mmmmm beans

My beans have started ripening.  They're so tasty!  The ones on the right are from the garden and the ones on the left are from the shops.  It probably helped that this batch of store-bought beans were a it over-sized and stringy, but my garden's beans are crisp and tender. 

I'm only getting a small handful at a time as of yet, but when the second bean plant starts to get going (it's covered in flowers) I should start to see bigger harvests.  Yum!

first beans and slow melons

The first beans have formed!  Once they get started they sure form quickly.  Since I took this photo yesterday, the long bean is now thick enough to pick.  Not much point eating a single bean but it's in the fridge for when a few of its buddies ripen.

It sure is exciting when you grow a vegetable for the first time and things work out.  On the other hand, my melons aren't doing so well this year.  You can just see that little dash of green in the bed.  I think it's being shaded a bit by the massive triffid taro in the corner.  Of course, last year the melons were also pretty small at this time of year.  But not quite this small!

I do have one more melon seedling on the porch that I kept back in case the cats or possums dug up the first one.  It's actually a wee bit bigger and has a few flowers already, so I might transplant it in and see which one grows faster!

bean flowers!

My beans are flowering!  It's still quite a small plant but these are the first blossoms.  I wonder how long it takes the beans to form?  I'll find out soon enough!

chilies n' beans

Just a small update.  My chili plant is going super-strong but it seems a bit confused about what shape to grow.  In this photo you can see the little mini-chilies that came in over the winter.  My guess is because it didn't get as much sun over the winter.  The thing green chili is the "normal" shape from last season.  And above it are some of the thick stumpies; really fat but short ones.  There are even a few coming in fat but long.  Not sure what it'll settle down into this year!

The beans are still pretty small, I reckon I could have gotten them started a month earlier.  Oh well, they're healthy and I'm sure they'll pick up soon enough.

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.

vegetables in october

October is a time to harvest the winter veggies and get ready for the summer veggies.  In June I planted this purple sprouting broccoli, but it didn't form a very big head.  Either I should have planted it earlier, or maybe the pot's too small.  Not sure, but the colour sure is fun and it tasted good.

I also picked the last of the French breakfast radishes.  I left them a bit too long so they were a bit hollow inside and lumpy.  And they get those weird nibbled marks on them.  They're never deep but they happen all the time, I think maybe earwigs?  In any case, I might try a different type next time, something round and not lumpy.

The broad beans are a pretty tragic story.  As seems to happen to everyone who grows broad beans, they make dozens of flowers that drop off.  I got tired of waiting and I wanted to plant the capsicums in that pot, so about a week ago I stopped watering the broad beans knowing I'd be pulling them out.  The poor plant shriveled up and when I went to pull it out, this what I found.  The poor abused thing had actually formed several pods.  I was amazed at how quickly they appeared, a bit like last year's soybeans.  One day there's nothing, the next there they are.  But still, I don't think I'll grow them next year.  I'd rather grow more snow peas, which I also slightly abused yet continued to make pods.

And finally, my tomatoes already have flowers!  Yay!

I've also planted qarabali zucchini, Minnesota midget melons, sugarbaby watermelons and a new parsley plant (the old one finally started to go to seed).  Once I harden them off I'll be planting out the capsicum and basil, and I hope to buy some rocket, a chili plant and maybe some more basil soon.  I love spring!

august flowers

Some lovely flowers around these days, though you have to go looking for them.  The broad beans are starting to flower, though I believe they can take a long time to develop and ripen.  Not too long, I hope, I want to grow capsicum in that pot this year.

I decided I needed a better photo of the hellebores - such a beautiful dark purple!  I just wish they weren't always turned down to the ground.

And this was a surprise.  Last year I planted about 8 iris reticulata and species tulips. Most of the tulips came up but only 2 of them blossomed - not enough sunlight.  And all but 2 of the irises died - I think they dried out.  So last year I dug up the tulip bulbs and put them in a pot, but I couldn't find the iris bulbs.  Surprise!  Not only did they survive, but one of them had a baby!

