The garden in mid-April - Roots and shoots

In this the fourth  and last instalment of my garden in mid-April, I will focus on the roots and shoots I have in my patch this autumn / winter growing season.

My seed bed: L-R  - Radish, Rocket, Beetroot

Roots
Parsnips
I fell in love with the parsnip when living in Blighty. They were a different vegetable in Britain  sweet and tender and we ate them regularly but back in Australia I didn't find them as appealing.

This is the very first time I am attempting parsnips. I  never wanted to try when I was living in Sydney believing that a good frost was probably necessary to really make them deliciously sweet. So now we are living in the bush in a place that will definitely get a frost, I thought it was time to take the plunge and try my hand.

I am trying Hollow Crown from seed and have had no trouble in raising two rows. They seem to be growing well at least above the ground, but I suspect that my soil isn't good enough yet, or deep enough to get a great result.  Still I am happy with their progress so far.  When there is a little more room in the patch, I will be putting another row or two in.

Beetroot
I love beetroot.  I love the plant and love the root and eat it pickled, baked, boiled, grated and I find them so easy to grow.  This year I have had more difficulty than usual. You see it seems that Wallabies love beetroot too and as a result they grazed off two of my plantings of beetroot. The plants miraculously survived and I am now gradually pulling the roots that developed.

Radish
Radish were another favourite of the Wallaby and over summer we had hardly any of the crop. With the Wallaby excluded now I have a row that is being picked  and grazed on by us and some other creature why is taking off some of the red skin making them a bit spotty.

Fennel
Yes, I know, not really a root more a swollen leaf base, but not sure where else to put it.  Not everyone's favourite, I have grown fennel for many years now and love them best from the garden.  I probably have about 30 in the patch at three different stages.

Here are two little fellas growing side by side - I obviously missed thinning it out.

Notice something missing?  "What, no carrots!", I hear you say. Yes, it is true, another vegetable I have never really managed to grow...

Shoots
Rocket
It's another of the things that are just so encouraging to grow because they are so simple. I have also discovered that the chooky girls like to graze on the rocket thru the veggie garden fence which is fine by me.

L-R: Muriel and Mavis being distracted from the rocket

Try as I might though, I couldn't get a photo with them actually pecking it, they must have found a bug in the grass.

Snow peas
One of my all time favourite things to grow and eat, my snow peas this year are a little disappointing  I suspect its the soil - it is still pretty average.  Nonetheless I am getting a pick.

Sugar snap peas
I am trying these this year for the first time.  I was inspired by Daphne's haul of sugar snaps and had to give them a go.

They are only just starting to produce now - I have had a small pick which, when combined with the snow peas, was enough for greens for two for a meal - early days yet.

So that's more or less my garden in mid-April. How is yours going?

Harvest Monday - 25th March 2013

The beetroot that were grazed off by the Wallaby earlier in the season have managed despite their mauling to survive and their roots are now thickening.  This last week I decided to pick a few - they are small but I always deliberately over plant beetroot  and use the first pickings to thin the crop. As time goes on the roots will become bigger as more space is made for others.

I have also been picking zucchinis determined to get most from this crop before the frost shuts it down.

Other pickings this week have been peaches - lovely white ones,

loads of rocket, some radish, herbs and some chillies which are getting strung up to dry.

and the first four snow peas, only two pictured here as I quickly ate the other two -  they often don't make it inside.

I am contributing this to Daphne's Harvest Monday. My harvest is pretty meagre for this time of the year for Southerners. I am sure that others who occupy this half of the globe will have much more produce to show you.

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.

Harvest Monday - 4th Feb 2013

Well I finally have a range of produce to report on. While the pickings are tiny compared to this time last year, the move, the record breaking heat, the newly-made beds and the lack of water have meant that it's been a tough season.But enough explanations - here is what I have picked this last week.

Cucumbers and eggplants. The cucumbers are small but regular and very crunchy. The eggplants are tiny - no doubt from the stress of travel and transport, but there are eggplants!

Lots of mint. I pick a handful most days for salads and Middle-Eastern inspired dishes.

Rocket. I didn't take any photos of the rocket I have picked but again I am pretty much picking rocket every second day. Here is a picture of my rocket patch.

Radish. I's be picking more of these beauties but they seem to be a favourite of the raiding Wallaby.

Tomatoes. Tiny amounts of tiny tomatoes. Broad Yellow Ripple Currant and Brown Berry. The heat has pretty much wiped the plants out.

Zucchini. Just this one from my second Greenskin plant. There will be more.

And the first of the peach pick. I'm ripening some inside and some on the tree. These were too low on the tree within tempting reach of the raiding Wallaby.

Pilfered apples - These apples were not grown on the property, just a neighbour kindly brought them over after having gleaned them from the roadside. I was naturally delighted! They are better for cooking than eating. So far they have made an apple cake and tomorrow they are going into my Tomato Chilli Jam.

