Sunday, October 3, 2021

Spring has arrived in my veggie patch

cineraria and silverbeet (Swiss chard)
My vegetable patch is looking colourful with self-seeded cineraria coming into flower just now. The cineraria are so pretty that I am going to leave them growing in-amongst the silverbeet (Swiss chard). They will attract beneficial insects, which is always a good thing. 

I also discovered that some evening primroses have seeded themselves in this spot too, together with echiums. I can't wait until they are all flowering.

Edible sage flowering
The edible sage has started to flower too. I am going to leave the flowers for the bees, then trim them down once the flowers have faded. Hopefully the sage will grow back, I think it is a perennial? This is the first time that my sage has survived through the Winter.

Oregano growing strong in Spring

The oregano has put on a strong growth spurt after the flower stems were trimmed down to the ground a month ago.

My vegetable garden in Spring

All of the parsley has bolted in the warmer weather. However it can still be used as a cooking ingredient at this stage. I am going to leave it to flower and set seed, so we will have plenty more parsley later in the year. 

In this photo you can see the Winter vegetables which are now ready to harvest (swedes, red cabbages, broccoli and cavolo nero kale). 

Potatoes growing in early Spring

The potatoes, planted a few weeks ago, now have leaves on and should be ready to harvest at Christmas. I love new potatoes 😊

I am hoping that the danger of frosts has passed by now. Although it is still possible for frosts to happen at this time of year, we had an exceptionally mild winter, so fingers crossed. We have cloches, made from large plastic water bottles, ready to use just in case.

garlic planted mid June

Dad planted this garlic in May and it is looking really healthy. It should be ready to harvest 6 months from planting, as long as nothing goes wrong. There is no 
sign of the dreaded rust yet, touch wood. We are hoping that, having planted the garlic earlier this year, it will have a good chance of forming bulbs before the rust arrives.


Some of the vegetable seedlings are coming up well in the cloche on the deck. The courgettes are ready to be planted out and the tomatoes, capsicums, pumpkin and purple sprouting broccoli seedlings are looking good.

We sowed the Blue Lake runner beans and Goliath snow peas directly into the veggie patch where the soil has been rejuvenated with homemade compost.

Otto in the vegetable patch

The soil preparation for the rest of the new seedlings and seeds is almost complete, with the help of my cat Otto of course!  Otto loves to inspect anything new that is happening, especially in the veggie patch.


Silverbeet grows all through the year here in Auckland and I pick fresh leaves for dinner whenever it is needed. 

These plants self-seeded themselves here and now that the weather has warmed up, they are bolting. I will leave them to set seed again and let them grow wherever they want. 

Swedes ready for harvesting

The swedes are ready to dig up now. It is a new vegetable crop for us and we quite like it. We had one as a side-dish for dinner yesterday, boiled for 20 minutes in salted water, then drained and mashed with cream, butter and a large pinch of nutmeg. It was surprisingly tasty!

On the topic of food, I am now off to plan the meal menus for the week and the grocery list.

I hope that you are having a great week.

See you again soon.

Hugs Rose x

6 comments:

  1. Your garden looks terrific! I can't get used to the flipping of seasons though...we're done with harvest and you're expecting potatoes at Christmas...December for us will be snow, wind, and ice! And Oscar looks quite happy to be roaming through the garden...looking for a shady spot to curl up in maybe? Mary

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    1. Hi Mary, thank you. I still find it odd having Christmas in the Summer, even after living here for so many years! I have just realised, from your comment, that I called my cat "Oscar" in my post, this is actually Otto :) I am always muddling the names up lol. (I have now corrected his name in my post). Otto is a hunter and likes the veggie patch because of all the skinks running about there. Skinks are little tiny lizards. Luckily he just chases them with no harm done. I hope you have a great week. Rose x

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  2. Hi Rose. Your garden is coming along so nicely. I was just thinking the same thing as Mary in the above comment. I'm cleaning out what's left of my summer garden for winter and yours is just beginning to wake up for the season. So funny how our seasons are flipped. How is it to have Christmas in warm, summer weather? I always think of cold and snow when I think of Christmas. Although we rarely have snow here at Christmas - it is often cold. Otto is such a cutie by the way. Have a great day!

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    1. Thanks Julia :) Yes it is so strange with us having different seasons, especially when it comes to having Christmas in mid-summer here. The temperature on Christmas day is usually around 25 C to 28 C where I am in Auckland. We still have a full, hot Christmas day meal, although each year we say never again due to the heat in the kitchen! The days are long and bright, so the Christmas decorations don't stand out as much as they did in England for us, but it is still lovely to see them. I do miss the cosy feeling that winter with snow brings. We don't get snow in Auckland! I hope you had a great weekend. Rose x

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  3. The garden is looking great. Oh for a flat garden...but then I wouldn't have the fantastic views, so I guess there are always compromises!

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    1. Thanks Serenata, Yes, we are lucky to have a flat area of land for the garden. The rest of it slopes enough for me to lose my breath when walking up it, but there are some good views from the top, whenever I make it up there! It is the best of both worlds. Hope to see you again soon. Hugs, Rose x

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