay Babbage from last year? He had a fantastic time at Ellerslie Flower Show and was so proud to be on Campbell Live as the Grow Off Champion – if you look at the photo gallery for this year you will see that he is still going strong with his gardening and his sister Zoe is definitely following in his footsteps. Looking at the entries so far I think the Community/Work group category is going to be the hardest to judge.

We’re also sponsoring the Peoples Choice Award at the Ellerslie Flower Show this year so make sure you get a form if you go to the show and vote for your favourite garden. We have put a $500 Tui prize pack up for grabs so be in to win and get to the show – this year is set to out do 2009 and word on the street is that there are flowers galore and colour everywhere! I can’t wait.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!


5th February 2010 – we got to 2degrees today!

The day we leave we make it into positive temperatures – typical. In fact I actually walked around London without my overcoat on today – it felt warm. How will I cope with the temperatures back home? That’s right the trip has come to an end and at 10pm we leave on our 36hr flight back to NZ. I’ve been told there is nothing left in the garden my sister took it all – the orange tree has been pruned, the parsnips stolen (apparently my niece loves parsnips?), cabbages pinched, but nobody saw the corn and now its dead. RIP corn. The tomatoes down the front remain intact because a forementioned sister and niece cannot abide tomatoes – hurrah for me. Actually I sound like I don’t want to give anything away but in fact it is the best part about growing your own. I grow far more then Damon, Mum, and I, could ever eat at any one time so it’s nice to be able to share. Especially cabbage and parsnips, happy to share those.

Well, we’ve had a brilliant trip; I’m absolutely exhausted, we are over loaded with facts, figures, inspiration, knowledge and the odd German beer glass as a reminder of the trip. Time to jump up and down on my suitcase in the hope it might shut and then head off to Heathrow where we will be among the first passengers to be body scanned (do you know they now look through your clothes right down to your underwear?!) before being allowed on the plane – outrageous.




29th January 2010 – it is freezing here!

Holy moly could it be any colder? We left NZ a week ago and it was 27degrees, we arrived into Frankfurt and it was -15! My poor nose nearly felly off in the first 15mins. Luckily we got straight into a warm shuttle and headed off on the Autobahn (holy fast cars batman) to Heidelberg, which is a gorgeous town steeped in history and perfect for postcard style photos. Then we headed to a garden show in Essen which was very interesting and a little inspiring – sorry no photos of that one, as cameras not allowed. We had a day and night in Muenster and more history lessons – gosh NZ is so young compared to the rest of the world. I have travelled around Europe before but it never ceases to amaze me at the age of the continent, such a contrast to NZ.



We looked at a few garden centres in Germany and they are just fantastic. Huge is a good word to describe the smaller centres – I couldn’t find a word to describe the bigger ones. I do have pictures of those for you. One centre in particular stood out to me and that was Dahlmann in Muenster. Chic is one word to describe it, sophisticated, designer, so many more to choose from somebody pass me a dictionary. The fresh cut flowers were perfect and so many gardeners’ gift ideas, the world is your oyster.



Now I’m in London (its late I’m wide awake, jet lag is still with me) and struggling to maintain an internet connection in the hotel. Its much warmer here, 0 degrees in fact – pass me the sunscreen haha. It’s just started snowing outside and we’re off to pick up our rental car tomorrow – I’m not sure how I feel about driving in central London, perhaps I’ll leave that to Scott.



First stop Van Hages garden centre – I’ll let you know how it goes.








22nd January 2010 – Katie Karrot does Europe

I’m off tomorrow. Two weeks travelling with Stump Scotty, Germany first, then England. We’re off to see our friends at Haxnicks in England to say thanks for all the fantastic patio planters and tunnels, who knows maybe we’ll find something even better to bring back?!

The garden is weeded, watered and fed – and Damon too, and my bag is packed. But not Damon’s he has to stay home boo hoo. I’m not sure who will cope best without me? Damon or the garden? Probably Damon, he finally has the green light to buy a new surfboard so he probably won’t even notice I’m gone. Long term weather forecast predicts good surf for the second week of my trip.

Good news – I did get to try the first crop of tomatoes and they were delicious! The minibelles for pots (kings seeds) are just delightful. They are cute little bushes of red tomatoes similar to cherry tomatoes. The great thing about these ones is that they don’t require staking and they maintain a small(ish) compact shape – so they are perfect for patios, balconies, pots etc, but they crop really well so you don’t have to compromise on quantity for space. I think I will miss most of the cherry tomatoes but we did have a handful with dinner last night – and they never fail to impress. If you ever get sick of eating them raw like lollies (as if!) pop them into a fry pan for a few minutes with some olive oil (some as in Jamie Oliver’s “some”) and heat them gently until they look like they might just pop – add some cracked pepper, rock salt, and crumbled feta and you’re done. Beautiful warm sweetness!

Well I better go and spend some time with Damon before I disappear on my shopping trip, sorry, work trip for two weeks.

Back soon!



15th January 2010 – New Year new secrets

The New Year is off with a hiss and a roar at Tui Products. We have so many new projects and products on the go that I’m worried I may go prematurely grey with the share magnitude of it all. But it’s so exciting. I wish I could tell you what’s coming up but as the saying goes “I would then have to kill you”. What I can tell you is that Stump Scotty and Katie Karrot are hitting Europe in approx 10days. Watch out Germany here we come! The bier haus(es) are stocking up the kegs as we speak, the pretzel makers have moved to a double shift and cabbage production has – well let’s hope it’s halved, a week of sauerkraut is more than enough for me.

Why are we going to Europe? For you of course, the lovely NZ gardening public. We want to see what they have that we don’t have and how we can get it here. I’m not sure we’ll see too many gardens in January – actually at the moment I’m concerned for the plane even being able to land, everything is covered in inches and inches of snow. Bring it on – I have a new purple coat and I’m gagging to wear it!

So how do I prepare my garden for my imminent departure? This weekend I will be giving everything a good long soak and then layering pea straw pelletised mulch around the place and then another good long soak. I’ll be harvesting whatever I can to encourage further growth and hopefully extra crops when I get back. Although my sister is staying at mums while I’m away so no doubt some of the harvest will go sideways. I can’t rely on Damon to “see” what needs doing so all the weeds need to come out now and no new plantings until I get back. I think I will miss the first of my tomatoes though which is disappointing. They are just so close to turning red but I’m not sure if I’ll get them before I go – here’s hoping.




8th January 2010

I made it through New Years Eve at the Mount. I wouldn’t say I was bouncing off the walls the first day of 2010 but I was alive and well and busy thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Do you know what I came up with? Nothing?! There is nothing I feel I desperate need to punish myself over for 2010 which is fantastic. Of course I did promise myself to keep my blog updates more regular so we’ll see how that pans out…….

How is the garden going for you at the moment? Dry, dusty, dehydrated? I would suggest Saturaid everywhere. Get yourself a bucket of Saturaid and sprinkle the stuff everywhere like it was magic fairy dust – which of course it is at this time of year. The important thing to note when trying to understand what Saturaid does is to remember that it is not water storing crystals. It doesn’t absorb water then slowly release it over time. What it does do is change the “surface tension” of the soil. What this means in plain English is that it makes the soil more able to absorb water instead of repelling it. Have you ever noticed when you water your pot plants or garden beds that it doesn’t take long for water to start running off or out the bottom of the pot? This is an important lesson – this does not mean that all the soil is saturated with water and the waste is running off. This does not mean you can stop watering. Try putting your finger into the soil to see how deep the water has gone. 1cm? maybe 2cms? What this means is that the soil is pushing the water away and it is finding all the air pockets and pathways through the soil and out the other side.

Adding Saturaid means the soil will absorb the water right down to the roots of the plant so it can then be taken up by the plant and used. You will not waste water when you use Saturaid, it will be absorbed, your plant will get the water it needs, and it will save you time in the garden when you would rather be relaxing with a crisp sauvignon. Check out our video demonstration here – it will show you the difference between soil with Saturaid and soil without Saturaid. Trust me – this summer Saturaid is the best friend your garden can have.

Hmmmm reading that back it sounds like a lecture. Well maybe it is :)



31st December – New Years Eve

Here I am at work, alone, lonely, hot, but still smiling – why? Because I have had such a fantastic Christmas and I can’t wait to leap into 2010. What could possibly be better then 2009? Christmas Day was an absolute success, we had a wonderful time the food was magnificent the wine superb and the company? Well what can I say; they’re all related to me so they must be fun!

I have to say we ate so much in the first two courses that there was no room for dessert until about 9pm that night. But what a dessert. It started with the success of my strawberry plants. I’d been deliberately not looking under the net tunnel for the week before Christmas just in case there was nothing there. But on Christmas day I had no choice……But what a success when I lifted the net tunnel to check on the strawberries. There were bucket loads, truly, honestly. Okay well maybe half a bucket but that’s still a lot and they were truly fabulous. One was the size of an apple which Damon gave to Master Jasper (1 ½yrs old) to hold onto and then couldn’t locate it again. I thought the red juice dripping out the corner of his mouth was a dead giveaway but it was fun to watch Damon looking for it – no more “holding” of strawberries for Jasper.

So the fresh strawberries were used for our very fancy continental breakfast up at mums place (remember she lives over the back fence? This may become a problem when the passion fruit vine starts fruiting as it has grown over to her side – who does the fruit belong too?) and then I used them as a garnish to cover the raspberry and nougat semifreddo (see Foodlovers.co.nz for the recipe and a video demonstration on how to make it). This dessert is so simple and easy to make, and it can be made in advance, yet it looks so complicated. I love that! It will now become a staple item in my repertoire. It’ll probably become like my cob loaf – I only get invited places if I bring my cob loaf. Friends ay?!

