home grown has the best flavour

After my lovely big shadehouse was unceremoniously destroyed, I still wanted to grow some of my own food.
I was given/allocated/allowed to use, a narrow strip along the length of the back lawn.
The cement path behind it was filled with potted succulents belonging to prince-not-so-charming.
I planted a hedge of parsley. As you do. Because parsley goes in everything. Well, maybe not icecream.

I always let one plant flower and set seed to gather for planting the next year.

The next summer, I added lazy housewife beans, the seeds of which I'd ordered from the Diggers Club. These plants are so prolific three or four plants can feed a small family for an entire season. I planted two, so had plenty for the freezer.

I also put in Red Fig tomatoes from the Diggers Club. These tiny little tomatoes are great to pick and eat while removing weeds from the bed, also nice in salads, sliced in half or left whole.

This carrot foliage belongs to.......

.....these heirloom carrots. Again, from the Diggers Club. The ones shown here are small, I pulled them before they were full grown because the foliage was shading his pots too much. Pfft!
I like the colours, but the seeds come mixed in a single packet and they all look exactly the same, so there's no way of knowing which colours will come up.

Here they are cut and ready to cook. I steamed them, because they taste so much better that way. Interestingly, the purple ones are not purple inside, instead being orange or yellow.

This very pretty tiny flower belongs to the sweet basil that I had in a pot.


Lastly, here is the garlic that I grew from a bulb bought at Coles. Most of this will be used, but one bulb will be pulled apart and replanted.


Here is the lucky winner. I'm going to plant the cloves in a circle in a pot this time, as the edge strip has been allowed to revert to grass.


All of the other potted plants; succulents, my fruit trees, roses etc are all gone now.
Most were getting too big for their pots and I couldn't handle repotting them, they were huge.
I rang the local community garden and asked if they'd like to have them. They were very glad to come and pick them up, and very excited about the fruit trees.
I'm not sure what I'll plant this summer apart from the garlic. I have seeds, but I also have a severe case of "can't be bothered", so maybe just one tomato in a pot, and a bean.








Comments

  1. They are all beautiful, River. Clearly both of your thumbs are green.

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  2. Gardening is why I would never live in an apa-a-a-artment. I'll try growning garlic this year.

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  3. Growing.

    Growning is what you do when someone else has eaten it.

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  4. Kath; I love to get down and dirty, it puts my mind at peace. The yummy vegetables are a bonus. We won't mention the hayfever, okay?

    R.H. garlic is dead easy to grow. Separate the cloves, plant each one pointy end up, about as deep as each clove is tall, then water as needed until it matures in about ten or so months.

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  5. That way up? Thanks. Well if they take so long to mature I'll plant quite a few.

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  6. I really like your blog and i respect your job. I wish you successes.

    ReplyDelete

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