End of season for winter tomatoes

Last week we had a cold snap in Sydney. My highly productive tomatoes suddenly withered and went brown and crunchy.

Luckily the growing tips of the plants seemed mostly ok.

So I took some cuttings of these to re-plant.

I put the cuttings into some water, and they will soon sprout roots.

At this time I’ll replant them into the garden, and they should provide me with fruit through spring and early summer when my Summer tomatoes are not yet mature.

This process is described very throughly by Jodi. That’s how I learned this method, and it works!

I managed to save one plant, but the rest came out entirely. I planted out some of my overwintered capsicums and chillies, optimistically declaring that the worst of winter is behind us. I cut them back savagely, and they should reshoot when the weather warms a bit more.

Although I’m not completely sure they all survived the overwintering…

Winter tomatoes for stupid-heads

I love many things about cold weather. Each year as the mercury drops I look forward to warm clothing, thick doonas, roaring fires and lamb stew. On the other hand, I miss fresh tomatoes terribly.

Stupice tomato seeds

In frost-free climates like mine it should be technically possible to grow tomatoes year-round. You just need to get your hands on the right variety.

I’ve done a bit of research, and decided that the Stupice variety might be the go. Apparently you pronounce it stoo-peech-ka, and it’s cold-hardy, produces small, flavour-packed fruit, and as a bonus – it’s name gives the impression that even an imbecile can grow it.

Suits me well huh?

So, I’ve probably left it a bit late (again), but I’ve sowed them and popped them in the greenhouse. If they’re too slow, then maybe I’ll get some early tomatoes in September, but I’ll most likely have killed them by then.

Stupid tomatoes.

My greenhouse (in May)

The front yard heads towards winter

I pulled out most of the crops in the front bed over the weekend. I thought I’d write a post about what I’m planning to grow over winter and how I’m preparing the front yard for the next season.

I do most of my food growing in the front yard. I have beds along the side of the house and a few in the backyard, but due to major shading issues these are mostly unproductive in winter. The majority of produce comes from the 10 square metres of Bed A along the very front of our block – the part that’s on show to the neighbourhood.

Here’s my attempt at stiching a panorama – gives some perspective of the front yard from the house, looking towards the street. You can see that the majority of the front bed is stripped of summer crops, with the exception of the basil (which I need to process into pesto) and an eggplant at the right that is still covered in flowers.

In the middle is the new crop of dwarf green beans that are about to start producing, which are interplanted with beetroot (an experiment).

In the foreground is the very sorry Bed B.  Right up against the house, this gets almost no sun at all in winter. There is a big block of flat-leaf parsley in the middle, my rhubarb plant and a block of celery at the right, some random onions and a self seeded tomato plant. Apart from those it is all weeds.

I’m about to strip this bed of everything but the perennials and plant my onions here. I’ve planted a whole packet of hunter valley brown onion seeds in a large pot, and I’ll transplant as soon as they are a decent size and I’ve prepared the bed properly. Might have to do a better job of keeping the chickens out of them, because they have already been sat on a few times.

Starting from the let of the panorama along the front I have planted out:

A couple of metres of shelling peas (Greenfeast).

And approximately 50cm blocks of:

• Baby carrots ‘Nantes’
• Daikon radish
• Swede ‘invitation’
• Turnip ‘De Nancy’

And along the rest of the bed I’ve transplanted seedlings (grown from seed after freaking out in this post) of:

• Chinese broccoli ‘Gai Larn’
• Silverbeet ‘Fordhook Giant’
• Evergreen Bunching Shallots
• Leeks ‘King Richard’
• Broccolini
• Broccoli ‘Di Cicco Early’
• Mini cabbages
• Mini wombok
• Mini cauliflower

Tiny cabbage seedling, protected by multiguard (non-toxic) slug pellets

And at the very right hand side of the bed I’ve planted my Stupice tomatoes

So that’s most of the front yard planting done. Now I just need to clean up all the random pots and tomato stakes so it is a little more presentable.

