We’re having a very pleasant January in Sydney, weather-wise. In previous years we’ve had scorching 40C+ days, but this year (so far) we’ve had decent rain and sunny days in the high 20s and low 30s.
Our minimally tended garden has thrived under these conditions, and the bed near the garage has gone completely bonkers…
We didn’t plant any tromboncino seeds this year – we never do anymore. We just wait to see what comes up. They’ve mutated so much over the past few years that each new plant produces slightly different shaped fruit to its predecessors. This year, a single, wildly vigorous plant appeared, produced half a dozen giant phallic squash within weeks, and then stopped flowering…
The trombies (as we continue to call them) have been delicious this time, but absolutely humungous – each is about half a metre long and several kilos in weight. There are still a couple in the bed, growing larger every day…
The plant only puts out female flowers on fresh growth and as it’s filled the bed to capacity, we’re now only getting male flowers…
Competing for space in the same bed are our highly productive snake beans! These are my favourite veg in the whole world and I’m overjoyed when they reappear each year. Oodles of self-sown plants come up each summer, and we toss in a few extra seeds for good measure…
The plants produce stunning orchid-like flowers…
We’re picking this many every day…
Right in the middle of the bed, a tall multi-headed sunflower grew and flowered…
Self-sown basil is also competing for space in there, as are our yellow cherry toms, although we haven’t eaten any of those this year – the warm wet weather has led to an infestation of fruit fly (the chickens have been feasting on them though)…
The bed closest to the house has had a slow start – the native Crested Pigeons were digging up our broccoli raab seeds as soon as we planted them. Our shiny bunting finally kept them away…
The raab only needed a few days in the warm soil to establish…
One plant hidden under the A-frame was missed by the birds, so we’ve got some to eat while the others grow up…
Purslane, our edible summer weed, is back in force…
French marigolds came into our garden in a little basket several years ago and never left…
Lovely Jo sent me arrowroot tubers a few years back with the suggestion that we might find them useful for mulch. They’ve grown magnificently, providing shade, mulch and a lush, tropical feel to our garden. They’re not great to eat though – we tried!
We’ve planted purple and green climbing beans – hopefully they’ll kick in once the snake beans are finished…
One of the back beds is awash in self-sown basil – we never have to plant basil in our garden any more…
A washed out photo of the neighbouring fig tree with fruit-laden branches hanging over our side of the fence (hooray!)…
The cucumber plants are looking promising…
Finally, our neighbour Mark’s passionfruit vine continues to sprawl over the fence to our backyard…
So far we’ve picked a dozen passionfruits!
How are things looking in your garden this month?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
How fab! My garden is just bare earth with a few leeks left – roll on summer. Is arrowroot the same arrowroot used to thicken sauces?
Anne, yes it is! And it tastes terrible cooked, we tried a few times. I think they dry out the tubers and grind them into powder. Interestingly it’s called arrowroot (I think) because the tuber is kind of arrow shaped…
Linda Woodrow says arrowroot makes a great chook forage, maybe it might suit your hens’ palate more than your own?
Oh yes, the chooks love the leaves – I think it’s very good for them too! Thank you! :)
I am so jealous right now. My garden is under a layer of snow, a layer of ice and more snow. It was -18 with -37 celcius windchill for most of this week. It is going to warm up a few degrees by tomorrow so we will be going snowshoeing to bird watch. We are trying to see one of the many Snowy Owls that have been around.
Don’t be jealous, spring is just around the corner now! :) I took this photos for our friends in the Northern Hem! I hope you see a snowy owl, how glorious!
I am so jealous of all that beautiful sunshine. It is cold and miserable here in the UK. I am even sitting next to my SAD light as I type this because I have such a bad case of the January Blues. I am also jealous of all your fresh produce. My vegetable boxes are barren at the moment. Cant even think of planting anything until at least March. I have sorted out the link you requested on my IMK January post. Enjoy all that god weather. Emma .
I didn’t mean to make anyone jealous, I meant to cheer you all up! :) I’m so sad to hear about the January blues…I hope you feel better soon… x
As always your garden looks wonderful. I spotted the purslane easily looking healthy, fat and juicy. I’d love to know how you eat. I only recently found it was edible and stopped pulling it up so I can try it. Do you have favourite purslane recipes you would share?
