I’ve missed you all!
We’ve had a fun couple of weeks, although the weather here has been a bit bonkers. The combination of mild sunny days with heavy rains has led to a burst of growth in the garden. The irises, which were slow to start this year, are finally greeting passersby from our front yard.
In the enclosed verandah, the tomatoes seem to have stagnated, possibly due to the lack of light and heat. Hopefully October will bring warmer days to ripen the fruit. The plants are now eleven weeks old and festooned with dozens of green tomatoes in varying sizes. Here are the largest…
A tiny Venus Fly Trap has taken up residence with the toms in the verandah. We brought it back from the Better Homes and Garden Show, and it’s been quite the talking piece at dinner. We couldn’t resist setting off one of the traps (just once) to see how quickly it closed!
The potatoes that we planted in hessian bags a month ago are growing tall and strong. They’re almost ready to hill up…
The assorted dwarf beans from New Gippsland Seeds have all germinated, but no luck so far with the snake beans – I suspect we’ve been a little overambitious and sown them too early. We’ve planted more in seedling pots on top of the fish tank to see if they’ll shoot…
Our bed of kohlrabi is thriving. We’ve been really happy with these plants – they taste like cabbage, are incredibly easy to grow and use, and they’re not plagued with pests in the same way that other brassicas are. They also grow well from directly sown seed…
We peel, julienne and stir-fry the swollen base, then feed the leaves to the chickens and the scraps to the worms…
We made a decision this year not to plant any heading lettuce. This small patch was grown from scattered seed, and I harvest salad leaves with a pair of scissors every two or three days. It grows back remarkably quickly – even though I’d given the section below a severe haircut just a few days earlier, the gap was indiscernible. Wouldn’t it be lovely if all bad haircuts grew out that quickly?
Despite our decision not to plant heading lettuce, we were delighted to find these green oaks (at least that’s what we think they are) self-seeding themselves all over our yard. They’re deliciously sweet and surprisingly hardy…
The celery is growing very well this year. The nice thing about having celery in the garden is that you can bring in stems as needed, without pulling out the entire bunch…
The blueberries have survived their transplant shock-free and are ripening up…
Our young lemon tree is in its second year and trying to fruit, but Pete’s not confident that any of them will grow to full size yet…
The first crop of peas are finished, but this new batch are just starting to flower. We have an entire month of rain predicted, which will really test this variety’s claimed mildew resistance…
And some photos for Joanna of a lovely acrobatic Soldier Bird feasting on a neighbourhood bottlebrush tree. Also known as the Noisy Miner (not to be confused with the pesky Indian Mynas), both the bird and the tree are native to Australia. Aren’t they lovely?
Please, catch me up! How have your past couple of weeks been?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Nice to see you back!
My previous two weeks: A TON of work, trying desperately to wrap up enough results to justify a quick trip to UCLA next month to use some of their equipment and try to finish experiments we started last year.
A bit like a race against the clock, but fun…
Some bread baking, a lot of cooking, a dog fight that involved some cash flowing from the wallet to the vet’s office (sigh)
but life is good anyway! ;-)
Wow Sal, you have been busy! I’m sorry to hear about the dogs – hope everyone’s ok. Vet fees can be terrifyingly expensive!
Lovely verdant gardens! Your lettuce made me sigh with envy.
I’ve been baking and eating.
Messing about and cleaning up.
Knitting and making paper toys.
Sending packages to the grandsons.
Same old, same old. :D
Heidi, the lettuces need to be washed three times to get all the aphids off, but that’s because we don’t spray anything in the garden. Pete insists aphids taste exactly like whatever they’re eating, and is somewhat puzzled that I don’t find that comforting.. ;-)
Your same old, same old sounds like heaven.. :)
Wonderful garden pictures Celia. Makes me laugh though. There you are hoping to pick tomatoes on October and here we are in the northern hemisphere only just starting to pick ours (slight exaggeration but not much – picked a load yesterday)!
Choc, the green toms are so pretty, but I’m just not optimistic that they’re going to ripen. I just don’t think the verandah gets enough sun through the windows, and we have cloud predicted for a solid month to come. Nevertheless, it’s been a very interesting experiment, and we know the room works well as a seedling nursery if nothing else!
