Lemons Lemons LEMONS! and Radishes too

As my husband rightly points out... I have a gardening problem. And that problem is that I never have just enough produce. As evidenced by the great tomato glut of February 2015 I always end up with

way too much of the vegetable I plant.

The reason for this is that I cannot believe that every plant I seed will actually grow (lingering trauma from failed gardening attempts in childhood). As a result I tend to over plant and cannot bear to thin out my crop either (they're my babies!!!). 

Fortunately with some good old fashioned know how (aided by the internet), I have managed to find a way to store, use and make use of every single excess veggie that has sprouted from the garden. And thus I present to you

What to do when you have over 20 lemons to use in a week!

Tuesday tip: Economical activities

Sometimes, it actually works out better to outsource some of your activities. Yes that's right, it sometimes is more economical to pay someone else to do your jobs!

Let me explain. If you can find someone to do your ironing for say, $15 an hour and you need two hours worth of ironing done, isn't it worth it for your time and sanity (not to mention time that you could spend with the family) to outsource this task? Would you get more than $30 worth of happiness, sanity and down time from it? I know I would!!

Things to consider:

• What is your hourly rate of pay? Could you earn more in two hours doing your own job vs doing the outsourcing task? If you could, it is better economy to outsource it!
• Will you save time and sanity? Why do something you dislike intensely if you can outsource it and save the effort?
• Does it free up some time that you could put to better use? Spending time with the kids/other half/pets or having some valuable personal time?

Jobs that you might consider outsourcing:

• Cleaning
• Ironing
• Shopping
• Gardening
• Childcare

Head over to With a Fork to read about outsourcing food shopping with a food box delivery service. If it sounds like your kind of thing and you want to try it, there is a discount code for your first box!

Do you outsource tasks? What works for your household?

Tuesday Tip: How to use up excess produce

If you have a home garden, you know all too well that there are times when you have a glut of tomatoes or eggplants or something. Sure, you can eat them until the cows come home. There are many different ways to prepare vegetables, you can also preserve them and freeze them for later consumption.

But sometimes, there is just too much and you can't face the thought of another eggplant based dish. Or, you need just a little of something else, and you know it's in season right now, but don't want to pay supermarket prices for food that comes from who knows how far away.

Enter this awesome site: www.ripenear.me

Founded by two passionate foodies from Adelaide, I'll let them tell you how they came up with the idea and what the site is all about:

In winter of 2012 they noticed so many citrus trees scattered about the suburbs full of fruit that nobody was eating. And yet local stores were selling plenty of them - even some that were imported! It just didn't make sense. So, an idea was born: Why not have a site that allows foodies to connect with growers? Wouldn't it be cool if we could get all our fresh food from the local neighbourhood?... And so we started on our quest.

What a great idea! Around me, there are growers of chilli and basil, mangoes, figs and amaranth and even some eggs. I've got some of my own chilli and eggplants listed as growing, and I may even be able to offer some sweet potato if the harvest is as bountiful as I think it'll be.

You're welcome :)

* Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this site although I am a member. I just think it's awesome sauce!!

How does your Garden Grow: HELP my tomatoes are taking over!

Inspired by this gardening series from Withafork.blogspot.com I've decided to provide my own little sneak peek into my adventures into veggie growing.


Remember my Egg Shell seedlings? That seems like such a long time ago but since then the combination of bright sunny days inter-spaced with heavy rain has resulted in the tomatoes totally taking over my little veggie patch.

It has even swallowed up a healthy brown onion plant which survives only because it's leaves are tall enough to grow above the tomato plants. All other seedlings (carrots and zucchini) planted in that garden bed were completely consumed.

At least we're have a bounty of Tomatoes!

I wonder if Ms Fork will swap me some eggplants. Since I can't seem to get those to grow no matter how hard I try.

What should I do with all of them? Any ideas?

How does your Garden Grow - Getting Ready for Summer

Posed this question from Ms Fork from WithaFork I went out and dug up (pardon the gardening pun) some photos I took of seedlings I planted in little egg shells because my compost farm was getting too cluttered up with eggs and I didn't want to add them to the regular trash.

To the absolute despair of my hubby, I find it hard to simply throw things into regular trash (hence the upcycling projects). It makes me feel guilty thinking how long things take to disappear into nothingness. Which is why he bought me my first worm farm (which I LOVE) those little guys are fantastic for turning anything from veggie peels to dog poo into good rich soil for the garden. Best thing is that rubbish goes in... and it disappears just like magic. But even my little guys struggle with egg shells. But they are still organic and are great to use in the garden. 

Plant Nursery:

You can even mark on the eggs when they were planted and what seeds are in them. And forget about having to squeeze them out of seedling planters you just crack the shell and they are in perfect pod shapes to plant in the garden. 

Finally egg shells are great for spreading around the newly planted seedlings to protect them from snails and slugs. The grubs don't like the feeling of crawling over the sharp edges of the shells so they don't start nibbling on the new leaves. Above are my planted tomatoes and zucchini plants happy to be busted out of their eggshell nursery. 

How does your garden grow?