I’m a bit late with my end of May post, my excuse is that I’m doing quite a bit of paid work from home at the moment and unfortunately it needs to take precedence over blogging. A sad state of affairs indeed. What were neither sad nor sorry were my fruit harvests in May. Loads of tamarillos, some feijoas from footpath, my first ever orange and my first ever lime all made for a very happy month on the fruit front.
Then there’s the potential. Not only are there: more oranges on the tree, meyer lemons which are almost ripe and more limes to come:
There’s also the promise of berries. This is lovely new growth on my most recent fruity acquisitions – 3 blueberries that I am growing in pots.
May saw the end of most of my summer crops but I do still have a couple of eggplants producing – I doubt they will last much longer though.
As far as winter crops go: the garlic and broad beans are both up. The peas have emerged and the shallots have sent their shoots up above the pea straw mulch.
The brassicas are starting to look promising: The broccoli is heading up and the raddichio is hearting nicely.
But its the red cabbages which I always enjoy watching grow the most. I really like the colour of their leaves and stems – very pretty.
It will be a long while before these are ready though. What’s growing well in your garden at the moment?
Tomatoes and peppers are growing well in my garden 🙂 I love your citrus. My meyer lemon still has little lemons on it but it has dropped several and I am not sure why but I hope it keeps some.
My citrus drop fruit too – I always assume its because that’s all they want to carry at a given time – but why thats all they want I don’t know.
The radicchio is so pretty.
How exciting to have grown your own orange. My blueberries have been a washout for the last couple of years, but the bushes are laden this year, they just need to ripen now and then I need to get to them before the blackbirds do.
I’ve never grown them before and i have to say I’m pretty excited to see hwo they go for me.
I’m feeling pessimistic about this year’s fruit.
Thats no good Sue. Hope it works out better than you expect. Is it the cool weather or the rain thats most problematic?
If it was warmer – the plants would thrive better but if it was drier we would be able to get out and do more.
I think the really cold snap didn’t help when the fruit as we hacd plenty of blossom, then much of what did set fell off after promising a harvest.
Weather is such a pain sometimes!
I’m intrigued by the tiny little chillis! Things doing well in my garden right now include rice, water-chestnut and watercress… in other words, it’s WET round here.
They are a tiny birds eye variety – i like how they look but I have to say I do wish they were a little bigger. they are pretty hot though.
Well, even though it is supposed to be summer here, it might as well be early spring: cold, clouds, rain, sleet and hail. The lettuces are loving it and need cutting every couple of days. The kale and collards have established their roots and are now growing. Chard and mustard are are getting big. Everything else is sitting there waiting for summer to arrive.
I hope it comes soon for you. Your current crops sound very similar to mine despite the seasonal difference.
Mind is similiar to your winter crop Liz except it is growing in a slow pace: Oakleaf lecttuce, Garlic, Asian green Bok Choy, Coriander, Red Cabbages, Peas, Brocollini (Baby Brocolli F1), Brocolli, Spinash, Rockets, Beets, Silverbeets and Pansies seedlings.
I’ve just planted the Desiree potatoes in the bags, not sure if it’s too early since we are rarely having frost in Melbourne.
Mine have taken awhile too – with the exception of the Bok Choy we are pretty much growing the same things. I do have some onions and shallots in though. Oh and cauliflower. I’ve been experimenting with potato planting times all year and I have quite a few plants on the go at the moment. I reckon yours will be fine. I’ll be interested in how they turn out though as I seem to have something of a potato obsession at the moment.
I have those tiny chillis too. Yep, they are hot but they are a bit fiddly. I’m sad to say that I am very late with getting the broccoli in so I hope they will do okay.
As far as what’s producing right now – chillis, celery, silverbeet, rocket, carrots, parsnip (still a bit small) and lots and lots of parsley and a few other herbs.
I am impressed with your lime. I have one in a tub and it hasn’t produced anything yet, but it’s still quite young. A colleague who I see occasionally lives at Lakes Entrance which is rather warmer (and drier) than here. He brought me in over SEVENTY limes yesterday! I promised to give him more than a few jars of lime and chilli chutney that I’ll make with them.