I am contributing the to Daphne's Harvest Monday. I am sure others will have much better produce to admire. Pop over and take a look.

Harvest Monday - 21st Jan

Finally I have something to show for myself! Pickings are meagre but they are happening. Here is what I have been picking this last week.

• two padron chillies - these will be gently fried in olive oil and dashed with sea salt this evening for a tiny  starter. Oh how I wish there were 20! My padron plant tries to give me more but each time the flower forms, the heat wave gears up and I guess the plant decided that survival is better than fruiting.

• small pickings of broad yellow ripple currant tomatoes and even fewer brown berries. This is today's picking but I have had similar pickings every two days. The yellow toms are very small, but actually really delicious.

• 4 cucumbers - yay! These were picked today and will go into a cucumber, pomegranate and feta salad.

One of them is quite wonky.

• Red chillies - I have picked many over the last few weeks. They are being stashed in the freezer for year round use, 

and from now on I am stringing some up on my trusty linen substitute to make dried chillies.

• I have also been picking lots of radishes - this is today's pick, meagre compared to other days.

Other things I've been picking that I haven't photographed.

• lots of rocket -  somehow this survived all the heat thrown at it.  It wilts but revives each day!
• spring onions
• herbs - basil, parsley and oregano

While pickings are slim, it feels great to be picking something.

Hope your gardens are surviving the heat (in Australia) and the cold in the other hemisphere!

You'll find much more produce to admire at Daphne's.

In praise of the radish

Yesterday I picked the first real produce from our new patch.  It was a humble radish -  the first produce that had been raised from seed in our new garden beds.

I had been picking a little already -  the odd tiny tomato and chilli and handfulls of blueberries - but these were transplants and much like myself, raised in the city patch and placed into their new home here at Highfield. This radish is a native Highfielder.

I know that the radish is not especially hard to grow or especially exotic, but there is some special satisfaction in the first crop from a new garden and radish are so easily able to provide that satisfaction becasue they are such a quick crop. And they are both pretty and pretty delicious.

Today I picked a bunch of radish for a lunch time swipe thru home made hummus.

I have one row ready to harvest from, another with solid green tops and another row put in just yesterday.

Rocket ready for raiding

The best thing about the radish rows is that there doesn't seem to be a pest here that fancy them. I have had endless trouble with pumpkins and beans which seem irresistible to the bevy of beasties that live here, but the radish (and the rocket for that matter which I will start harvesting too soon) don't seem to be desired by the rabbits, tip nipping earwigs, slaters or the tiny stink bugs I have discovered today climbing all over my tomatoes.

Radish and rocket salad on the menu.

Spring sum up

It has become a habit of mine to do an end of season sum up.  This is really so that I can work out what the successes were so I can plan for the next season. Also to note things I have learnt. Here is my spring sum up.

Pickings
The early spring pickings were:

• cauliflower
• broccoli
• cabbage
• snowpeas
• celery

These were really my late winter crops maturing in early spring. All these were second or third plantings. The caulis were smaller than earlier in the year and also a little yellowish. The broccoli heads, with the warmer weather I guess, matured faster that the earlier planting, meaning that if you didn't keep an eye on them, they quickly developed past my preferred stage - tight flowers. The cabbage were wonderful and arguably more flavoursome that the earlier season ones? And the snow peas - well they were fabulous and trouble free - but I always find them that way.  I realised I planted far more celery than I needed and as a consequence many went on to seed before I really got to them.

In later spring these crops were coming on:

• radish 
• beetroot 
• fennel

I love the look of all these vegetables - the fat red-purple of beetroot, the bright red orbs of a baby radish and thick green-white bulbs of fennel.

Pests

• stink bugs -  I got onto these quite early , while they were still at their green and orange stage and thus they caused limited damage only
• aphids - these were a bit of a problem on the late broccoli
• snails - hiding in between pots they had regular might feats on my lettuce

What I learnt

• attack your stink bugs early and you will win
• attack them well protected
• fennel, if  harvested by cutting off at the roots, re-sprouts and yields multiple heads of the one root mass
• your brassicas that you plant early and the ones you plant later really do perform quite differently
• transporting plants in the back tray of a ute is not a great idea
• what wind burn looks like
• eggplants aren't as tough as they look
• zucchinis are tougher than they look
• Currawongs are very amusing birds

Special pleasures

• Currawongs - everything they do, even their tanties
• Holbrook poppies
• bright new radish
• blueberries

Big changes
This spring was the last season in my Sydney patch. This small patch has provided such joy. It has been my solace, my quiet time, my distraction and excuse, my place to get dirty, my refuge after a long day at work and the first place I went to after being away from home. A place of secrets, a ritual of forgetting and the occasional tear. Thank you my Sydney garden.

Late this spring we moved to our new patch in the bush.  It will bring so many new challenges - tackling new vegetables, fruit beyond citrus and nuts. There will be things to learn about the land and the very special plants in our protected box grassland. Exciting and daunting at the same time.