I’m pleased to report that my citrus trees are thriving in the full sun of the front yard. The few fruit on the lemon actually set, and all the masses of new growth are looking lovely. I’ve been sparying with home-made white oil spray every 5 days or so to keep the citrus leaf miner away and it seems to be working.

Unfortunately the back yard and side beds are disgraceful. I really need to get onto them and plant out with climbing sugar snap and snow peas asap.

That and lettuce. I always fail at lettuce.

Winter plantings

The winter veggies are coming along briliantly. I’ve been MIA this week because P has been overseas, so I’ve been flying solo with the kids. Today I took some time to wander about and take some photos of the developing garden.

Checking the progress in the morning light

The edamame (soybeans) were planted a little bit too late, but they are just about to crop now. They are slowly filling their little pods, so I’m keeping the water up to them generously, and I love to head out early in the morning to check on their progress while the bright morning sun renders them almost transparent. Next year I hope to put in much more of these, because they are fabulous for freezing. You just blanch them briefly in boiling salted water, then chill in a water bath and freeze. J loves to eat them by popping them out of their shells methodically, then eating all the beans at once – shoving them all into her mouth at the same time like a little piggy.

Emerging broad beans

Most of the summer plantings are finishing now. The weather has turned, so I’ve pulled out the tomatoes and the broad beans have taken their place. I sowed these a week ago, and they’ve just popped up their heads, and I hold great hopes for abundant crops in a few months time. Broad beans are just the most delicious things, and they keep J entertained for the longest time, shelling them for me while I prepare the rest of dinner.

Greenfeast pea seedling

The front garden bed continues to confound the neighbourhood, but it is absolutely roaring ahead. The winter veggies love the complete full sun from dawn till dusk. The greenfeast peas have shot up through the soil, and I love the way that the dew shimmers on the leaves in the early morning. I planted quite a number of these, and I hope we get enough pods to freeze a reasonable amount. I’m thinking I might have to make a successive planting of these in another week or so.

Marigold seedling

I scattered a whole packet of marigold seeds along the front bed, not expecting many to germinate because of the thick mulch. Surprisingly, quite a number of them have, and I have heaps (probably at least 100) of the little guys randomly scattered thoughout the veggies. I think I’m going to have to thin them – after all – marigolds don’t taste real nice 🙂

Garlic under the roses

I called the Diggers Club about my missing garlic and seeds. Thankfully they believed me that they hadn’t arrived, so they said that they would re-send them. In the meantime I have planted some of the organic garlic that I ordered from Lettuce Deliver. I’ve planted these under the roses, and they’ve sprung up really well. Once my proper delivery arrives I’ll probably have just enough to go under all of the roses, and I look forward to making garlic braids and hanging them to dry.

munched cabbage

I’ve been quite busy hunting cabbage moth caterpillars. They have been monstering my cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower, but I’ve managed to keep them at bay simply by the hunt and squash method. It seems that whenever I peer out at the garden bed I see the little flutter of white wings mocking me, but I’ll tell you, sweetheart – I’m winning this battle! In the photo on the right you can see the most savaged cabbage specimen. I think this one is actually the victim of snails, because I haven’t been able to find any caterpillars on it. I’m loathe to use snail pellets though, so I’ll see how it goes.

Mini wombok cabbages

My mini wombok cabbages are just amazing! They are very attractive to the cabbage moth, but I’ve kept on top of it, and these things grow like the wind! They are hearting up really really nicely, and I imagine I’ll be picking them in a few weeks, which will give the broccoli and cauliflowers either side of them a bit more room to spread out. I’ve put heaps of them in, so I think I’ll have to find a really good kimchi recipe to use it and preserve it. Maybe also some cabbage dumplings and sauerkraut – can you use chinese cabbage for sauerkraut?

