Spring seed raising

Quite a few weeks ago now, Liz from Suburban Tomato gave us a great run down of the tomatoes she was raising. Sadly I didn't have my act together then to make a similar post, indeed, I hadn't even started to raise my tomatoes or any other seeds as I feared a late frost -  I thought it was too early for our mountain slopes climate.

But now that the weather has jumped from maximums in single digits to ones in the mid twenties in the space of two weeks I feel like I am starting too late! Ah, gardening in a new environment!

 Here is what I am currently raising.

Tomatoes
Last year my tomatoes were a complete failure, mostly becasue it was scorchingly hot and also because we only arrived at Highfield in mid-November. This year I am hoping I will have much better fortune especially seeing as I have so many wonderful varieties with different shapes and colours. All these seeds came from Yvonne - thank you so much, I hope to do them justice.

• Juane Flamme 
• Red Pear
• Yellow pear
• Verna orange
• Green grape
• Oxheart yellow
• Speckled Roman
• Peach
• Purple Cherokee

Chillies/Peppers/Capsicums
I have gone completely overboard here with the encouragement and seeds from Nina and Bek. It's just that these plants seem to be able to survive the hottest of summers, and I do like a chilli or too and I have a secret desire to hold a chilli-based food festival... one day...

• Chilli - Long Cayenne
• Chilli - Padron
• Chilli  - Jalapeno - thanks Nina
• Capsicum -  Orange Glory - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - Hungarian Wax - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - 7 colour mix
• Pepper  - Merlin - thanks Bek
• Pepper -  Chocolate - thanks Bek
• Pepper - Absa - thanks Bek

Eggplants

• Listada di Ganda -  thanks Yvonne
• Prosperosa - thanks Bek
• Rosa Bianca

Greens

• Lettuce - Salad bowl
• Lettuce - Freckels Bunte
• Pak choi
• Fennel Florence
• Rocket

Beans and Peas

• Bean - Kentucky Wonder - thanks Nina
• Bean - Sex without strings
• Peas - Snow peas
• Peas - Pigeon peas

Onions

• Spring onions

Pumpkins / Melons

• Pumpkin - seeds from Pat Murray's pumpkins (Pat is King of vegetable growing at the annual Adelong Agricultural Show)
• Melon -  Minnesota Midget

Roots

• Beetroot - Crimson Globe
• Radish - Round Red

Zucchini

I have shared with you previously my obsession to enter the Gundagai Agricultural Show in the category, Three zucchinis under 18cms. I am hoping that I can grow three great specimens of different colours just to wow the judges. So I have planted the following varieties so far - I have a few other varieties held back for planting later in the season as insurance.

• Costata - thanks Bek
• Gold Rush - thanks Bek
• Greenskin
  
  
  

Don't you think a trio of green, yellow and speckled zucchinis would be a show stopper? If I am successful, perhaps  I can share my winnings  with Bek... but I am getting ahead of myself!

Herbs
I have put these seeds in but when they are up they will join my other more perennial herbs.

• Basil
• Thai basil -  thanks Yvonne
• Dill - thanks Nina

Flowers

• Marigold - French Bonita
• Marigold - Petite Yellow -  thanks Nina
• Larkspur - thanks Diana
• Nasturtiums - Red - thanks Nina -  the leaves are stunning, I am sure the flowers will be too
• Sunflowers -  Prado Red and Evening Sun, my usuals
• Zinnia
• my beautiful purple Holbrook poppies

That's it for the moment but I will be putting in some cucumbers and other things as the season develops.
What are you putting in?

Soon I will post on all the fruit trees I have put in over winter.

Harvest Monday - 11th March 2013

With the weather cooling (slightly) and with a little added rain, I have had a little more produce to pick.
Delights this week have been the Minnesota Midget Rock melons.

They have been such performers, dealing with the heat and the lack of rain, I have decided to 'harvest' their seeds to re-plant next year.

I am also starting to get a decent picking of zucchinis (about time). Here are three that I have picked just the last couple of days, the good news is that more are on the way.

Amazingly, the radishes that were almost completely grazed off by the Wallaby have started to produce their rosy little swollen roots.

Other than this, my harvests have been mostly rocket, rocket and more rocket. I am not very good at remembering to take photos of the things I harvest, especially when they are herbs and saladings, so you will just have to have pictures of my plants instead, you can see where I have picked the rocket at least!

Baby beetroot leaves also for salads.

Basil -  not huge quantities, just tip pickings for salads and parsley, chives, garlic chives and thyme.



I am contributing this to Daphne's Monday Harvest. A collection of great produce will be posted there soon, when the earth turns a little more.

Zucchini Tuesday - Pancake Tuesday

Today is Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent and traditionally the day to both confess and to eat up all the rich food in your cupboard before fasting, at least that's what Wikipedia says. So naturally today I am using a zucchini to make a pancake and, to eat up the rich foods in my cupboard, I am adding bacon and avocado.

