Red… if I wore makeup, I’d like a lipstick in exactly this shade of red…
Yellow… I know this is fanciful, but sometimes I think Mother Nature looks to the sun for inspiration when she creates her yellows…
Green… in our small garden alone, there seems to be every shade of green…
Purple… in the warmer months there’s quite a lot of purple in the garden – eggplant, flowers and so forth – but in winter, it’s limited to the subtle tones of our rainbow chard…
Pink… the new foliage on our lilly pilly tree emerges in the gentlest dusty pink…
Orange… our nasturtiums mingle and cross-pollinate, and every year we get a new mix of colours. The orange flowers this year are stunning…
These are just some of the colours of our late winter kitchen garden. In the warmer months, there will be blues to add to the mix, as well as a wider range of all these shades. When we started our veggie patch, I expected it to be all green – I never anticipated so many amazing colours!
PS. Yes, that’s an egg in the middle of the photo! Our first (and only one) in months!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I am so glad you have an egg. The chooks live another day :D I am also glad that is your rainbow chard and not mine. I couldn’t face another avalanche of it. Two plants have survived in my bed and that is more than enough. Love the colours though ….
C’mon Glenda, you know the chooks aren’t going anywhere, whether they lay or not. :) We have chard all over the garden, but they chooks are happy to eat what we don’t get through!
A feast for the senses, Celia! Love it!
Thanks Debby! It’s very pretty out there at the moment!
It’s so wonderful to be surrounded by such beautiful colors, a feast for the eyes!!! And an egg! You’ve got yourself an egg Celia! Almost too precious to use… ;)
Em, I know, I know. You can imagine how excited I was! I turned it into mayonnaise – a raw egg treat that we avoid if I have to use bought eggs! :)
Beautiful post! brought a smile to my Sunday morning for sure!
Sally, I’m so glad you enjoyed it, thanks! xx
Fabulous colours, and everything looks so perky and in such good condition!
Lois, it’s a good time of year – the white moths are only just starting, so the plants aren’t too bug-eaten yet! ;-)
We have white butterflies which are always attacking our green plants! Actually, it’s the caterpillars of the butterflies which do the eating!
Beautiful!
:-) Mandy xo
Thanks Mandy! xx
I know I’ve said it before- but your winter garden is more prolific than my summer garden! And the colors are beautiful as well as the produce- no brown leaves or bug bitten waste- beautiful. just beautiful!
Heidi, it’s not too buggy yet – that’s a summer problem here, and it’s still cool enough for the bugs to not be overly active yet. The colourful garden in winter is one of the great perks of a temperate climate. The downside is that we never get snow. ;-)
Stunning! Your photos capture the wonders of nature beautifully :-)
Danielle, thank you! I’m so glad we discovered rainbow chard – a few years ago everyone in the house refused to eat “silverbeet”, but now they eat it nightly! :)
Wonderful colours – amusing me that your cooler month crops are the ones I’m so pleased with at the moment, at the height of our summer! I’m loving the yeloows and ruby reds of chard in the garden at the moment too.
Andrea, it’s because Sydney is so temperate – it’s the end of winter now, and our days have been in the 20C+ zone. Other parts of Aus are more extreme, but we’re very fortunate here! :)
You have the gift of knowing how to count your blessings, Celia. Do you ever make lillypilly jelly? It is delicious.
Meg, thank you, and yes, we do! We also make lilly pilly cordial! The LP jelly isn’t as popular here as the quince or crabapple jellies though. One of our favourites is medlar jelly, but we’ve only had access to the fruit once! :)
Here’s our lilly pilly post: https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/06/16/lilly-pilly-cordial/
what a wonderful garden rainbow you have!
Thanks Clare! It’s very pretty at the moment!
beautiful
Thanks Sandy!
You WInter garden is beautiful, Celia. Very often we’re so concerned about the harvest that we fail to see its beauty. This post is a good reminder to look past the vegetables and fruit to see the colors. :)
John, there are just so many colours out there at the moment! The rainbow chard is amazing though – because a lot of it is self-sown, there’s a real mix of colours coming up this year!
That’s so exciting about the egg Celia! I could put rainbow chard in a vase it’s so beautiful. Such a stunning array of colours!
Claire, it adds so much colour to everything we cook! I just watched Hugh FW making a rainbow chard stem gratin, and it looked delicious! :)
What a lovely way to look at your garden Celia. I need me some rainbow chard! Xxx
Ali, now that the family are all more than happy to eat it, it’s become our staple leafy green for late winter!
what joy celia and what bounty..x
Jane, it’s really treasure, isn’t it? We’re very blessed.. :) x
Gorgeous veg but the main question is — what are you going to do with the egg? I do hope there won’t be an ugly fight over it. Here there wouldn’t be an issue, I’ll give them each the best and only one of everything, except for home raised eggs, if there is only one it would be mine.
Rose, I turned it into mayonnaise! I only make mayo with freshly laid eggs, so it’s the one thing we were really missing out on here! :)
We don’t have any rainbow chard at the moment, but we do have some beautiful red peering up from our beetroot and plenty of variations of green.
We’ve just picked up three six week old pullets this weekend, so we’re still a couple of months away from eggs, but I can’t wait to lay my hands on my first blue Araucana egg. The colours nature produces are pretty spectacular.
Matt, our beets are in, but nothing to harvest yet! The blue eggs will be amazing!
Thank you for making us really look . . . and thus so enjoy! And if I may get on my perennial bandwagon: the brighter the colour of a vegetable or fruit, the better it truly is for you :) ! Love your bok choi and I do not seem to be the only one!!
