Garden update - November 2013

October has been a big month in the garden, I started plenty of seedlings and I've planted them out in the garden, with plenty still to harvest from the winter crops as well.

The peas have finished (apart from a few I'm leaving for seed) and the broad beans are now producing.  I just pick and eat them, we don't grow enough to freeze them and I don't think we would use them anyway, they are just nice to fill the gap between peas and beans.  I picked the first borlotti bean and then other bush beans are starting to produce too.  There is still plenty of kale, celery, mustard greens, nasturium, leeks, all sorts of herbs, and now silver beet too.  Also lots and lots of eggs!

I wanted to show you some more flowers from around the garden this month....

blackberry, seems obvious that they would have flowers,
but I never really thought about it until I saw them

lucerne/alfalfa, a deep rooted legume, great for mulch and compost

marigold, so easy to grow and supposed to repel some pests

arrowroot - I haven't tried making flour yet

And some long shots of the garden (sorry they are so dark, I waited until it cooled down to venture out and it was late afternoon by then!).

I view of the broad beans, citrus and herbs in pots and calendula

Looking the other way through the kale bushes towards the chilli bushes

The area I have cleared for tomatoes this year (and the sprinkler)

silver beet (under the galangal)

the raspberry (did I tell you I'm excited about the raspberries!?!)

the celery (excuse the self-seeded cabbage pushing in there), I just wanted to
show you that I'm picking and using it before it gets big, its been very useful

I had some questions from last month that I never got back to....

1. What do you think of the purple potato beyond novelty? - They seem to grow well here, so that is the main thing for me, and the purple colour is probably a sign of phytonutrients (as the comment also mentions) so I will see if they continue to grow, I wouldn't try hard to grow them just for the novelty, but I welcome any plant that grows well :)
2. Does that chinese broccoli do better in a hot climate? - I think it was supposed to, and it didn't go to seed as early as the other broccoli, but I didn't notice much difference in terms of productivity, it could have been my fault though for not looking after it enough though...
3. How do you cook nasturtium leaves? - I just chop them up finely (usually with other herbs) and add them right at the end to what ever I am cooking, whether its a stew, sauce, sautéed veges, or even salad. They have a peppery flavour, I think they go particularly well with sweet corn, but I put them in virtually everything. It is one herb that grows really well here and has benefits for both the garden and our health.

Jobs for November - I think I have plenty planted, and as soon as it rains the beans, tomatoes and curcubits will no doubt take off and we will have more than we can eat.  In the meantime, the priority is keeping the soil moist enough that the plants stay alive through the hot weather, this means compost, manure and mulch, by the barrow load, and recycled water for the garden (from our bath and laundry).  Most of the plants that went to seed have finished, and I didn't bother to collect much this year, I just sprinkled the seed back onto the garden so that it will come up again next year, much less time-consuming, as I still have plenty of seed that I saved last year.  I just can't wait to taste my raspberries later in summer.....