Anyway I digress and now it is time for me to put away my quill and ink and head off to Mount Maunganui where I will see “young people” party into the night and on into 2010, and realise that I am definitely not as young and hip as I like to think I am. I mean it shouldn’t come as a surprise – I do knit in my spare time after the gardening is done and the potatoes are tucked in……. Tea cosy anyone? How about a toilet roll holder?



24th December – Merry Christmas!

Hi All, I’m getting in a day early with my blog because I’m picking tomorrow I will be up to my eyeballs in food preparation. We’re having a “dinner party” style Christmas meal which sounds fussy for Christmas day but there are only five adults and two children so no need for bulk catering. Here is the menu:
Entrée: fresh smoked fish (husband and brother-in-law are both receiving smokers from mum), prawn cocktails, and sushi made by me in our fantastic “Sushezi”. I swear I will have sushi everyday now it’s so easy to make.
Main: pork belly with sticky pomegranate sauce (cheers mum), scotch beef fillet (bbq’d), and loads and loads of fresh vegetables with a whole pile of them coming from my garden! My sweet talking must have worked because the potatoes are ready (well just, they are a bit on the small side), the courgettes both yellow and black are perfect for char grilling, and steamed broccoli, cauli, cabbage and a few handfuls of tasty peas – and okay I’ll admit I did have to buy the aubergine and capsicums and of course the mushrooms (I need a new mushroom bucket if anyone has located a retail outlet in Bay of Plenty that sells them let me know). But all in all I’d say what a successful Christmas haul! I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow – it’s my first Christmas as host hopefully I reach mums standards with regard to the food, and if not well I have a few sneaky distractions up my sleeve.

 


18th December – Christmas tidings loom

I have been in the garden a lot this week – conversing with my crops, persuading the strawberries to grow big and juicy, crooning to the new potatoes, and soothing the wind blown beans – but I’m not sure of my success. You see I’m hosting our family Christmas at my house this year and I promised feasts of fresh vegetables from my garden. I tried to time the harvests but who can control Mother Nature. At the moment it looks like I will be buying strawberries for dessert (no! I hear you cry), and potatoes for the roast! Of course we still have a week to go and much can happen in that week……

One crop that is doing very well is my salad bar – yes folks I have a salad bar, you may remember this from such blog entries as 30th October – Labour free labour weekend – anyway, the celery is still growing but it is lovely and green and definitely more successful (to date) then my other celery growing endeavours. I really think planting it in troughs and newspaper has helped. The cos lettuce is gorgeous and the great lakes are really starting to heart up – so fresh green salad will be the order of the day come 25th December!

I’m also really impressed with the yellow courgettes. They are so quick to grow and such a gorgeous yellow that I almost don’t want to pick them. I do have one question though – how big should the sunbeam squash be before you pick it? My plant has loads of tiny baby squash on it and the flowers have died off so I assume they’re ready but they’re tiny?





11th December – Mrs. Katie Karrot!

It’s done, we did it. I am now officially Mrs. Katie Karrot and it feels great. A little behind on the blog entries but I’m sure you will forgive me. It has been a very busy time with family everywhere, tripping over long distance friends left right and centre and of course putting together the best ever weekend long wedding. We had such a wonderful weekend I would do it all again in a flash. The setting was perfect a lovely compromise between water and garden and what a garden it was – and yes I did check and there kitchen garden is fabulous and they do grow their own herbs for catering purposes – marvelous.

We spent a few days relaxing in Raglan (thank you Tui Products for that lovely gift) and then back home to nest like true newlyweds.

Enough of that and back to the garden after all isn’t that why you’re here?


 20th November - All sorted!


It's amazing what a looming family visit can do for the state of your garden.  Future husbands family are arriving on Sunday to stay for the week before our wedding and suddenly the wisteria has been trimmed, the backyard swept, broken light fittings replaced, dead trees chopped down, and all gardens tidied up, fed and watered.  The place looks fabulous and we still have one day to attack the "forgotten" (read: blinkered) areas of the garden.  I still have half a driveway of weeds - and unfortunately I did not get around to planting my grape vines last weekend.  As you have probably gathered we are getting married soon - next Saturday in fact - and well, the weekends seem to get swallowed up sometimes.  I'm not sure where or how but last weekend disappeared.  Damon did do the chopping but I certainly never prepared the soil for summer melons.  But I'm not too worried the seeds haven't fully germinated yet.  I've planted them into fertil pots so when they are ready and I'm 100% confident that any last minute frosts or cold snaps have gone I'll be able to plant out healthy seedlings without risk of transplant shock or disturbing the roots to much. 

All was not completely lost I did harvest some beautiful carrots, broccoli, broad beans, sugar snaps, and crispy lettuce - we have been having fantastic meals lately.  I think I might have finally got the hang of exactly how much Damon, mum and I can eat of any one vegetable at any given time.  I still overplant on the broccoli front - but I love it so it never goes to waste.  It's so much fun going out into the garden and fossicking around picking a bit of this and a bit of that and then back into the kitchen to decide what it will "become".

I also took some time to add a healhty layer of Tui Pea Straw Pelletised Mulch under my strawberry's to stop them sitting on soil and getting diseased or rotting.  This is one of my top tips for making the most of your strawberry crops - keep them off the soil!  I also put a layer of Tui Premium Coloured Woodchips around my cascading lobelias and they look so much more exciting and 'fancy' because of it.  Tui coloured woodchips are 100% recycled wood dyed with a 100% biodegradabel vegetable dye.  In this case the dye is black, and while you might wonder if that is too harsh int he garden check out the photos below.  I think it looks stunning and I will be coming back for more to complete the rest of the garden - it suddenly looks very designer!
 

Apart from the eating and the mulching i have some brag photos to show you of my garden.  So have a look and until next time - Happy Gardening!

13th November - Black Friday

Did you know this is the third "Black Friday" for 2009?  Why is Friday the 13th such a doom and gloom day?  Mind you looking out my office window at the moment it certainly is very gloomy here but the weekend weather will make up for that - no rain, lots of sunshine - with a little cloud cover so I don't get too hot in the garden.  Which is where i will be for most of the weekend.  My tomato seedlings are screaming to be planted and the weeds are taking over.  I'll admit that I do have my blinkers on when it comes to certain areas of the garden - I prefer to just start my garden planning from half way up the driveway, and our gorgeous maple tree diverts attention from what lurks beneath - but this weekend that will all change!  Damon (future-husband) is hiring a chainsaw and cutting down a couple of old dead trees and some very decrepit shrubs that have definitely seen better days.  He wants a nice low-maintenance hedge in their place but I'm thinking a feijoa hedge and maybe a blueberry hedge too.  On the other side of the driveway we're the weeds have taken over half of the border garden (literally half - there is a very clear line where the weeds stop and the strawberries are planted)

I'll be clearing and preparing the soil for my summer melon vines.  Do you think that passers by might help themselves to the fruit? I guess if they want it that badly we should let them have it and how many melons can Damon and I eat anyway?  Anyway, I'm planting the melons there because i don't really have the space anywhere else and it's a great filler while I decide what will go there on a more permanent basis.  Any ideas? email me

I've really taken on board the comments of a few friends about a lack of fruit at my place.  "It's all about vegetables" they cry, so I purchased two grape vines to grow along the fence and they will also be planted this weekend.  I have a terrible habit of buying plants one weekend and planting them the next - that's how things get away on me.  I need to buy and then plant as soon as I get home - but some lessons are never learnt.  I also want to plant a couple more citrus on the high lawn to have a sort of "orangery" (is that a real thing?).  Imagine how pretty that will look.  Although Damon thinks we should just leave it as a lovely piece of lawn so he has somewhere to lie down in summer.  We've been in the house two and a half years and I am yet to witness him lying down on that lawn.  Orangery it is! 

This weekend you should be thinking about planting your pumpkins, capsicums, eggplants - as long as you are confident the cold weather/frosts have gone for the season.  Looking at the weather by the moon long range forecast I'd be weary in the lower half of the south island but in the North you should be fine.  If in doubt tunnel it with a Haxnicks Easy Tunnel.

Happy gardening!

6th November - Katie Karrot "A Friend in your garden"

I'm so excited!  This weekend I have been asked by my dear friend Anna Banana to help her start a small - but very precious - garden on the deck of her apartment.  We're off to the garden centre tomorrow afternoon and I'm being paid in coffee for my words of wisdom, ha! i'll have to dig some of those out and be prepared!  She's starting small with a few pots and Haxnicks Patio Planters, but that's the way to do it.  Start small then add to it each season as you grow in confidence and realise that everyone (and i really mean everyone) has a level of green in their fingers.  she also wants flowers - which is an area i fall down in a little but i'm sure we'll have some super friendly staff to help us out.

Aside from spreading good garden will to mankind I have a few "chores" to do in my garden.  I want to plant my yams, which I've never grown before, and the bed of intention is covered with weeds so thats one job.  I also have to plant out more corn and sow pumpkin, squash, courgette, cucumber, melon, eggplant, and capsicum seeds.  I know many of those seeds are supposed to be sown direct but i'm concerned its still just a little "fresh" for them at my house, so I'm planting them in punnets that can then be planted directly into the soil when the seedling are big enough.  That way they shouldn't be disturbed and transplant shock is avoided.  You see there is never a reason not to plant - you just need the right tools.  So that's job number 2.  Job number three is the hefty job of cutting back our wisteria which totally creeps me out - it's so rampant!  But that job may just be handed over to Damon - you see there is an element of ladder climbing involved and his monkey feet are much better suited to that :-)

Happy Gardening!

