Cineraria Life Cycle

Want something cheerful and colourful at one of the unused part shade corner?

Cineraria blooming season in our garden is much longer grown in part shade.

It does not mind of receiving only an hour or so direct-sunlight.

Not much of a problem growing cineraria on our hard clay soil.

Does not really mind of growing on less fertile soil.

Did grow well on soil that is not fertile.

Easy to grow and self-sowed easily.

But pest love this plant.

Snails and slugs like to munch on our cineraria plants leaves.

Here in Adelaide plain, I usually sow cineraria seeds in autumn and transplanted the seedlings when they have more than 3 or 4 true leaves.

Newly sprouted seeds.

Cineraria starts to bloom in late winter here in our garden. If the weather warms quickly, it can bloom much earlier than that. Depending on the year (heat level), it can continue to bloom until early summer.

Cineraria can be an attractive border plant.

Two years in a row we tried several combination of cineraria growing together with different vegetables. My favourite combination so far is growing cineraria together with Nero Black Kale.

Cineraria spent blooms.

To prolong blooming season, spent flowers have to be deadheaded.

Where is the location of the cineraria seeds?

Can you see two red insects in the photo? (P.S. pest name?)

That is the seeds location.

Cineraria seeds.

Have a lovely weekend!

This was a drafted post from last November.

Nero Black Kale (Chervil seeds give-away Winners)

We have many variety of vegetables that we grow for the first time last cool season and some were introduced by our local seed-savers group. One of the vegetables that we tried growing for the first time during last cool season was Nero Black Kale. Although it was a new plant in the garden, I totally neglected it and was growing on one of the shades part of the garden in winter. It did not get any special treatment and exposed to pest. This is one plant you can experiment to try growing in partial shade~shade if you want to fully utilised your gardening space.

Nero Black Kale seedlings.

In winter growing so slowly in shade.

It will be lucky if it received 1 hour direct sunlight during sunny days at this corner.  Nero Black kale growing along with cineraria.

Spring came with more light and those kale pick up growth very quickly.

Totally growing in shade.

Did not want to waste the extra seedlings we had.

They do grow albeit rather slowly like my thesis writing.

At least they do provide some harvest for our kitchen harvest.

We don't have fresh harvest much this week.

Probably will be relying on frozen veggie stock now.

Nero Black kale came to rescue with fresh harvest.

The first time we harvest those leaves.

Yellow currant cherry tomatoes still plenty to harvest.

Mark ask me several time about this yellow currant cherry tomato.

I found that the skin thickness of this yellow currant cherry tomatoes varies in cool and warm season. During the warm season, this variety of cherry tomatoes is more acidic and skin are much thicker. However, in cool season this tomato skin is very thin and less acidic or more sweeter. We enjoyed the flavour of this tomato more during cooler months/weeks. It starting to be over 30 degree Celsius during the day now. I have noticed that suddenly this tomato skin become much thicker the same as last summer experience. So as a student of science, my hypothesis is that temperature can be one of the main factor that influence the thickness of this tomato skin. Adaptation to different temperatures in different season makes this tomato very draught and cold hardy compared to other varieties of cherry tomatoes that we grow. If I remember correctly, tomatoes were originally yellow in colour. So it is one of the tomatoes you might want to keep over winter as the flavour is best in cooler weather. I think last winter, that plant has gone through at least 2 degree Celsius. It does reallyX3 well in partial shade. So don't have to sacrifice your sunny spot for this tomato plant.

How did we enjoyed our first Nero Black Kale?

I was introduced to enjoy it with polenta by Mark.

In case you are wondering, did not have problem with lumps.

My cousin made it and follow the recipe accordingly.

Now, Rayyan been eating polenta occasionally.

We will be sending chervil seeds to author of these wonderful blogs:

MyJourney (Rainfield61)

Half A Pound Of Treacle (Sean L)

Mark's Veg Plot (Mark)

Hope to receive your postbox mail address (diana.demiyah@gmail.com)

Have a great weekend!

Cineraria for company

This is our second year growing cineraria. Last fall, we found many self-sowed cineraria in our garden. So we scooped those volunteer seedlings and tried to make it as border plants. Wishing that it will gift us with spring blooms and add colours in the garden after a green winter. I like to try different combination of flower plants with edibles because I can't draw any form of flowers on a canvas at least I can make a design on a patch. It was fun to see if cineraria can be a good companion or not.

