Space savers:

 

Here is a nice little vegetable that we have just planted in our own garden. It's called Space Master Cucumber and it saves space in the garden! It's a compact variety superb for pots, hanging baskets or raised garden beds. It will produce slender dark green fruit about 7.5 inches long.

 

Available at Serenity Nursery this spring.

Dad's Veggie House

 

Dad designed and created a enlosed veggie garden on his property in Murray Bridge.  He used  cement sleepers that he made to build up the veggie garden. For ergonomic reasons he built it up three sleepers high.

 

Dad created an island in the middle of the garden house which you can walk around. The island is filled with an abundance of leaffy vegetables. The perimeter is also filled with all kinds of eddibles including parsley, broccolli, spring onions and even ginger.

Outside of the garden house is a lovely freshly planted blueberry BURST. A new variety that produces extra large and flavoursome fruit.

 

Mum and Dad are proud of the chew marks in their cabbages!! No nasty chemicals are used to treat insects. This enables them to use the leafy greens for feeding their pet birds.

 

Dad shows Milton Vadoulis the hard work that has gone into making his dream veggie garden. The most important thing when gardening is getting the soil right and that's why Dad used alot of Plants Plus Groganic to improve the sandy loam when blending his mix.

 

 

Yellow Cucumbers..to be or not to be...

Someone recently asked us...

Q. "How do I prevent my cucumbers turning yellow".

A. First we would suggest checking the variety of cucumber planted Check the seed packet or seedling label as there a many varieties of cucumber that are intended to be yellow, such as the armanian cucumber. Once you are certain the cucumber is a green variety check your harvest time. Cucumbers are generally ripe between 50-70 days. Cucumbers love a sunny spot and with the right care should thrive during the warmer months. They are fast growers with a shallow root system so frequent harvesting is important. Yellow cucumbers are often the result of over ripeness. Cucumbers should be picked when they are firm and bright green to dark green. If they are left to yellow on the bush they can become bitter and inedible.

Yellow By Design:
A cucumber that is yellow to cream in colour.

Armenia Cucumber (picture above). A yellow cucumber with a wonderful refreshing taste. We grow it in the organic nursery grow house. Sow the seeds in spring or summer. It can be trained up a trellis or left to sprawl.
Our Tip for Growing cucumbers: Use Plants Plus Organic Groganic soil improver to help prepare the soil structure. Fertilise with Neutrog Rocket Fuel, it's a fantastic organic pellitised fertiliser to use from 2 weeks right through the growing season. Keep cucumbers moist and choose a sunny spot in the garden.
Also try Crystal cucumbers a pale apple-sized cucumber that is juicy and lovely to eat on it's own.

Scarecrows and raised garden beds...

Darcy with his newly planted Raised Garden Bed from Serenity Nursery.


1st Prize: Congratulations to Darcy Walding of Murray Bridge High School who won Serenity Nursery's Annual Scarecrow making competition. Darcy hand stitched his scarecrow and stuffed it with hay, they old fashioned way, making a very authentic looking scarecrow. Dacy took out the most community votes and won himself this Raised colour bond garden bed including Amgro Soil and a lovely mix of vegetables and herbs worth $700.

2nd Prize: went to Holly Dimasi, also of Murray Bridge High school. Holly's arty skills found her using a dolls face and hand painted Rossy boots. Holly Took home a compost tumbler valued at $210.

3rd Prize: Coonalpyn Primary School took the recycled approach making a large chicken wire body filled with a variety of recycled materials such as a used key board, plastic bottles and scratched cds. Coonalpyn School took home a Tumbleweed worm cafe and accessories valued at $120.

Serenity Nursery would like to thank everyone who entered the scarecrow competition and everyone from the community who took the time to vote for their favourite scarecrow. A big Thank you to our sponsor Amgro, a local supplier of ours who provide us with top quality potting Mixes for best results in the garden.

It's time to grow Rhubarb

Rhubarb. Every vegie patch should have one!

