Kitchen Gardeners

Gillian's Comments

Comment Wall (80 comments)

You need to be a member of Kitchen Gardeners to add comments!

Join this Ning Network

At 6:37pm on January 31, 2010, Maggie said…
We have not had rain and the temperature is in the 30 degrees range so it is good for ripening tomatoes and chillies.
We had a lovely morning at the Adelaide Farmers market yesterday and my fridge is bursting with things to make chutney with. Maybe tonight, seems a shame to be inside on a nice day.
I don't like the sound of that snake!
Have a great day. Maggie
At 5:50pm on January 31, 2010, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian, What's the weather like there and how is your garden after all that rain?
At 5:58am on January 24, 2010, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian,
i see the cyclones have reached land and been down graded but you still have high winds, thunder storms and lots of rain.
How is your lovely garden standing up to this weather?
At 2:11am on January 23, 2010, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian,
My Mum just rang me to tell me about the weather warnings for you part of Australia.
I hope you are all safe and that your garden is ok.
Cheers Maggie
At 12:34am on January 13, 2010, Angela said…
Ontdekkers is on the other side of railway line and we are more nearer to Wilro Park but more closer to Hillfox centre...if you still remembered it.

Well, we grew up in Cape Town till three years ago we moved up here for our better jobs. We are much happier here as the weather is wonderful here, lot better than Cape Town.

It must be wonderful to live in Cairns...What happened to your yacht that you sailed around the world? My husband and I would love to ride on our motorbikes around the world but we can't afford and we have children to care for. Maybe when we retire, we might start to think what we can do with our lives.

Can you please send some photos of the tropical plants? I wonder if you mean the palm trees, all those types of plants. What vegetable plants do you have in your garden?

Hope to hear from you.
At 5:28am on January 12, 2010, Angela said…
Hi Gillian,

Nice to "meet" you! Florida is not far from where I live...in Strubens Valley. Where about in Australia do you live? What do you do for a living?

Till I hear from you
At 10:33pm on January 10, 2010, Mary Riekert said…
Thanks Gillian - I will send you my address via email. I certainly remember guavas and custard! You can get tinned guavas from the South African shop in Melbourne and they also have a website: http://www.thesouthafricanshop.com.au/ if you want some vir oulaas!
At 6:18pm on January 10, 2010, Mary Riekert said…
Hi Gillian
Happy New Year to you. I have been away in Perth for Christmas and it was good to swim in the Indian Ocean again. I had forgotten just how nice it is - quite unlike our cold southern seas down here where even in high summer you need a wetsuit to stay in for any length of time. Perth was lovely and the gardens there reminded me a lot of Durban with lots of bougainvilleas and frangipanni. I have had no luck with gem squash here. It just gets too hot now in the summer even though I am meant to be in a Cool zone (I am in Victoria up in the hills outside Melbourne). Thanks you for your offer of seeds. I got very excited to see gem squash for sale in a greengrocer in Perth as they are one of the things I miss most - you can get just about everything else here. I also really miss pink guavas - you can but white guavas in the Asian shops here but they are hard. Do you get pink guavas in Qld?
At 9:51pm on December 26, 2009, purplepear said…
Thanks Gillian for your nice words. We love our garden, it is a great place to be and very productive. Now that we have some rain in the Hunter we can look foward to corn, melons, and many summer crops that seemed almost impossible a few days ago. It was a great Christmas present.
At 11:42pm on December 24, 2009, Kathryn said…
Merry Christmas Gillian
At 7:36pm on December 17, 2009, Maggie said…
Me again, his allotment is not covered in snow, I was looking at some of the gardening videos he has made and in the video it was about his snow garden some other time.
It was a funny video anyway.
Well I had best to some work I think.
Red alert there is not snow in the UK!
At 7:31pm on December 17, 2009, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian
We had 1 day 39 c the next day 20 C and it rained all night and day, fantastic.
At present we have another lovely 23C day and twenties this week.
I hope you enjoy your break, no doubt we shall all still be online and chatting.
I love this forum and following everyones gardens.
Their is an English blog called" Soilman" his garden is covered in snow!
At 6:14pm on December 17, 2009, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian and Kathryn it is great to see you both online, have a great day
At 4:51pm on December 17, 2009, Kathryn said…
Sorry.I.cant.comment.past.one.line.and.the.fullstops.are.annoying.sorry
At 4:50pm on December 17, 2009, Kathryn said…
They.take.a.full.season.to.harvest.then.you.have.to.wait.for.them.to.dry...
At 4:49pm on December 17, 2009, Kathryn said…
Check.your.water.levels.wet.or.dry.for.the.flowers..
At 10:18am on December 12, 2009, Kathryn said…
http://www.aquasapone.com.au/soapmaking/index.html
Hi.Gillian.I.used.to.make.and.sell.handmade. soaps.This.is.a.good.site.search.around.though.for.recipes.on.the.net.I.didnt.use.fancy.moulds.I.used.to.use.empty.milk.cartons.cardboard.kind..Milk.Honey.Coffee.Luffah.etc.......You.can.make.all.kinds.of. soap....I.also.grew.luffahs.and.made.luffah. soaps.
At 6:56pm on November 26, 2009, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian I did not save, we have just found a link that says you can grow both types of passionfruit from seed. They say fresh seed is best so when some of ours ripen I shall send you the seed.
Here is the link
http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-passionfruit.html
Cheers
Maggie
At 11:12pm on November 17, 2009, Steph Webb said…
ha ha Gillian..Gemsquash it is! LOL! I have always loved gems.....and had some last year for the first time in 9 + years! Bought it at the international delli.....well i am determined to try grow it here next year...i believe there is a SAFFA growing a crop of them up in Queensland and selling them to some supermarkets.....
Gosh you have had a fantastic life...a sail boat nog al! :) My dad was a keen fisherman and always out on the boats and down at the sea,,,,so I have sea water running through my veins! So love the sea and beach ...sigh!!! Yeah i heard about the fires danger down in South Australia and I guess that makes us rather vulnreable....I live near the Dandenongs and there is a huge fire danger there this year...so summer is going to be a nightmare season for us all...I live more in an open suburban area but last year we had fires there too!
At 6:41pm on November 17, 2009, Maggie said…
Hi Gillian,
The brown drip hose is just from the local mitre ten store.
We have not had to replace any.
It is under mulch and the shade cloth is up for summer.
You can view it at number 5 photo on my page.
Have a great day
Maggie

