There are a ludicrous number of photos in this post!
My apologies if it takes a while to load…
. . . . .
Our winter garden is lush, green and relatively bug and weed free.
Despite that, there’s not a whole lot to eat yet. We planted out this bed in May (photos here) with broccoli, cabbage and celery, and have added cos lettuce, garlic and kale to it since…
Baby broccoli heads are just starting to form…
The sweetheart cabbages are surprisingly pest-free, which may have something to do with all the garlic we’re growing around them…
The second wave of Tuscan kale is maturing – I love the gorgeous grey-green leaves..
Perennial leeks – where would we be without you? When there’s really nothing else to eat in the garden, we can always count on leeks and cos lettuces…
. . . . .
The bed closest to the house which we planted out in June is coming along nicely. The sugar cane mulch is doing a great job of keeping the weeds in check…
We’re growing coriander successfully for the first time ever – in previous years it’s always bolted straight to seed. That’s a good thing too, given our recent forays into Mexican cooking…
Pete wanted to plant dill, but I’m can’t remember why. I think it might be a useful companion plant?
And speaking of companion planting – my friend Diana gave us a bag of shooting garlic cloves and we’ve guerilla planted them all through the garden. They’re starting to pop up everywhere! Garlic doesn’t grow brilliantly in Sydney (it’s a bit too wet and warm), but the shoots are delicious and I’ve been snacking on them as I stroll around the backyard. Plus they seem to deter the cabbage moths…
. . . . .
Our most recently planted bed includes our transplanted celeriac – the poor things just keep getting moved around! They seem relatively unscathed by the upheaval though. This bed includes garlic, potatoes, pink sprouting kale, chard and beetroot…
The pink sprouting kale was a find at Eveleigh Markets last week. Our $5 pot divided into nearly a dozen large seedlings…
The leaves of this variety of kale are delicious raw (so I find myself eating those as well as I wander through the garden)…
Aaah rainbow chard, perhaps if I call you that when I serve you up, no-one will notice that you’re actually silverbeet in disguise…
The area near the fence has been planted out with sebago spuds, which are just starting to push through the mulch now…
. . . . .
Our back bed is currently the oldest, and the peas, carrots and celeriac are growing steadily…
After months and months, the celeriac finally appears to be forming a bulbous root. I adore celeriac, but after seeing how much time and space it takes to grow just one bulb, I now understand why they cost up to $5 each at the markets…
You might recall that we planted three varieties of peas in this bed – Somerset, Super Gem and Willow. I’ve since found out that Somerset and Willow are actually the same variety, and they’re growing much better than the Super Gem. All the plants are struggling a little with rust. Having said that, we’re just starting to get our first pods…
The Somerset/Willow plants are promising great things! I counted eleven baby peas in this juvenile pod…
. . . . .
In other parts of the garden, we’ve planted more French sorrel…
The asparagus is finally dying back, so we’ll be cutting it down soon. And as you can see from the back of the photo, our lemon tree is starting to produce more fruit…
Thank you for taking the time to read all the way down to the end of this post! Our garden updates need to be as comprehensive as possible, because we’re always referring back to them in later months to see what we’ve planted and when.
. . . . .
So tell me, how’s your garden going this month?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Oh Celia, your garden looks as wonderful as ever. You make me so determined to get mine going. If mine ever looks a 10th of yours I will be pleased. Congrats to you and Pete.
Glenda, your garden is going to be spectacular, and best of all, it’s going to be easy on your back! That’s the only downside of ground level gardening! (The upside being that the chooks can do the weeding for us! :)). I took Pete back to Bar H for lunch this week – he was feeling left out last time! :)
Beautiful Garden:) My garden is really slow this year – the weird weather probably has something to do with it too. Happy Monday!
Renee, weird weather for everyone, but it’s been good in our case! Hope your garden picks up soon! :)
I suspect that our summer is much like your winter at the moment. The same sort of plants seem to be growing. Dill? Yum. Dill sauce on new spuds is excellent.
Misky, we’re having a lovely winter – last year it rained and rained and everything was waterlogged. This year it’s sunny but cool enough to keep the bugs away! Hopefully we’ll get dill AND new spuds ready to eat at the same time in the garden this year! :)
Loving the update! So much to see and admire! Wonderful kales, and that beautiful pea pod photo
What you said about Rainbow Chard being Sliverbeet is so true!
