Autumn in Sydney has brought a little sunshine and yet more rain…
Our five remaining chooks are all doing well, although laying less than they have been in the past. They’re now over two years old, and their egg production is slowing up a bit.
The Tuscan kale (above) is doing well in the cooler weather, and the patty pan squash seeds that we threw into an empty bed a couple of months ago are thriving. They seem to be much easier to grow in our garden than zucchinis…
In amongst Pete’s beloved chickweed, the cos lettuce is growing well…
Lebanese cucumbers are having a late run…
Kohlrabi is probably the second easiest vegetable to grow in our garden (radishes being the easiest, but no-one will eat them). We broadcast seeds, and up they come…
There are always perennial leeks growing and they provide us with fresh greens when there is nothing else to harvest. We use them in place of onions, stir fry them, use them in tabbouleh salad, and add them to soups…
Basil seems to like our backyard, and we have a few healthy plants, despite the lack of sunshine this summer…
And a photo for my lovely friend Joanna…this broccoli plant is growing very determinedly in a crack in the bricks. Can’t wait to see if it forms any flower heads…
Today’s pickings included a cos lettuce, two large squash, a couple of Lebanese cucumbers, parsley, eggplant and an assortment of chillies, including cayennes and bishop’s crowns.
What’s growing in your garden this month?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Thanxx for sharing your garden,pics :-)
Enjoy your picking!
Thanks Sponge! :)
thankyou Celia! bless you little broccoli! Does Pete cook with his chickweed? I have been coming across references to how nutritious it is. I have six self sown leeks, some self sown red mustard all over the raised bed, tomato seedlings growing strongly on the window and lots of packets of seeds. your patch looks wonderfully productive as ever xx
Jo, we haven’t cooked the chickweed yet, but I think we might try this year. I’d like to see if we can make a version of our parsley soup using the chickweed in place of the parsley. There’s certainly enough of it growing! :)
I love joanna’s broccoli too! but mostly i love your basil, it needs to warm up a bit more here and then i am throwing in lots of basil seed! Kohl Rabi is interesting i have never grown it.. great autumn garden! c
Celi, it’s funny what grows some places and not others! We seem to be able to grow basil but not sage, and peas and beans, but not tomatoes! I talk to Joanna’s broccoli every day and encourage it to flower.. :D
Gorgeous. Is the chickweed for natural mulch?
Sally, thank you – the chickweed is edible! It’s Pete and Small Man’s favourite salad green!
Ah – it must be different to the plant we called chickweed. It was definitely a weed – although we used to pick it for my Gran’s budgie who loved it!
Sally, it probably isn’t! :) Here’s a photo of it growing in the yard:
I just googled some images – what my Mum called chickweed she also called groundsel – its correct name. Have just learned A LOT about chickweed! LOL
I do so enjoy seeing your gardens, Celia!
It is like a preview and a promise- and a hope for fresh green things to come.
I’ve not had much good fortune in the garden lately- but at least I can still get fresh from the farmer’s market!
Heidi, it’s a big garden and I only take photos of the best bits, so it’s not all lovely. But there always seems to be enough to feed us – we seem to buy less and less at the markets as time goes by.. x
Beautiful garden!
Thanks Greg! We’re heading into winter now, so I’m counting on your photos to keep me going until next spring! :)
I have pansies, daffodils and hyacinth in my garden.
I’m sure they’re very beautiful too! :)
Lovely update Celia. Do you get frosts in your area? We dropped down to four degrees a couple of nights ago, so I am a little worried for all my crops. We need just a little more sunshine to ripen the last of the tomatoes.
Lizzy, thank you! No frosts here, which makes it hard going for the dwarf apple trees!
I always love seeing photos of your garden Celia. It seems there’s always something going on and always something to harvest. What a joy it must be to wander around and discover what’s happening – like the self-seeded broccoli plant. Hopefully we’ll enjoy some sunny days before winter sets in xx
Charlie, I hope so, but it’s overcast and cool today, so I’m not feel very optimistic. It is nice to always be able to bring something in, even if it’s just edible weeds like the chickweed and purslane!
Don’t you love the determination of that broccoli plant!
I have a heap of leeks, cabbages, onions,cauliflowers, and Asian greens in for winter. Hopefully I’ll get the last few tomatoes and zucchinis before the frosts hit.
I have lots of little Saffron bulbs sticking through the dirt- so exciting!
I’m jealous of your milder weather that extends your growing season so much longer than ours Celia!
