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! 

Plant them and they will grow

One of my biggest joys at the moment is going into the gardening section of a store, to gaze at the myriad of pots and gardening accessories while inhaling the crisp aroma of fertiliser, and imagine the amazing things I can grow in the future. It was on one of these occasions recently that I found myself in Kmart and discovered just how cheap their prices really are these days. I walked away with a watering can (hurrah!) and a self-watering pot (which kind of defeats the purpose of the watering can). 

Back home on the balcony my lettuce was growing like crazy, as were the carrots. It was time to separate them out a little. 

My gardening-savvy flatmate is now back from her overseas jaunt and thus was able to play the role of photographer so you get some action shots this week. She also offered advice as I worked. 

She recommended using the hand-rake thing to make even holes in the soil to put the seedlings into. 

As I worked away to separate the seedlings and transfer them to their new home, Garden-Savvy Flatmate (GSF) looked quizzically at the pots and asked: Did you plant a whole packet of seeds? 

Me: Yes

GSF: Yeah, you don't really need to do that. 

Me: Oh...well, I didn't think that they would grow.

And thus I learnt that a pot does not need a whole packet of seeds. The smarter thing would have been to plant a few, then a few weeks later plant a few more to have a longer-lasting crop. You live you learn. I ended up popping some lettuce seedlings into some small plastic pots and plan to give them away to people once they mature a bit more - no better way to spread the gardening joy!

How does your garden grow?

It's been two weeks since I sowed my seeds. Every day I have dutifully put my chilli seeds outside for a day in the sun and taken them in of an evening (just like a pet). Apparently they don't like the cold and can't handle being outside until the weather is constantly above 20 degrees. As I live in Melbourne, I doubt that this will ever happen and I will forever be carting pots in and out of the house. 

My sister told me that plants like it when you talk to them, so in the morning when I'm putting the chilli outside I say hello to my plants and wish them a happy day, and in the evening when I take the chilli inside I ask the plants if they enjoyed the sunshine/rain/had a good day. I think I am developing the reputation of 'that strange girl on the top floor' as some people in the building are starting to avoid eye contact with me. But I don't really care as my plants seem to like it and lo-and-behold, I have some growth! 

Here is my lettuce after the first week:

    

This week we have had some heavy rain (love it, as it means I don't have to water the plants and/or the neighbours) so I didn't head outside for a few days. Seemed that the plants loved the soaking and this morning when I went outside my lettuce had flourished beyond my wildest dreams. I think it's time I separated the seedlings into a few different pots. 

The carrots have also decided to make an appearance. For some reason I find this quite magical. I love how carrots grow under the soil and it's not until you pull them up that you discover what they've turned out like. 

The Snow on the Mountain is yet to make an appearance but I'm quietly confident that it'll happen soon. On the herb side of things, my coriander is thriving and my parsley has a new lease on life, but unfortunately the basil seedling decided it didn't like its new home and has withered and died. Oh well, guess you can't win 'em all. 

Getting Dirty

Today was a beautiful Spring day, one that just insists that you get outside and enjoy the sunshine because this is Melbourne and tomorrow could just as easily be cold and rainy. 

I spent the last week reading up on gardening advice and decided to try my hand at growing some lettuce (most purchased go bad before I can eat one so like the idea of having instant access to lettuce leaves), chilli (to add that extra kick to my cooking), carrots (pulling carrots out of the soil appealed to me) and update my herbs with some coriander and basil. I was quietly proud of myself for starting small and having a bit of a mix while not being too ambitious and attempting to grow every vegetable possible. 

After taking 20 minutes to pick an 'I am a cool, young urbanite who also knows what to do in the garden' outfit I headed to Bunnings. I timed my visit to coincide with lunchtime so I had a good excuse to buy food from the sausage sizzle. After handing over my $2.50 toward the local kinder and being told that the sausage was hot so to be careful while I ate it, I entered The Bunnings Zone. (For those of you who aren't aware of The Bunnings Zone, it is a vortex that runs on a different time scale to the rest of the world and before you know it you have spent two hours and $200 on things you never realised you needed. A similar experience can be had at Ikea.) I had a list, I knew what I wanted, yet I still stood in front of a BBQ for 15 minutes trying to convince myself that there was room for one on my teeny-tiny balcony. Luckily reason won out and I forced myself into the gardening section. 

My purchases:

• gardening gloves (essential)
• gardening tools (probably only needed one or two tools, but I liked the idea of buying a pack. Made me feel somehow more official as a gardener.)
• potting mix (bought the one that proclaimed on the front that it gave the best start to my seedlings. I liked the idea that the soil knew what it was doing, even if I didn't.)
• carrot seeds (a popular and adaptable variety)
• lettuce/mixed salad leaves (easy to grow, colourful mix that promised 'lively salads' upon harvest)
• chilli seeds (HOT Caribbean Blend)
• coriander and basil seedlings (for that 'instant garden' feeling)
• two pots (I took half an hour walking up-and-down the pot wall trying to decide on colour) 

After being served by one of the friendliest people ever I loaded my car feeling confident that I had everything I needed to start emulating 'The Good Life'. Unfortunately, my seedlings tipped over in my car on the way home spilling dirt all over my boot - I apologised to them profusely and promised that very soon I would put them in some soil that would take good care of them. 

Once upstairs I changed into some gardening clothes, rueing the fact that I don't own overalls or gumboots as to me these seem like essential gardening attire. I potted and sowed according to the book's instructions. I had particular fun propagating my chilli seeds in empty toilet paper rolls. 

A year or so ago my Mum planted a selection of herbs for me in a self-watering pot. I tidied this up and added my basil and coriander seedlings alongside the robust parsley and mint that was still growing despite enormous neglect. The pot now looks more how it was when my Mum gave it to me.

 

It wasn't all about the edible plants though as I remembered some Snow-on-the-mountain seeds that had come from my grandma via my brother and sister-in-law as part of their bonbonniere when they got married earlier this year. These got planted as well to add some diversity to my garden. 

Trouble arose when I realised that the only watering can I own is a tiny plastic one from when I was a child. I improvised with a big saucepan of water, but this resulted in some flooding of the pot and water dripping from my third-floor balcony onto the neighbours below. I then switched to using the kettle, sprinkling water through my fingers to create that 'spray' effect, which seemed to work better. 

So, now I once again have pots of dirt on my balcony but with a bit of luck I'll have something to harvest in a couple of months. I just have to be patient. And buy a watering can. 

Awakening the gardener within

My current sad attempt at a garden

Today I have decided to start a kick-arse garden of pots on my balcony. Currently, my 'garden' is a sad affair with an array of herbs in pots in varying stages of decay. But today I was in Readings and saw The Little Veggie Patch Co. by Fabian Capomolla and Mat Pember (Plum Press). Flicking through it woke my inner gardener and I bought myself a copy without a second thought. I have spent the afternoon familiarising myself with the fundamentals of veggie patches, and am itching to get my hands dirty. Watch this space.