Verona Purple Savoy Cabbage

I like purple colour very much. So when I was making decision to try a new variety for winter last year the verona purple savoy cabbage caught my interest. The first time I saw a savoy cabbage was here in Adelaide. Found very fascinating that there are cabbage with wrinkle leaves (Savoy~ A cabbage of hardy variety with densely wrinkled leaves). I like the sweetness of savoy cabbage. This is the first savoy cabbage variety  we grown and it was an interesting experience with trial and error. The first error I made was the sowing time. The first batch that I transplanted bolted. Sometime you just have to try your own sowing time instead of following the instruction. Followed the instruction at first did not get favourable result with the first sowing batch in winter bolted. Because I can be very stubborn at times, I sowed some seeds in winter~early spring which was not recommended in the seed packet instruction which at the end gave us some harvest.

Verona Purple Savoy Cabbage Seedlings.

Purple veins on the cabbage leaves.

Inter-planted with radish for productivity.

This is how 100% organic and neglected growing cabbage look like.

Amazingly, a well-established verona purple savoy cabbage can withstand more than 40 degree Celsius and our extreme hot summer here in Adelaide. There were also few days when it did not get any water during mid-summer. We were lucky to harvest several of this cabbage during summer. A heat-tolerant variety cabbage.

One of the cabbages that we harvest last mid-summer.

Aduh sakit pinggang belakang minggu ni nak berkebun pun tak boleh. Gara-gara lama sangat duduk depan mikroskop dari minggu lepas nak pulun habis kerja.

2012 End Summer Harvest Finale

Summer ending for us here.

I am sure many gardeners living in Northern hemisphere are happy greeting spring.

Did not take many photo lately.

But here some what we had been harvesting at the end of summer.

Sorted some of our brown onions that are left curing in the shed, brought in some onion for the kitchen use which does not going to store well.

Pak choi grown in container and miraculously survive the extreme summer heat.

We harvested our first batch of kang kong/water spinach bamboo leaves, second summer broccoli and bonica eggplants.

Mice have been nibbling on the top of our root vegetables, so we harvested carrots and beetroots.

Beans, cherry tomatoes, brown onions and shallots.

Carrots and self-sowed amaranth (bayam).

We harvested our first banana capsicum that we grown from seeds this warm season. 

Pak choi, hon tsai tai, daikon, baby beetroot and cherry tomatoes.

The weather has cool down a bit now.

Hoping that our summer veggies will set fruit well now.

It was too hot before for them to set fruit, although they have blooms.

Wishing for more cucurbit and solanum family harvest at the moment.

Visit Daphne's Dandellion for harvest monday and see what other gardeners doing with their harvest.

Nellie Kelly 'Sweetie' Strawberry

We entered end summer season now. The weather changed drastically when February came, the weather really cools down. Instead of summer, somehow felt like autumn weather. Wishing that some of the plants will bounce back. I was hoping eggplants and peppers will be able to flower and set proper fruit in the end summer season as it usually does since mid-summer they spent more energy to survive. We will just have to wait and see. Due to the heat this year, more than 90% loss of strawberry plants for us this year. This is the first year we actually loss any strawberry plants. The only variety of strawberry that survived are Nellie Kelly (the first strawberry plant we bought from Bunnings 3 years ago and provided many runners) and alpine strawberry. These are the varieties that produce well for us in our micro-climate here in Adelaide plain. I am sure in other areas, other gardeners have their own strawberry variety that does well in their garden.

Nellie Kelly strawberry growing in container at the end of December.

Last end winter transplanted some of Nellie Kelly strawberry runners in this polystyrene container. Now after mid-summer only one left in this container.

We tried growing pansy and Nellie Kelly strawberry plant together.

Pansy and strawberry flowers blooming together. Rayyan did managed to enjoy several strawberry fruits from this container before the 40 degree Celsius came. I was aiming for natural mulch after the pansy wilted and died beside the strawberry plants during summer which it did. Mulching with straw will just attract birds to uproot strawberry plants.

So far, Nellie Kelly strawberry has been the most prolific and heat-tolerent variety apart of alpine strawberry that we grow here in our small garden.

What is your favourite variety of strawberry?

Which strawberry variety does well in your garden?