Becca, sounds like you’ve got treasure – we only managed to grow one cauli this year, and no cabbages at all! Don’t be jealous – you can grow zucchinis, and we can’t! :)
Love the blog, your vegie patch looks lovely, we have problems growing zucchini too, they seem to rot off before there are fully developed. Lat winter we had chickweed taking over, I must admit I don’t like it spreading throughout the vegie garden but I can see it beginning to thrive already with the cooler weather sneaking in. I have heard that it is very nutritious, may be that is the best way of looking at it and a good addition to the chooks diet.:)
Thanks for stopping by, Shirley! The chooks love the chickweed, but Pete loves it more, and we bought seed and planted it especially for him. It’s great in a salad, and this year I’m going to try and see if we can use it to make soup or gnocchi..
We are harvesting kale ( survived through summer so we have actually been picking since last season – lucky us!), some onions, zucchini, potatoes, chives, beans, delcious raspberries, perennial rocket, leeks and a few different lettuces. Not bad now that I think about it.
Sue, what a feast! You’ve got heaps more in your garden than we do, and it all sounds fantastic! :)
your veggie garden looks great celia..i’m still picking beans every day and i have a few beetroot that are ready and chillies..lots of them..that i need to dry for winter but they look so pretty on the bush..the usual herbs and rocket..i need to get moving on the autumn planting..so many things to do..i don’t know how i managed before retirement..:)
Jane, all our beets rotted in the ground this year, it was so wet! The beans are all gone too – the wet weather put an end to all of them, but we are getting nice chillies at the moment! :)
Now I’m feeling a bit guilty. My summer plants died while I was away as the boys neglected to water them & I’ve yet to get off my bum and plant any autumn crops. Lazy tart.
You are SO not a lazy tart, A! We still don’t have all our autumn crops in either – peas next week, I think!
Lovely Celia, this all looks so healthy! How about that broccoli, very determined! I have not grown kohlrabi before, it looks interesting.
Jane, a lot of what we planted was due to laziness – it was easier to throw in kohlrabi and squash seeds than it was to raise seedlings! :)
Celia your garden is just amazing. I can’t imagine how excited you must feel bringing in a basket like that!
Sadly my garden has been a bit neglected with all the wedding plans. Once I’m a married woman I’m going to give it some serious TLC.
Having said that my baby capsicums are growing strongly and my oregano is like a weed!
Claire, we could survive a long time in our house on capsicums and oregano! I’m sure you must be incredibly busy at the moment – exciting times!! :)
I love your garden.. your sweet little patty pans.. your cool kohlrabbi.. what can you make with that one?? I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it, now that you mention it? As you know.. we have snow.. and so, our gardens do not grow..
Smidge, thank you! Kohlrabi is a bit like broccoli stems, and I use it in much the same way. Raw it tastes a bit more like cabbage though. I smuggle it into everything from pies to stirfries! :)
Your garden always looks fantastic, Celia. I can’t wait until we start our own vegie patch. It is a high priority as soon as it cools down. Perth is still hot and dry.
Glenda, thank you! Perth can be really hot and dry, can’t it? But it’s such a lovely city…
Love Joanna’s broccoli!
Do you grow wild rocket?or nettles; they just seed everywhere here.
Your garden looks lovely, just brimming with goodness.
Thank you! No nettles, but we do seem to have rocket coming up everywhere this year! Fingers crossed that Jo’s broccoli can actually form a head given that it’s in a patch of sand between two bricks!
Oh I am so jealous. I have such a big garden that would grow enough food for half of Cambodia and I just havent got time……. how beautiful …. sigh …. is your haul!
Tania, how lovely to have so much space! We have stuff growing in the garden, but we really don’t fuss about it much. We barely weed at all, and the chicken do all the rotorvating for us!
Your garden is so verdant and beautiful! And how are the chooks going now? :)
Thanks for asking, love, they’re all doing well. I’ve added in a photo for you at the beginning of the post!
The wonderhub just built a raised bed in the backyard. It’s still too cold for much. We have herbs and squash coming in. Thank you for reminding what things might possibly be like in a few months. It’s so hard to remember summer when it’s frosty, rainy cold out.
Looks like there is a tasty stir fry in your future. We put kohlrabi in with the noodles when we do stir fry. Nom! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/chicken-chow-mein
Maz.
Maz, I love kohlrabi, because a. it always grows bug-free, and b. it tastes like broccoli stems when cooked! :) I will remember to include it with my next bowl of fried noodles. Hope the sun comes out for you soon!
My veggie garden is looking very sad as we head into winter over here. In contrast yours is looking so vibrantly green!
Sue, we’re heading into winter as well, although it’s been a very slow start. We’ve had a wet cool summer, and now we look like having a mild winter!
Celia, you obviously take better care of your garden than I do mine. I love the idea of getting a day’s worth of veggies out of the garden. My garden has the lushest of weeds and a few zucchinis. My kale was three years old and has finally ‘bitten the dust’ or more likely the mud.
