Storing Herbs (Sage & Basil)

Today I picked a large bunch of Sage from bed 33 and a large amount of Basil from bed 38 and stored them in the freezer for future use. How I did it is below:

Sage

1. What I did was I broke the stork off each leaf and washed all the leaves in a drainer under fresh cold rain tank water.
2. Dried all the leaves with paper toweling to remove most of the water.
3. Placed the sage leaves on a tray and into the freezer for about an hour. They became quite frozen.
4. Took them out of the freezer and placed all the leaves into a air tight plastic container and put the container back into the freezer for later use.

I did the same for the Basil I harvested. So they say when you freeze herbs the taste will keep better than by drying them. Sounds right but I will find out and if I remember, I'll post results on this blog.

Keep Growing and bye for now.

New winter plantings today

Planted this morning before a good watering the following:

The newly combined beds of 2 and 3 - Brocolli (Green Belt), Cabbage (Ball Head & Green Coronette).
In bed 4 - Brocollia (Bunching), Red Onion (Odourless).

I'd like to combine most of the beds (to have larger ones) so I can use the vegetable garden to a greater capacity. Too many beds create too much empty space which is unused. Therefore I have started with combining beds 2 and 3. Water and rock melons are starting to yearn my picking. Took a huge bunch of fresh silver beet in this morning and blanched it before putting it into the freezer for future cooking use.

See below the updated pictures I took this morning:

Shows what I did this morning with the Brocoli, Cabbage and Red onion seedlings. Also shows my potatoe harvest I dug up this morning.

A closer picture showing the combined beds 2/3 and bed 4.

And some other pictures below:

Work on Vegy Patch

Hey,

As per the 2D plan, combined beds 2 and 3 and turned over ready for tommorrows planting of seedlings of Cabbage, Red onions, Broccoli. Also transplanted young leek plants from bed 6 to bed 7.

Steve

Update on my patch in Pictures

Photos above taken just before the rain we have had this weekend (Canberra Day long weekend). Will be planting the winter crops soon and get a frost proof covering over the entire patch.

Regards - Steve the vegygardener.

2D Plan of Summer Vegetable Garden

My Vegetable garden in Murumbateman NSW.

Breifly, size is 7.2m x 9.6m and contains 38 individual beds.

Some notes:
A. Sketch plan above shows very close to scale layout and size of vegetable garden design.
B. Numbers below indicate the growing contains of each.
C. Squares with crosses indicate a post (will be used later for a covering for the winter months and holding the future sprinkler system for watering).
D. Perimeter contains wire fencing to keep the dogs out.
E. When I write about my vegetable patch in the blog, I'll relate to these numbered beds.

What is in each vegetable garden bed as dated today....

1 - Shallots, Snowpeas.
2 - Potatoes (now fallow ground).
3 - Potatoes (now fallow ground).
4 - Potatoes (now fallow ground).
5 - Potatoes.
6 - Potatoes, Leek, Brown onions, Green capsicum.
7 - Brown onions (now fallow ground).
8 - Brown onions (now fallow ground).
9 - Brown onions (now falow ground) Potatoes.
10 - Potatoes.
11 - Leek.
12 - Leek, Sweet corn.
13 - Carrots.
14 - Silverbeet, Shallots.
15 - Spring onions.
16 - Garlic (lost, must find and dig them up).
17 - Garlic (lost, must find and dig them up).
18 - Beetroot.
19 - Pumpkin plants.
20 - Shallots.
21 - Silverbeet (younger than bed 14).
22 - Green capsicum.
23 - Rock melon.
24 - Water melon.
25 - Cherry tomatoes, Climbing beans, Green capsicum.
26 - Tomatoes (red and black russians).
27 - Tomatoes.
28 - Pumkin, Zuchinni.
29 - Zuchinni.
30 - Pumkin, Tomatoes.
31 - Cucumber, Sweet corn.
32 - Cucumber, Sweet corn.
33 - Turnip, Sage.
34 - Dill (now gone to seed), Purple carrots, Sweet corn.
35 - Garlic (lost, must find and dig them up).
36 - Tomatoes.
37 - Lettuce (now fallow ground), mint (died off).
38 - Basil, Oregano (never come up).
39 - Sweet corn.
40 - Asparagus (now one year old, went to ferns this year).