Kitchen Gardeners

Jay O'Val
  • Female
  • Sydney
  • Australia
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Profile Information

Where do you live and garden?
Sydney
How long have you been growing food?
forever!
Dream garden travel destination:
This planet
Favorite foods:
mushrooms

Jay O'Val's Photos

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Comment Wall (2 comments)

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At 5:57pm on August 26, 2009, Maggie said…
Thanks Jay,
Our garden is looking great after all the lovely rain we have had.
The weather in Australia is pretty unpredictable at the moment.
Floods, snow, high winds, high heat and bush fires.
Have a great day.
At 6:50pm on August 22, 2009, Maggie said…
Hi Jay,
Welcome to KGI, what do you like to grow?

Latest Activity

Jay O'Val added a blog post
I'm back at my place, still on holidays for a few days. I'm trying to do something in the garden every day. My daughter delivered a bag of horse manure - she goes to horse rescue mob once a month - so I've spread it under my trees and around my ve...
on Tuesday
Scrumpers Delight map Add wild food in your area.
on Tuesday
No gardening, on holidays, ripe bananas in the yard here, bats are enjoying them!
November 27
So much for the lady bugs, I think the birds ate them! And I'm planting more peas and beans today. Nuff for now
November 13
Gosh, you guys are getting very hot weather! we have been having lovely rain lately, and everything is turning green :) Of course the humidity is getting up there as well! Jay, we grow snow peas here as a winter crop, that might be why they didnt ...
November 9
Hi Jay, It is good to hear all about your garden. This heat is severe and as you have said everything wilts. Here in South Australia we are going to have a very hot week ahead, 37c and 39c every day. We have not planted out our tomatoes, basil etc...
November 8
Are any of you from Australia? Did you see the Guerrilla Gardeners program on Channel 10? It was a lot of fun but it isn't running any more. They didn't let it run through all the episodes. It actually has a Wikipedia entry! I was reminded of the ...
November 7
Jay O'Val added a blog post
The rocket, bok choi and potatoes are all doing wonderfully. The potatoes came up high enough to be mulched so they are settled and the bok choi had it's first thinning which gave enough greens to fill one hand. I didn't mention at the time but I ...
November 7
Jay O'Val added a blog post
I have managed to do some more work in my garden - I've planted rocket and bok choy and potatoes last weekend. They haven't come up yet, but they are in! I'm still eating snow peas and when it's cool enough to cook there's plenty of kale. Some of ...
October 10
Hi Jay and Gillian, Wow 37 degrees c is hot for Sydney in September! I also have a passionfruit vine I sit under in summer. We also string up shade cloth over our whole yard. Last year our vine produced about 200 passionfruit, YUM! I have photos o...
September 14
Can you grow passionfruit there? - you could put up a support and have a natural living edible shade cover. It grows very fast. I have an arch going over my herb spiral and it looks lovely climbing over that, and does a good job of providing shade...
September 14
I have some of that kale!
September 14
Jay O'Val added a blog post
I'm so tired tonight. Working too hard at work, worrying too much, not getting quite enough sleep. If I was tired because I'd been gardening I'd be happier, but being tired from office work is just boring. My garden isn't being developed the way i...
September 14
"What the hell would I do without my garden!?" - me....
August 31
I wouldn't do covert weeding for the above reasons, and it may not work anyway - the landlord may spray just as a regular 'preventative' so all your good work would go for nothing. Good luck on the environmental approach. I think people who spray ...
August 30
Hi Cindy, they get fruit fly so early it becomes too much trying to beat them. I wouldn't have the tree except someone gave it to me and I didn't know what else to do with it. The problem is that this area has lots of fruit trees that fruit fly lo...
August 30

Jay O'Val's Blog

Jay O'Val

Gardening on my hols.

I'm back at my place, still on holidays for a few days. I'm trying to do something in the garden every day. My daughter delivered a bag of horse manure - she goes to horse rescue mob once a month - so I've spread it under my trees and around my veg. The rain we had was lovely, and I feel that some of that goodness has now got down into the ground. We got a bale of straw so the apple trees, the blood orange and the tyres with the veg are all mulched.

