Loofah: vegetable and scrubber in one

This Summer I tried growing loofahs for the first time. I sowed a few seeds in with the green beans and cucumbers thinking that they could share the fence and trellis, and it turned out to be a good strategy. The loofah is a rampant vine, but it is slow to get going in early Summer, so my beans and cucumbers were finished before the loofahs took over. By Autumn my few plants had spread way beyond their bed, and right along the two fences of the vegetable patch available to…

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A new produce basket for collecting the harvest

Our friend Sue gave us this lovely wire produce basket, which she found in a local market. I think it is going to be very handy for collecting produce from the garden. It’s quite sturdy, made of hexagonal weave wire around a rigid frame, with a wooden grip where the two handles meet. I’ve been using whatever comes to hand to collect from the garden, but this is definitely the best so far. Calico bags are handy to carry but everything gets jumbled in, which means that the delicate things…

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First sweetcorn of the season

Sweetcorn can be grown in a marvellously wide range of climates, even far northern parts of the globe where the Summers are short but the days are long. Here in the Southern Subtropics we don’t have those very long summer days, but our climate is also good for growing sweetcorn; it can be started early in Spring and grown till late. This year I am testing the window. At the end of Spring I have already put in several sowings with the aim of having corn to pick right through the warm months.

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Bunching onion flowers, end of season.

Growing onions can be tricky in the subtropics, as the standard varieties need a cold period to form bulbs, but here my bunching onions have been a success. They are like green onions (which are usually immature bulbing onions) and I think they are particularly suited to the sort of risotto / stirfry / ratatouille dishes that we tend to make, with their mild flavour. For stews and roasts I still use brown onions.

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Our kitchen garden; the Mid-levels at one year

It’s a year since we got water to a cleared paddock half way down the hill and the ‘Mid-levels’ garden was begun. After fencing (about 230 square metres) and lot of digging it has become our main kitchen garden. The garden area keeps expanding beyond the original fenced patch, including the addition of two greenhouses and an aquaponics system. Along the way I’ve learned a lot as the seasons made a full turn.

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Cabbages come good in the spring.

It’s a warm climate for cabbages here, and I thought my first Winter crop had failed, but they’ve come good with the Spring sunshine. I’m in the early phase here of trying out what will grow and learning what each crop needs in our conditions. This Winter I added cabbage to the mix. The cultivar I tried was ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’, an early maturing sugarloaf type.

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Growing zucchini ‘Costa Romanesque’

You’ve got to love growing zucchini as a home garden vegetable. They are quick, easy and delicious. This year I’m growing the ‘Costa Romanesque’ cultivar. I have two plants that I started early, and they have raced ahead in the warmer Spring weather. I have been watching them closely to check whether there are both male and female flowers, so was astonished to find this huge first zucchini; either I overlooked it or it grew tremendously overnight.

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