Tamara Williams
CONGRATULATIONS Tamara, you have won a $50 voucher to the Kingaroy Garden Centre for your tissue paper art. What a fantastic effort!
A Highly Commended must go to
The Ploughman's
And Sancia Rose for their fantastic entries!
How are your vegetables growing? Now is a good time to use your SeaSol liquid fertiliser.Make sure you follow the packet instructions and mix it in with 10 Litres of water.
We have had our resident Garden Guru Grace Gibson answer your gardening questions. If you'd like your questions answered by our expert email them to berneice@rhealth.com.au
Question 1
How do I set up a composting bin?
We recommend visiting the Community Gardens Website factsheet. It is full of helpful information for starting your composting bin. visit http://communitygarden.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/composting.pdf
Question 2
What is the best way to keep vegetables in pots and boxes?
With vegies in pots or boxes they need watered regularly, morning sun, seasol dissolved in water (one of those sachets to 10litres) monthly.I think the soil would be rich enough to not need replenished more than once a year if seasol was being used monthly.
Question 3
How long do each type of plant last - do they need to be replaced seasonally, or do they keep growing. And when growing lettuce/ spinach etc, can you take leaves off as it grows or is it best to leave it til it's finished growing and take the whole thing?
When growing lettuce, spinach & Asian greens you can harvest a few leaves as you need until the plant goes to seed.
Question 4
How do I grow potatoes at home?
Potatoes can be planted early Spring through to summer here. They can be planted in tyres, sacks, in pots & containers or in the garden. Plant them about 13cm deep and cover with deep mulch. Once the plant is shooting you may need to add more mulch to make sure the potatoes stay out of light. They will be ready for harvest after 3-4months, after the tops have withered.
Now is a good time to plant all the summer vegies – tomatoes, lettuce, Asian greens, capsicum, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, beans, beetroot and carrots will work if they stay out of the hot afternoon sun, onions, and lots of herbs.
And for more gardening information visit the BIEDO website Community Permaculture Webpage
http://www.biedo.org.au/article/44/health-and-wellbeing
ARTICLE 2: Tips to reach 2&5
Many people don’t eat fruit and vegetables because they think that they are too expensive, or they don’t know how to cook with them. Last week we saw the quantities of fruit and vegetables required to purchase each week to meet your 2&5® target. Here are some more ideas to save money and include 2 fruit and 5 vegetables each day.
• Shop around and investigate the best place to buy fruit and veg in your local area: fruit and vegetable shops often provide good quality fruit and vegetables at excellent prices, or look out for specials at the supermarket.
• Always buy fruit and veg when they are in season for the cheapest price.
• Many vegetables can be frozen for several months - buy in bulk when they are on special in season and make your own assorted frozen vegetable mix. Handy for when you don’t have time to cut up extra vegetables.
• Making meat go further with extra vegetables makes sense when you consider that most meat costs between $10-$26/kilo, whereas most vegetables can be obtained for less than $6.00 per kilo.
• Remember that you can use a mixture of canned, frozen and fresh fruit and vegetables to reach your target.
• Compare the price of fruit and vegetables for snacks (under $6.00/kg) compared to commercial snacks such as muesli bars ($15.88/kg), as well as all those ‘extra’ foods such as chocolates ($17.90/kg), chips ($19.90/kg), biscuits ($10.49/kg) and desserts ($11.96/kg).
• Cook in bulk and use up lots of vegetables in each dish (e.g. a large stir-fry or soup). Put any leftovers in the freezer for a quick and easy alternative to takeaways when you don’t feel like cooking or making anything for lunch.
• Start getting into the habit of adding a few extra vegetables to whatever you’re cooking, as well as gradually increasing the amount of vegetables you have on the side – aim for half the plate filled with vegetables.
How do you save money to get more fruit and vegetables into your day? Email in your cost saving fruit and vegetable tips to berneice@rhealth.com.au and we’ll put the most exciting up in next week’s post!
Week 3 Recipe
CITRUS COLESLAW
10 minutes preparation
6 serves of vegies in this recipe
1 orange
3 cups cabbage, shredded
2 spring onions, sliced
1 small green capsicum, seeded and sliced
Dressing
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Grate the orange rind and set aside. Peel and slice orange into segments or rings. Combine orange with cabbage,
spring onions and capsicum in a serving bowl. Mix dressing ingredients in a separate bowl and add orange rind.
Pour over salad and mix well.
Serves 4.
Variation
Use pink grapefruit instead of orange. Add sliced kiwi fruit or grated carrot.
For a creamy, low-fat dressing, mix ¼ cup low-fat natural yogurt, ¼ cup reduced-fat mayonnaise, juice of ½ lemon and 1 teaspoon wholegrain or French mustard.
© Healthy Food Fast, State of Western Australia, 2009.