Friends often comment on how obliging our sons are when it comes to housework.
Big Boy and Small Man will cheerfully and without complaint take the rubbish out, stack the dishwasher, fold the clothes and clean bathrooms whenever asked. And the reason they’re so willing to help is because I’m not really fussed about when they do something – I’m just happy that it gets done.
For example, once a week, I dump all the clean laundry on the lounge in the living room, and ask Small Man to sort it out. At some time in the following 24-48 hours, he will put on an episode of Mythbusters, and fold a sofa’s worth of clothes into neat little piles. Similarly with the dishwasher, if I ask Big Boy to unstack, he might do so a couple of hours later, after he’s finished whatever he’s working on.
In an odd sort of way, this approach extends to our garden. We’ve never been overly concerned about neatness or planting to a schedule, but this year we’ve struggled to find time for anything beyond basic maintenance. Having observed more than we’ve tilled, we’ve been amazed at how the garden has evolved!
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Perennial leeks are the backbone of our vegetable garden – they’re always around, and they make a wonderful substitute for onions (both regular and sprouting varieties). On the weekend, we moved the chook dome, and pulled these leftover leeks out…
Here are the babies that came with them! We gave a handful each to Maude and Bob the Builder, and at some point in the next few weeks, we’ll go out with a stick and drop the rest of them into the ground. They pay wonderful dividends for very little effort…
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Eggplants have started coming up of their own accord; it will be a while before we know what variety they are…
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Our red amaranth has been so glorious that we’re going to let some of the plants go to seed, and hopefully they’ll be all over the garden next year…
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Our self-sown squash is sprawling into the adjacent bed…
…and (drum roll)…it’s a mutant tromboncino! I was so excited when the first fruit appeared…
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Broccoli rabé has become a mainstay in our garden – the plants seed easily and germinate well, and this year, squillions of seedlings have come up by themselves. Purslane, our edible summer weed, is back as well…
The large self-sown broccoli rabé plants in the front bed are the healthiest we’ve ever grown…
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We have sunflowers growing – a byproduct of the grain mix we feed to the chooks…
We haven’t had any for a couple of years now, so I’m eagerly waiting for the flowers to open. As the seeds were of a commercial feed variety rather than ornamental, it looks like the plants will produce lots of smaller flowers rather than one giant bloom…
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I have no idea how the rainbow chard plants survived the chickens, but they did, and they’re now growing back with gusto…
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We loved having fennel in our garden this year, so we’re letting the last few bulbs go to seed…
We always let some of the broccoli go to seed as well – that way we’re guaranteed to have volunteer plants next season…
Continental parsley grows tall and straggly as it gets older, but the flowers (like all the others) are essential for insects, and the seeds ensure a constant supply of self-sown plants…
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Linda’s yellow cherries have been an absolute winner in the garden – we’re getting more than we can eat! The plants are wilt-resistant and relatively bug-free, which is amazing given the fruit fly problem in our neighbourhood…
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Remember how excited we were about our snake beans earlier this year?
Well, we were holding off planting seeds until the weather warmed up, and lo and behold, a stack of seedlings came up of their own accord. So all we had to do was move the growing frame back into place…
We did plant these purple climbing beans, and they’re going gangbusters…
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Our mint has regrown in its pot after dying off earlier in the year…
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I was all set to publish this post, when Pete pointed out a few more plants that I’d missed. Here’s an early morning photo of self-sown bok choy, and baby basil seedlings which are popping up all over the front bed…
And finally, our one and only lettuce at the moment – these small cos were prolific in our winter garden, but it’s getting a bit too warm for them now. Nonetheless, we haven’t planted any seedlings for ages, and we’re now eating the third or fourth generation of self-sown cos in our garden…
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This approach to gardening isn’t for everyone.
