There’s a permaculture principle of designing for disaster. The same principle applies to big disasters (whoever had the bright idea of building the Fukushima nuclear plant wasn’t taking account of it), or small disasters like a hailstorm or a day of sizzling hot weather when carrots are germinating or establishing. Like many permaculture principles it’s hardly rocket science: just research, consider and design for the extremes not just the ideal,…
I’ve planted a few each of Hungarian Wax capsicums (in the picture), which are a yellow banana type, and my Supermarket Flats, which are a thicker walled, sweet pepper that is red when fully ripe. They are at the perfect age for planting out – raised to advanced seedlings (about 15 cm tall) in individual pots filled with a compost/worm castings/creek sand mix. This means I can plant them out…
There’s a (very small) limit to the amount of mustard we eat as leaf – a tiny bit to heat up spinach and feta muffins or add a bit of spiciness to Saag, but that’s about it. But the seed is valuable. I make seeded or Djion mustard from it, use it in curries and dhal and pickles, and sow the seed to harvest as microgreens this time of year.
My glut crop this week is coriander seed. So easy to harvest this time of year.
My glut crop this week is peas, and they are only a glut crop because my kids are grown up. For years, all through pea season, a whole gang of kids would arrive after school and feast on peas straight from the vine. I still can’t think of any better way of dealing with a glut of peas than a gang of kids.
There’s lots of leafies to harvest at the moment. I’ve got a bit of an addiction going for Rocket and Macadamia Pesto, (without chili this time of year). The rocket you can see on the left of the photo, just next to the spring onions, is just the right stage for pesto. I have another patch of younger rocket that I like better in salads – it’s that bit milder.…
The days are getting longer at an exponentially faster rate now so everything wants to bolt. Next week will be fruiting planting days, and this time of year that’s easy. Beans and cucumbers and zucchini and squash and tomatoes and capsicums and all their relatives. But this week it’s just a small box of seed – lime and Thai and sweet basil, parsley, amaranth, and I think that will do.