good things - Liz Posmyk
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • My book
  • Writing & Media
  • FAQs

Kitchen Garden in March: A Vignette

3/3/2012

 

Kitchen Garden in March: A Vignette

When Peter arrived home after five days in Darwin, he was amazed at how the kitchen garden had grown. After one or two beautifully warm days, followed by days of steady rain, we now have quite a jungle on our hands. Our main worry is a combination of snails en masse, lack of sunshine to ripen the last of the tomatoes, and the massive amounts of rain that are turning our strawberries to mush and splitting the best of the tomatoes. Still, we keen kitchen gardeners will soldier on. Here's a little vignette of the kitchen garden that we would like to share with you:
Left to right: The photo top left illustrates part of the kitchen garden, our latest beds are the corrugated plastic ones converted from a compost bin Peter bought at the recycling depot! He cut it into two, down the middle and voila, two beaut little beds. The strawberry bed still has masses of flowers, bruised by the rain, as you can see. We have several little bunches of celery, which are making good progress. 

Middle rows: Our cucumbers have kept us well supplied. The womboks are a little on the lacy side, thanks to snails and cabbage moth, but they are nevertheless growing well. Our mint plants, which are in pots buried in the garden, are giving us lovely leaves to work with. We have chillies, scores of them! Two have already turned red. We are still picking palm sized strawberries, but even as I write this it is teeming with rain out there, so most will turn to mush before they can ripen! Similarly, due to the lack of sunshine this season, the last and best of our tomatoes probably won't get the chance to ripen. 

Bottom row: In the courtyard in pots, we have (a few) olives, grapes, Vietnamese mint and other potted herbs. I picked the last little bunch of Isabella grapes this morning and they were outstanding in flavour! After being burnt to a crisp during 30 degree days while we were in Sydney in January, the Vietnamese mint has come back with a flurry of growth.

How are your fruits and vegetables coping this season? What are you growing and what is your most bountiful producer?
Eucale link
2/3/2012 02:44:49 pm

lovely post. Just love urban horticulture! My beans and herbs are going great. Lots of tomatoes...but majority still green. Making chutney soon I think!

Lizzy
2/3/2012 02:48:30 pm

Thanks Eucale! I am hearing you on the green tomato chutney! Love that your beans are doing so well. Mine didn't make it this year! Thanks so much for popping in!

Moya link
2/3/2012 06:15:07 pm

Your garden produce looks wonderful and so do your photographs. I grow a small amount of herbs and a few tomatoes. I have a lemon tree... still learning on that one! Our date palm trees produce a great abundance of fruit each year and they are so delicious! :)

Lizzy
2/3/2012 10:47:31 pm

Moya, welcome! Thank you. Oh, a lemon tree, how fantastic... and date palms! I will investigate your blog further to see pictures and details!

celia link
3/3/2012 08:47:00 am

Beautiful photos, Lizzy, and haven't your cukes done well! Our garden is really struggling with the wet and lack of sun, although we have a new plant of Lebanese cucumbers that's just starting to produce.. :)

Lizzy
3/3/2012 10:18:53 am

Thanks Celia! The cucumbers offer up a surprise every few days... they are growing as quickly as zucchinis do and we are finding mini zeppelins. Our garden will be struggling now too, it is just slush out there today!

Tenille @ My Family Table link
3/3/2012 10:09:21 pm

My Vietnamese mint is loving this weather and has settled in nicely (it's new). I haven't cooked with it yet, do you have any favourite recipes?)

Lizzy
4/3/2012 06:15:15 am

Hello Tenille... so far I have used it in fresh Vietnamese spring rolls and also my Goi Ga. Peter is not terribly fond of it, so I have had to limit its use ; (

Maureen link
3/3/2012 10:11:40 pm

i only have herbs and they are all in pots outside my kitchen door. I miss my big garden. Love yours!

Lizzy
4/3/2012 06:16:47 am

Oh Maureen, having lived in a townhouse for a few years, I can imagine. Our kitchen garden is not terribly huge, but we are loving it!

Misky link
3/3/2012 10:59:20 pm

I can't wait for my garden to start growing edibles!

- Misky

Lizzy
4/3/2012 06:18:05 am

Misky, I bet! It is truly a pleasure to pick your own vegetables. Even this morning as I prepare my lunch, I'm using home grown lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes (well, what's left of the tiny toms after the rain!).

heidi link
4/3/2012 01:02:53 am

It is such a pleasure just to look at your garden pictures. :) Thanks so much for sharing so many pictures! Outside, here, today- there is a light snow- starting to cover the ground. Spring and gardens seem so far away. :(

Lizzy
4/3/2012 06:19:35 am

Thank you, Heidi, that is very sweet of you to say. You are most welcome. I had started taking shots of the garden and posting them, as I thought it was interesting to share the progress. Light snow, how delicious!

InTolerant Chef link
4/3/2012 08:16:19 am

It all looks lovely, healthy and productive. I'm a bit scared to look out there today after all the rain this week. I hope everything survived! Here's hoping for some sun!

