We’re having a wet and cool December here in Sydney, and the garden is quite confused by it all.
The Lebanese cucumbers are starting to recover, after being battered by weeks of rain…
Basil grew brilliantly in the yard last season, and the newest plants are promising to do the same. We’ve planted several varieties this year…
Our perennial leeks in the top bed are flowering…
We’re yet to harvest any, but our asparagus patch has been growing like mad. The Spice Girl gave us a single small pot when we started the garden, and this is what it’s turned into. Hopefully next year we can start eating them…
Apples in Sydney? I’m not convinced, but Pete was keen to try. The trees are producing small fruit again this year, but I’m not getting my hopes up…
Dwarf beans, on the hand, seem to grow brilliantly here…
Our onions were transplanted from a previous bed and after nearly a year, we’re finally starting to get bulbs…
We managed to grow one full sized onion!
Before moving the chickens onto the garden bed by the fence, we pulled out all the remaining perennial leeks…
…and replanted their 28 babies in the recently cleared front bed…
The potatoes in sacks have been an interesting exercise. They’ve suffered from the wet weather, but are still growing well, and we’ve recently hilled them up, unrolling the sacks in the process…
The sacks themselves, though, haven’t held up all that well. And these were doubled up too…
Pete is carefully growing purslane (which everyone else considers a weed), as he knows how much I love eating it…
We’ve provided our rhubarb with a little shade, and it’s suddenly doing brilliantly. I think it’s really enjoyed the rain and the cooler weather…
Our dwarf white peach tree is growing well…
It produced several peaches this year, although the cooler growing season has resulted in slightly less flavoursome fruit than last year…
And finally, a photo of our bull capsicums, which are being grown indoors. I think the seeds came from the CityHippyFarmGirl – thanks Brydie! The first one has just ripened…
Anything exciting happening in your gardens at the moment?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
It’s so much fun seeing a garden growing at full tilt right now. Mine is mud and bare branches. I had the silver birch trees topped and pruned back after our severe storms. I worried that the wind might uproot those trees – they were very tall. And now the weather service thinks we might have a bit of snow on Friday night! Ho-ho-ho, just in time for Santa. :)
Snow for Christmas! Sounds lovely, Misk! Hope you’re having fun with the festive season!
I’m seconding Misk…your green-and-growing sure looks great!
I love the potato bags – might have to give that a try next year!
Thank you! I think we might invest in proper potato bags this year – the hessian hasn’t held up all that well. Mind you, they haven’t completely fallen apart though, but they won’t be certainly won’t be reusable!
Wow, this is looking amazing.
Thanks Greg! :)
wow, sitting here in my cold little corner of the world when i saw you were showing your garden i raced to open your blog.. how wonderful, I was very interested in the potato bags but it is a bit sad to see them perishing and of course they would i had not thought of that, very exciting stuff, and a capsicum already!! c
You’ll have to trade me in June, C, when our garden is cold and gloomy! The capsicums don’t grow outdoors here – there’s just too many fruit flies, but it’s done surprisingly well in our enclosed verandah. Even better than the tomatoes!
Celia, you have such a beautiful and bountiful garden. Love it! Our three little patches are coming along. The strawberries are loving this weather and producing, albeit slowly. I have several self sown tomatoes which are now in flower (still very cool early am here). Cos lettuces galore. Lebanese cucumber has baby fruit. Basil and chillies are still in baby stages. And we have a mass of carrots that I will pull up and juice during the holidays. Happy gardening!
Lizzy, it all sounds very exciting indeed! We were late with carrots, but planted a few last month, fingers crossed we’ll get some before the end of summer. Our strawberries are always a disappointment, we’ve tried for years now and I think we might give up. The best we get from them is good ground cover!
Looks absolutely fabulous!
Cheers, Lee! Your garden’s looking pretty wonderful too! :)
Yummo, feasts of delish foods here. :) I was wondering, do you know if Mint kills other herbs if they are too close? My plants seem to die if they are too close to the mint? Is this just a coinkydink?