I can’t get my head around your garden – some things seem just to be the opposite of the northern hemisphere, as I’d expect, but some things seem to grow and fruit as if there are no seasons at all.
Here, we are tidying the garden before winter – the beans and courgettes are finished and ripped up, leaving a large patch of ground to dig and fertilise before it gets cold. The last of the tomatoes are ripening and the apples need picking. The only things still growing are the chard, which may grow throughout winter if it’s not too bad, and the Jerusalem artichokes – which reminds me, I must find out how and when to harvest them!
Suelle, Sydney is very temperate, so we never get frosts or extended really cold weather. Last winter was very mild, which meant things like basil grew for the entire year! It’s a nice climate to grow in, although there are a few limitations because of the lack of frost – things like garlic, apples and stone fruit never do quite as well here.
Lovely to have you back Celia and things are looking incredible in your garden. Nothing much exciting my side the last 2 weeks, except for some super awesome Homemade Mayonnaise (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-12u), a grand Almond Tart that I made for Tandy’s challenge (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-14y), some lovely quick easy Mediterranean Tartlets (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-12X), a Celia “In My Kitchen” post (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-12f ), a moreish Sweet Potato Pie (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-12E) and lastly a little Bike Riding on the Beach Front (http://wp.me/pT5Tj-13d) which brings us up to date.
Have a great week ahead.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, you have been busy! Thanks for the update, I’ll check out your blog! :)
And here in the Southern U.S. my tomatoes are all gone now…Though, I only had one plant this year, and last months hurricane took it out a little before it’s time. Yes, the bird and plant(s) are all beautiful.. I think you probably got a head start on things…Looks like they will all soon really be jumping by the images. Bless You
paul
Paul, we planted tomatoes indoor this year as an experiment – our garden beds are plagued with a viral tomato wilt, so we had trouble getting anything to grow well. And because we don’t spray we have quite a few problems with fruit fly as well. We’ve just found some virus free tomato seed, so when the weather warms up, we might give those a go as well in the backyard. Glad you liked our little soldier bird – he has baths in our pond occasionally too.. :)
Woo Hoo. welcome back Celia. Your garden is going to be fantastic! and i am SO going to steal that potato in a sack idea. !! So glad you had a good time. Rain is good. We still need some! and lovely to see you again! c
Thanks C, rain is good, but I wish it wasn’t quite so constant at the moment! The potatoes have been growing well in the sacks, and because of the rain, we haven’t had to water them! :)
I have missed you so much, I was thinking of you just now as B and I went for some dim sum, traditional cheer us up, grizzly grey damp Sunday activity and hoping that you would be back soon… So now full no doubt of MSG I can report safely that nothing much has happened apart from a dramatic weather shift from a five day end of Sept/beg Oct heatwave to full on autumn wild and wet. The weather really is about the most exciting thing that happens here. Thank you for the bird pictures, most lovely! We haven’t put our feeders back out yet as if there isn’t enough spiders and bugs and seeds around for the next few weeks, the birds really all ought to move to Australlia :D
Hello darling! I’m so glad you liked the little soldier bird, they’re regular visitors to our backyard. I’ve just been told about a flock of cockatoos roosting nearby, so I’m going to see if I can find them and take photos for you. I hope the weather eases up a bit for you soon.. xxx
Lovely lovely lovely.
x
Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)
x
Lovely to see you back – you might have missed us, but we’ve missed you too! I love all your garden pictures, it’s lovely to see how things are coming on. Do you have two seasons for some produce? I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can grow two crops of potatoes a year, it must be so different to here where we wait until the frosts are over before thinking about planting out.
My way – not a lot of bread baking going on, just enjoying old favourites. Plenty of cake though, but a little loss of blogging desire – I think the impending cold weather is making me gloomy (I loved the recent unseasonal warmth we had – as Joanna said), so seeing all your lovely bright photos is very cheering!
Hi C! It can be so temperate that lots of things will grow all year round – we don’t get the complete garden hibernation that occurs in colder climates. Most of the herbs are always there – rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley – and we always seem to have the perennial leeks since we planted them. Our second crop of potatoes wasn’t as successful as the first, but we’re quite excited to see what happens to the ones in the bags! Plenty of cake is a great thing for cold weather! :)
Great to have you blogging again…been checking almost daily to see if you had gotten back from your break.