Where is the confession bit you ask? Well I don't think I should turn this blog into a confessional, so I will limit my small confession to the topic. So here it is - this recipe is not my own creative invention, I got the recipe from a website and provide the link below as well as my version. It seemed like just the right meal for the day. (Phew, feel better already after having confessed!)

Zucchini pancakes with avocado and bacon (* from the garden)

1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
*1 zucchini grated
3 bacon rashers
*cherry tomatoes
1 avocado
* basil leaves
1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
balsamic vinegar

Make a batter with the flour, baking powder egg and buttermilk. Add  grated zucchini. Cook the pancakes and keep pancakes aside in a warm place. Cook bacon and keep aside.With the remaining ingredients, prepare a chunky salad. Assemble with pancake on bottom topped with bacon and salad.

I enjoyed this. It was light and fresh and could lend itself to many other flavour combinations.

Anyone else got a good pancake recipe that includes a zucchini? Did you make a zucchini pancake recipe today? If so tell all (but leave out the confessional). I have made plenty of fritters before with my zucchinis, a particularly nice one with dill and a fetta dipping sauce, but this is my first venture into zucchini pancakes.

What's happening with your zucchini?

Until next Tuesday - love your zucchini.

Potting up, moving out

My patch is pretty empty now. I have harvested the last of my savoy cabbages and beetroot and now the only things left in the patch are some herbs (mint, Vietnamese mint, thyme, chives, parsley), some flowers (poppies, lupins, the end of the violas and pansies) and some self-seeded tomatoes from last year's crop. I hope that the new residents will like what is left and feel excited about planting up their favourite things into the patch.

Everything that I would have in the ground at this time of the year has been raised in pots ready for the move.

I have these vegetables ready for the move:

• eggplants
• tomatoes 
• chillies 
• fennel
• spring onions
• zucchini

and these herbs:

• parsley - Italian and curled
• mint - Vietnamese and just mint
• basil
• sage
• dill
• thyme
• chives
• garlic chives
• marjoram / oregano - I never know which -  do you?
• rosemary
• lavender
• bay
• yarrow

and then there is some fruit:

•  Collette the finger lime (this is probably overly optimistic as I am not sure how she will handle the frosts!)
• the blueberries

I have cut some right back -  the chives and bay have received a big haircut today. Others have been staked, well watered and mulched over some time so they might be more tolerant of the drive. I hope that it will be a mild day the day we move.

I am hoping that they all survive and that the vegetables will settle into a new, no-dig  raised bed  which will be hastily constructed soon after arrival. The herbs I am likely to keep in pots for a while. And then there will be other things to get started  as soon as I get organised at the new place - beans, corn, pumpkin, rock melon, cucumber ...

I will be leaving behind my special, special espaliered lime trees and my fabulous lemon tree. These citrus plants have given such pleasure.

This final picture is of my last harvest - 3 savoy cabbages and some baby beetroot.

Bye my Sydney garden - friend and comforter.

Homecoming harvest 2

Home is full of so many good things. Your favourite people, your veggies, letters with surprises and home cooked food.

I flew into Sydney this morning after a nightmare overnight-er from Hong Kong. After greeting  my two favorite people  - the Lad and Harriet -  it was to the patch for a Homecoming garden stroll and harvest.

Nothing heals like a veggie garden stroll and two weeks in the patch is a long time. The truss tomatoes are looking amazing  -  don't you love them when they all look perfect  -  before the spots  and fruit fly stings? All that fuzziness that tomatoes have and that distinct green smell?

But danger is imminent -  fruit fly. Have the Sydney readers spotted fruit fly yet?

And, some of the tomatoes are coloring up already - the photo below are my tommies.

I also have my first flowers on my eggplants.

The rocket has gone to flower but I love rocket flowers, don't you?  They are just so pretty.

And then there was plenty to pick. I picked three fennel bulbs.  They are probably too far gone - they had started to develop flower spikes.  I figured I'd cut them any way and see if they were still ok to eat.  They seem to have a stronger anise smell than usual but that could because it was such a hot dry day in Sydney. Will they be too tough?  Or will I just have to cook in a different way - longer and slower.

I picked a big pile of beetroot.  I could have let some of them go on a bit, but to be honest, I like beetroot smaller and sweeter and besides, it's hotting up here and that makes them tough pretty quick.

I picked a small bunch of radish and some are a little wonky. Someone has had a nibble -  I wonder who/what?

And the first of my second crop of savoy cabbages - I think there are few prettier things.

And there was another surprise.  Sometime ago I entered  Diana's giveaway for onion seed.  I arrived home to a bright green envelope with not just onion seed, but also spring onion, larkspur and Chinese celery! Yay!  Thanks Diana! Love larkspur, grow spring onions all the time and Chinese celery is my preferred form.


Everything was topped off by the Lad's homemade pizza topped with homegrown parsley and basil and a green salad straight from the patch - rocket, parsley, basil, lettuce.