Anna love, mint kills everything in its path, it’s just too rampant! The experts recommend growing it in a pot – we keep it in contained spaces only!
We are growing another solitary pineapple.
Aaah, but the last one looked so delicious, Deb! :)
Thats quite a productive garden you have going there C, and thanks for the pic of purslane, I’m sure I have some of that around. Can’t believe you’ve had peaches already!
Dave, I adore the purslane, it’s the basis of fattoush salad! :)
I’m feeling very optimistic about my tomatoes this year – after years of failure up here in the hills. I’ve put in 2 different varieties of cherry tomatoes and – so far – they are looking good & showing no sign of wilt or pest attack.
I’ve got everything crossed that they will continue to thrive.
The basil is still bolting to seed for some reason, but my lettuces are doing brilliantly and feeding us regularly. This year I put in some cos and a few of the softer leaf varieties that I can pick leaves off as needed, rather than waiting for the whole thing – seems to be working well as a plan!
Amanda, good luck with the tomatoes, the ones that have self-seeded outdoors here are still riddled with pests. We’ve been planting non-heading lettuce this year, and it’s worked a treat – we go out most days and harvest a colander of leaves for salad!
My garden has taken a real beating from all the rain we got, and while my lime tree is growing like mad, it won’t give fruit. I’m so jealous!
Lucas, my lemon tree has just one little lemon on it, so I empathise! We’re yet to get a single fruit off it, but like yours, it IS growing!
Dear Celia,
Your garden looks pretty good and how wonderful to be able to cook with the produce that is freshly picked! The basil looks brilliant and I can immediately think of at least half a dozen beautiful Italian recipes especially nice summery ones! Well done.
Chopinand, thank you! Basil seems to always do well in the yard, but not tomatoes, so it’s not quite the perfect Italian garden.. :)
‘Lipstick’ capsicum- one of the earliest open pollinated capsicums. One of the sweetest with a thick juicy wall. A reliable early heavy cropper even in a short cool summer.”
Could have been me :-)
Your garden looks fantastic Celia. It’s amazing what you can grow in a relatively small space, with a little dirt and love thrown in. Now if only my pathetic pots would look half as good.
Brydie, the capsicum is wonderful, thank you! For what it’s worth, it’s been growing in a pot – caps never do well in our yard, for the same reason as tomatoes, I suspect!
Oh, your garden is lovely!
Thanks Cindy! Although I am showing you the best bits, there are heaps of weeds too.. ;-)
Yay Spring! We are in deepest winter here, snow on the mountains, rain, cold and early darkness. It’s great soup weather though. :-)
You’re always so glass half-full, Maz! Good on you! :)
I do so enjoy the updates of your garden Celia – so inspirational! We too are having a cool and wet “summer”. The sun is actually shining today, think I will take full advantage and spend it in the garden.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, I hope you’ve had a lovely day in the garden! Look forward to seeing what you do with your bumper fig crop! :)
http://photographyofnia.com/2011/12/15/bottles-in-the-kitchen/
Thank you, I wished to give a real gift to you….
Thanks Nia! All the best for a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
verdant..fecund..esculent..ah..i can’t find the adjective that does justice to your lovely garden :)
Jane, I had to look up esculent, thank you for the new word! (I love words!)
Beautiful, beautiful and inspiring as I look out the window to rain and bare trees.
I went to Henri Le Roux as blogged by David Lebovitz to try the salted caramels – amazing. I’m going to try and pop one in the post for you with a vanilla tea teabag. Hope they get through!!