KGI's Book of the Month

Latest Activity

kimmy miller, Ludovic, Julie and 3 more joined Kitchen Gardeners
1 hour ago
trowel, fork, seeds with planting directions tailored to the area. harvesting and preserving information. drip irrigation system?
1 hour ago
1 hour ago
Wow Sandra! You've asked for an awful lot of information! Start by checking for your "predicted" last frost date. There are frost charts online, but the quickest way for you, I think, is to call your county extension agent. He'll be listed in the ph…
1 hour ago
3 hours ago
thanks, Katherine, I will try to seek it out... It would be interesting to see where their info came from... stay warm wherever you are...
4 hours ago
Hmmm... we are having lots of sacred snow these days in Baltimore... can't wait for some of it to melt down... can't wait for spring to get my fingers back in the soil...
4 hours ago
6 hours ago
11 hours ago
Mary Riekert joined Gillian's group
Those interested in growing gemsquash - a very typical South African vegetable that we miss!
11 hours ago
Had no luck with gem squash last year - it was just too hot! So I didn't try this year. Maybe next summer.
11 hours ago
11 hours ago
Oh gosh, that is rare to get humidity that far south! That is where all our moisture went - we havnt had any rain for over a week :) I started that gemsquash group as I discovered a new member (Margaret Flett) who had gemsquash as her favourite vege…
11 hours ago
Gillian added a group
Those interested in growing gemsquash - a very typical South African vegetable that we miss!
11 hours ago
Yes it's hot but very humid which is unusual. We are having a spell of days in the low 30s but tropical air is being pushed south by the weather systems up north and we are getting rain and humidity. The rain we love - the humidity we are not used t…
11 hours ago
11 hours ago
yes - the pods are quite tough. We only ate the peas inside and we always ate them green although many Indian people dry them. They are known as toovar dhal in Gujerati or tuvaram in Tamil and there are lots of recipes for them dried. Just google to…
11 hours ago
Mary, so you always shell them? I am entirely in the dark with these, and no more flowers :(... Did you only cook the peas fresh or did you leave some to dry? I posted a photo of the HUGE luffa I found, and there are lots more making an appearance -…
12 hours ago
How lovely - I guess your weather must be good for tomato growing! Is it still so hot down there?
12 hours ago
Hi i just wanted to ask, I know it is still cold and i want to know what i can grow in the garden that would be organic and as close to the original foods? How do i find seeds for these foods? When do i start growing? Can i start seed in the house?…
12 hours ago

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

Continue

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

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

Continue

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

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

 

Continue

Created by Ian Sep 12, 2008 at 6:20pm. Last updated by Ian Apr. 14, 2009.

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

Continue

Created by Ian Jun 2, 2008 at 9:54am. Last updated by Ian Apr. 13, 2009.

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

Continue

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

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

Continue

Created by Ian May 30, 2008 at 5:29am. Last updated by Roger Jan. 15, 2009.

Notes Home

Welcome to Notes.

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

Continue

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

Continue

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

© 2010   Created by Kitchen Gardeners International

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service

Sign in to chat!