Sunday, August 30, 2009

le garden

Bushbabe just posted about her love for her vege patch.

Being a Sunday, my day of leisure and contemplation tends to take place in my garden (okay, on the computer with forays into the garden).

And being 2 days before Spring (by calendar reckoning) it is really starting to pay off.

So here, with pictures, is the garden tour.

To take you back for a moment in time, I received dirt for my birthday/Mother's Day presents. They have indeed been blessed gifts.

Birthday Bed: Our strawberries are ripening up and the pansies are blooming. We have actually picked the first 3 strawberries - not hugely sweet but they were the tiny forerunners to a veritable feast, given the amount of flower and berries that have emerged. The radish are just coming up after being planted last week.






Mother's Day Bed: Tomatoes are going crazy, onions and spring onions none the worse (for the amateur gardening attempts by a nameless visiting dog attempting to infuse a little blood and bone - well bone - into the patch), beetroot beautiful, spinach going to seed and silverbeet coming to fruition.







Every other day of the year Bed: Have just planted this one with snow peas, peas, beans, cucumber, corn and sunflowers. Along the back fence I have put a few hills of dirt and planted some watermelon seeds in the flood zone - I figure nothing lost, nothing gained - and I am looking forward to some watermelon and hopefully less mowing!




Around the house:
  • Harvesting pumpkins from the front wasteland;




  • I just pulled all the old basil and coriander from this bedand am letting seeds rejuveniate. I dug up and separated all the bulbs last year to go all along the side bed and am hoping to have some beautiful flowers for November;




  • the origins of this chilli tree are the cut price stand at the local supermarket - its amazing how 1 bag of rotting birdseyes can turn into the most prolific chilli tree. V's other "avenue" of chillies are attempting resurrection and are not pictured (in case the shame will be their final nail). Only the habernero goes strong, and as anyone who has a habernero can attest, a few go a long way - and that doggarned bush goes just that bit further (why it can't be the jalopeno or the cerrano I do not know);




  • my other herb corner (which used to house the sunflowers from my banner, and subsequently a lemonsgrass cluster) now has oregano, thyme, basil, coriander and the bloddy garlic chives going great guns (still haven't found a better way to use these than a very small amount as garnish - and a very small amount makes no dint in the spreading mat);



  • the citrus we received for wedding presents are shooting and starting to flower - it appears they do like a little attention, although we need to read up a bit on what sort of attention we need to give them.




Thus far from our labours we have had feasts of pesto (I often refer to our crop as "the basil hedge" as it is something that has always been 100% productive), beetroot, spinach and silverbeet in a variety of ways, herbs to add flavour to cooking, chillies for accompaniment and many salsas. The excess green tomatoes from today's prune are set to become another variation for our usual Mexican feast on Tuesday.




The other benefit, of course, is that we are inviting nature into our back yard. Magpies have a bit of a reputation, but we have never attacked any of our brood and they (touch wood) have never swooped us but sing for us (especially when we are gardening and mowing) -and then there are some where we look and wonder - what the heck are you?




Only 2 days to Spring - but it has been Spring it seems for months around here. So come on all - how goes your garden?

16 comments:

BB said...

Well... you kinda already know. Well, you know the bits I have blogged anyway... not seen are the edited out bits like Clover Galore (currently taking over lawn and providing only green outside the vege patch) and prolific lavendar (yet to blog)...

Your vege gardens rock, lil sis!
:-)
BB

BB said...

PS what the heck are you and Debby doing to your blogs? Are you in tandem? Are you angling for a new banner here??
:-)

Mary O. Paddock said...

Beautiful garden, Jeanie! I envy you your pumpkins. We don't have room for the vines!

With fall just around the corner, things are slowing down around here. I've got a fall crop in, but am holding my breath. I don't think my soil is rich enough for a couple of my crops. I just harvested the biggest sunflowers and am leaving the small ones to the birds.

ELIZABETH said...

Pretty bug.

Hopefully I will be harvesting a few more tomatoes before my season ends. None of my herbs survive winter except for the pot of French Tarragon I wheel into the garage.

Leenie said...

Getting dirt as a gift and loving it--:D. What a gardener. I enjoyed the tour. Your work is paying off. I have the same problem with chives. Our tomatoes are ripe before frost--for once.

jeanie said...

