Rarer perennial vegetables.

I have the opportunity to grow some interesting perennial herbs and vegetables. One of these will be yakon, a South America plant that is gradually becoming more available in Perth as people share it and the circle of yakon keepers gets gradually wider. We are also going to grow some asparagus, yam beans and other cool stuff. I will post more once we have some going.

It's been good having time to clean up the garden.

Hiding the neighbours with gum trees.

Having a tidy up in the garden again. Having moved a large pile of twiggy sticks and had a few fires to get rid of them, we now have one last stack left and they will hopefully go tonight. This has left a large open flattish area in the far back of the garden, near the young tuart tree. Next to that is now a young flowering gum, Corymbia ficifolia, in case the tuart dies. If the tuart doesn't die, then two large trees won't take up much more room than one at that spacing. 
It would be pretty good to make the flat area into a sitting or lounging spot. We shall see...

Funny thing is, I should be cleaning the house for a visit from relatives soon, but cleaning up the garden is so much more satisfying.

It would be great to eat some food from the garden.

Maybe this year the rats, snails, slugs and slaters might let us eat some of our vegies. Oh and the tomato borer grubs and caterpillars. Maybe we'll get to eat some tomatoes from heirloom seed or ripe red capsicums.

That would be unreal. It's kind of an expensive hobby to buy or grow good seedlings and then have them disappeared overnight by filthy Rattus or Helix.

Nets will be a new addition to fruiting tomatoes and capsicums, to prevent borers. I have found a few old mosquito nets and net curtains to cover any stone fruit in pots that feel like fruiting. Maybe, if we're very lucky some fruits of our labour will actually make it to the kitchen.

Sowing seeds and cleairng spots for future plantings is a satisfying task as is creating some visual screens from various neighbours and making little trellis areas for beans.

Resting now to make a fire from many untidy sticks we have knocking around taking up room that could be used for, well, something, surely. I'm trying to get as much done as i can before the temperatures start to rise again, including clearing any flammable material thats lying about. Hence, the fire.. hooray.

Seed sowing for spring.

Finally sowed some seeds today for spring's arrival soon.
I only sowed a few of each so I don't waste any and will make sure I label them when they get planted too.

 I did a large seed order with Green Harvest recently. WA has recently had new quarantine inpsection fees introduced that allow them to charge $56 per 15 minutes insppection of any seeds from interstate or overseas. I bought a bunch of seeds while Green Harvest offered to pay the fee, so I can try and save a new generation of heirloom seeds that is more localised.

Local knowledge for food gardeners.

Edible and Useful Plants for the Swan Coastal Plain is available at Lulu.com or The Chart & Map Shop in Fremantle.

Many years of notes from my original permaculture teachers, horticulture study at TAFE and first-hand experience have finally been compiled into a local source of knowledge on what sorts of edible plants from around the world that you can grow in your own garden.

I have grown most of these plants or know someone who has. Some are still pretty rare to get hold of but others are now more common thanks to the increasing networks of permaculture and organic growers in the suburbs.

Many of the plant are common, but included so they don't get forgotten for back yard growers. Some of the plants are what you may consider weeds. A weed is merely a plant in the wrong place. If that place then becomes your kitchen, then it wasn't as useless as many people would think.

Please support your local horticulturist and buy a copy of this book.

Now go and get your hands in some dirt. It's good for you.