They are hidden away back there though.  I'm going to try digging them up again this summer and putting them in a pot too.  Because the species tulips are peeking out of their pot and I'm hoping for a beautiful show of flowers.  Also, at least two of my three clivias have buds forming; last year only 1 blossomed.  Oh and the biggest clivia, that bloomed last year, now has two babies, though they're a good 4 years or so away from flowering themselves.  Such a promising time of year!

back into the garden

Whenever I'm away from the garden I love to see what's changed in the garden whilst I was gone.  A lot of flowers have come in in the last two weeks.  The violas are in full bloom.

Last year only one of my hellebores blossomed, a beautiful purple.  This year all three are blooming ... and lucky me, all three are a deep gorgeous purple (though it's hard to see in this photo).  I didn't know what colour they'd be because they came from a mixed colour batch. 

And finally, the snowflakes are going gangbusters this year.  I think every clump has spread this year.  The cyclamen just keep struggling, but the snowflakes are definitely happy.  I hope they keep spreading and spreading.

My snowpeas have also powered along.  I had problems last year with long, leggy plants not thriving.  This year I chose a "bush-type" pea and put it in a larger pot, and it's thriving more than any of my plants last year.  The problem is that I still only get a few pods ripe at one time.  When we eat them in stir-fries we go through a big handful at a time, but this is only giving me 4 or 5 at a go.  I tried to grow a pea patch out the back but first the possums ate the shoots, and then rats started digging up and eating the seeds!  Maybe next year I'll have a full pea patch.

This is my first year growing broad beans.  It seems to be chugging along nicely, but I do know that they take a long time to develop.  The first flowers are only just appearing so we'll see.

And finally, I bought myself an orchid.  My stepmom had moth orchids in almost every room of her house, they were so beautiful, so I thought I'd try one myself.  I don't remember what kind it is but I loved the colour.

The garden shop also gave me a moth orchid for free.  Their shop was far too cold to keep them happy so as you can see it's looking pathetic - all the flowers dropped off.  In the words of the garden shop they "needed some TLC", mostly warmth. 

I already lost all the flowers on the moth orchid, we'll see if I have the patience to keep it alive until next year when it will bloom again.  And unfortunately, my yellow orchid is starting to drop flowers and a few leaves too.  I hope it survives!

long weekend

Easter is a long weekend in Australia so it's a good opportunity to get a lot of projects out of the way.  I've got a bit of pruning to do but the big project is to clear out the bed along the south side of the house.  As I mentioned in this post, the camellias in this bed have always struggled and a few die each year.  I haven't quite decided what to replace them with but I'm thinking of a simple hedge of Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom).  It seems to be a nice hardy hedge that will tolerate both the sun and shade of that bed, and twice a year they're coated with white blossoms that smell like orange blossoms. I once walked by a Choisya hedge in blossom and stopped dead in my tracks, the smell was so incredible. 

I already transplanted one of the camellias last week, I'm going to try transplanting two more to the bed out near the street with the birch trees.  They're currently soaking in a Seasol solution to help them with the shock.  The small one is one of the new ones I bought last winter and the big one is one of the originals.  They both got a trim too to make up for losing roots in the transfer.  I think I'll chop out the pine trees too, they suck so much water and nutrients from the soil.  After that the beds need a top-up of soil before replanting them.

In the meantime, here's the final harvest I got from the soybeans.  I probably could have gotten more if I'd been happy to leave the ones that weren't quite ripe yet, but that was a bit tedious.  So I just picked off everything plump and put the rest in the compost.

It may not look like many soybeans but I eat them as a snack, fresh from the pods, and don't eat too many in one go.  So it's actually quite a lot for this purpose!  They're absolutely lovely though - not quite as big as ones you can buy imported from Japan but a lovely flavour, rich and sweet like a pea.

Update:  Here's a photo of the camellias in their new home, I hope they like it!

more harvests

My pathetic little pumpkin vine was so far gone I finally picked the two little pumpkins that managed to grow this year.  They're adorable, I love the colour and the little pink blush.  You can see the stems are dried-looking but still very green.  You're meant to leave pumpkins until the stems are brown, dried and dead looking.  Well the rest of the plant was brown, dried and dead, it didn't have one green leaf left, so I took what I could get!

They went into a pumpkin soup last night.  Not the best soup but it could be because they were under-mature.  Not green inside or anything, just didn't have that rich savoury full flavour.

