I stood on the little wooden pond bridge and took some photos of our green winter garden for you.
At the moment, four of the six beds are in use, one has the hens working on it, and the other is just about ready for the next chook dome rotation. The bed below is the one we lazy planted in February – somewhat surprisingly, it’s still producing well..
The bed planted out in mid-May is a glorious mix of different shades of green. Everything in it was either self-sown or grown directly from seed – we didn’t transplant a single seedling…
The back bed was sown mid-June – in the middle are Green Dragon broccoli, followed by a band of broccoli raab, with lettuces in the front. At the rear are pea seedlings – very few have come up this year…
Our newest bed is underway – we’ve (trans)planted perennial leeks and yellow cherry tomato seeds thus far…
Our fennel bulbs are getting fat – we ate two of them finely sliced on pizza last night…
Little Gem lettuces are back in our garden – they’ve been sorely missed. Chickweed is growing in amongst them and we’ll harvest both for the salad bowl…
Francesca’s red leaf lettuces are adding colour to an otherwise all green bed…
We’re planting an arrowroot forest in the old trombie patch. The huge leaves make the best mulch ever…
These fat perennial leeks are about to explode with babies…
Raab, raab and more raab…
Our bok choys appear to have mutated. We think they’re crossing with the raab – is that even possible?
I don’t remember planting carrot seed, but there seem to be a few coming up…
Continental parsley continues to grow in abundance…
The Green Dragon broccoli in the second bed is just starting to form heads…
These gorgeous yellow broccoli raab flowers are quite delicious…
We are so blessed in Sydney – winter is often the most productive time of year in our gardens. How are things growing in your part of the world?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a lovely winter garden – Celia – am missing my garden – not that mine ever looked as good as yours:) – at the moment in the middle of a move – sold one property and waiting to build on another!
Rachel, good luck with the new build! I hope it comes with a wonderful backyard for you! :)
A beautiful winter garden! Both bok choy and raab belong to the Brassica family. So it is highly probable that they cross pollinated!
My garden is doing well. Lots growing…even a nice sized pumpkin already!
Manuela, that IS early for a pumpkin up north, great to hear you’re having a good season! Whatever our mutant is, it’s quite delicious! :)
My patch is looking nowhere near as green as your Celia! Must be the cold climate in southern nsw, and the thick frosts.
We really are very blessed with the weather here. Bit worried that we’re heading into another long dry spell though…
Wow! Your winter garden looks so lush! Ours is mostly weeds. I’ve been meaning to pull them all up to get ready for spring.
We’re lucky in that the raab seems to outgrow the weeds and we can eat them! :D
Your garden looks great. Green dragon broccoli- haven’t heard of that variety. Does it grow lots of side shoots after the main head? Our garden looks fairly similar at present. The cos lettuce always do so well in winter, and with lots of broccoli, cavolo nero ( a monster perrenial plant), silver beet, and all manner of herbs, there is always a feast to cook.
I haven’t put my cima di rapa in yet- just a little more warmth needed to germinate the seeds. Same goes for your red marigold seed. The bok choy here also grows wild- and is best in winter too- nice and crunchy and slow to bolt. I have seen bokchoy do that strange leaf thing too. I’m not sure if it’s crossing with the rapa or whether it happens when there’s too much nitrogen in the soil. ( All leaf, no white bits). Still, it’s tasty.
We have too many turnips ( the round white ones) and so I need some good turnip recipes. I was thinking of Chinese turnip cake but that recipe uses Daikon radish, a much blander root. Maybe some turnip rostis.
Today I am in search of some horticultural wool- a blanket thing to put on my chillies as the frosts are coming. I think the frost and cold weather has already damaged the lemongrass. I could go on and on- maybe I’ll do a veggie post. Francesca. x
Francesca, we originally bought the Green Dragon as seedlings – we thought it was a hybrid, so we’ve been very surprised at how well the seeds we collected have grown. We’ve given up a bit on the Tuscan kale – it was getting so buggy – and we’re going to restart out chard – the self-sown ones don’t seem to taste as good any more. Our bok choy still has white stems, but the leaf shape seems to be changing. As you say, still very tasty. Look forward to your veggie post! :)
I am up early to start the sourdough. Just warming up the room! excited! X
I just saw your email! Will reply very soon – glad you’re having fun with it! :)
So lovely to see your garden flourishing, Celia! And what a fantastic assortment! I didn’t manage to plant anything but garlic this winter, however the kale and spinach are still doing well, as is the self sown baby celery!
Celery! Now that’s something we haven’t had in the garden for a while – interestingly it’s not a veg we use very much, not sure why.