Yes we do! :)
We make purslane salad and fattoush salad:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/04/03/lebanese-bread-crackers-and-fattoush-salad/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2014/01/30/purslane-salad/
Thank you so much, very much appreciated. Now I am on the bigger screen I see you have a search bar. I’ll remember that next time. I am going to give one of those a go soon as my first experience with purslane. May even take it to a BBQ as my offering :)
Yummy garden produce. I am currently trying to forget I have a garden – I will get back out there when it warms up a bit!
Spring is just around the corner, Kim! :)
Beautiful garden! Purslane is very healthy for people and chickens too. My garden’s still covered in snow and it’s so cold still. I will be ordering some seeds soon though.
Manuela, this lot of chooks love the purslane – the last lot wouldn’t eat it. It’s nice to always have in the garden though!
Your garden is so special that is why you are all so healthy and happy
Thank you, lovely John! I hope you and Roz are well – the photos from Roz have been glorious! :)
How wonderful and so much self seeding going on! We cut back our pear tree in the English garden today, so hopefully it will give us another great crop this autumn. In Spain right now we would normally be sowing broad beans!
Oh how lovely to have a pear tree in the garden! I’d love to grow broad beans again, but I was the only one who ever ate them, the boys flat out refused after the first taste! :)
:( maybe they’ll come round again one day!
I love your garden posts – so much going on with so little effort, now that you’ve got established. I’m not sure the technique of letting plants self sow would ever work in the UK, although I wish it would! I can just see our rhubarb poking through it’s annual mulch! That’s the only signs of life we’ve got at the moment.
Suelle, we are truly blessed with the climate – this season particularly so as we’ve had heat plus almost constant rain. Sometimes it’s very dry at this time of year. Of course, everything has an up and a downside, and the downside is we can’t grow crops that require frost – so no success with apples, garlic etc. Our rhubarb grew well for a couple of years then died off and never came back!
I only mentioned the rhubarb to tease you, because I know you can’t grow it well! ;)
Hahahaha! I will be content to marvel at yours! :)
What bounty! Our garden is in full winter mode but we still have a lot of nice herbs, some winter tomatoes and ten citrus trees going gangbusters. Lots of mandarins, oranges, lemons and limes. Time to make fresh juice! Maz
PS the hub just planted lots of onions and we have artichoke plants coming up. Noms!
Hooray! You always have the biggest bumper citrus crop, Maz!
Oh Celia, your garden gives me chills! How fabulous to have all of that at your finger tips!
It’s still a thrill every time we go out there, Clare! I’m always grateful we made the decision to pull up all the lawn! :)
gosh celia..your garden looks so healthy and productive..fancy basil self sowing! my planted seeds didn’t germinate this year..mind you i went away just after i planted them..and what a bonus having a neighbours passionfruit vine to pick from..
Jane, I know, it’s amazing isn’t it! We get so much basil and we never plant it – it’s a staple in the neighbourhood, so I think the microclimate here must agree with it! The passionfruit vine has been there for a few years now, but this is the first year it’s really produced well!
It’s the garden that keeps on giving! What an accomplishment. Everything looks so lush and wonderful. I love the shot of self-sown basil and tomato- what grows together goes together! And really, those passion fruits? Heaven. xo
Em, you KNOW I took that photo of the passionfruit flowers just for you, right? :)
The weather has finally settled down here too. I am very impressed with your snake beans- I am not sure that they grow down here. And the lovely basil bushes are more advanced that ours. Your garden looks well protected from wind and looks so healthy.
One thing I have noticed when I let my zucchini ( or their marrow relatives) grow to oversized specimens- they stop producing further fruit and flowers. I guess the plant thinks it has done it’s job- there would be enough seed in one large marrow to keep the species going forever.
