September 2020 Issue #181

Hello,

What fun that we both love gardening. Thanks for joining me.

1) Seed Bombs
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Perfect Homemade Chips

Be part of the rush to cover the world with flowers (and kindness of course). Read up on Guerrilla Gardening and off you go. Super fun for school holidays with the kids too. They love making seed bombs!

Stoned spiders... what? Indeed, some lucky (maybe unlucky) spiders were chosen for an experiment. See what happens when they then build — well try and build — their webs. Quite amazing! No-dig Garden's Facebook page.

Eco gardening tips

• Veges for veg avoiding kids
  Usually kids involvement in gardening helps them to enjoy the rewards. But sometimes, chard and celery (or insert your child's screwed up eewww face here) don't bring an enthusiastic response.
  
  

  Most kids like very small things, so mini pumpkins, like Baby Bear will fire their imagination... wow my own single serve pumpkin all to myself! The semi-hullless seeds can be toasted for snacks.

  Golden Midget is a stunning baby heirloom watermelon, with pink flesh, sweet and firm, plus the outside rinds turns yellow when ripe!

  
  

• Winter squash harvesting
  Pick your winter squash when fully mature. They will have very hard skins that are difficult to puncture with the thumbnail. Usually there are also color changes, such as:

  • Butternut squash should be harvested when they are uniformly tan in color.
  • For green acorn squash cultivars, the yellow spot facing the ground will change to orange.
  • Spaghetti squash are ready when they change from ivory white to golden yellow.



• Give your seedlings a cuddle
  Here's a good recycling idea to warm things up. An old electric blanket or pet electric blanket makes a good seed warming mat. Use the LOW setting — you don't want to burn down your house or shed. Turning it off when you go out is also recommended, or at least put in a fireproof place. Short circuits can happen!

Best Vegetable Peeler

You only need this one multi-functional peeler.It grates, planes, slices ...it's all you need to prepare your vegetables for eye-catching salads and cooking.

Made of stainless steel, it's a high quality, sturdy and comfortable kitchen essential.

See more information at Garden Gift Hub

Perfect Homemade Chips

A few secrets makes the difference. Who can resist these!

Ingredients

• 2 medium spuds
• 2 kumara or sweet potatoes
• Other root veg, eg: beetroot, carrot, parsnip etc
• 2 Tbln butter or coconut oil to coat, or your own choice of fat or oil
• Salt and pepper to taste (seaweed salt is nice)
• Any herbs and spices you like to sprinkle lightly over, such as cumin, oregano, paprika.

Method

1. Cut peeled or unpeeled (your choice) all veg into large chips.
2. Put all into large pot of ordinary salted cold water to cover chips, bring to boil and simmer for 2 minutes (beetroot needs to go into separate pot unless you want everything pink).
3. Drain chips then spread evenly on oven tray(s) so they are not crowded. Bake at 190ºC (375ºF).
4. Shake, stir or turn them over after about 15 minutes. Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until they are golden and crunchy on the outside. Serve hot with any toppings of choice.

Note: Beetroot takes a bit longer to cook than spuds and sweet spuds, whilst carrots and parsnips etc take a bit less, adjust if you like.

Options for toppings to put on top can be pesto, grated cheese, chopped crushed garlic, chopped herbs and many spices such as paprika, chilli, cumin, ginger.

Preparation time: Approximately 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30-45 minutes
Serves: 4 or more

Live, love and garden
Megan