And I’m curious about your celeriac as I tried to grow it last year but had little success (I probably didn’t give them enough water)
Have you heard of / read Carrots love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte – a helpful garden companion planting book, especially if you can pick it up cheaply :)
Claire, I will look out for the book, thank you for the headsup! Ahh, the rainbow chard, I can’t wait to see if anyone will eat it. I guess if my wolves won’t, my chickens will. :)
That’s such a good idea. I should make my garden blog comprehensive too so i can refer to in the future for planting and harvesting information. Thanks for the tip.
Norma, it makes such a difference! I often blog as a record for us – and at least once a day we’re referring back here to get a recipe, or find out what we actually planted in a garden bed two months ago! :)
Dill for fish! for gravad lax! and all tastes scandinavian! Rainbow chard in our part of the world has coloured stems, pink, yellow, orange, red etc. None this year. We have a row of kohl rabi and lots of flower sprouts, new veggie to us, a cross between sprouts and kale and looking very handsome, some root parsley, some ‘early’ varieties of tomatoes and some straggling salad onions. And some cherokee trail of tears beans are slowly twisting their way up some canes. But it’s all lush and green, the snails are fat and the slugs juicy and the baby toads are feasting :) Love your garden xxx
Joanna, that’s the rainbow chard we planted – yellow and red, by the looks of things. It’s growing really well. No kohlrabi for us this year, but we are going to try and grow root parsley (Hamburg parsley, they call it here). The flower sprouts sound intriguing.. xxx
I have some root parsley in our bed, it’s coming on slowly. The one I’m growing is called Atika, from the Czech republic apparently http://www.realseeds.co.uk/rootparsleyseed.htm
Is there anything better than standing in your garden and popping open a pod of fresh peas and eating them right there? 5 for me and 1 for the chooks. :)
Hahaha…some years, not many peas make it into the house! The chooks rarely get them, as they’re hard fought after! :)
Well done – it all looks wonderful. I think all UK gardeners are struggling to grow anything this year. Although I’ve had a good crop of gooseberries, nothing else is growing well at the moment – it is too cold and wet.
Suelle, I’m sorry to hear that, because I know how hard you work on your garden. I hope the weather settles down for you all soon. I thought of you when we planted the rainbow chard! :)
I love your garden updates, Celia- everything looks so green and growing even in your winter months! Right now we are in the midst of a drought and everything is dry and yellow and brown. I did get 2 tomatoes and one cucumber and then- EVERYTHING stopped growing. period.
Heidi, we had a loooong drought here in Australia a couple of years ago (for the better part of a decade before that), so we’re all fairly water conscious over here. Mind you, we now seem to have the reverse problem – too much water! :)
It must be lovely taking a stroll through the garden and seeing what’s growing and wondering when you’ll be harvesting and planning what you’ll do with your crop. That photo of the pea is just gorgeous. I didn’t realise celeriac was so difficult to grow. Lovely to see a few more lemons Celia – Pete will be very busy making his lemon syrup this season! xx
Charlie darling, you have to stop taking the piss out of our own solitary lemon. ;-) There are more growing now – truly! hahaha
What a great looking garden. Thanks for sharing…
Thank you! Given how glorious your gardens are, I’m chuffed that you enjoyed a peek at our little backyard one.. :)
I love the aspect of blogging that leads you to keeping records you would otherwise never get around to! It’s looking fantastic, the key with coriander is to grow it in winter as the warm weather just sends it to seed too quickly. Enjoy!
Alison, that is absolutely right – if it weren’t for the blog, we’d never keep track of what we did. We’ll try and grow coriander in winter from now on! :)
Gosh the garden is doing well Celia! We fell behind in the autumn and are paying for it now but we are working towards the spring. You’ve done welll with the coriander, it’s not been a good crop for us.
Rose, it hasn’t been a good crop for us before either, and the plant is still quite small. But it’s the first time any of it has grown at all! I hope spring is glorious for you! :)
Just love it.. fantastic garden and that sugar beet mulch, did i read that right? that is fantastic stuff, your garden must love its blanket of goodness. You have worked very hard out there and it shows.. c
Thanks Celi! Sugar cane mulch, not beet, all our sugar here is cane sugar. We actually don’t work that hard at the garden really – the chooks do most of the work, and we rope in the boys once a month to help with planting. Then it’s just a case of waiting and talking nicely to the plants.. :)
Wow Celia I’m so impressed! I am too embarrassed to share my garden at the moment. Last week I did a big clean up and ripped out all the dead bits. I did plant some tomatoes though and they’re just starting to sprout so fingers crossed!
