Thai Pink Egg tomatoes are great for the home garden, especially in areas with warm wet Summers. The fruit is about 5 cm long, egg shaped, and ripens from a pearly grey to pink. Cut, the flesh is contrastingly orange, and the flavour is good, not at all acid, so excellent for salads. I selected this from the seed catalogue for two reasons; it is suited to our climate, and the shape and colour make it ideal for mixed tomato salads. Growing Thai Pink Egg tomatoes As the name suggests,…
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Red Aztec maize
Red Aztec maize is worth growing just for the wow factor. The deep red cobs look great, and I couldn’t resist them from the seed catalogue. I had everything to learn about growing maize, and it’s been an interesting crop, but the first lot of cobs are mature now. From the main picture you can see that they’re not the big, full cobs one might hope for, but with this lot I would at least recover my seed.
Read MoreCleomes
Well these have been worth waiting for! Cleomes were on my wish list of plants to grow, but they have taken a bit of trying. This morning they were catching the early sun so brightly I had to stop and take a photo. I first noticed cleomes in Basel, when I was living there, and was enchanted from first sight. They are not a standard flower in Perth, perhaps they don’t cope with hot dry summers, but in Basel they were in bloom on the path in to the swimming pool in…
Read MoreAcerola
This sweet little tree has just started to rain ripe fruit on our driveway. The acerola is one of those fruits like loquats and cape gooseberries that is suited to eating as you walk past the tree, rather than picking for later. The acerola, Malphigia emarginata, is also called various types of cherry, and I think around here is often called a brazilian cherry. The fruit is juicy and the skin is so thin you don’t need to peel them, making a quick bite a treat The flavour is sweet, aromatic, sharp, and…
Read MoreJanuary harvest
The second half of January has seen the picking season move from just a few items to plenty. My parents were visiting for a couple of weeks and Mum made me this arrangement of a day’s takings.
Read MoreGrowing okra; tough and super productive.
I’m so impressed with okra! They are extraordinarily hardy and bear a consistent yield of pods, they have a long season, and best of all the freshly picked fruit is much better than shop bought pods.
Read MoreSowing into no-dig beds
With another series of rain days forecast, it seems a good opportunity for sowing into no dig beds that I made a few weeks ago. We have been busy with visitors for that time, so yesterday was my first chance to get down and have a look at how the hay rows are doing.
Read MoreHeirloom tomatoes ready to pick
At last our tomatoes are ripening! So today for lunch we are having a freshly picked assortment, seasoned with Majorcan black olive salt, which was a gift from some of our visitors over the break.
Read MoreThree sisters at 10 weeks.
The Three Sisters are one of my experimental plots. Having the space and climate means that I can give things a try, and as I outlined in my previous update, the Three Sisters mix of maize, beans and melons is a technique that I have wondered about, which seems pretty neat and sustainable. The Red Aztec maize that I planted seemed to do well through our dry Spring, and I only watered it when it wilted. The rain finally came nearly 3 weeks ago, and here’s a photo of the…
Read MoreNo-dig beds: A trial.
No-dig beds are a great idea, incorporating easy establishment of new garden beds with minimal disturbance to the soil. Permaculture, intensive horticulture, organic gardening; there are plenty of techniques to follow in your garden, and a purist might decide on one, rigorously apply it, and actively defend or promote it. I’m more interested in what works, and if that means different techniques for different spots, then great.
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