Confusing but fantastic lettuce

A recent family disagreement came about, mostly because the person I was talking to didn't know this lettuce. Amazing, because he's the one who gave me the seeds. But with any other lettuce, when they start to grow tall, they're going to seed. They're crap. But these are different. They grow, increasingly upwards, for about eight weeks. And you can simply peel the leaves off. They're high up off the ground and barely need washing.


The ones at the front are still productive, and the ones at the back are just starting to go to seed. The leaves will get a little leathery and bitter on this ones.



But by then, it makes sense to tie those stems up, and collect the seed as it matures. It truly is the best lettuce I've ever had.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tomato and _basil_? Mountain bread?

Not to be picky but I hope these tomato and basil wraps will be good. But the graphic on their pack has the green stuff looking more like parsley than basil. But maybe I don't know my basil.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A memory from about 2002

I was scanning some stuff recently and got this photo of myself and a few friends. It was the state meet, competitive sktdiving in 2002 over bordertown. See all that flowering canola below us?

It was where we learnt just how hard formation skydiving was, we only got one point, sometimes none, per round.

Black and yellow is me, white jumpsuit is Katrin Kjellberg, now back in Sweden, pink arms is Richard Jubb - I think still lives North of Adelaide.

And the blue helmet is great friend Robbie Hollis who sadly died in the sport in 2003. I don't want to get morose, but we lost a good guy that day.

Mr 7yo and the joy of spring

Jonah is onto it. He planted a single broad bean in August, and in in harvest mode


He also went to a health workshop and got this really cool little matchbook of lettuce seeds:






And we're getting our first strawberries


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My daily gift at this time of the year

Each day I manage to pull a couple of handfuls of broad beans out of the garden and put them at Sylvia's place at the table.


This goes for about three or four weeks. Sylv tells me they get a little tough and unpalatable late in the season but they're good when there's plenty of moisture in the soil.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Don't be afraid to re-pot if it's growing quickly

I took some cuttings, last season of these Cordyline Australis. They grow wild up in Cairns and the still do well here. And look at how one year's root growth has gone:


So one of the ticks to having nice plants is to not stick them in a pot or the ground and then leave them.


These plants in particular, love to be cut at the stem. They'll reshoot and what you take of the top will grow roots in water. How do you think I got these ones?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quietly sitting under a tree

I might just sit here


And reflect for a little while



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone