Harvests from the garden

We've been picking a heap of things from our little backyard garden in the last couple of weeks. We got a big crop of sugar snap peas - it's the first year we've tried them and we highly recommend them if you have kids; Clancy would pick and eat them at will! We also planted them close together given the small space we have for climbing veg and whilst there's a risk of mildew we did okay in fact. The crop was good too.

We picked our broad beans too. Not so many this season but then we didn't plant a huge patch as gave up the space for the peas. Broad beans were yummy with leeks and garlic and butter! We froze some too (parboiled) to make a dip with later.

We picked some small beetroots. Lovely earthy flavour - an organic variety. More to come on soon. The leeks are planted in various spaces around the garden with better results looking likely in the well-drained bed by the side fence. This area also gets regular watering so the crops seem bigger. Not huge leeks eventhough they are the Elefant variety! :)

Carrots are starting to come on as well. Small at thus stage but very sweet! I'm excited :) Clancy is going to enjoy pulling them up too!

The garlic are about to flower and wilt. Will try to save some seeds this time.


The herbs have gone mad with all the rain we've had as well. We will need to pull out the lemon balm as it's encroaching on everything!

The lime has fruited for the first time as well. It's a Tahitian lime and the limes have a lively spritzy flavour. The lemon are bursting with flowers too!

It's great to see what does well in the garden especially at this gorgeous time of year. We've had the added bonus of great rains over the last two months or so which makes such a difference.

Happy happy Spring!



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What flower is this?

What flower is this?
Originally uploaded by margoc

Found in Phillip ACT. Anyone know what it might be? Looks like it may be native. Leaves are soft velvety grey-green. Flower is papery and mauve with small yellow stamens.

My mum thought it might be from the Solanum family (nightshades, etc), but the flower seems to come off the same stem as the leaves.

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Vertical gardens for small spaces - part 2

I wrote about vertical gardens recently, with an idea using a hessian bag. Well, I've set it up and here are some shots with seedlings in for about two weeks now.

I put some strawberries in the top, pak choi and mini spinach around the bag between the wiring. The stake holds the set up well and the water seems to be retained well given the location is warm to potentially drying in summer months.

The soil mix may be too potent though or perhaps stuffing on the seedlings was a bit traumatic on them as some are struggling but many are bouncing back with new leaves and shoots, including the strawberries.



The hessian is a good choice I think; breathable, durable and retains moisture (like the old cooler bags!). Will post it's progress over the next few months as we head into summer.

My Mum was in town recently and went to Floriade and picked up a hanging tomato planter. I've experimented with two cherry tomatoes and interplanted these with Basil.



You are supposed to put a plant in the bottom of the hanger but I couldn't hang it high enough in a sunny spot. So we'll see how that works out too.




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Managing plum trees

One of our plum trees is in full bud with heaps of them about ready to burst!

Our second plum however seems only to be budding on one side of the tree. What could the reason be?




I posted a couple of years ago about our plum: http://hackettgardener.blogspot.com/2008/05/pruning-and-preparing-plum-trees.html and whilst no plums yet the trees are pretty healthy.

Both are, however, on the south side of the front garden and don't get as many sunshine hours as they could. This may explain the lack of buds on one.

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Lemons in Winter

Just been out in the garden and noticed our Meyer lemon is looking a bit brown with leaves curling. There's no real evidence of scale or other pests so I'm guessing it may just be reacting to the cold snap we've had revelry. We feed our citrus (lemon, lime and kaffir lime) regularly with worm wee and top up the mulch too with the flooring and straw from our lovely chooks.

Hopefully the cold is the only reason! Will keep an eye on it over the week to see if anything else is affecting the lemon. Does anyone else have some simple and organic winter remedies for their citrus?


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