Harvest Monday

Harvest central time on the balcony garden - it is lettuce, lettuce, lettuce leading the way. I can't tell you how many salads we've been enjoying made from this little pot of lettuce. It never seems to end. My favourite was a smoked salmon salad.

 

We also added some microgreens from this collection as well as a few stray basil leaves from the snail ravaged plants. I figured we may as well enjoy them before the snails finish them off!

Garlic too is beginning to be harvested. The first lot of heads were small, probably not quite ready, but their space was needed and they were wilting so out they came.

And here is a little hint of future harvests ...

With 28 tomato plants in the balcony garden this year, surely we will get at least one delicious little love apple!?!

More harvest posts can be found over at Daphne's Dandelions where she hosts Harvest Monday weekly.

Garlic Breath

Gosh do I love garlic, though it doesn't really like me. It has to be cooked, and cooked well, or I get a little case of the ouchy insides. But never mind that because I love garlic and eat it on a regular basis (leading to rampant garlic breath ... maybe that's why I'm still single ... or it could be the workaholism, alcoholism, and utter nutjobism ... nah totally the garlic!)

It goes in garlic soup, in stir fries, chilli, goodness I even just cook it up and add it to a salad. It is healthy (as viewed in most cultures) and has some medicinal benefits (again seen by most, but not all cultures)

Mike over at Urban Organic Gardener had a great, detailed post on growing garlic - though note for us Aussies, planting time isn't until Autumn, early Winter. Most people follow the rule of planting garlic on the shortest day of the year, and pulling it out on the longest day of the year. It's probably the best rule of thumb, but as usual I throw rules out the window. I planted this year's crops back in April and May and a last lot in June. Most of the tops are dying off now (or have already died off) which means it is ready for harvest.

And harvest I did - well 3 of the pots at least. The spoils were pictured at the beginning of this post. There are about 3 more pots last to harvest. They're small cloves, but boy do they pack a punch. Tasty, bitey yet slightly sweet?!?!? I've been using them where I can and gave a few away to friends. The haul is small, pots don't allow for much soil, so I fertilised these guys often. Maybe I need to plant elephant garlic to get a decent sized clove?!

Garlic takes ages, but it is well worth the wait in my view. And I plant them in slightly shallower pots (probably hurts the size factor) but it means I can layer then around the garden around the bigger pots for variety and a play with height.

Do you grow garlic? Do you have any tips to share? What's your cure for garlic breath?

Harvest Monday

Sorry I have been away for a bit and the blog has fallen silent. I spent Christmas in Adelaide with the folks, and have begun the new year by getting on with the thesis (which is due in August.) Despite the business the garden has not been neglected and it has been awash with a bountiful harvest. Wild strawberries, sweet corn, zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, eggplants, a pumpkin and more. They helped make new years eve a tasty evening and continue to keep me eating healthily. Problem is, you will just have to imagine them, because my camera cord has gone AWOL! If it reappears I'll add some photos, but for now here are some oldies to represent the harvest.

For more harvest posts visit Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday

The harvests have been coming in thick and fast. They consist of quite a few things, zucchini, snowpeas, tomatoes, eggplants and more. Garlic is all out of the ground and drying on the window sill.

For fruits there are the last of the red currants and some strawberries, both wild strawberries and Kurawase strawberries.

and best of all the first tomatoes!

Zucchinis are a constant harvest and in two different colours. Eggplants are small but tasty and just as constant. Four different days, four different combos.

Snowpeas are at their end, as you can see these two got left on the bush a little too long.

For more harvests pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions for harvest Monday

Harvest Monday

Oh it has been a busy week or two, but the balcony garden waits for no postgrad. I've been harvesting quite a bit recently included in this is:

1. A bunch of oddly shaped purple carrots
2. 3 full sized zukes weighing in at over half a kilo and 3 small baby zukes which went in salad

3. lettuce almost every day (I love my salads)

4. Several strawberries of various kinds

5. Two little stems of red currants!
6. Sage for various pumpkin dishes
7. Three small eggplants which went into a curry

8. 1 head of garlic which went into a risotto (yes all of it) and 2 small heads of poorly formed garlic.

Harvest Monday looks set to be even better from here on in. Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions for mnore harvest monday madness.

While I was away ...

Wow, where did the last week go? If anyone knows please tell me because I want it back. Too much uni work, with a few fun social times thrown in for good measure meant this blog got neglected. But the garden certainly was taken care of, and even a few new additions found their way into the fold. I'll post later on that one. In the meantime, above is a shot of the balcony as it was when I returned. Housesitter B did a splendid job and anything grew amazingly while I was away. The before shots can be found in my last few posts, but here are some afters for good measure! Some things blossomed, like one of the apples and a lime and the flowers on the boronia opened to let off a beautiful scent.

The crops got bigger, including the eggplants, corn, zucchinis and garlic while some things like snow peas and beetroots germinated.

The tomatoes, both seedlings inside, and larger plants outside became triffid like.

The currants took on a huge new lease of life.

Others didn't fare so well. The primroses don't like the heat too much, and the nectarine has a terrible case of curly leaf and I have only found one fruit on it so far.

Still not bad for only two weeks! Go my little balcony garden.

Hanging in there

Sorry for the lack of posting in the last week, between writing and giving a paper at a uni conference last Thursday and visiting my parents in Adelaide for Dad's 67th over the weekend I have had little time to think, let alone dwell in and about my balcony garden. Luckily I left it in Capable E's hands over the weekend, and I think he will look after it while I am overseas as well. Excellent. I look forward to harvest Monday next week too - there were some yummy things in that haul I can assure you.

But today I want to show you one strange photo that I found in the mix of 30th birthday photos. Along with the shots of white jacketed men and 1940s women (it was a Casablanca themed party) there appeared this one photo which only proves the photographer was a true garden freak. It was ...

... a picture of my hanging pot of garlic which seems to have a few small coriander plants springing up around it. And the photographic culprit??? It was me! I can't usually see into the hanging pot very easily, and while out taking photos of my trivia friends who had nestled nicely in the back corner bench I must have, in champagne fueled wisdom, worked out a way to check the progress. Ahhhh gardeners, we are an odd bunch at times aren't we!