A Walk through the Garden ~ 27.9.13

 Dear friends, this post is a little late - just as I was about to hit 'publish' a few days ago, I saw that we had run out of internet:-( 

I just love spring gardens.  I love how, though the earth may look bare, underneath the surface where no human eye can see, there is life and activity. 

Seeds are germinating, fruit trees blossoming and crops grown through winter like broad beans and peas, start producing in abundance. 

This is the stage we find ourselves in right now.  As last year we were still in the midst of moving house and coping with my being ill which kept me (and the rest of the family) out of action for about a month, we didn’t have a ‘spring garden’ at all.  What joy to still be in the same place a full year later and ready to begin a new growing season feeling good, healthy and very excited! 

The weather has only now begun to warm up, so just a few of the seeds I planted at the end of August have grown.  

On Sunday I planted trays and trays of herb, flower and leafy green seeds.  I only planted squash, butternut, pumpkin and brinjal about a week ago and I’m still waiting for them to germinate.  When speaking to a gardening neighbour the other day, I was surprised to hear that she only begins planting summer crops after the spring equinox – it is just too chilly here to plant any earlier.  But nevertheless, the runner and bush beans are growing steadily as well as the radish (oh how I love growing this rewarding crop) and beetroot. 

In Mom’s garden, (she has a small kitchen garden to the side of the house which is made up of lots of truck tyres and wood chips to fill the walkways) there is another crop of beetroot, a bed of carrots and a bed full of Swiss chard.

My first batch of little seedlings will be ready to plant out shortly.  Spring is such a lovely busy time in the garden and most days I don’t want to do anything else other than potter about in the sunshine:-)

But now let me share a few photographs with you…:-)

 

 Beautiful beetroot seedlings…  Don’t they make you feel so happy?

 Radish – I just love crops like these!  They are dead easy to grow and look so pretty dotted in amongst other crops.  We love the radish in salads and our guinea pigs enjoy eating the leaves!

 

 Broad beans are in full flower and producing such amazing pods.  I made broad bean fritters the other day from beans given to us by our neighbor, but I’m getting quite excited about our own now.  The pods are about 15cm long already and the little beans inside are just so sweet and juicy!  If you have some fabulous recipes you would like to share, please comment!

 Who doesn’t love the sight and smell of lavender?  I love all the varieties, a lot of which we have growing in our garden.

 Nasturtiums add such gorgeous colour to any garden and act as super veggie protectors!

 This is the first time growing runner beans in the garden…  The bush bean seeds I planted a week and a bit ago are also almost all up.  Exciting times ahead:-)

My mom and I are also so desperate for lovely flowers in our garden, so I made sure I planted many different seeds.  So far I have sown Aster, Cosmos, Poppy, Foxglove, Forget-Me-Not, Delphinium, Phlox, Viola and Dahlia.  Now we just have to wait for them to poke their leafy heads out of the soil.

We made sure we ordered packets of lots of different herbs such as Red Rubin Basil, Sage, English Thyme, Tarragon, Tansy and Oregano.  As for veggies, there are all sorts to be grown!  Hopefully next time I’ll be able to share a few more photos with you!

How is your garden growing?  What crops are you most determined to successfully grow this season?

Happy gardening,

Kelly-Anne