Lizzy
4/3/2012 01:23:08 pm

Hi there... I am crossing my fingers for your garden. We have SUNSHINE today, yay! Perhaps things will now flourish after all the rain. My issue at present is snails, gah! We should have coffee sometime!

InTolerant Chef
5/3/2012 07:38:13 am

Anytime Lizzy, just shoot me over an email. I'm still off work, so my days are mostly free and I'd love to meet 'real' you!

Claire @ Claire K Creations link
5/3/2012 07:00:07 pm

Despite what you say about the weather your garden looks wonderful. I'm very interested to see what you do with those olives.

Lizzy
5/3/2012 08:40:38 pm

Thanks Claire! We are loving it. Hoping for a few sunny days to ripen those last tomatoes! Hate waste. Hmmm. The olives, there is only about 8-12 of them in total... not sure if it's worth doing anything this year or waiting for the next season and hoping for more...

Lizzy
5/3/2012 08:42:30 pm

In response to ' Anytime Lizzy, just shoot me over an email. I'm still off work, so my days are mostly free and I'd love to meet 'real' you!' I would like to meet you too. Crazy busy at work right now, but will do!

Laura (Tutti Dolci) link
8/3/2012 04:35:17 am

Love your garden! I don't have space for a large vegetable garden, but I do grow tomatoes, herbs, and citrus in a few pots. There's nothing like eating vine-ripened tomatoes you've grown yourself - they taste like the very essence of summer!

Lizzy
8/3/2012 06:29:01 am

Hi Laura! Our plots are not terribly large, but they do produce well. Now, if only it would stop raining, the last of our tomatoes might happen to ripen. We had no summer so speak of this year. Thanks so much for popping in!

Liz link
10/3/2012 01:53:10 am

Your photos are getting me excited for summer! I miss my fresh herbs! Have a wonderful weekend~

Lizzy
10/3/2012 10:58:52 am

Hi Liz... I bet you are looking forward to summer! Bring it on baby!

Mrs_Mulberry link
10/3/2012 08:40:12 am

Gorgeous garden LIzzy and great photos! Really enjoyed this post : )

Lizzy
10/3/2012 10:59:04 am

Thank you, Mrs M!


Comments are closed.

    Welcome...

    Üdvözölöm
    Photo of Liz Posmyk, Food Writer, Cook and Traveller

    ​Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion.
    ​
    Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers
    and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks
    ​and cooking.
    ​
    - Liz Posmyk

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    All
    Anzac
    Apple Growers
    Australia
    Australian Producers
    Autumn
    Baking
    Beverages
    Biscuits
    Book Reviews
    Bread
    Breakfast
    Butter
    Cakes & Slices
    Canberra
    Charmaine Solomon
    Cheese
    Chestnuts
    Christmas
    Cocktails
    Coffee
    Conversations
    Cookies
    Cookware
    Cuisine Companion
    Curries
    Dairy Products
    Desserts
    Diet
    Dough
    Drink Blog
    Easter
    Edible Gifts
    Eggs
    Egg Safety
    Essays
    Events
    Favourite Flavours
    Fish
    Food News
    Food TV
    Food Verse
    Fruit
    Giveaways
    Good Things Favourites
    Growers & Producers
    Guest Post
    Health
    Hummus
    Hungarian Recipe
    Ice Cream
    In My Kitchen
    Kids In The Kitchen
    Kitchen Garden
    Markets
    Meat
    Muffins
    Musings
    My Book
    My Family
    New Year
    Noodles
    Nuts
    Observations
    Olives
    Pancakes
    Pasta
    Pastry
    Pepe Saya
    Pink Martini
    Pizza
    Polenta
    Postcards And Morsels
    Poultry
    Preserves
    Prize Giveaways
    Prunes
    Reminiscences
    Retro
    Reviews
    Rice
    Ricotta
    Salad
    Salads
    Sandwiches
    Sauce
    Seafood
    Slow Cooking
    Snacks
    Soups
    Stop Hunger Start Cooking
    Sydney
    Tefal
    Thanksgiving
    Thank You
    The Barber From Budapest
    Tofu
    Travel
    Truffles
    Tweatup510064f8ec
    Tzatziki
    Valentines Day
    Vegetables
    Vinnies Christmas Appeal


    NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes. 

    Picture
    Winner ABC's 2015 Australia Cooks competition, ACT (mains category)
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Meet the Chefs - recipes featured on Australian Asparagus Council website

Good Things is written and published by Liz Posmyk © 2011-2020.   All rights reserved.
Excerpts may be used provided that full and clear credit is given. Thank you.


Photos used under Creative Commons from alantankenghoe, riptheskull, David Jackmanson, Amani Hasan, SuntanMidori, oropeza, Annie Mole, Vegan Feast Catering, avlxyz, jeffreyw, mockstar, jenly, Syeefa Jay, pizzodisevo (therapy - terapia - Therapie), ginnerobot, cliff1066™, Jim, the Photographer
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • My book
  • Writing & Media
  • FAQs