January Vege Garden Round Up

We have been eating beans off this vine almost every night since we got back from our honeymoon. They are delicious lightly cooked, with butter salt and pepper. Most nights I throw them in on top of the carrots, yum! You can see the tomatoes in the background, but they are not doing so well. They have a bit of blight and are not staked properly. They got away a bit while we were away. We should get a few off them though, but may need to buy some in for sauce and relish. Does anyone know of a good place to buy bulk tomatoes in the Auckland area?

As I lopped into the peach branches overhanging the vege garden I thought I should really take some before photos, but wrapped in the moment I didn't! There was a big branch skimming the tops of these silverbeet and tomatoes, poor things didn't get much of a chance to grow upwards! I'm sure they will come away quickly now that they have more light!

I pulled out lots of weeds and lettuce that was going to seed from this space and planted the first of the winter brassicas, some broccoli. I also have some purple cauliflower to put in, and I need to get sowing the next succession. I picked these seedlings up from the garden centre to get a head start, but try and grow as much from seed as possible.



The purple sprouting broccoli is getting going, though I think it may be bolting due to lack of water. I will have to add it to my watering routine. I use the water out of the washing machine and bucket it to the garden. I keep meaning to take the hose into Mitre 10 to see if I can get a fitting to pipe it straight out to the garden, it would make it so much easier! In front of the broccoli you can see my parsnips. They are growing straight, but are still very small, about the thickness of my little finger. I am reluctant to start thinning them before we can cook and use the thinnings, maybe the next time we have a roast I will add the thinnings for a crispy treat. How I love roast parsnip! Between the parsnip and broccoli you might be able to see some silverbeet? It is getting a bit crowded by the big broccoli- I need to learn to space things further apart. You can't see them but there are also a row of carrots which we are enjoying eating and two rows of onions almost ready to be pulled. The tops are just starting to brown off now.



In this space I pulled out some beetroot, I will roast them for tea tonight, yum! I think they are the stripy ones from kings seeds, so will be interested to see the inside of them. There had also been a courgette here, and lots of weeds which I pulled out. I planted two rows of red stemmed silverbeet, with a row of beetroot in between. Maybe you can see the small red seedling by my foot? Hopefully I will harvest the beetroot and give the silverbeet more room in a few months. I am still getting the hang of this succession thing! I also planted a couple of rows of mesclun leaves to see us through a bit with lettuce. I have some lettuce seedlings also to plant, and must also sow some more. All the lettuce I had in the garden bolted while we were away over summer- it was too hot and they didn't get enough water.

This gives you an idea of the mess my garden is in. I need to dig this over, I want to put some seed potatoes in the areas where there had been lawn. The corn is nearly ripe, I think we will be eating the first cobs in a week or two. In front you can see some kumara plants. Have you ever grown kumara? It sends out runners you have to keep lifting up to prevent them setting roots- if that happens you will just get lots of leaves and not much of the tasty root underneath. I'm not sure if I should be mounding them up, but they look happy enough. They take 5-6 months to give a crop, so I am looking forward to roast kumara, potatoes, carrots and parsnip from our garden in the winter months.

Well done if you are still with me after all that! Remember the giveaway for some fibre is still running till tomorrow morning...leave me a comment!