Tell me, what is the theory behind planting potatoes in the sacks? Is it just to give you more space to plant? I have a very small garden in Botswana and potatoes would definitely take up too much space if I planted them in the ground. Would love to give planting in sacks a go.
So jealous that you still have peas! Ours finished about 2 weeks ago and with the heat really set in the mildew is in full force. But we had 2 different lots and it was so worth it – my daughter’s comment on the first pea of the season, ‘Mamma they are so sweet they are like sweeties!’ She’s not yet 5! And my son of 2 and a half ate them as often as I would let him. Can’t wait till next year.
It’s now too hot here to grow lettuce which is so sad. Grows beautifully in winter but of course when it’s cold you don’t really eat so much. But come summer it just bolts to seed.
Thanks Caroline! :)
Apparently you’re supposed to “rest” a bed after you’ve grown potatoes in it, but we got a little carried away last year and planted them in every bed! To give the soil a rest this season, we’ve planted them in the hessian bags, and so far they’re doing quite well. The idea is that you roll the bags down to start with, and then unroll them and “hill up” the spuds as they grow. In theory, they should then keep producing potatoes in the newly added soil/mix and when you go to harvest them, they’re should be potatoes right down to the bottom of the bag.
You’re supposed to be able to grow potatoes in old tyres as well, but I’m a bit nervy about chemicals leeching from the tyres into the soil. The idea there is you keep stacking tyres on top and adding dirt as the spuds grow.
We adore peas! Last year I went on a quest for mildew-resistant peas – we’ll see how they hold up in this damp weather. We love the peas, but it seems impossible to grow enough, regardless of how many we plant!
Was about to suffer withdrawals glad you are back
Roz, thank you.. :) Btw, been meaning to tell you that you’ve got me hooked on the Miellerie honey! :)
Good to see you’re back Celia :-) Missed indeed!
I’ve just had 9 days away. Clean air, good food, and a bucket load of sewing done, was lovely.
Back to school lunches…oh.
Brydie, thanks love, sounds like you had a wonderful break! School lunches…sigh…I’m getting close to the end of it all. But by the time I’m done, I’ll have made school lunches for twenty years! :D
Welcome back. But, in a fit of jealous pique, I am heading off for 11 days or so. Play nicely. Whisper sweet nothings to the chooks for me.
Cosmo, have a wonderful time! May you be inspired to write beautiful poetry by your travels.. :)
Oh I MISSED you! Hope you’re refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the year with vim and vigour! Did you and the boys have a nice holiday? We’re still going, so nice and relaxing.
littlej and I planted out our garden beds this weekend, purple beans, purple basil, purple potatoes, purple asparagus- she picked out all the seeds :) also found the spaghetti squash I was after, heirloom tomatoes, raspberries, sunflowers, nastursiums… just so many and we’re going back to the garden centre today too!
Things are finally feeling Spring-gy here so the green thumb is itching!
Nice to have you back sweetie!
Oh darling, you are so sweet.. :) LittleJ’s got the planting by colour thing down pat, and I can’t wait to see what your spaghetti squash look like!
Welcome back. Your garden is looking amazing!
Deb, are you back in Italy? I’ll have to check out your blog! :)
Glad to see you back, Celia, hope you are well rested!
Things are very busy in our house with our eldest about to turn 21 next week and much preparation yet to do for the party, my son is about to sit his year 12 exams (and is far too relaxed about them) and our youngest is about to go to Vancouver on a student exchange, leaving in 3 weeks.
Oh – and food, lots of food!
Thanks Amanda – wow, such a lot happening at your place at the moment!! Good luck to your son for his exams – such a biggie, I can remember when Big Boy did them. And 21…wow, that’s a biggie too! :)
Great to see you’re back, and you had a wonderful couple of weeks. I’m busy in and out, planted the veggie beds outside for my sister and looking after her roses, they’re all looking beautiful with this Spring weather, however not as brilliant as your photo show! I have a few weeks of catching up in the growing season! Where did you find those hessian bags for your potatoes, I’m not wanting them for growing only to fix up on a crafty corner idea of mine. Love to have you visit as always @ twistedvines. We’re all on the uphill for Christmas activities, I’m looking forward to the next couple of months. x
Yvette, thank you, look forward to seeing you gearing up for Christmas, your blog is always so picturesque! We bought the hessian bags from a coffee roaster here in Sydney – all the money from the purchase went to the Starlight Foundation…
Lettuce looks lovely…aphids don’t sound so attractive though, despite Pete’s recommendation!
