Kohlrabi / 2013-2014

I'd never heard of Kohlrabi until I lived in Iceland, where someone I worked with used to bring in some she grew. The flavour is something I'd describe as something like a sweeter crisper mini-turnip.

Day X+0: Not sure when I planted it out. Like most of my seed sowing, I did it rather rough, and just put them in soil in a tray and placed the tray outside. It would then have gotten hail and snow on it, for short durations.

Day X+6: Six more days later.

Day X+45: Thirty nine more days later, planted out.

Day X+85: Forty more days later.

Unfortunately, I don't seem to have taken any more pictures. I ended up getting maybe 10 decent sized kohlrabi harvested. A rabbit or hare came along at some point and bit the top off several plants. I also put the last kohlrabi into a kimchi made from other things I harvested, but eventually yeast grew on top of it.

Rhubarb / 2013-2014

I had unwanted rhubarb donated from two different parties. In both cases, what I got was crowns, which I divided and planted out. It didn't fare well. And I got maybe one feed out of it.

Day X+0: One divided crown has already sprouted and started growing leaves. The second divided crown will have just been planted out the day the photo was taken.

Day X+50: More growth for both. A mini-bed dug out for comfrey, purchased from Koanga, at the back.

Day X+80: Both beds were getting overgrown and the leaves were sitting on grass. I dug out around them and joined all three beds up.

Day X+101: Both beds are looking even more lush.

Day X+120: Heavy rain for a day or so flooded the bed, which causes the rhubarb to die back. What I should have done in this situation was harvested all the stalks immediately. Unfortunately, I left them on, the leaves wilted and also the stalks with them.

This actually happened several times. And finally, the chickens started eating the leaves right down. It is said that the leaves help kill worms in their stomachs. But how many old wives tales have to turn out to be false, to make all the unproven ones untrustworthy. As I recently read somewhere else, putting a silver coin in a bucket of milk was supposed to stop it from spoiling, yet here we are with refridgerators.

The comfrey is supposed to be good for chickens too, and some people report them eating it freely. Mine won't touch it. It also takes up a lot of ground with it's leaves.

Opium Poppies / 2013-2014

I bought opium poppy seeds from the national auction site. I have no interest in making my own opium, or heroin, but the idea of growing as many things I can eat as possible is one of my goals. In this case, the edible is poppy seeds.

Day 27: By this time, they're a pretty distinctive plant, and have germinated well.

Day 33: Six days later, from a different angle.

Day 93: Later some were planted out in an old barrow.

Day 94: A few more open every day.

Day 96: Two more days pass.

Day 103: Seven more days pass.

Day 112: Nine more days pass.

Day 126: Fourteen more days pass. The poppies are starting to die, as some yellow is appearing.

Day 141: Fifteen more days pass. At this point, they're all dead. Once the heads are dry enough, they can be cut off and cracked open to get the seeds. Wait too long, and the seeds are lost through holes in the heads. The soil I put in the barrow, I dug out of the watercourse at the front of the property, which I had earlier sprayed to kill the growth in there to allow better water flow. So I did not save any from these plants, for culinary purposes. They were traded with some lady for black double opium poppy seeds, which she gave me a lot of. Not sure I want to get those mixed up with these, as these look better. Black flowers are something I still need to be convinced of the merits of.

Day 96: The rest of the poppy seedlings were planted out on the west side of the house. Not so much sun there, so not so many photos.

Day 103: Seven days later. These were eventually the seeds I saved for culinary purposes.

Day 140: This is a dried seed head. It is basically a bowl shape with a windowed top. When the seed is dry enough, the gaps/windows on the top open and the seeds get out of the bowl. So if you wait too long, they'll be empty.

Here's the seeds obtained from one bulb.

And the seeds obtained from two bulbs in total. Really, look how much you get from two poppies. A herb package of poppy seeds costs around $2 at the supermarket on special. You would only need to harvest 10-20 poppies to get this many seeds, at most.

I think I should sow seed regularly over time, so as to get a continuous crop of poppies. If I did this, then I would both get an appealing ground cover, and would get a continuous supply of seeds. It will be interesting to see how many plants self-seed next spring, as well.

An additional note, is that the seeds are grey and not black, as the culinary poppy seeds purchased in the supermarket are - or the seeds on your bagel. But I understand that the grey is a opiate latex covering, and could possibly be washed off. I haven't done much research into this.

Planting & Rooting

This is a collection of recent things I have either planted out, or planted out to root for later transplanting.

Two fruit plants were donated to me, as they were not growing well in town. This is a Fantasia nectarine tree, a variety I already have one of. At worst, it's a backup tree, should the other cark it. It could also be used for grafting.

The other donation, was this blueberry. It's planted out alongside my other two varieties, one of which is Climax, and the other is Powder Blue. This variety of this new plant has been mislaid and will never be known.

I also traded a lot of cuttings and seeds online, and got two varieties of gooseberry. These were from plants themselves raised from cuttings, where the cuttings were from old farms or gold fields, in another part of the country. They should be older varieties, where most of the modern plants available are Pax and Invicta. I've got one Invicta out in my berry orchard. These are sitting in front of my north bed, which the elephant garlic cloves were planted out in.

