When I first started gardening here I remember googling ” how to keep plants alive in a heatwave?” 😅 Welcome to Perth summer gardening! I have always struggled with how hot it gets here in Perth in summer. After 7 years here, the 40degree days don’t get any easier! We have a large amount of thermal mass at our house with concrete and paved areas so it can get so hot in my garden! One of the main reasons I decided to make pallet planters on wheels was to be able to grow more food during the hot summer months by being able to have them undercover on hot days. Watch how we made them here.
How to keep plants alive in a heatwave
If you are experiencing a heatwave or have days of hot weather ahead of you, here are a few tips I use to try and get my plants through!
🌱 WATER | Give a good deep water early in the morning. This will allow time for the moisture to reach the roots before it evaporates.
🌱 SHADE | If your plants are in containers move them undercover or to a shady area of your garden. Otherwise, try and rig up some temporary shade using shade cloth or even umbrellas to keep the direct sun off your plants during the hottest part of the day.
🌱 PROTECT THE SOIL | Ensure you have a good layer of mulch or ground cover over your entire garden. This will protect the soil from being exposed to direct sun and reduce the amount of water loss through evaporation.
🌱 BUILD SOIL | This is something that should be continually worked on by composting and adding more fibre and leaf matter to your soil. Sandy soils like we have here in Perth allow all the water to drain away and can become severely water-resistant. But by consistently mulching, composting and adding green matter, you will not only grow strong, healthy plants but also protect your plants from future dry spells. Healthy soil is key!
🌱 REPLENISH | As the sun goes down and the temperatures start to drop again, give your plants another well-earnt drink. This should help their leaves perk back up again.
🌱 SAVE SEEDS | If you notice a certain plant seems to survive better than others in hot weather, make sure you save the seeds at the end of the season. That way you can futureproof your garden by growing strong plants that you know will grow well in your exact climate.
My favourite watering tools are:
Retractable Hose with 7 spray nozzle and water flow adjuster: Control exactly how much flow you want to each plant with an easy retractable hose system. CLICK HERE for more info.
Deep root waterer and soil breaker: Helps get water directly to the roots without any runoff or loss of water from evaporation. CLICK HERE for more info.
Weeper hose works great for drip-feeding water and allowing the plants to absorb more. CLICK HERE for more info.
Happy Gardening!
Holly 🌱
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
Zucchini season is in full swing and I am trying to make as many different recipes as I can to learn how to get the most out of harvests. These White Chocolate and Raspberry Zucchini Brownies are my new favourite sweet treats!! You can’t even taste the Zucchini.
My sister-in-law sent me a bunch of Caramilk blocks and I have been saving them in the freezer. I decided to use some to test out a batch of white chocolate brownies using my Golden Zucchini. WOW. They turned out way better than I could ever have imagined! Even have a slight banana bread vibe to them. I did try to film the recipe but my memory card ran out halfway through which was a total fail! I will get there!
Anyway, these are super easy and definitely a sweet treat! The raspberry is perfect to help balance out the sweetness.
White Chocolate and Raspberry Zucchini Brownies
Ingredients:
2 cups grated Zucchini – mine worked out about 2 medium-sized Zucchini
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups organic plain flour
3/4 cup raspberries
1 block/180g White Chocolate (replace with which ever chocolate you like)
1 teaspoon salt
Method
Preheat oven to bake at 180degrees Celcius. Grease baking pan (roughly 28cm x20cm).
In a bowl mix sugar, flour and oil until combined.
Grate Zucchini and add to the bowl along with baking soda and vanilla extract.
Sprinkle salt over and stir until it becomes a moist batter. The mix will start off quite dry but keep mixing and the Zucchini will release its moisture to form a batter.
Once it has started to become a sticky batter. Chop up your chocolate into small chunks and mix through the batter.
Add half the raspberries and stir through gently.
Pour the mix into the greased pan and press in the remaining Raspberries.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares and enjoy!
Try quizzing your friends to see if they can pick the core ingredient.
Enjoy!
Holly 🌱
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
Yay, its summertime and Zucchini Fritters served with homemade chutney and a fresh garden salad is the perfect summer meal. My Zucchini harvests are in full swing and I will be making the most of the abundance by trialling out as many new Zucchini recipes as I can. When I first started growing Zucchini the only way I knew how to cook with them was to throw them in a stirfry, but I have since learnt there are so many easy and delicious ways to use them. I look forward to sharing them all with you! These were quick and easy to make and taste so good! That is pretty much the main criteria for anything I cook!