Eating my way out of a pickle – Popping Cress

I’ve neglected the weeding over the winter. Normally I would take the opportunity to get on top of it while the growth slows in the cold weather, but having done almost nothing lately, I’ve noticed a new weed that I’ve never seen before. Unfortunately it has spread quite rapidly, so I’m finding it everywhere. I first noticed it when I brushed against it accidentally and it sprayed its seeds quite a distance – many times greater than the size of the plant, like it was spring-loaded. I knew at that point I was in trouble.

Popping cress – young, flowering, and with formed seed heads

I mentioned it to my Dad this weekend, and he managed to identify it for me. It is Cardamine Hirsuta, also known as Hairy Bittercress, Popping Cress, Hairy Woodcress and Flickweed. The bad news is that  it is such an efficient distributor of seed that once you have it it is generally too late to eradicate it.

There was good news however – it’s edible!

So for lunch today I went out and gathered myself a bowlful of weeds. My reading suggested that it is tastier before it flowers, but I pulled out all of the plants I could find and brought them inside along with some wild rocket (which is also growing wild in my front yard).

I trimmed the young plants of their roots and washed them along with the rocket and some coriander that I also harvested. I put it all into a salad of winter tomatoes, avocado and french eshallots and dressed with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar and chilli.

The verdict? It is very bitter. But if I keep eating it, (particularly before it flowers) then maybe I stand a chance of eradicating it.

Now can I bring myself to sample the creeping oxalis?…

Harvest Monday – June 25 2012

Tonight’s stew ingredients

Having a newborn is clearly more demanding than I remembered. Despite Baby T’s good nature I am struggling to keep the house in order, let alone get out to the garden. I haven’t been cooking as much as usual, so I’ve missed a few Harvest Mondays due to meagre pickings.

This week I’m getting more on top of things and I’ve harvested quite a reasonable amount for this time of year. Tonight for example I harvested quite a bowlful of veggies for a lamb stew.

1 Daikon (radish)

These are huge! So huge in fact that they are trying to escape from the ground. Despite a circumference of 4-5 cm, the daikon I picked was almost 50cm in length.  They are also very versatile. I use them in Japanese hotpot dishes, in salads, pickled, raw (sprinkled with salt) and tonight in the lamb stew.

1 Lettuce

 A bunch of these lettuces popped up under the roses (along with countless weeds) after I spread compost around. I weeded, but kept the lettuces.

1 Turnip and 2 Swedes

Also in the lamb stew.

5 celery sticks

In various dishes over the week, including the stew and some bolognaise yesterday. I’ve found that the celery is improving as the weather cools – far less hollow stems due to lack of water.

2 Tomatoes

I picked the first two of my winter tomatoes this week. As usual with my tomatoes they were a bit underripe, but I’m always afraid that they will be stolen by a cheeky rodent or insect before I get around to picking them.

My next door neighbour says that there was frost the other morning, but for some reason the tomatoes have survived. They are loaded with fruit, so I hope they survive despite a touch of blight and my appalling staking.

3 Passionfruit

I’ve given up trying to work out what variety these are. I thought they were panama gold, but they clearly are not that. They may be panama red, but they seem too purple. These should ripen up quickly in the fruit bowl next to the bananas.

There is plenty happening in the garden that didn’t make it to harvest this week.

The womboks have suffered from my neglect – covered in slug damage.

I cut the asparagus down to ground level as the foliage had mostly died off. I should probably spread some manure over before spring.

The strawberries are in desperate need of dividing and repotting.

I repotted the blueberries into bigger self watering pots with new potting mix.

They are setting fruit like crazy.

The kale is ready to harvest once I work out how to cook it.

The onions are coming along nicely.

And the rhubarb is flowering. I need to keep cutting the flowering stalks out, but they are persistent.

I hope everyone else has been harvesting successfully this week. For more harvests from around the world, visit Daphne’s.

Harvest Monday – 23rd April 2012

Not much photographing of harvests occurred this week, but instead I’ll give you a sneak peek of what is coming along in the Autumn garden.

