Entrachyadid wormsOur permaculture worm tower seems to be working well. But we have just noticed that lots of the thin white worms that were in the bin have gotten out and gone wriggling around the garden. There seems to be a heap of them. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we instantly knew what they were and what to do.

Entrachyadids are a type of earthworm, and not a nematode as I first feared. They are a sign that the soil is too acid which is a result of putting in too many kitchen scraps. Although, the entrachyadids don’t do any damage, we will be adding lime to the beds to reduce the acidity.

Watch the short video on permaculture worm towers.

Dill (Anethum graveolens)I feel so gosh darn urban homesteady today. It’s been a beautiful day and I’ve spent it pottering around getting stuff done.

Off in search of a new oven this morning – depressing. It seems $2500 seems to be the going rate for a new oven that doesn’t appear to be made out of plastic. Most look like they would melt if we turned them on. I make my own bread and pizza – I need decent, heavy-duty cookware. So we’ll have to come up with plan B on that one.

Spent the rest of the day kicking it in the sun collecting more marigold seeds and gathering dill to be prepared for drying. Had a meeting to prep for the next Seedy Sunday and then began my kitchen prep for the week. I’ve made yoghurt, started some fenugreek sprouts and a rocket farm on some paper towels and a lid. Even made one for the neighbours – I’ll get them gardening eventually! Finished the day off  by cooking a big casserole in the crockpot.

So the theory is, I should be all ready set go for a busy week ahead – work, Seedy Sunday promotion, blogging and some proofreading -but I can relax knowing my kitchen is in order, even if the oven isn’t.

Homegrown organic cherry tomato yumminessI think that’s the last of my cherry tomatoes. Just as well really, I was getting totally sick of them. We had sooooo many. It was a bad year for tomatoes in the Wellington region and nearly all mine ended up being cherry-sized.

I even had to buy a couple of kilos to produce the year’s supply of tomato chutney. Neither us nor our friends, can live without the all-time famed Anna & Richard’s Tomato Chutney. (Recipe not forth-coming – you can have anything else, just not my tomato chutney recipe. It’s the sauce of my popularity. I shall not share!)

We’ve made a gallant effort with our bite-sized crop but I’m fed up with the rest and I’ve been jarring them. Here’s how. Bottled cherry tomato recipe after the jump…

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As yet unidentified evil bean-sucking bugLast December I noticed a lot of what looked like little black ladybugs on my beans. I did lots of research, asked lots of questions but without handy visual references I couldn’t work out what they were. Dear internet content people, please supply more pictures! (Are there any entomologists out there who can please tell me exactly what this thing is?)

Anyway, they had seemed pretty harmless in their small little shiny baby form – until they monstrously transformed into life-sucking bean-devouring plagues of evil. Garlic spray by this time was incapable of warding off their vampiric tendencies and my carefully arranged companion plants just kind of shrugged their shoulders and like insolent teenagers proclaimed “Whateva, I’m not bovvered!” I’ve never wanted to smack a marigold around before, but it needed a wake-up clip.

Advice on how to organically deal to shield bugs and other such painful pests after the jump.
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Zucchini Blossom End RotSo I was wondering why the zucchini plants growing in one bed were half the size of the ones growing in another. The answer became apparent as the zucchs set. The soil in one bed is lacking in calcium. The signs being a nasty little problem called Blossom End Rot.

I’m ok with it as I’m drowning in zucchini at the moment and I’m choosing to see this as a valuable garden lesson. Still, I don’t like to see unhappy plants. I’ll be laying them to rest in the compost and adding lime and crushed egg shells to the soil, reapplying mulch and hoping for better healthier plants next time around. I’ll do a soil test in the future to see if I got it right.

Zucchini Blossom End Rot is not your friend! Make sure you look after your soil and avoid these problems!

St John's WortIt’s a beautiful sunny, summer day and my garden is rocking right now. I’ve been in a fairly lazy mood pottering around, taking some photos, pulling some weeds. It’s been a great day. My St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is looking fantastic . The bright yellow flowers are looking resplendent. Today I’m going to bottle some of that golden goodness and make a tincture.

St John’s wort has been used centuries as a healing and magical herb. It’s been talked about a lot over the last decade due to it’s use as a treatment for depression. St John’s wort is also incredibly effective as an antibiotic and to heal neuralgic headaches and external injuries, burns and bruises. And that’s what I’ll be using my tincture for.

More on St John’s wort, how to grow, harvest, infuse and use it with lots of pretty pictures after the jump….

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Angelica archangelicaYesterday was an absolutely gorgeous Labour Day, which saw me spring cleaning the garden. My medicinal herb garden got a general weed and several species avoided strangulation by the kikuyu, St John’s wort and violets which are running mad. The calendula got tidied up and the chamomile is doing well. And it’s really nice to see my bloodwort, comfrey, goldenrod and marshmallow making stellar returns.

I planted out my shallots and transplanted the Jerusalem artichokes to somewhere a bit more agreeable.So they don’t interfere with my more valuable root crops – good garlic is extremely important.

I have angelica Angelica archangelica going crazy in random places all over the garden so I need to find some uses. I might need to try this angelica liquer and all 17 of these angelica recipes to try to get it back under control. Now is time to harvest the stems, but I’ll keep plenty on to get some of the roots in autumn. Plants for a Future has a great write-up on it. I love that project!

More gardening adventures after the jump…
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It’s a beautiful Spring-shiny day here on the Kapiti Coast. I’m celebrating with a lovely glass of chilled Brown Brother’s Dolcetto-Syrah (to ease the passage from winter reds to summer whites) and planting seeds. It’s just lovely. My nose is filled with berry bouquets and I still retain some dirt below my fingernails, making me feel all like earth goddess and urban-tech sophisticate at the same time. Lovely, I tell you.

So, I’ve scrabbled around and found a whole range of seed and thought it was about time to get some things on the go. Then I can take a serious look at my Kings Seeds catalogue and decide on a few other flavours for the garden.

To dampen my abilities to go overboard, I limit myself to 10 lots (read pots) of seeds at a time. This forces me into planting a diverse garden that doesn’t all come on at once. Since it is so mild here, I can get a really good growing season with a little patience.

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