For these fritters, I used Golden Zucchini as that is what I had just picked but you can use any variety. I have found the Golden Zucchini much like the regular black variety but you do have to harvest them earlier as the seeds inside start to develop quickly.
Ingredients
3 small-medium zucchini
1/2 cup flour
1 Egg (sometimes I leave this out)
1/4 finely sliced red onion (could use shallots or spring onion)
1/2 cup chopped parsley and chives
Salt and Pepper
1 small fresh chilli finely sliced
Note: you could add 1/2 cup of cheese to really up the flavour such as parmesan, cheddar or fetta.
How to Make them:
Rinse your zucchini and grate them into a bowl. Grind with a good amount of rock salt (roughly 5-6 grinds) to allow the moisture to extract. Stir through, cover and set aside for 10minutes.
Finely chop your herbs, onion and chilli.
After 10 minutes or so place your grated zucchini in a sieve and squeeze out all the extra moisture.
Then in a clean bowl mix all your ingredients together and season well with salt and pepper.
Heat a pan on medium-high heat with oil and spoon your mixture in and flatten it down a bit. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until crispy brown.
Makes 10-12 Zucchini Fritters
Serving suggestions:
You could serve your Zucchini Fritters with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or sour cream, your favourite chutney and a fresh green garden salad.
What are your favourite ways to use Zucchini?
Holly 🌱
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
Are you growing Zucchini but the fruit seems to shrivel and die before being ready? If so, you may have a pollination issue. Hand-pollinating Zucchini is super easy to do once you know how. Today I will share 4 east steps with images so you can maximize your Zucchini harvests! This also works with Pumpkins, Melons, and Cucumbers.
Step 1: Identify a Male and Female Flower
Firstly, to hand pollinate Zucchini you need to know how to identify the male and female flowers. The best time to do this is early in the morning when the flowers are open.
Female Flower
The female zucchini flower has a small fruit at the base.The centre stigma of the female flower has multiple parts to form a circular shape.
Male Flower
The male flower has just a plain stem and flower with the centre stamen a single point covered in pollen.
Generally, the plant will produce a bunch of male flowers first which is nature’s way of attracting pollinators to the garden. Then it will alternate between male and female. I like to plant a few of the same variety as sometimes you can have female fruit but no male flowers open. Early mornings are best because the flowers will be open and then they will close up to capture the pollen.
You can either use a paintbrush to simply transfer the pollen from the male stamen to the female stigma but I find it easier to remove the male flower and use that to transfer the pollen.
Step 2: Pick a male flower
Pick the male flower and remove the petals.
Step 3: Dab pollen onto female Stigma
Then you are left with a pollen-covered stamen to transfer onto the female flowers.Transfer the pollen onto the female flowers to hand pollinate Zucchini.
This will make sure your zucchini are getting pollinated so you can enjoy the abundant crop!
This method can be used for other fruiting vegetables such as pumpkins, melons, cucumbers. I tend to use a small paintbrush for the melons and cucumbers though as the flowers are much smaller and delicate.
It is also important to try and attract wildlife to your garden for natural pollination, to find out what flowers to plant, click below.
Do you hand pollinate in your garden? Leave me a comment below.
Holly 🌱
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
If you have been following me for a bit you will know I have been on a Nasturtium recipe craze! One of the things I am trying to do is learn as many recipes as I can for things that I grow in my garden. It turns out Nasturtiums have a lot more uses than just a pretty edible flower!! My plants were getting a bit wild and overtaking the garden so I picked all the flowers and collected a whole bunch of seed pods to make Nasturtium Capers. This is a two-part process where I soaked the seed pods for 5 days before pickling.
INGREDIENTS
Jar of Nasturtium Seed pods
White Vinegar
Sugar
Mustard seeds
Dill leaves
METHOD
Part 1: Soaking – Wash the seed pods well with water and place in a jar filled with water. Leave to soak in the fridge for 2 days. Then rinse again and refill the jar with water and add a teaspoon of salt to make a brine. Leave to soak for another day or so. This process should help remove some of the bitterness from the seeds. After a few days in the brine rinse and leave in plain water while you prepare the vinegar.