Fra, I think they need heat to grow – they’re normally a tropical plant. And yes, when the squash get too big they stop producing, but I’m like a deer in the headlights – the giant trombie has grown so big that I have no idea what to do with it (or even where to store it) if I bring it in! :)
Your garden is magnificent Ms Celia. Any chance you might be able to share a few trombocino seeds with a “good friend”? I would be most interested in trying them here to see how they go. You have stolen our Tassie weather! I am starting to think that we have swapped. We had 31C the other day and it’s like a yoyo knowing what to expect from one day to the next. Sanctuary is going bonkers. Everything is growing like crazy and I just planted out the 2 big new garden beds with all kinds of seedlings that were languishing in the glasshouse with no place to go. Lots of basil, bergamot and spinach/silverbeet. Good to see someone else is planting it when everyone says that it is a winter veg! I still need to plant out my kiwiberry and my passionfruit but we did manage to prune and train our 7 muscat grape vines (while visions of muscatel raisin futures danced in my head ;) ). SO much work to do! I also planted some macadamia nuts to see if we can’t grow a few down here. Why not? There has to be something positive to climate change and my grandma always taught me to “look for the positive” in every situation ;). A lovely garden share and most beautiful to look at :)
Fran I would be more than happy to send you some seeds, but I should warn you, we seem to have a ridiculously low strike rate with trombie seeds. I’m not sure if we’re doing something wrong when we collect them, but they almost never seem to shoot. Which is why we now just wait to see if one comes up in the garden by itself… :) So much going on in your garden!
I might have to go hunting for some trombie seeds elsewhere. I am sure they originated somewhere ;). It’s busy, busy busy in the garden at the moment trying to keep the thieving possums out of it. They have been snapping off my Jerusalem artichoke heads before they flower (bouncing on top of the fully enclosed veggie garden to reach them) and scoffing the scarlet runners that are (foolish enough to) escaping through the top of the enclosure. I think of them as “top pruners” so long as they don’t invade Poland that is! I now have to patrol and check more often now that I know my furry nemesis is out there and hungry…(I wonder where Rambo bought that black grease that he rubbed on his face? ;) )
Fran, you can buy seeds from the Italian Gardener or Diggers. We talk every year about buying seeds, but every year one single plant comes up, so we never plant any. If we do buy some, I’ll share – our seeds have just been too consistently crap to warrant the effort to try and grow them!
Lol…them’s the breaks sometimes Celia :). I will see if I can get some from the Italian Gardener. Cheers for the heads up and here’s to bolshie squash ;)
Wow your garden is amazing I’m so jealous especially all that basil. My garden has been neglected so much after three babies in three years the main crop is couch. Luckily there are lots of herbs and some self sown veggies and one gorgeous bed of mixed heirloom tomatoes so with your bread I am in heaven. We also have a couple of hundred fruit trees, vines and cane fruit plus loads of perennial veggies so we will never starve so long as the birds don’t take everything. Being inundated by berries currently but hopefully apples next- we have about 50 varieties but I’m yet to taste most!
Emma, how fab to have heirloom tomatoes! We struggle with tomatoes – some years they’re fantastic, other years they’re completely overrun with pests. I’d love to be able to grow berries and apples! :)
Oh wow, Celia… your snake beans are amazing! I must try those some time. And I’m seriously envious of the passionfruit… does it need shelter from frost? Loved seeing your garden, my friend. Enjoy xo
Lizzy, my friend Brian grows them in Canberra, so I know it can be done! We don’t get frosts here! :)
My passionfruit vine hasn’t done a thing. Not one flower in three years. I love how vibrantly green your garden is – the rain and non-scorching heat has done wonders. How fortunate to have so many plants self-seeding and just popping up and flourishing when the time is right. I’d love to have that much basil. And my mother loves snake beans too. She used to make a snake bean salad every Christmas Day with cherry tomatoes and toasted slivered almonds – very Christmasy colours xx
Charlie, Mark’s vine didn’t do anything for the first few years either. I’m just glad he didn’t pull it down in frustration a couple of years ago!
Lovely wander through your garden, Celia. I’m hoping the incredible rains we have had recently here in Alice will kick my herbs and citrus along. The high temps were making this a miserable growing season, so it will be interesting to see if all has changed over the next few weeks. Thanks for the inspiration!
Ardys, we are so at the mercy of the weather, aren’t we? I hope the rains bring wonder to your garden!
