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May 12, 2005 Issue #04

Hello

The no dig garden website is a venture into publishing on a topic I love. Thanks for joining me on the adventure! I'd love to have your feedback.
Just reply to this newletter.

In this issue:

1) What's NEW on the site?
2) Brilliant Beetroot
3) In the garden this month
4) Recipe: Chunky vegetable soup

What's NEW On The Site?

I started by adding more pest control tips so your garden can remain a chemical free zone. The most recent tips deal with moulds and fungi on your plants.

Linked to Musings is a new page called Jeannie's Garden. This is about a friend of mine converting her whole acre garden from traditional garden to all native plants and grasses using the no dig method. It hasn't been easy and the neighbours were NOT happy...initially.

For those who want to use no dig gardening methods for other sorts of gardening, I've added a section called herbs/flowers/fruit. It's enough to get you started at any rate if that is of interest.

And there are even some pictures! Very productive month, I think, so check it out.

Brilliant Beetroot!

It has the most amazing colour and texture. Varieties range in colour from gold to deep red/purple and are delicious raw, boiled, baked, pickled and juiced. Even the leaves are edible!

The root is packed with Vitamin C and the leaves are a great source of Vitamin A and potassium.

Beetroot is native to the Mediterranean so needs a fairly warm climate to do well. Unlike most of the plants we've discussed in the past, the seeds should be planted directly into the garden (or container) without going through the transplant stage.

Soak the seeds in water overnight to help germination, before planting. You should see your plants emerge in 10-14 days.

Two or three plants will emerge from each of the seed clumps, but then you have to make a decision before thinning. Do you want to eat the leaves or the root?

If you pick the leaves often, the root will develop poorly. Some sort of trade off has to be made. Even so, small beets are better than no beets at all.

Vegetables do best when they grow quickly and beets are no exception. Feed them every couple of weeks with a good water soluble plant food. They should be ready to harvest in 8-12 weeks.

Preparing Beetroot

Just for a refreshing change, I've added a beetroot dip to the site.

In the Garden This Month

Now is the time to plant your herbs for the kitchen. If your vegetable garden is a distance from the kitchen,prepare a small patch separately for your herbs near the kitchen. This is the best way to ensure you'll have quick and easy access to them. Check out the new page on herbs. Herbs will do well in containers too!

Get those potatoes in the ground. As the plant starts to grow, keep building up the mulch materials around it. You don't want the growing potatoes to be exposed to the light as they will turn green and become toxic.

Keep your garden free of weeds. There should be few in the no dig garden and they should be easy to pull as they come up. Weeds will compete with your vegetables for nutrients, so get rid of them.

Southern Hemisphere:

If your vegetable plants are now finished cut them up and fold them back into the garden or toss them on the compost.

Discard any plants with disease as they will just spread it around the garden.

If you've grown pumpkins, you'll know they're ready for harvest when the vine withers.

If you feel some of your vegetables could be in danger with an early frost and they're not yet ready, protect them with a cloche.

A cloche is a semi transparent, portable structure that will protect the plants from frost by keeping the air around them a little warmer.

These can be bought or made using flexible tubing to create arches over the plants and covering with an agricultural fleece. The fleece comes off in the morning once the sun is up.

Feature Recipe: Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup

1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of leeks, sliced
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup of carrot, peeled and sliced
3-4 stalks of celery cleaned and sliced
800g tin of peeled tomatoes (or similar amount blanched, chopped and peeled)
4 1/4 cup of chicken, beef or vegetable stock
200g of sweetcorn kernels (canned or fresh)
300g of green beans chopped in 1" pieces
300g of garden peas (canned or fresh)
Sprig of basil, sprig of thyme, chopped
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in the bottom of a large pot and cook the leeks and onion until golden. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, celery, tomatoes, basil, thyme, bay leaf and stock. If you are using all fresh vegetables, put them all in at this stage. If using canned, only add the canned veggies at the end, to heat through, just before serving.

Bring water to the boil and cook all the fresh ingredients together, seasoning to taste.

Bring the heat back and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender.

Serve with bread rolls or toast. Now that is comfort food.

I have spent a lot of time looking for good quality materials from great companies to recommend to you and it's not easy.

I won't recommend anything I don't really believe in. However I have found a company that sells a range of products I believe will be of interest to no dig gardeners. Lehmans.com is a hardware store with a difference. They started as a supplier to the Amish community who were struggling to find the implements they needed that were not mechanised.

Now the Amish supply them with some of the products they sell. The products, mainly household and gardening implements are designed to work and most do not use electricity.

So if you're trying to lower your ecological footprint on the planet, this is a great site.

It's also a brilliant place to find unusual gifts for friends and family. And they supply worldwide.

I'm proud to recommend Lehmans.com products to you and will be placing more information and links on the site in the near future.

Happy Gardening!

Judy Williams