Handful of salad leaves (iceberg lettuce and beetroot tops)

My leafy winter crops are really growing quickly. I’ve been pretty vigilant with the (iron-based) snail pellets, so despite the copious rain (163 millimetres since last Tuesday) they seem to be relatively unscathed. I have noticed a few fluttering white cabbage moths though, so I can’t afford to let my guard down. I have been harvesting some outer leaves of the iceberg lettuces for salads and the occasional beetroot leaf.

800g green dwarf beans

The green dwarf beans never let me down. They are my staple crop, and I could have picked far more of these.

1 lebanese eggplant

The last remaining lebanese eggplant bush (on the far left of the picture) still has a few fruit remaining that I’m picking as needed. They grow when the weather is warm, but are slowly declining on the cool, damp days.

I used this in some pasta with roast vegetables last night, along with some of my golden nugget pumpkins stored from Summer. They are still in perfect condition, so now I’m wishing that I stored more of them.

In the picture above you can see my winter tomatoes – the variety is Stupice. They are looking great and are loaded with flowers. This is a potato leaf variety of tomatoes, and they seem to be much more prone to ‘forking out’ than the standard Grosse Lisse. I wanted to keep them fairly well pruned  and upright in their growth, but they have branched out in multiple trunks, right from the bottom even though I was trying to be careful to pinch out the laterals.

24 eggs

Of my 6 chooks, 4 are laying now. I wonder if I’ll need to wait until Spring before the final 2 start. They are still laying far in excess of what I can actually use, so I’ve already started giving some eggs away.

Handfuls of basil

I’m honestly a little over pesto, so I’ve just been using the last of the basil before it dies back in dishes as-is. It is flowering with gusto now, and the bees swarm over the plant even on drizzly days like today.

On the other side of the front bed the peas are well and truly up, just waiting for me to get their supports ready. The new root vegetable bed is also looking great, with carrots, daikon, swede and turnip.

And something that always fills me with excitement – the first blueberry flowers.

In other news, the weather seems to have been great for establishing my onions – they have really taken off. I also spent some time over the weekend topping up Bed E with some cow manure and planting it out with potatoes. I will also plant some snow peas along here, which should fill this bed for the winter.

Hopefully soon I’ll have something more exciting to report than beans and eggs. The apples are getting close, and so are the winter passionfruit.

For more harvests from all over the world head on to Daphne’s Dandelions.

Harvest Monday – 26th March 2012

Carrots, cucumber, garlic chives and edamame

The summer crops came out! Everything was looking so bedraggled, so I enlisted help from P and friends over the weekend and stripped most of the beds.

7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds) Edamame soybeans

We pulled out the edamame soybean plants, and despite it looking like there wasn’t very much, the yield was 7.5 kilograms of pods. I am still halfway through the processing, but I estimate that it will equate to 3.5-4 kilograms of shelled edamame, which will mostly be frozen for use through the year. The kids love them as a snack, and they substitute well whenever normal shelling peas are called for.

1 kilogram of carrots

This carrot patch had been in since I got a free packet of heirloom carrot seeds in last July’s issue of Burke’s Backyard magazine! Most of the multicoloured ones had already been harvested, leaving still quite a number of carrots, some of which were starting to go woody.  P pulled out the lot for me, and although I didn’t weight them before I gave a good portion away, I estimate that there was about 1 kilo in total (root weight only).

2 kilograms tomatoes

It was heartbreaking to pull out the tomatoes, but it was time. Some of these will ripen on the bench, but I suspect that I’ll need to make a green tomato cake or similar with a portion. I’m still very hopeful for my winter tomatoes, which are looking promising right down the other side of the front bed.

400g eggplant

The remaining fruits came off before pulling out the plants. I left one plant in because it still looks healthy and productive, but the rest were on their way out.

2 bunches garlic chives

I have too much of this for our requirements, so these whole bunches came out.