Claire love, you’ve been busy getting married! That’s the nice thing about the garden, it doesn’t matter if you have to ignore it for a while, you can always go back to it (Linda Woodrow taught me that!). :)
I love it. Your winter garden is about as busy as our summer garden.
Greg, not quite! We don’t have all those gorgeous tomatoes of yours! :)
Great post Celia, you are much more fortunate than us with winter production. The bitter frosts here kill almost everything! Interesting about the celeriac bulb, I wasn’t aware of that (though it makes sense). Your garlic is taller than mine. I just went outside and note that the frost blanket has kept my mint and chervil intact. The chilli has suffered though. I hope it comes back. Happy cooking and gardening.
Lizzy, I hope your plants all survive the frost! We’ve had warm days, but quite cold nights here in Sydney. Our chillis are on their last legs as well…
Ooooooh, there is nothing that I love more than REAL home-grown food. Love, love, LOVE. Maybe that’s why I always like to go back to my hometown? My father grows the most beautiful vegetables. Rows of fresh Bôk Choi… Lemongrass… Kaffir Lime Leaves… Garlic… Chilies! J’adore! (I especially love the Kaffir Lime Leaves.) – Definitely not an easy thing to grow or get your hands on. I make Tom Yum every time I go home!
p.s You’ve inspired an upcoming post. ;)
Ooh Dakota, I can’t wait! Your father’s garden sounds amazing!
Your garden is looking very healthy and productive Celia. Lovely to see some lemons on your tree :)
Thanks Jane! I think there are nearly a dozen baby lemons on there now! :)
I am so envious of your winter garden. It looks way better than my summer garden! Thanks for all the fantastic photos.
Thanks Anna! :)
Not a problem.. post as many photos as you like.. I really love looking through your garden. If you ever get the chance.. I’d love to see one from further out, so I can get a feel of the beds sitting next to one another. It must be the garden of eden back there! xx
Smidge, I’ve taken photos previously, here’s one from Dec 2010 (mid summer here!).. :)
I’m always amazed at what grows in your garden in the winter! Mine is always white with snow during the winter. Right now it’s summer, so it’s pretty green. The early cauliflower and broccoli are ready to harvest, as are tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. I am very happy with my pepper plants this year; I have some huge peppers! I am busy canning already; hopefully the majority will be done soon.
Manuela, Sydney is so temperate that we often get much better growth in winter than we do in summer, when we can be overrun with pests. How exciting that you’ve grow huge peppers (or what we’d call capsicum) – they’re a crop we’ve never had much luck with!
It looks so bountiful for a garden during winter (which my non gardening self pictures as barren but that would be my garden all the time :P ). Have you tried kale chips?
No kale chips yet, but we might try them next time we’re deepfrying!
I’m amazed, and a little in love when I see your garden posts. The previous inspired a trip to the garden centre where I bought a Daphne & a Bay tree for pots on our balcony, although they’ll probably end up in our garden in the country by year end (before the train line airborne ballast kills them) but the Daphe has opened 2 flowers which smell wonderfully like lemon scented soap :) The plant vendor at Eveleigh Markest is great. His plants are so good and so cheap.
ED, it must be a joy to have a garden in the country! :) The plant vendors at Eveleigh really are fabulous, and just the nicest people too!
Your garden continues to amaze me whenever I see its pics in your post. It’s so vibrant and full :)
Thanks Tes! :)
Your garden is looking great, Celia. I love rainbow chard – mine has gorgeous pink stems which look great chopped into salad. I saw Bill Grainger do a dish of just steamed stems – all of the different colours. The pink and red do well here, not much success with the yellow.
Jo, how nice to see a photo of you! :)
I’m glad your family will eat rainbow chard, as I might need to send you mine. ;-) It’s growing really well at the moment – I’ve got red and yellow in the yard.
Wow! Your garden is so incredibly…verdant :) Love it! mmm…our garden at the moment? Some camellias flowering, the usual orchids, freshly-mowed grass…chili and tomato plants competing and curry leaves. All the usual fun things :)
Hey gorgeous, your dad grows the best orchids in the world. And you’re reminded me, I must ask my mum – I could use some more curry leaves!