30th October - Labour free Labour Weekend

I am pleased  to say that I was so prepared and organised in my vegetable garden heading into Labour Weekend that I only spent a few hours on Saturday planting.  But boy I got a lot done - I planted 6 celery, 12 great lakes lettuce, 12 gourmet lettuce, and 6 spinach seedlings into what will now and forever be known as my "salad bar".  I'll add some coriander to that when it warms up too. 

I am so determined to grow good celery this time around.  I have grown it in the past but it has only really been good for cutting off one or two stems and it's gone quite "rusty" looking - why is that?  My sisters grows celery that looks like its on steroids and it is so juicy fresh.  So I read the Tui NZ Vegetable Garden section on celery and i decided to wrap the seedlings in newspaper and plant them into a trench of Tui Vegetable Mix.  The book doesn't say that the trench or newspaper is a requirement but I think my plans need all the help they can get.  I clearly don't have the celery touch. 

I also planted two tomato plants which were looking super healthy - one of them is a yellow sweet 100 which i just adore and i think my nephews will enjoy at christmas.  I might have to dose it up with Tui ECO-FERT over the next two months to ensure i have some fruit ready for christmas.

All these wonderful seedlings I have planted are courtesy of our very generous friends at Zealandia nurseries who supply your local garden centres with their fresh and healthy vegetable seedlings.  Zealandia have partnered up with us in the Tui Great NZ Schools Grow Off and donated a "combo box" full of vegetable seedlings to every school that had registered for the competition.  The boxes are valued at over $80 each and the schools are over the moon to get a helping hand like that - and they sent some to us here at head office so we could experience the same delight the schools did.  Thank you Zealandia! We'll send you some tomatoes when we harvest!

So after all that planting we got in the car and took off to Napier to visit my grandmother for a few days and what beautiful weather they turned on for us.  I love Hawkes Bay - well of course i would it's my hometown :-)

23rd October - Is everyone ready for the biggest weekend on the gardening calendar?

The garden centres certainly are, I've never seen so many trucks moving product out of here.  It seems people are gardening in their droves this year - how wonderful is that?!  I actually don't have too many big plans for the garden this weekend.  I'm only at home on Saturday morning before we head off to Napier for the long weekend but I think it's all covered anyway - just a bit of "top up" planting, a touch of weeding and I"ll be all set.

If you are at home this weekend you should be planning some time in the garden to plant those tomatoes and runner beans.  My grandmother (Nannie - bless her!) always told me to make sure I had my tomatoes and beans planted by labour weekend.  Of course this led me to believe - in my naivety - that you could therefore not plant them after labour weekend.  Now that I am older and wiser (and actually have a garden) this is clearly not the case and more of a "suggested time frame".  So if you are away this weekend and can't get into the garden, don't panic, all the tomato plants in NZ will not shrivel and die at midnight monday.

Other plants you should be thinking about now is sowing seeds for those late summer harvesting plants like capsicums, eggplants, etc.  And definitely get a courgette or two planted - these will start cropping at about 6weeks and then you won't have to pay $13-$15 per kg at the supermarket for bruised Australian ones.

Things you should make sure you get at the garden centre: Tui Vegetable Mix, Tui Vegetable food, Tui Tomato Mix, Tui Tomato Food, and of course my soapbox product Saturaid.  Keep your receipt and make sure you enter The Tui Great NZ Grow Off - it's so easy and the total prize pool is over $20,000 in gardening prizes.  Don't forget to take before and after pictures too.

Just as an aside - check out the pic of my very lovely STRAIGHT carrot (and sweet too)!  i was beginning to think i didn't deserve my nickname Katie Karrot - but i'm back on top :-)

12th October - Back on Track

I hit a small speedbump in my gardening plans a week or so ago when I contracted the most awful stomach bug imaginable.  I don't know about you but I felt like I would rather curl up and die then carry on feeling that way.  I was feeling very worried for my poor seedlings which were almost big nough to start sprouting pumpkins and desperately wanted to be planted but I just couldn't do anything.  But you can't keep me down for long and now I'm back and well in track.  Said seedlings have been given to my big sister in Auckland as i think it is still a little to cold for pumpkin planting at my place.  We had a frost just the other day.  So I planted out 12 corn and put the Haxnicks poly tunnel over them to keep them toasty.

24th September - I'm back from holiday - and the garden is A-okay!

Hamilton Island was wonderful, green, lush, hot - almost perfect.......except – in my 4 days on Hamilton Island (Whitsundays, half way between Brisbane and Cairns) I did not see a single vegetable or fruit growing….. It was certainly very lush and a wonderful holiday destination. But surely if you live, work, play, on an island it would be a lot more sustainable to “grow your own”. I promise I didn’t think about vegetables all the time – at one point I was also curious as to how they provided enough water for all the activity on the island. With an average temperature of 27.4degrees there isn’t too many rain days! So how do they do it? I’m not sure yet but I intend to find out.
 

Enough about my glorious time in Hamilton Island and more about the vegetable garden. We must have had some fantastic growing weather while I was away because the seedlings I planted under the EcoGreen Micromesh Tunnel are looking about ready to eat! Well not quite but they sure look healthy, and the garlic I planted already has shoots about 4inches long.
 

The seeds I have been raising in the cold frame need to be planted this weekend – except the pozzie I had planned for the corn is still covered with weeds and requires a fair amount of “work” before I can plant. So it looks like “all hands to the trowel” again this weekend. My nephews (Master Leo, 4 ¾, and Master Jasper 18mths) are visiting – what help do you think they will be???  At least I know they won't eat all my broad beans.  They're not quite ready but only a few more weeks I reckon.  then I will be double shelling them and cooking them like Helen Jackson does with her fantabulous recipe - check it out here.
 

My tips and tasks for this weekend: Prepare your soil! If you make your own compost dig what is ready into your garden – make sure it has fully composted or it will suck the available nitrogen out of plants to complete the composting process. (God that sounds awful doesn’t it). If you don’t make your own (why?) don’t panic Tui Organic Compost is your new best friend. Add sheep pellets to your soil and blood and bone and dig it all in. You are now ready for planting those precious seedlings. Don’t forget to put down your Quash or those pesky slugs and snails will undo all your hardwork in one night. Especially in these damp, moist, warm conditions – gross!


Plan: If you have already prepared your garden and have started some planting, take a moment to consider where your next lot of planting will go – how much space will the courgette actually take up when it’s in “full grow”. Make sure you know how it will all work out in the end. If you had tomatoes in last year and haven’t planted anything else since then you shouldn’t replant your tomato crop there again this year. A moment or two over a fresh coffee (or pikelet if you so desire) could make all the difference to how much you can fit into your garden and also the success of your crops. It doesn’t have to be neat and tidy and all planted together either – mix your herbs up amongst your vegetables, not only will it look great, it’ll help with pest control naturally.

For more detailed help with your garden check out our garden guides on the tui website.

To hear my Top 10 Tips for vegetable gardening be listening to Radiolive Kitchen & Garden Show just after the 8am news on Saturday.

14th September - Seed sowing continues

I’m on to it now – it’s been two weeks between sowings and my babies are germinating fantastically in their cosy little cold frame.
 

Future-husband built me this cold frame for my XXth birthday back in April and I have to say it really truly is the best thing since sliced bread. On one side it is a great bin for keeping all my bags of “stuff” in – I’ve got my Tui eco range in there, sprayers, sheep pellets, the all important Quash (check out the new packaging hitting the stores now) and of course my beautiful gumboots – well every gardener needs a little bit of flash right? On the other side is a moveable shelf so I can keep my Seedraising mix on the bottom and my seed trays up high where they catch the morning sun.
 

The lid has three glass panels to let the sun in and so far I would say it has improved my germination rate ten fold. The best part about the whole thing is that the lid on the left rests on two pieces of wood so that it becomes a level space for me to pot up and do my seeds etc. Well done Damon – you’re great!

So back to my seed sowing – I’m heading away for a week so I’m raising this lot of seeds in the greenhouse at work so our Marketing Assistant Kirsty can look after them for me. Can’t be too careful with seeds you know – a lot of effort has gone into deciding which ones to sow now and because I’m only doing a few at a time (except for the tomatoes) I want them to work!
 

This week I’m sowing more corn, more lettuce (still too cold at my place for direct sowing), beetroot, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, watermelon, and a whole lot of tomatoes for my colleagues. For really good advice on growing great tomatoes visit our new website here. That’s right I said NEW! We have completely redesigned and vamped up our website and if I do say so myself it looks hot! There is so much information on there you won’t need to go anywhere else – and if you can’t find what you’re looking for email us and we’ll get it sorted. After all we’re here to help you grow great crops.

Right I’m off to Hamilton Island (that's Hamiltonisland, Australia - not Hamilton in the North Island) now to see how they grow vegetables there and perhaps sample how they make their fruit into wonderful cocktails. I’ll let you know how it goes........

Happy Gardening!
 

7th September – All hands to the trowel!

Wow! Have we been working hard. This weekend – right out of the blue – I decided to finally do something about the horrendous garden at our front door. Because I haven’t had my eye on it for edibles it has been lost in translation a little bit. We cleared it all out last year and then left it – waiting for inspiration. Then I decided it was going to be my new “picking” garden which required more inspiration. Now it’s going to be a healthy mix of flowers, vegetables, and fruit! Well really were you expecting anything else from me?

