what's up on the porch?

Here's an update of what's progressing along this spring.  My trays of seedlings have been very productive; my Mona lavender cuttings all too although to be honest I haven't actually decided where to put them yet!  My melon seeds both germinated (though I'll only plant one) and my second lot of basil has sprouted.  I planted two beans directly in the pot but neither came up, I think I planted them too deeply, so I'm glad I started one in a punnet.  I've started a second one too and this one went into its pot after I took this photo.

I started more basil because I had a spot I could put a second plant, but I may need to replace the first one.  Either slugs or earwigs have turned my little seedling into this!

Looks like I may need to buy a punnet if I want basil anytime soon. 

Speaking of the Mona lavender, this is what it looks like this year.  It's still fairly compact but I may need to tip prune it this summer, it's gone quite bushy.  No flower buds yet, I think it flowers in the height of summer.

This little surprise greeted me on the porch recently.  My other succulents have all flowered before but this is the first time the jelly beans have flowered.  Not a terribly exciting flower but still pretty sweet.

And just off the porch, my chilies are powering away.  Unfortunately they're really tiny at the moment, I'm not sure if that's the cold or that it's not getting enough sun just yet.  But the latest batch are a bit bigger and they're certainly potent!  I've already been using them.

And this isn't really on the porch,  but my Chilean jasmine has its first flower buds!  They're still tiny but I can't wait until they open.

tomatoes are in at last!

I almost didn't think it would ever happen.  Look at how long and leggy my poor toms had gotten!  The basil's still small, though, I'll wait a bit longer before I plant that out.

I made a hug mistake, though.  It's a good idea to plant leggy seedlings several extra centimeters deep in the dirt to grow some extra roots.  When I plucked the leaves off my honey of Mexico, I did this.  Don't do this.  This is silly.  Trim off the leaves, don't yank them.  Good thing I had extra seedlings...

And now, at last, they're in the tub.  They only need a small stake at that size, but it won't be long until I'll be wrapping string all around them to keep them from flopping.  But will I have tomatoes before Christmas?  That's the real challenge in Australia!

changing of the (veggie) guard

It's the time of year when the winter veg are finishing off and it's time to make room for the summer shift.  My tomato seedlings are busing at the seams!  I've given away two already but the remaining black cherry are outgrowing their pots.  The basil sprouts are powering along quickly too.

The only problem is that their tub is occupied by beets!  At the front and in the smaller pot is silverbeet (developed for its leaves), behind that are beetroots, and behind that is the last of the kale.

I keep hoping the beetroot plumps up a bit.  I want to eat them as baby beetroot but they're still too small even for that, as you can see here.  I thinned out the smallest seedlings as I probably should have done weeks ago, and I'm hoping the remaining beetroots plump up in the next week so I can plant the tomatoes.

But in the meantime I picked some of the silverbeet to try for the first time ... and learned I don't really like silverbeet.  I like spinach and I don't mind kale and other brassicas, but silverbeet has an unpleasant sort of bitter flavour to me.  It's meant to be such an easy-to-grow garden staple but I won't be growing it again.

As you can see in that photo I'm often harvesting my herbs all year round.  My front herb bed, where I used to grow geraniums, now has chives, sage, thyme and my huge rosemary bush.  The smaller herbs are finally starting to fill out after a quiet winter.  They're all hardy sun-lovers so they should appreciate the hot spot much more than the geraniums did!

My snowpeas are finishing off their winter shift too.  One of them got some strange and sudden die-off for a while before sprouting a bit more new growth, but as you can see it's on its last legs.  I'll have to start thinking about what to grow in these two big pots this year.  Last year it was a capsicum and a zucchini, which didn't work out too well.  I'm thinking this year of trying green beans for the first time, we eat a lot of green beans.

It is well and truly spring!  Such an exciting time, preparing for the summer garden.

tomatoes get an upgrade

My tomato sprouts are really coming along. Two of the Honey of Mexico are still small since they got planted late but the rest were really outgrowing their punnet. So this weekend they all got moved into some larger digs. I also put in two punnets of basil. One of the basil punnets and some of the tomatoes are going to a friend this year, it's lovely knowing I can help her establish her own brand new veggie garden.

They're growing so quickly, my only problem is that the tub where they'll be planted is currently occupied by some thriving kale and my beetroots that aren't nearly ready to harvest! Slow down tomatoes, slow down!

edible favourites: peas, green onions and parsley

I have to gush about how much I love my Oregon spring snow peas.  They're super-sweet, not at all stringy, compact and do really well in pots.  Two plants is a great amount for the two of us - every week or so I get about this many.  Perfect mixed into a stir-fry, and really, you wouldn't want much more than this. 

Spring onions are also a favourite of mine to grow.  You only ever need a few in a recipe and I got sick of buying a whole bunch and having to throw the extras away.  They're one of the first things I started growing and I'd hate to be without them.

Parsley is probably my favourite herb to grow.  It never thrived in a pot but ever since I started growing it in the ground it's done this - turned into a huge triffid!  You can also see the beetroot and kale in the background.

You never need very much in one go but I'd hate to be without it.  But as you can see it's starting to go to seed.  Many people let it seed and re-grow on its own but I don't have that kind of patience, I need to always have a supply.  So this weekend I ripped up half the triffid and planted a little seedling!

