Thursday, June 23, 2011

My Winter Vegetable Garden

I took a few shots the other day of what I am growing in my garden.  I am getting quite involved with learning about gardening; I have taken out many books from the library and have been learning some interesting things. Some might say I've become too involved.  I had a dream the other night that I went outside to check on my garden and someone had harvested (stolen!) all my vegetables. It was such a vivid dream that I thought it was real and I was so upset!!  I was happy to discover my vegetables sitting happily in their planters the next morning.

Since it is winter things are growing a little slowly.  Luckily we have had a very warm winter this year so they are doing better than that could have been doing.

My Cavolo Nero has grown tremendously and is ready for picking.  The Bok Choy is ready for harvest and the celery is on it's way too.  I like the idea of using the Celery as a come-and-cut-again vegetable like some of the books suggest as you never really need the whole plant or even the half that they sell in the stores.  Every time I purchase a half or whole it ends up going to waste.  I did read a tip recently which has helped me stop the wastage: dice the celery and freeze it in a re-sealable plastic bag.  It's such a simple suggestion that I can't believe I didn't think of it myself earlier!  I guess one can't think of everything.

I am getting a little frustrated at how slowly my seedlings are growing.  I bring them inside every night so they avoid the cold weather and take them outside in the morning so they can get as much light as they need.  Still they grow like snails!  I even call them my babies and that still doesn't help! Gah!

Anyway, here are the pictures I took of some of the plants.  This is only a fraction of what I have planted in containers! We rent a place so we can't really dig up the front yard to make a vegetable garden.  We don't have a backyard either.  I just make do with the space I have as tidily as I can.

Sage and Silverbeet/Swiss Chard
Oregano
Little Lettuce
Row of lettuce.  The plastic bottles act as cloches
Cavolo Nero and a Dill plant tucked in there
Kale (Squire), Perpetual Spinach, Bok Choy, Celery
Close up of Bok Choy
You see that painted corrugated iron there in some of the pictures?  Well what the snails do is they slither up there and actually reach out and eat my Cavolo Nero!  Half their body is on the wall and half is suspended in mid air and their mouth is on my vegetables, eating.  The cheeky buggers!  I usually pick them up and send them sailing into the distance.  I feel a little mean crushing them, plus I don't want to get my shoes dirty.

Hope you enjoyed my pictures!

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