September 2010 Issue #60

Hello,

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

1) We call them seasons
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Tasty Tomatoes

Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
~ Scandinavian Proverb

We call them seasons

Now north of the equator it's officially fall, and springtime below. Unofficially, at least where I live, we have in-between seasons with often wild unpredictable weather. So right now it's 'sprinter' here... spring with a touch of winter.

Many countries recognise just two seasons, such as wet/dry, monsoons/no monsoons, first/last snowfall, or the scientific summer/winter solstices and autumn/spring equinoxes.

All I know is that today there's enough blue sky out there to make quite a few sailor suits.

The Lustication-Justification Process

Lustication is the psychological trigger of desire that makes people want (lust after) something. All together now... "we want compost, we want compost"... do we what indeed!

Justification is merely the rational excuse used to expend resources.

Of course we want compost, because it:

• Reduces our household garbage considerably
• Exercises us as we make it
• Feeds and balances our soil to give us healthy plants
• It... oh there are heaps of reasons.

Have a read of the updated information at Composting — How to make compost. Hurry and you'll catch a picture of me topping up my compost bin!

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Eco gardening tips

• Chilies to eat and admire:
  As mentioned last month, you can have your chillies mild or hot depending when you pick them. Remember also that there are edible chilies and ornamental chilies and there are both.

  Ornamentals have been selectively bred for their beautiful coloured chillies or leaves. Because of different ripening stages, a plant can show peppers ranging from white to yellow to orange to red and sometimes deep purple.

  Generally you can tell an ornamental chilli plant because they've been bred for the peppers to stand upright like little candles and clear of the leaves, whereas edible plants tend to hang their chillies downwards.

  By all means eat ornamental chilies, as they are edible, but beware some are unpleasantly hotter than hot, and others are as tasteless as hospital food.


• Believe it or not:
  Did you know that mice have no collarbones? So if you don't want mice in your compost bin, worm farm or under your shed or house door, you have to have a gap or netting no larger than one quarter of an inch. Mice can flatten their bodies down to this size!
• Plenteousness:
  Yes it does mean that when talking about seeds in Autumn!
  
  

  While we harvest our crops, nature sees this as a time of sowing and scattering abroad.

  The plenteousness of seeds means you can swap and gift some; let some scatter randomly which I do so there's always surprises coming up especially if I'm busy and don't always get to plant when I should; or save some carefully for next season, see Seeds and Seedlings.

Tasty Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 2 cups sliced tomatoes, or rehydrated tomatoes
• ¼ cup olive or good oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• ½ tspn dried mustard
• 1 tspn salt
• ½ tspn warmed honey, xylitol, or fine sugar. Or pinch stevia.
• ¼ tspn pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced or chopped and crushed
• 1 Tbln fresh chopped basil
• 2 fresh sprigs of thyme, chopped
• 1 tspn fresh marjoram, chopped
• 1 heaped Tbln minced or finely chopped red onion

Method

1. Put tomato slices in serving bowl.
2. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over tomatoes. Toss gently.
3. Chill for at least 1 hour or longer to blend flavors before serving. Stir carefully.
4. To serve over hot dishes such as pasta, return to room temperature or heat gently in pot.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Serves: 2-4 people

Happy gardening,

Megan