Winter half way mark - countdown to Spring 2016

One thing that makes coming back from holidays bearable is to get back and see what's happened in the garden while you were away. There always seems to be a huge growth spurt due to not checking on the garden every day.

Even this winter, no exception. There was a bit of wild weather while we were away so I was a bit worried, especially about the lime tree which has blown over a couple of times. On return we lost one greenhouse cover but everything else was okay. This was the kale/rocket/mizuna bed but everything seemed fine, only the tuscan kale looked a bit worse for wear. All the brassica crops have put on a growth sport while away, and the large leaf buk choy has begun to bolt. So I harvested two for last night's dinner and the last one for tonight's laksa.

A nice bunch, grown entirely during winter (okay, I think I direct sowed these very late autumn). I'll have to start some more because these grew fast and were super delicious.

Common mint finally taken a big hit from the frosts - although possible it was from drying out too. It's a very root bound pot and this is under cover so gets no rain. Chocolate mint and the mystery mint below and lemon balm seem okay. As the mystery mint (grown from a garnish) has a leggy growth habit and doesn't really taste much different from my other mint, I'm not going to repot it. I'll dry what's left early spring and use the pot for something else. 

Parsley loving winter, garlic not doing much for now. There's even self seeded chervil bottom left which germinated during winter and seems to be growing just fine.

Peas not doing much. I sow some more next month. What I might need to do is put strings down from the trellis above for them to climb initially as they don't seem capable of doing it on their own.

I also have some self seeded coriander coming up from the cracks between the bed timber and the footpath. I have no idea if it will survive or not but I'll see what happens. There's also a chocolate mint that got down there via runner, so I'll have to take care of that before it takes over the garden.

The celery stubs haven't been killed even by heavy frosts, providing useful leaves and small stems to harvest.

Broad beans not quite trellis height yet but getting there.

Onions, self sown corn salad at the end.

Miner's lettuce getting bigger.

Shallots look good for an early spring harvest. Lettuce all bolting and will need to sow some more soon. Something pulled out the spring onions (or tried to) but they seem to still be alive, will likely put some more growth on soon. I think I'll mulch this pot.

Winter grass looks really good, could even use a mow. I need to spot treat the oxalis though.

Edge of the bed now getting some direct sun again. Leeks doing fine, lettuces getting a little bigger. I transplanted some tatsoi seedlings here too to fill in some gaps, now it's going to get a bit of sun.

These carrot seedlings not doing much. Got them in pretty late. Will probably have to wait for spring.

Proof you can grow some decent radishes in Canberran winter even in full shade. Of course, they cease being a quick crop - these have taken two months to get this size. I sowed them sparsely though - could probably have afforded to plant 3 or 4 times as many.

This in-place compost bed is breaking down nicely, should be ready for potatoes mid spring.

Chard - surviving. I'll start more from seed soon ready for early spring.

The citrus looking much better at this point in winter than last year. One because they are bigger and stronger, two I think the position is a bit better. Have not lost that many leaves. I am still going to give them a good pruning early spring. Fingers crossed for limes this year!

Minutina is super slow growing. I think the pot is massively overplanted too but I can always thin.

Blueberry still looking a bit spindly, has now flowered. Which is later than last season so I might even get fruit from some of these if I don't cover it. Bees finally have something to visit in the garden again, but it's not much.

Bulb fennel looking great. I remember these have a pretty huge taproot so perhaps I overplanted a bit, I think there are 6 in this 25L pot. Volunteer strawberries look nice and will be transplanted next month.

The first is my cutting grown rosemary which I finally up-potted. It has prime position here top of the herb tower also but not expecting much growth until spring. The second is the original prostrate rosemary.

 I have access to several nearby large bushes of rosemary, so I don't really need to grow my own. They sure take some time to get established.

Over to the brassica greenhouse beds. You can see the large leaf buk choy has been harvested (surprisingly shallow root system) leaving the two green stemmed ones which haven't bolted yet (I haven't harvested them at all yet).

The broccoli in the back has gotten quite tall, no sign of florets yet (which is good, as they'd be very small at this stage).

Beetroot and dill in here also, looking not too bad.

Where the buk choy were I have planted some tatsoi seedlings.

The mizuna and rocket have finally taken off and I now have many large leaves. The tuscan kale got blown over (it was always a bit leggy due to my negligence at seedling stage) but it should be okay now, if not I'll stake it.

I have transplanted some wom bok here too.

I think that's a self seeded basil which has indeed survived many a heavy frost.

