Recently in Vegetables Category

One of the things I LOVE about gardening and keeps me sane is homegrown tomatoes! Everyone will attest that there is NOTHING like homegrown tomatoes! Nothing! Fresh off the vine and onto your plate, mmmmmm.

Lol, sorry for the pun. I bet only a few of you realize my name is Di anyway so probably lost on most of you, lol. Anyway here is a pic of my scarlet bean harvest Monday :)

Just 3oz but lots more on the plants and I planted some more at the weekend :) At em with some scrambled tofu Monday night. Definitely Yummy!

I got lots of seeds earlier this year from the dollarstore when they were 9 packets for 99c. Ok I'll be honest I went kinda crazy! lol. Anyway one of the varieties of bean was Royal Burgundy

Silly me didn't read the packet correctly so I bought bamboo poles, some twine and made and elaborate teepee in a container in the front garden for them, only to find out they are BUSH beans! Doh! Clearly states this on the back of the packet, if I had actually read it properly. Thankfully I have some pole beans so the teepee won't go to waste but yikes! Three of the beans planted in the container grew well, and are producing beans :)

They really are a beautiful deep burgundy color! Almost ready for harvesting I think don't you? Will keep you posted on the flavor!

This month I am celebrating 1 year of vegetable gardening! 1 year ago today I decided to take back my garden, and grow my own food. We'd never had an ornamental garden persay so it's not like a lot of change was required, just a lot of hard work and time! Ironically this month is also one I have spent the least amount of time in the garden I think (aside from when we had the rains).

The reason is I've been pretty fed up with the squirrels eating the rewards of my hard work :( I've been slowly getting back out in the garden and have noticed not one, not two but three squirrels in the garden. They are small but wreaking havoc! I had my little rant about them already but when you see a sight like this greeting you when you check your plants it's pretty disheartening.

Those were beets :( Seriously this is no joke anymore so I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and instead of being defeatist I am being proactive. I've been out in the garden this recently and sown more plants (which I promptly killed - more on that later), moved some things around, done some maintenance, and generally tidied up. I cleaned down the patio table and chairs and hope to get outside more in the hopes of scaring the damn squirrels to death. I plan on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the patio now when possible and letting the dogs out with me more.

So speaking of the seeds I planted recently, well they shot up in 3 days, then when I went out to clean up the table and chairs I placed the tray ontop of the wheelie bin, in full sun, and promptly forgot about them. Left them there all day and needless to say the young seedlings fried! Time to get replanting I think!!!

Earlier this year I was at the local Lowes store picking up some supplies when I spotted asparagus bare root plants, naturally I snagged a bag. I planted 3 of them in a raised cinder block bed next to the orange tree. This weekend I noticed this:

Yay Asparagus stalk! They must have been busy in a short period of time cos in the space of the other two plants stands these.

Bit spindly the other two are but then as I understand they take a couple of years to get established before you can harvest so no great loss this year. Anyway just wanted to say YAY Asparagus is up and YAY I didn't kill it, unlike the rhubarb which hasn't done a damn thing. Ah well....

It's been harvest time here for the winter crops. I've shared some pics recently of the harvests and thought it'd be interesting to show you this monster turnip I harvested from the garden recently. DH snapped this pic with his iphone.

Lest the pic not do the size justice, let me tell ya that weight of this monster was just a smidgen under 2lbs!!! To say that we ate turnips almost daily would be an understatement. I am still trying to find a cooking method that I really like for these since they were an experiment this year. They certainly grew well though huh?

Harvest figures for April are as follows:

• 4oz Chard @ $3.99 lb = 99c
• 5oz Orange (Valencia) @ 59c lb = $2.95
• 4lb 6oz Peas @ $4 lb = $17.50
• 1oz Spring Onion @ 99c lb = 6c
• 1oz Tomato @ $2.99 lb = 18c
• 2lb 2oz Turnip @ 79c lb = $1.68

Total Harvest for April = 11lb 14oz And some harvest pics:

Can you stand to see more pea harvest pics? I hope so cos here is another almost 2lbs
worth!


Unfortunately the trellis and wind had another battle this month and the trellis definitely lost this one. I think the peas are done. After the last bout of gale force winds, I propped the trellis up with the step ladder, but went out one morning to see this


Yep that's the ladder in the next bed over! Good job nothing in there was damaged as I hadn't planted out the summer crops yet! Sheesh! Anyway the peas have pretty much all leaned over the trellis and are spilling out and over onto the floor. Crazy! I harvested 3+ pounds so far, here's hoping I can at least get the peas that are left on the vines to fatten up!

In the comments on the last pea posts comments Zanthan Gardens asked: What varieties did you grow and how many feet did you plant? I grew bush and pole peas, in different beds. Bush peas I grew 4 squares x 9 plants per sq ft. I will say these aren't as good harvest value as pole peas but ok if you don't have decent trellis systems like I didn't or are growing them in addition to pole peas. The pole peas I grew 5 square foot, at 6 plants per square foot. The trellis for the pole peas was only 4ft high. In hindsight I needed bigger trellis and more plants per square foot, oh and I needed to train them better! The trellis I used had BIG holes so the plants didn't really grab on that well. Next year will be better!!! The varieties I used were: Pole Peas - tall telephone. Sorry obviously I didn't keep the packet for the bush peas (doh!)

There is still time to take part in the Campbells "Grow your own soup" promotion! The soup makers are giving out free tomato seeds (not sure for how long) but go and sign up to receive yours! All you need is the variety and can codes from a tin of their soups, and you are good to go!

The seeds don't note which varieties they are but I think it's safe to assume they are hybrids. Most forums have said don't save the seed but you know what, I tend to disagree don't follow the herd! Save the seeds, plant em next year and see what grows! Gardening isn't about following the rules, it's about trying new things! If the seeds are hybrid (and my gut tells me they are) then so what? All that happens is the seeds don't follow true to the parent, but that's not to say they won't be edible! Or even taste better than the original. And IF they taste bad, or don't grow so what? All you lost was time and potting compost!!! I say go against the grain, try something different and see where it leads you!