This is the first time I've tried this, but I'm hoping I'll be able to keep eating off the clump whilst the little seedling grows up.

What do you grow that you couldn't live without?

a hint of spring

I've been really unmotivated about the garden this winter.  It's the coldest, wettest winter I can remember since moving to Australia six years ago.  It's hard to be excited about gardening in that weather.  But today was a hint of spring to come - a perfectly sunny day with a high of 18.  How could I stay inside in that weather?

The bees were busy in my rosemary bush.

A few cyclamen plants that survived the deep shade under the fig tree are putting on a lovely show.

And the geum is already starting to put out its spring flush!  I thought it would wait a lot longer.  You can also just see the daffodils springing up behind it.

The hellebore are going crazy, look at this show!

Even Thatcher was enjoying the sunshine in front of a few spring stars.

The multigraft twig is putting out heaps of new shoots, both leaves and flowers.  That's reassuring since the last set of growth in the autumn dropped its leaves and died over winter, possibly because of the cold.  I just hope we don't get a bad cold snap that knocks out this growth too!

Which just reminds us that spring is still a month away. This week will be more sunny warmth but after that is a return to the cold.

june veggies

It's been a pretty quiet winter in the garden.  I haven't planted many veggies this year but I thought I'd show a few pictures of what is growing.  As with last year I'm growing one Tuscan kale plant.  It's taken a while to get going, but it's now just big enough to start picking leaves for minestrone.  For some reason the white butterflies have left it alone this year, even though they decimated the Chinese cabbage I had growing next to it.

I'm also growing two pots of Oregon spring snowpeas.  They're also just starting to set pods.  I think they really appreciate having the teepee trellis this year.  They're bush-type peas but they still need some support.

My parsley plant has gone absolutely nuts.  Parsley's funny like that, it creeps along slowly until one day you realise you've got a triffid in the yard and there's nothing you can do about it.

My chilies are also still pottering along.  They're still ripening up, although more slowly in the cold.  It's also starting to look a bit yellow, but I'm not sure if I should fertilise it in the winter.

Finally, my twig lost all of its first flush of fruit but it's still holding onto a later flush.  I don't know if they're mandarins or tangelos though.

Unfortunately the other graft is suffering a bit of die-back on some of the new growing tips.  First the young leaves went, now they're turning brown.  I hope it doesn't continue!

late harvests

Well summer has most definitely turned to autumn.  In a normal or warmish year I'd still be letting the summer veg mature and finish up, but this year has been a bit cool and so humid that disease has ended the season early.  For example the watermelon vine completely died off, leaving only 4 watermelons in total.  And even though they all looked nice and sat on the vine for ages, they were all underripe.  Quite disappointing.

I only have two canteloupe on the vine but it's a race against time, the vine's pretty quickly dying to powdery mildew.  Now idea if I'll be able to harvest these guys.

The zucchini also suffered from powdery mildew plus an attack of aphids.  I only got three zucchinis off of it before it went back to making only male flowers.  Then the aphids slowed down and stunted a whole set of new growth.  There were finally two more female flowers last week, but no males to pollinate them, plus the mildew was getting worse and worse.  So I made an executive decision and pulled it out.

The tomatoes also reached their end.  The broad ripple never really gave up, as you can see here it was still ripening fruit even when branches were dead!

But the plants were really struggling, probably something fungal.  Although the one irony is that the Oregon spring, which hadn't developed a single flower since the first flush, put out a whole new set of growth and flowers!  But there was no way they would have developed into fruit in time to eat, so they all came out too.

The figs aren't doing very well this year either.  I got some good ones early, but now they're already bloated and messy.  At one point all the ripe figs, literally, exploded.  They looked quite beautiful, in a way, but inedible.

Not everything has been a loss though.  The cherrytime capsicum made about 8 or 10 little fruit.  They're a bit strong and sharp in flavour, though, I expected them to be sweeter.  The basil and parsley in the bed along the front of the house are going great guns too.

A real winner has been the firecracker chilies.  After the slow start when they were starved of nitrogen, they took off and haven't quit since.  I've started bringing them in to work to give away. They've got a decent heat to them, not quite as hot as a birdseye.

That's about it for the summer season.  I'll keep the chilies going as long as I can, and the herbs are all still happy, but I'm not optimistic about the cantaloupe.  I've started the first of my winter veggies - a Tuscan kale.  I'm also planning on growing snow peas and gai lan, since I know they produce well.

another bountiful harvest

Last week I had another great harvest; my third zucchini, more tomatoes and my first two chilies. 

There are plenty more chilies where that came from but most of them are still green.  This lot got thrown together into a prawn fettuccine.  Looks great but it was actually a bit bland.  Needed more oomph, maybe more garlic.

Still, it's great being able to eat from your own garden.  This is the last big harvest though; the tomatoes are slowing down and there's no sign of another zucchini.  The growing tips got hit hard by aphids, it's amazing how fast they can suck the life out of new growth.  It'll be a while before it recovers and by then it might be too cold. It's still February but I feel like the real warmth of the summer has well and truly passed.