Cineraria plants with Nero Black Kale side by side at our semi-shade patch.

On the same patch, last year lay-out.

A few months later,, plants starting to grow and filling the space.

Cineraria as a border and growing with celery.

Have a nice weekend!

Flower on Saturday.

Living in the shadow

In winter, our front yard are usually in partial shade or shade.

Ever bemoan at the fact that the place you can grow edible in winter receive barely no sunlight?

Impossible?

I did thought so too once upon a time but I turn over a new leaf about it.

To make it interesting, we are comparing the growth progress of the plants in the shade with last month which links here.

At this corner, Chinese celeries, kohlrabi, chervil and other vegetables seems has grown twice the size of last month stage. This is my first time growing kohlrabi in shade, so I am holding my breath at the moment if success is ours or not. Last year, we planted broccoli here and all did produce nice head, though smaller than the ones in full sun. Well, as long as it producing I think size does not matter. Its not growing at its optimum condition anyway.

Cauliflower plants also shows some growth at this patch. This is our third season growing cauliflowers here. I imagine the earliest cauliflower that will be harvest here perhaps next month if we have more warm weather. Hmmm...I don't think I should be that cocky now, what if we don't have a repeat performance.

This is the patch that received no sunlight at all in winter. Our perennial Chilli plant that has gone through 3 winter seasons is dying already, its time to say sayonara. Polyanthus plants does very well in shade here, one established plants has bloom and others are producing buds. Cauliflower and Nero Black kale plants are growing but slow compare with other veggie patch. Self-sowed celeries are still growing on this patch. We still have to work on this hard clay soil here.

Arrgghhh...can't wait to cut some celery stalks. Grow celery grow. Hopefully this year it won't bolt that quickly for us to enjoy some long harvest. Those celeries are growing in total shade block by that wall. However, this is the best spot to grow celery in our garden. I think it must be because of the soil.

Our mid-winter shady frontyard~Winter Wednesday

Every plants grow very slowly at our front yard in winter because our plants did not received much sunlight at this corner of our garden in winter. All of them are mostly growing in shade. If it is a sunny day, there are lucky to receive sunlight about 2 hours or so. So we usually plant herbs, leaf vegetables or brassicas in winter  at this area and avoid growing allium family as they won't do well with lack of sunlight. Although leek can be forgiving sometime. We already have 2 seasons of nice harvest of cauliflowers and broccoli grown at our frontyard. Hopefully, this season will be a nice repeat performance. However, compared with previous years as main were usually cauliflower and broccoli, this year the variety that we grow are more than double the number of varieties last season. Thank you blogger friends who has inspired me to try new things and generous gardeners from Adelaide Hills and Plains Seedsavers group. At least this part still received some sunlight in sunny days. But wait until the next spot.

This patch in front of the kitchen window do not received any direct sunlight at all in winter but blazing hot in summer. The perennial polyanthus does very well here. Our polyanthus plants are starting to bloom one by one. It is actually blooming very much earlier than previous year. Something wrong with the weather, it makes the polyanthus clock goes wrong. We grow celery here every cool season because this is the most suitable spot  to grow them. I think it is because the soil here fit their requirement to grow well even with lack of direct sunlight. Moreover, less evaporation in this area and celery needs a lot of water to grow well,This are self-sowed Crisp and Tender Celery that I transplanted last fall. Must thin them, I thought some will not grow well so I planted really close since we had so much seedlings.

No direct sunlight either at this corner in winter, totally in shade.

Growing under our 2 dahlia trees.

All are newcomers in our garden this cool season~Rainbow chards, Witloof chicory, silverbeet, chervil  and purple vienna kohlrabi. You might noticed some ragged plants which is summer plants.

Another veggie bed in shade. More than 10 different type of plants growing here.

Sunny day we had helped those cherrytime capsicum to start turning red.

A miracle in this winter season.

I used to whine about most of the space that we can grow plants are in shade in winter.

But the plants can grow in shade is just patience.

They grow very slow compared with plants that received a lot of direct sunlight.

When spring come and the sun direction change they pick up growth.

They still reward the gardener if she or he is willing to wait.

Linking with Hazel Winter Wednesday#6.

Kitaran Hidup Bayam (Chinese Spinach / Leaf Amaranth Life-Cycle)

Bayam is grown for its leaves rather than seeds. Bayam grows well above 20 degree Celcius. New seedlings are very cute and red in colour.  This is natural, not artificial or genetically modified which is very rare compare with the usual green for other vegetables.

