Divine July Gardening

Gardening in July is very enjoyable.

The pests are minimal, we have pleasant weather and the weeds are scarce.
Vegetables such as broccoli, snow peas and cauliflower grow better at this time then any other season.

            This is the first sign of Spring!

Pink Peach blossoms on the first day of August.

These are advanced Pak and Bok Choi plants.

 Baby bok choi and baby pak choi. 

 When you are doing a stir fry, pick the outer leaves and let the rest continue to grow.

 Freshness at it's best!

These Cavendish Bananas are slowly turning lighter, a long way from yellow, but delightfully maturing.

Look at these delightful white snow pea flowers.

You can eat the tender shoots (the tip of the plant) but in a few weeks we will be picking lovely fresh snow peas.  Crisp, firm  and delectable.  Wonderful  for blanching for 1 minute, chopping up finely into salads or stir frying quickly with your dinner.

Note the old fence my husband was given, this reminds me of school  but it is perfect for climbing plants such as snow peas.

Broccoli plants keep reshooting
providing endless broccolini stems
for many weeks.  Easy to grow,
these are hardy and invaluable
as everybody likes broccoli.

Red cabbages, dense and delightful.  Shredded finely for salads or braised with cider vinegar and sugar.

Garlic chives, very handy for stir fries, fried rice and noodle dishes.
One clump will continue to grow for years, they also grow well in a pot and are particularly fragrant.

You may think it strange but I can watch bees for ages.  Look at the pollen sacs on the back legs, fully laden, it will tire this little bee out returning to the hive with this load.  I can smell honey and know Spring will ensure good honey.

Edible Pandanus to the left, this one is doing well. It's predecessor rotted in a pot, but this one in the ground has two  baby pups already.
On the right are grape vine cuttings, taken when the leaves dropped and the vine was pruned.  Grapes for good health and next year, hopefully good wine.

Our Winter tomatoes taste better than any you can buy during Winter.  

The tomatoes are sweet, red and delicious.  Not quite Summer sun drenched but still wonderful.

Seeds sprouting on the left of many vegetables in anticipation of our Spring garden.

A big bunch of broad beans.  Enough for us, my parents, my brother and close friends.
Giving is sharing and it is easy to grow more than you need to spread the joy of gardening.

                                              I love  Papaya! 

I ate Papaya for the first time in Fiji where the bright red fruit was sweet and delectable.
I hope we can do justice to it here in New South Wales. 

 Note the bird netting, which will be increased when the fruit starts to ripen.

This tree was planted six months ago at which time it was 30cm high.  

I will definitely keep updating the Papaya photographs.

So this is the bulk of our July garden.  We still have beautiful kale, so picturesque and healthy but gardening seasonally ensures  you get the most benefit from what grows well during each period.

Home Made Biscotti

Biscotti

These gorgeous Biscotti are a delightful kitchen staple.  
Great for dipping into Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

I had the most beautiful walk along the break wall prior to work this morning.  Half a dozen young men board riding on Tuncurry beach, a full, waning tide and other happy walkers who cheerfully received and proffered  a ‘good morning’ comment.  






Fishermen in the channel, some serious ones had a live bait tank with bait fish and three nice Mulloway trophies framed on the grass.  
One lone man swimming laps in the rockpool on the lake side. 

 It is such a picturesque, gorgeous scene and this memory will sustain me through this lovely working day.

It is moments like these that create peace and contentment, much like munching on crisp biscotti.

Biscotti

250g castor sugar
60g butter, softened
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
400g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
150g  almonds
3 tablespoons sweet wine or sweet sherry


Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Mix butter and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth.  Add the grated zest of 1 lemon, 2 eggs then beat well by hand with a spoon.  Mix in flour, sifted baking powder and salt.  Mix in the whole almonds and sweet wine gently until just combined.
Line a baking tray with paper or a silicon sheet.  
Form 3 equal log shapes out of the mixture, dusting your hands with flour and making them roughly 5cm wide by 20cm long.  Place on baking tray and cook for 20 minutes until they are lightly golden and firm.
Remove from the oven and slice, while still warm, at a slight angle, about 1.5cm wide biscuits.  A serrated knife works well.
Place biscuits, cut side up, onto fresh ungreased baking trays.  Put back in the oven for about 10 minutes to firm up, remove when fully cooked but not browned.
Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container when cold.  These will keep for two weeks.

