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?

growing, harvests, planting and worms

A lot to but together for this post.  First I wanted to share how much my tomatoes are thriving this year now that they're in a huge planter.  They're another 20cm taller since I took this photo, with heaps of little green fruit.  I've had to brace them against the wind though, it can get very strong.

I finally pulled up my Granex sweet onions to make room for the pumpkin and melons.  I put my foot in the photo for perspective - three good-sized onions and three that were too small.  They all could have done with another month of growth but I just couldn't put off the melons any longer, they'd been in little punnets for too long.  And unfortunately the onions were nothing special.  They were indeed very mild but they weren't very sweet.  Not something I'll repeat in this small garden.

But at least I was finally able to plant out two melons and a pumpkin.  I topped up the garden bed with mushroom compost, manure and my home-made compost.

I had heaps of compost this time around, rich and black.  It's going to make those melons grow like crazy!  Look at that beautiful black gold!

And finally, I decided this weekend to set up a worm farm.  The farm was free, made from two foam broccoli boxes.  Wet shredded newspaper goes in the top for worm food.  I poked holes in the bottom so the worm "juice" can drip through to the bottom box.  This "worm wee" makes excellent liquid fertiliser.

Then I just had to add worms!  You can buy the special composting worms from most garden shops.  You can't see them in the photo because they run away from the light, but I gave them a bit of watermelon rind to start with.  Mostly I got them to use up our newspaper which otherwise goes into the recycling,  but I'll sometimes add some food scraps.

As well as the "wee" they also make solid castings, rich pellets of clay-textured goodness.  So now I've got the compost bin to add texture to the soil, worm wee for liquid goodness and worm castings for fertiliser pellets.  As my husband put it, there isn't a corner left in the garden that hasn't been put to some purpose!

first onion

I decided to try one of my granex sweet onions today.  Almost as soon as I picked it I realised I should have waited longer.  It's about the size of a garlic head and once I peeled off the outer layer there wasn't much left.  And it was really mild - not oniony, but also not sweet.  Hopefully it's because I picked it early.  I'll give the rest until the end of the month before I have to take them out to make way for the melons and pumpkin.

fat onions and white spiders

Not much happening in the garden these days, I've done most of the work and I'm just letting spring do its job.  The Granex sweet onions are looking great, they're forming lovely fat bulbs.  They get about a month to ripen before they'll be forced to make way for the pumpkins and melons.

I was taking a close look at my designer twig the other day and spotted these stealthy little neighbours blending in with the white blossoms.  There were at least four of them, though I don't know what they'll do when the blossoms fade and there's no white for them to hide in. 

Unfortunately I still found three tiny caterpillars, which means the spiders weren't really doing their job.  So it was out with the trusty Dipel once again, a natural bacteria that kills caterpillars if they eat it.  I'm looking forward to when the twig is big enough I don't have to worry about a few leaves getting munched.  I'm also looking forward to next year when I can let it keep its fruit, it has so many clusters of blossoms it kills me that I can't let them stay on this year.

a few spring snaps from here and there

Another sunny day meant a walk around the garden with the camera to see what was new.  First let's play spot-the-lemon.

Did you see both of them?  One right in the middle and other one right down the bottom near the mailbox, my first two lemons a year after moving here.  They're still a little green on the tips so I'm giving them a bit more time to ripen.  Meanwhile there are dozens of tiny green and black lemons forming for next year.  I don't know why they're so black (sorry about the blur!) but I know they're not dead yet because a few did die and they turn really black when they're dead.

Out the back, the Granex sweet onions are powering along.  I thought they were growing too slowly but I eventually found out that's just onions, onions are sloooooow.  Last week a friend from OzGrow garden forum stopped by; I'd sent him some Granex seeds when I got them last year.  He said his were tiny compared to mine, so I must be doing something right after all.  They got a top-up of composted cook poo today so I sure hope they're happy!

This is just a picture of the pretty spring stars that are in full bloom.  They didn't mind the move from my mother-in-law's garden one bit!

I bought some new flat-leaf parsley and some coriander from the lady who sells herbs at my work.  You can see the old parsley on the left, it's still growing strong but the pot is so small that it's really stunted in size.  This new pot had the tomatoes in it last year so it should be big enough.

And finally, some herbs I haven't shown you in a while.  The creeping rosemary and the sage have thrived in their spot, especially after a bit of compost.  The rosemary was creeping along so much I clipped quite a bit for some lamb last week.  It's a bit "leggy" because it doesn't get too much sun where it is, but otherwise both herbs are doing great.

Here's the blast from the past, what they looked like when I planted them last year.

And that's what's new.  Just keeping an eye on the seedlings upstairs and preparing the former goldfish pond for summer planting as I impatiently wait for spring.  Though it's still unseasonably warm, technically it is still winter.

sweet onion seeds

And now a lighthearted interlude whilst I try not to worry about my fried garden.

I'll be visiting my sister in America in a few weeks, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to look for some vegetable seeds I might not be able to find in Australia. I've had to enlist my sister to order them for me (website won't take Australian credit cards, grumble grumble) and I was told that I was required to make a blog post about the whole thing as payment for services rendered.

I decided to order sweet onion seeds - such as Vidalia or Walla Walla onions. I remember them from growing up in Oregon where there was a short but much-anticipated Walla Walla onion season ... but they simply do not grow them in Australia. I found a garden variety called "Yellow Granex Sweet Onions" from Kitchen Garden Seeds. This is part of their description for this onion: WARNING, this will make you hungry.

We love caramelized Yellow Granex onions so much that we prepare batch after batch, and freeze them in thin layers in airtight plastic bags. Then, we can break off pieces for quick and delicious use in Sunday morning omelets, mushroom-Madeira reduction sauces and baguette “boat” sandwiches layered with basil mayonnaise, roasted eggplant and zucchini, tomatoes and provolone cheese, sizzled under the broiler. But our favorite use is in chicken rollups. Pound boneless chicken breasts to about 1/8” thick. Spread each breast with a mixture of sautéed garlic, caramelized Yellow Granex and wilted spinach. Top with thin strips of roasted red peppers and dollops of soft herbed goat cheese. Roll them up, secure with a toothpick and bake covered for 35 to 45 minutes at 350°F in a bath of herbed chicken broth, turning occasionally. Serve piping hot topped with fresh Parmesan on a bed of wild rice alongside glazed baby carrots and homemade cranberry compote.

How can I resist that?!

Australians will know that bringing seeds into Aus is a big deal. Quarantine restrictions can be fierce; for example you can no longer bring in tomato seeds because of the fear of a virus coming across and ruining commercial crops. Luckily for me, onion seeds are OK, but I'll have to make sure to write the scientific name on the packet and mail it back to myself, rather than risk an extra-long wait in the airport whilst customs looks up onions on their list.

I've also been required by my sister to add the following text from an email I sent her this morning:

It gets nerdier. I put out a notice on the garden forum where I learn all this stuff, to ask if anyone wanted me to send them seeds! And for the record, yes, two people wanted some. I'm not the only nerd.

With any luck I'll start an Australia-wide trend! Stranger things have happened.