Are there any backyard veggie gardeners here?

[achookwoman]

Marina, no coddling moth here. Think it is too cold.
Yesterday made once dessert for visitors using these small apples.

Picked some yellow Zuchinni and made an interesting salad with black beans.

[achookwoman]

[mcmich]

Lovely looking salad Chookie.

[Bedlam]

Chookie, that salad looks lovely, I haven't seen yellow zucchini before.

[Cuilidh]

That salad looks good - the colours contrast so well.

Coddling moth is the bane of my life.  Hopefully it won't be so bad next year as our neighbour has put some more hens into our hen run and they will be out in our orchard most days soon soI hope they will gobble the little blighters up ... then all we will need to do is keep the birds away - from approx. 10 apple trees, we have only one left - they have completely stripped everything.  Ah well, I guess they need to eat too (that's me being very philosophical).

[achookwoman]

Marina, we have about 20 various fruit trees in our orchard and we get practically no fruit from these as they are not covered.
This year we are going to prune them to a height that I can reach and cover them.  Well that is the plan!

The yellow Zuchinni, I grew in a large pot.  The salad in the photo has a most unusual dressing. Throw a 1/2 a cucumber into TMX bowl with a splash of Apple Cider vin, salt and pepper and about 1/4 cup of good olive oil.  Zap on speed 7 until well blended. Pour over black beans and chopped,( by hand) Zuchinni , add chopped parsley.

[Cuilidh]

You are right about the dressing, I have never heard of that before.  How dd it go with the rest of the ingredients?

Have a look at this site for tree nets that keep EVERYTHING out!  NB  The big size is really big!

[achookwoman]

Thanks Marina, interesting but OMG they are expensive.  What we have is a massive roll of white bird netting.  The birds can see the White and don't get caught in it. We measure out what we need and cut to size. Although the roll cost $200 , we save the nets for the next year. We roll them up and tag them.

[mcmich]

Gosh Chookie at that price you would want to save it from year to year.

[cookie1]

We don't have coddling moth over here. Do you people have trouble with fruit fly?  It is really bad over here and deadly if you don't spray.

[KarenH]

Have a look at this site for tree nets that keep EVERYTHING out!  NB  The big size is really big!

Thanks for this link Marina.  DH has been looking for a circular tree net for our apple trees for ages.  We have the usual rectangular netting, but the sneaky little birds are clever enough to get in and around the netting somehow.  I have ordered one of these and look forward to trying it next year.

[achookwoman]

We are harvesting and eating lots from our veggie garden. Zuchinni, silver beet, spinach, cherry tomatoes, Apples, lemons, limes, Cumquats, pears, fennel, mint, parsley, garlic, Rosemary, bay leaves, horseradish , Asian veggies, lettuce., potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes. .   I have made oodles of jam and bottled lots of Apples in medium sized jars.
The chooks are enjoying lots of greens and the yolks of their eggs are bright orange.

[KarenH]

Wow chookie - your garden sounds amazing!  We are at the end of our summer crops, and are just picking tomatoes, capsicums, carrots and herbs now.  I have planted purple sprouting broccoli, but it has not grown enough yet.

How do you bottle apples?  we have been given a large bag from our neighbours, but I haven't heard of bottling apples before?

[achookwoman]

Karen I bottle Apples in Dolmio type jars.  That is the ones with the white seal in the lid.  I process them in the Microwave. I put the instructions on here sometime ago.  I will see if I can find them for you.  It is well worth doing. I think it is also on my Blog.  Will look.

[achookwoman]

Karen, 2010 October on my Blog.