Shade House

Summer has struck with a vengeance. 42C are forecast today.
Even when the plants receive enough water (not always the case around here), the sun can burn some of the bigger-leaved plants.

These shade houses are easy and quick to put up. They are also very quick to dismantle, and can therefore be as temporary or permanent as you want them to be.

Take a length of light-weight rebar, push one end into the ground, then form a tunnel and push the other end into the ground. Put some shade cloth over the structure. Tada!

Spring pasta!

The neighbour's ducks are laying like crazy. Yeah! We received quite a bit of that bounty, and the first thing that springs to mind - Pasta! Duck eggs are just perfect for making pasta, and baking. But that will have to wait.

So on to making tagliatelle.

Broad beans and asparagus from the garden. Some leftover chicken. Plenty of parsley. A perfect meal! :)

First seedlings!

The propagation boxes seem to work well. The first seedlings emerged after only a few days.

They are now basking in the sunshine on the window sill - making room for the next seeds in the box.

The weather is glorious at the moment. Frosty mornings, then warm sunshine during the day. :) The spring air is filled with hope and expectations.

Propagation box

It's still winter, but now is the time to start the first seeds. I am keen to have some biggish seedlings when it is finally time to start planting. Chillis, capsicums and eggplants seem to need longer to grow to a decent size. What to do?

Make your own propagation box!

Take some styrofoam boxes.

Add heat mats (in this case they are actually reptile mats).

Put your trays on that. (The seedling punnets will go in there.)

Cover with an old window.

Get yourself a thermometer with a probe, so that you can measure the temperature of the tray.

Start sowing! :)

As you may be able to see in the picture, the temperature inside the box climbed to 24C within a few minutes.

Eggplant 'Tsakonikis'

This is a Greek heirloom eggplant.

It's the first time I am growing this. It's a fairly early eggplant, and you can see this even at our place! I don't usually have such big fruit on our plants at this time of summer. I will let it grow a little big bigger, then harvest it. It'll be interesting to cook with it. Can't wait! :)

Thank you, Mr. Fothergill's!

This parcel arrived out of the blue! And what a lovely selection of seeds it is. Grasses, vegetables and flowers. Some of them as a seed tape.
I had experimented with Mr. Fothergill's selection last Winter and Spring. There are quite a few pictures, too. (On the computer.) As you may have noticed, they and the write-up did not make it on to the blog. Life (and work) got in the way.

I absolutely loved the Tomato cup (just add water). The germination was fantastic, and the seedlings were extremely healthy. I did transplant them on to bigger pots, as the cup is too small to grow this little tomato plant in there for the whole season. The tomatoes are very tasty!

The seed tapes with the radishes rocked! Easy to put on the ground, cover and water. Lovely radishes they were, too!

The carrots were a winner, too. So far, the seeds I have received, have done well. Good germination, then healthy plants.

Thanks again to the good folks at Mr. Fothergill's! I'll try to write a bit more about their seeds and products throughout the season. :)

Striped Turkish Monastery

Yes. There is such a thing.
And it is a tomato!

Here it is.

Very pretty, don't you think? Tasty, too.

We are picking the odd tomato here and there. The weather was a bit extreme for the garden (stinking hot, etc....) so now with the milder weather we hope it will recover and finally give us something to harvest. How is your garden doing?

Strawberry spinach

This is a rather funky little plant. You can eat its leaves, the flowers and the berries.

The berries taste a bit like hazelnut, in my opinion.

 It's just a great plant to have in the garden. Very easy to grow, too.

Purple okra

It just looks stunning, doesn't it?

Picked the first ones, and I am looking forward to eating them. I'll probably just slice them and fry them till they are crispy. Any other serving suggestions? :)

Armenian cucumbers

The first batch of cucumbers (Armenian) are planted. I put them in my trough, so that they are slightly protected from the icy winds that still crop up (like today).

The snails and slugs haven't attacked them yet - so let's hope it stays that way. Can't wait for our first summer vegetables! :) How are yours going?

First planting session...

...finally!

I planted the first tomatoes today. I managed to squeeze in 10 plants per bed. They may be a bit close together, but let's hope for the best. (I always plant them a bit close together, it seems to have become a spring ritual, I'm afraid.)

There are stardroppers at either end of the beds, plus one in the middle. Later in the season, when the plants grow bigger, I'll use some twine to weave it around them - called 'Florida Weave' - and that tucks them in nicely.

I also started on the other summer vegetables. Zucchini (Golden Summer Crookneck), cucumbers (Armenian), okra (Burgundy) and tomatillos.