OOOO 70 limes – how fabulous!!! I have to admit I didn’t actually harvest many of the tiny chillies this year – I had too many bigger ones to bother. I wont re sow seed but if it gets through the winter I’ll start feeding it again because I do think the plants are pretty.
Yes, fabulous but now I need to process them! I don’t have a lot of time just now but they should keep in the fridge for quite a while.
So, apart from chutney, would you happen to have any great lime recipes up your sleeve?? I must say, they look (and smell) perfect! Hardly a blemish on them.
I’ve made marmalade with them in the past but otherwise no – I’ve never been fortunate enough to have many at any point. Hopefully I will in the future though.
Oh and I think broccoli will be fine planted now – if you plant seedlings they should be ready late winter (hopefully before the aphids return…..).
Hi Liz,
The photos are lovely, I especially like the tamarillo with their beautiful red.
I have the same crops growing as Yvonne and concur with slow growth however the chard is ready for another round of your lovely gnocchi (yummmmm). Despite building an enclosed structure around our broccoli a possum managed to teleport itself in (and out) last night and gorge itself on our plants! Boo hoo he ate the entire crop of 18 plus plants last year. He has had a munch on the snow peas too.
I am not sure if my Cat Kevin is keeping the possums, rats & birds off our backyard or not, we had the ringtail small possums partying along the fences and next door’s gumtree every night but they don’t seem to keen on eating anything off my vegie patch.
I’d give him a special pat because he’s clearly doing a good job.
Oh no!!!! Grrrrr – Hmmm perhaps you need something he likes to eat more than your food plants. A tamarillo perhaps????
Wish I could grow citrus in New York. Will be planting radicchio this year. Tried growing it a few years back and was not happy with the results, I understand I should grow it as a fall crop, will see.
My raddichio had been doing really well but recently a couple of the plants have started to rot. I still have a couple of good ones though – it seems it can be quite temperamental.
I’m still incredibly jealous of all the fruit you’ve gotten! Simply wonderful!
Our tomatillos have really exploded over the past couple of days…as has our bio-intensive experimental bed (bush beans, beets and sweet corn) and our potatoes. I’m amazed every time I walk outside!
Spring/Summer is great like that isn’t it. I love the growth rates.
I’ve planted red cabbage for the first time this year – can’t wait! In our house we have a traditional Scandinavian dish that I make with it at Christmas and and for some reason we never buy it at any other time of the year, it just seems connected in my mind with Christmas. So I’m really excited that we’ll be eating it more than just once this year!!
Although I don’t eat it particularly at Christmas I know what you mean – I don’t see it often in the shops I guess and when I do I don’t tend to think of buying it but growing it is great.
How do you usually enjoy your feijoas?
I received some, but not sure what to do with it.
Our red red cabbage grown in summer did not work out well thanks to aphids. The one growing in fall look promising but it too soon to say anything about it. Yes it is very pretty plant.
So many type fruits to harvest from your garden.
I usually eat mine raw. There’s a local cafe that serves great samosas and the lady there makes a beautiful fig and feijoa chutney (Indian style). It is absolutely delcious – I need to try and get her to give me a recipe.
I am continually envious of your tamarillos! My crops doing well at present are my snow peas, spring onions, lemons, lemons, lemons, fennel and savoy cabbage – small heads but yummy! Need to do a little more planting actually, there are a few empty spaces in the patch. Might get my bok choi in and some more fennel.
Oh so jealous of your lemons – I need to start singing to my tree.
Gorgeous stuff!! I’m just transplanting right now. Put the tomatoes in, almost passed out from the heat today (don’t know why – I can usually stand the heat – maybe I’m getting sick or something?) and need to put all the peppers later in the week. I’m finding that I’m always a little late, but guess it’s all ok in the end. I did harvest some garlic and beets today.
I find garlic is always particularly exciting to harvest. Putting them in late probably means you’ll have good crops long after everyone elses have given up which will be nice!