The bok choy failed altogether, have no idea… Continue

Posted on December 1, 2009 at 4:43pm —

Jay O'Val

Update

The rocket, bok choi and potatoes are all doing wonderfully. The potatoes came up high enough to be mulched so they are settled and the bok choi had it's first thinning which gave enough greens to fill one hand. I didn't mention at the time but I put in purple beans and snow peas as well but they never came up. I think the purple beans were probably too old, the larger seeds don't last a long time, but I don't know about the snow peas. One of the great mysteries of gardening I suppose. I'm plann… Continue

Posted on November 7, 2009 at 3:42pm — 2 Comments

Jay O'Val

Back again.

I have managed to do some more work in my garden - I've planted rocket and bok choy and potatoes last weekend. They haven't come up yet, but they are in! I'm still eating snow peas and when it's cool enough to cook there's plenty of kale. Some of the kale is going to seed but the new plants are up. Not as many as I planted, but they are up and doing very well. I've set up shade cloth for the really hot days and the plantings from last weekend are up behind the trees in anticipation of the heat w… Continue

Posted on October 10, 2009 at 4:33am —

Jay O'Val

Tired and hot.

I'm so tired tonight. Working too hard at work, worrying too much, not getting quite enough sleep. If I was tired because I'd been gardening I'd be happier, but being tired from office work is just boring. My garden isn't being developed the way it should. There just isn't time! It isn't all bad news, my seedling kale is doing just fine, even if our brief foray into summer meant I had to give them extra water and put shade cloth over them. That brief bit of summer reminded me that I need to come… Continue

Posted on September 14, 2009 at 5:09am — 2 Comments

Jay O'Val

Not much gardening

I only had one day off this past weekend and I'm not very well so I haven't done much in the garden. I weeded part of the mondo driveway and I've planted a few more kale seeds because so few came up from the first round. I've harvested snow peas and enjoyed crunching them up! They don't even make it to a meal! One of the cavolo nero is starting to flower so I'll have to harvest that whole plant. I've chosen the rocket to save seed from. The last good sized one flowering. That's about it.

This m… Continue

Posted on August 30, 2009 at 4:07pm —

 
 

KGI's book of the month

Latest Activity

now to try bean leaves - really nice green to use if you haven't got chard or spinach. My Chinese friends introduced me to this. you just have to take out the ribs of the leaf and use the soft green parts. yes, a little bit of work, but really wor...
4 hours ago
Those are really beautiful, Danny! :)
4 hours ago
I'll bet this place smelled wonderful. I love prunes, and have very fond memories off sneaking the unfinished halves out of my parents dehydrator when I was a kid. you know, moving around the ones left behind to make it look like I hadn't been the...
4 hours ago
One of my favorite books...I think I actually recommended that to you. They did start in the spring and I'm thinking that would be the right time for where we live. And it gives me extra time to do research about local resources.
4 hours ago
4 hours ago
Kristi Birchenough added a discussion to the group Tomatoes
Ha ha!!! I can almost guarantee you guys haven't read a discussion like this yet!!! Ok, Growing Tomatoes on a Sailboat...I need some thoughts on this, I'm thinking ahead to next summer here and what I shall do to grow Tomatoes on our Sailboat that...
6 hours ago
I think this might need it's own category, don't you? Tomatoes are one of the most popular things to grow and we've been placing them in all kinds of groups, but the fact is we almost all grow them, and they have specific needs.
6 hours ago
That sounds awesome! You read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" right? I think they started in April if I remember correctly. Good book.. Rock on girl!!!
7 hours ago
I think that just made my decision... the carolinas aren't far enough south for me, florida or us virgin Islands here I come!
7 hours ago
Wow! That's beautiful!!!
7 hours ago
Sweet potato leaves, I bet if you threw a handfull of those in your blender with 3 or 4 pieces of fruit and a cup or two of water that would be a yummy smoothie! I do it with spinach, and you don't even taste it...yum!!! it's more fun that eating ...
7 hours ago
I saw a Useful Post on seed saving at the blog Simple Green Frugal Coop, written by coop member Gavin. The blog post gave an especially helpful tip about how to isolate members of the squash/melon/cucumber family, one flower at a time, using eithe...
8 hours ago
Sandy McDonald, PADMANABH SHANKAR, dr sarfraz khan and 3 more joined Kitchen Gardeners
8 hours ago
Joel LeGrand and Luben Kumar are now friends
21 hours ago
Shawna is now friends with TAR HEEL and Melanie Robertson
yesterday
Shawna Just checking in, been busy with work and going back to school
yesterday
Our local squirrels learned to leave the back yard alone as I set the dogs out to chase them anytime I saw one back there, but the squirrels now know the front yard is fine... My problem is more the deer who love the Hostas in the front yard........
yesterday
Awe... lucky!!! How did you do that? I've tried growing it both on deck in summer and just a week or two ago here on the boat. It just gets spindly and sick looking, fails to grow and withers away?!. I'm not sure what kind of soil i used here in t...
yesterday
Good idea! I'm due for another batch... soon to come, "how-to photos"
yesterday
Would like to see pics of you rooting them and how they grow in water. I'm interested in trying this.
yesterday

