I recently sowed some New Zealand spinach in a pot. The seeds where just beginning to germinate when disaster hit.

Caterpillars.

The Caterpillar population has exploded in Adelaide this winter.

I will have to re-sow and hope that the caterpillars have moved on.

I have collected heirloom seeds to plant this spring. I have read many articles about seeds being lost forever. This is predominantly due to the industrial revolution that saw farming practices dramatically changed the way we grow food. Aspects such as cultivating by machinery, transporting produce and produce shelf life became more important than quality and flavour.

This has meant varieties of fruit and vegetables that were commonplace, a century ago are now in decline. The only people ensuring these varieties survive are home vegie gardeners.

If you look at many cultures, the best seed was collected and passed down through generations ensuring excellent flavour and hardiness. With hybrid seedlings brought at modern garden centres, seeds cannot be collected, as you are never sure what you will get (if it will revert to the dominant variety). Heirlooms stay true and you are able to collect the seed and use it the following season.

Heirlooms are meant to be hardier and that the plant will produce the fruit/vegetable over an extended time. Modern vegetables are designed to produce all at once so they can be harvested in one go. This is not ideal for home vegie gardeners who want produce consistently over a longer period of time.

It will be an interesting experiment to see how the heirlooms produce.

Using the heirloom seeds will preserve diversity in vegetables. If it was not for the home vegie gardener may be lost.

Provided below is a list of a few Australian websites where heirloom varieties of seeds can be purchased:

• The Lost Seed
• Eden Seeds
• Green Harvest
• Diggers

It has been a while since my last post and I apologise for not uploading a post over the last few months.

Well the news with my veggie patch is dyer. Adelaide experienced seven days over 40 degrees in January, which wiped out a lot of my crops. The only crop which seemed to enjoy the heat was the cucumbers. I am now trying to resurrect my mint and parsley which look worse for wear and my potatoes which have produced about eight small potatoes however I have replanted half of those and now I have new plants breaking through the surface. The rest were killed by the sun, even with make-shift shade protection placed over them, during the heat wave.

Adelaide’s summer was a scorcher and with no rain from mid-December to March it was a struggle.

Many branches have fallen off trees and I know of two instances where peach trees full of fruit have broken and the branch has fallen onto the veggie patch. So it has been a struggle with hot weather and no rain.

However with a little rain in March, it brings back hope. The initial rains brought 5mm to my backyard which may not sound like much (lets face it, its not) but with no rain for almost three months it was just what we needed. Adelaide for the month of March has received some rain and hopefully April brings more.

I am however behind with my autumn planting but I am thoroughly looking forward too it. I have ordered some seeds from The Lost Seed company which have arrived.

I recently planted some snow peas seeds and they are doing really well. Snow peas need a trellis so the leaf tendrils can grab hold of the trellis and climb up. I think it is amazing how the leaf tendrils grab so strongly to the trellis given how wispy they look.

Snow peas are great for smaller gardens as they can be planted in pots or in the ground. The best aspect is that they grow vertically which dramatically reduces the horizontal space required, let’s face it in small areas planting vegies that grow up is a real space saver.

I also planted some carrot seeds a few weeks after the snow peas seeds and they are beginning to break through the surface. Carrots and beans are, meant to be good companion plants. I have never planted them together before so we will see how they go.

In Australian suburbs, most people live in detached dwellings with a front and rear yard. The front yard in the past has been, dedicated to a lawn, which soaked up a lot of water.

In recent years, many States in Australia have introduced some form of water restrictions given the drought Australia is currently experiencing. The water restrictions include in many States that you can no longer water your lawn, so in the summer months most lawns die.

A movement is growing here and overseas which replaces lawn with produce.

Instead of pumping water onto a lawn, people are beginning to use their front yard for food production turning the water they used to use on the lawn to food production for themselves. When you think about it many homes in Australia would have at least 40m2 of front yard area, which could be used for food production.

See the video below;