September, being the first month of Spring has been a huge month in the garden. We finally got 35 mm of rain, so everything is green and growing (until it dries out again). We are still harvesting plenty of kale and mini broccoli, and the peas have finally got started, still waiting for the broad beans though. The surprise harvest was the purple potatoes I planted back in winter and had to protect from the frost. They were started to die back, so I dug some of them up, only to find handfulls of purple potatoes, my best potato harvest ever (although still not very many) and planted at completely the wrong time!
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| purple potatoes |
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| and cooked they are still purple! but taste just like normal potato |
This month I've been busy planting and mulching and clearing the old plants ready to start planting more for summer.
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| Bella has been helping to trim the grass around the garden (although sometimes she also helps herself to some beans, so I'll have to set up the electric fence when the beans get bigger) |
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| a view down the garden, I've been mulcing! Its looks like a jungle with all the tall brassica and dill flowers popping their heads up |
My garden is full of flowers at the moment, so I wanted to share some of them with you....
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| nasturtium (we eat the leaves regularly in salads or cooked) |
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| dill flowers (I use the dill in pickles and mayonnaise) |
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| chinese broccoli - white rather than yellow like the normal broccoli |
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| borage flowers, some are blue, some are pink, I add them to herbal tea and bees love them |
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| a sunflower that came out of the chicken grain, I'll feed the seeds to the chickens if the parrots don't get them first |
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| calendula - add the petals to herbal tea or steep in olive oil to make a salv |
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| spring onion flower, will spread the seeds around when they are ready |
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| parsley, the whole lots has gone to seed, so the parsley patch will regrow next year! |
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| broad beans (again) smell so good and turn into beans, although not one per flower |
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| here's some baby beans, seems to be one per cluster |
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| lemon flowers, looking forward to picking my own lemons! |
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| bush beans I planted this month next to the broad beans and peas |
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| climbing beans next to the fence |
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| a new fence around the outside to keep out the chickens |
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| the berry patch, and maybe the sweet potato will grow back too |
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| raspberry canes, I can taste the raspberries now... |
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| the other end of the garden, lavender, one paw paw and some choko, will plant the rosellas there too |
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| my little greenhouse full of seedlings, lots of tomatoes, various curcubits and a couple of rosellas and some beans |
By next month I hope to have planted out most of these seedlings and started a few more seeds and then I hope to just keep watering the garden and it will mostly look after itself with a bit of weeding and harvesting.
How's your garden growing? What's your plans for next month?
Beautiful photography, Liz. What do you think of the purple potato beyond novelty? They taste like a regular one after all. Although, with the color, I'd imagine it has more phyto-nutrients that are difficult to calculate. IE, healthier as a whole food. - Cloud
ReplyDeleteForgot to add, I really enjoyed the Onion flowers in the last garden. Very Dr.Seuss pretty.
DeleteThose potatoes are fascinating, I haven't seen any like them. I am enjoying having a look at your spring as we are cooling into fall here.
ReplyDeleteThe exact thing happened with potatoes for me also. They sprang up at an odd time and produced a little crop. I am interested in comparing what I get from my seed potatoes I planted recently. I am hoping for a much larger crop. So many things happening in the garden at this time of year, have a great month.
ReplyDeleteyou have quite a nice variety in the garden Liz, I enjoyed the tour around. Does that chinese broccoli do better in a hot climate? I am wondering if I could grow it here in North queensland..
ReplyDeleteThose potatoes are wild, I have heard about them but have never seen them. Very cool. If you keep growing them keep one for seed so you can grow more and maybe give one to me. You have been really busy this month in the garden, mulching loads like us. Glad to hear that you got some rain.
ReplyDeletewow purple mash!! That would be soo cool, and probably a good novel way to get kids to eat it! Love the tour, so many pretty flowers in your garden. We grow veggies for the fruit but they are also easy on the eyes too!!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos Liz. On Wednesday I am planting my tomato, chilli, sweet corn and a few others in seed raising mix. It has been too cold to plant in the ground down here, so will start them off in punnets.
ReplyDeleteGav x
Didn't realize potato also came in purple. If you hadn't said they were normal tats, I would've thought they were sweet potato. Loving that you have so many things that can be made into herbal teas.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz! Thanks for showing us around your homestead! I love all of your flower and I'm a bit envious of your lemon tree :)
ReplyDeleteMy garden is shutting down for the season here in the northern part of the US...so not many more photos forthcoming. I will need to harvest the rest of the green tomatoes to ripen indoors or make pickles, I have a few potatoes to dig and I need to get started on the clean up phase. Hoping to cook up some pumpkins soon too!
Just beautiful Liz! I love all the veggies going to seed! It's fun when they start flowering.
ReplyDeleteWell Farmer Liz your garden is looking so healthy! How do you cook nasturtium leaves - is it a quick blanching followed by iced water? Those purple potatoes are amazing. Your seedlings are growing nicely and such gorgeous flowers. It is wonderful to let plants self seed, the ensuing plants always seem robust! Thanks for the wander around your garden x
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments! Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply to everyone, I answered the questions in the Nov garden update, in case you're waiting for a response. See you in December...
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