200g green beans

My old faithfuls are slow now, and the 2oog included some more lazy wife beans from the side garden. The next crop of dwarf beans looks really good – should start picking next week.

1 cucumber

Last ‘double yield’ cucumber as the plant came out. There is still a lebanese one on the other plant around the side of the house, which I’ll save for next week.

Many handfuls of basil

I used quite a bit of basil over the weekend. I need to pull out my massive bush before it starts to die off, but I don’t have the energy tomake that much pesto at the moment. Maybe later this week.

9 eggs

2 eggs on several days, then none at all yesterday.

Bunch of wild rocket (arugula)

I love this stuff – it’s perennial and it grows like a weed because it is one! It is great to add to salads, and because it doesn’t bolt like lettuce I always have it on hand.

1 long green chilli

I pulled out all the chillies/capsicums and put them into pots. I’ve heard that they are more productive in their second year if you can keep them alive over winter, so that’s my plan.  I pulled off the long thai chilli still sitting on one of the plants, and I hope it will be more productive next year, because that was the only fruit the plant produced! To be fair though it was smothered by corn and soybeans, so received practically no sunlight.

1 Rhizome of ginger

Into dinner tonight. The ginger is still very small and I probably didn’t give it long enough in the ground. I might overwinter the remainder and give it a better chance for next year.

Sorry for the lack of photos this week again. For more harvests from across the world, go visit Daphne’s blog.

The weirdest thing to grow in any garden (ever)

Well after a long break (more about that soon), finally an update on the garden.

So much has been happening that I’m not sure how to begin, but how about with what I found growing in the shadehouse over the weekend.

 This my friends, is a mushroom. Certainly not one that I will choose to eat, but apparently a type of stinkhorn fungus, and it isn’t likely to kill anyone. I have these things growing fairly prolifically in the leaf litter in the shadehouse. They are long, spongey in texture and don’t smell the best if you sink your nose into them.

If it wasn’t for their pong-iness, I might be tempted to make a bouquet.

So onto other red things growing in my garden – my early tomatoes have been a roaring success. These were the variety ‘Stupice’, and they have ripened beautifully over the past week.

This is the first one I picked, and there has been maybe 10 since. They are on the small side, and quite varied in shape, from this type, to smaller round ones and larger ‘bum shaped’ ones as my sister put it. The flavour is definitely better than the supermarket, but not what I would call fantastic. About what I expected from an early variety.

In addition to the earlys, I have about 20 other plants in large pots (Tigerella, Black Cherry, Grosse Lisse, Brandywine, Tommy Toe) and 12 San Marzano seedings still waiting to be planted out. My aim is to have more than I can possible deal with, then a huge late crop of San Marzanos for a monster batch of passata for bottling.

The tigerellas already have fruit!

Without even trying

Self seeded tomato

So far this year I have failed miserably at growing tomatoes from seed. I planted all of the winter tomatoes from Burke’s Backyard magazine, and sowed a bunch of San Marzanos too. I’ve managed to kill every. single. one.

And yet, random tomatoes seem to be springing up everywhere like weeds.

They seem to be springing up along the path between where my tomatoes were growing and the huge lilli pilli tree where the possums live, so I assume that they must be seeds scattered by the possums when raiding my tomatoes over summer. So I think I might try carefully digging them out and replanting them in pots. The tomatoes were hybrids, so any fruit is likely to be unpredictable, but in my book, any tomato is a good thing.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there. I was lucky to be presented with a garden cultivator this morning, all wrapped up by the kids and P. I’m surprised they didn’t manage to impale themselves while wrapping it.

Also, and I’m very excited about this – I scored a ticket to this. It’s a workshop run by Milkwood Permaculture on how to grow mushrooms in your backyard. As exciting as my mushroom growing kit  is, growing oyster and shiitake mushrooms in more natural environments (like my backyard) sounds like an awesome new challenge! Anyone else interested in coming along too? There’s still space in the class!

Oh, and thanks to Jo from Every day in the garden for bringing the workshop to my attention.