Tomato feast!

The end of daylight savings officially heralds the end of summer and the shift into winter. For my beloved tomato plants the shift came a little earlier. After watching them struggle to ripen I took my Mum's advice and picked them and placed them on the windowsill. 

After a few weeks they had magically changed colour!

Arriving home from work one night, hungry and tired, I threw the newly-ripened tomatoes into a hastily-invented dish: potato, chorizo, tomato and rocket on toast - with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and sprinkling of shaved parmesan cheese. Delicious, satisfying - and the tomatoes were divine!

Have a Happy Easter! I hope the Easter Bunny hides lots of chocolates around your own garden.

Toma(y)to, Toma(h)to

There's no denying that home-grown tomatoes easily kick the arse of supermarket ones. Once your taste buds become spoilt by the burst of flavour, the plastic-tasting supermarket varieties don't really hit the spot (for an extreme analogy, I imagine it is like heroin addicts switching to methadone - still okay, but not quite what you're after). 

The last time I wrote the wind was whipping my plants into a frenzy and my flatmate had dragged some inside to protect them. My tomato plants spent a few days looking drained from the ordeal and I worried that they wouldn't recover. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw some fruit appear! 

 

At last count I had a dozen of these babies. Now I just need to be patient and wait for them to ripen.

In other tomato news, my Dad has grown the Costoluto Genovese variety this year. Perhaps I have been a bit sheltered in my exposure to tomatoes, but I have never seen these before. Looking more like a capsicum than your traditional tomato, this bright red baby has a nicely balanced flavour. 

Finally, why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing! (I will forgive you if you decide to throw some tomatoes at me for that - just make sure they're home-grown.)

Celebrity Garden - My Parents

We've had some proper hot summer weather of late and the plants seem to be loving it. The herbs are plentiful, the tomatoes have flowers and will hopefully fruit soon and the mexican cucumber plant has almost outgrown its pot. All was on course to upload some pics of fabulous-looking plants. But yesterday was wild and windy and the plants took a bit of a beating. The flatmate brought a few pots inside as the sight of them being blown around upset her a little. Unfortunately the Violas are attached to the railing so couldn't be moved and today they look a little tired and sad. Hopefully the sunshine over the next few days helps them to perk up a little.

So in the absence of healthy plants of my own I've decided to dedicate this post to my parent's garden (perhaps not the celebrities promised in the heading, but they are very well-known in my family). This is what can happen when a backyard is in the equation. Corn, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries and more grow here. My parents and grandparents have always had something growing in the garden, I guess it's just been continuing our Ukrainian farming heritage (spuds are the family specialty). It's taken some time for the gardening gene to kick in with me, but I seem to be getting there. 

Practically enough corn to run through or at least hide a small child in. 

Tomatoes are 1000 times more tasty when eaten seconds after being picked - like nature's candy. 

Crack open the corn and be rewarded with a taste sensation. This little beauty came from the garden, was steamed and eaten as part of my dinner. No butter or salt needed, was delicious enough on it's own. 

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some tomatoes of my own to show, but until then I'll keep raiding my parent's garden. 

Some flowers for fun

When I started on this gardening caper I had no idea that I would be giving people present ideas. With another gardening-related present received for my Birthday it seems that people are paying attention to my new hobby. Thanks!

My lovely desk-neighbour at work and fellow Green Thumb surprised me with a vertical planter that attaches to a wall - a perfect solution to the lack of ground space on the balcony. It also has the snazzy name of 'polanter' which I quite like.  

I decided to plant some flowers to add colour to the balcony and attract bees to help pollinate plants. Besides, what girl doesn't like flowers? I chose Violas simply because I thought they looked pretty. 

The next task was to assemble the integrated watering system and install it in the polanter. I am grateful for the many flatpack furniture items that I have had to assemble in my time, as the experience gained in deciphering vague instructions was invaluable to putting the damn thing together. 


Then it came time to actually plant my flowers. I was told to begin with a bit of gravel in the bottom to help with drainage. It may surprise you to know that I don't have any gravel lying around. I considered skipping this step, then spied the gravel in the laneway behind my place that had spilled over from a building site. I think this is the first time that I have been grateful for all the building and renovation happening in my neighbourhood. I went down and nonchalantly collected some gravel while the neighbours peered at me through their curtains. 