Bayam seedlings. They grow very well in container and are very fast-growing, tough and easy-to-grow plant. For good colour leaves, try not to grow them on nutrient-rich compost.

You don’t have to space out bayam so much about 7.5cm apart should be fine. You can harvest bayam as “cut and come again” plant. Make sure there are some leaves at the bottom of the stalk before you cut the top. Bayam leaves limp quickly after harvest. If you have so much bayam leaves you can freeze it by blanching for one minute, chill and drain the water, pack it straight away in the freezer. Can be kept up till 6 months.

Growth 10 days later…

Bayam starting to bolt. In very hot weather, bayam can tolerate partial shade.

Bayam flowers are very interesting. They look like red plumes. They look very pretty and ornamental in containers. These bayam plants were growing together under tomato plants very well in containers. Ignore the background please, it is my experimental sweet potatoes growing in container going crazy.

Can you see bayam seeds? If you have small space and you worry about the space that bayam will need to grow until it is time to harvest the seeds, don’t worry, one plant don’t take much space and it will provide you with at least one year worth of bayam seeds for your garden.

This is one plant that is very fun and easy to harvest the seeds. Just shake the flower and the mature seeds will drop out. It feels like holding a feather duster.

The popular quick way to use bayam is in soup or stir-fry.

How do you like your bayam?

If you like the colour red, join in RUBY TUEASDAY.

Tanaman ubi kentang merah

I wonder if anyone notice that in my recent harvest post, I harvested potatoes. Did anyone wonder where I got the potatoes when I have not said anything about growing potato this warm season after my first attempt at growing potato, the  plant leaves were badly burned to crisp in November. Really, I did not intent to grow potato for this warm season, as I know it won’t survive the extreme hot weather here in summer. However, in the end of September last year, supermarket bought potatoes in my kitchen were sprouting many “eyes”. I had problem germinating chili seeds so I borrowed the space that I allocate for chili to potato. I did not think that the potato will give me anything, it just for fun. It is growing in a very partial shade area and as you know potato needs  a lot of sunshine.

A few days later, potato baby plants pushing its way out from the soil.

Early November, our sowed chili seeds have not yet germinated for us and the potato plant has grown very fast on one row where chili seedlings were planned to be transplanted.

In early December, this patch was such a mess and potato plants start to make other plants very annoyed. Tomato and carrot need some breathing space. Coriander seeds need to be harvested and end season flowers need to be cleared up.

Potato flower bud. What colour do you think it is?

White coloured flower potato plant.

Somehow, I managed to make this veggie patch look more tidy after the big mess. Now you can see the tomatoes, carrots and rockmelon young plants.

End of January, Mr. ROCK-Melon plants are scrambling on top of the wilted potato plants. Mr. ROCK-melon is much more stubborn than potato regarding space and its trying to get my attention that I better let him have more space because some of the pregnant females are getting heavier with fruit. Fruiting in partial shade? Believe me we had success growing honey-dew melon here last summer vertically and horizontally in this patch. This year we try our luck with Rockmelon.

I was not expecting any spud. But I was really happy when I pull the wilting potato plants and saw this. My mother was also excited as she was beside my the whole time I was harvesting potatoes. I am happy that I can give her some fresh potatoes to make her special blend juice in the morning.  Do you know when I started to grow plants on this patch it was very heavy clay soil (tanah merah/laterit). It was so hard to dig in with the previous soil condition. However, every time before I grow plants on this patch I will dig in compostable things like grass clippings, kitchen and green waste into the soil. It has been one year and a half since I routinely done this and now I have a black humus soil on top. It is still not the ideal soil yet, but I was kind of surprise when I realised all the energy I spent digging in compostable stuff has actually worked with the helped of the small creatures living in the soil.

Some of the potatoes were exposed to light and they are sprouting due to my negligence not covering them with soil or straw. Do you think I can keep them until early April in the kitchen cupboard and plant them back?

I wonder if anyone is familiar with the variety of this potato?  It grows well during summer here in this patch so I am thinking of growing this variety again next spring. Nice timing, chili seeds that my mother sowed has grown to a nice size for transplanting on this patch. Last summer, chili seedlings that I grown were also the ones that my mother sowed. Does it mean it won’t work with my hand but only my mother’s?

