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The garden is lush and happy.

And so are we! It’s been a while since I’ve given an update – the last time all our plants were only seedlings! Well, we’ve had quite a few harvests now from the garden, we’ve had plenty of lettuce and herbs like parsley, coriander and basil, thyme, dill, and also other fun things like standard/frenchbreakfast/scarlet radishes (which are easy and I recommend everyone grow them!), kale, spinach, beetroots, snowpeas, french red spring onions, strawberries, bok choy and purple carrots.

Strawberries – we have 3 different types in there now. We get maybe 1 strawberry a week at the moment – but it is very satisfying!

Beetroot and Kale

Spinach on the left and Lettuces, a big cabbage, mint, and two bok choy at the front there.

Snow Peas!! (for some reason I am the most excited about these babies) and Spring Onions. I don’t think I’ll ever buy spring onions again. These are just too tasty!

We planted purple carrot seedlings with mild success. They are in the garden for such a long time (100 days) and by the end you really don’t know if they are going to work or not (not like other things that sit above the surface) Some of them were lovely and big, others were still very tiny or a bit twisted. I think we’ll try carrots once more, but might try other things that yield more and faster.

We used the lettuces, spring onion, parsley, carrots and eggs (from the chooks) in this lovely lunch. The tomatoes are from a market stall that moves between the Jan Powers Markets and the Kelvin Grove Markets. We kept a couple of the older tomatoes, removed and washed the seeds and grew little seedlings from them. We have them in little seed pots waiting to be put into the garden.

It is so satisfying eating food produced in your own garden. 

It is so fresh. So Alive.

If you want to have a go at a garden, remember, it’s really easy – it’s just important to:

1. Prepare the soil – you want the soil to be lovely rich and light with lots of compost and a layer of mulch (sugar cane mulch is good) on top.
2. Water it – when it’s being established – every day. Then once it looks happy every couple of days or so. Just keep an eye on it
3. Weed it -surprisingly this is my favourite part. When you’re weeding you get to spend time relaxing in the warm sun, watching the other plants growing. It’s great to get your hands in the soil.
4. Feed it – Fertilise – we’re just using store-bought stuff at the moment, every 2 weeks. But the plan is to get a worm farm… one day. This makes a MASSIVE difference in the amount of growth.
5. Love it – this is the most important ingredient. Show it a bit of love everyday. Observe and explore the garden, check for new growth. Watch the bees pollinate the flowers. Learn.  Be proud of your garden. Thank it for its produce – “My what a beautiful tomato! Thank you!” I sound like a tree-hugging hippy - but it works.

The greatest thing is that we are still learning and slowly understanding what works the best. Some vegetables thrive, others are a little slower. Even the positioning of the plants in the same garden can change how things grow. It’s really exciting to learn and I can’t wait for the next round of plantings.