Food Supplies. Tomatoes, Picking & Preserving.

We have started harvesting our tomato crop & preserving them. We may dry some like last year, but for now we are bottling them.

We always put stakes in for our tomato plants, but sometimes they get away from us! One day they don't seem large enough to tie, & the next time we check they have gone beyond tying! I am never game to try tying them once they have got to a certain size, because invariably the stems break.

Then there are the volunteers from last years crop, we could pull them out, but we never do. We can always use more tomatoes. These volunteers grow madly all over the garden & the paths until the paths are impassable! Stakes do make the picking easier, but I find it no great hardship to pick from the sprawling plants on the ground.

12 jars so far, this is the product of 4 baskets as at the top of this page, & we still have a lot to pick, & the crop is still ripening.

Chicory.

Chicory.

Dandelion.

This year we are growing Chicory & Dandelions.

https://humanelivingnet.net/2013/04/09/foraging-for-chicory-greens/

Natural Herbal Pain Killers.

http://naturalsociety.com/16-natures-best-natural-pain-killers/

The Use of Hemp In Australia.

Gardens. Boxing and Mulching.

When we want to use a bed that has overgrown with weeds, we cover the grass and weeds with cardboard and then mulch on top. The grass and weeds will rot down to compost under the cardboard.
 If we want to use the garden right away, then we can weed the garden, add some manure, box it (cover with cardboard), then add mulch. For planting we simply make holes in the mulch and cardboard and sow directly or plant into the ground.
 Before boxing we soak the ground if we intend to use it right away. The boxing and mulching keeps in the moisture and saves water.

A short piece of fencing of ring lock for the choko to climb on.

Queensland Blue pumpkin patch boxed, mulched and sown.

Another section of garden boxed over weeds and grass but not yet mulched.

A new garden bed I have just prepared where the old compost heap used to be. This bed for Golden Nugget pumpkins. I dug out the grass and weeds and added sheep manure before boxing. I will be adding mulch and sowing tonight when it gets cool.

This section was boxed and mulched during winter, and is now ready for planting.