40 degree Celsius Baked Veggie Harvest

From the previous post, we mentioned that we lost many plants due to the 40 degree Celsius hot weather that we had at the closing of year 2011 and starting of 2012. Almost all of our pumpkin/squash plants died and we only managed to get a pumpkin each from the spagetthi squash and small sugar pumpkin plants that we were growing. The thelma sanders sweet potato pumpkin plants gave us a second one before it also died due to the hot weather. I am not sure whether we will be able to get any more pumpkin for this year, although I did sow some pumpkin seeds last weekend.

Many of the root vegetable top were burn and some don't even have a trace so I had to dig blindly to harvest those root. This is how some of those harvested roots look like before they got a scrub. Some chilli fruit were also scorched by the heat.

Above harvest after some scrubbing...

Many of the root top parts have to be cut because blackish and dehydrated.

Pak choi leaves were also scorched but I have taken out the dried leaves. Tomato fruit skin also turn brownish at the side that facing the sun.

Carrots harvested from containers because they have no more top leaves.

Visit Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

It will be awhile before I can blog visit again because something suddenly came up and I have to go to Malaysia for a very short trip today. It has been 3 years since I have not been back. I will drop by and reply any question if any after everything settles down.

The Damage is Done

During end of last year till New Year we experienced hot extreme weather about 40 degree Celsius. This has caused a lot of damage with our plants. Well we lost many plants and I don't feel like we have any summer garden at the moment. Pictures that we are showing are only a part of of the garden and only taken from the back of our backyard fence. Surprisingly, chives are very hardy plants. However, in front of those chives used to be alpine strawberries that I transplanted end of winter last year. It cannot be seen in this photo but these chives and alpine strawberry is actually a row with a length of more than 3 metres. I am not sure how many alpine strawberry plants I lost but roughly it should be more than 30 plants including the dead ones in the container. Lucky that we don't spent fortune on them because there were from volunteers or divisions from the original parents that we grown from seeds almost 3 years ago. Fortunately, their parents survive in partial shade and hope provide some babies for next planting.

Where did all the green plants when?

We can't even see much of bare soil before surrounded by foliage.

However, now all perished.

We used to have 4 potato plants and 3 spagetthi squash plants, inter-planted with sweet corn on this patch. I should dug died potato plants out to see whether there are some spuds. But I really don't have the motivation to do that and on top of that I don't even know where the plants were because hardly no trace of those plants. Cherry tomato plants patch next to this patch also look really bad. Not sure whether I can save it or not.

Vietnamese mint/laksa leaves herb plants were also burned badly by the scorching sun. The right Vietnamese mint plants look very crisp isn't it. Five plants at least damaged like that. Lucky again before the hot weather I took some cuttings in our kitchen to propagate new ones.

Farewell our carrot and parsnip plants.

Many of the carrot and parsnip plants top were burned to crisp.

I had to dig blindly to harvest the roots.

Because there were no trace of the tops.

Harvested roots were not juicy but they were still very sweet.

Our kids enjoyed them in Fish soup.

From the front row: Lebanese zucchini not sure if they bounce back; Red capsicum bell some died and some of them lack of growth since germinated; Purple top turnip leaves wilting: Bonica eggplant has bloom but it won't set fruit and young lemon grass plants hanging tough.

Somehow one of the volunteer Evening Sun Sunflower managed to bloom the next day after the 40 degree Celsius day. Sigh, not much left to look forward in this summer garden this year.

The weather has cool down.

We even have some shower today.

Hopefully will help some of the plants to stay alive.

End Year Container Garden 2011

It has been sometime that I have not posted pictures of our container garden. This is because of the cleaning up of winter plants and waiting for the right moment to sow warm loving veggies made the container garden look very not organise and bare. So now some of the containers has filled up a bit. It probably look greenish now but continuous high temperature will make them look very dreadful later on.

From Container Garden

Orange sweet potato veins at this corner of our container garden. They don't follow orders really well so this summer they have been isolated from the rest of the plants. Experimenting in one of the containers is growing soy beans and sweet potato together. Soy bean plants grow straight right up whilst sweet potato leaves will keep the soil more moist as they cover up the soil.