There are still quite a few plants left to be planted, but one day at a time! How are you going with your spring planting? :)

First feast of broad beans

We picked the first broad beans today. They are still quite small, but that's how I like them. This way you don't have to shell them and then peel off the tough outer skin. This is what they look like after shelling them. Cute, aren't they? :) And they'll be very sweet, tender and tasty.

Purple cauliflower...eating it

This is for you, Sue, so that you can check the colour of the caulie when cooked. :)

Purple caulie broken up into florets and stems cut into slices. Yes, I do eat the stems, they are delicious. If they are very thick, they might have a woody outer layer, just cut/peel that off.

Thrown into a frying pan, with just a bit of butter and coconut oil. Salt and pepper. Then fry until some of it has a lovely golden colour.

Fresh eggs from our girls complete the meal. It's very simple, no fuss, but oh! so delicious.

Purple cauliflower

Yes, I know. I have been writing about this a few times before. But it's such a stunning vegetable, I can't help it.

We had a very good season this Winter. The vegetables thrived and we had plenty to eat. We are still harvesting quite a bit, but I am sure this will change soon, once the warmer weather settles in. Everything will very quickly go to seed.

One thing that really worked - netting all brassicas! We did not have any problems with caterpillars on our vegetables, as the white butterfly cannot get through the netting and lay its eggs.

Hope you all had a good season, too!

First day out...

...for our tomato seedlings.

They are now basking in the sun and enjoying this marvellous Spring day. As soon as it gets cooler this afternoon, we will put the lids on the boxes. That should keep them toasty warm until tomorrow morning.

A treat at dinner time

We had this gorgeous organic, free-range chook the other night. Just rub on a mixture of your favourite spices. Stuff it with herbs, spices, lemons, etc...

Have a walk in the garden for some roast vegetables to go with the chook. Here we have carrots and parsnips. Never had a parsnip shaped like this before! We also threw in some pumpkin and young potatoes. All from the garden.

Nearly forgot to take a picture of the end result! It tasted just fantastic. The juices were simply delicious. A treat, indeed! :)

A walk in the garden...

The lemon tree is looking fantastic. This is the first year we actually had a lot of lemons on this tree.

The first plum tree has started to flower. The structure for the netting is looking a bit wonky. Will have to try and straighten that out soon.

The Native Wisteria is flowering madly.

Isn't it a lovely flower?

The Nashi pear has tons of fat buds. Hopefully we'll get to eat a few pears this season.

The apricot tree has just started to flower. We won't have much fruit, though, as we missed the opportunity to prune it back.

The red currants are looking great, too. Another good harvest again, maybe?

The variegated elder tree has tons of flower buds. Can't wait to see it laden with flowers.

We are still harvesting some of the winter vegetables. Here is a purple cauliflower.

Tucking in the babies

Now that we are in the midst of repotting all the germinated tomatoes, the hard bit starts. Where to put them? Especially over night, when the temperature still drops down to 4C? Even though they are on the balcony, under cover, it still gets too chilly there for them.

Well, we have some really good boxes (from the fish shop) with lids.

On with the lids, as soon as it starts to cool down in the afternoon.

Then some blankets over that.

That should keep them out of harm's way. :)

Seedlings...again

They are rapidly growing up. It's always amazing.
Here they are just a few days ago. Various tomato seedlings.

And here they are, already 'promoted' to the windowsill and enjoying the view.

In a day or two we will have to repot them.

Sweet basil has germinated surprisingly quickly.

Rosella seedlings. I have never been successful with germination, and these came up within a few days. It will be interesting to see how they do at our place, as they will need at least 5 frost-free months.

 All very exciting! :)

Time for a treat!

The beetroot patch is starting to get slightly feral. Time to thin it out and use the beetroot. So..what to do with the beetroot? What's your favourite recipe? I have quite a few up my sleeves, and shall try them all in the next few weeks. But I am always happy for new ideas.

One of our favourites - Beetroot & Chocolate Muffins. Recipe adapted from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Cooking.

Here is one of the gorgeous roots. Isn't it stunning?

All grated. Looking amazing.

I added the zest of a whole orange to the mix. Just because I love the chocolate/orange combination.

Plonk mixture into muffin tin. And the best bit! - put a generous piece of good, dark chocolate in the middle.

Oh, okay. Two pieces, if you must! :)

Fresh out of the oven.

Let cool slightly. But not too long. I like the chocolate to be still warm and oozing out. A dollop of cream is justified, I think. After all, this is a muffin with (a lot of) healthy beetroot!

Yes! That's how I like it!

And now for a brisk walk, to feel all virtuous. And to make room for more muffins. :)