By Beatrice Hawkins, Garden Columnist
“You’re never too old to play in the dirt!!”
Loved this saying when I saw it recently and I think all gardeners will relate!
While I’ve been unable to garden for some months now I have been very keen to “play in the dirt” and finally this last week I got to do just that!
I have written about the tomato jungle that grew in my garden during my absence, well this last week a young neighbour and I have been able to get amongst it and clean it up. Three bins of plants for the tip, 6 x 2 gallon buckets of green tomatoes and 3 of ripe ones later and with many left for the birds, the area is finally cleared. When I am able to dig it up it will be ready to plant again.. maybe this time with the native shrubs that were intended to be there! Somehow though, I think there will be tomato plants coming up in vast numbers in spring and summer so maybe it will be a veggie patch again. In fact, I think a length of mesh I have is going to be relocated to this area, attached to some iron posts and will provide somewhere for choko vines to grow in the spring. I guess though, next year when I need chokoes to go in the pickles I won’t have the quantities of tomatoes I have this year!
Now the task of using all that produce begins. I am ashamed to admit that I have never made green tomato pickles. However, good friends have given me tried and true recipes, so with onions, chokoes, capsicum and other vegetables, vinegar, sugar, spices and jars organised, I am ready to start a marathon pickle cooking fest.
With luck on my side, there should be some to donate to the Horticultural Society to sell at the Gardening Extravaganza during Jumpers and Jazz in July and also to donate to my other major charitable interest, the Warwick Community Van, as well as many jars to share with family and friends. I do admit though, the sheer quantity of tomatoes and size of the task ahead, is daunting!
However, three batches of pickles have been made and there are still many tomatoes to be used. 10 kg of red ones have been frozen so they will be easier to skin as they thaw and will be turned into relish in the coming weeks. Another 10 kgs will be frozen shortly and many more green ones made into pickles during the coming days.
Over the weekend I visited some friends who grow an enormous and varied organic garden on their property. The flower garden is a delight with a great variety of flowers and shrubs and it is always a delight to see what is growing in both the flower and vegetable areas. At present, the biggest rhubarb I have ever seen is flourishing in the vegetable garden. The leaves are enormous and I am sure will be made into organic bug spray or composted to enhance the soil in the coming seasons. Spinach in vast quantities and types with the vibrant rainbow colours of chard adding interest. Vines covering areas and carrying many beautiful pumpkins, lettuce leaf basil with its huge leaves, mint, beetroot, parsley, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic .. so many different vegetables. It is an absolute credit to them and I look forward to having quantities of produce and flowers from them as entries in the appropriate sections of the spring flower show in October.
After I took the photo of the bougainvillaea in Willi St last week I called on the lovely lady to whom it belonged and learned a little of its history. She had tried to grow one in various spots before and then planted this one at the base of a tree on the nature strip so it would have somewhere to climb. It was going ok and then there was a very severe storm and the tree came crashing down, narrowly missing the house. During the cleanup process, she asked that the bougainvillaea be treated carefully as she wanted it to continue to grow. It has and she continued to encourage it to a single stem with pruning and into the beautiful flower-covered ball that it is today. It is a great example of what can be achieved with persistence and dedication. This is how anyone can have bougainvillaea in their garden without the need for somewhere for it to climb. Beautiful! This specimen is not the only thing of beauty on her block, as she has a truly lovely garden with a wide variety of plants and trees in both the front and back yards.
The amount of wattle that is coming out everywhere at the moment is another of my favourite things. It always has been special as there was a lovely “Cootamundra Wattle” growing up at the school bus stop when I was a child. My husband knew how much I loved wattle and every year I would receive a bouquet of the first variety to open on the different properties where we lived. There is a nice one flowering in the garden at Rose City FM at the moment..paler in colour, more cream than golden, but looking beautiful.