                                                                  

It was back breaking work but so worth it. Now we have a lovely white daphne, which smells delicious, at the bottom of the stairs. As it grows bigger people will brush past it and release the frangrance – what a charming way to be greeted at a front door! I was given some very pretty white landscape gerberas from Rainbow Park nurseries at a recent expo and they have been planted around the daphne and flow into a border of cascading petunias, rosemary, and something else with blue flowers that I forget the name of. Anyway, they will all drape gloriously down the rock wall and provide a perfect frame for the rest of the garden which will be edible. I’m thinking the golden midget watermelon will go nicely in there along with the lemon cucumber and I’ll train them to grow up the trunk of the Palm – how gorgeous. I’m also going to persuade future husband to nail some trellis along the back so I can grow my orange fragrant sweet peas which will attract loads of bees for pollination. Over the top of everything is coir fibre mulch to keep everything cool and moist in summer and toasty warm in winter. It’s all very exciting!

Not only did we plant that garden bed but I finally got my strawberries planted down the driveway – 14 plants in total. I think that ought to keep my nephews busy on Christmas day – not to mention full. Although it may not bode well for having any left for dessert though…..



In front of the strawberries you’ll see my spring bulbs popping up. It’s the first time I’ve planted bulbs and it’s a funny feeling when you do. You plant in early autumn and it looks like you did nothing – and you have to wait 6 months for any signs of life, almost disappointing, but then the feeling you get when they start to pop up is just amazing.

I felt a real sense of pride – silly isn’t it? We also planted 18 cascading lobelia in varying shades of purple and a few white scattered in (thanks mum I talked on the phone to my sister and she planted – I think it was the promise of a glass of wine that spurred her on).

So that was that on the weekend – in total about 8hours of gardening required to clean up and then plant. But it was totally worth it and I can’t wait to watch them grow. I think I might speed up the flowering process with some Phostrogen Plant Food – it’s like an energy drink for plants!

 

 

  Click on the book image to view what it looks like inside...

We also talked about The Great NZ Grow Off in more detail and I highly recommend you check out the website here and see which category you should enter. I am of course turning my garden – where possible – into a “Heritage Homage” and so far I’m really enjoying it. The variety available is just fantastic and being able to save the seeds for next year is a great financial bonus. I’ve never really saved seeds before so it’s all new territory for me! Plus the other major benefit of course is taste – they may not look like perfect shop bought specimens but the flavour will be tenfold. Bring on the mighty Beefsteak tomato!

Top tip: Check out the “Monthly Bonus Competitions” for The Great NZ Grow Off if you just want to Grow Big stuff!

Oooh and one other thing before I go. I am now the proud owner of a Worm-a-round worm farm full of wriggling writhing tiger worms.

I couldn’t be more excited about my new project. I’m not allowed pets (boohoo) so I got myself worms instead. Apparently it takes a good few months for them to really get going and it’s only been a few days but so far so good. All this came about because of a fantastic programme from the Tauranga City Council and there zero waste programme. I signed up at least 6months ago and finally my name came up (it’s a very popular programme). I spent two hours on Sturday afternoon learning all about worms, what they like, don’t like – favourite colours (nah just jokes) – but I do feel quite close to my worms, after all they are eating my rubbish! So far we’ve given them all our kitchen scraps but avoided putting in onion skins and citrus.

Lots of people say they can’t eat it but apparently they will eat it but they’ll leave it until there is nothing else – why upset them though? Just leave it out. Avocado is like caviar to worms they love it so I guess in the sunny bay of plenty we have very happy worms! I’ll keep you posted on my worm farming progress – at the moment one worm farm will take all our kitchen waste, but I’d like to graduate to having more then one so mum can feed them too. Poor mum though she has a real phobia of wriggling writhing worms and unfortunately for her the best place on our combined section is under the orange tree (right under her bedroom window). Don’t worry I haven’t told her that they escape if you don’t feed them enough, and they can travel up to 6-8m!  At the course the leader told this horrific story about how she had done a course and had leftover bags of worms. She left them outside overnight and they got a bit hungry and cold and travelled through the breathing holes, up the wall of the house and in through the aluminium joinery and into their bedroom. Imagine their surprise when they walked into the bedroom later that night to mass of tiger worms! Ewwwww that makes my skin crawl. The good news is they only like the dark so all they had to do was turn the lights on and sleep in the lounge. Lesson learnt – sorry mum if you have just read that. But our worm farm is the Hilton of worm farms so why would they leave? They get avocado every day at our place! For more details on worm farming click here

So this weekend I have sown the following:
12 x corn
3 each of Lettuce; red flame (HL), vivian (OP), and green salad bowl (HL)
3 x beefsteak tomato (HL)
3 x cucumber; lemon (HL), and marketmore (HL)



I use Tui Seedraising Mix which is a light fine mix with great drainage and the added benefits of Saturaid for moisture absorption, fungicide to prevent rot, and a starter fertiliser which means your vulnerable seeds get the best possible start.

I’ve found a great way to water your seeds is to stand the trays/punnets in water and let the soil absorb it up from underneath. Especially when you are sowing those teeny tiny lettuce seeds, you don’t want to wash them away with the watering can! After that I keep them moist with a fine mist sprayer – and for an extra boost add a small amount of Tui Eco Fert to the sprayer.

I will sow more corn and lettuce in a few weeks and also make a start on the direct sown seeds like beetroot, carrot, pak choi, and beans. I think I want to transfer the herbs from my mini garland grow bed and use it for successive sowings of carrots, beetroot, lettuce etc. Does anyone know if herbs can be transplanted? Email me your tips on how to do it. I have a garden under the eaves of the house where my parsley and rosemary grow really well so I thought all the herbs could go there. It’s a bit dry – will it be okay?

I also need to make a start on raising all the tomato varieties I have. I’m going to surprise my colleagues and grow loads of tomato seedlings so they can all have one. I think it will be great to share, especially since I have bought two types of “heirloom blends” which means they could end up with red, green, yellow, purple, or white – a really truly lucky dip!
 

 24th August – Seed crazy!

I have officially lost the plot with my garden plans for the upcoming spring season. I had a look at seeds online and before I knew it I had bought about 30 different packets! Quite where I am going to put all these seeds I have no idea, but some very cunning space saving ideas are creeping into the grey matter. Here’s an idea for you if you’ve entered “Best use of space” in The Great NZ Grow Off – grow cucumber up an existing tree in the garden. I’m thinking of growing mine up the guava tree – great shade from the leaves and easy to access for me – brilliant!

The reason I decided to buy seeds online is because of a real lack of good heirloom varieties available as seedlings. I want to grow a broad range of heirloom varieties this year in honour of our new category in The Great NZ Grow Off and then I can save the seeds and use them for the next season.

Yes you did read correctly – The Great NZ Grow Off is back and it is soooooo good this year I am really jealous I can’t enter. But you can and you should do it now. We have four categories (Heritage Homage is the new one) along with monthly photographic comps and some bonus competitions for those of you who like “Grow Big and Win Large”. It’s really exciting stuff and I suggest you check it out here and register.
 

So my spring garden will (hopefully) be loaded with heirlooms like albino beetroot, lemon cucumber, red flame lettuce, salad bowl lettuce, brandywine tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, marina di choggia pumpkin (ugly but tasty apparently), red carrots, golden midget watermelon (so cute), and yellow squash – plus a whole load more I’ve received from “seed swapping”. It takes me back to collecting cards at primary school!

   

I can’t wait to see all these fruits and vegetables at harvest time – the garden will be awash with colour, not to mention our dinner plates. I wonder how I’ll feel eating white beetroot? At least I won’t have to worry about juice stains.


 17th August – Cleaning up

Okay so I’m a few days late with my weekly commitment but I figure it’s better to write after the weekend when the garden is all “up to date”. So after being embarrassed of all the weeds last week I have finally cleaned up. And lo and behold the carrots, parsnip, beetroot and onions are all surviving. I wouldn’t mind betting they’ll be twice the size in a week or so – now that they can breathe.

 

I haven’t made it down to the poor rainbow chard yet. That’s a whole new area of my edible garden. But that stuff is amazing it just grows and grows – I’m not great at picking vegetables fresh in the middle of winter but thankfully mum does a great job of scavenging around in our garden and taking what she needs. Then it turns up as a dinner invitation for Damon and I. So lucky .
 

7 August - Growing with tunnels

I’m on the radio show tomorrow talking about my garden and how I’m getting ahead of Spring – which reminded me of my blog page and how EMPTY it is. I can’t believe I haven’t updated since April. That’s appalling and I apologise to you all. If I told you I’d been sick with swine flu would you forgive me? What about if I said I would make it up to you by committing to a blog update every week? Forgiven? Yes? Excellent! Now come on let’s grow.

I never thought when I started gardening that I would want and need so many “accessories”. Well why wouldn’t you get some when using them makes your vegetable gardening so much easier and more successful. At Tui we have recently launched Haxnicks Easy Tunnels and I have taken it upon myself to test them out at home – well it’s my job really isn’t it?

So far I have used the fleece tunnel during a period of heavy frosts to protect my pak choi and rainbow chard – with great success. I’ve currently got the poly tunnel installed over some newly sown seeds, and the Giant MicroMesh tunnel has just been put up over my brassica seedlings.

