Some Green

The garden has been growing brilliantly since my sister came to visit and to give me a hand in getting the vege patch going.

This is a view showing the bed that runs along the fence looking up towards the two elevated, triangular shaped beds in the top corner of the yard. In the foreground you can see the broccoli. As per the instructions on the punnet tag I’ve cut out the central floret in the hope of inducing lots of side florets.

Also in that area I’ve got bok choi. I’ve never been able to grow Asian greens without them immediately shooting to flower. I ripped most of them out in disgust, but the two plants that Ieft have gone from strength to strength so maybe it doesn’t matter if they flower. I have yet to harvest any of it but I might use some this week.

I replaced the bok choi with some spinach seedlings which have been scratched out by damned blackbirds Grrrr!

When we arrived there was a stand of sweet corn in this bed which was nice :-). Jasper was introduced to the delights of gnawing away on a freshly picked cob – yum!

Kale. A vege I don’t have a lot of experience with – I don’t recall it being grown when I was a child so maybe it’s new to Tasmanian gardeners? At the moment it is still tender enough for use in salads so that’s what I’ve been doing with it. Thanks to my sister Meg for the seedlings!

We inherited a large, healthy patch of silverbeet with this garden too so we are going to be well supplied with greens with the kale and lettuce that I’ve out in.

This photo doesn’t do my savoy cabbages any justice – they are HUGE! I have some big sauerkrauting plans for these beauties… And maybe kimchi… Hill St grocer used to sell daikon radish and they might do again. Or maybe I’ll try to grow some!

I also have a big patch of red cabbage so we’ll be right for cabbage too this winter. I’ve just got to stay vigilant with the cabbage munching grubs I squished a legion today.

One area of the garden doesn’t seem to grow as well as others – I’d love to know why. I’m quite worried about the large patch of cauliflower and broccoli I’ve got in there. Sigh. I think I forgot to SeaSol them when I planted them out so maybe they have suffered from transplant shock? They just haven’t gone anywhere. The spring onions I put in the same area are also going badly compared with the ones I planted out at the same time in another part of the garden.

We inherited lots of great stuff with this house – so far the greatest bonus is the strawberry patch. We scoffed handfuls of gorgeous berries every day for weeks after we moved in. They have slowed down to a couple of berries a day now, but I look forward to next year’s bounty! The strawberries take up a lot of space but I think they are worth it. Sharing this bed is a mature apricot tree, a jostaberry bush, a small peach tree and a good sized nectarine tree.

We have also inherited a couple of immature apple trees and small, unhealthy cherry tree that may be removed in favour of a green gage plum next year. Either way, I’m reading up on how to prune fruit trees 😀

I expect that things will slow down in the garden from now on as the weather has turned cold in the last few weeks. I have two areas that I need to prepare for garlic – last years patch supplied us for only two months and I’m hoping to plant enough for 6 months this year – I bought some great bulbs from the farmers market the other week, but we ate them. Whoops!