I harvested the garlic and some of the oregano, which was a gift from nature, and some sage from two of my sage bushes that need a trim. The garlic bulbs were quite large with very few small ones.
I hung them all up to dry on my newly repurposed clothes rail that I saved from Ben’s bedroom renovation. I screwed the rail to the south side of the screen that separates the garden from the carport. This way I figure that the herbs and garlic are drying out of direct sunlight, and the herbs will retain their colour better.
The remainder of the cabbages were harvested with only about two out of the five heads growing to a decent size. That cleared up a lot of space.
This my first bed, where the cabbages used to be. I am using it a salad bed this year, and put in some come-and-pick-again lettuce varieties. A month ago, I planted rainbow chard which you can see has really taken off. We have been using the smaller leaves in salads, and giving the larger ones to the chooks.
At the end of the salad bed, I planted some basil seedlings. They should do well in this pot, as I had quite a bit of success last year growing it in pots. You just have to remember to keep watering them.
This is the second bed where I harvested the carrots from. The hunter brown onions are still growing and I pinched the flower heads off a few weeks ago. The top leaves will start to go brown and wilt over the next few weeks and the onion bulbs will swell.
Once I harvest this lot, I will renew the bed with lots of homemade compost and a bit of blood and bone, then plant in the sweet corn that I will be sowing into tube stock during the week.
This third bed was where I harvested the garlic from. It still has Spanish red onions growing in one half, and two massive silverbeet plants, which were more gifts from nature. We have been eating large leaves sauteed in butter, with a little garlic, for dinner. Delicious. Some of the older leaves are harvested every few days for the chooks.
In the two pots in front, I transplanted mint and oregano from the bed. More gifts from the compost bin, to which I am truly grateful.
This fourth bed had the broad beans in it over winter/spring, so it should be full of nitrogen goodness. I planted in four types of heirloom tomatoes; Tigerella, Green Zebra, Purple Russian, Mortgage Lifter, and Broad Ripple Yellow Currant.
This is the first really warm weekend we have had this spring. I had to hold back on the tomatoes and warm loving vegetables this year. No doubt, our autumn will be late as well, so I should get a half decent crop.
The last bed on this side of the food farm is the berry bed. The thornless logan berry is not a fruitful this year, and hasn’t grown half as big, so I might end up putting a few tomato plants in here as well to utilise the trellis.
You may have noticed in some of the photos that I have nasturtiums growing everywhere. These lovely plants just grow from last years seed that drop between the pebbles in the landscaping. They come back each year. I harvested a few bushes for the chooks just so that I could walk down the path. They make a wonderful addition to the garden each spring, just as the cyclamens are dying back. The bees love them.
This is a long shot of the entire garden (near end north, far end south) so that you get a better perspective of this section of the garden. Kim loves the cottage garden feel that it has. I just like the practicality of it all.
Now to the front yard veggie patch. You can see the two beds that I made at the start of spring. The Queensland blue pumpkins took off, and are sending their tendrils all over the place. They are about to spill onto the ground and start weaving their way around the garden. The butternut seedlings that I put in all but died, but I have hope for the two remaining plants which are showing signs of recovery. I think that the colder nights this spring have really affected them.
Potatoes are going crazy. The second bed is just covered in potato plants, which were planted about 30cm (1ft) deep. There should be lots of spuds ready to harvest in January/February as the tops die off.
The long yellow and californian wonder capsicums are growing stronger. They were also stunted by the colder nights, and are just recovering. They have a few flowers on them, but as the weather warms up, they should kick into high gear.
I also replaced the prayer flags with a new string. The old ones had been up for two years and were starting to rot. Looks much nicer now. The old flags were ripped of the string, and placed in the worm farms as a treat for my compost wormy friends. The string was saves for tying up tomates to the stakes.
And here is a final shot of the main food farm looking from the greenhouse (which needs some repairs). Doesn’t it just look so nice?
Like I mentioned at the start of the post, working in the garden is such great therapy. There must be something to do with grounding that makes one feel relaxed and content.
You will notice that there is no mention of the fruit trees. I have saved that update for another post as this one would just be sooooo long. They are all going gangbusters, if you are wondering and can’t wait for that post.
So, how is your food garden growing? How are you finding the changing seasons and are they out of kilter where you live like I am here in Melton West?
Are you coping with these changes? Let me know via comment, I would love to get a better understanding of the changing climate from a gardener’s point of view.
Oh Gav, i have garden envy in spades. So much going on in your garden. Well Done. You should be proud as punch.
