Bug Magnet

A flowering All Season Carrot attracts all kinds of bugs.
I left this carrot in the ground last year so that it could flower and give us heaps of seeds.

A few of the bugs:

Avocados

The Avocado tree started flowering a few weeks ago.Now we can see some fruit set.
But will we get avocados this year?
We reached that stage in previous years, but they seemed to disappear after a short while. I might go and have a little chat with the tree. :)

A toothy grin..

..from the Blue-Podded Capucyner Pea.
Tender, tasty treats!

Feasting on Snow Peas

The snow peas are doing really well this year. We have been munching on them for the last two weeks.

Growing Ginger!

A few months ago I bought some ginger at the Asian shop which had some 'buds'. I decided to put it in a pot and see whether I could grow it. Well, here's the result.

Today's Berry Harvest

350 grams of raspberries and 310 grams of strawberries. We had to ban Mama Gnome from picking the raspberries today because we wanted some to make it into the house and not all to strangely disappear as they were picked.

Tomatoes are in the ground!

Finally.

*Phew*There are 40 plants in this patch. Nothing much to see yet - except for the beautifully hammered in stakes. There is still one empty garden bed. I might put some zucchini, melons, cucumbers, chillies, etc. in there.

In the back you can see one big garden bed overgrown by weeds and grass. If I can get this weeded soon, I can plant more veggies. It's getting a bit late, though. And we are experiencing very hot days. (Excuses, excuses, I know.)

Anyway, this is a view from a slightly different angle. This shows the whole berry garden. And here is the close-up of the berry beds. Strawberries to the left, then blueberries. And all the raspberries, boysenberries, youngberries, loganberries in the back. Note the funky disco decoration along the wires. We are already harvesting raspberries and hope to ward off the birds with this.

Eggplant Trough

As all garden beds are either fully planted or overrun by weeds and grass (the majority), I resorted to planting in this trough. The eggplants are still tiny seedlings, so let's hope they'll start growing soon and provide us with some fruit this season.

The varieties are Black Beauty, Listada di Gandia, Thai Green, Rosita and Bianca Oval.

The theory behind the trough is also that I might be able to protect the plants in there over winter (some kind of mobile greenhouse thingie). This way they'd come alive again in Spring and this would (theoretically) give them quite a head start.

Purple Hair

Groovy, Baby!

Remember the Blue-Podded Capucyner Peas I sowed ages ago? That's what they looked like in September.
Here's the little jungle today.But best of all - have a look at those pea pods! Groovy!

Big White Rocks

After some drama we now have big, white, smooth rocks in the paddock. (2 rocks, named Johnny and Psycho, decided they wanted to remain woolly and bolted. It took us nearly 2 hours of running all over the place until they decided they'd like to join the others and they ran voluntarily at great speed into the pen.)

Jars of Sunshine

These should brighten up the gloomiest of days!
Pickled Cumquats. Ready in a few weeks.

More Broad Beans

Another salad with broad beans. This time I finely chopped a cumquat (from a fellow gardener) and added this to the dressing - a few slivers of a freshly pulled onion (from another gardener), together with garlic chives & parsley from the garden. Some extra-virgin olive oil and salt & pepper.

Where's the Veggie Patch?

Come closer...follow this little path...through the red currant barrier...
Here it is:
In the bottom left-hand corner you can see the tip of a red currant bush. The white-flowering radish is Aomaru-Koshin Radish. I am letting it go to seed to save some for next season.
There are still quite a few carrots, leeks, spring onions, celery, lettuce, peas, etc. in the patch. I have put in some tomatoes, cucumbers and a Golden Nugget.

Tomato Patch

Yes, I know. Where are the tomatoes?! I'm getting there - that's all I can say.
The first bed is finished. Mulched, stakes put in, tomatoes planted. 10 plants. The other beds need to be mulched, staked and then planted. And there is another bed (far right hand side) that needs to be weeded.
On the up side - can you see the strawberries? They are doing very well! So are the snails - they enjoy them immensely.

First fruit set - Polarbaby

The warm weather is doing wonders to the tomatoes. The few plants in the cold frame have grown nicely and are flowering. This is the first fruit set on one Polarbaby!

Today's view

Everything is growing and flowering madly. It's a jungle out there!

Orchids are scary

They look like puffed-up aliens, mouths wide open, ready to devour you as soon as you turn your back.

Food from the garden

Hungry? Have a look in the garden. We still get lovely meals from the Broad Beans, Asparagus, Artichokes, etc. These are Peruvian Red Cheek Broad Beans. Absolutely beautiful. Just like babies' cheeks with a pink blush. Pick them young (as with all broad beans) and they are tender and delicious.
Here's our Broad Bean and Asparagus Salad. I cheated and threw in some red capsicum. Just for colour. Tons of herbs, a freshly plucked lemon (for the dressing), EVO.