Rhubarb is a perennial vegtable that can be grown in sun or part shade. It may be known as an old fahioned vegtable but it is easy to grow and makes the most wonderful sweet crumbles and desserts.

 If you want to grow rhubarb winter is an ideal time as the rhubarb crowns are available bare-root in the garden centre. Start by preparing the garden bed with some compost and blood and bone. If you live in an area where the temperature has extreamly hot and cold weather dig the rhubarb crown in a little deeper about 5cm below the surface of  the soil. If your temperature is mild all year round the crown can be covered with about 1cm of soil. As the plant grows feed with powerfeed or thrive.

 Leave your rhubarb plant undisturbed for the first few years to allow the clumps to establish.

After 2-3 years the rhubarb crown can be dug up in winter and divided and replanted.

Tip: The leaves of the plant are poisonis so never eat them.

Sprinkle a little slug and snail pellets around the plant in spring and summer.

Rhubarb can be grown in pots.

See our rhubarb cooking adventures at the Serenity Nursery here



Kitchen Garden

Tuscan Kale

I'm always reading gardening magazines, books and blogs and today I found a great Kitchen Garden blog, Suburban Tomato. The author, Liz lives in Melbourne and grows her own to feed the family. It shows the hands on process of garden to plate and there is a whole heap of recipes that are tried and true. The Kale pictured above is one example of what Liz grows. Kale is a fab winter veg that teams well with mashed potatoes and other steamed veggies.

Image here

Grow your own Asparagus

Grow Asparagus

It's really easy to grow asparagus at home and winter is the perfect time to plant them in your garden. In winter the crown of the asparagus is available. Start by digging some composted organic matter into the soil and then dig a large hole. build up a small mound at the bottom for the asparagus roots to sit over then fill in with soil and water in well. This will prevent any air pockets forming near the roots, which may cause them to rot. The patch will be bare until Spring and thats when the lovely asparagus spears will appear. You will have spears for about two months. Wait. Don't harvest for the first year until the crown has established. Just watch out for snails and slugs.

Image here

Winter in the Nursery

Bare-root trees line the entrance to our nursery. Plus there are 100's more inside.

Bare-root Mop Tops the ever popular tree that is covered in a mass of tiny green leaves in

 Spring and summer.

Our edible Garden Display. Grapes,  blueberries,Strawberries, bay trees and lots more

Things green up with some rain water!

 Our Potato seed display. It's so easy to grow your own.

Edible Flowers

Edible Chive flowers

Today in the garden centre I spoke to a friend who often visits our nursery for our diverse range of unusual herbs and vegetables, which she uses in her catering business. Being a foodie and a keen grower of all things edible she joked about the pansy punnets she was buying. It was unlike her to buy a purely decorative plant. However we did laugh when she pointed out to me that the pansy flowers were in fact edible and she had used them to decorate sweet dishes in the past.

It got me thinking about edible flowers and how they can be used in our home cooking. When I was in Sydney recently I ordered a pizza that was topped with zucchini flowers, it was amazing visually and tasted great. Zucchini flowers can also be stuffed with a variety of fillings like creamy ricotta and then baked. I love salads and I always try to add different colours and textures with my greens. Include vibrant coloured flowers and petals to a salad for an unexpected look and taste.

Pansies in pastels or brights are in flower right now and can be frozen into ice cube trays, use the ice cubes in your favourite drink for a pretty visual treat. decorate your next cake with sugar coated pansy or viola flowers.

Try these edible flowers in your home cooking:

Flowers of chives and garlic chives.
Calandula and marigolds.
Nasturtium flowers
Tulbaghia flowers(society garlic)
Citrus blossoms
Tuberous begonias
Pansies
Flowers of pineapple sage
Rose booms
Zucchini flowers

New Zealands Earthly Delights

 A sculpture made from rustic barbed wire.

 In the shape of a sheep, of course!

 A place for the birds.

