Monday, November 22, 2021

My vegetable garden is coming along well

French Breakfast radishes

The first radishes are being picked and they are really delicious. These are French Breakfast radishes which are mild and juicy, not hot like other radishes can be. I like to eat them with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Yummy!

Tabby cat Otto amongst the poppies

The Flanders poppies are taking over, much to my delight. We are planting vegetables around them under Otto's close supervision. 

In some places you could easily think that this is a flower bed with a few vegetables dotted around lol.

Vegetable patch full of poppies


More flowers in the veggie patch


Courgettes growing
 
The courgettes are flowering too and there are a few baby courgettes, but for some reason they are rotting. I don't know what is going wrong. Maybe the weather has been too wet for them, or the flowers haven't been pollinated well enough? I will just have to wait it out and keep my fingers crossed. The plants themselves are looking really healthy.

tomato and runner bean seedlings

The tomatoes are growing well. Dad started them off from seed and kept them under cloches until they were big enough to plant outside. Since taking this photo the tomatoes now have flowers on.                                                                                                                                    

feverfew flowering

I like the white daisy-like feverfew flowers growing beside the veggie garden fence. They are attracting plenty of beneficial insects to the garden.

The potatoes are now ready for harvesting. Their leaves are turning brown now. At first I thought there was something wrong with them, but dad dug a few up and we have lovely baby new potatoes 😊 Now we need to decide what to plant after the potatoes have been dug up.

The leeks are being harvested a few at a time and I am making leek and potato soup, chicken leek and ham pie and leek and bacon quiche with them. I suppose I could use the leeks in other recipes instead of onions...hmm that is an idea. 

Do you have any other ideas on recipes that use leeks?

veggie patch

The cavalo nero kale is flowering nicely. I am keeping them for seed to grow later as I love kale chips made with olive oil, garlic and salt roasted in the oven.


nasturtiums growing near the compost heap

Dad turned over the compost heap and used some of the mature compost on the veggie patch to return nutrients back to the soil. 


The nasturtiums grew here, by themselves, not far from the vegetable garden. It is a good place for them because they attract pests away from the vegetables and also bring beneficial insects to the garden.

It is now evening and the heat of the day is passing. It has been very humid today. Otto is lying near the open window loving it. 

This morning Otto's friend Ginger brought a live mouse and presented it to Otto by dropping it at his feet. Luckily this happened outside. I have never heard of a cat giving food/playthings to other cats that they aren't related to lol.

Now it is time to water the veggie garden, it's getting dry and some of the seedlings aren't big enough to survive untended with this heat.

See you again soon. Have a great week.

Hugs, Rose x

8 comments:

  1. Oh everything has such pretty colors! I love poppies, but never seem to have any luck growing them. The garden is so pretty with it's tidy rows, and tomatoes from seeds...wow! And it made me laugh, no one ever seems to know what a cloche is when I talk about using them...great to read that your family uses them, too. I know our seasons are opposite...when did you begin planting...maybe September? We'll be waiting until May. Mary

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    1. Hi Mary, We planted potatoes in late May for harvesting at the beginning of August, then planted another crop in September to be harvested this month, 3 months from planting. The tomatoes were sown under cloches in the first week of September, then planted out in the first week of October. Labour Day the 25th October is traditionally the time to start planting here in New Zealand. That is when the danger of frosts has passed. But with climate change we have been planting earlier. We didn't have a hungry gap this year :o) I picked our first snow peas yesterday...3 of them lol. We have lots that will be ready in a week. I can't wait! It is hard for me to imagine having to wait 6 months before being able to plant again. Do you preserve your vegetables to use in winter? Hugs, Rose x

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    2. It's so interesting to think about how the seasons are flipped...so much to learn! Oh I love snow peas fresh off the vine with Rachel dressing. Our first date to plant, after the last frost, is generally May 15. By the end of September, most of the veggies are harvested, with maybe a few little tomatoes or peppers still hanging on. I do preserve...this year our apple trees were covered, and so I made apple pie filling and apple butter. I oven roast tomatoes (so easy...no peeling!) for pasta sauce. Hot peppers become a sort of relish called Cowboy Candy, and cucumbers were turned into my grandmother's bread & butter pickles. Our local farm market had Concord grapes in late October, so tomorrow I'm making grape jam. I water-bath can most foods...which I guess is a uniquely American way to preserve...or so I've been told! Enjoy those snow peas...I'm jealous! Mary

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    3. Wow you have been so busy! Your store cupboard must look wonderful with all of those preserves. I tend to only blanch then freeze my vegetables such as snow peas, runner beans and capsicums. I have yet to discover what to do with a glut of zucchini (courgettes). I haven't tried making anything with our grapes apart from grape juice and kissel. Your grape jam sounds delicious. I will be thinking about your preserves while I am eating my snow peas :o) Hugs, Rose x

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  2. What a beautiful bunch of radishes! I love not only using radishes on salads, but also on tacos, nachos, alongside a baked chicken, and they are really great with a nice cheese and crackers. I was thinking that it would also be nice to saute the leeks in olive oil with garlic and add it to pasta with parmesean cheese, fresh basil and another drizzle of olive oil. That would make for a really nice summer dinner. Your garden is coming along so nicely. Enjoy all those fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers. Take care. Have a great week!

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    1. Hi Julia, thanks for sharing your ideas for eating radishes and leeks. They sound like delicious combinations for me to try :o) We had leek and potato soup yesterday, pureed with a can of butter beans and served with sour cream, chopped chives and freshly baked crusty bread. Rather hot to eat in this hot weather! but we enjoyed it. I can't wait for our basil to grow so that I can try your recipe. The basil seedlings are just coming through now. Enjoy your week too! Hugs, Rose x

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  3. Hi Rose,

    I have just found your blog. You have a beautiful vegetable garden indeed.
    It is strange to think you eat fresh radishes from your garden while we eat pumpkin soup to warm up !

    Have a nice weekend.
    Hélène from France

    http://terresdebrumes.blogspot.com

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    1. Hi Helene, it is lovely to see you here :o) Thank you for commenting! I love having flowers in and around my vegetable garden. It makes it a nice place to be and the insects enjoy it too. The season difference is still hard for me to get used to. You are so lucky having Christmas in winter, although I do enjoy eating summer vegetables at this time of year. I have been picking some snow peas for dinner tonight. Have a nice weekend too. Hugs, Rose x

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