Saturday, November 1, 2008

How does your garden grow?

Very well actually thank you :)

Look what I spied today
Baby Brocolli

So excited to *finally* see baby brocolli heads. These were planted ages ago and I had all but given up...even planned on ripping them out! I think I'll let them stay now.

This was my vegetable garden back in August - half a dozen each of brocolli, spinach and celery plus some mint and some small parsley plants (and lots of weeds and a mint plant taking over). I planted these in April and wasn't sure what would survive the winter - it came through ok but there wasn't much growing happening.
vege garden aug 08

This is my vegetable garden 1 November - only 1 x celery left , all the spinach has been eaten!
Vege garden Nov1
Now the beds have HUGE parsley plants plus chives, thyme and rosemary. I also have coriander and lemon mint growing elsewhere. The mint is still threatening to take over but I'm keeping an eye on it. New batch of spinach, brocolli plants are finally looking like they might produce somethign edible, sugar snap peas and radishes (behind the brocolli), a big lot of lettuces (just tiny at the moment), a couple of marigolds to keep the bugs away and a lonely cucumber plant (havent had much luck with these in the past but am giving it one more go), strawberries galore and a tomato plant. Elsewhere I have a dozen Cos lettuces, a capsicum (just one to see how it goes), a couple of broad beans and a squash, half a dozen tomato plants and snow peas.

I am really pleased how things are going so far! I'm looking forward to being able to make a salad using everything we've grown ourselves and moving towards thinking about food security and being able to feed ourselves even if tough times arrive. Its just a beginning but I'm pretty proud, (especially as about half the things I have grown from seed myself). I'm lucky to have quite a few great kiwi gardening blogs on my blog reader for lots of handy tips and inspiration ;)

Also if you are in NZ and keen on vege gardening sign up for the NZGardener mailing list - emails every Friday full of good ideas and 'what you should do now'

Right, I'm off to water my garden. I'll leave you with a few pics from my garden...of the non vegetable kind ...isn't summer so pretty!!


Pink rose
Yellow rose
Red Rose

11 comments:

Rose Red said...

great job on the veges. When we move into our new house I think I'm going to give a vege patch a try. Not sure how I'll go but like you I've got some good gardener friends so hopefully they can help!!

Anonymous said...

Nice broccoli. We don't grow an Broccoli or Cauliflower as I'm allergic to them :-( Sad as I used to really love them.

Thanks for the link to NZ Gardener, I've joined the list. We can always do with tips of better gardening :-)

Anonymous said...

It must be very satisfying to be 'growing your own' like this. Well done you!

Anonymous said...

What gorgeous flower photos! Our broccoli got completely eaten by slugs this year - congratulations on yours!

At Home Mommy Knits said...

You got an award...drop by my blog :)

Denise said...

We tried a little veggie growing this year but didn't do too well. It is fun when it works though and you can make a salad from your own grown things. I hope your garden continues to grow :)

Heart Felt said...

Nice broc, sadly ours bolted - i'll have to try again. xx Your garden looks lovely.

Mary said...

Very nice garden! It is so rewarding to grow your own veggies!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

How I would love to have a garden like yours! I would so enjoy that.

Anonymous said...

roses! i still have a few brave roses on my plants that are about to go dormant. enjoy the bounty of your garden.

hanna said...

oh yay, isn't it so satisfying!