Monday 8 December 2008

Vegetable garden

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My vegetable garden has never looked better. Ironic considering the water shortages.

My 'edible list' is :

Vegetables: lettuce (various), pak choi, chinese greens (don't know what they are - mystery plant from a previous year went to seed and I keep growing it from saved seed and using it in stir frys - peppery), radish, tomatoes, chillies, silver beet (swiss chard), spinach, green beans, climbing beans, zucchini, pumpkin, broad beans, garlic, spring onions, rocket, cucumber.

Herbs: Italian parsley, curly parsley, basil, mint, coriander, chives, oregano, French tarragon, savoury, bay leaves, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage.

Fruit: raspberries, tamarillo, crab apples, cooking apples (Stewart Seedling), lime, rhubarb

Fruit not in the veg garden: lemon, grapefruit, nectarine, elderberry, cumquat, apricot, blood plum, quince, mulberry, grapes & peacharine.



Our old bath tub; full of mint.


Some coriander (cilantro) left to go to seed for next year.


Part of the secret of success: rain water collection off the shed and carport.



My prickly brained mascot, on the wall going into the vegetable garden. I tried growing thyme in it to give 'falling locks' but it kept drying out. Plan B = cactus.
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22 comments:

  1. Peacharine? I thought all the inbred stuff was from Tasmania.

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  2. It's lovely! I'm doing a garden next year (in an effort to get Ryan to try some new veg... I figure if she grows them, she'll be more likely to eat them).

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  3. wow! what a harvest! love the pics of your garden! :) thorny brain head, is that a mini dinosaur at the side? nessie perhaps?

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  4. Wow...you've got quite a collection!

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  5. Alison: No, not Nessie. Wilbur the worm.

    Diane: Part of the trick is to grow what they like. The other part is to have good recipes.

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  6. Lee , I can see you are not in Melbourne for your vege garden is so lush!
    I am going GREEN with envy .

    Do you make elderberry wine???

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  7. Yes, Melbourne.
    Yes, elderberry wine but my best success was blood plum wine. I found the elderberry wine a little 'thin'.
    I did make a stunning crabapple and elderberry wine.

    My problem with wine making is I don't keep at it and there is about 2 years lead time from production to drinking.

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  8. Lee - if you are in Melbourne and have a vege patch that green - You are doing "sneeky watering"!!!

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  9. Not true, not true.

    I have about 700L of rainwater collection (down to about half at the moment), all shower water goes to the garden, though only on the rhubarb and raspberries in the veg garden, some of the laundry water goes to the garden (this will increase as the season wears on, probably as a shandy with rain water or shower water). The zucchinis and pumpkin survive in kitchen sink water.

    I have hand watered in the 6am-8am window twice so far this season and only for about 30-40min both times.

    I mulch a lot. I put fertilizer in the water once a week.

    It is the best the garden has ever been.

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  10. Whoa..you're my dream neighbour! Surely you'll share some of those vege and fruits with others, won't you? What green fingers you have!

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  11. Lee it all looks great, cant get any fresher than home grown. ♥

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  12. Your garden pictures are balm to a snow-covered soul... my own garden has been put to bed and is sleeping under a white blanket and temperatures hovering in the teens.

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  13. I know that my mum would simply LOVE your garden. It's nice to see something so summery at the start of our winter. Very uplifting. Mum would really like to grow stuff but unfortunately she never gets round to it.

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  14. And here we are in jolly old England, looking at ways to pump the heat out of the ground beneath our waterlogged gardens.

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  15. I know they're not your thing, but I've given you an award anyway. Come to my place and see...

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  16. hi Lee... I am impressed!!! it actually my weakness, I think I have a purple thumb and not a green one :-(


    by the way, by ur edible list you mean that when you need some garlic for your meal u just pick them from your garden? wow...

    Meili

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  17. ooops, got your topic suggestion in my blog - WHAT'S YOUR TYPICAL DAY LIKE?

    http://shewritesyouwrite.blogspot.com/

    it's your turn :o) hihi

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  18. I have all th same things you have in your garden, but I'm totally envious of the raspberries and rhubarb....

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  19. That is amazing! Good for you. Hope you like vegies! LOL

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  20. not so bad and somewhat drought resistant....potatoes.
    Chop a tater into three parts, plant two, poke the middle piece in your chow skillet.
    They grow a small bush that flowers all summer long.
    As soon as the flowers fall, there's 6-10 taters under each bush.
    Don't know about how big they'de be planting this late, but, what the hey...it's a free flower bush for you.

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  21. I grew taters on year but you can't grow tomatoes in the same area so have gone with tomatoes this year.

    Intrigued with the car tyre way of growing potatoes - as the plant grows you add another tyre until your have a pillar of tyres with a potato plant in the middle - ideally LOTS of potatoes.

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  22. I'm so jealous. all i can eat out in my garden is snow (not yellow).

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