From Container Garden

Growing "Jack Be Little" pumpkin at this corner and this pumpkin plant actually giving some shade to strawberry plants. The strawberry plants is clever enough to send out stalk for the berries to ripen while keeping it foliage out of the harmful summer sun.

From Container Garden

This summer is our first time trying to grow purple skin and white flesh sweet potatoes. I thought it has purple flesh at first but bought the wrong one. Young seedlings of jicama (sengkuang) and Clemson spineless okra sharing the same container. I had some encouraging result growing them together last year so repeating this combination again. Leek and parsnip growing side by side. Dragon carrot growing together with cherrytime capsicum.

From Container Garden

This is a bit of complex situation because that trellis was intended for bitter gourd. But bitter gourd end up sharing that trellis with volunteer tomato plant. The spagetthi squash is also inching its way to the trellis as well. There are one promising (indicate with arrow) spagetthi squash at the moment. We are excited to harvest the fruit cos this is our first time growing this squash and of course will be our first taste of it. Lenay spied one female bitter gourd flower this week and has pollinated it with male flowers. Hopefully the success for the female bitter gourd fruit to grow won't be deterred by the very warm days we are having for several days.

Last year we did not have that much a problem starting cucumbers early. But this year the cucumber seeds seems to be on strike until end of November when those seeds favor to sprout. Its not only one variety playing hooky but all the varieties of cucumber that we plan to grow this summer. So we probably have late cucumber harvest season this summer compared last year if growing them are successful. This corner we grow cucumber "Suyo Long" in container together with beetroot and Topweight carrot.

From Container Garden

At the back row are orange sweet potato and "Royal Blue" potato plant. In the front, angled luffa growing together with "New Red Kuroda" carrot and jicama.

From Container Garden

Another volunteer tomato growing in the garlic container. This is the only garlic that I have not dug out yet. I probably should since all the leaves dried up. But it was too hot this week I simply don't have the motivation. We also grow white sweet potatoes at this corner here. First time growing shallot and I am not sure when is the perfect time to harvest and cure them. I need some advice; from looking at the shallot in the container, do you think it is ready to be harvested?

Hope you have a joyous moments with your love ones during this festive season.

Salmon and Green Bean Potato Patties

Many of our potato plants gone yellow and wilted. So had to dig and find spuds. Although I do wish that they grow much longer, rather than finding so many tiny little spuds. Because many of the plants are rather young. Yesterday, pull out some dragon carrots and purple top turnip as well.

Not many edibles to harvest from the garden at the moment. So we have to depend on our frozen goods. We are trying to use up our frozen beans from last summer which should be more than 9 months sitting in the freezer now. So we found this recipe to enjoy those fresh potato and carrot with some of those frozen bean. This is our first time joining in Robin's Thurday's Kitchen Cupboard.

Salmon and Green Bean Potato Patties

(adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly~The $ Smart Cook)

150 gram green beans
800 gram potatoes, chopped coarsely
20 gram butter
1/3 cup (25gram) finely grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
415 gram can red salmon
1/3 cup (35gram) packaged breadcrumbs
vegetable oil, for shallow-frying
3 medium size carrot (coarsely grated)


(1) Boil, steam or microwave beans until tender; drain. Rinse under cold water; drain. Chope coarsely.
(2) Boil, steam or microwave potato until tender; drain. Mash potato in large bowl with butter, cheese and egg until smooth.
(3) Drain salmon; discard skin and bones. Add salmon, carrot and beans to potato mixture; mix well. Shape salmon mixture into patties; coat in breadcrumbs. Place patties on tray, cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.
(4) heat oil in large frying pan; fry patties, in batches until browned lightly and heated through. Drain on absorbent paper.

A very very very simple lunch.

Raspberry Picking

Summer has come and its now berry and cherry season here in Adelaide. Adelaide hill will be having many visitors from the city this month as there are lots of sign outside cherry and strawberry farm with 'pick your own' now. We were so happy and excited that Berry Gnome and Veggie Gnome invited us to Gnomesville to pick berries. This is the first time for us to pick raspberries and we enjoyed it very much. This is my favourite spot to sit and just enjoy picking fresh raspberries straight to the mouth within seconds. So much fun.

First time we got to know silvanberries.

