My mini forest on my back porch

This is where I plan to sit and drink my tea this Summer - on my comfy chair, next to my tomatoes, flowers and my housemate's herb garden. I just moved these here today, and have attached the tomatoes to the trellis. I will be very interested to see how they do, because they won't get quite as much sunlight, but will be less likely to dry out. The tomato plant on the right got away from me when I was on holidays and was sprawling across the ground, so it's probably got more of a chance here anyway where it doesn't have to compete with as many bugs!

Where the other half of my zucchini went...

It went into the oven, topped with basil, sun dried tomatoes and cheese, and it was delicious! I really like this variety of zucchini (I believe it's called Lebanese Zucchini). I think it stays firmer than regular zucchini, and it has a nice taste. 

Hope you're all having a lovely week! 
Jess 

Harvest Monday & Garden Update

So I finally have something slightly more interesting than lettuce to show for harvest Monday! It's certainly not impressive compared to what many bloggers are producing, but it's significant for me. I harvested my first zucchini! It probably got a bit too big (and thus less flavoursome) because I was away for a week and couldn't pick it sooner, but oh well. Here's what became of half of it:

Zucchini, rocket, basil and chives all from the garden (though admittedly the chives are from my housemate's herb garden she just got as a present, and I didn't grow them myself!)

Coconut oil and onion went into the pan...

along with garlic...

and the rocket, basil and chives...

followed by the zucchini, and salt and pepper.

Topped with sheep fetta, this was a really easy, tasty and healthy lunch!

I also decided to sacrifice some potato plants to clear more space for seedlings that need planting out (capsicum, amaranth, chickpea, lettuce, squash...the list goes on). I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had actually produced quite a few potatoes! I was having a carb craving so I ate some of these for dinner boiled and topped with butter, cheese, rocket, chives and basil. 

Unfortunately, it can't all be good news. I am very sad to report that my beloved chickens have been killed, presumably by a fox or a cat. The garden really doesn't feel the same without them following me around! They were such inquisitive and friendly chooks, and I will definitely miss having them around. I take comfort in the fact that they were ex-battery hens and we gave them a much happier life than they would have had confined to a tiny cage, and even though they were young, they lived for longer with us than they would have had they not been rescued. Here is one last photo of a couple of the girls enjoying themselves in my backyard.

You can check out more harvests (and hopefully less sad news!) at Daphne's Dandelions.

Jessica

Oh dear...

I have been dreaming about my tomatoes ripening. I think I need a life.

Harvest Monday (+ garden update and pictures) 

It's another small and boring harvest this week I'm afraid! Lettuce, carrots, mint, rosemary, nasturtiums and eggs.

I have been drying the herbs for future use, or to give to family members as Christmas presents.

Rosemary:

Mint:

There are definitely some exciting things happening in the garden though. It's just a matter of time before I am harvesting wonderful Summer veggies!

 My blueberry plant I recently bought from Diggers. I doubt I'll get fruit this year because it's still so small, but who knows? Maybe next year anyway! Blueberries are one of my favourite fruits but I don't usually buy them because organic ones are super expensive, and I hate to think of the chemicals sprayed onto non-organic ones! I often buy frozen organic blueberries though and add them to smoothies, or just eat them as they are! 

Basil plants coming along nicely...

Beans

The main veggie patch. The nasturtiums and potatoes are going crazy! And yes, that's a cauliflower plant on the right hand side. I highly doubt it will do very well in the Australian Summer but I'm curious to see what happens. Another experiment!

 Compost pumpkins are going very well

Borage, tomatoes, carrots, nasturtium, lettuce, capsicum, eggplant and a leek...I think that's it! Oh and silverbeet and kale that are getting destroyed by bugs. Not sure what to do about that! I guess they're not really designed for warmer weather anyway. The dish is part of my attempt to attract butterflies to my garden, as I read somewhere that they like wet sand as they drink the minerals from the water.

Zucchinis are getting there...though the flowers seem to keep dropping off and then the zucchini they were attached to dies. No idea why this is happening and it's frustrating!

First pumpkin!

Tomatoes on right hand side are setting lots of fruit. I hope at least one of them is a cherry tomato variety so that I can eat them sooner, though I don't know how to tell so early on. I have no idea what variety any of my tomatoes are because they either self seeded from the garden or came from a mixed pack of Diggers seeds.

And my most recent experiment...growing rice! Not much to report yet, other than that I soaked some brown bio-dynamic rice for a few days then chucked it into here with a whole heap of dirt and water. Will update on progress!

I will be contributing this to Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, so head over there to check out what people are harvesting in other parts of the world!

Thanks for reading and happy gardening,

Jess

Harvest Monday (on Tuesday again)

This week I harvested a large leek, a few carrots, potatoes, lettuce, mint and Vietnamese mint. 

I'm hoping that soon I will be able to show you...

 tomatoes...

 zucchini...

 and maybe even lemons! 

Also, look at how well my pumpkins I planted where my compost bin used to be are going! They are at least three times the size of those on the other side of the garden which are just planted in the soil that was already here (I haven't added much compost that section of the garden yet). I'm hoping these will be one of the few things that can survive the wrath of my chooks, so I took off their covers today. Not so sure how well the self-seeded tomatoes growing here will fair against the chickens, however!

Head over to Daphne's Dandelions to check out other (much more impressive) harvests from around the world.

Thanks for reading,

Jess :) 

Harvest Monday

Not much to show off this week at all! 

Not surprisingly in the increasing heat, my kale is getting destroyed by bugs.

The culprit (or one of them)!

Three eggs a day, lettuce, carrots and potatoes

I decided to make a quick stew/soup type thing using my carrots, kale and the rest of my broad beans. I basically threw everything in this picture into a pot (in the tubs are frozen kale leftover from juicing and frozen cooked lentils), plus some tomatoes and leftover steamed asparagus, cauliflower and cabbage. 

Coated in cheese, this stew was actually quite nice!

My zucchinis and tomatoes are flowering like crazy, so I'm hoping it won't be too long before I have some more interesting things to show you!

Jess