Oooh, Anna, that’s exciting, but I don’t like our chances. I’ll cross my fingers though, and thank you for thinking of me! :)
Cucumbers and peaches and basil mmm and look at those leeks, it’s all doing really well isn’t it? Am sitting here in my fingerless dog walking gloves, about to make a coffee and give in and put the heating on early, it is a mere 3 degrees above freezing out there. All the hail and sleet over the last few days raised the water levels down in the woods and there is mud and boggy ground everywhere, still me and the poodles found a few cheeky squirrels to chase and the sun peeked out. In my garden, there are bulbs peeking, wintersweet coming into flower and strangely a few nicotiana still holding lanky flowers, oh and one rose on the climber – I saw it from the upstairs window… xx
I hope it doesn’t get too cold for you all this year, Jo! How nice that you’ve still got flowers in your winter garden! Stay warm, love.. :) xx
Celia, you are truly inspirational – all that lovely lush green and good things growing. I must vow to get into my garden this year.
I love the fact that Pete is growing purslane for you :-)
C, thank you! Isn’t Pete sweet? How many men do you know who grow weeds for their wives? ;-)
wow, as usual it all looks amazing! My beans have been harvested once already and I am hoping the tortoise does not eat all the plants as she really like beans :)
Tandy, each bean plant produces a handful of pods, which means we really should have planted even more plants! But they are so very delicious, no wonder your tortoise loves thems.. :)
How lovely in your suburban jungle! Mine is suffering a bit of neglect this year, but soldiering on nonetheless.
I planted Sydney crimson rhubarb, and despite growing big stems, they are green definitely not crimson- any ideas?
Becca, we planted red rhubarb too, and it’s all green. I thought you’d have better luck with the colder weather, actually…
Celia did I tell you how jealous I am….LOL. Everything looks lovely…enjoy as I am sure I will enjoy reading about your recipes.
Thanks Norma! It’s raining again today, but everything is looking very green.. :)
Wow that asparagus is really going crazy in that spot. Amazing. Mine was doing so well…finally the finger thick spears shooting out…and my bloody chooks go and dig it up. Every chance they get. They go straight to that one garden bed that has something decent in it, and dig it all up. Ofcourse now they also go to the garden bed that Sam had planted out with seedlings. I say “had” because of the current state of chicken destruction of that bed. Worse than brush turkeys! Sigh.
I have asked for fully planted out garden beds for my Christmas present from Andrew and the kids though, so I live in hope of better garden times.
I told Pete about your asparagus – between the chooks and the bush turkeys and the rabbits and Milo, it’s amazing you’ve got anything left in the beds! :) Thanks again for the asparagus, we’re excited about eating it next year!
Celia…my plants are dormant right now BUT my Meyer Lemon should start blooming soon, one of my orchids just finished dropping its blooms while the other one has 3 of 5 buds open. My southern most window is home to Christmas cactus, 6 custard apple seedlings, a pot of ornamental chili peppers, 2 loquat seedlings. I am also taking care of a handful of fig cuttings which were started late in the summer & I preferred NOT to allow them to go dormant. Right now I care for 50+ different cultivars of ficus carica (common fig) which are all dormant. They all are 1-2 seasons old and will eventually live in 5 gallon pots. In mid-January I will start the rooting process of fig scion and will hopefully add 30 NEW cultivars of ficus carica to my figventory. Once Spring rolls back around my garden will get started…potatoes, ginger and carrots in 5 gallon grow bags. Looking forward to my first harvest of red raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, goumi…and a plethora of fruit for winemaking and preserves.
Sara, WOW!! So much growing at your place, and it’s not even spring yet! Sounds like you’re in for lots of fun! :)
Wonderful pics, Celia! It’s always great to see your veggie garden. Will your rhubarb redden up as it grows or stay green? The basil looks tempting, too…ours are only a couple of centimetres high (still!).
Here we have had a cherry thief. I suspect the youngest…or maybe the eldest… I gave them a sampler of a couple of ripening cherries and two days later I noticed that all twelve cherries or so had been completely stripped from the tree! Agh!
Lots of potatoes lurking, raspberries are dwindling. Tomatoes are just setting flower as are cucumbers and pumpkins. Happy gardening :)