Some people need order and tidiness to feel calm, and for them, a messy garden (or a living room full of laundry) would be unbearable. But it works for us – not only do we find it easy to manage, we’re also intrigued and excited by every new plant that appears!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
You definitely have the best approach to life in general Celia, just allowing things to happen at their own pace brings such a sense of peace and calm. I would have bet good money that mystery plant was a trumbo, now I have one popping up and I can hardly wait to see what it is- maybe a trombo or a spaghetti squash? Xox
Becca, I’m hoping the mutant trombie will be productive – the baby fruit fell off a couple of days after I took this photo! Hopefully it’s just teething issues and it will sort itself our soon – it’s certainly growing like a crazy thing!
For the first time ever, we have nothing self sown coming up, Celia… well, actually there some herbs coming up in between the paving stones, which I’ve left… and some carrots under my roses. Usually all kinds of things pop up! Love your garden, so bountiful!
Lizzy, we’ve never had carrots self-sow – they seem to take forever in our garden!
I’m with you. Your garden looks fabulous. I love a self sewn garden and have many veggie treasures that have adapted to my micro-climate. Occasionally, I move them around so that the beds don’t get depleted of the same trace elements.
Francesca, I should have mentioned that, thank you – occasionally we move the seedlings around as well, or scatter the seeds (parsley and coriander and the like) in different beds to mix things up a bit..
Hehe I’m not showing this post to hubby because he always says that I get too impatient with his chores. Still I don’t think I could ever wait 24-48 hours for laundry to be folded-you’re clearly much more chilled than I :) But 2 hours is totally doable for me.
I won’t say a word to him! :D The only deadline we ever have is if someone is coming over!
‘Why do I have to do it right now?’ is oft heard round these parts.
I need to take a page out of your book and relax. My new mantra will be ‘let it happen’. maybe.
What a great way to have a garden.
Maureen, I think we’re all hard-wired – we can either tolerate the mess, or we can’t. It helps to be short-sighted (literally) – in the house I wear my reading glasses rather than my distance one, so I don’t see the mess as much. Honestly! :D
Hi Lorraine, you would have a fit in my household! The laundry often stays on the spare bed from week to week! But I too love self-sown gardens. It makes such a difference when you are really busy to still have food. When you are really busy is exactly when being able to find something wonderful without needing to go shopping is just a lifesaver. I love the look of those lettuces.
Linda, I can still remember our first season in the garden when everything started to go to seed and I wanted to pull them out. And Pete said, “Linda says we should let the ones we like go to seed”. Voila! :)
I have a similar approach to folding laundry. It stays on the couch until either the children or I have time to fold it and put it away. Lovely garden. Mine is very white and frozen at the moment.
Manuela, I think we can only have a garden like this because of our climate! We’re very grateful for it! :)
I’m a bit to ocd for the laundry (although now I actually have a laundry to stash it in it does get left sometimes) but the self-sown garden is my idea of paradise. I love that you never know what you’re going to find and there’s always something wonderful growing! My only probably would be identifying plants and not eating anything I shouldn’t.
If only everyone had a little plot like yours.
Claire, I’m glad Pete is good at picking out which plant is which, or I’d be eating a heck of a lot of weeds! I’m getting better at it though – takes a bit of practice! :) It is like a lucky dip every time a new plant comes up, which is what I really love about it too! xx
How lovely your boys help you albeit in their own time Celia. Your future daughter-in-laws will have to thank you for “training” their husbands. ;-)
I am always so impressed by your garden!
Have a super day.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, I reckon what every human being doesn’t like is being nagged, but sometimes it’s important, particularly with boys, but I try to keep it for the really important stuff. Then they’re more tolerant of it when I DO nag! :)
I love how your boys get in and help – mine tend to be not on the premises when work or helping out is required. I love how everything is self-seeding – what a satisfying stage for anyone with a garden. Your mint looks fantastic and those leeks are great. Everything looks so green and healthy and I love how effortless it all seems xx
Charlie, I’m sure Alfie is a great helper! :) Let me know if you ever want some perennial leeks for the garden!
