Pots of Gold

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but we're growing gold in the backyard!

At least, that's what Ollie keeps telling me.
We were a bit late getting the bulbs in the pots, but Ollie has really enjoyed the whole process - from planting to watching them sprout.
Imagine his delight when he looks out his bedroom window one day to find they have flowered! Can't wait.

Veg About in January

After being away from home for a week, I was pleased to come home and find that:

a) all the plants were still alive (yay for a wet Melbourne summer), except for a few dead bits on the tomatoes and zucchinis;

b) my zucchinis had not grown into marrows (ewww) as I feared. The zucchini pictured above is about 10cm long;
c) my capsicums are starting to grow to a decent size;
d) the red tomatoes finally turned red; and
e) both the watermelon plants are flowering.
I've really enjoyed my potted vegie garden this season. I think even if I had nothing to harvest from all that I have grown, I'd be happy just to have all this greenery in our bleak concrete backyard. Although this season is far from over (I still have the watermelons and a mini roma that are just flowering), I'm already looking ahead to what I can plant next. At some stage I'd like to do potatoes, leeks, garlic, onions, carrots, broccoli....the list goes on!

Thanks to Annabel for hosting.

Happy New Year!

After doing lots of the above for the last week, I'm back in town. I've just harvested a large crop of cherry tomatoes, both yellow and red, and I've watered all of the very dry looking pots. I'm about to lay out all of my crochet squares - over 100 in all. I have less than one ball of noro left to crochet, then it's time to block and join. I'll post a photo when it's all laid out.

Veg About

Things are coming along nicely - apparently the vegies are enjoying all the rain!

The birds are enjoying the strawberries, so I've covered them with an old lace curtain.
The mini red capsicums are slowly growing, but they are all still green.
There are a few small green tomatoes on the mini red tomato bush,
and an abundance on the yellow! We have been picking one or two a day for the last couple of weeks - so tasty!
The baby red watermelon has started flowering,
and the zucchini's are just about to burst into flower.

Yep, it's all happening in our garden!

Thanks to Bellgirl for hosting.

Veg About

There has been a bit happening in our garden this week. We harvested our first yellow tomato - this time I picked it, and quickly chopped it into quarters so we could all have a taste. So flavoursome! 

The rhubarb is looking fabulous! Great fat stalks this time round, so I'm looking forward to stewing them with some apples for a bit of rhubarb and apple crumble.
I've planted two baby watermelon plants. The baby red went in early in the week, then a friend gave me the baby orange watermelon and a roma tomato later in the week as a birthday gift. 

I think I'm more excited about the watermelon than anything else I've planted this year.

We also have lots of strawberry flowers popping up, which Ollie is very excited about! He must have enjoyed scoffing the first strawberry we grew.
And finally, a photo of my vegie patch! I have eleven green tubs that I grow my fruit, vegies and herbs in, plus another few pots. A few more than when I last revealed my back garden! I still dream about putting down some synthetic grass to reduce the shocking heat in summer, and I guess I'll have to elevate the tubs to get them off the searingly hot concrete before they all fry!

Veg About

My horticultural apprentice and I are very excited to announce that we have found tomatoes and capsicums growing in our garden!

Ollie searching amongst the lettuce for tomatoes

baby capsicums

heaps of green tomatoes

and more!

The rhubarb is also growing back!

I think I may have been a little hasty in letting Ollie know about it, though. Half way through taking the photos my camera batteries died. After repeating several times that we are not going to pick the tomatoes today, I ran in to get a new battery. On my return, I found him rifling through the tomato plant. He jumped away so quickly when he saw me! I'll have to keep a close eye on him!!!

We also harvested our first strawberry yesterday (the other 2 were eaten by birds or bugs). Ollie offered to share with Miss J, and when she declined he shoved it into his mouth so fast that I didn't get a nibble. We have lots more strawberry flowers growing now, so I expect I'll be able to sneak one in the next few weeks when Ollie isn't looking (unless he gets to them first!).

Thanks to Bellgirl for hosting Veg about

Veg About

We have some lovely little flowers in the vegie patch (or trugs) at the moment, so I'm very hopeful for a good harvest at some stage! Both tomato plants are flowering,

as is the capsicum, with these sweet white flowers,
and the lemon thought it would join in the fun. The lemon tree is covered in these little sticky spidery webs and bug carcasses :(
Also, I have spied 2 little strawberries - one poking over the side of the pot, and one buried in the sugar cane mulch. These is even another flower, so we might one-day get a third strawberry! 
It may not be enough for jam, but there will surely be enough for one for each of us.

Haven't heard about Veg About? Head over to Bellgirl to see who's doing what in their gardens this year.

Veg About

Bellgirl is hosting a Veg About - encouraging bloggers to post regularly about their herb and veggie patches.

Mine's not much of a patch - more an assortment of plastic tubs.
They appear to be doing well since I last posted about them here. The lettuce is growing quickly, keeping us well supplied with young succulent leaves. I planted too many, thinking they wouldn't do well, so have started giving it away.
I have two tomato plants, one red and one yellow. The yellow is flowering beautifully, but not a single bloom has appeared on the red. Time will tell.

Stonnington Gardening Fete

It was a busy day for a small boy.

Feeding bunnies...

and chooks.

Sorting rocks...

and sliding.

We missed the Jack Russell Racing, but you can see some funny pictures here. Many thanks to Bellgirl for letting me know about the fete - we had a lovely day out.

Spring planting

Daisies

Mini Red Capsicums and Mixed Lettuce

Mini Tomatoes and more Lettuce

Rhubarb

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, my backyard is small and mostly concrete. What little garden we have out there is growing in pots. So far it has mostly been fruit, veggies and herbs, but I hope to slowly add some flowers to the mix just to make it look a bit less like a.... concrete backyard. 

All of the above, except the rhubarb, was planted today whilst Ollie slept. My hope is that Ollie, Miss J and I can pluck some strawberries/tomatoes/capsicums etc straight from the plant to eat then and there. I'm pretty excited about the tomatoes plants - they don't need to be staked, they will apparently drape over the pot. They'll probably take over the lettuce, but I've got heaps growing.

Strawberry Flowers

Ollie and I are eagerly watching the progress of these little flowers - who will get the strawberries? The birds? The bugs? Or the boy?

Our garden

Our backyard has a little bit of grass down the side of the house, but most of it is just a hot and sunny concrete slab. If I had money to throw away, I'd put down some artificial turf and big pot plants, but I don't, so I have to make do with the budget I have.

This week Ollie and I planted an assortment of fruits, vegies and herbs. Above, I have a dwarf lemon tree in the big brown pot (planted a couple of months ago - it has 17 lemons on it that are growing bigger every week!). We planted spring onions, rocket, baby spinach, rhubarb, parsley, chives, oregano, sage, mint and basil.
This long and boring fence will have two colours of passionfruit growing up it. I need to put something other than the little bits of lattice up on the fence for the passionfruit to grow along. Maybe next week. One of the pots also has a strawberry plant, the other has more chives.

I've never planted so many things at once - usually I just have a pot of chives. I'm happy to just have a play around at this stage - to see what works and what doesn't. Maybe I've planted everything too close? I will soon find out, I'm sure.