After an afternoon snack of nasi lemak and the divine chocolate velvet torte that Veggie Gnome baked, we went to an organic cherry farm to pick cherries. Rayyan and Ilhan is always full pack with energy but they slept in the car on the way back home means they enjoyed the day very much. Cherry season is earlier this year, so it is best to go there as soon as possible. Last year was really late around Christmas and cherry farm had to open for pick your own even on Christmas day.

Some of the berries that we brought home.

Frozen some to make desert when I have time.

Any ideas where to visit this weekend here in South Australia this time of the year?

Planning for some outdoor activities this weekend.

But we don't know where and what to do yet.

Growing Angled Luffa in Container

Don't believe everything that is written on the seed packets. If I have believe it, I won't try growing angled luffa last warm season. When I was browsing online seed catalogues, the sentence "need a very long warm season to grow at least 16weeks" always put me off buying the seeds that I wanted. Moreover the quantity of 12 seeds for about $3.20perpacket will make me consider it not twice but several times especially when you don't know whether it is suitable to grow or not here in Adelaide. I have already have one growing slowly in the veggie patch which was growing but not yet flowering for about 7weeks at that moment. But Bangchik post about angled luffa in his garden produce within 2 months in December 2010 gave me an idea. I actually don't have to start sowing angled luffa earlier to make sure that they have long growing season. But if we would have at least 23 ~30 degree celcius for several weeks, the plants will grow very fast without any setbacks. End of December (early summer), I have a few of angled luffa seeds left and an empty polystyrene container. So with the help of my youngest sister Tatiyana, we did direct sowing of angled luffa seeds in polystyrene container. I am giving credit to Tatiyana because she was in charge of watering the plants at our backyard when she was staying with me.

After 10weeks from sowing, it gave us our first angled luffa fruit harvest!

It is difficult to imagine a big fruit like angled luffa can be grown in container, but it is possible. One plant angled luffa if growing in tropic and on the ground can usually climb all over up to 5 metre. You just need a deep pot for them like cucumber growing in pots.I think angled luffa can be grown in small garden or even in balcony because the plant won't grow like the one on the ground (well I let the photo convince you) . Two plants will give you many harvest. The foliage is pretty too. The container that we were using were not deep enough (~20cm) but surprisingly it did grow and produce a decent number of fruits up until now. But deeper container is much more better.

Angled luffa female flower.

Cucumber green gem and angled luffa sharing trelis together.

If you want to keep angled luffa seeds just make sure, you are not growing sponge luffa at the same time as it will cross-pollinate.

The right size to harvest. I usually harvest angled luffa when they have reached about 30cm long.

I have never used luffa for sponge.

But I am curious hope one day we have so many luffa that I can let some dry for sponge.

But not this year;-).

Carrot and Cucurbit

We never grow enough carrots. Rayyan eat most of our carrot harvest. Making sure that we have some carrot for Rayyan every week, I have to try to sow carrot seeds every month. Growing carrot during summer here in Adelaide is a bit challenging as the temperature is high and good germination will be a problem. Furthermore, the harsh burning rays of Adelaide summer sun can burn the leaves to crisp. I found that 'New Red Kuroda' carrot variety can tolerate heat (good and fast germination) which is reliable for growing carrot in summer. Carrot takes a long time to grow and space is very precious in our garden so I have to think of  a way I can give some shade to protect carrot from getting itself cooked in the soil and of course space vacancy. While we tested growing cucumber in container, there were a lot of empty spaces so we decided to sow some carrot seeds and see whether carrot and cucumber can grow happily together or not. YES they do!

Cucumber yied were good and carrot size were not too bad either.

Carrot thinnings.

Rarely have the chance to take photo of our carrots because it goes directly to the cooking pot for Rayyan meal.

This is what happened to the carrots growing together with bitter gourd after several days of 40+ degree Celsius. Bitter gourd foliage gave some shade protection for the carrots. Imagine if carrot were totally at the mercy of the sun, surely they will die.

Carrot which we sowed in the middle of last summer, growing together with watermelon.

I think carrot might give some contribution to this companionship too, help break the soil for cucumber shallow root system? To an oberver like me, a win-win situation.

What is "Companion Week" and Seed Give-Away visit this post for more information.