Saturday, 5 January 2013

The garden

Thought I would share what we are growing at the mo, what we have tried growing, what has succeeded and what has failed, what I would grow again, and what are one time wonders.

The three planter beds at the moment consist of: one of tomatoes, one of chillies, and one of lettuces, red onions, spring onions, basil and peas.


Tomatoes are always something I wanted to grow. I love eating them, I spend a lot of money on them and I have found some great recipes to make the most of them with. Our tomato plants have gone a bit mental. We started them too early this year. They were grown from seed, germinated well, potted into cups and then pots, hardened off when the weather allowed and then outgrew the conservatory rather quickly. We were counting down the days to when we could put them outside (Labour weekend and not a moment sooner). They went out Labor weekend, staked well as the wind and rain were still a bit dodgy but survived and have thrived.

We have four varieties growing - Cherry Tomatoes, Romas, Russian Reds and Moneymakers.
The cherries are delicious! I found myself wandering the garden, and just pulling them off and eating them like that. Yummo.

The Romas and Russian Reds are great as well. The are standard-looking tomatoes and are great for everything. Juicy, ripen well if pulled off a bit green and used in my tomato sauce (recipe to follow).

The Romas have been disappointing. They are the awesome egg-looking variety and looked so promising, however have been a bit dry and floury and not juicy and tasty at all. Mams had the same problem with the plant we gave her and put it down to either the weather or just the variety - and considering all others have down well in the weather - I think I will steer clear of that variety in the future.

Cherries will be on definite yes list for next season and I also want to try some beefsteaks (there were some HUGE ones the size of a small football at the markets today).

The main staple of our garden is definitely lettuces. I use them every day - usually for lunch or dinner and often both and they are so much better than the icebergs from the supermarket which you end up pulling half the leaves off and the rest ends up sitting in the bottom of the vege drawer of the fridge getting soggy and brown.

Cos lettuces have been the favourite by far. They are so great for just pulling off how many leaves you need and perfect of the Caesar salads we love.

Iceberg lettuces were great but take a while if you want to wait for the whole lettuce to develop and not just use it as it grows.

Rocket and tom thumbs have also gone down well.

The curly fancy lettuce has been less enjoyable and were pulled after we came home from holiday early January as they looked like Christmas trees and were not going to be eaten.

Lettuces are super easy to grow, cheap and there is nothing better than salad greens from your own garden.

Spring onions have also been a triumph. You can keep them in a smaller pot close to the door and pick them like herbs or separate them out and they will grow to full sized spring onions which are delicious!

We have had one red onion (as they take months) which was perfect. If you have the patience - a definite must. Easy to grow and little maintenance required.

We have had great success with snap peas running up the trellises and they are super yummy as a whole pod in a salad or stir fry or wait a bit longer and take the peas out which are sweet and delish!

Strawberries have also proved a yummy and easy to grow fruit and once the bird netting was up we have enjoyed a lot of yummy berries.

Another big success was broccoli. We needed winter veges when we started so got what we thought was a pack of six broccoli plants but when we got home realised we had picked up a brassica combo pack so had two broccoli, two cauliflower and two cabbages. They took ages but the broccoli were perfect as were the cabbages (however we did not have much use for it so they kind of went to waste). The cauliflowers were bizarre and not pretty and flower-like, rather spindly and a bit purple. Not something I will grow again - not something I am particularly fond of eating, so not a biggie.

The zucchinis we tried were not a great success. The first one died, the second one had lovely flowers (which I should have stuffed and fried) and the vegetable itself went from tiny zucchini to a strange, fat but short marrow-like thing. The third went a similar way but I managed to pull one and fry it and put it in some sort of vege thing. Not worth the hassle and something I probably won't do again.

Cucumbers also did not go too well. They never quite looked right and then went yellow. I think I will attempt these again next season as I love them and worth another shot I think.

Something else I am keen to do next season is radishes. Love them and they are quite expensive and something I am keen to give a go.

I think the triumph to date has been the potatoes. We did them on a whim but man oh man are they GOOD. Pulled the last of them today and was stoked. New potatoes boiled on the hot plate of the new BBQ for dinner! They are SO EASY - we bought some seed potatoes and let them eye up, you then cut off all but the biggest eye and we put about five in a big flexi tub, and did three tubs. Cover with soil then when they sprout cover them over with soil, they will sprout again and you cover them over until you reach the top, then leave until the sprouts die off then they are ready to eat, eat, eat.

Today's bounty
Chilli garden run down to follow as well as the herb garden. Am replanting it tomorrow so will update then...

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