Thanks for the walk through your garden, so many hidden, and not so hidden, treasures! We have an issue with whitefly too. A plague of them this year. I read somewhere that their predators were late emerging in the spring. Have you ever grown sweet potato? I am giving it a go, without much success. I wonder if it is not warm enough here in Melbourne.
Anne, yes, thank you for reminding me, when the predators kick in, which they will, we’ll get tomatoes to eat again! And I’m not game to plant sweet potato – my neighbours did and they’ve been unable to ever get it out of their beds! :)
Oh dear, I have enough repeaters in the garden without adding sweet potato to the list! Thanks for the heads up. Still, it may not like Melbourne all year round.
You have a wonderful garden! All I have here is a bit of dried out parsley. I can’t wait to get back to Casa Debbio for my spring plantings.
Deb, I’m sure it will be glorious there in Spring! :)
Oh, we are such lackadaisical gardeners – but we have corn, cucumbers, zucchinis and beans – and lots of herbs, because i do love growing herbs :)
Isn’t it nice that we can be quite lazy in the garden and still have heaps to eat? (If I was young and hipper, I would offer you a virtual fistbump…hahaha)
What a wonderful garden thriving on so little attention, you must have fabulous soil and light conditions (and it feels lots of love). I’m impressed with how many vegetables have self sown themselves. I haven’t tried snake beans before. I see them at the farmer’s market and oriental vegetable stores. They often seem dried out there, but your own look delicious.
I’ll have to look into the growing conditions.
Liz, have you ever heard of Linda Woodrow? She’s an Aussie permaculture guru and our garden is based around her book. Honestly, it takes so little work to maintain, so long as we train our eyes not to mind the mess too much. Here are some links to posts about our garden (and yes, we’re blessed with a wonderful climate). Given you’re a Master Gardener, I’m very proud to show them to you, but hope you won’t be too appalled! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/05/25/school-project/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2014/03/22/lazy-gardening/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/12/04/a-self-sown-garden/
You might also really enjoy Linda’s blog: http://witcheskitchen.com.au/
She’s a wonderful lady and has become a very dear friend!
Celia, what a magnificent garden! But, oh my, do you know what you’re letting yourself in for with that passionfruit vine?! We’re still fighting it back after making the mistake of inviting it into our garden decades ago! And I’m not even that keen on passionfruit. Now if the vine had apricots or plums …
Jean, it’s fine truly – roots are on Mark’s side and he’s a mean hand with pruning sheers. Luckily we all love passionfruit! :)
My passionfruit vine was dug up and removed by my father-in-law so he could plant corn and beans. Nobody asked ME. Now that he’s gone, it’s time to plant another one. I love being able to go outside and pick something. We don’t have much space to grow anything.
Hahaha…yes, Rob did rule the garden didn’t he! I hope you get another vine in this year, M!
What a truly wonderful looking garden! You are lucky to have so many things just pop up year after year. We get ground cherries back every year, all over the garden! I am constantly pulling them up as they crowd everything else out if I don’t keep up with it! Yes I am jealous of all your fresh produce, but I remind myself that we will be starting with our garden in just over a month. We usually start our seeds indoors in February. Time to search through all our seed catalogues and decide what to try this year, definitely not 50+ tomato plants again though!
Gretchen, your spring is just around the corner, this post was just photos to keep our friends in the Northern Hem going for a while! :)
OMG, Celia, is your address called Paradise Lane? LOL
Cornelia, it does feel that way sometimes! :)
So lush and so productive Celia, happy gardening! x
Jane, we’ve had oodles of rain! It’s been great growing weather – for plants, weeds and bugs! :)
My tiny pots of herbs are thriving but the ants are attacking the sage and basil. Our tomato plants resemble your fecund garden right now so hope they produce loads of fruit (not just foliage). Intrigued by the snake beans – what do you do with them and what do they taste like?
