The celery of the lettuce family is called celtuce. It’s been selected for its stems, rather than the leaves, but the young leaves are also good for salads. Sowing seeds too thickly is a common error, especially for me, but fortunately with lettuce you can salvage the situation by thinning them out and using the thinnings for salad. We have been having celtuce as a salad lately, and also for cooking, as I thin out my lettuce bed in favour of standard lettuce.
Read MoreMoss curled endive was a treat vegetable when we were living in an apartment. I didn’t often see ones that looked appealing to buy, and they can be tough and bitter. In Sydney they tend to be sold with the outer leaves pulled back and tied together, so they look a bit odd and inside-out. These ones from the garden have been quiet achievers. I sowed them back at the end of May and they sat in their half-row, not doing much but surviving the dry weather well. As with most…
Read MoreWe have fenced the veggie garden. It became a priority because the broad beans I had sown in a rough bed came through earlier than expected, and the sprouts were being eaten by chickens and possibly night -time visitors. Fortunately my parents arrived on Thursday, and they have more experience than I with fencing, so they helped get a chicken wire fence round the developing veggie patch. It’s not your classic patch, as there is no level ground of any size, so the far corner of the rectangle goes way…
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