There are many ways of collecting seeds instead of buying seeds from the Plant Shops, Garden Centre or King’s Seeds (NZ), by saving your money. Each time I grow vegetables, cut up for our meal preparing, and I collected seeds to keep for future use of growing in the following season. Sometimes I want to get something different kind of vegetables or fruits where the Fruits & vegetable shop does not have one. I ordered the seeds through King’s Seeds (NZ).
First of all, to dry the seeds onto the paper towel or plant straight into an empty eggshell or egg carton filled with dirt and grow inside. An eggshell or egg carton is useful for recycling back into the ground quickly. Currently, I am growing kumara slips and planted out in the large pots inside the greenhouse last weekend. Kumara slips do not like frost, they prefer full sun and warmth, just like pumpkins.
Inside the greenhouse, there are several ginger shoots and turmeric shoots growing in the pots. Note I put scrape newspapers over the soils and this helps the earth in the containers to retain moisture and warmth through winter inside the greenhouse.
Many different options of throwing food waster scrap, is to throw directly in the old tired vegetable garden plot. Leave there to rot and start turning over by making a long or long trench and covering up with old soil from time to time. I won’t worry about birds, rats, mice or rabbits come along and pick it for meals. You may see lupin plants in the old garden, and they are an excellent fertiliser, even mustard seed/flowers too. The Lupin and Mustard Seeds are high for Green Crop Nitrogen Fixing. Somewhere there were comfrey leaves as well. I grow comfrey plants for flowering and making fertiliser.
In the third photo, the other food waste scraps came out directly from the white drum as in the previous blog into the section for making compost throughout the year. I covered this one with large tarp sheet, before this work I laid down cardboard on the ground first, then food scrape on top and finally covered with tarp sheet. Check regularly and turn over, see the layer of compost colours and break down mulching in the fourth photo.
Then shift freshly compost to the garden plot, dig in and turn over for a few days.
It is ready for new vegetable seedlings to plant in.
Another tip for making fertiliser, use broken clean eggshells and put straight into the soil and turn over. Why eggshells?? These eggshells provide calcium deficiency. While this deficiency rarely caused by improper watering, there’s no harm in making sure your plants have a steady source of calcium.
Leaves, grass and weeds are also high for quick composting if you can pile up into moulds and leave there until it is ready to put back in the garden after several weeks.
People keep throwing food out of the kitchen daily and wasting money…
If you ever thought about recycling food waste into the garden. It can be used as compost or soil back in the ground again.
Another way of saving money on buying vegetables, even fruits from the supermarket. Did you know that any vegetable seed produces more vegetable in the garden even fruit seeds?
The first crops grew by a disabled man who I am supporting him as a deaf community support worker and ourselves. This crops was taken in 2014-2015 Summer time.
Is it easy or hard to do this by putting food waste back in the garden?
No, it is not hard, and you can try to learn from a novice deaf gardener.
First of all, I learnt how to do gardening even I hated weeding, doing the garden when I was a little deaf girl. My mother said to me when I am older enough, and I will have to do gardening. My reply was yes, I am going to achieve this and show our garden when anyone can visit us here. My mother was dismayed when she came over to our new home in Eureka nearly five years ago. The garden has changed a lot and grow bigger since my sister and mother visited here less than a couple years ago. Rarely our friends visited here from time to time and wonder how much more I will be doing the garden project. It will be one and a half years to go until I am satisfied with the garden project and the outcome results in all seasons throughout the years to come.
Well, first of all, STOP THROWING FOOD WASTES in the rubbish bins!!
Put any food scraps that you do not want to keep longer or make into soup. Throw into an old ice cream container with the lid and store under the sink, on the bench or in the pantry.
Put some food scraps from the ice cream container into the bucket, and the rest of foodscapes can be made into vegetable soups for long cold winter nights. Keep the large bucket with the lid on in a warm and shady place. You may notice that I have two buckets – one with holes on the bottom and the second bucket without holes.
A Bucket of food waste
Food scapes in the bucket
Once the large bucket is full and empty this large bucket to outside where there is a large drum with holes in the garden. This large white drum was left in the vast middle garden by the previous owners before 2014.
The holes surround the drum was for the air circulation, and of course, we know about having rats or mice creeping inside the drum, and it never happened due I checked regularly. Because we have got two dogs hanging around the gardens and fields by chasing rabbits, birds even possums.
Perhaps if you want to know what I have been doing recycling, other ways of making food scraps into the garden and updating my garden project… Follow my gardening blog…
Autumn was here Glorious leaves – brown, yellow, red warm sun shining through trees out in the fields. Leaves everywhere – there, over there, here or further away! How perfect Autumn was here before the gloomy wild, wet winter to come!
Dogs have gone walkabout, sniffing out the scents – wild rabbits, pheasants, feral cats or birds out there. Running from one place to another place in the basking sunshine of Autumn season. How beautiful sight to see them running around!
Heating up the house
Winter has arrived already!
Jack the Frost – ouch and shivering on a freezing, frosty morning. Whiten over green grasses on the ground while sunshine peeping through tree branches in the field.
Oh, what a wonder of having a fireplace in the lounge – hooray! What a better way to give us warmth to our bodies and dogs’ bodies inside the house!
Let us do roasting marshmallows over the fire. Fire flames dancing through displaying red and yellow sparks inside the fireplace.
We can not wait for the beautiful Spring to come! So much work to be done in the garden – planting tulip and freesia bulbs, herb plants, iris rhizomes to be flowering soon while yellow dwarf native kowhais are flowering already. Too soon for Spring – Kowhai!!
Life in Eureka 
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