Green and hot!

Because there is no source of artificial heating my grow-house 

is a greenhouse and going by this picture it is aptly named!

We are experiencing a heat-wave in southern Australia at the moment, with temperatures up in the high 30's and low 40's celcius...around 100 degrees f.  So the green house is also a very hot house. With all the vents and the door open though, everything in there is surviving and thriving.

This eggplant is called 'fairy' and has lots of small fruit, reputedly sweeter too.  I think I may pick a couple tomorrow and see if they live up to their label.  This is a small plant, and it seems very prolific!

These capsicums are also prolific...they are meant to go yellow, but I have picked a couple of green ones and they have a nice strong flavour and cut nicely into rings that look great in a salad or stir fry.

The bounty...

And yes, they are tigerella tomatoes, not green zebra as I wrote in my previous post.  The zucchini are 'greyzini', and the beans, bush butter beans. 

Pipped...or not

Two of the tomatoes I picked yesterday were from plants I bought at a supermarket and planted early (August 23). I can't remember their name.  I only planted two and passed the rest onto a friend...with the label. The other one was a green zebra (above)...I think, only it isn't green...except for the seeds. It was one I bought in a variety pack of four from Diggers.

At first, I was thrilled when I cut open the other one...no seeds!

Firm, flesh all the way through and full of flavour!

However, as I munched my lunch I got to thinking about the lack of seeds.  

Is this variety one selectively bred by gardeners in the traditional manner, crossing and re-crossing plants with fewer and fewer seeds?  Or is it one of the new genetically manipulated varieties?  

Maybe I will never know, but I  think it is time to take a little more care with what I plant, and record the varieties better.

3 on 1

What a bonza New Year's Day pressie!

Thankyou, Fat Fruit Greenhouse!

Fat Fruit in the Greenhouse

Well the veggie garden at Hazel's is still looking a bit sad.  But the plants in the greenhouse are more than making up for it.  Check these out!  They don't call it a Fat Fruit Greenhouse for nothing!

Breaking with tradition

It bugs me every year that retailers 

(especially supermarkets and the like) 

put out tomato seedlings early...

long before the soil is warm enough for them.  

I always feel sorry for those people who I see at the check-out, 

buying these early seedlings, 

because I feel sure they are doomed to fail.

Where I live, 

the traditional time for planting out tomatoes 

is on the first Tuesday of November.  

This is 'Melbourne Cup Day', 

a public holiday in these parts - for a horse race. 

The race has been dubbed, 

'The Race that Stops a Nation'.  

Well it may stop the nation but it spurs the gardeners into action!   

But I am flouting that tradition!

Last week saw me at the checkout in a certain supermarket with, you guessed it, some tomato seedlings.  If you had seen me, you may have noticed I was looking a little embarrassed in case other people thought I was barking mad.  I fought the urge to explain myself to the check-out girl.  I paid quickly and slunk out of the shop, breathing a huge sigh of relief once I had my purchases safely stowed, in the car, out of sight.

I planted them yesterday...76 days early.  

I planted them in pots...and of course, they are in the Fat Fruit Greenhouse.  

I have also begun planting some seeds...

but that is blog news for another day!

Have you got spring fever already?

Are you having trouble holding yourself back from planting already?

What are you planting?

Tommies

Mmmm!  Maybe some oven dried tomatoes

and some pasta sauce for the freezer

are on the cards.

Garden bounty

First corn

 This is why I love Grosse Lisse...

big and meaty without many seeds.

Tomato, bocconcini, basil, 

with salt and pepper and a drizzle of good olive oil.

Freshly dug potatoes, eggs from the girls, chives and a bit of mayo.

 

Simply fresh picked beans, crumbled feta and a little more olive oil.

Apart from the cheeses, salt and pepper and olive oil...

ALL HOME GROWN... 

now that is what I call a feast.

Don Burke's Tomatoes

I bought a copy of the Burke's Backyard Magazine recently

and it came with free tomato seeds.

WINTER TOMATOES.

A couple of them are tall - one can grow up to 3 metres tall.

There is a black cherry and one that is supposed to set fruit

in temperatures as low as 3 degrees C.

I planted half of them yesterday 

and will put the rest in later in the month.

I am excited!

I think I might have to host a party

in the greenhouse in Winter...

a Tomato Party!

Fat Fruit Friday #13 - A birth announcement

Hazel Dene is thrilled to announce the arrival of

- Grosse Lisse

the first tomato of the season

delivered safely by the Fat Fruit Greenhouse.

New sister for Capsicum and Chilli.

The facts are:

• Two tomatoes were picked.
• The larger one on the left was from the Fat Fruit Greenhouse the other out of the garden.
• Both plants were grafted Grosse Lisse planted at the same time.
• The Greenhouse delivered the larger fruit and the plant has lots more good sized fruit.
• The plant in the garden, although coming a dead heat in the race for first fruit provided a smaller specimen AND has no other fruit set.

So the Green house wins...

AGAIN!

Broad Ripple tomatoes

More capsicums on the way

These seeds germinated in two days in the greenhouse!

A first on the first

I picked the first tomatoes yesterday.

They are were both from Grosse Lisse grafted plants.  

Like all proud parents with a first-born,

I went a little crazy with the camera.

Mind you, my love for these two babies

didn't stop me from gobbling them down

in a sandwich!

Fat Fruit Friday# 12 - Colour!

You would expect to see green in a GREEN-house...this photo is taken from the outside.  

That's a watermelon vine plotting an escape...

...and the green leaves of the cantaloupe which is threatening a take-over.

But there are other colours too.

Like the mauve of the eggplant/aubergine flower...

... the yellow of the ripening Broad Ripple tomatoes.

 The Black Pearl Chilli is living up to its name.

 ...and the excitement of orange on a ripening Grosse Lisse tomato.  

The first for the season.

Best of all...RED!  (This one has already been eaten...sweet!)

But not to worry, the white and green in these photos 

give promise of more to come.

Fat Fruit Friday # 9 - Tomatoes

I am so disappointed with these photos.

They do not do justice to the tomato. 

You can sort of tell how tall it is

by the size of the chair.

Not only is it tall...it is strong!

Look at the girth of those stems.

Here is the one in the garden (they are both grafted Grosse Lisse).

This one is doing very well for a tomato

at this time of the year in Melbourne.

However, it is only half the size of the one in the greenhouse.

This one is climbing
up the racks.

There are three
BroadRipple tomatoes
in this basket.
I had planned to take two out
and plant them outside...
but I ran out of time.

We ate some of the salad greens 

from the polystyrene box last night.  

The first food 

from the greenhouse.  

Yay!  

Footnote:  These photos are a week old...te tomtoes are prbably up to the roof and going out the vent!

Fat Fruit Friday # 8 - Leafy and fruity

Yes, I do know it is Sunday,

but if it is any consolation, these photos

were taken on Friday.

The greenhouse is a wonder!

One capsicum...

...and more on the way.

Salad leaves and...

...huge leaves on the eggplants.

A little tomato and...

...ripening chillis.

Everything is so lush.

Oh, I know I promised pictures of the tomatoes.

But for some reason the computer keeps turning the

photos on the side and they just don't look as 

exciting that way...so next week.