I’ve decided I look a lot more professional with these “accessories” in my garden. But what it has done is highlight my complete lack of care for the garden this winter. The weeds have taken over and I’m unsure where my carrots, beetroot, and parsnips are under all the green of the weeds.

  

I have a lot of work to do on the weekend. Watch this space……


April 14^th -  Happy Easter to you and yours

I hope you had weather as beautiful as we did here in the Bay of Plenty! It was superbly gorgeous and perfect for a spot of gardening (read “cleaning up”). I didn’t spend all my time in the garden over Easter, some of it was also spent in the garden centres, and talking to Tony Murrell and Helen Jackson on the Radiolive Kitchen and Garden show, and a great deal of time pondering the garden. You see, now that I have this wonderful little Garden Grow Bed vege garden, I have empty garden beds. I could fill them up with veges again – or I could do something different like plant flowers or shrubs!!! Dah dah dahhhhh. My confidence must be growing because I searched the garden centres for Radamachera trees – to no avail as they had all sold out – for planting along our new fence, and I even investigated planting bulbs down the long driveway garden. Of course there has been no real action – just looking - on the non-vege front but the thought is there. I’m just worried I don’t know what I’m doing and I’ll put the wrong plants and trees in the wrong place long term.

Of course these “non-edible” plants will all be accompanied by edibles. For instance I still want to plant red pineapples along the driveway garden and thought that bulbs popping through in Spring would look rather lovely against a backdrop of red pineapple bushes. Agree? Let me know if that is a bad plan.

Project update: The Garland Grow Bed project is growing great guns – I just wish I had more time to swat the white butterfly away. I did spend some time spraying the vege with Tui Eco-Pest on the weekend and squishing small caterpillars which sounds gross but was surprisingly therapeutic and I fed the plants once more with Tui Eco-Fert which is responsible for the lush green growth I’m seeing. The Cos lettuce has such a lovely rich green colour, and it all looks fantastically crispy – one more week and I’ll be having Caesar salad.

Notes to remember for newly planted vegetable gardens:

1)     Don’t forget your Quash Slug and Snail Stoppa! It will stop those slimy slimeballs eating your fresh new seedlings. A top tui trick is to sprinkle the pellets a day or so before you plant (if you can) so that the pellets are well and truly working before your tender plants even hit the soil.

2)     Use Tui ECO-Pest! Especially at this time of year. There are bugs galore and they just love fresh new seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. ECO-Pest will control aphids, caterpillars, whitefly and other annoying bugs while maintaining the eco-system in your garden and keeping the good bugs! Super duper.

That’s it from me for now – I’ll be back just as soon as I can with pics of the vege garden. In the meantime if you have any questions for me or helpful advice please email me here

I have been a bit lazy on the blog front of late – but the reason for that is the changing seasons and the lack of any “action” in the garden. Many of you may be feeling the same. I’ve been eating eggplants, capsicums, tomatoes, lettuce, red cabbage, silverbeet, spinach, celery etc and enjoying every minute of it – but neglected to replace most of it so I think there might be some empty harvest periods ahead. Though I will always have my silverbeet and lettuce – as long as I have greens, I’m happy.

I did plant some seedlings back in late February – check out the planting calendar here – and we’ve enjoyed the tom thumb lettuce, the spinach is great in my juices and the odd stir fry, and the mesculun mix continues to provide lunch material but the broccoli, cabbage, and cauli mixed pack of seedlings was mauled by caterpillars almost overnight! I planted them in the front garden which is often neglected for a few days at a time and when I went back to check on them they looked more like a lace pattern then any kind of plant. They must have been relations of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in the kids book that ate his way through a small corner store.

So, whilst I will carry on with my “garden at large” I also have a new project underway – The Square Metre Project (if you can come up with a cooler name let me know). Basically the square metre project is about finding out the true cost of growing your own and also measuring the real rewards.

To do this I have set up a brand new raised bed at home and I’m recording what goes into and of course what comes out of it – in real terms, i.e. what it costs you and what it saves you. Of course this can’t be done over one season it has to be followed through over the life of the materials used. But hey let’s not worry about tomorrow let’s focus on today.

Today, Tui has brought out these really nifty grow beds by Garland. They are made in England from 100% recycled materials, they’re lightweight, easy to put together – no builders certificate required here in fact you don’t need anything other then what comes in the box! And the best part about The Garland Grow Beds by Tui is that the plastic materials insulate the soil which extends your growing season beyond the norm. That’s a saving already!

Step 1: Rig up your Garland Grow Bed

Step 2: Layer it up like a cake with all the good stuff.

You will need:

1 x 1m² Garland Grow Bed by Tui ($99.99)
6 x 6 pack of seedlings ($20.00)
Tui Vegetable mix 40L (3 @ 11.99 = 35.97)
Tui Organic compost 40L (2 @ 9.99 = 19.98)
Tui Pelletised Pea Straw 10kg (but it swells to 4 times it size!) (24.99)
Tui Super Sheep 8kg (18.99)

Grand total = $199.92

1) Start with one bag of Tui Vegetable Mix and spread it evenly across the bottom (remember if you are putting the bed on a hard surface you might want to put down polythene with drainage holes poked in it)

 

2) Then a layer of Tui Pelletised Pea Straw – no need to water it yet, it will gradually absorb moisture and expand provide loads of lovely nutrients and organic material to the soil bed. All the better for your plants!

3) Next a layer of Tui Organic Compost – spread it evenly, get stuck in with your hands – gardening is a dirty game and we love it!


  

5) Still more layers with another bag of Tui Vegetable Mix

6) Repeat these layers until you finish with a final layer of Tui Vegetable Mix for planting into.

Give it all a really good water – relax.

 

The next step is the ultra fun part – Planting. Now there are different schools of thought on this – some say “Nah you don’t need to wait, plant straight away! Why waste all those great rich nutrients”, while others say “leave the mix to sit for a week before planting to avoid burning vulnerable seedlings”.  At Tui, we say – if you’re planting into the top layer of Tui Vegetable Mix then go right ahead, it won’t burn because it’s a quality blend of compost and potting mix with natural soil enhancers like sheep pellets, dolomite and blood and bone which won’t burn your plants. However, if its direct into compost watch it with your root vegetables as they can be disgruntled with too much “new” compost.

Step 3: Plant

 

My favourite seedlings at the garden centre at the moment are anything that comes in a mixed punnet. So I planted a “Stirfry Combo” – (Red cabbage, mini cabbage, and celery), a straight “Vege Combo” – (Silverbeet, two hearting lettuce, and broccoli), a “Lettuce Combo” (red oak, tom thumb, cos), and then I lost the plot and planted six brussel sprout seedlings. I know, I know what was I thinking – but I really want to see these babies grow. I wasn’t successful last year but I’m determined to prove that homegrown brussel sprouts are yummy. However, for the purpose of my project I may transplant a few of them to a different part of the garden.

So what happens now? I’ve set up my garden, I’ve planted it, watered it………

4^th Feb – I know we don’t want to think about Autumn and Winter but……

Your vegetable garden needs you to think about planting those Autumn and Winter vegetables now. If you like brussel sprouts – plant them now (oh come on, a homegrown brussel sprout is soooooo much nicer then supermarket ones, just try it), or leeks for winter soups, how about onions, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower? All of these vegetables can be fresh on your table this winter if you plan ahead and plant now.

To help you out – new to the Katie Karrot blog page is a planting calendar/diary to show you what I’ve planted when, and also what products I’m using and when – (you can also download a copy of our Kitchen Garden guide here or ask for one at your local garden centre – they’re free and super helpful). 

If you do decide to follow the Katie Karrot planting calendar just remember that I live in Tauranga and we do tend to have a long warm growing season and minimal frosts. So make sure you take your own local climate into consideration when planting – and if you are in a frosty area, it might pay to invest in a cloche to protect those vulnerable seedlings and plants.

Okay that’s probably enough for you to think about for now. 

Just remember the three P’s of a good vegetable garden

And if you want more help with these click here

23^rd January – Katie Karrot catches up!

Where did January go? I was so busy harvesting my vegetables and being on holiday that I have neglected my blog. Sorry folks, but to make it up to you here are some bragging photos of my garden and some of the daily harvests.

I’m also very pleased to announce I successfully grew about four straight carrots without any splits. I’m earning my name after all!

 

And what about my giant pumpkin? Well it developed to the size of a giant basketball in a matter of weeks and the vines took over the lawn and stretched out far enough to latch onto my car door while I was away – but to date it hasn’t done much more and now all the greenery is dying away. My fellow competitor Helen Jackson, (Radiolive Kitchen & Garden Show host and Foodlovers.co.nz), suggested that the greenery would die away but the pumpkin would keep growing until the official weigh-in in April/May. Is this true or is the nature of the competition changed…….. Any handy hints and tips on how to get the biggest and heaviest pumpkin will be very gratefully received! Email me now

Remember that fateful day back in 2008 when I came home to find my tomato plants flattened? (see blog ………. For the full story) well the emergency work we did appears to have worked and we are having and absolute bumper crop of beautiful money maker tomatoes, and also the sweet 100 cherry tomato. I still can’t get over how perfect the cherry tomatoes are. They look like someone has given the a wax and polish over night they’re so shiny.

  

So how did I look after my garden while I was away for two weeks?

2)     Water in well and give all garden beds a good long soak

5)     Now you’re home and hosed (or rather away and hosed)

Speaking of broccoli, we had such large heads of broccoli this year that we just couldn’t keep up so trusty mum made a broccoli soup which is very concentrated and kept in the freezer. I pulled a serving out the other day and added it to my excess marrows steaming in the stockpot and abracadabra beautiful summer soup which was as delicious chilled as it was warm, and super good for you!

