What's Wattle Fencing?

I've been busily weaving wattle fences around plants in the garden using the last of the winter prunings (mainly from 2 very straggly snowball trees). I hope that these low fences will protect plants from wandering nieces, nephews and dog feet!

Wattle fence holding back soil and protecting a young apricot tree, strawberry runners and red currant cuttings.

These 2 little fences are protecting 2 tiny caper bushes that are just beginning to re-sprout after feigning death.

If you're interested in starting your own weaving project this is a great segment from Gardening Australia that should help you on your way.

How to Cook the First Artichoke of the Season

I harvested and ate my first globe artichoke for the season the other night. It was earthy and delicious and tasted of spring. They're a bit fiddly to prepare but once you know one end of an artichoke from the other it should only take a couple of minutes and the finished product is totally worth the effort! This is a really simple method that lets that artichokey flavour shine. Here's what I did:

Cut in half lengthways.

Cut out the 'choke' (which is the fluffy centre bit).

Cut off the top quarter of the artichoke flower.

Peeled off some of the tough outer leaves.

Peeled the stem (the stem tastes great too so remember to leave a bit on when you're harvesting).

Cooked in boiling, salted water for about 8 minutes.

Finally, I drained it, drizzled with good quality extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with good salt (I use pink lake salt). I'm sorry to say that I was a bit excited about chowing down and forgot to take a photo of the finished product!

There are lots more artichokes forming on my plants so I can look forward to many more yummy morsels in the coming weeks. I'll even try to hold off eating them long enough to get a photo!

THIS Is a Garden Salad!

Yesterday was a lovely sunny spring day here in Melbourne- perfect salad eating weather! I picked some beetroot leaves, kale, chickweed (neither the chickens or I think this is actually a weed!), dill, shallot tops, sprouting broccoli and snow peas.

 I chopped it all up and mixed with some mayo, greek yoghurt, olive oil, sunflower seeds, left-over roasted fennel and salt and pepper. Yummo!

Can You Ever Have Too Many Seeds??

I have been stocking up on seeds for the spring/summer growing season. My seed containers were already overflowing but I just can't resist buying more varieties!

One very stylish seed box. Left of the divide for autumn/winter plantings & right for spring/summer plantings.

I was excited to find more seed companies selling smaller quantities of seed for around $1-$2 a packet (like Boondie Seeds and The Seed Collection). I can get all the varieties I want without feeling guilty that there is 3/4 of a packet going out of date in the cupboard!

It's no wonder that I've found myself raising 15 varieties of tomatoes this season! Now to find room to plant them all...

Two tomato seedlings. Their label is MIA so who knows which of the 15 varieties they could be!

Confessions of a Rookie Grafter

I grafted my first ever graft on the weekend. I've always avoided grafting because it seemed like a highly skilled craft of which I had no knowledge. That is until the joys of YouTube convinced me that it's not all that difficult. So, armed with some cleft grafting know-how, a couple of scions (courtesy of the Heritage Fruit Society), electricians tape, a tin of Steri-Prune paint, a pruning saw and more kitchen knives than I could carry, I tottered down to my established apple tree of unknown variety.

I promptly lopped of a 40mm thick branch low down in the tree and set to finding the best kitchen knife for the job of cutting down into the centre of the branch. The large 'chefs' knife turned out the best. I then set to work whittling away at the scions which turned out to be tougher then I thought. I ended up with a none-too-skinny wedge on the end of my scion pieces and set about jamming them into the cut on the existing tree. Satisfied with my job I dabbed a little bit of Steri-Prune on the graft and a lot on my hands then bound the lower parts with electricians tape.

Grafting apple scions. Scion wedges are too thick & top of the graft is left uncovered here.

Later that night I began to have doubts about my grafting job and decided to re-watch the grafting video that had inspired in the first place. I soon realised that I'd done a few things that were less than ideal. I hadn't covered the top cut with tape and the scion pieces were too thick, pushing the slice too wide (potentially allowing moisture to enter the branch). I also regretted applying the Steri-Prune to the graft. It smelt like nasty chemicals and the tree's natural healing process probably would have worked fine on this small graft anyway.  The following morning I set about re-working the grafts. I pulled all the tape off, pulled the grafts out, used a stanley knife to cut the scions down to a much thinner wedge (a recommendation I found while scrounging the net), trimmed the receiving cut down to fresh wood, replaced the scions and wrapped the entire end of the branch in tape. 

Finished graft after thinning down the scion wedges & covering the whole graft with tape.

Fingers crossed at least one of the grafts takes! I'd love to hear about your experiences in grafting (successes, failures, advice and techniques) so please feel free to comment below.

Risky Late Winter Plantings

Yesterday was the last day of winter... Yesterday I planted out a tomato seedling and my pumpkin seeds. Risky you say? Probably, but I did take some risk mitigation measures and look forward to seeing if they pay off!

I've planted my pumpkin seeds in a repurposed dog kennel (that I scavenged from the side of the road) with a piece of perspex over the top. I put 2 warty Galeux D' Eysines pumpkin seeds in one half and 2 Musquée de Provence seeds in the other half. These pumpkins are supposed to be so delicious they were traditionally eaten raw- can't wait to give that a go!

Hard rubbish dog kennel/pumpkin oasis.

The tomato (a Green Grape seedling) is tucked up under some horticultural fleece and is next to a bottle full of water. I hope the water will provide thermal mass over the cold nights.

Green Grape tomato seedling ready to bear some low temperatures (I hope!)