Part 2: Pickling liquid – In a saucepan on a low heat add a jar (whatever one you are going to be pickling in) of white vinegar and then about 1/4 of the jar of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and I like my pickles sweet so I added 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Taste and add more sugar or salt depending on your liking. Set aside to cool.
Wash your jar well with hot water to sterilise and add your seed pods and pick out any that don’t look the best or any leaves etc. I added a teaspoon of mustard seeds, small dill leaf and a sprinkle of chilli flakes. You could mix this up with whatever flavours you like.
Once the pickling liquid has cooled down add it to your jar and place in the fridge. I noticed from my research that they go brown once pickled so tried one batch with Nasturtium flowers added to it (on top pushed down into the liquid) and this turned out great with an orange pickling liquid. I removed the flowers at the end when I opened them to eat. I waited two weeks to try mine because I got busy but I’m sure after a few days to a week you could try them.
As these Nasturtium Capers are just a refrigerated pickle I would eat them within 3 months.
How to eat Nasturtium Capers?
These are a delicious accompaniment to most meals! Try served on an omelette, pizza, salad or with a fish dish.
Lettuce wraps with Avocado, Haloumi, Basil and Nasturtium Capers.
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
I much prefer offering natural and sustainable solutions rather than a pointless list of negative things not to do. But this topic is something I am very passionate about and something new gardeners often get caught up in (including myself when I first started growing food many years ago). You will find my list of natural pest management remedies below 🙂
When you first start growing food you will get slugs and snails eating your new precious veggies and will want to INSTANTLY fix the situation. I see some newbie gardeners pour on huge amounts of snail bait to combat the hungry predators. This is POISON, not only will it kill the slugs and snails but is also deadly to cats and dogs. Now, if it can kill dogs, having it covering the soil and getting watered in and absorbed into the soil that your vegetable will feed on, especially those root vegetables, cannot be good for us.
If you’re reading this and thinking…I do this..you are not alone. It is something that has been a “norm” for way too long. But the first step you can take is safely throw out your poisonous slug bait. I would place it in something that animals can’t get into in case it crosses paths or they get into the bins. Even better, contact your local council to find the best way to safely dispose of it.
Watch my latest video
There are plenty of ways to naturally combat pests and have safe and nontoxic vegetables for your family.
Eggshells – Save your eggshells and dry in the oven on low. Then crush into small pieces and place in a jar. Sprinkle this around the base of your vegetables and the slugs and snails do not like the surface so will stay away. It also adds some beneficial calcium to your soil.
Plant extras – Plant a few extra plants in different areas of your garden so that if one gets attacked you still have plenty 🙂
Encourage beneficial insects – Plant diversity and flowers to create habitats and attract beneficial insects. You could even make an insect hotel using lots of different sized sticks and logs for them to live 🐞🐝
Manually remove – Go out and check your garden and remove the pests by hand. I often do this when I am on the phone, its a great way to multitask.
Beer Traps – Cheaper the better, there is no need to use up any fancy craft beer. Place little containers around your vegetable patch and this will capture the slugs and snails before they get to your precious veggies 🍺
Coffee grounds – Often your workplace or local cafe will be throwing these out anyway. Sprinkle around the base. Only add a small amount as it will change the PH of the soil ☕️
Companion Plants – Often very fragrant plants will repel pests. These are plants such as: Marigolds and Rosemary 🌼🌿
Soapy Water – this is great for aphids. All my dishwashing liquid is non-toxic and greywater friendly so I just mix up some diluted in water and paint it on the new growth that is affected by aphids. This is the last resort though as it may harm beneficial insects too. Try and isolate the coverage.
Chilli spray – Mix up some chilli powder in some water and spray on your affected plants. I have read crushed garlic as well but that is bad for dogs so I would avoid.
Healthy Soil – growing healthy soil by composting and mulching helps keep your plants strong and healthy 💪 this means that if they do get bugs they can survive and thrive after an infestation.
Sacrificial plants – Usually one plant will just get attacked and I just leave it. It usually means the bugs will only eat that plant and the rest will be fine! Sorry for that one plant but it’s feeding nature…🌿
Chickens and ducks are also a great way to integrate natural pest management into your garden. Win-win 🐛🦆
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS // Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
