Vegetables Archives - SpadeRunner

Loofah: vegetable and scrubber in one

June 6, 2016 Stephen Carlin

This Summer I tried growing loofahs for the first time. I sowed a few seeds in with the green beans and cucumbers thinking that they could share the fence and trellis, and it turned out to be a good strategy. The loofah is a rampant vine, but it is slow to get going in early Summer, so my beans and cucumbers were finished before the loofahs took over. By Autumn my few plants had spread way beyond their bed, and right along the two fences of the vegetable patch available to…

A new produce basket for collecting the harvest

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 Stephen Carlin

Our friend Sue gave us this lovely wire produce basket, which she found in a local market. I think it is going to be very handy for collecting produce from the garden. It’s quite sturdy, made of hexagonal weave wire around a rigid frame, with a wooden grip where the two handles meet. I’ve been using whatever comes to hand to collect from the garden, but this is definitely the best so far. Calico bags are handy to carry but everything gets jumbled in, which means that the delicate things…

Snake beans to black eyed peas; beans for humid Summers

February 1, 2016September 4, 2017 Stephen Carlin

I used to pass snake beans by in the green grocer, mainly because they weren’t a familiar vegetable, but also because I didn’t imagine that the long floppy ropes of bean could be as tasty as the standard round and flat green beans. I was wrong, and they are a great crop for humid summers.

Zucchini flowers, making the most of the crop.

January 29, 2016 Stephen Carlin

Zucchini flowers seem like an extravagance, using flowers now that you could pick as fruit later. This year though I have watched dozens of zucchini flowers open and fade without any fruit production at all. So I have realised that picking the flowers is actually a good use of the crop, giving possibly as much yield as waiting for the fruit.

First sweetcorn of the season

January 11, 2016April 15, 2016 Stephen Carlin

Sweetcorn can be grown in a marvellously wide range of climates, even far northern parts of the globe where the Summers are short but the days are long. Here in the Southern Subtropics we don’t have those very long summer days, but our climate is also good for growing sweetcorn; it can be started early in Spring and grown till late. This year I am testing the window. At the end of Spring I have already put in several sowings with the aim of having corn to pick right through the warm months.

Bunching onion flowers, end of season.

January 9, 2016 Stephen Carlin

Growing onions can be tricky in the subtropics, as the standard varieties need a cold period to form bulbs, but here my bunching onions have been a success. They are like green onions (which are usually immature bulbing onions) and I think they are particularly suited to the sort of risotto / stirfry / ratatouille dishes that we tend to make, with their mild flavour. For stews and roasts I still use brown onions.

Baby carrot harvest; using thinnings

January 4, 2016 Stephen Carlin

As my rows of carrots grow I occasionally remember to thin some out to make room for the main crop. The thinnings make a handy baby carrot crop for the kitchen.

Our kitchen garden; the Mid-levels at one year

November 9, 2015December 14, 2015 Stephen Carlin

It’s a year since we got water to a cleared paddock half way down the hill and the ‘Mid-levels’ garden was begun. After fencing (about 230 square metres) and lot of digging it has become our main kitchen garden. The garden area keeps expanding beyond the original fenced patch, including the addition of two greenhouses and an aquaponics system. Along the way I’ve learned a lot as the seasons made a full turn.

Cabbages come good in the spring.

November 5, 2015December 14, 2015 Stephen Carlin

It’s a warm climate for cabbages here, and I thought my first Winter crop had failed, but they’ve come good with the Spring sunshine. I’m in the early phase here of trying out what will grow and learning what each crop needs in our conditions. This Winter I added cabbage to the mix. The cultivar I tried was ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’, an early maturing sugarloaf type.

Growing zucchini ‘Costa Romanesque’

October 12, 2015December 27, 2015 Stephen Carlin

You’ve got to love growing zucchini as a home garden vegetable. They are quick, easy and delicious. This year I’m growing the ‘Costa Romanesque’ cultivar. I have two plants that I started early, and they have raced ahead in the warmer Spring weather. I have been watching them closely to check whether there are both male and female flowers, so was astonished to find this huge first zucchini; either I overlooked it or it grew tremendously overnight.