How was your break? Relaxing and rejuvinating I hope!
Tasty aphids, SG, apparently. :) Yes, lovely couple of weeks with the boys, thank you!
I’ve missed you Celia! Your garden is looking fabulous. Sadly mine is looking a little neglected at the moment. I don’t think the plants can quite handle the weather that’s freezing one day and stinking hot the next (I don’t blame them I don’t really like it either).
I think it’s time I did a little more planting and planning.
Thanks Claire, hope all the wedding plans are going well! Sounds like you’ve been having weird weather up north as well! I’m not sure my snake beans are ever going to sprout! Another couple of weeks though, and I reckon the heat will be here properly.. :)
So good to have you back on line. I missed your cheery posts about gardens, chooks and of course, bread. I have just been very lazy and let the cows in the yard again. It seems a shame to mow all that lovely grass and clover. I’ve had a week of serious Karate training so the garden looks a bit unloved. I did still manage to bake bread–such a sanity break!
Thanks Liz! I’ve just had two days of mad baking to get ready for school again – 36 cheese and olive rolls and 8 ciabatta loaves. We don’t need that many of course, but it’s nice to start term with the freezer full. :)
If I had cows, I reckon I’d let them mow the lawn for me too.. :)
Your garden puts mine to shame Celia. I keep telling myself that I’ll get into it after exams, but the temp needs to get above 13 before I’ll venture out (loathe the cold) and at this point I’m wondering whether we’re going to get a summer down here. It’s only 14 today. Some gardening has been done though – by our Pekin Bantams. I can put the mulch in one spot and after an hour or so, five of them will have it spread out. They work cheap and they seem to enjoy it – what more could I ask for! Great to see everything going well with you and I’m glad you had a lovely break. Take care.
Meaghan, it’s been cold here too! Such odd weather we’ve been having! I’ve decided chooks really do make the best gardeners.. :)
Good luck with the exams!
Your garden photographs are egging me on – I have planted bean seeds and yesterday I planted some rocket. I have designated a vegie garden area which now needs clearing of building rubble (YAY)! Welcome back, you have been missed :)
Tandy, that sounds very exciting! I’m looking forward to seeing pics of your new garden! We’ve planted wild rocket this year, and it’s just wonderful…
Yay! Welcome home! Your garden is looking fabulous. The kohlrabi looks so good, I’ve got to grow some too! Love the coffee sacks you’re using for the potatoes. And I would love to grow snake beans but couldn’t find any seeds early enough think I’ve missed it now…
Mrs B, I think I actually planted the snake beans too early. Apparently you have to wait until the soil temps are 23C for extended periods. Not sure if you can actually grow them in Vic, as it might not get warm enough – I’m not sure it’s even going to get warm enough here in Sydney! I hope it does though, because I love, love, love snake beans..
Glad your back! Hope you had a nice break. The plants look lovely. Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, so I’m sure yours will ripen! Nice bird.
Are the sacks your potatoes are in the same as burlap bags?
I think Venus Fly Traps are amazing plants. Very interesting to observe.
Have a great week!
Manuela, thank you! It’s nice to be back. I thought about your greenhouse toms, they give me hope! Pete says not to panic yet, and you’re right, we could pull the tomatoes off and let them ripen on a sunny windowsill, but they’re just not doing much at the moment.
I think burlap bags and hessian bags are the same, although the ones we bought had quite a fine weave to them. They were used for coffee beans, so they had to be fine enough to keep the beans in! The fly trap is tiny – just 4″ across – and cost only a few dollars. It’s been a great source of joy for us though. I wish now I’d bought a pitcher plant as well.. ;-)
Aaaah…memories of spring — seems ages ago when I enjoyed the fresh green colours of spring and watched the daffs emerging from still-cold soil. We’re well into autumn now, and I’ve managed to catch a darned cold — caused no doubt from our abrupt drop in air temperature. As for what’s up with me, still fussing over my apple cider vinegar, baking bread, emptied out the greenhouse, still deadheading flowers in the borders, and trying to find new and exciting things to do with more apples than I can possibly use. Even the neighbours are ‘fed-up’ to the gills with apples.
