In The Garden: How to Prepare Soil for a New Garden Bed

A chilly Monday morning to you! The weekends go by so fast, don't they? This one was particularly quick, as I seemed to cram a lot into just the two days. Unfortunately a lot of it wasn't very productive or fun (sorting laundry, anyone?) but we managed some good times.

Sparky was laid up all weekend with a super sore back, so we juggled kids and painting on Saturday, and I tackled the soon-to-be fruit tree garden bed on Sunday.

I've never had to prepare a brand new garden bed from scratch, so I did some reading and thought I'd tell you how I went about working on the soil, getting it ready for some apple trees in a few weeks' time. (I'm clearly no expert, so feel free to take or ignore the following as you see fit!

1. I bought a few bags of composted cow manure and chook manure from the nursery, as well as a bag of mushroom compost. Cons: All bagged manure/compost sold in Australia has to be heat-treated by law, so they are lacking some of the vitality of the natural manure you can source. Pros: Easy and a much quicker turn around.

If you're looking for the best way to prepare a bed, they say to buy manure straight from the producers (ie local farms, studs, dairies etc) and compost it yourself. Problem: it takes a long time to prepare it this way (at least a month or two before you should use the manure in your garden) and can lead to lots of weeds in your bed by way of undigested seeds etc.

2.  I added one bag cow manure, half a bag chook manure and a bag of mushroom compost to the bed (I was unsure about the amount of chook manure to use, as I know it's very rich and can burn the roots of some plants, so I erred on the side of caution).

3. Dug through the bed to at least 30cm and thoroughly combined the old soil with the organic material. This took longer than I thought, but was such a good workout in the chilly winter air (it was dark by the time I finished) that I didn't mind. I made sure to remove any bits of tree roots, stones, concrete I found, as well as to break up any clumps of dirt.

4. I levelled it out, raked the surface and gave the whole area a thorough water.

Ideally I'd add a thick layer of lucerne hay, to help the soil settle and prevent too much water loss, but I need to go for a drive to a farm to get it and I may not have time.

I'll leave it as is for a couple of weeks now and then take another look before we go and buy our bare-rooted apple trees.

I hope you had beautiful (chilly) weekends too??

In Season: June's Fruit and Veges

image via Allotment UK

Eating in season means you're more likely to be eating Australian-grown produce, which is greener and healthier (not as many preservative sprays used/cold storage/synthetic ripening etc). Even better would be to buy locally grown, spray free produce (check your local area for road-side or farm-based stores - they're more likely to have quality, spray-free produce). And even better would be to buy locally grown, organic produce, but in our case at least, cash is an issue.

I thought it might be helpful to provide a list each month of the fruit and veges that are currently in season (in Australia).

Fruit

apples (bonza, braeburn, fuji, gala, golden delicious, granny smith, jonagold, jonathan, lady williams, mutso, pink lady, red delicious, snow, sundowner) 

custard apple

grapefruit

kiwifruit

lemons

limes

mandarin

nashi

oranges

pears (beurre bosc, josephine, packham) 

persimmon

pomelo

quince

rhubarb

Veges

asian greens

avocados (fuerte, sharwill) 

beetroot

broccoli

brussels sprout

cabbage

carrots

cauliflower

celeriac

celery

fennel

garlic

ginger

horseradish

jerusalem artichokes

kale

kohlrabi

leeks

okra

olives

onions

parsnip

peas

potato

pumpkin

shallot

silverbeet

spinach

swede

sweet potato

turnip

witlof

Admittedly, I'm really not very good at cooking by season - it's hard enough figuring out what to cook as it is - but I'm really trying to make the best use of seasonal fruit and veges as possible. I've got a delicious, comforting, sweet and yum dessert recipe I'll post a bit later on, that might help you out when looking for in-season options this winter.

In Season: May's Fruit and Veges

image by donsutherland1

One part of the Lavender Experiment is to

live greener by: buying our fruit and veges locally and in season.

So I've decided to do a monthly list of common fruit and veges that are currently in season. This tends to help when you go grocery shopping, as in season produce should be cheaper and definitely fresher than its out-of-season friends (yes, I am looking at you, cherries in May!!) and, generally speaking, greener as you should find it to be a local product. Plus, it really should taste better too!

Ideally, you would buy your fruit and veges from local, organic producers, but really, who has the cash or the time to go on ten different trips to local farms? Not me, that's for sure. Most weekends Sparky and I do go for a drive to the Hawkesbury and visit a little farm that sells mostly local, in season produce that's free from chemical sprays, but if we don't have the time we just shop at the local IGA.

(Just a tip for any Sydney folk reading this, the Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail is brilliant, and the website has lots of info on local producers, as well as a search by product function where you can find local prodcuers and seasons.)

Aaanyway, May = late autumn, which in my mind equals two delicious things: apples and rhubarb!! But there are a surprising number of options this time of year, with tonnes of Asian greens in season as well as your root veges which are ideal for soups and stews.

Fruits:

apples (bonza, braeburn, fuji, gala, golden delicious, granny smith, jonagold, jonathan, mutso, pink lady, red delicious, snow, sundowner)

banana

cumquat

custard apple

feijoa

grapes (purple cornichon, waltham cross)

kiwifruit

lemons

limes

mandarin (imperial)

melon (champagne)

nuts (chestnut, hazelnut, peanut, walnut)

pears (howell, josephine, packham, red sensation, williams)

persimmon

quince

rhubarb

Vegetables:

asian greens (bok choy, choy sum, gai laan, wonga bok) 

avocados (fuerte, sharwill) 

beetroot 

broccoli 

brussels sprout

cabbage

carrots

cauliflower

celeriac

celery

daikon

eggplant

fennel

leeks

lettuce, 

mushrooms (wild, field, pine, slippery jacks) 

okra

olives

onions (brown, spring) 

parsnip

peas

potato

pumpkin

shallots

silverbeet

spinach

squash

swede

sweet potato

taro

tomato

turnip

witlof

zucchini

*This list is for Australian fruit and vege seasons.

I know for me, shopping in season stretches my cooking muscles in sometimes uncomfortable ways, because it forces me to continuously revisit my go-to meals and start to look at ways of using less common (or less commonly used) veges. I think that can only be a good thing, and I'm aiming to this year start to try a few new recipes that take full advantage of all the good stuff we can grow here in Australia.