My Garden Shoes...

Ok, confession time. See these grotty old stinkers?...They are my garden shoes! I know they are shocking and that I needed to replace them many miles ago but I love them! Rain, hail, wet or shine...if Im not in bare feet, Im wearing these air conditioned beauties, they are so comfortable!

Gifts From Mother Nature...

Harvest from a few nights back, tomatoes, courgette and cape gooseberries for dessert.

Here we have a bag drying of completely organic, 100% NZ grown catnip "the good stuff" as I affectionately refer to it. I am getting back into making nip pillows again and this is the third good trim so I am hoping I will have enough to make plenty.

Just picked cape gooseberries, banana peppers and green and black bell peppers.

The Pennyroyal seedlings given to me a few weeks ago and settling in well in the hanging basket near the back door.

Low acid Amish paste tomatoes, peppers, baby onions, baby new Urenika potatoes, banana peppers and courgette chunks ready to go into the oven...yum!

The strawberries seem to like their new wooden planter and seem to have had a little growth spurt in the last week, the white pineapple strawberry seed is still not growing yet though.

Tonight's tomatoes needed a bigger bowl, these warmer days are getting them cranking and on my plate. Fresh eggs and tomatoes make such a tasty quick tea...

Went an spent the afternoon with my nana yesterday and she sent me home with some lovely looking lemons and some sweet tasting plums. Finally I got to use my treasured old flagons and made a nice sugar free, lemon cordial to put in the fridge for a refreshing thirst quencher.

I have the last of eight trays of dried plums in the dehydrator as I type, they make the most deliciously tangy-sweet snack with no other ingredients than fruit. Once the plums are finished i will put the tomatoes and chillies in  and then anything I can get my hands on!

Sugar's New House...

First this humble little abode belonged to my brothers dog "Blue", then I revamped into a snugly house for the chooks...then the other day I finally got around to doing a few renovations on it (demolition mostly) and it is now the perfect nook for the stroppy vegetarian who resides in the back yard. She is tethered but has a good length of chain to free range from her house anytime she wants and her waistline is growing along with her freedom...

Other Random Stuff...

I finally found some larger bits of broken concrete for my garden pavers...means my big hooves won't flatten the soil down now. Their rambling appearance gives a inviting welcome and strangely the garden doesn't seem smaller even though quite a bit of it is lost to the pavers.It breaks the garden up and I know I wont be squishing plants underfoot when doing my rounds.

One of the capsicum plants that over-wintered from last year, both survived and are producing well even though they probably could have done with re-potting. Sweet and flavoursome.

A few cape gooseberry berries. They do turn a much brighter orange colour if left on the bush and their lantern like cases become papery and skeletal but they are just so tangy and delicious I can't seem to leave them long enough! 

Now the girls are all laying again and the garden goodies are growing, its nice to be able to take little gifts to friends and family of eggs, veges or preserves. I also made half a dozen jars of blackberry jam the other day so the pantry is looking happier and I have the dehydrator ready for fruit chips, leather and other snacks of the moisture-less kind.

At first I thought these looked like a Hungarian wax pepper but seeing as I have never had those seeds, I can only conclude that it is a stray banana pepper that somehow ended up in the middle of my capsicum garden...they were very tasty anyway.

Our newest family member, Friday. Don't be fooled by the sugary photo, she is a little demon...

The first of the oil seed pumpkins, smaller than I expected but there are many varieties, some only as big as a softball. Its taking a fair bit of control not to cut one open and see whats inside.They have gone from shades of greens to having an orangy tinge to them.

Bloomin Beautiful...

A luffa bloom, still wet from some welcome summer rain...

These striking little dainties are from the golden egg eggplants...

One of the sunflowers destined for my Grandads garden...

Slow Roasted Vegetables And Pasta...

Amish paste tomatoes, cherry chillies, courgettes, green and purple capsicums, radish's, shallot onions (not in pic) and banana chillies from the garden...

Sliced, seasoned with some sea salt and black pepper and slow roasted in the oven until slightly charred and caramelised...

And then mixed into a bowl of good pasta...divine!

A Meander Around The Garden...

We are well into February and that means long hot days, summer goodies, outdoor jobs and seed saving. At this moment I have around twenty brown paper bags with different seeds in hanging around random places in my house as well as having to use one of my washing bags (the small netting bags for delicates) to dry all off the sunflower seeds properly.

I have brown bags, envelopes and enough small zip bags to sink a ship (Ok, so maybe its not THAT bad?) but its bad enough that Ive up-sized my seed storage to at least twice what it was and is now on its way to being full as well...From my garden I have already bagged some beautiful looking garlic corms, broad beans, onwards peas-delicious!, Indian corn, bell capsicum, banana pepper, black capsicum, sunflowers, chives, cat mint, coriander, calendula, marigolds, borage, banana passionfruit, mountain pawpaw...

The Fruits Of Thy Labour...

 At the moment I am planting, building, weeding, harvesting, and spreading myself around to ensure everyone gets the attention they need right now. Due to our scorching summer heat the garden is needing extra care to ensure it doesn't frazzle to a crisp like the lawns are doing. After the success of my reclaimed pallet wood planter, I have now got twice as much wood to de-nail after spotting four bins on the side of the road on my way into town last week. There was a nice selection of different bits so I am hoping for another planter and a "food is free" box for up on the street from this lot because the will be lots to share soon.

The sunflowers are growing great guns, they are all a very good height though some flower heads are smaller than others. It will be interesting to see how they end up in the end....ooh, and I have a brilliant idea to stop those pesky birds from eating them before I get a chance to pull them down.

I decided the other night to bandicoot my potatoes just to see what I could nab to put with my tea, not much but the first are always the tastiest! Also cut some fresh fordhook, beans and the first yellow beauty courgette that was big enough to do something with...although many more aren't far behind.

Today I picked the first ripe tomato and the first cob of painted mountain corn, it looked gorgeous...all these pretty blood red ruby coloured kernels. Very glad I planted another lot of seedlings a few days back, they have doubled their growth in just those days of being in.

I also have my garlic stored in a cool, dry spot in the pantry, the peas are thoroughly dried for next season, I harvested some coriander, borage seed and some other bits. I have lots of shallots and more garlic I pulled out today but the are much smaller.