Biscotti loaves

Lovely biscotti, perfect for anytime of the day.
Buon appetito Merryn

Wild Ducks and Kookaburras

I have just discovered that the best way to be really busy at work is to start a blog.
Thinking to share my love of cooking and gardening I have been taking more photos than normal this year.
Planning to spend my spare free quiet time at work recording my different life passions and obsessions has been incredibly worth while (not only because work is busier than ever).  Usually winter months are a little slower but not so this year, which could be a good indicator for our nations' economic recovery, but not so encouraging, apparently, for newbie food bloggers.

Just last week I noticed these gorgeous wild ducks had come to visit our garden.

At first there were two ...

Then on the next day we had four ...

Then slowly but surely, we had many more!
It is delightful seeing them meander around our garden.
They love the milky thistle weed depicted in the lower left hand corner of this photograph.

Then I spotted Kookaburras on the tomato frame.

This one was only temporarily alone before he rejoined his family ...

This brightened an overcast day so much and reminds me how lucky we are to live in such healthy surroundings with the beauty of nature and flora.

Mind you, my husband weeded the milky thistle weed yesterday so I, for one, will be quite happy if the ducks now enjoy the lettuce patch :D

My June Garden

Winter is a Gardener's Delight

We have already passed the shortest day of the year on the mid north coast of New South Wales and now each day gains 1 minute of sunshine each afternoon.  This is a wonderful gardening season with so many vegetables and fruits in season.

Look at these gorgeous cabbages, simply bursting with colour and flavour.

They are growing in a bed with other brassicas - broccoli and cauliflower.

Here are broccoli plants, so easy to grow and when you cut the main head, other smaller stalks will grow, much like broccolini so you get longevity from each plant.  

We will be harvesting broccoli for at least the next 6 weeks, the slimmer buds will last another month after that and are just as delicious.  We also have seedling plants grown from seed to start in another bed to ensure continual broccoli for the next few months.

On the right is one of our cauliflower plants in the same bed.  The lovely white cauliflower heads are yet to appear, these plants have been growing for 6 weeks and we will start harvesting cauliflowers about 4 - 6 weeks from now.

This lemonade tree has been in the ground for 2 years.  It produced 3 lemonades last year and this year has many more.  I have picked one and they will be ripening for the next month, with one or two ready every week.  Then it will be pruned before Spring to encourage strong branches.

This Kumquat tree was purchased last December and it is already bursting with fresh, sweet, edible Kumquats.

What an abundant Kale patch!  Kale is so versatile and so easy to grow. You could plant it in a pot and pick the leaves as needed.





Who said you can't grow tomatoes in winter?
We live halfway between Sydney and Coffs Harbour and grow beautiful red tomatoes all year long in front of a north facing brick wall that gets sun continually all day long.

The lemon tree has a magnificent crop of lemons this year.

Our lovely Cavendish bananas are nearly fully formed and will be perfect for eating in approx 8 weeks' time.

This is our baby bok choi patch.
Note the use of plastic PET bottles to help them get established.  These plastic bottles stay on the fledgling seedlings for 2 weeks to help them grow and protect them from the chickens.

You can pick individual leaves from the pak choi or pluck the entire vegetable for cooking.

Spinach is a staple in our garden.  Grown all year long it is a very useful and easy to grow vegetable.

Celery as well is great in Summer for salads and wonderful in winter for soups and stir fries.
Pick the stems and leaves as needed.  Also wonderful for growing in a pot.

 This is a loquat tree my husband planted and this Winter is the first time I have tasted one!  It is an evergreen tree and the fruit is yellow and sweet.  You eat the skin as well as the flesh which surrounds one or two semi large seeds.  An absolutely delicious delight.

Here are fledgling broad beans.  About 30cm high now, they will crop in another 8 weeks.
We have started off more seeds to ensure this vegetable is available for the next four months.

Here a bee is collecting pollen from the Thai basil plant (also known as holy basil)  

to take back to the hive.  Thai basil grows abundantly in the warmer months and dies back in winter. 

 It is yet to die back but our Winter has so far been quite warm.

  It rejuvenates in Spring and the leaves burst forth from the naked plant stems.  

Sorrel and lettuce grow all year around and are an invaluable addition to any garden.

Sorrel on the left and various lettuces, iceberg, red oak and green coral lettuce grow with spinach and celery.   We plant marigolds to help deter insect pests and place golf balls to deter the white moths from laying their eggs on the leaves.


These are the highlights of our winter June garden and it is so rewarding growing these gorgeous vegetables, watching the fruits grow and ripen on the trees and enjoying the wonder of nature.