With the gravel nestled in the bottom of the polanter I proceeded to fill it up with soil and plants. Then I attached it to my railing and now get to look at this pretty sight on my balcony! 

I made a carrot!

I returned home from Christmas with the family well-fed and happy with a few gardening items in my swag of gifts. Santa (still believe, get more presents that way) gave me The Edible Balcony by Indira Naidoo and from my sister I received some microgreens which according to the box are a 'great gift of nature'. 

My lovely Dad gave me some tomato seedlings upon request - a variety of red, black and yellow and these are now enjoying hanging out on the very crowded balcony. 

But the most exciting moment was when I inquisitively pulled up a carrot to see if anything was going on under the soil, and this knobbly little stumpy thing appeared. While it looked like a baby's finger, it tasted sweet and fresh - not at all how I imagine a baby's finger would taste. And with that very wrong thought, I shall leave you all to have a Happy New Year. 

'Tis the season of gardening

To those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the next exciting instalment in my garden adventures I apologise - it has been quite awhile since my last post. This is partly due to the fact that plants grow pretty slowly, and partly due to my laziness in both writing and tending to my plants. Since my last post I have discovered that summer is not as kind to the garden as spring. Warmer days and less rain combined with lack of attention have resulted in a few lettuces dying, but in the circle of life my flatmate has sprinkled some lettuce seeds around and new shoots have sprung up. Nice to know that when it comes to gardening there are always second chances (and third, fourth, fifth...). 

Another ingenious thing that my flatmate has done is put up some netting so our plants don't get sizzled in the afternoon sun. I'm glad that one of us is taking care of things on the balcony. 

It is Christmas Eve so I would like to switch my focus from my dying plants to the lovely garden gifts I have received over the past couple of month. A friend from work gave me some terracotta garden stakes for lettuce, carrots and tomatoes. These babies have nice large writing and pictures so there's no mistake about what is growing and as a bonus they don't blow away in the wind like the piddly little plastic labels have. 

I had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner about a month ago and they came bearing a gift of a Mexican Cucumber plant. It produces sweet & sour flavoured cucumbers, no need for pickling! At first it was a pot of dirt with a trellis stuck in it, but after a few days some little leaves burst through the surface to say hello. 

Now it seems to be pretty happy with its new home on top of the old TV (plant doesn't like the cold so won't do well outside in Melbourne's temperamental climate; TV is way too heavy to carry down the stairs so lives in the corner of the lounge room). I can't wait for when it starts producing tasty little cucumbers!

On the giving side, a friend recently moved house and I gave her a lettuce that I had lovingly reared from seeds as a housewarming gift. I hope it is happy in its new home and provides her with lots of leaves for yummy salads. 

And that's where I shall end this (Santa is about to sing a song with Hi-5 on Carols in the Domain - a performance that only happens once a year and cannot be missed). Have a Happy Christmas, eat well and be good to one another. I'll be back in the New Year with more tales from my vegie patch xxx. 

Mother Nature Knows Best

I must confess that I haven't been the most conscientious gardener of late. I could make up excuses about the weather being bad or about how my amazing social life has kept me out of the garden, but the truth is I just haven't really been bothered. My patience started to wane waiting for plants to mature and I must confess that my twice-daily chats to the plants seem to have dropped to twice-weekly. So imagine my surprise when I returned from holiday to see that the plants have continued to grow under the care of Mother Nature, who is giving them the right combination of sunshine and rain for optimum growth. 

What was most exciting was seeing a couple of little shoots from my Snow on the Mountain. I was just about ready to give up on this plant as watering a pot of dirt was starting to feel a little pointless, but it seems that the flowers were just biding their time. 

In other news, I've finally used something other than the herbs in my cooking. Tonight I had tacos for dinner and my lettuce got a chance to shine! Well, it was more like a backing dancer to the spicy jalapenos, homemade guacamole, salsa etc. But let's face it, without the lettuce it just wouldn't have been a proper taco. Delicioso!