First Strawberry Delight, Rocket & Spinach.

Hooray! I harvested my first ripe strawberry delight yesterday before going to church. Super sweet and juicy! Cant wait for more to come!

The free rocket seeds given by Bunnings have provided us with yummy salad greens for sandwiches.

Kao Kee Vegetables.  They are growing well and I harvested the tender shoots for stir-fry together with my spinach so that the plants can become bushier.

One of the many clusters of Carolina Black Rose grapes.  I gave the whole vine a good trimming so that the larger clusters can grow better :

The spinach this year is doing very well. Very big and leafy :

 Here's the basketful of spinach and the kao kee vegetables on the left :

We had the spinach stir-fried with garlic, shitake and golden mushrooms.  Hubby said 'Yummy!'.

Rainbows in our Backyard!

This morning after all the work, I fixed up the nozzle and watered the garden.  And we were so excited to make double rainbows with the fine mist. My boy was having so much fun.

Before all the fun, we planted some watermelon seeds.

And then some native daisy seeds.

I caught a snail and we studied it.

I spotted a spider web on the pomegranate tree and asked my boy to spray the web with water so we could see the fine water droplets.

Four stringless pioneer bean plants have emerged.

Harvested a big basket of pak choy.

And a basketful of spinach too. (Picture could not be rotated not sure why)

And a big basket of gai choy for soup again!!! Yummy!

Yesterday we had homeschool out on the front patio table as the weather was superb.

And we harvested arum lilies and dutch iris bronze perfection plus a few plum tree twigs in our tall vase.

Fresh Gai Choy/Mustard Green & Pak Choy Green

I have sown this patch with gai choy/mustard green and pak choy seeds towards the end of winter in August.  They were growing at snail's pace until recently when spring came and the weather warmed up. They are yelling out to me to harvest them.

The spinach in the planter in front of the raised vege patch are almost ready too.

This flowering pak choy has overtaken Big Fig in its pot. Big Fig does not seem to grow well this spring, its leaves rather shrivelled and there is only one fig in sight. The flowers of pak choy is is mildly fragrant and an attraction to bees. I am letting the seed pods formed so I can harvest more pak choy seeds.

Such a beautiful sight of the artichoke flower emerging among its architectural silvery leaves.

So here is some harvest of my gai choy/mustard green. My friend taught me to cook it with some roast chicken pieces (I used the wings and drumsticks), tamarind pieces and dried chillies.  And true enough, there is no bitter taste from the vege. The dish tasted sourish and spicy and very nice!

I also harvested some parsley for meatballs and baby pak choy for miso soup.

Edibles Update

My son and I bought some alfafa seeds and it was really fun watching the seeds germinate and grow from pale seedlings into green leafy sprouts.  I had prawns & alfafa sprouts sandwich for breakfast. My son does not enjoy vegetables (though I do force him to eat) so he just had a biteful of my sandwich and decided to stick with his  toast with orange marmalade & cheese.

On Sunday my hubby helped me to easily dig up my artichoke green globe clump (I could not even drive the spade into the soil!) I divided the three and replanted them. For the last few days the artichoke plants looked good in the morning but were in a wilting condition when evening arrived. I am praying they will survive this dividing and re-planting.

The saffron plants around the peach tree seem to be dying down. They certainly dont look very glamorous.

Those saffron in the planter look like lush grass and not ready to die down yet.

These are baby spinach which my son and I have planted. They have emerged but growing slowly in this cold weather. Well, spinach are cool season vegetables anyway.

 We use fruit containers as mini cloches over the spinach to trap as much warmth from the sun as possible.

 This little pak choy in my fig tree pot is growing very well. Time to harvest for soup.

 These two pak choys have been harvested for soup. Very tender!

 I am still harvesting my chilli fire chillies even though it is mid-winter! What a joy!

 I finally dug up the last of my two burdock plant. It was labourious digging and tugging but I managed to dig up a whole big basket of burdock. I have used them for soup (though I did not eat the root, just the yummy soup). I will be using them for stir fry tonight.

Carolina Black Rose, Pak Choy, Spinach & Oregano

I must admit I have been very very busy and have been neglecting my blog for a long time. Then the laziness got into me because I felt that I have so much to update and I have been procrastinating and procrastinating the many things I have to write. Anyway, I am really very excited about my Carolina black rose grape vine. It is growing mightily. Right now, it has gone up the trellis I have tied to the support of my pergola. I cannot wait for grape bunches to appear!!! Every time I look at the leaves, I feel happy. They are so healthy and large. I am even imagining using them to wrap glutinous rice!

I have harvested loads of green and purple pak choy seeds from their pods. It was an enjoyable experience.

Loads of oregano early in spring.

And fresh spinach for frying too.

Herbs and Vegetables Update

My 6 snow peas are towering, flowering and fruiting.

The chilli fire plant looks a bit haggard but I think it will pick up when weather warms up. I have removed the plastic around it and the fleece above it which I used in winter to protect it from cold, winds and frost.

This little rosemary bush is doing well. I propagated it from my original rosemary plant. It does not get much sun and had powdery mildew at times. Not the problem has cleared and it is taking off at its site.

I harvested some yummy greens for dinner : silver beet

Here are the mustard greens (Gai Choy) and spinach growing under net. The spinach are so slow. I think once the weather warms up, it will take off and then start produce flowers instead.

I gave this tuft of lemon grass a hair cut. It was all brown and straggly. Wondering if it will be okay. Wondering if they will grow. All five clumps of lemon grass looked really bad after the winter. Come the next winter, I will have to protect them if they survive this season.

Planted coriander in Patch C where the kaffir lime and lemon grass are.

This little clump of chives (Gu Chye) is doing well and clumping after I harvested it. I intend to buy a few more pots to plant at this spot so I can cook up a dish with squids or fried bean curd.

One strong parsley seed has found its way next to the shed where it does not get much sun but it is growing well.