Misk, I’m sorry you have a cold! Get well soon!
When we have an apple glut, we make apple jelly, apple pectin, apple pies and more apple pies! :)
Celia I don’t think Kohl Rabi tastes like cabbage! Lol, I think it is just the most fabulous stuff, but when I try to describe what it tastes like, the only thing I can think of is “fabulous”. Not “cabbage”.
You really think it tastes like cabbage?
Ali, Pete thinks it tastes like cabbage, I think it tastes a bit like a cross between cabbage and all the other brassicas combined, with the texture of a turnip or swede. It’s a good size for us – by the time each one is peeled, I get a small ball to peel and chop, which seems to be just the right amount to add to a stir fry or curry!
Yay, your back. I’ve missed you, you’ve popped into my head so many times this past few weeks. Gotta say… Your garden looks amazing. You must look at it and feel just so dang proud?!
Have been super busy my end, my new job is incrediable. I met the Prime Minister last Thursday, and hung out at Parli house for the future jobs forum. Have been practicing a bunch of tomato recipes for the cooking demonstration I’m doing at Floriade this week, and doing lots of cooking. Life is fantastic. :)))
Hey darling, that all sounds amazing! Good for you! Enjoy Floriade, and hobnobbing with the bigwigs! :)
Welcome back! Looks your garden is bountiful! We had stalled tomatoes too this year. They grew to a big green state and then sat there until some animal munched them all.
Waving from the other side of the world, Maz.
Thanks Maz! At least no animal will munch on our indoor toms! :)
Welcome back me dear :-) I missed your writing and your most beautiful photos.
Thanks Gill! Looks like I’ve missed some excitement in your world – congratulations on the awards!! xx
http://www.chocolatehere.ie/2011/10/05/blas-na-heireann-gold-and-silver-award-winners/
hi celia..so good to have you back..your garden is so lush and bursting with vitality..i’m secretly finishing a quilt that was due to be completed in may for my daughter’s 30th..i want to have it finished by the end of the year and because she has given up hope of ever seeing it completed it should be a nice surprise for her..as a consequence everything else is very neglected but it’s the only way to get it done..
Jane, quilts are always such big projects – good on you! I’m sure it will be a wonderful Christmas present! :)
Welcome Back Celia! My little man and I spent a week travelling first to the Central West (to see my Dad’s new tractor) and then south to Northern Central Victoria (Goulburn Valley). The whole countryside is amazingly green and verdant with spring lambs and calves everywhere. In Victoria we saw a barn owl, spoonbills and other wetland wading birds (a myriad of storks, cranes and egrets) and to top it off, had a quick look for koalas in the wild on the banks of the Murray, and saw four (plus a baby). Very satisfying.
Back at home, my interesting leaves are all going to seed…
Oh, and we found a frog in our pool, which was very exciting, although it didn’t survive the experience.
Vix, I love that you made a road trip to see a new tractor! :) We’re yet to have any frogs in the pond, but we keep hoping…
Welcome back Celia! Are you well rested and ready for some blogging and baking? :)
Thanks Lorraine, it was a lovely little break! But I did miss everyone! :)
Welcome back! What did I do since you’ve been away? Well, I stumbled onto your blog when looking for ways to use my apple scraps (thanks for the pectin recipe, by the way!), fell in love with this blog, became interested in the idea and started one myself! So even whilst you were away, you were inspiring others… Thank you!
– E.
Oh that’s wonderful! Thanks for such a lovely comment, and congratulations on your new blog! :)
What a beautiful garden! I started a little herb garden last week with rosemary (from cuttings), parsley and dill. The rosemary isn’t going too well, half of the dill is growing and the parsley is very happy:)
Mrs Kimber, if you can get the rosemary established, it will be in your garden forever, growing into a gorgeous bush! It really likes our yard – always has! Our continental (flat leaf) parsley is growing like a weed.. :)