Your fennel bulbs look fat, tender and bet very delicious, on pizza, that’s a great idea. Great variety of green. Do I remember correctly that you are able to garden year round? Must check out and learn about perennial leeks.
Norma, yes, it’s the middle of winter right now – we get to garden all the time, although the heat can be a bit hard on the patch around December/Jan. Hope you track down the perennial leeks, they’re a mainstay in our garden!
Our garden seems to be coming along slowly this year. And it is at this point that I have realised we have planted not enough broccoli and possibly too many cabbages. We have lots of kohl rabi this year, and much kale. But I miss the broccoli. Must remember that for next year. We have a few self down carrots coming up as well. I don’t normally have success with carrots so it will be interesting to see how these go.
Tania, the problem for us with carrots is that they take so long that it doesn’t match up with the rotation schedule for the chook dome. We didn’t plant enough broccoli early enough this year either. Kohl rabi grows really well here, but the boys aren’t huge fans!
Wow, your winter garden is doing better than our summer garden. We haven’t had any rain in two years so we have to water everything by hand. We did get a pretty good tomato crop this year, but the other veg, not so much. Hugs, Maz.
No rain for two years! That’s hard Maz! The weather people tell us we’re heading into another drought cycle here as well.. :(
So jealous Celia! I’ve only got some garlic, and self sown lettuce, silver beet and corriander growing. Last week we had two minus 5 heavy frosts that knocked back nearly everything. Even my violets and rhubarb leaves died off. Surprisingly my tropical plants are managing to hang in there :) xox
You’ve got coriander growing? Wow, lucky you, none in our garden so far. Our rhubarb has given up the ghost as well. Hope it heats up soon for you!
As I have said before, you seem to have a love affair twixt all the different inhabitants of your garden: what wondrous bounty!! [I guess the rotating chuck patch does help!!] My only bits of pride and joy are a big pot of flat leafed parsley thankfully gone wild and some very healthy rosemary . . . all else will have to be regrown come early spring :) !!
Eha, the rotating chooks actually do almost ALL the work! They’re the reason the soil is fertile AND relatively free of bugs! Parsley and rosemary sound wonderful! :)
Those are lazy planted greens?!! You guys have the greenest of thumbs, Celia. Anything you plant turns to grow so beautifully! :)
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Julie, it really is very green at the moment, we’re feeling very blessed! Thanks love xx
Wow Celia! This looks beautiful and fresh. I wish I had the space to grow things so abundantly. I am just *green* with envy (ha!)
Thanks Lisa! I wish you had the space too! :)
Celia, that is so wonderful that you have a green garden like that, now wonder that you are creating such wonderful recipes. You definitely have more than one Green Thumb!!!
Thanks Cornelia! We’ve been very lucky on all counts – leafy greens are easy to grow and grow well in our yard, and the boys are happy to eat them! :)
Sadly the rubble removers destroyed my nasturtium bed and my black eyed Susan so that has to be cleared. My kale is wild. Your beds look amazing Celia :)
Thanks Tandy! I hope it’s all restored in your yard soon!
Celia your garden looks amazing.
I only put in one small bed this year, a bit late due to earthworks along the fence line. I put in rainbow silverbeet, cavilo nero, broccoli and some brussel sprouts for my boys (weird but they love them). Some tomatoes have self sown nearby due it the area being used as a chookpen before the new fence went in. The chooks are temporarily housed in the boys old swing set frame at the moment until our renovation plans are sorted.
Jenny, I’m so impressed that anyone can garden during a renovation, good for you! :)
Your garden is amazing! Sadly we have nothing growing at the moment. Fennel on pizza sounds delicious! What else do you use it for?
