Oct 2011 Issue #73

Hello,

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

1) Seaweed 'n stuff
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Yogurt Salad Sauce

We know a secret,
    just we three,
        the monarch and me
            and the little swan tree.

The monarch told the tree,
    and the tree told me,
        and just we know it,
            just we three.

Seaweed 'n stuff

See a photo and read all about seaweed, mulches and other no dig garden materials here: Garden mulch and other materials.

Eco gardening tips

• Sunlight:
  Why do you need to make sure your veggies get sufficient sunlight?
  
  

  For a start we humans need oxygen to breathe. Your veggies and other plants supply us with oxygen — they produce oxygen indirectly from sunlight by means of photosynthesis.

  How? Plants use sunlight to produce chlorophyll, which along with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, enables them to produce their own energy, or food if you like, to grow. They give off oxygen as a waste product, luckily for us.

  Simply put, not enough sunlight on plants means not much photosynthesis takes place, which means, not much growth. It also means that if the world went dark, we would starve and gasp for breath!

• Wrap it up:
  When I was little we used to go and stay with my Aunty Lyn & Uncle Baden in Taranaki, NZ, where the soil was black volcanic loam. Their garden was lush, and my aunt used to have a newspaper sheet on her bench and put food scraps on it each day, then wrap it up and dig a little hole in garden with her trowel and put the parcel in and cover it up.
  
  

  She did this all her life, moving around the garden bit by bit, improving the soil year after year. Great if you have the garden handy just out the back door.

• Scrunch it up:
  If the above tip is not suitable for you, then like me you've probably got a small bin or plastic bucket in the kitchen to put scraps in. You can still wrap scraps in newspaper, or line your bucket with it to keep it less messy, or just add scrunched up paper.
  
  

  Paper adds dry carbon material to compost which is useful to balance out too much wet nitrogen material of fruit and vegetables common in kitchen scraps.

Yogurt Salad Sauce

Ingredients

• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 1 Tablespn prepared mustard
• 1 teaspn fennel seed (or dill, or 1 Tbn chopped parsley or celery)
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped and crushed
• 2 Tablespn ground sunflower seeds
• 1 teaspn lemon juice.
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tablespn olive oil

Method

1. Put the first seven ingedients into blender.
2. Blend and slowly trickle olive oil in so that it emulsifies.
3. Serve over salad or steamed veggies. Particulaly good with grated raw beetroot, which you can pre-soak with a little apple cider vinegar if you like it softened, and carrot.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Serves: 2-3 people

Happy gardening,
Megan