So that’s it from me – remember to watch the Road to Ellerslie on Saturday morning at 9:30am, TVOne. If you miss it – no problems, click here to watch previous episodes.

Traditional Braised Red Cabbage with Apples recipe You will need:   2Ib Red cabbage 450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped small 1lb onions, diced 1 clove of garlic 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 3 tbs brown sugar 3 tbs wine vinegar 15g butter   Method Shred the cabbage finely using a sharpe knife Next, in a fairly large casserole, arrange a layer of shredded cabbage seasoned with salt and pepper, then a layer of chopped onions and apples with a sprinkling of garlic, spices and sugar. Continue with these alternate layers until everything is in. Now pour in the wine vinegar, lastly add dots of butter on the top. Put a tight lid on the casserole and let it cook very slowly in the oven for 2-2½ hours, stirring everything around once or twice during the cooking. This courgette recipe is quite impressive and is great to serve as a starter for any special dinner. You will need:   3-4 small hard courgettes parmesan cheese, fresh shavings 30 g pine nuts olive oil  hazelnut oil  12 pitted black olives 1/2 bunch fresh parsley Method Wash the courgettes, slice them as thinly as possible and arrange them in layers on a plate. Pour the both types of oil evenly over the courgettes. Thinly slice the parmesan into shavings and spread over the courgettes. Sprinkle the pine nuts and black olives, over the top and season with salt and black pepper. Finely chop parsley; sprinkle over the courgettes and serve immediately with fresh crusty bread. 16th December – a sad day for my Tomatoes I was full of the joys of Spring as I drove home last night excited to get home and have a yummy fresh salad for tea with more of Damon’s freshly caught fish and lightly steamed courgettes – caught up in this haze of self-sufficiency I wandered up my garden path and got hit between the eyes with the sight of all my tomatoes plants flattened. I could have cried on the spot! Who could have done this to me?! But closer inspection revealed that it may actually have been caused by me – horror of horrors. I had staked all four plants well, tied them to the stakes properly – or so I thought…   You see, the danger of tying them to the stake too tightly when they’re small seedlings, can be that as they grow and thicken the tie becomes tight and they actually grew up attached to the stake. This, of course, means the stake was grown out of the ground by my strong healthy tomato plants. Oh dear.   But hey, less about the problem and more about the solution, da duh da duh… Damon to the rescue – just in time for the heavens to open while I stand there holding up four giant tomato plants. Four big metal staples hammered into the brick wall of our house later and a few handy pieces of string and we’re all good to go. I just hope the tomato plants will recover. It was a fair distance for them to fall and the greenery is more than a little bruised. I’ll keep you up to date…..   But what about the latest success? Mushrooms. That’s right, mum visited the Farmers Market and brought home a mushroom bucket for me. $10 for the bucket full of compost and mushroom spores. All you have to do is keep them in a cool dark place (pantry is perfect) and cut them off as you need them. These ones are brown mushrooms but you can get white. They start as button mushrooms and grow into cup mushrooms and then into big flat mushrooms if you leave them long enough. These ones need to be used now. Often you will get a second wave of mushrooms and if you are super lucky you can get a third but it’s not common. For $10 it’s a bargain and the taste is super good!     That’s it from me this week – I’m off to look after my poor tomatoes, and maybe have a sneaky dig around in my potato patch. I’m hoping they’ll be ready to harvest Christmas Eve for a delicious Christmas day potato salad. Click here to send me through some recipes 5th December – I’m changing my name to Katie Karrot-Courgette!  What can I say, I think my forte is not in growing carrots but definitely in growing courgettes. As Tony Murrell said – they are half way to Katikati now!   I’m really pleased that they are growing so well because I really put a lot of thought into planting them and where they should go, should I plant into mounds or not, should I plant into compost or vegetable mix, do I need to fertilise regularly, how close is the water supply….. I put so much thought into it because I adore homegrown courgettes. I suffered through the bla nd supermarket versions throughout the winter at $14.99per kg (and more!) knowing I would have my own full flavoured crop in a few months, and here they are in full force.  The plants them selves are huge with broad leaves that must be at least 40-50cm across and big strong stems that just scream “healthy bones” at me, and the heavy cropping is just that – heavy. We are now picking 4 a day and still leaving some to grow into bigger marrows for stuffing. I just love the taste and you really don’t need to add anything when you cook them. We have them lightly steamed to soften them, and then add them to a cous cous salad and I always have left-overs for lunch. However, I think I need some new recipes so please send them on through to me. Also can I freeze courgettes? How do I do that so that I have fantastic courgettes year round? Click here to email me   I’m not the only one that loves my courgettes – they’re so big they provide excellent shade for “Putzi Cat”    “What are they growing in” I hear you asking. Well, it’s simple – Tui Vegetable Mix, and Tui Super Sheep Pellets in a nice big mound and then covered with Tui Pelletised Pea Straw. This is a fantastic concoction rich in organic matter which courgettes love and the sheep pellets are a long lasting natural fertiliser with the added benefit of Nitrophoska Blue for robust green growth (big leaves to shade the soil and the courgettes) and of course the Pelletised Pea straw conserves moisture, protects the plant, and keeps the courgettes off the soil so they don’t rot or get soil borne diseases. It’s a perfect Tui combo!   Okay so I need to move on from my fantabulouslyawesome courgettes to the rest of the garden – the red cabbages are looking gorgeous. They are so ornamental that they are almost wasted where they are. I think I need to turn the front garden into a red cabbage patch – I wonder what Damon would say… He’d probably want to know what I was going to do with all the cabbage. What do you do with red cabbage? Let me know The lettuces are going really well and I think I have mastered the art of successive planting. So far we have not had a “glut” of lettuces which I was worried about – there is only so much salad a person can eat in a day and lettuce is at its nutritional best when picked fresh, so I don’t like keeping them in the fridge too long. But it hasn’t been an issue as they seem to be perfectly ready when I am – if only the rest of my life would take note. Mind you I always say “I’m not late, I’ve arrived right when I meant too”. The Cos lettuce are still my favourite and the leaves just keep on sprouting away. It’s such a crisp leaf but full of nutrition – unlike iceberg which is fantastic but really just a lot of water and crunch. I have been watering my container of Cos “pick and grow” lettuces with Phostrogen Plant Food because it’s right outside the door and so easy to do with my watering can.  It seems to keep it very healthy and a lovely rich green.  Another welcome addition to our fresh garden salads is the humble pea. I’ve never grown peas before, let alone eaten them fresh off the vine. They are gorgeous and so sweet and juicy that not many of them make the full journey from garden to table. The same applies to the snow peas – poor Damon misses out sometimes and then I come in from the garden with a full stomach from eating strawberries, snow peas, and peas that I don’t want tea, oops……        The tomatoes are coming along, more flowers everyday and some very small green fruit. I’m picking the early ones will be ripe just in time for our Christmas and New Year holiday. I’d really like to take some with us for the Christmas dinner table so regular feedings with Phostrogen Tomato Food will encourage that!    Hmm what else can I brag about….. OH YEAH! My super duper ground covering giant pumpkin plant….. It’s huge and I reckon it grows about half a metre in each direction every week! I’ve even noticed couple of small little baby pumpkins on it. I must be winning the competition – or at least be ahead of the game…. However, it’s the next few steps that will make or break me. I’ve been told that I should take off all the baby pumpkins leaving only one or two so the plant concentrates all it’s growing energy into those few and therefore creating the biggest pumpkin. I’m nervous though, what if I pick off the healthiest ones? What if the ones left die and all I have to show for my efforts is a whole lot of green vine? I think I’ll wait until the fruit is bigger so I can see the health level before ripping it off. Gawd that sounds awful – why can’t I just grow them all. I could probably feed my entire office with pumpkin soup for a year at the rate the plant is growing.   Okay well that is enough bragging for today, I’m off home now to water the garden – all 10beds of it, I could be some time……(and the baby peas may not survive the evening – hahaha) 21st November - It’s all Grow, grow, grow I swear that my plants are growing while I watch them. I reckon that when the snow peas are wavering in a non-existent breeze that they are actually unfurling their tendrils looking for an anchor. If I look at how much they have grown in such a short space of time the rate is just phenomenal. Don’t even get me started on the courgettes. Take a look at the before and after shots below.          I’ve even had bumper crops for my dinner – like the one below – most nights.   And it’s not like I have been fertilizing like crazy either because I’ve been away a lot. But in the last fortnight I have given the entire garden a feed of Phostrogen Plant Food. It’s so easy to use that it would be rude not too! Phostrogen is a soluble fertiliser that dissolves 100% so that everything you put into the watering can is dissolved and available to the plants. It’s a very well balanced feed for your plants and promotes fruit and flower development as well as robust root development. Perfect to use now so that roots go deep before the dry weather hits. The last thing you want is shallow roots that will be dried out by the baking sun and dry top layers. This is also good to remember when watering your plants. They need a good long soak every few days to ensure good penetration of water – even better install soak hoses or water weepers. I have one now in the bottom garden (new this season) and it works a treat. With 10 garden beds to get around and water the more help I can get the better! Of course Saturaid is a gardeners best friend. I’ve talked about Saturaid before but I just can’t sing it’s praises enough. This wonderful product reduces your water use by up to 50%. Basically it ensures that all the water you put onto the soil is used by your plants. No run off or waste because Saturaid is a wetting agent and sucks the water into the soil and straight to the roots. Click here for more info.                