Last year, I took cuttings from someone else's currant prunings. These I dipped in rooting hormone, and planted in a garden bed. And this year, given they grew roots in the garden bed, I transplanted them out in the field beside my purchased Magnus plant. I've also got a Cotswold Cross, an unknown red currant and a white currant. It just goes to show how easy it is to make your own plants, if you're willing to wait a year and have a source for genetic material to work from.

This year, I've got some gooseberry cuttings and black currant cuttings, which I've taken from someone else's prunings. The gooseberry are a thornless variety, and haven't had a problem with mildew. So not Invicta. The currants are likely Magnus again. Something I read, likely a fruit book I bought, recommended the black plastic to keep weeds down.

I also took two cuttings off my white currant, and have planted them out. But not photo. With a bit of luck, this will give me two more white currant plants next year. I should go out and see if I can get cuttings off the red currant. And for that matter, the Chilean cranberry. Hmm.

Elephant Garlic / 2013-2014

I was given some cloves of elephant garlic, which I planted out in a lazy spot.

Day X+0: At this point, all have come up.

Day X+63: There appears to have been some attrition at this point. I suspect some fell over.

Day X+93: Nearing the point of harvest. I needed them to yellow up a bit more, I think to the second leaf.

Day X+100: Here's the bulbs harvested. They were hung up in the shed.

There were some mini-bulbs. They weren't bulbils from the flower heads, as I cut those off and ate them. I think they were hanging off the big bulbs. In any case, they were planted out in the paddock, where I think they rotted away. I should have potted them up and grown them to be transplanted when more sturdy.

Day X+228: The year's harvest of Elephant garlic was still hanging in the shed. I've not eaten any, and decided to just plant it out. Someone else mentioned that they use it as a leek, rather than eating the bland standard leeks. So, that sounds like a plan. The heads are broken up, and weighed. At 380 grams.. I don't know. It'd mean more if I knew how much last year's planting weighed. There's definitely more cloves though, because a clove turns into a head, which contains more cloves than it started as.. obviously.

Where the cloves are located for future reference.

The cloves are now covered over with the potting mix.

The remaining five elephant garlic bulbs are planted in the bed by the back door, near the lemongrass. I've recently read that the red leafed lemongrass isn't good for much. The other type is the one which gives the thick stems for cooking. This one at best can be used for a tea with it's dud red leaves. If this is true, then I think that avoiding buying any more Little Fruity branded products is probably a wise idea.

Day X+236: And finally, here's one bulb of normal garlic I left in the ground last summer. Each of the cloves has sprouted. I'm just going to leave this here indefinitely, and see how wide it can grow and divide over the future years to come. This is supposed to result in smaller cloves as it divides and is crowded out. To the right of the unharvested garlic, I planted out some mustard I grew. This was sprouted from seeds bought at a bulk food store. They're the kind of seeds you use for pickling. It seems to be surviving the frosts pretty well.

This unharvested garlic, and the second planting of elephant garlic, are actually in the same continuous bed. In this last photo you could see the cheap fencing I put in to stop the chickens getting in and scratching up everything.

Passionfruit, Elite, W1

Day 1: This is one of several cheap passionfruit plants I planted (maybe ~$5NZ at most). There are two varieties, Elite and Black Beauty. I am sure the fruit is indistinguishable, and any difference is purely for marketing purposes..

Day 14: Just two weeks, and there's significant growth. I bought a trellis from Bunnings (for around $20NZ I think) and borrowed a suitable drill, and mounted it for the passionfruit to grow up.

Day 29: Almost a month, and the passionfruit is already halfway up the trellis.

Day 56: Nearly two months, and this isn't far off where it stopped growing.

It's still looking pretty good, and hasn't suffered any damage in the few frosts we've had so far this winter. Hopefully will get some fruit off it later in the year.

Planting Garlic

You're supposed to plant garlic on the shortest day, and harvest it on the longest day. I think I was a week or two late in doing this. Anyway, my hugelkultur raised bed is doing okay out in the paddock. There was a side of it which wasn't planted out, and it's been too wet for most of autumn and what winter has passed, to dig more. So the garlic was going in there. I moved aside the mulch.

The garlic is takahue red bought from Koanga. Last year's garlic was okay, but this is supposed to be a larger cloved variety.

I poked a stick in the bed to make a hole, then pushed in a clove. And repeated heaps of times. There were lots of worms in the bed, and they were often in the poked holes in the way of the garlic.

Now to just wait six months until I can see the results of this.

Garden Bed / 2013-2014 / Hut corner

Day 1: At the front are from left to right, chives, thyme, borage, marigold, french sorrell, lemon balm. At the back from left to right are rosemary, some bee attracting flowers and passionfruit. And the tree there turned out to be a nectarine.

Day 38: Everything has taken off. Well, except for the thyme and rosemary. The borage is the biggest grower. It was apparently used in the pimms drink, as it tastes like cucumber. But it actually tastes like fish. I think it only has that cucumber taste when it is older.

Day 63: The bumblebees loved the borage.

Day 79: A bit lusher.

Day 135: The chives died of some black insect. The borage I guess reached the end of it's season. The chickens eventually got in and ate the french sorrell up. The thyme probably didn't get enough sunlight to thrive. The rosemary disappeared. The nectarine gave me perhaps 9 fruit. The epazote never grew from seed.