Suburban Tomato

I had a lovely email this week from a person who lives in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and who is contemplating writing a blog.  They are aiming for backyard self sufficiency and want to chart their progress in blog form.  Anyway I replied that I would love to read about it.  The email also got me thinking about why I really enjoy blogging, particularly about gardening and these are the reasons I came up with:

1. Readers – I have to say I do get a kick out of the fact that people read my blog.  Whilst I’m sure there are bigger blogs, more widely read blogs, blogs with a higher numbers of page views and visitors that doesn’t detract from the fact that there are some people who read this blog regularly and I really value that.
2. Comments– I love comments, with the exception of spam of course.  Isn’t spam silly?  I would just like to say to all you spammers out there: I’m really glad you appreciate my “wonderful task on this subject”, I’m glad your cousin loved it, and that you think its “awesome” but I still don’t want to check out your website, especially if its called sexdate, nor buy real estate in Texas, or a Gucci anything and I don’t currently have a yeast infection, but thanks for your interest.  Apologies for the digression what I really meant to say is that I have learnt heaps from the suggestions people have made in the comments section.  Real people that is, not spammers.  From cooking ideas to gardening tips the information is great and reason enough to blog in itself.
3. Reading other people’s blogs – Now I would have put this as number 1 except that you can do it without writing your own.  I do find though that in writing my own I am more likely to read other people’s more often.  Its hard to say exactly why this is, maybe its because reading what other people are up to doesn’t just expand my knowledge base it is also a pivotal part of belonging to the blogging community.  Regardless though I can’t tell you how much I’ve learnt through reading blogs and how much of that knowledge I’ve already successfully applied.
4. The blogging format–  I think that the diary format of blogging lends itself to garden writing possibly more than any other subject area.  The nature of gardening means that the time of year is important.  Knowing what I harvested at the start of June last year is really helpful in understanding how the garden works, and how to maximise production in the space I have.  In a nutshell a blog is a great record of when I plant and harvest.
5. Taking photos – Writing a blog gives me a great excuse to take a very large number of photos of vegetables which I am ridiculously fond of doing.  Here are some now:

And those are my favourite things about blogging.  What are yours?

At the time I published this The New Goodlife had yet to put a a Top 5 post – head over and check whether she has yet.

This post comes with the proviso that your daytime winter temperatures are above freezing.  If they’re below I think behaving like a bear is probably more appropriate…but then what do I know never having experienced that sort of winter.

1. It gets you outside.  I feel better when I spend time outdoors but sometimes in winter it can be hard find a reason to be there.  I tend to exercise at the gym/pool because they have childcare.  Social events tend to be indoors, the lure of the TV and couch are strong, even Etihad Stadium shuts its roof so it can be hard to find time to be outside.  Gardening provides both the need and the motivation to put on a jumper or two and get dirty.

2. Far fewer pests – The cabbage white butterflies have gone away, the aphids are in reasonable numbers, the leaf miners don’t seem as bad and the all those little green sap sucking bugs that I don’t know the names of have moved on.  But best of all you don’t get attacked by mozzies whilst harvesting your evening salad.  Mozzies are mosquitoes for those of you who don’t insist on shortening every word and adding an ‘ie’ on the end as we Aussies do.

3. Brassicas & Broad Beans – There are some crops that just grow better in winter (provided you’re gardening in a temperate climate).  Most brassicas for instance are far better suited to winter than summer growing.  Ditto parsley, chervil and best of all – broad beans.  If you don’t garden in winter then you’d miss two of the best things about home grown – freshly picked broccoli and broad beans.  Yum! (Incidentally the above photo was taken last year – my plants are nowhere near that big yet.)

4. Flowering natives – A huge variety of Australian natives flower in winter.  Eremophilas, Correas, Pimeleas, Grevilleas, and Hardenbergias all have varieties which produce beautiful blooms in winter, and there are many more.  Getting in amongst them and weeding, tiding and ensuring they look their best is one of the most rewarding parts of winter gardening.

5. Preparation– If you want good summer crops this is the time to start preparing some of your beds.  Both Louise at Garden Glut and Andrea at Harvest with Glee have started their tomato bed preparation and have some great advice.   Louise favours: “stripping all the leaves off the brassicas that are finished and spreading them over the soil,  adding any spent snow pea straw, adding compost or manure and then topping with grass clipping and letting it stew for a good while.”  Whilst Andrea keeps: “adding leaf mulch, grass clippings, chook  and horse manure and turning it over every now and then”.   Whatever your secret of success is winter is probably the time to apply it.

Winter not your thing?  Then head over to The New Goodlife and find out why we should all be vegetarian.