Bush Babe - you would know there are whole swathes of my garden that are unblogged above also. Lets keep each other's secrets on that, hey? Oh, and I am sick of photos not fitting (because I use photos so often)

Mary - I love Sunflowers - we didn't go for giants this year, but there are some pretty pretty ones we are hoping will come up in places.

Elizabeth - isn't he? She? Tarragon is one thing I don't have - what do you use it for?

Leenie - yay for tomatoes for you! Yes, that is why V loves me so...

Jayne said...

Well done on the garden!
We're going to try those thingies in which you can grow tomatoes upside down, but will plant some normal ones just to ensure the salad has some red lol.

Anonymous said...

Gosh your vegeis are doing well. That's one of the reasons we moved, was to have the room to build a vege patch or 2. Looking forward to getting them up and running, and I sure hope mine are as good as yours!

Lin said...

Gee, tomatoes in summer! I'm very jealous! I have beautiful flowering wattles, the plum trees are blossoming, the grevillas have begun to flower even more prolifically than usual and the grass is green for once (including the couch covering the veggie patch). But nothing edible for another few months yet. Though my strawberries (in pots outside) do have flowers and even 1 teeny weeny strawberry is appearing.

Your garden looks so organised, well done!

Crazed Nitwit said...

So my dear friend Jeanie how does your "baby" garden grow? I'd love to know as I am green with envy(in the nicest way possible).

HUGS

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

I am also green with envy.My patch is all dirt (hard) still I was waiting for spring to sprung.
My neighbours gave me a tray of mixed seedlings today,mixed lettuces, silverbeet ,cauliflower and ?? .
Well I am going to plant them with moon planting ... if I get off the computer.

Anonymous said...

Love it!
due to our free-roaming chooks, our vege patch is small so we can only plant a little bit of everything ... we are eating peas and tomatoes at the moment which are nice and all... but I am sooo envious of that big fat pumpkin you have. We finished our last home grown pumpkin a few weeks back and the current vine is so tiny it will take ages to a) have a female flower and b) actually set and grow a pumpkin.
Mmmmm roast pumpkin - my favourite veg ever!

MissyBoo said...

Our strawberry plants are going mad (though I still need to supplement from the store for the amount the little miss eats). The dog squashed the watermelon seedlings (will need to have a plan to avoid this), the cucumbers, onions and cauliflowers are faring well... and I have those garlic chives that I'm unsure what to do with!

The stone fruits and apple tree are beginning to blossom, as are the flowers :)

And I just realised I have forgotten to put in my tomatoes!!!

ELIZABETH said...

I use tarragon with chicken. Add some lemon as well and it's lovely.

I'll just throw some inside a roasting chicken instead of using dressing .

I cut any long stocks and place them under fish. Takes away the need to oil or grease the pan and adds a nice flavour plus a lovely aroma in the kitchen.

Chop some up and use with egg dishes.

I use fresh thyme when cooking carrots and I've been known to throw in a branch while boiling potatoes.

jeanie said...

Jayne - upside-down tomato thingies? I am intriged!!

rw - a bit of space for a few veg is luxury and a very good reason to move, methinks.

Lin - we don't have green grass in very many places, and the order is achieved with a bit of OCD!!

CM - baby garden is 2/3 complete and am NOT looking forward to harvest.

Trish - as I was saying to someone the other day, we have 2 growing seasons, with a week of for the Winter and a few months off to bake in Summer.

corymbia - we have already harvested 2 pumpkins and have at least another 4 to look forward to down there. That patch is a horrid little bed that doesn't get rain and is full of bulldust - after much fertilising and attention, it has upgraded to mint and pumpkin - I figure there is lots and its green!! I envy the chooks.

MB - eek - you have reminded me I have punnets to attend to in the fridge! Apparently chopsticks - and we didn't have to think to put in tomatoes, they spring up EVERYWHERE!

Elizabeth - I must try a little tarragon. I love thyme and think it goes with EVERYTHING. I have also discovered a few continental parsley, so am very excited about possibilities this Summer.

bigheadedbob said...

Habanero peppers freeze well, also make a great jelly using dried apricots, great snack with cream cheese and crackers. I've used it to glaze BBQ ribs, my Sis tops cheesecakes with it