Viola Life Cycle (Seed Week & Seeds Give-away)

Thank you for joining in, sharing your thoughts and experiences for “Seed Week”. Initially the “Seed Week” is held from 22nd January till 26th January. But my math calculation were wrong that is not even a week isn’t it (My apologies, math was one of my weak subject at school). So if I counted correctly, the last day should be on the 29th January. Hopefully, this will allow more post to be link in this time frame. 

What is “Seed Week”? 

Sharing our own experiences and gain knowledge about collecting, propagating, growing seeds, bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, or cuttings and can be about how to keep them in top shape. The wonderful thing about collecting seeds from plants that thrive in your place is that each year and the next year, the seeds will become more and more adapt to your garden environment. Please join us for this seed week. I will randomly choose 5 participants for home saved-seeds give-away. I like to share my home saved-seeds to you.  There is a linky to link your post at the bottom of this post. It can be a new post or and old one, also not limited to one post only.

 

Here are interesting and inspiring post link that is very helpful. 

 

HERB

• Chives  & Salad Burnett ~ Subsistence Pattern
  
• Coriander/ Cilantro
  
• Dill~My Little Potted Garden
  
• Vietnamese Mint/Laksa Leaf

FRUIT

• Currants, Gooseberries & Josta Berries ~ Subsistence Pattern
  
• Fruit & Nuts ~ Subsistence Pattern

VEGETABLES

• Carrot ~ Subsistence Pattern

• Belgian endive & Red celery ~ Subsistence Pattern
• Komatsuna @ Japanese Mustard Spinach
• Leek ~ Live, As I Live It
• Onion ~ Tasty Travels
• Onion & Shallot ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment
• Parsnip ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment
• Pea ~ Subsistence Pattern
• Potato ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment
• Tomato ~ Subsistence Pattern
• Zucchini ~ Subsistence Pattern
  
  

OTHERS

• Seed Brain-teaser ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment
• Saving Seeds ~ Moj Vrt
• Storing seeds ~ Subsistence Pattern
  
• Why save seeds ~ Subsistence Pattern

PROPAGATION

• Seed-Starting Contraption~Bonnie Lassie
• Sowing seeds ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment 
• Sowing spinach, Qing gen cai and komatuna in winter ~Small vege garden in a suburb
• Stem propagation and other alternatives~Go Right in…My Garden
• Transplanting ~ Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment

FLOWER

• Bellis Perennis (English Daisy)
  
• Carnation
  
• Nasturtium
  
• Sunflower ~ Subsistence Pattern
  
• Zinnia~Onenezz
  

VIOLA

The first flower seed packets that I bought was viola (cottage mixed). Actually the word viola was not even in my vocabulary back then (Brought up in tropics). I chose viola from the flower seed rack in Bunnings because it was May here (mid-autumn) and the information written about sowing time is right for this flower at that time. I am a girl, I wanted something to cheer up the garden, something colourful instead of only greens. I was a young gardener, thought I can always buy them if I want to. Now I start to change my ways of thinking. To be honest, I did not collect any viola seeds the first time I grown them. But viola made me fell in love with her, I thought I will never see her again unless I have to go shopping for viola again. I have limited budget and want to try something new, so I gave up on Viola. Sometime in June last year, I saw many viola seedling around the place where I planted viola once.  How happy to be re-united with viola again. A word of caution: After  you planted viola in your garden, you won’t have to plant them again, they will self-sowed next season and won’t leave your garden anymore . It has become a beautiful weed in our garden. Viola seedlings scattered around the garden, I just transplanted them in other parts of the garden. I don’t know why but I found seedlings more in semi-shade rather than sunny location.

Viola has gifted me with more than 50 seedlings last spring and I transplanted them in many places to see which companion that is viola favourites. Viola look good as a border plant. It has shallow roots suitable growing in container as well. From my observation viola grows well together with beans and under chili plants.

Now I have repent, I start to collect viola seeds last spring. Out of fear, that maybe someday we will moved and I have to say goodbye to our violas.  It is very easy to collect viola seeds. In the picture, you can see a fat seed pod where now can cut the stalk and wait for the seed to pop out from the seeds naturally.

Viola seed pods almost ready to burst open.

Viola seeds pop out from the seed pods.

Now, whenever we have to move to a new place, viola will always be apart of us.