Clare, you’ve got a new bubba AND you’re building – not surprising your garden has had to take a step back in priorities! :) We also make fennel salad…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/11/25/fennel-salad/
So may delicious greens! And how is lil NQL doing? I hope she’s as crazy as always?:P
Oh she is as mad as a March hare! The other day we threw in some open pippis and she leapt up and headbutted them as they were coming in and they scattered everywhere. Crazy girl! :)
I love your circular beds and secretly very jealous that presumably you have no slugs or chomping pests as the hens do lots of pest clearance work? How big roughly across are your beds? Your winter looks like my sort of weather ! xx
Morning darling, the chooks really do an amazing job of keeping the pests in check – we hardly ever see a snail or slug, but the little bugs – aphids etc. are still a problem (although not a huge one). I’m not very good with dimensions, so I’ll ask Pete how big the beds are and let you know. :)
Hi Celia, hope you enjoyed your time with your sister. I never tire of looking at your garden photos, I always show them to hubby and comment that if we ever get a house I want a garden with vegetables like yours. It must be so satisfying to pick your own produce for meals x
Stefanie, it’s a win-win – veg to pick, and no lawn to mow! :)
Your garden looks so abundant and productive Celia, I love it. I have never grown or eaten fresh fennel. I have cooked with fennel seed. What other ways do you use it and cook it aside from pizza? I am starting to feel like I need to embrace it x
Jane, we also make a fennel salad, and Lorraine uses the fronds to make pesto! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/11/25/fennel-salad/
Blessed indeed Celia! I love to munch on fresh fennel and it’s delicious with salmon. Your greens are luscious and your parsley is to die for. At the moment we have parsley, mint, leeks, spring onions, carrots & the chillies are still kicking- even with all this frost we’re getting! Xx
Lina, that’s right, I forgot about the lovely fennel and fish combination! Thank you!
I think that’s a wonderful garden Celia. I’m quite envious of your fennel bulbs, I love young fennel. I’m after planting arrowroot too – for mulch – and I want to get my non-green thumbs on some cow peas too. We’ve been allowing our chooks to free range in the garden when we are home and there isn’t much that they don’t give a good seeing to. So now we are working on an OK-for-chooks corral and then I want to plant an insectary and more bug and butterfly attracting plants and then today we feed ourselves and tomorrow – the world! I have two or three broccoli plants that just look as though they might actually be going to join the party – so that’s a start. Peter and I went to the Garden Expo in Nambour a couple of weekends ago and listened to Jerry Coleby-Williams and Costa Georgadis. They were both so inspiring – and funny – and Costa is such a passionate delight to listen to. We’re still waging Possum wars at Trounce Towers and have found that our Weber BBQ lid provides a good night-dome for our parsley and dill pot – even if it does look a bit funny.
Jan, the bloody possums, and we’re not allowed to do anything about them! And that’s the problem with true wandering chooks, they decimate everything. Our chook dome actually provides them with much more room than the space mandated for “free range”, and the girls seem really happy in there! :)
Looks amazing, you have a great green thumb!
Well, one of us does. The other just does as she’s told. :)
Ahh, what a life-giving variety of greens and vegetables, Celia, such a blessing to have a winter growing season. :)
Thanks Judy, it really is! :)
That’s quite an impressive garden you have Celia. Whatever you’re doing (or not doing) seems to be working out well for you. I always think how nice it would be to just walk outside and pick what I need for herbs but I never seem to time things right for our short growing season here. Reading your post does remind me that I should go out and check the few things that I did put in this year…mostly flowers and a little basil. We’ve had such hot, hot days here and then downpours at night. I need to get out and check if anything survived last night’s storm.
Diane, we’re so blessed with the weather here – it’s very temperate. How did your garden survive the storm?
Surprisingly my basil popped back up and my flowers seem to be hanging in there. We’ve had some crazy storms over here.
Your garden never ceases to amaze, Celia. Here it is mid-Winter and your garden is easily out-performing most that I’ve seen and we’re in the middle of Summer. With the poor weather we’ve had, I’m still waiting for my first tomatoes to ripen. Weeds, on the other hand, are growing in abundance.
What’s this about “an old trombie patch?” Say it isn’t so, Celia.
Pete has spoken, John! He says we need mulch more than we need squashes. We’ll find somewhere else to plant them.. :)
And I reckon you should toss in some raab seeds – they outperform the weeds here!
What a lovely array of healthy greens in your garden Celia and l am green with envy. Not much is growing in my garden at the moment but the raspberry plant is still producing. ;)
Jody, it must be wonderful to get raspberries – our neighbour Mark gives us some of his occasionally, but we’ve never got around to planting canes!
I’m just surprised that the plant has continued to produce fruit through winter, and we’ve had some very cold days here.It’s a very nice surprise though. I don’t seem to be able to grow beetroot( amongst other things) but the raspberries are thriving:)
Bleak, frosty and not…that’s how the vegetables are growing in our neck of the woods ;)
But Fran, you get all that magnificent scenery! ;-)
Indeed we do but only through the kitchen window as that is about as far as I am going to go to get a view at the moment! ;)
Not much growing up here. I trip to the plant nursery is on the list though. I did plant some krachai after finding some roots and I bought a jar.
Hey that’s very cool Maureen! Hope they grow well for you!
Your garden looks really lovely & all that winter green,…Yum!
Thanks Sophie! :)
Your garden is looking fabulous Celia! Lots of eat out there :)