Eha, that’s true! I think that every time we eat the rainbow chard! :)
Lovely veg you’ve got there Celia. My hens have laid all through the winter. Not prolifically, but enough to keep us going. I have been feeding them extra to help keep them warm and am wondering if that is what has helped.
Amanda, if I fed the chooks any more, they wouldn’t be able to fly up to the roost! :) They’re looking very fat and attractive at the moment – they all moulted a few weeks ago and now have brand new feathers!
Celia, our chickens have started laying again after at least 3 months holiday!!!,
So hopefully the warmer weather will inspire your chickens too?
Diana
Diana, I hope so! I think it’s Rosemary who laid the egg, bless her! :)
What a rainbow of color! Beautiful!
Manuela, that’s what I said as I was laying out the chard for the bottom photo! It was like a rainbow! :)
The chard is an amazing colour! Lovely post Celia :)
Tandy, it’s a great plant to grow – if anyone will eat it (which thankfully they now will, stem and all!)
Rainbow – my favourite colour :)
ED, mine too! :)
What got to eat the egg? I love all the colours and your vegetables all look so vibrant and fresh. I love the look of the chard. I didn’t know you could eat lily pilly leaves xx
We all got to eat the egg – as homemade mayonnaise! Charlie, Pete thought he saw something about the lilly pilly leaves on a bush tucker style programme, but I can’t find anything about it on the net, so I’ve taken it out of the post!
I love Swiss chard too. I also have it in my garden! You also have the edible flowers, I see! I love them too! Your garden produce is looking really cool & I want to eat the rainblow Swiss chard now, even that it is breakfast time! :)
Sophie, yes, the nasturtiums often make it into the salad bowl! :)
:) x
Congratulations on the egg. I love the colours in your garden – everything looks so fresh and ready to eat.
Thanks M! Not sure how many we’ll get this summer – the chooks are going through henopause. :)
beautiful so beautiful dear Celia, Thanks and Love, nia
Thanks Nia love xx
Love those nasturtiums, Celia! Just beautiful.
Lizzy, the nasturtiums haven’t had their best winter – I don’t think it’s cold enough for them – but they have produced some amazing colours!
A beautiful rainbow of colours. I’d never heard of lilly pilly but the leaves look pretty. Do they taste spicy or aromatic or is that just a stupid question because how do you describe taste?
Anne, I’m not game to eat the leaves, but we make jelly and cordial from the berries! Here’s a link to my earlier post about them:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/06/16/lilly-pilly-cordial/
I had no idea you could eat lilly pilly leaves! Very interesting! I do love your lipstick colour of choice, very bold and brave :)
Lisa, Pete thought he saw something about the lilly pilly leaves on a bush tucker style programme, but I can’t find anything about it on the net, so I’ve taken it out of the post! Having said that, Pete’s eaten a few without any ill effect! :)
I am always amazed by the beauty that comes from soil and seed ~ a hidden world ready to delight and dazzle. Thank you for sharing your lush winter garden with us, you’ve inspired me to take better care of my summer garden that needs a good weeding. :)
Judy, you need chickens, they make the best weeders! :)
I keep forgetting that you are in winter. I would so love to have color in our winters here but alas, it’s all shades of gray with lots of cold, white stuff on the ground.
Diane, it’s the great blessing of a temperate climate – but with all the changes in weather lately, we’ve barely had a winter this year!
Color is everywhere when you look for it. Love the beauty of the photos. I would love to have a fabric to sew in the colors of your rainbow chard. <3 Maz
Maz, they’re very beautiful, aren’t they? :)
Your winter garden is indeed very colorful. Hopefully, more eggs will soon be following.
Karen, thank you, and I hope so too, but I’m not optimistic. As I said to Maureen, the chooks seem to be going through henopause. ;-)
That is too funny!
We couldn’t be much farther apart in natural colouring (judging by our profile pictures) but our tastes are the same!
The best advice I’ve had in ‘good’ eating is to “Eat A Rainbow”. A feast for the eyes as well as the taste-buds!
PS : You might just convert me to lipstick.
PPS: Might.
Pat, it would only be for very special occasions, we can’t be expected to wear gunk on our lips all the time! ;-)
How lucky to pick and eat a rainbow in your own backyard Celia! Most peopleI know stick to peas, carrots and potatoes- if they only knew what they were missing out on… Xox
How’s your garden going, Becca? Have you had a mild winter? There’s always so many amazing things in your backyard! :) xx
We’ve had some mild weather earlier, but now when the garden is stirring it’s freezing Celia. I can see snow on the low mountains from my front window and the wind drops the temperature even more as it whistles down towards us.
My asparagus is showing signs of life- faintly, and bizarrely lots of self sown coriander has escaped the frosts. We really aren’t safe from odd frosts until the end of September, so I don’t do much planting until then. I will start my spring ripping and clipping soon though and get the garden beds ready for action….. As soon as it warms up a bit…. Xox
Beautiful!
Thank you! :)
Is Lilly Pilly a real name for a tree? Love the silver beet, my favourite in the garden, it just keeps on giving and we eat it with everything. If the others have pasta, I always have silverbeet (swiss chard they call it here) instead.. have a good one!! c
You have a gorgeous garden, color and beauty everywhere. Besides getting to all the necessary garden chores, bet you spend lots of time just admiring all the plants. I find myself frequently doing more of the latter than the former then wonder why the weeds did not get pulled.
Norma, you need chickens! :) Honestly, we hardly weed at all, but then again, our vegetable garden can get a little wild sometimes.. :)