You can also see a lovely little melon on my lap, the second of my Minnesota midgets.  It's the largest one, it just looks so inviting with those bulging ridges.  Unfortunately after getting 60mm of rain in a single weekend not long ago, the melon was once again flooded with too much liquid and this time ended up tasting a bit over-ripe.  I also have to be careful because unlike store-bought cantaloupe, this variety stays fairly green when it's ripe.  But I'll definitely grow them again next year, they're fun!

The edamame are finally starting to fully ripen.  Just look at how heavy with beans the plant is!  The rest of the plant is in tatters but it's heavy with beans.  I haven't had a chance to try them yet.

On the other hand, my potatoes are once again pathetic.  I actually managed to get more potatoes last year, growing them late in the season, than this year.  They were getting so mite-eaten and caterpillar-munched that there wasn't much green left on them.  You're meant to leave them until they turn yellow and die off before harvesting but I didn't think the tops would survive much longer.  This is all I got for this year's trouble.

I won't bother next year, two years of failure in a row are enough for me.  But a word of advice to others.  Both times I tried a method people keep swearing works: you plant the potatoes low down in the pot, and as the greens grow you bury more and more of the plant until the pot is full of dirt.  Supposedly potatoes are meant to grow all the way up the buried stalk.  But both years all I got were a few potatoes at the very bottom, and a very long stalk.  I actually wonder if the plant has been wasting energy growing a longer stalk that it should be putting into its potatoes!

And finally, not a harvest but a note on my new plantings.  This is a busy time of year for the cabbage white butterfly, when people are starting to plant brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale) but it's still warm enough for the butterflies to breed.  Sure enough, almost every day I check my sprouts and find half a dozen white eggs under the leaves.  I've already had to pick off two tiny caterpillars too.  So beware gardeners!  Even my butterfly decoys haven't helped one bit.  The lure of the brassicas is just too much. 

But on the plus side, my brassicas are powering along in this wonderful weather we've been having!  Just when I thought autumn had arrived, we've gotten another flush of 25+ weather.  And it seems Melbourne has had over 100 days in a row where the high always hit 20C or above.  This has blown away the previous record of 78 days in a row in 2000-01 ... oh and there's at least another week of 20+ weather forecast.

melon!

About Wednesday I noticed my first melon was starting to turn tan.  Seems like within 24 hours of noticing the colour change, it was this colour.  I lifted it slightly to have a close look and it came right off in my hand!  Turns out some kinds of melon make it very clear indeed that they're ripe.

It was a little split at the stem end.  I had been watering them a fair bit in the last few days and it seems that like the figs and tomatoes, they split when over-watered.  The worry was that the flavour would also be watered down.

I needn't have worried!  Two days later I had it for breakfast.  It looks over-ripe and look at how juicy it is.  The texture was a bit too mushy but the flavour was just right - beautifully sweet.  A lovely melon!  I saved some seed to plant next year.

There are only two more melons on the plant but I suspect that if I plant them on time next year I'll have plenty more.  In the meantime I have a few little watermelons growing too, I hope they ripen soon.  I might get a lot more fruit splitting though, we got 25mm of rain yesterday, as well as hail the size of marbles.  A seriously crazy storm.

The soybeans on the other hand are still taking their sweet time.  I split one open to check but the beans are still too small to harvest.

edamame soybeans

I decided to grow edamame soybeans this year.  They're a variety you eat fresh; you just steam or boil the pods, add some coarse salt and pop the beans out of their pods.

I planted four bushes in the spring.  The back two are dead or nearly so.  One of the front two is about three times the size of the other.  This is only because of the different amount of sun this bed gets.  There are high fences on the west and north so only that corner gets any amount of sun.

They struck me as pretty delicate plants.  I had to stake them because the wind was whipping them over and almost snapped one.  They kept getting nibbled by bugs.  I hardly ever watered them, wondering if it was worth it.  But then one day realised they were blooming!

I don't have a photo of the flower but they're like absolutely tiny pink pea blossoms.  So tiny I thought they'd died when I saw them shrivel - surely they were meant to get bigger before turning into beans!  But no, they're just tiny, and now the big plant is covered with fuzzy bean pods.

I thought the smaller plant was a complete write-off but it turns out it also has beans.  It doesn't have very many but they're actually the largest pods so far.  I'm not 100% sure when to pick them, they're almost as big as the ones I've had before but still quite thin.

Won't be long before I'm tasting!