It looks ripe and beautiful, everything still frozen on this side. Good to read your posts again :)
Hello darling, how nice to see you! I hope all is going well.. xx
Your garden looks great. A friend of ours recently bought a broccoli seedling so she was told, I though it was a kale like – it looks exactly like your Tuscan kale. Mystery Solved
Lizzie, thanks for stopping by! I hope your friend’s seedling really was Tuscan kale, because they’re worth more than broccoli (and harder to grow from seed)! :)
Gorgeous! You should use the dill to make pickled carrots or cucumbers. I’m also deeply jealous of that kale. I regularly struggle to find kale in my local shops and I LOVE it. YUM!
SK, they have bucketloads of kale of multiple varieties at Eveleigh Markets if you ever get there on a Saturday! I adore it as well! :)
oh my. you’re garden beds are green with lush growth – i am green with envy! (sorry that’s corny but i can’t resist). i’m especially envious of the peas, as my plants are only about and inch tall. lovely, thank you for sharing.
Elizabeth, thanks for stopping by! It must be a lot colder in Hobart, no wonder your peas are still small! :) I hope they grow well for you this season!
The garden is looking awesome. Looks like you are going to be reaping allot of produce very shortly. I am very impressed with the amount weeds, or lack there of, and how uneaten your cabbages are. Mine have been attacked quite heavily. Mind you, since I have been growing my own I have come to not care about eating a vegetable with a few holes in it.
I noticed for the first time how the back of your beds is utilised. If you are ever hard up for something to blog about, I would love to see more.
Jason, I’m so sorry to hear about Gerty! I know how sad we were when Queenie died..
You guys stick more closely to Linda’s (brilliant!) plan than we do – time and health constraints have forced us to modify our plan a bit. We plant the back third of the beds out with lucerne for chook feed – I believe that was part of Linda’s original plan – but we now buy mulch, as we just couldn’t manage to produce or forage enough for our needs. The mulch has made a huge difference to keeping the weeds in check – we use about half a bag of sugar cane mulch ($13/bag) per bed, and find that we only have to mulch at planting time. We used to use pea straw, but it was harder to manage and rogue peas kept shooting up everywhere! :)
And like you, we’re not adverse to a few bug holes in our lettuce anymore either.. :)
Our veggie patch is waiting for a bit of warm weather before it does anything…Or, so it seems. The plants are very small and slow to grow at the moment. Even though the days are sunny they remain very cool, and with overnight temps still falling to zero and below I’m not really all that surprised. Right now I’m just trying to protect them from the frosts!
~S.
Sorcha, I’m sure it’s a bit colder where you are. Overnight it’s still getting cold here in Sydney, but the days have been lovely! Hope all the growing picks up soon for you!
What a beautiful garden. Isn’t gratifying to know that you grew all of that produce yourself? It looks wonderful. This year we planted Yukon Gold potatoes (first time) and zucchini. I had success with the potatoes, and I’m waiting for the zucchini to blossom. I have big plans for those yellow flowers!
And thanks for sharing that photo of the celeriac. Who knew it grew that big?!
I already planned a trip to the garden center today Celia, and this post settled it! I’m officially inspired!
I bet it’s still cold in Canberra, Becca, it’s suddenly turned cold here! Stay warm!
Have just discovered your blog – its fab. I also grow my own organic veggies and run occasional cooking classes for sourdough, sprouts, micro greens, nutrition and pro biotic veggies & drinks. You are welcome to check out my website. There are pics of my garden which will be open for the first time as part of the National Open Garden Scheme. Cheers! i will come back to visit.
Hi Chris, thanks for stopping by. Your garden looks amazing!
That’s quite a lot of food you’ve got going there, girl! I love the concept of winter gardening – but our problem isn’t that it gets too cold (usually gets to low 20s (7 or 8C) a few times each winter), it’s the rain. My stuff gets flooded out – or rots. But I’ve also erred by not planting winter stuff at the right time – but I’m learning. Today I’m sowing rutabaga, turnip, and such – that schedule should get them going well before the nastiness starts. And for the lettuce, I’m going to try putting clear plastic sheeting over the row to keep most of the rain off. We’ll see.
I think the winter garden actually has a greater potential than does our summer attempts, what with its anemic summer warmth – congrats on getting yours into high gear – looks great!
Your winter garden is looking heaps better than our summer garden Celia – it’s got to be those green fingers! Our potatoes have got blight, garlic is going rotten and everything else has been eaten by the slugs – it has not been a good gardening year over here.