World Environment Day

So on World Environment Day (Saturday) we restored some order to the the old veggie patch and drove into town to buy a few seedlings and packets of seeds. It's the start of winter on this side of the hemisphere so mindful of that I had to choose seed carefully. It wasn't too hard as our local hardware store hardly had any seed, I only managed to get some spring onion, "bright lights" chard/spinach and red cabbage (I chose the interesting stuff as we generally get the ordinary stuff as seedlings). At the little seedling place I had quite a bit of joy: all the brassicas I could hope for (except cauliflower). By the way, "brassicas" is a new word I've added to my vocab recently - it even has me waking up with it swirling round and round my head in the mornings! It's all the leafy veg like cabbage, broccoli & spinach. Also got some onions, lettuce (the boring kind) & beetroot. The most exciting find was a little tray of leggy eggplants (brinjals)! I figure that if they have sprouted now they should grow with some care! I love brinjals, they form the base of many of my vegetarian dishes (especially Veggie Lasagne & Curry).

My gardener dug up the old strawberry patch as the plants were old. I carefully selected young healthy plants and put them into pots for the time being. I'm hoping to eventually get some into hanging baskets on our north facing verandah so that I can keep an eye on the birds!

Last year my thyme (planted in the veggie patch) died back in the winter so I've put a new plant that I bought at the foot of the potted perennial basil where it's a little sheltered and also added some of the oregano that is a happy ground cover in the veggie patch. I love thyme, I think it complements egg & chicken dishes very well and there is no substitute for fresh herbs.

I cut back the two huge perennial basil bushes that had made the bees very happy with all their flowers in Autumn when not much else was flowering. Yes, basil is our favourite herb though the annual is nicer as the leaves aren't hairy like the perennial. I manually shredded a bucket full of the soft cuttings and made a "basil tea" by adding boiling water until it was well covered and left it to steep. Two days later I strained it. It forms the base of at least two organic pesticides that I know of.

Here are the recipes:

BASIC BASIL SPRAY MIXTURE (for aphids, black fly, scale & ants):

1 Bucket basil tea

Half a cup Sunlight soap powder or grated Sunlight soap bar

Mix well and pour into a spritz bottle. Only use when necessary (not as a preventative) and preferably in the early evening once the bees and ladybirds have flown home.

BASIL FUNGICIDE (effective against fungus, mildew, scale and ants):

2 Litres basil tea

Half a cup of vinegar

One quarter cup of cooking oil (omit for pouring down ant holes)

Mix well and pour into a spritz bottle.

I also cut back the capsicum bushes. I have 3 that have born a prolific amount of fruit for the second season irrespective of gross neglect. They are similar in appearance and taste to "peppadews" though possibly a little hotter. I harvested a fair amount to once again preserve.