Hi Gavin, I know how you feel – I just love being in the garden too! Spent yesterday planting, tidying, harvesting etc – happy as a pig in poo 😉 My garlic has done much better this year – I had black aphids last year too. I’m excited – looking forward to putting 15 strawberry plants later this week! Cheers Sharon
Your garden is a big credit to you 🙂
I love pottering around out in my garden. Sometimes I get frustrated when I cant get out there because of too much busyness.
I have been a bit slow in getting things planted this year, a bit like the season. I have qld blue and butternuts in and doing well, zucchinis, beans, capsicums, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, beetroot, rock melon, watermelon, carrots, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, silver beet, celery, rhubarb and cucumbers. I am hoping the very hot weather stays away for just a bit longer so the plants can really get established before the first heatwave.
Our weather has been pretty mild for this time of year. We get a few warm days, then one hot, followed by a cool change that lasts for a week or so then it repeats the cycle. I am using rain water on our garden this year. At the moment it is very dry here with no rain in sight…hope we get some soon so I can fill the tanks. We aren’t using the swimming pool this year, instead it will be used for water storage 🙂
Look forward to seeing those fruit trees of yours, ours are a bit light on this year.
Beautiful, Gavin. And a sight for sore eyes this morning, as it’s 15 degrees (F) here in upstate New York, with more nasty winter weather – snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain – on the way this week.
Lovely pictures and update – such abundance. We’re having a fairly typical early winter just now – frosty mornings, temps around -2 C at night, up to 6 C or so in the day. Not much growing in my garden, except a bit of chard. My neighbor is doing better with a few cold frames he tends lovingly. We’re expecting things to warm up a tad in a day or two, and then back into mud and drizzle, our normal modus operandi.
This is my favourite kind of post! I just love seeing what a person’s whole garden looks like and what is in it at the moment. I recently planted my second of crop of corn for the season ( the first one was eaten by crows , who dug up all the corn seeds!) and lots of squash.
Very nice garden you have there! I also spent the weekend I garden therapy by planting out zucchini’s, squashes and my passage tomatoes from the greenhouse, thinning and replanting the corn bed, and f course doing a bit of picking and preserving. I haven’t been gardening long enough to know if the changes I see season to season are normal or the result of changes to our environment, so your guess is probably better than mine!
Our wet season has taken a long time arriving, and I wish I had planted a few more cucumbers and lettuces to tide us over, but you never know in advance what the weather is going to do. Long snake beans are pretty much all I grow over the wet season, oh and my yummy asparagus.
It is definitely much colder than it should be although the rain has been well welcomed, even if it did wash out our Saturday gardening plans. 🙁
My nasturtiums look rather shellshocked and have rather yellowy looking leaves. My broad beans are still producing, just reaching harvestable size for the red and black flowering ones and the green ones we’re half way up the stems picking now. I hope they hurry up as I want to plant out my tomatoes too.
We’re picking peas still from the bonus pea straw crop that grew and just about ready for garlic harvest. I pulled 1 which was a great size, maggot free (I had feared) and tasted delicious fresh.
I have carrots in between my potato onions, also not yet ready and 2 leeks going to flower. One o my onions is there too although I am awaiting the rest to die down. Very few grew so i need to assess my onion growing a LOT. I’ve got a bed absolutely jammed full of tomatoes, capsicums and chillies with some parsley and chives in there for luck and pest control and I will fill any gaps with the marigold seeds once they’ve grown.
We’ve just planted up some herb pots for the kitchen window sill too which I can’t wait to see it grow. I have a comfrey flowering (I managed not to kill it squeee) and my pumpkin seeds are coming up! My garden is finally waking up and starting to show that Spring has actually arrived.
Climate change is only going to make it harder to judge when to plant and what to plant but the theory goes that last frost dates will become earlier which for a cold climate like Ballan with late spring and early autumn frost dates (there was a new years day frost a few year back I believe) it will at least potentially extend the growing season. It will make it harder to grow high chill fruits though.
Your gardens look splendd Gav. I look forward to more updates and fruit tree updates too. 🙂
Your garden is looking awesome. Ive just picked all my broad beans now I have to clean up the beds { maybe this weekend} I just picked a few carrots … oh dear they look hideous. My tomatoes I have planted out but they are teeny little seedlings that I grew from seed. I think I will spend this weekend trying to organize the vege patches. I think the garlic could be nearly ready to harvest.
Your pumpkins are doing well. Mine were terrible last year, I hope I have a better year this year xx
Thanks everyone for your lovely words of encouragement, and you garden updates. It is great to see so many gardeners willing to share.
Gav x