The Garden Post

The Good News first...

Sugar Snap Peas and Purple Carrots

This is Sally, our first baby Sugar Snap Pea in the Garden.

Funny isn't it,  how I have trouble Naming my Chooks but I can pull a name out of the air for a veggie!

Anyway, poor Sally doesn't stand much of a chance of maturing to become the big fat juicy pea pod she deserves to be. 

 As you may know, my little helpers tend to snatch baby veg out of the garden like lollies once they have been spotted.   I bought these sugar snaps at my local market on the weekend to show the children that we could have these growing in our garden if they didn't pick our little babies here like Sally!  I know once they discover them they will eat them, as they did the climbing beans, the cucumbers, the carrots, the squash and all the cherry tomatoes. Very little gets onto the table here, which in itself really is not such a bad thing, as a snack on the fresh veg for morning tea is most definitely better for them, then a big fat cream bun! 

 

This has also made me realise just how many plants I will need to plant and how productive they will need to be to be able to properly feed my little big family.

The purple carrots were purchased from a F&V market on the way home from our holidays.  I was so excited to find them, they were labeled locally grown but I didn't think carrots grew at this time of year!? I have a packet of Diggers Carrot Heirloom Mix that I can't wait to get in the ground this Spring.

Picture from the diggers catalogue

I can't believe how much FUN we had eating these carrots!

When you eat them raw, your lips turn purple!  

With my 4 girls this may be a way of saving money on expensive lipstick in the future.

Annabel was on Dinner duties tonight, now that she's 4 1/2 she insisted she peel her own carrots.

I wondered what would happen when we cooked them, would they go Orange?  Sounds silly, but did you know purple beans actually go green when they are cooked!

Ah, there you go, Purple Water.

That got me thinking...With a pot of Chicken Soup simmering away on the stove top next to me, would the children eat purple soup? and maybe purple dipping in bread?

The big kids opted out but the little ones thought it was just Great! There were even seconds!

This is one sure way to get your kids to eat their carrots!

Now lets step out into the garden, 

 Sad to say but there is just not much to report on in the garden today...Very disappointing that my new gardens are not producing for me in the way that I had imagined.  It's really pretty poor actually.  I thought my organic soil I bought in would have been enough to get it started but it appears I'll need to do a bit more work here if I want to get anything  highly productive from my garden.  I don't think anything has grown since my last Garden post, if anything the garden is less productive thanks to the chooks jumping in and having a scratch about, major lack of watering and an attack of Frost!

Today it was garden day, all day. I had a few little helpers with me, we worked the soil,  added Sheep manure, Chook manure, Mushroom compost and then we Mulched!  I've pretty much said goodbye to my winter crops however we did plant a handful of seedlings that I picked up on special at a local nursery yesterday, I can't stand to have my garden so bare anymore.

I've got some grand designs  for watering systems and trellises ready to put into place and am so looking forward to the warmer months of Spring just around the corner to get some major productivity happening in the garden. 

My eldest is also working on a few new low garden beds, we'll get there!

On a final note, I managed to get some Rhubarb Crowns. 

  My dear Mum stumbled across them at her local nursery, I have planted three crowns, so add these to my 10 seedlings, 

and in just a couple of years we should have rhubarb coming out of our ears!  I have visions of selling my excess rhubarb down at the front gate one day, just as we buy ours now.  

I'll leave you today with this link, from a very inspirational blog Farmama and a valuable message to support your local growers.

HAPPY GARDENING