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!

Fruits of Labour

I picked a couple of capsicum/bell pepper from my garden the other day.  I was quite thrilled!  The first one I used straight away in my salad for my lunch that day.  The second was used for a stir fry for dinner the next evening. 

From this....

...to this

A purple variety of capsicum

They have been very easy to grow.  I used a 30L pot, placed some potting mix in there and a little seedling.  I water the plants every day in the evening and try to fertilize them every 1-2 weeks once they are fruiting.  They have quite a long growth cycle and take about 18 weeks to produce fruit. Each plant has produced at least 4-5 fruits so far and typically most plants will produce about 6-10 plants. The plants grow fairly tall for a plant in a pot so you will need to stake them when they start to produce fruit as the fruit weighs down the plant.  Put the pot in a sunny spot and enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Home Grown

I've been a busy girl around the garden lately.  A few months ago I planted quite a few seeds such as kale and capsicum and cherry tomatoes. 

Some of the things I planted are in containers in my yard and some I planted at my mother's house in her bigger veggie patch.  Here's the loot I picked up from Mum's place a few days ago:

Red Cabbage, Red Russian Kale, Curly Kale, Cherry Tomatoes, Big Beef Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Mixed Mesculin Salad

Growing your own vegetables is unreal.  They taste so much better than store bought produce and you can control how you grow them.  I try and grow mine as "organic" as possible. All I do is water them and on some plants use organic fertilizers; I don't spray them with pesticide or anything else untoward.  Most vegetables are so easy to grow and the only care they require is regular watering!  The only thing you really have to bear in mind is whether you are growing them in the right environment.  For example, there is no way basil will grow outside in winter.  It likes warm, sunny environments.  I particularly have enjoyed growing cherry tomatoes this season.  I'm telling you, they taste AMAZING compared to what you purchase in stores.  The flavour is so intense and sweet.  I grew all my cherry tomatoes from seed so for about 1-2 punnets product per week all it cost me was the time watering the plant and about $2 for the seeds!  What a bargain!  Mesculin is easy as pie to grow.  I scatter the seeds on soil and cover with a fine layer of soil; water regularly and then harvest several weeks later.  The plants last quite a long time if you cut the outer leaves.  They're known as a "cut and come again" vegetable.

My favourite herbs to grow are Thyme and Basil. Both are super simple to grow.  The Thyme plant I had I picked up from the garden centre as a seedling.  It has thrived and given me plenty of stems to harvest for recipes.  The basil I grew from seed.  It takes a little bit more care but still is very easy to grow and I use it a lot in salads and recipes.

Here are a few pictures of the other things I grow in containers:

Strawberries

Coriander

Basil

Purple Capsicum

Thyme

Oregano

Sage

Dill

Yellow Capsicum (to be)

Lettuce

Silverbeet/Swiss Chard

Mesculin Salad Mix

Hope you enjoyed the little tour of my garden!

Easy and Frugal Gift Idea

Here's a great gift idea for someone who likes spending time in the kitchen.  In my case, I had already planted a bunch of seeds a while back for my own use so had some young plants already grown.  I also put in a few extra seeds so there will be some new growth in a few weeks.

Terracotta pot and saucer $4.48

Potting Mix $2.50

Basil Seeds $2.99

Gift Ribbon - $0, recycled from old gift

Total $9.97

The seeds and potting mix can also be used again for personal use, so in fact it's a lot less than $10 for a lot, more like $5!  Nice!

My gift recipient was thrilled with her gift.