Liz, I don’t know that we do much in the garden, but there’s lots of space, so there’s almost always something growing. The chooks do most of the work for us, to be honest! I didn’t know kale was a perennial!
will you come and visit! My potted tomatoes are doing so well – the dogs are feasting for sure, as we never get to eat them :)
Tandy, everyone but us seems to be able to grow tomatoes and zucchinis! And I would love to come and visit, but it IS a long way.. ;-)
Oh, WOW! That cos lettuce looks so glossy and gorgeous. Seriously impressed with your gardening… I never manage more than a few tomato plants!
SK, and we struggle with growing tomatoes! :) Thank you – the cos was absolutely delicious – I picked it right after taking the photo!
What a lovely, healthy and bountiful garden.
If no one will eat the radishes raw, try cooking them. Braise whole (I peel them but not neccessry) in a little broth until soft, or slice and add to a stir fry.
Norma, I’ve never tried them cooked before! Thanks for the tip!
My garden is full of pumpkin vines. Completely overrun. There are tomatoes so big they have fallen over but the fruit will not go red.
You know what I bought recently something called Kale chips. It looks like Kale has been dipped in herbs and then maybe deep fried so it’s crunchy. The pieces are more like flakes than chips but it was not half bad actually and I believe one can eat in like sprinkles on rice or other things. Mostly greens are something you associate with wetness salad and steaming or stir fry so eating greens in dry form like this is certainly something different.
It’s been hard getting anything to ripen with our Sydney weather this year! Even out self-sown tomatoes didn’t ripen!
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/21744/raw-vegan-kale-chips.aspx Here is a recipe for Kale chips, looks like they are dehydrated not fried. Its a vegan thing it seems.
Kale chips! Thanks Frances! They sound fabulous – I’ll go check out the recipe now!
Just changed my mind – the last photo in this post is the one I think you should use when you write your book one day.
Beautiful post Celia – your garden is such an inspiration!
:-) Mandy
Ah you’re kind Mandy, but I can’t see myself writing a book any time soon. Why would I want to write something which doesn’t allow me to have a real-time conversation with all of you? :)
I feel so happy just looking at your garden :)
Thanks Tes! :)
I’m with your family on radishes.
They’re lovely and peppery – but such a faff to slice. I can’t be bothered with them.
That’s such a productive garden you have. And verdant with the rain you’ve had.
My husband won’t move from having grass. So we have a useless grassy garden. He’s just sown some grass seeds to promote even more grass.
Of course the birds in the tree at the bottom of the garden think it’s their birthday now.
Gill, we pulled out the entire back lawn and planted vegetables. One less thing to mow! I actually like radishes, in moderation. It’s just that it’s not possible to grow radishes in moderation – you either grow none or more than you can reasonably eat!
Wow Celia, I am totally jealous of your vege garden! Do you get a lot of pests? It seems as soon as I plant something, in comes an army of insects to strip it down. The only thing I seem to be able to grow is rosemary! Thank you for the lovely blog.
Thank you for stopping by! :) We do get a LOT of pests, especially since we don’t spray anything. We’ve just about given up on growing tomatoes outdoors, and we still don’t get many grub free strawberries. It’s been a bit of trial and error to see what we can grow that won’t get ravaged by the bugs. Also, because we have a pond, there are a few more predators in the garden – we get lots of dragonflies and damselflies, hoverflies, hornets, and I suspect there might be a frog lurking around as well! :)
The bugs seem to leave the kale alone, but we have to be a bit more vigilant with the broccoli and cabbages. The leeks are great and pretty much pest-free, as are the beans and peas.
I’m envying that kale! Mine is just coming up now. It is hot competition for my favourite vegetable. Khol rabi though is in hot competition for the bottom of the list. I’ve just never learned to cook with it.
Linda, I think kholrabi tastes a bit like a cross between cabbage and broccoli stems, and I really like it. I throw it into all sorts of dishes as a root veg – it goes into pies, soups and stews. The boys don’t seem to mind it, and given how well it grows, that’s a relief. Wish the same could be said about radish! :)
Dear Celia,
How healthy are those chickens and vegetables!! My fave is your herb patch with that basil standing proudly, I can sure imagine how delicious a caprese salad or pasta would taste with that!
Thank you – it IS always such a treat to have fresh basil in the yard!
Is it getting near fall already there? I so enjoy your garden pics. All the spring flowers are in bloom here, so garden planting is soon to come. It will be awhile before I’m able to get a garden established here in our new house. When I do though the first things to go in will be broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and zucchini. I love fresh basil and I’ll bet it does love your climate. I will probably be able to get some herbs planted this year w/ hubbys help. Basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano do very well here. I struggle w/ growing parsley and cilantro though.
Mel, how exciting, having a new garden to establish! I’m always intrigued by the differences in our gardens and climates. Parsley grows like a weed here!
We have 1 tulip, several daffodils and hopefully flowering fruit trees this weekend.
I think of Queenie often – actually every time I see the neighbors chickens.
Anna, sounds like spring is on its way for you!
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