urban vegetable patch

Its cold, its windy and there has been rain -  its winter!

But despite the chill in the air, it is a great time to grow some of those yummy winter vegies.

So far this winter the crop has included growing some brussel sprouts, cauliflower, onions, peas, beans and wombok. And below are some pics of the winter vegie garden in its early stages.

Garlic has also been planted and is up and growing nicely as well.

I have also done a bit of a renovation on the garden area which had the tomatoes. Its been dug up and several handfuls of bio-mustard sown, so that it can be dug in as green manure at a later date. This will make the patch nice and nutritious for the summer vegies.

Plus strawberrys are in, and this year I have been a bit adventourous and have also planted some white strawberries – Strawberry Fraises Des Bois. It will be interesting to see how these go and more importantly how they taste!

Keep an eye on this blog, because since I took these pictures, the cauliflower has grown into nice heads, the brussel sprouts are sprouting and the wombok is hearting… I will post more pictures soon and update on the winter vegie plot soon…

Dwarf Snow Peas - just up out of the ground...

Wombok

Chilli - but something has helped itself and taken a bite - possums??

Bush Beans

2 weeks old garlic in foam boxes

It’s Autumn and that means it’s time to pop those garlic into the ground! Well this is my first time growing them so I don’t really know what to expect. I have read that they one of the easiest things to grow, just sow and forget. Instead of popping them into my main patch, I’ve decided to fill up a medium sized foam box with my special potting mix. (Well, as always, I have a little ‘traffic congestion’ on the main patch. So sorry garlic, you will have to settle with a form box). In goes 6 cloves (pointy bit facing up) and after 2 weeks, green shoots!

Apparently, all I need to do now is to keep the water up and feed them occasionally. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will have nice fat bulbs!  Will keep all posted. Go garlic!

I am slowly becoming known as “the lady that grew her own greens” in my company. I tend to get asked random questions about growing vegetables, which was how it started this rather insightful conversation. One of my workmate asks me if I have any experience in growing garlic. Hmm, well,  no. In fact, it never occur to me to grow some as they are just so freaking cheap in stores – $1 a bag of imported garlic.

As the conversion progresses, I was soon found out that the reason he want to grow was because he is concern about imported garlic were fumigated by Australian quarantine. Excuse me! did I just hear fumigate? Australia has strict quarantine laws about importing wood/timber/bamboo but it just never occur to me that food needs to go through fumigation as well. This is made me question, “Do I know really know what I am serving for dinner?”

I want to believe fumigated garlic is safe for human consumption given that its sold readily in the grocery store but I can’t; If fumigation kills any nasty bugs that lurks within, one can only image what it has done to the garlic. I am no food scientist but you don’t have to be one to exercise common sense. Come this Autumn, I will start growing my own garlic. In the meantime, I will buy Australian grown garlic. At least I know it not fumigated and its grown to Australian standards.

Interesting article in The Age about Imported garic