Sally, they’re a soft bean, not a snappy one, so we never eat them raw. I love them desperately – my mother used to hunt them down when I was young so she could cook them for my birthday! :)
So gorgeous and green Celia! Isn’t it exciting living off God’s bounty :) The weather certainly has been wetter than usual for us too. For the first time ever my zucchini plants are floundering- I didn’t think that was possible. I am starting to pick lots of cucumbers and tomatoes though, so at least we won’t starve :) xox
I think our cukes are a few weeks off – I hope so, I’m missing them! :)
Oh it looks beautiful Celia, so lush. The heat has all been in QLD, the last week or so has been only high 20s which was a relief from the mid/high 30s. My garden is pretty much fried, even the arrowroot is just holding on. The exception is zucchinis which we don’t even like that much. I read someone’s IMK post that she was enjoying the challenge of keeping up with the glut of zucchini. Not me, I have to take several with me wherever I go.
Hahaha…I’m looking at the giant trombies like a deer in the headlights. I don’t know how to use them up and if I bring one in, I’ll have to! :)
Hi Celia,
I’m wondering where I could get the purslane seeds? I’m so curious about it as I’ve never heard of it but i sounds devine!! Great lush looking garden!!
Warm regards,
Jan
Jan, I’m not sure where we got ours – Pete thinks it might have been Eden Seeds? We don’t have any at the moment, but we could try and collect some for you?
I’ll do some research online, Diggers didn’t have any but I’ll put some more time in today!! Thanks for your generous off, but I’ll let you know how I get on. xxx
One word. JEALOUS. :)
Two words, don’t be. :)
Your garden is going wild . Its amazing. How fantastic that you are harvesting so much each day. I once had a neighbour who was growing passionfruits over the back fence. damn they were good.
Come and raid the garden, darling. Would love to see you!
Celia, your garden is incredibly healthy and abundant. What green fingers you and Pete have. Fabulous. Our fig tree is also thriving at the moment although sadly the birds are getting to most of the figs before we can.
Have a happy week ahead.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, over here it’s the bats that get the figs! We have to watch them like hawks – the Italians here usually net their trees!
I’m sitting here pretending that I’m having a chat with you while we walk around your garden – especially since my reality is looking out at a field of snow & hearing sleet pelting on the skylights. (Saturday morning we woke up to no power after a car hit a pole around the corner knocking us out when it was ZERO – F).
Your garden looks so lush and tropical and I can’t believe how huge your plants are. Do your snake beans taste similar to regular green beans?
I’m afraid it will be some time before I will be out in my garden but I’m waiting to see if my basil will self sow this year. I’ve always brought some in for the winter but this year I let a bunch go to seed and hope that it will reseed giving me a huge supply of basil.
Diane, I can’t imagine losing power when it’s so cold!! I hope you were all ok? Snake beans are like regular beans, but they’re not snappy, so you don’t tend to eat them raw. They’re a staple in Asian cooking – I grew up on them! I hope the basil comes back – ours does with a vengeance, but sometimes I think our climate is almost Mediterranean! :)
We were kind of chilly for a while but when we re-modeled the kitchen, we had the electrician wire us up for a generator & bought one – just in case. We’ve had too many storms that have knocked us out for 4-5 days and believe me, in the winter here you just can’t stay.
Ah I’m so jealous. All I see when I look outside is grey and white. Thought the sun is out today and there is a gorgeous blue sky…no greenery in sight except for what is on my screen!
I took photos for all of you in the middle of winter! Trade you for some when it’s our turn! :)
It’s a deal!!
Your garden looks amazing, especially your snake beans, never knew that could get so long.
Cheri, we grow the short variety – in the tropics they can grow super long fat ones! :)
What a luscious garden full of so much green and treats! Our garden is under snow drifts that the wind has been making all day today. Thank you for sharing :)
Photos just for you, Laila! A week after this post was written, and it’s been uncomfortably hot for days – I spoke too soon! :)
Waw, wonderful produce in your large garden, dear Celia! Great to see all that!
:) Enjoy! We have an allotment since November the 1st 2014! Yeahh! We have ordered our many seeds already! xxx
I am so jealous of you right now! I live in a flat so I don’t have any garden. I just managed to gather around few tubs of earth and try to grow chillies and various kinds of pumpkin leaves now. I used to watch my father gardening when I was a child. Anyway, Good luck for the future :)