A Simple yet elegant cast iron urn draws in the eye.

I love the rustic vegy patch to the right and the stark white gazebo in the background looks divine.

 The contrast of neatly pruned box hedge and romantic cottage plants is perfection.

 Old fashion dahlias and sedems in the forefront add colour to the greenery.

 An espaliered beurre bosc pear tree is a great use of space. Dwarf Tahitian lime trees are planted below making it a mini garden of Eden.

 Standard Olive trees with silvery grey foliage compliment the green box topiary.

 Another espaliered tree. This one is an apple tree. Not only does it look good its produces lots of yummy fruit. Dad brought this idea
 back home with him.

 An espaliered Fig tree is a magnificent idea.

I love the use of this gorgeous teak garden bench. It becomes a practical focal point in the garden.

I was amazed by Marian and Rodney's ( Mum and Dad's) photographs that they took on a recent holiday to New Zealand. A few of you have asked me to post some of their garden tour snaps on our blog.. so here they are. I hope you get inspired and excited as much as I did when I saw these lovely  garden pics. Enjoy...

The Bridge Gets fresh

Get your hands on some of the regions freshest produce  at the Murray Bridge Farmers Market. It's a fabulous new market , located

 alongside the Murray River at the wharf precinct.

There is a great mix of organic grown fruit, vegetables and produce all locally grown and made.

The Murray Bridge Farmers Market is open every Saturday 8:30am-12:30pm 



A colourful array of fruit and vegetables tempt you in to each stall. Find a mix of stone fruit, citrus fruit, Jams, pickles and locally made olive oil.

 Visit the skilled team at Obsession Coffee  and enjoy a coffee or tea while you browse the market.

Obsession Coffee is a newly formed artisan coffee roaster based at Mypolonga.

Deb O'Connor brings her cooking skills to the market with an exotic mix of gourmet pies.

Try a crocodile, myrtle and champagne pie, Syrian Chicken or Spicy curry snapper pie.

Take home some Flavorino sweet tomatoes and try Oriana's Pasta sauce, made right here in Murray Bridge.

The best thing about this market is that you know that the produce is in season, so you know it will taste good. You can visit the market and be inspired to cook, just talk to the stall holders for ideas on how to use their produce.

Take home some hand made Italian bread and try Giuseppe's olive oil..

Mingle with the locals and enjoy the atmosphere on the river.

Climbing Spinach

Come in store and grab yourself some climbing spinach. This unusual spinach is a perennial making an ideal vegetable to have on standby  for when your regular spinach goe to seed.

Climbing Spinach is yummy in Stir frys, stews and salads.

Martha's Garden



A perfect boxed garden owned by Martha Stuart.



Bay trees have been used throughout her gardens. They can be hedged or let it grow into a medium-sized evrgreen tree. They are hardy once established, look great in Tuscan or Enlish style gardens and the leaves can be used in cooking. We have a good range in the nursery including standard bay trees.

Hometown & Abroad

Krystal with her chili art installation.

Have you popped over to our other blog ' Hometown & Abroad'. It show cases Krystal James photography, art, life and travel pics.

Grow Gorgeous Lettuce

It's salad time and a great time to grow lettuce. Choose a pick and eat variety that allows you to pick what you need and the remaining plant will grow thicker and healthier. Feed your lettuce with a liquid fertiliser such as Power Feed every couple of weeks and make sure they get plenty of sunshine.

Ask us instore about our tips on keeping earwigs and snails away.

image via Oasis Horticulture

A day in the garden

I found some ruby red rhubarb growing in the veggie patch and had a sudden desire to bake with it. I always loved it when my Nan would stew up rhubarb and we would eat it with ice cream so this is what I did..

Picked the rhubarb and heading back to the kitchen

 Washed and chopped it up.

 Sprinkled with sugar and dobbed with butter

Made the crumble with brown sugar and oats

 Once its baked, serve with vanilla icecream, yum.

For the full recipe: Rhubarb Crumble