Most of my time in the garden now is spent on maintenance. Feeding, watering, weeding. I hate weeding! Mum introduced me to the benefits of using a garden hoe – can you believe (and this is embarrassing to admit) that I had no idea that was what the were for!!! Moving on, a hoe is wonderful throughout most of the garden but what about around small delicate seedlings and young spring onions, carrots etc. How do you weed those any other way then by hand? My answer to weeding in the rest of the garden is to lay a layer of pelletised pea straw which suppresses weeds and also conserves moisture. I waited until seedlings got big enough and then I piled the stuff on. It also works well for strawberries and courgettes where the fruit sits on the soil to grow. The pea straw keeps it clean and fresh and it doesn’t get diseases or rot from the soil. You can see it below around my strawberries under around the bean plants.   Speaking of strawberries, I am enjoying fresh strawberries daily and they are soooo juicy – no icing sugar required here thank you. I put it down to growing your own, plenty of water, and the added benefits of Strawberry food which has a high level of Potash for better fruit development. I’m also wondering why the birds haven’t been a problem yet? I haven’t needed to cover the plants yet, which is unusual but good, I just wish I knew what it was so I could share with you all.  Okay, so in my last blog I asked for suggestions on something a bit different to grow – now that Tony Murrell insists I’m not a beginner gardener! And thanks for all the responses I have considered my situation and how much room I have and I have now planted a Chocolate Capsicum, a Gherkin, and a Wild Fire Chili plant – heaven knows what I’ll do with them all, but it sure will be fun working it out!         And finally……. Who would like to see the progress of my Giant Pumpkin? Rachel Vogan from www.garden-nz.co.nz has sent out giant pumpkin seedlings to me (Katie Karrot), Helen Jackson (Radiolive Kitchen & Garden Show), Lynda Hallinan (NZ Gardener), Jane Wrigglesworth (NZ Gardener), and Allie Jones (ZB). So far I’m sure I’m winning! I haven’t seen anyone else’s but I’m still sure I’m winning. I’ve planted it straight into wonderful Tui Organic Compost with bag loads of Super Sheep pellets and a bucketful of tender loving care (actually the TLC is a lie - I planted it and left for three weeks!).   I’ve planted in an entirely new garden bed outside my bedroom window. Previously it was a jungle, but I cleaned it all up, pulled out all the weeds and loaded it up with compost. Apparently these plants need a lot of space so if it gets too greedy it can grow on the lawn. Don’t tell Damon, he loves that lawn like a baby….    If anyone has any tips for growing a giant pumpkin please please let me know. In such good growing company I’m going to need all the help I can get!     31st October - Katie Karrot goes “non-vege” for Labour Weekend Imagine my surprise when I had very little to do in the vege garden over Labour Weekend!   I am so planned and organised that what little sowing, planting, maintenance I had lined up was all over in a couple of hours. I love that! People tease me for being so organised – but it paid off this time.    So, I asked myself, “what shall I do with my free time?” and the answer was “let’s build a new fence and chop down some trees!”. So we did. Lucky for me (and the garden) Damon is a qualified builder and had everything under control. I helped a little with removing a very stubborn concrete post from the old fence and then helped a little more by testing out the fancy nail gun (what happened to the simple hammer?) but mostly I was relegated to clean up, sweep up duties – oh and let’s not forget freshly baked scones for smoko!   Boys preparing for some tuff stuff!    All done with the first half – must be smoko?             Only the top to go but where is everyone?   Nevermind,Katie Karrot to the rescue! So now we have a beautiful new fence around the section – next step a puppy, yeah right! But before that there were a few old trees that needed to come down as they were perilously close to the power lines but more importantly they were blocking lots of sun from my newest vegetable garden and we can’t have that. So chop chop!              Spot the difference here! Look at all the extra sun on the garden – not to mention the new view from the kitchen            And this one? The big old conifer came down and has let in the light and provided us with firewood for next winter. I know many of you might be a little surprised that I’m so keen to chop down trees but we did think about it for a year and looked at different solutions – but it came down to safety and also energy efficiency. With all the sunshine coming in now the heater goes back in the cupboard. It’s a win win really, and I even got to do some of the chopping! I might not have been allowed the chainsaw but the handsaw is a great bicep workout! So what is next on the agenda? Well with more sunlight streaming onto the newest addition to my vege garden plots I can plant some more! But what to plant??? So far I have Rockmelon, Giant pumpkin, passionfruit (debatable), broccoli, red cabbage, pak choy, coloured silverbeet, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce (cos, red oak, buttercrunch, mesulun mix), capsicum, courgettes, telegraph cucumber, greenfeast peas, radish, carrot, red onion, spring onion, beetroot, strawberries, runner beans, snow peas, leeks, celery, coriander, rosemary, parsley. I’d welcome your suggestions – email me at katier@tuigarden.co.nz I think I’d like to try something a bit different now – I’m feeling a bit more confident! 24th October - What’s growing on?!   Hi All, I know I know it’s been a long time between updates and I have no excuse really – I might have been on holiday from work but there is no holiday when you are planting in Spring!  Thanks for sticking with me. So the latest is that I have planted everything I need to keep me in fresh vegetables well into March next year and some (like the leeks) even longer! I’ve had a few troubles along the way – like coming back from overseas to find my cucumber seedling had totally disappeared.  Not just died and wilted but completely gone – like it was never there, but I know it was because I’ve got it pictured here on my blog!  After blaming everyone in the neighbourhood I actually discovered the culprit last night while I was out walking….. the birds.  I spotted them along Maunganui Rd pulling out all the freshly planted seedlings in the council gardens.  So this weekend I plan to string up any old CDs in the garden to reflect in the sun and deter the cheeky blighters. What else has happened?  Well I left the garden in the hands of my fiancé Damon and he did a sterling job – except for the poor little passion fruit which didn’t get watered at all and is now very sulky.  I can’t blame him completely though as I didn’t actually tell him it was there – oops, we may have to replace it as my attempts to nurture it away from certain death are not working. I also snapped one of my snow peas as I was gingerly tying it to the chicken wire (or not so gingerly as I discovered) – I never said I had green fingers but clearly I need to slow down and take a little more care.  Said snow pea has now wilted but on the upside every seed in the row has germinated so a little “thinning out” is probably a good thing. But enough of the downs – how about some up’s?  I have had many a yummy coleslaw from my ginormous cabbages which have worked together really well to make sure that only one is ready at a time.  This means I still like coleslaw rather then being fed up with it and I still have three cabbages to grow, not to mention the new seedlings I’ve planted of red cabbage and pak choy.   And joy of joys last night I noticed that my radishes have started forming into little red balls of salad spice.  I think I’ll be adding that to the next round of coleslaw very soon.  The beetroots are growing strong and this weekend I will sow another round of seeds so that I have more growing successively – I’m really enjoying this “planning” side of vegetable gardening, it makes me feel very productive and “provider-y” (I know that’s not a word but its how I feelJ).  I said on the Tui Kitchen & Garden Show on radiolive a week back that my new challenge is to make sure I have vegetables growing year round and I’m really looking forward to doing that.  I want to avoid those patches where nothing is growing and you have to head back to the supermarket for fresh veg (courgettes are $11kg which is just horrific!).  Speaking of courgettes both my plants have almost doubled in size over the last week and they look super healthy.  I’ve taken the time to cover the mound in pea straw so that when the black beauty’s arrive they won’t get rotten or diseased from the soil.  Fantastic stuff that pea straw.      I’ve also put it around my strawberry plants (first juicy red strawberry picked on Wednesday night – yippee) and also under my beans and snow peas, and around the capsicums and eggplants.  Basically everywhere that the seedlings were big enough not to get swallowed up by it.  Pelletised pea straw is great because it is easy to apply and swells to 4 times its size when it’s watered – but my two favourite things about pelletised pea straw is that it suppresses pesky weeds and also conserves moisture for your plants.  This is particularly important in a garden like mine where all the beds are raised and free-draining.  It means I don’t have to water as often – and with the addition of Saturaid in the soil I’m home and hosed on the watering front!  Those two products have saved me time, money, AND water!  This is all good stuff. So, where am I at now?  Well this weekend being Labour Weekend I will of course be back out in the garden – this time I will be nurturing my plants with a good healthy feed of Phostrogen plant food another round of Quash to kill the snails (but not the dog or cat) and also sowing a another round of lettuce, beetroot, carrot, red onion, and radish seeds.  Not too much to do there but we will be busy chopping down a tree or two to make way for more sunlight on my vegetable garden and a few other “house jobs”. I’ll keep you posted on Katie Karrot in the “non-vege garden” – until then Happy Gardening! 14th September – Holy Sunny Weekend!!! What a weekend – beautiful sunshine and the only place I want to be is in the garden.  Except we need to make a quick trip to the garden centre for more seeds and a couple of cheeky seedlings.  I am so excited this weekend – I am finally planting into my wonderfully prepared garden.  