Record

No...not a world record
in giant vegetables .... or athletics (LOL)

and not anything musical.

Just a record of my gardening yesterday.

Potted up:

A dwarf Kaffir Lime,

Cardamon

Cardamon

...and some sick looking tomato seedlings bought at a $2 shop

....they may be an early LOSS of money.

Seeds:

Basil - Yates gourmet mix

Zucchini - Yates Greyzini

Zucchini - Digger's tromboncino

Capsicum - Digger's seven colour mix

Pumpkin - Eden seeds Jap pumpkin (trad, non hybrid)

Pumpkin - Eden seeds Turkish Turban (trad, non hybrid)

Pumpkin - Digger's Potimarron (Rare French)

Tomato - The Lost Seed Broad Ripple Yellow Currant.

I even turned on the sprinklers

and created a rainbow in the potager.

I was dreading the amount of soil/potting mix 

these two large tins were going to require.

Then I discovered that two large plastic

plant pots I had, fitted perfectly.

I am going to use these for seasonal flowers.

So I can have some on the go and then

swap them over....perpetually full planters.

I love Spring!

The word of.....??????

I did a bit more on the Outdoor Kitchen...

See that floor...well it is actually

the bottom shelf under the bench.

Then I heard a voice.

It was a voice IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

It told me I had better plant some seeds.

I looked up to see where the voice was coming from.

The only one there was, Claude.

But it wasn't him speaking...

he was just smiling.

Anyway, I decided I had better heed

the words and I planted some seeds.

Tomatoes: Tommy Toe, Mortgage Buster, Gross Lisse and Roma.

Some eggplants and zucchini.

Well, it is a start.

I hope I never hear THAT VOICE again.

It was scary!

Stressville!

Every Southern Hemisphere blog I read

is raving on about the seeds they have already planted!

Go on...ask me how many I have in.

No, don't ask me!

I can't drag myself away from building

the Outdoor Kitchen!

The Cook can't understand my dilema

and wonders why I don't just plant my seeds.

Because my head is full of the kitchen.

I think about it going to sleep.

I dream about it.

It is the first thing I think of in the morning.

I sit with my breakfast and 

look out of the window at it.

I plan what to do, how to do it

and what order to do it in.

I photograph it.

I talk about it.

I admire it.

I blog about it.

I resist leaving the property...

even to do the most important things

because I don't want to stop!

On Tuesday, the Cook dragged me

screaming and kicking to visit her mother

and to go to a market.

The pain!

So, I succumbed and bought

a mini greenhouse

as suggested by Farmgirl

and endorsed by Veggigobbler.

I even put it together yesterday...

but look!

You will note, it is still empty,

and I have promised three other people 

that I will grow seedlings for them.

Maybe I will plant 

some today.

M A Y B E !

Starting over

Bubba is fine this morning.  The wound on her tail 

has closed and although a little swollen, it looks fine.

I was home alone yesterday 

when the dog attack happened.

I came inside and blogged about it...

your comments and phone calls 

made me feel so much better.

Thank you.

About the veggie garden...

I was initially upset about the goats decimating the veggie patch.

But hey....

I'm so glad to be me and not a farmer 

relying on the crop to support my family

 or living in a country where 

the loss of a few vegetables could spell starvation.

It has prompted me to think about Spring plantings

and I have sorted out my seeds.

Now I am going to spend the afternoon in front of the fire 

with a notepad and the Digger's Heirloom Veggie book.

You do remember the one I won in Ali's competition? 

It came with a wonderful poster that tells when to plant.

 The Eden seed catalogue also came in the mail today...

must be a sign...chuckle.

So I am off to conjure up a Summer Vegetable Paradise.

Wombat

When harvesting winter veggies,

I always think of that old nickname given

to a certain type of man...Wombat.

What! You are not familiar with that

particular Aussie character?

You know, the bloke that eats, roots and leaves?

This lot of veggies ended up in a particularly

delish vegetable pasta recently, using homemade pasta sheets.

The white veggie on top is a white beetroot...

it looked like a beetroot,

tasted like a beetroot,

but was white...quite disconcerting.

I will make another lasagne and post the recipe.

It starred pumpkin and it must be

time for another pumpkin recipe.

Scary post...not for the faint hearted

When I went down into the woods today

and this is what I found

Enormous carrot trees!

When heirloom vegetables go bad!

Luckily I was able to slay them 

before they took over the world

For the non-metrics

So does size matter?

Pumped and a little corny

I am pumped about my PUMPkin harvest.

Yesterday, I picked most of the pumpkins except for another six Queensland Blues which still have green vines.  I will let die off a bit more before I bring them in.  You will see that I have left long stalks on the pumpkins...these will dry off and seal fruit so that there is less chance of mildew.

I think they are just beautiful.

Pottimaron - Diggers heirloom variety

Queensland Blue

Butternut

This year I planted pumpkins and corn together...two of the three sisters.  I did plant some beans with them, but too late.  Next time I will definitely put all the three sisters together.  It was worth doing even with just two of them.  I had the best corn crop I have ever grown...at least two big cobs on each stalk, and the pumpkins did well too.

When I pulled them out their roots were entwined in a sisterly embrace.  Don't you love the cleverness of corn with its buttress roots to hold the stalk up.

 There were a few cobs that were past their best, but the chookies loved them.  Nothing goes to waste here!

Carrot lucky dip

The Cook is using some of the larger carrots to make carrot and walnut loaves for the freezer.  It is The Gardener's job to collect some carrots, wash them and grate them (goodness knows why).  

I love pulling the heirloom carrots because I never know what I am going to get.  There seems to be four colours, yellow, white, cream, and crimson with orange innards.  The orange carrots are not heirloom.

Orange, white and crimson

Creamy white

Orange and yellow.

They all TASTE like carrots!

Yesterday's harvest

I forgot to photograph yesterday's harvest before it was in the pan on it's way to being Spaghetti Giardino.

Lazy housewife beans, heirloom carrot, capsicum, corn, red onion, garlic, daikon radish, tomato, parsley, and thyme.

Heirloom beauty

I weeded the carrot bed the other day and had to thin the heirloom carrots.  

There are many good reasons to grow heirloom veggies but I think I will definitely grow these again just because they are so pretty...

....and delicious.