I’m with Lorraine – I’d have to have the laundry put away immediately! I’d love to have a garden like yours and just eat whatever was growing out the back door. I’ve never seen purple runner beans before.
Nancy, the purple beans are brilliant, we ate a huge bowl of them last night. Interestingly, each pod grows to almost exactly the same size…
I love your veg garden; it looks so healthy and productive. My flower and herb beds are full of self sown plants but the veg garden is much more organised with straight lines, crop rotation and ruthless weed pulling. That’s what you get when you put a farmer in charge! Best not to talk about my laundry.
Anne, I can just imagine how much washing you have to do on a farm! :) You made me laugh – your farmer would be unimpressed by the state of our garden! x
I love this post Celia. So homely and full of good stuff. Great technique on the chores too, I love your relaxed approach to the whole thing, both house and garden. It is amazing what just appears in your garden!
I have an enormous squash too…I think it will be like the trombons were last year! I am growing snake beans for the first time this year, I hope they are as healthy as yours. Happy gardening and cooking to you my friend x
Thanks darling, I always love being in your garden and kitchen (it always seems so much neater and calmer than mine!). The little fruit fell of the trombie plant a few days after I took the photo, which is a tad worrying – we don’t want a squash that fills the entire bed and doesn’t produce viable fruit! Mind you, a trombie that fills the entire bed and produces masses of fruit might be even more worrying! (As you and I both know! :))
Celia, your boys sound absolutely lovely! I love looking at pics of your garden and the lovely green veg it looks so fresh and healthy. It brings back memories of a house we lived in for a few years when I was younger, there was a enormous fruit and veg patch and we use to have all sorts of things growing, as a child I use to check daily on the zucchini and couldn’t believe how much they would grow overnight. It must be so lovely to have fresh veg straight from the garden. Have to say you are a patient woman, hubby always comments that I’m a tad bossy in that I want things done immediately! :)
Stefanie, I’ve learnt to be patient, although I’m still not very good at it. But I do hate to nag, so I try to save it for what I think is important, if that makes sense. Thanks again for the headsup about Turkuaz Motif – I’ve just written a post about them! :)
Love your garden, Celia, and love the randomness of it too!
Christine, thank you! Our Sydney weather is very kind to gardeners! :)
Waw, what good luck you are having! My father has had the same experiences in his garden, also with the lettuces & purslane, every year it grows back! :) Yeah for you! xxx
Sophie, the lettuces and purslane, along with the leeks, are the mainstays in our garden! I’m glad your father grows them too, on the other side of the world! xx
hooray for more trombos!!
Fingers crossed still, Lisa! The first baby fruit fell off, so I’m waiting to see if the plant takes off. We did manage to raise two other seedlings, and they’ve gone in as well!
I practice your philosophy and always have a “tomorrow”.
Having eggplant grow to maturity and self-sow you must have a very long growing season and very mild winter. Allowed to go to seeds the red amaranth will definitely be all over your garden.
Norma, we are blessed with a frost-free climate, so even over winter the garden still produces. My snake beans are climbing fast, I’m hoping they survive the sudden drop in temperature we’ve had!
I can almost understand your feelings, always makes me excited to have a plant/garden… But I know it is not easy, it really needs to be interested and to spend time for them… You are great team dear Celia, seems they are all so nice. Blessing and Happiness, Thank you, love, nia
Nia, you are so nice, thank you! The garden is such an exciting place for us! I visited our favourite Turkish ceramics store yesterday, and thought of you! :)
How many arguments could be avoided if the word “now” is dropped for requests to get something done in the home? Good that your boys help you. Just look at all of the vegetables you’d be missing if you kept a tidy garden, Celia. I think it wonderful that so much of yours is self-sown. I was particularly happy to see that the tromboncino came back. You know I smiled when I saw that plant. I’ll be smiling, too, come August, when you’re still picking tromboncino. :) Have a great day!