The soil is dark and rich and full of big fat worms – mum told me to cut them in half and I’d get two worms for the price of one – is that true? Gross! The seedlings I have grown from seed a still not quite ready to plant out yet, maybe one more week to strengthen up then a bit of time outside to “harden off” – technical garden speak there. However, I can plant the cucumber seedling I’ve bought right on top of a big mound of vegetable mix, and since it’s a little bit windy today I’ve cut the top and bottom of an old water bottle and put it over the seedling as protection until it grows up. Three pea ‘wig wams’ behind three big mounds for cucumber (middle) and courgettes (left and right) Close up of cucumber seedling with recycled water bottle protection! The other two mounds are for my courgettes which are nearly ready for transplanting and the little ‘wig wams’ have “Greenfeast” peas sown under them.  I don’t think I made them big enough but I’ll add some string and connect it to the fence somehow. Next I have sown furrows of carrots and radishes – mixing them together so that the radishes can break up the soil for the carrots as they mature faster (a handy hint from the Tui Kitchen Garden Guide) and also red onions and spring onions.  I’ve only sown the seeds through half the length of the furrow so that I can sow the rest in a few weeks which will make sure I have continuous supply. Radishes, carrots, sweet red onion, spring onions Six beautiful strawberry plants (bottom) and beans, snow peas (top garden) But wait there’s more!  I also planted SIX strawberry plants, dwarf runner beans, and Chinese snow peas.  I love fresh strawberries, and I figure with six plants I surely the birds can’t eat them all?  We still need to put down pelletised pea straw and some bird netting but that can wait – I still have more planting to do! Even though I’m growing moneymaker tomatoes from seed I thought I would buy a Hearty Red seedling so that I had some early tomatoes and it has taken pride of place in a container at the back door.  This means I can move it to the most protected place while the weather settles itself down. I also planted a passionfruit by the rickety old archway and I’m hoping it will replace the creeper that is already there in due course and provide not only a lovely evergreen vine but some beautiful fruit for next season.  It’s my first fruit vine so I’m very excited to learn about correct pruning and care – hopefully not through terminal error! So that was the sum total of the planting in the garden BUT I had more seeds to sow, leeks, more lettuce, more beetroot, and of course marigolds.  After reading up on companion planting I have had to totally change THE PLAN (as you can see here with THE NEW PLAN) mainly because I read about how wonderful basil is for deterring white fly - which was the bane of my winter crop (well I think that's what it was, something that put giant holes in everything anyway) so I am attempting to grow about 20 plants so I can space them out around the garden - particularly under the tomatoes, and by the doorways to the house.  Basil is so amazing it even repels the frisky housefly.  This is all excellent news. Katie Karrot tending her babies (well I have to nurture something and I’m not allowed a puppy!) So what’s the plan for next week?  Well I’m away for 10days so the garden is in the helpful hands of my fiancé Damon and our uber-helpful neighbour (Mum) so here’s hoping it’s all still here when I get back – I’ve made them promise to send photos as the seeds sprout – I’ll miss my babies. 6th September – Let the works begin (again) As you’ve probably discovered (if you’ve looked at THE PLAN) that I have several small garden beds on my property and all of them (bar one) have been taken over for vegetables, fruits, and herbs.  While this sounds wonderful, what it actually means is that I have a whole lot of work to do to get them ready for planting.  So it’s Saturday morning and the work has begun again in earnest and my muscles are developing well with all the digging! Me growing some big muscles! (The spare tyres are there for my seed potatoes to go into – not for a go cart) Last week I dug over all the gardens and removed the detritus from winter.  Today I’m digging in all the lovely compost and vegetable mix I’ve bought and it looks lovely.  Both Tui Organic Compost and Tui vegetable Mix come out of the bag as a rich, dark, chocolate colour – and let’s face it, anything chocolate in colour is bound to be good for you!  Next goes a good sprinkling of blood and bone to really get the worms excited and then last but by no means least a good dose of Saturaid.  Saturaid sprinkled on top of new vegetable mix waiting to be watered in. Let’s take some time out for a PLUG.  Debco Saturaid is quite possibly the best product out there for making gardening easy.  Saturaid saves you time, water, and money.  It’s technical name is “wetting agent” but what this really means is that it draws the water to the root zone immediately and therefore reduces run off and makes sure the water is used where it’s needed.  Saturaid reduces your water use by up to 50% which means you can water the garden after work and still have time for a wine in the late afternoon sun!  For more technical info click here.   Okay so enough of that – what you really want to know is “how are my seeds growing” the answer is – at an absolute rate of knots and I couldn’t be more proud of my little babies.  This is the first time I’ve grown from seed and I really thought it was going to be difficult and I would be unsuccessful, but it has been so much fun and really easy.  All you have to do is water them!  Now that they are a little bigger I’m beginning to deduce which rows are which (I recognized the beetroot first because they are red) and I think I should be able to plant them in another week or so - which is perfect timing given the still *unsettled* weather we’ve been having here in the BOP. Before then though I’m going to direct sow my peas, radishes, carrots, beans, and beautiful sweet peas.  I’ll let you know how it goes next week! August 30th - Heave Ho! What a beautiful day here in Tauranga! It’s 8am and I’m in the vege garden getting stuck in. I’ve ousted the remaining winter vege plants that did nothing and I think I’m going to have the back and shoulder muscles of a large ox from all the digging. But digging soil over is a fantastic opportunity to have a good look at the soil – what’s in there, what isn’t in there – and most importantly where are all those lovely worms? I got a wonderful surprise to see boat loads of worms when I dug the layer of pea straw into the soil. I don’t think I need to add any compost to that garden bed. The pea straw has protected it so well and added enough organic matter itself. Mental note – pelletised pea straw should be added to all my vege garden beds this Spring! The rest of the vege garden is looking pretty good but I’m looking forward adding some vegetable mix when I plant my seedlings out soon. Speaking of which….. my babies have sprouted! I’ve been looking after my seedlings very carefully and spraying them with water every night. They have prime position on my kitchen table and get sun all day without the cold wind or rain. I think I look after them better then my poor partner – oops! I just have one question. Why are two rows looking very empty? And why didn’t I write down which seeds are in which row? Now I’m not sure if they just haven’t sprouted or if I forgot to put seeds in there….. Another note for my Gardeners Diary! Sprouted Sprouted August 26th 2008 - Time to sow the seeds! Boy I’m really on a roll now.  The front garden is newly composted and ready for planting when it warms up a little - but I’m getting a jump on Spring, I’ve just bought lots of seeds and spend an hour or so after work sowing them into trays.  It’s so satisfying, I can’t wait to see them sprout.  I also learnt a valuable lesson over winter – “less is more” or “a little at a time”.  In the past I’ve bought seedling packs and planted all 6 seedlings at once, which is great but then I get 6 beautiful lettuces all at the same time and nothing to follow.  So I’m being very clever this time round.  I’m sowing a mix of seeds now and then I’ll do it again in two weeks and again two weeks after that!  That way I’ll have continuous vegetables year round – so clever. My Baby Seeds So tonight I have planted; 4 x Tomato seeds (moneymaker), 3 x Zuchini (one for mum), Lettuce Mesculun mix, Eggplant, Capsicum, Pak Choy, Spinach, Beetroot, Broccoli, and Marigolds (good to plant throughout the vege garden to repel pests).  I also bought peas, radish, carrots, runner beans, and sweet peas but they all suggest direct sowing when the weather is warmer so I’ll do what I’m told. August 22nd 2008 - Preparation is key! This is so exciting – I’ve taken the day off to spend some time in the garden preparing for Spring planting.  I can’t believe it!  It’s raining L but I don’t care, out come the wellies shake off the dust (and cobwebs) put on a cap and a jacket and I’m good to go.  Let’s start by pulling out all those pesky weeds in the front garden. This garden has never been used for vegetables before and probably should be an ornamental garden but I have plans to plant vegetables that look ornamental – like Bright Lights Silverbeet, rhubarb, and healthy green spinach.  I’m always telling people vegetables can be planted anywhere so I’m practicing what I preach!   Front Garden Ready Out come the weeds and in goes bags of rich Tui Organic Compost along with a bag of Tui Super Sheep Pellets and generous handfuls of blood and bone.  All the crops to go in this garden like a good rich soil that is not too heavy or wet.  So lots of time spent forking it over to aerate it and create good airflow for the roots of these plants.  Oooh it looks good! August 16th - Cleaning up I got a bit mad at my winter vegetables today.  They just don’t seem to be doing anything!  My leeks look like spring onions on a bad day, I can’t see anything happening on the cauliflower except holey leaves and don’t get me started on my brussel sprouts.  I have a feeling I left my planting just a little too late, but this was my first time planting winter vegetables.  I’ve marked it down in my “Gardener’s Diary” so I will be much better next year.  But I would like to take some time out to show off my parsley While I would love to take copious amounts of credit for this – I can’t – it grew by accident and I have done nothing to it.  Although it does have a nice growing base of compost and sheep pellets….. maybe I can take the credit? So a bit of a tidy up – pulled out some weeds and old plants, made good use of my garden waste bag which seems to fit no end of rubbish into it!  Getting ready for adding in all the compost and sheep pellets next week. (insert Aug 08 – cleaning up) Parsely Cleaning up August 9th 2008 - Live On Air I admit my garden is a mess and the Challenge has begun! I tried ever so hard to gut stuck into the garden before the very first Katie Karrot radio segment – but unfortunately the rain just never stopped.  So here is what my garden looked like when I started out. Not very impressive unless you count the robust weed growth I have.  But I have THE PLAN! While the rain continued to pour outside I sat inside and read The Kitchen Garden Guide and drew sketches of all the various garden beds I had that I could possibly cultivate for vegetables – and from this came THE PLAN.  Now I have a direction!  I have approximately 10 beds for planting plus the feijoa hedge, the pineapple garden, and various pots and containers – not to mention 20+ types of vegetables! Backyard Front garden