October 2013 Issue #98

Hello,

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

1) The lost snail
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Kale Sauce

I'm a snail that got lost
Looking for compost
The shops weren't fantastic
So I turned into plastic.

So true

In response to last month's newsletter picture about weeding, I love this message from a reader, Kate...

"Hi, Megan, I like that sign! Some of my friends come over and just sit in the garden because it's a 'natural place' — and it is — but it didn't get that way by me doing nothing. They say how lucky I am to have a garden, as though it just appeared one day out of the clear blue. Ha, ha!" Kate.

Raring to grow

The FAQ section is the place where beautiful people hang out... earthy, beautiful and raring to grow.

Who wants to know why they are now producing flat and tough green beans?

And there are expert ideas for any frustrated passion fruit growers here

Eco gardening tips

• Grow your child's name:
  If you read the above link about passionfruit, Bill T gives lots of ever-helpful advice, plus a nice idea for a child to scratch their name with a nail into a young developing passionfruit, and as the fruit grows the name will stay — neat!
• Exploding growth:
  Like the famous Krakatoa, some vegetables can have a seemingly overnight momentous meltdown. Cabbages and lettuces come to mind.
  
  

  If you can't eat them as they mature and before they burst open, try wrenching them a bit from the ground. This will slow down their race to maturity without actually killing them.

• Staggering vegetables:
  About the only advantage of buying vegetables is that you only buy what you need. So remember when planting your vegetables, try (it's hard I know) to only plant what you can eat a bit at a time.
  
  

  Stagger your plantings every few weeks or so. You're then less likely to end up with your kitchen bench covered in a mountain of say, spinach or beans or zucchini etc… and the sun is shining outside, but you've got to do something with all this bounty!

  Here's large amount of information on growing seeds and seedlings

If you'd like to simplify your gardening by knowing when, what and how to plant, I'm willing to bet this GrowVeg.com garden planner will be a hit with you,
like it is with me.

Kale Sauce

Ingredients

• Good handful of kale leaves (about 10 or so)
• 1 cup water
• ⅓-½ cup walnuts
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method

• Remove stems from kale and steam leaves in half the water for 5 minutes.
• Put walnuts and other half cup of water in blender, then add steamed kale with any water left.
• Blend until creamy, and add salt and pepper to taste.
• Small additions such as avocado, coconut cream, chopped fine garlic, powdered parmesan, olive oil or lemon juice, all give this dish different textures and tastes.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves: 4-6 as a topping

Happy gardening
Megan