Stomach filled and the evening cooling, the frogs are plonking away in the evening  atmosphere and all is well with the world.

I am looking forward to looking at all your posts that I have missed while being behind the Great Firewall of China.  I can't wait to see what's happening in your patch.

Harvest Monday - 15th October 2012

I was silly... I posted about much of my harvest this week last Friday.

It was a Friday thing... a post work stroll thru the patch and the sort of ritual of picking that helps to soothe the working week away  - and it was such a good picking that I had to post about it then and there so plenty more produce shots there.

But to cover off  the whole week, last week I picked quite a nice stash of produce. Here it is.

• 1 main head of broccoli
• lots of broccoli side-shoots
• 2 big heads of cauliflower
• several bunches of new baby radishes
• the last of the snowpeas
• lots of herbs - oregano, thyme, parsley, basil, mint and bay
• 1 fennel bulb
• lettuce leaves
• rocket leaves
• celery leaves
• a solid bunch of celery stalks
• a bunch of young sweet beetroot
• a big handful of  lemon leaves

I also raided my stashes of the chillies from the freezer from last summer's glut, opened  new jars of my rocket fuel chilli sambal and my sweet chilli and tomato jam and dug into the home made strawberry jam and lemon marmalade.

These ingredients have gone into all sorts of food:

• broccoli oreccietta 
• lamb kofte with mint and wrapped in lemon leaves
• roast beetroot and mint salad - one of Suburban Tomato's recipes that is now a regular on my menu
• fresh green salad with loads of different leaves, herbs and fennel
• radishes dipped into hummus
• vegetable juices with quite peppery celery
• piles of steamed snow peas

It's a nice time in the garden and on the plate. I am contributing this to Daphne's Monday Harvest list, there will be plenty of produce to look at there soon, when the earth turns a little more.

What are you enjoying eating at the moment with your home growns?

Harvest Monday - 8th October 2012

I am still harvesting a mix of winter and summer crops.

I am picking the last of my broccoli and cauliflower. I have only one head of broccoli left now - still maturing.  Most of my broccoli pick from here on will be side shoots.

I have savoy cabbages still in the bed and they will take a while longer. I am harvesting  big hands full of snow peas every second day but didn't manage to take any photos of them...

I am sneaking the tips from my new baby basil,

 the young leaves of parsley and the long stems of sticky thyme flowers.

And fresh bright beautiful baby radishes. 

Daphne's place has plenty more harvests to drool over, or will have when the earth turns a little more.

Potting, raising, inspecting

The weather here has been a bit crazy lately.  We went through a patch of beautiful spring-like days in their low 20s and then, last week, that changed.  The wind blew in and brought winter back, trees came down and the new seedlings that had emerged during the warm spell, shivered in their soil.  They did - I could see them moving and could see their goosebumps too!

Across Sydney trees came down and branches snapped off and leaves blew. We had no damage here, but I hope other Sydney bloggers kept their trees and electricity. While it's still coldish today, the wind has dropped and the forecast says we are to return to warmer sunniness.

Today I potted up, raised seeds and inspected the progress.

Potting up 
I potted up some mint and some curled parsley. I also moved some self-seeded violas around.

I always have violas in the vegetable patch.  I just think they are so pretty and, because they self-seed so easily, they just keep coming back sometimes in slightly different colour combinations than last year.

The self-seeded violas invariably pop up in odd places -  little corners and cracks between the patch boarders, in the patch pathway, or in the middle of the patch where you'd want to plant your veggies.

So digging them out and moving them around or potting them up becomes pretty essential.

I must say that one of my favourite things to do in the garden is dead head the violas... strange hey?  There is something very meditative about removing the spent flowers to make sure the flowers continue. Do you like dead heading?

Raising seed
I also started raising some basil, long cayenne chillies, lemon balm, dill and zucchini.

I must say I have grown fond of zucchini (is that a pun?). They can take up a huge amount of space and can be almost scarily productive, and you can wonder what to do with them... but last summer I decided to get into finding  zucchini recipes I liked and had some success ( and it wasn't that hard).

I am kind of looking forward now to the next zucchini glut so that I  can make make those recipes again and perhaps find others I like (any suggestions of your favourite zucchini recipes?).

Being such an easy vegetable to grow, once you do find things you like to eat with the glut, for me including them in the patch becomes essential. But I know others feel differently.

Inspecting
I also looked around the patch a little... things are happening.

The espaliered Tahitian limes are flowering like crazy.  I can see that, if some of the limes don't drop off, I am going to have to take some fruit off.

My relatively recently purchased blueberries first fruit are starting to swell.  The bees love these plants and are doing a good job of pollinating!

And the pests are turning up -  sorry for this blurry photo, but amongst the blur you can see the black aphids on my chives. I spent some time squashing them with my fingers.

That's where I am up to, what is getting going in your patch - fruit, flowers, pests?