Good morning from Brisbane. I cannot believe that it has been ten days since the last time I blogged. This doesn’t mean that I havn’t been to the allotment. Far from it. There is plenty happening over there during this wonderful growing season.
I have made a lot of effort to improve the soil with compost made at the farm, and farmyard manure. Here is the result. Beautiful healthy vegetables, a joy to harvest, and wonderful eating.
Silverbeet
I’m just taking another look at this pic – what am I doing with a clean thumb nail? – I must just have arrived at the allotment.
Mint grown in a pot sunk into the ground
I love this common mint. It’s not common to me, it’s vigorous enough to take over the suburb if it wasn’t restrained in a pot. Brian at the farm helped me remove the bottom of the largest plastic plant pot I could find. I dug a big hole and buried the pot leaving about 7 centimetres sticking out of the ground. It was then ready to take the mint runner. This was months ago, and it has really worked. The roots are restrained and I just snip around the edge of the pot if the mint threatens to invade the rest of my allotment.
Young Cos lettuce
Lovely healthy Cos lettuce, I just harvest outer leaves which gives me a much longer growing season.
And because I love flowers too, here is a blossom on one of the bushes growing at the farm. Sorry I am not sure what it is. But it is covered with these yellow flowers and it looks wonderful.
Yellow blossom at the farm
And this is the bush it’s growing on.
Pretty yellow bush near my allotment
Allotment Adventures with Jean 
Aug 16, 2012 @ 08:53:48
What an interesting flowering bush – I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’ve wondered what silverbeet was, but it looks a bit like chard. I haven’t grown chard before, either.
I spent a bit of time in the garden today too. The result was pickles, passata and a zucchini skillet with some of the passata and onions and peppers. I love this Imelda of year..
Aug 16, 2012 @ 14:39:27
Hi Heidi. It does look like chard doesn’t it. It came out of a packet of silverbeet seeds but It has certainly grown much more vigorously than the other plants which came out of the same packet. Perhaps it was a chard seed that crept in. The leaves are so gorgeous, deep green and shiny. Almost a shame to pick it. But I ate it anyway!
Sounds like you’ve been busy with your harvest too. I spent yesterday morning at the allotment and had a really good afternoon processing what I picked. I had a nice picking of cherry tomatoes so I too made passata. I still have some garlic left from last season so I threw plenty of that in. Musn’t breath on anybody today.
Aug 16, 2012 @ 08:54:31
Imelda? That was supposed to say time – but the autocorrect took over..
Aug 16, 2012 @ 14:08:32
That ‘Imelda’ made me laugh so hard that I woke up my baby – whoopsies!
Aug 16, 2012 @ 14:45:26
Hi Jules. It was a strange substitute – why did the computer think ‘Imelda’ was a good substitute for ‘time’. We’re growing veggies here, not collecting shoes.
Aug 16, 2012 @ 14:41:20
Heidi what is it with these computers? They think they are so clever!!!!
Aug 16, 2012 @ 19:16:52
Looking good Jean! I to seem to be leaving days in between posts on my blog….time is just slipping away with all there is to do at this time of year! Take care and have a good week, Regards, Ruth xx
Aug 17, 2012 @ 06:42:02
Hi Ruth. Thanks for visiting. I had a sort of writers block as there were lots of (good) things happening in my life plus a busy time at the allotment. Also, I have been doing a bit of maintenance around my unit. Funny thing that, when one thing wears out, something else falls apart! The kitchen blind broke, then cleaning the shower screen it fell out (I was scrubbing hard) and then I put my hand through the fly screen when I was cleaning that. The sun here will rot through anything in time. Still, it’s ok, all jobs are fixed now. Jean x
Aug 16, 2012 @ 21:29:55
You sound like a recovering alcoholic Jean “It has been 10 days since I last blogged” lol, I guess it IS addictive ;). That lovely yellow tree is a Xanthostemon chrysanthus or Golden Penda tree and its a lovely little specimen. Queensland looks lovely at this time of year when we are still struggling down here to imagine spring in 2 weeks time. Cheers for the lovely warm smile from Queensland 🙂 I already feel my bones warming up
Aug 17, 2012 @ 06:56:24
Hi Narf. I laughed out loud at the first line of your comment. But you know, I think you have hit the nail on the head, it is addictive. I love growing my veggies, but I get as much pleasure writing about it, and reading other gardening blogs as well.
Thank you so much for identifying ‘my’ tree. In Latin too! I will pass this on to my mates down at the allotment. Now I know what it is I’ll do a bit of googling and find out more about it.
Yes, it’s really warming up here in Brisbane, It was 27 degrees yesterday. I think it might be the same again today, the sun is up and pouring through the window. Cheers. Jean.
Aug 17, 2012 @ 07:27:07
Hi Jean… the rain is up and almost pouring through OUR window lol polar opposites unite! 🙂
Aug 17, 2012 @ 07:33:57
Narf – polar opposites and we live in the same country. On the plus side – I bet your fly screens don’t rot, and you don’t get wrinkles!
Aug 17, 2012 @ 17:21:11
Hi Jean 🙂 I’m really interested to hear how you cut off the bottom of your mint pot before sinking it. I’ve heard of others just bunging in a pot but taking off the bottom makes much more sense. I have two large containers of peppermint at my back door but I’m not the best at remembering to water them on a regular basis. It hasn’t been that bad this summer, since we’ve had such torrential rain, but I’d like to plant them out so as to make them less work for me. I may follow your suit and sink them in my new herb bed next week!
Aug 17, 2012 @ 18:15:20
Hi Tanya. It’s a plastic plant pot and we used secateurs. There were big drain holes where the bottom of the pot meets the side of the pot, so we inserted the secateurs in the holes and snipped until we got to the next hole and so we continued until we had removed the bottom of the pot. We can get very heavy rain here in Queensland and it’s important to remove the bottom of the pot for free drainage.