MICKEY’S BLOG

The very first Jersulam artichoke flower makes its appearance....a few weeks late this year, thanks to the intense summer heatwave we experienced (and lack of rain of course).  However....better late than never! The rest are in bud and set to burst at any moment....

Here is hope there will be fresh figs to eat at next weekend's Kitchen Gardening Day!  Heaven knows, I've been living on a diet of figs for the last couple of weeks, it would be terrific if we have a few at their very best on the...

What a difference some rain makes!  It's been a tough season.  Some of the locals say it's one of the worst they've seen (which I find a bit surprising because we've been here 25 years and seen it pretty bad). This summer, I've been wondering what on earth I've...

OK....so Brian (help in the garden once a week), spent some time in his youth working in the Riverland of South Australia, where sultanas and raisins dry on racks, under cover.  Simple.  So with some old wire from the shed (love wire, can never have enough);  he...

Wet weather saw us scurrying to cut open all remaining paper bags containing our precious grapes before some dreaded fungal disease set in... Where up 'til now, I'd been carefully plucking one bag at a time from the vine, now the whole lot came down in one go (a...

Great bowls of figs!

In my post of 20 December, titled 'Festive Garlands', I promised to report back on the progress of tying the grape bunches around our verandah into brown paper bags.  Well….the result is (do I dare say it????…..) a mixed bag! While some are...

Plenty of potatoes, but only one of the two girls laid today!  The new Cabbage & Rose (mark IV by now) have been laying well, so I guess a day off here & there is only to be expected...

Does it get any better than this???!!!  Nothing, but nothing, tastes like a home-grown tomato!

It may be stinking hot, but during the course of the last couple of weeks, there has been no choice but to cut back the garden hard. I do it each year (one day a week with Brian, the weekends on my own).  Though physically, it's not a job I look forward to; and...

Those who have discovered me at a rare market, a seed swap, attended a Kitchen Gardening Day or perhaps one of my Garden Club or other talks will be familiar with this sight: indeed, you may even have your very own spectacular heads of leaf Amaranth, from which to...

Whilst summer sees a great flush of fresh produce…. beans, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchinis & aubergines coming in thick & fast, it's also time to store the onions: pulled between Christmas & New Year, they've been drying on a wire rack in the...

Simple sunflowers….I place them high on my list of favourite things!  However I know full well, that they are to sulphur-crested cockatoos, like a red rag to a bull!  Which is why I can't have them in the Kitchen Garden where I would so love to sow their seed, for...

A quick harvest treat on return from our beach days!  Not for the first time, I recognised while away, that I find it near impossible to prepare dinner without my garden on hand, from where to pluck ingredients on the spur of the moment!   The first Black...