Monday 16 May 2011

A walk in the veggie garden

Word of warning - if you like a neat garden, do not go any further! You will see plenty of grass and weeds, amongst the veggies.

One bed with cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, parsnips, lettuces and *miner's lettuce as living mulch. *I let that go to seed every year and it comes up with a vengeance with the first rain. It's a pretty ground cover, and easy to rip up, if you need to plant something. It's lovely in salads, too.
A carrot patch. With plenty of miner's lettuce as weed suppressant.
The Egyptian Walking Onions, surrounded by lush grass.
Time to harvest the Golden Nuggets. They were really prolific this year.
The leek bed. I usually just cut the leeks, instead of ripping them out of the soil with their roots. They re-grow nicely. Also, I always let a few go to seed, ensuring self-sown leeks.The other half of the bed is taken up by Red Russian kale (self-sown), rapa, some other kale (too lazy to look up the variety name), and Komatsuna. All lovely greenery to ensure a healthy diet in Winter.Here is a view of the whole area. In front you can see the leek and greenery bed. Behind that the Golden Nuggets. To the right you can see the tomato beds. They are still laden with green and nearly ripe tomatoes. The first frost a few days ago hasn't managed to kill them.
The garlic is looking good!
So are the broad beans.And the grass in this veggie bed.

6 comments:

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Amazing maybe the weeds help to protect brassicas from caterpillars. Is it too cold for butterfly at the hill now? Your leek and spring onion seedlings are growing nicely in our garden. Some of the Red Russian kale were ferociously eaten by caterpillars. I am hoping some survive.

upsadaisy said...

I LOVE your garden! I can't wait for mine to grow in, so looking at pictures of yours is so very inspiring. Thanks for making my morning!

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmm Grass. My favorite. How do you serve yours? It is so green and lush ;)

Now seriously, you have some very impressive produce growing there. You should be proud.
Ramsey

Veggie Gnome said...

M-K Girl, I think the butterflies stopped a few days ago. We are having very cold nights/mornings. Before that I had to check my brassicas regularly for caterpillars. Glad to hear the leeks and onions are doing well. Let me know if you'd like more Red Russian kale seedlings, I have tons! :)

Upsadaisy, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you like my garden - I'm sure yours will be thriving, too. It just takes some time. :)

Ramsey, I toss mine. Over the fence, to the chooks and sheep. ;) They love it. Thank you, I'm pretty happy with my produce, too. :)

StoBlogger said...

I'm impressed. I'd love to have raised beds such as yours. I've not been in my new home long enough to transform the backyard...but I have plans, big plans.

Anonymous said...

Your veggies look amazing. My brassicas are going well thanks to your suggestion to put bird netting over to keep out the white butterflies. Good to see you are back home. Jill