John, that’s very wise, and you’re right, “now” or any deadline turns something into a chore. The thing that makes me happiest about my boys is, even when they don’t particularly want to do something (after all, who wants to take out the rubbish), they never, ever complain. I love them desperately for that! :) And yes, the trombie is back – if not that one, then the other two seedlings that we managed to grow and get into the ground!
Everything looks AWESOME! What a green thumb!
Jennifer, thank you! I don’t think we do much, the garden seems to run itself! We just occasionally selectively weed out the grass and other stuff we don’t want…
Everything looks awesome, but the last photo of the lettuce won my heart!
Sally, wasn’t it pretty? We ate it the following night, and it was absolutely delish! :)
its really amazing how different (and wonderfully so i want to add) they look from what we buy in the shops.. you are living my dream of planting my own stuff.. it will happen soon:)
Lara, I hope so! It’s been such an incredibly journey, and the joy of being able to go outside at any time and pick something to eat is truly wonderful!
Fantastic, as always, Celia.
Thanks Glenda! Can’t wait to see what your garden produces this year!
Oh the treasures of a long growing season, you have certainly made the most of it, Celia. The temps here today may not get out of the single digits °F so we do not have many perennial plants in the garden other than chives.
I get what you’re saying about allowing time for things to get done, being patient. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, but thankfully I let go of striving and perfectionism in my early thirties and life is much sweeter. A few clothes on the couch is not a mess, it’s simple signs of an abundant life. :)
Judy, we are really blessed with our climate, we couldn’t have our garden the way it is without it! Sometimes there’s so many clothes on the lounge that I wish for less abundance! :D
I have just dug up the last of the garden at Casa Debbio. I am going to build a rock edge around it and fill it with lovely compost from under the trees on the terraces. I can’t wait to plant next spring.
Deb, that all sounds very exciting, can’t wait to see it!
You are one smart woman & someone that I bet people love to be around. There’s so few instances where something has to get done immediately & after working most of my life dealing with deadlines I’ve found retirement so much more enjoyable without the pressures of living by a clock. (I really think it’s great that young men take on day to day responsibilities rather than having their moms wait on them hand & foot).
The garden & everything you’ve got popping up is wonderful! I have to keep reminding myself that you’re not heading into bitter cold winter as we are here & it makes me smile being able to look at all of your young plants growing. It helps to remind me that spring will eventually come to New England.
Di, deadlines are stress-inducing, aren’t they? I don’t like them, but they exist by virtue of us being alive. I try to keep it clear which things ARE deadline important (get to classes on time, submit tax returns by the due date etc), and other stuff just gets done when someone is free to do it. We DO tidy up the lounge room when people come over – that’s possibly our only laundry-related deadline! :) I’ll keep the photos coming for all of you in the Northern Hem! :)
Your garden has evolved beautifully, Celia.
Thanks Jo! How’s yours going?
Reasonably neglected and lots of weeds but I still manage to pick something most days. Peaches are ripe now, they are good!
i have a similar attitude to the folding celia but now that my daughter is living with me i no longer have a spare room with a bed where i can throw the clean washing (and shut the door and ignore it)..now i throw it on any flat available surface until i have the inclination to fold it..
even though i love your approach to your garden i don’t have the space for too many self sowing plants and have the ones i want..the ones that self sow and that i leave to their own devices are borage, nasturtiums, flanders poppies, verbascum, evening primrose, rocket and stinging nettles..once they’re past their best they get culled pretty quickly though..
Jane, it is space related, isn’t it? We’re blessed to have all the beds in the backyard – the bonus is that in the process of making them, we got rid of all the lawn, so no mowing required!
Such a bounty – and all self-sown. I bet they will all be stronger and tastier as a result! I need to plant a tromboncino…I feel a little like Jack and the magic beans if I ask you for some seeds though…who knows what might grow from it!!
