Front yard raised bed

We had strawberry plants growing in this raised bed at the front yard but we had decided to grow something more permanent like asparagus. So yesterday I planted 21 asparagus crowns 20 cm deep in the soil. They won't grow till spring so the bed still looked bare. So I decided to plant some herbs and quick growing vegs over the winter.

I planted some coriander, italian parsley, white pak choy, spring onions and mini cos lettuce just to fill up the empty surface before the asparagus spears sprout through the ground in spring. The veggies are planted a little close than recommended so they will be over crowded when they mature. We might just harvest them before they get too big.

Home grown capsicums

Capsicums are not one of my favourite vegetables but I'll eat these because they come from my backyard where I grew them myself. Some nice home grown capsicums as side dish tonight!

Home grown fresh tomatoes

There's nothing better than home grown fresh tomatoes and right now they are in abundance in my backyard garden. There's always more to pick everyday and we have to pick them before they fully ripen and let them ripen indoor so the bugs don't get to them first. We use them in most of our dishes be them just salad, stir fry or use them in sauce, salsa or chutney. Whatever way they are used they will be yummy.

It's a jungle in there!

I've been slack on keeping my greenhouse tomatoes pruned and they've grown out of control. Looks like a jungle in there! Anyway even if I was on top of the pruning this greenhouse is still too small for growing tomatoes. I need a bigger greenhouse but I don't have the space for it..

Fruits of my labor

We managed to harvest some produce from our garden today. There's heaps of bush beans we pick for dinner tonight, green and yellow. We also found some cucumbers for salad too. Some may be a little curvy but I bet they taste better than the ones you buy in the shop. These are the fruits of my labor!

Tommy Toe tomatoes

Tommy Toe tomatoes are a favourite with everyone. Eat with salad or just by their own we can never have enough of them. Can't wait for them to ripen up.

Tigerella tomatoes

I found this Tigerella tomatoes from CERES so I thought I'd give it a go. The fruits are medium sized but the colour when ripe can range from red to yellow with stripes on.

San Marzano tomatoes

We had some San Marzano tomatoes growing last year and we were not disappointed. So we decided to grow more of them this year. The fruits come in roma shape tomatoes and are great in any dish you're cooking.

Riesentraube tomatoes

This year due to the the wet spring weather, some of my outdoor tomatoes suffered from early blight. However the greenhouse tomatoes are doing well because they are sheltered and warm. Though I haven't got any tomatoes ready for eating yet, I thought I show you some of the varieties I got growing; this is called the Riesentraube tomatoes, origin is Germany I believe and the fruits come in clusters of cherry size tomatoes.

Chilli Caysan seedlings

My chilli plant from last year has survived the winter and now is doing well into its second year. It's even self seeded tons of seedlings and I have heaps to give away. Let me know if you like some. They're the Caysan variety and are mildly hot.

Bonica eggplant

Just a quick update on my summer crops; most are still small so not much to eat yet. However I am looking forward to having this eggplant for dinner soon. This year we decided to plant just one eggplant, last year we had plenty and were almost sick of eating eggplants everyday so I think one plant should be enough this year. We planted the Bonica varieties because the fruit is big so there's plenty to eat!

Today's lunch

My lunch today will comprised of quiche from down the street, cucumbers from the backyard and strawberries from the front yard. What are you having for lunch?

Harvesting Garlic

Woohoo! I'm harvesting my garlic! These are the first lot of garlic I've ever grown so I'm really excited. I can't remember the date I put them in the ground..probably around March so they should be ready by now. Traditionally you should plant garlic on Australia Day and harvest them on Melbourne Cup Day but I go with my instinct so here they are. I'll keep them in a cool dry place and they should keep for some times.

Broad beans update

Finally we have some broad beans we can harvest. They sure take a long time to grow but now they have pods growing everywhere so we might just keep them for a little bit longer.

The broad beans live for another day.

I was going to pull out all my broad beans after months of growing and they're not producing beans. But just as I was about to pull the first plant out I found some pods growing underneath all those flowers and leaves. I think I will let them be and hopefully this wasn't a waste of time. The flowers are nice to look at but I didn't grow them for the flowers. I want to eat some broad beans please!

Cos lettuce

There's nothing better than making a salad from the fresh lettuce I pick from the backyard. Right now that's exactly what I'm doing on a daily basis. These cos lettuce are growing fast so I must eat them up as soon as they grow or else they'll grow bitter should I leave them by themselves.

Bok choys

With the warm weather we've been having the bok choys are doing really well. Last night we had a couple of them for dinner and they were tasty as always. Bok choys need to be grown quickly and eaten quickly too so they don't bolt or grow bitter. So never let your bok choys and other asian greens linger on in the veggie patch. Grow them quick , water regularly, give them liquid feed and eat them too!

Broccoli

The broccoli plants are going gang buster! Now almost every night we have to harvest some broccoli florets for dinner. We might as well enjoy them while we can because they'll grow old and won't taste as tender in another month or two.

Broad beans

This is the first time I'm growing broad beans but I'm not getting any pods forming though. I understand broad beans don't need bees to fertilise the flowers, just wind so that's why I cover them with grow cover to protect my vegies from nasty bugs. Maybe I do need a bit of help from the bees so I try to open the cover each day and hoping for the bees to give them some help. Then again its still cold and I've only seen a bee when it was a sunny day.

San Marzanos

Just couldn't help myself yesterday when I went to my local nursery; they're selling tomato plants already & though its still cold out I think they will be fine in the greenhouse which these San Marzanos are going to be planted today. Fingers crossed they will survive!