Notes

HOW TO - ADD A LINK

Several people have experienced difficulty putting working links into comments and blogs etc and I know it is clumsy.... so here is how you do it.....

First type the text you want to appear....  ie  IAN'S PAGE

Then go back and highlight the link text.

Then hit the hyperlink button...a pictogram of a chain link.

Your browser may intervene and request permission to allow temporary scripting or some similar message.   Allow it and go back and highlight the text again

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Created by Ian Jun 7, 2009 at 7:28pm. Last updated by Ian Jun 8.

Forum Policy

Hi, I'm starting to put together a few guidlines on using the discussion forum on here.

I would be happy to hear any comments you may have.  This is very much a work in progress so plese feel free to ask me to add anything you think is needed.

I don't want to make our community hide bound by rules and regulations but I think that, as the community has grown, some explanation of what is expected is needed.

Administration

You can refer any que

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Created by Ian May 23, 2009 at 1:55am. Last updated by Ian May 25.

Climate maps

Hi following recent discussion I have put climate maps of the USA, Australia and Europe on here for reference..

 Climate map of the USA

Climate map of Australia

Climate map of Europe

 

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Created by Ian Sep 12, 2008 at 6:20pm. Last updated by Ian Apr 14.

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes

Hi Everyone,  I've started to collect together recipes from various posts on the site and put them all together here.

If you have a recipe you want to add on here, just post it on the site and leave a comment on my page telling me where it is and I'll go and fetch it back here.

They are organised in Contributor Order but I'm open to better suggestions!

BEVA'S RECIPES

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Created by Ian Jun 2, 2008 at 9:54am. Last updated by Ian Apr 13.

US STATES ABBREVIATIONS

 

US STATE ABBREVIATIONS

AK - Alaska               AL - Alabama              AR - Arkansas
AZ - Arizona              CA - California           CO - Colorado
CT - Connecticut          DC - Dist of Columbia *   DE - Delaware
FL - Florida              GA - Georgia              GU

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Created by Ian Jan 27, 2009 at 4:27pm. Last updated by Ian Jan 27.

HOW TO - MAKE COMPOST

Recently there was an excellent discussion about composting. I’ve pulled together all the various comments here. You can also watch KGI's video on composting here.

 

 

KATE’S ADVICE

I used to have a tumbler that we made from a wine-barrel but

1 you have to fill it up all at once

2. it seemed mostly

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Created by Ian May 30, 2008 at 5:29am. Last updated by Roger Jan 15.

Notes Home

Welcome to Notes.

To view notes that are in the system hit the "all notes" button above.

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Created by Ian May 28, 2008 at 12:10pm. Last updated by Ian May. 30, 2008.

A Note about Notes

I have just written this note so that I can see what we can achieve by using this new feature.

If you read this and have any suggestions then please leave a comment on my page or email me.

Ian

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Created by Ian May 28, 2008 at 6:19pm. Last updated by Ian May. 28, 2008.

 

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