SG, we’ve had a really terrible time getting the trombie seeds to germinate – I’m not sure what was wrong with ours. We finally did get two strong seedlings out of all the ones we planted, and they’re in the ground along with the mutant self-sown one. We’ll see how we go! I think next year we’ll try the Italian Gardener variety called “The Serpent of Sicily”.. :)
I love the self sown garden! It is so rewarding :)
Tandy, it’s so much fun, isn’t it! :)
I’m with you! “Inner peace through lowered expectations” is my mantra. :-) And hurray for boys who do chores. It really helps. (BTW we took the boy to see the Mythbusters Tour at the local performing Arts for his birthday. It was wonderful.) Hugs, Maz
They really are the most beautiful boys, all of them, my two and your handsome lad! Lots of love to you all! xx
Great looking Leeks (my favourite veg). Was not expecting to get ideas for engaging my sons around the house. I will give your idea a go and let you know how I get on. :)
Ben, hope it works for your boys! Do you grow perennial leeks in the UK? I think the variety you get over there are Babbington leeks, is that right?
I love it Celia! Our garden is currently all over the place and so I think that this no-fuss approach would suit s perfectly!
Clare, it works by selective weeding Pete says – you let stuff go to seed, and then just weed out what you don’t want, rather than planting stuff in. :)
Fabulous, *fabulous*! The more things we can let tend themselves in life, the happier I am. Your garden is amazingly productive and beautiful, and I can’t think of anything better. I’ve converted half our back garden into a miniature wildflower and prairie grass meadow in hopes of its becoming a pretty sanctuary for the insects, birds and small beasts that live in the ravine behind there, but also because I love the wild and chaotic look of meadows far more than any lawn could possibly please me. I’ve sown in some veg seeds as well in hopes that the meadow will protect and support a bit of good food for us along with that for the critters, and can think of nothing lovelier than that it will grow up into a tangled version of what you’ve achieved. Beautifully done!
Kathryn, that sounds absolutely amazing! We don’t grow many ornamental plants in our garden (by which I simply mean those we can’t eat), but because we let things go to seed, we always seem to have some flowers out there. They’re very unmanicured, which is how I love my garden too!
Thanks for a lovely potter through your garden Celia. As you know, I’m a firm believer that plants which find their own spot to flourish do indeed flourish even better! Now, if only I could demonstrate that same patience with the kids and stop nagging them… Lots of love, xxxx
Ali, you’re not a nag, you’re lovely! Our plants really are very good at finding their own growing spot! :)
I was excited when I recognised the tromboncino’s in the market on Two Greedy Italians last night.
I really like this let the garden do what gardens do best approach :)
ED, it’s the lazy gardeners’ approach for us, but it works well! And we like the adventure too! :)
Celia, what a fabulous garden–I am soooo jealous! I pretty much let my garden fizzle this past year or so; must get a plan in place for next season!
Jean, thank you – I sometimes thing the absolute backbone of our garden are the chooks – they weed, fertilise, till the soil, and do all the hard work for us. We just go out after we’ve moved them, rake over the soil and scatter in a few seeds, and wait to see what grows and self-sows!
It seems you are blessed with a bountiful garden…that is wonderful.
Karen, thank you – it’s bountiful but not neat, but that’s fine with us. I think it’s the blessing of our climate, to be honest, we harvest all through winter! x
I’ll take bountiful over neat any day. :)
Celia – love this post! I finally owned my black thumb and have decided to stick to the kind of herbs that are basically weeds. And of course this year I ended up with all kind of “volunteer” veggies in my garden. I let them all go and this Christmas I am making some very tasty spiced cashews with my fennel and coriander seeds that are the result. And after 4 years of despair over my fig tree that produces hundreds of fig that never ripen, I had 6 figs that were edible! Letting go is not a bad thing!
Experiencing so much garden envy right now. The best I can do is my little balcony garden. Ahh inner city living