Sunday, September 26, 2010

Vertically growing in spring

 Nasturtium in front of our kitchen window is conquering all the space. What a dilemma it has given me ;(1) Oh how many type of vegetable I can grow there, (2) The nasturtium is just starting to give us a show of beautiful flowers.  Should I leave the nasturtium alone or pull it out to make way for warm loving vegetables.

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Early this week when I came home from school, I was surprised to see the nasturtium is climbing the kitchen wall. Mik, my cousin had made a trellis and carefully tie the nasturtium  up towards the rope she  made along the kitchen wall. Mik said now she can have something to see whenever she washes the dishes.  Meanwhile I can grow something new on the kitchen vegetable patch.  Today the new member of this kitchen patch that I introduce was Australia brown onions, Early Long Purple eggplant, cherry type tomatoes and komatsuna. They are at least 10 type of plants growing in this kitchen patch now ~Musselburgh leeks, Topweight carrots, celeries, viola, pepper, polyanthus, cineraria, coriander,ect.

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I hope nasturtium bright colours will attract important pollinators to the garden.

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Telephone peas trellis upper part broken due to strong wind earlier this month. The peas has been helpful producing lots of bribe for Ilhan to quickly finish his meal. I have trouble convincing Ilhan to eat meat nowadays. He is like half-vegetarian. Since Ilhan likes peas very much, I mix the peas with chicken or meat so he have a balance diet for kids his age. My friends have been asking me how did I made my boys eats their vegetable. Well, it started when I start to grow vegetable organically. It is a wonder how Ilhan can differentiate the vegetable that we grow and supermarket ones.  Maybe because young children has more sensitive taste bud. Adults have many died cells I reckon. We are thinking to replace the peas with one of cucurbit family next month. Must repair the trellis first.

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This pea plants growing vertically in this trellis has start to produce one flower this morning.So don’t worry Ilhan we still have some pea for you before summer comes and its too hot to grow peas.

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Taller than the fence now this pea plants near the cinerarias peeking over the neighbour backyard.

peas trellisChili harvested during winter left hanging to dry. Calendula flowers left to dry to collect seeds.

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10 comments:

One said...

Hi! It's really good to know your kids love the veggie you plant. Your Nasturtiums look great against the wall.

Makarimi Abdullah said...

It's very nice veggie garden.

takaeko said...

こんにちは。
やっと涼しくなったので、本日やっと秋冬野菜の第一弾として白菜の苗を植えてきました。今年の日本の冬は”厳冬”予測らしいのであたたかい鍋ものが欠かせません。花、超綺麗です。

In Osaka temperature is getting cool at last and allows us to plant young plants of Chinese cabbage for the first preparation of winter vegetables.
This year's winter are forecasted to be "severely cold" and Nabe (a hot stew in a pot) is "a must"!!
Your flowers are so beautiful!!

rainfield61 said...

We simply cannot survive without chilly. lol.

yuzie said...

u do have green fingers!every morning before i start my work..i must read your blog.feels like i visit my own garden hehehe..

Peas don't grow in summer?is it mean it can't grow in malaysia?i just sow peas seedling into veggie patch.I can't wait to see the first flower coming out.

Btw,is it hydreagea blooming near the peas?

Stephanie said...

That's a good chilly harvest! I thought the chillies need the sun to dry.

Looks like Ilhan loves your veges so much that he can tell the difference between what's bought and grown. I am sure the vege you grow is a lot tastier!

Your nasturtium is looking great :-D

Wendy said...

nice solution to allow the nasturtium to climb. Great garden - the chilis look great. It also reminds me to harvest mine!

miruku said...

It's interesting to see you dry the chilies. Do you collect the seeds from that? Or do you use them for cooking??
Happy gardening.

kitchen flavours said...

Ilhan sure is a clever boy! You have a good harvest of chillies. It is interesting the way you dry the chillies. The nasturtium bright orange colour is very attractive. It's lovely that you have a mixture of flowers and vegetables in your garden patch. Good planning!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Yuzie~ Cineraria blooming near the peas. I am not sure about peas growing in Malaysia , I have not meet a person that grow them in Malaysia. It will depend on the weather or environment I think. I tried growing them in mid spring last year but they won't grow, they become stunted and died, so I assume it was because too warm for peas. But I am eager to hear how your peas are growing so please update me.

Stephanie~ I dried the chilies under the sun first. Now I just keep them hanging under the shed.

Milka ~ For cooking:)