Outdoors kale from last season.

The oak tree on our strip has finally lost most of its leaves and as a result, we have a bit more sun coming through.

Up on the balcony, the chillis are still alive. Can't believe I still have access to fresh chilli in July. Sure, they're a bit pale and the plant doesn't look that happy, but there's even some new growth on it.

Habanero looking much sicker, but it's still alive. I think it actually dried out while we were away. I don't really need it to survive as I was planning to skip habaneros this season but we'll wait and see.

Mini cabbages starting to form heads. Some dirty grey aphids got into one of them, so I'll give them a spray every few days until they are all dead.

Well, you can germinate basil in an unheated greenhouse in winter in Canberra. But it doesn't grow much beyond that. Still, it might give me a slightly earlier start this season.

So that's our garden, mid winter. It's still cold outside but when it's not raining, the days are bright and sunny as you can see. It won't be long until I am starting the spring and then summer season seedlings. I am not expecting the long El Nino fuelled season we had last year but still excited about what I'm planning to grow, many new varieties of capsicum, tomato, eggplant, corn, beans and so on, and I'll try to grow a few more flowers this year too. I'm also aiming to use less bagged stuff and more free stuff, like shredded leaves instead of pea straw for mulch, and I have a good supply of worm castings and finished compost.

Winter season, brassicas, alliums and ripe lemons

Winter has arrived, but not in earnest. Lots of rain and cool days but no heavy frosts yet. I'm sure they are coming though. It's a long time until spring, but even come August I'll have plenty to do. With La Nina forecast it's unlikely I'll get anything like the super-long growing season we've just enjoyed.

There's still a bit happening though and it was a nice day so I went out and took a few photos.

These were the first two Meyer lemons I picked. There were 16 in total. I an hoping for even more next year.

And this is what I made with them - lemon sago, a family favourite.

Mint is really enjoying this season. We haven't had any major frosts yet but so far it looks like they'll survive the whole winter in this spot.

Garlic and parsley. A bit of a black aphid infestation on these and the rest of my alliums, but pyrethrum is sorting them out.

Sugar snap and shelling peas. I'll plant the snow peas in August.

The leaf and stems reshooting from the bases of the harvested celery has proved quite useful in cooking, good flavour. Broad beans finally sprouted too - they were huge and bushy last year so I only planted four, a bit more than a foot apart. The shallots I planted long ago in the front have also re-shot.

Onions. I have a feeling these will bolt in spring rather than form big bulbs so I'll have to keep a close eye on them.

There are a lot of mushrooms in this strip, I'm not sure whether to leave them or remove them.

Miner's lettuce is growing very slowly. Sorrel likes this position but also grows slowly, so a few more plants might be a good idea in spring.

New and old spring onions.

Leeks in the main bed growing slowly. Radishes have grown quite well, I have quite a few ready to harvest and good ratio of bulb to foliage. I'm learning it's good not to give them much nitrogen. Turnips and carrots on the other hand aren't doing much yet, but I wasn't expect to harvest them until early to mid spring anyway.

I had planned to heavily mulch this bed with shredded leaves but because of the slow growth, I haven't done it yet. The rain hasn't helped either, not going to go collect leaves while they're matted and soggy.

Fennel bulbs growing slowly but doing pretty well. The volunteer strawberry seedlings in this pot will be transplanted out when they are big enough. In the front is minutina and leaf lettuce - no signs of the leaf lettuce yet but the minutina is starting to sprout. If it takes much longer with the lettuce I'll sow them again and put plastic over the top, but I didn't think they had problems germinating in the cold. Maybe it was all the rain.

The blueberry is starting to recover from the savage over pruning and repotting I put it through much too late in summer. It won't really pick up until spring though.

Very tiny minutina sprouts. Looking forward to trying these.

The sublime is not that cold tolerant compared to the Meyer lemon. It wasn't the best choice for our climate. Since I'll prune it back heavily in the early spring it doesn't really matter. It's mostly the new growth that is losing leaves.

Herbs looking pretty good, expecting the chives to die back soon. I really need to cut the flower heads off the oregano and marjoram at the top.

The variety of buk choy I am growing this year has these huge leaves, different to the bunching green stemmed variety I grew last year. The smaller ones are meant to be wom bok but I at the moment they look like buk choy too. The two in the back are broccoli de cicco, not expecting much until early spring.

These were all direct sown in mid autumn which is normally too late. I had started brassica seedlings earlier but I really neglected them and they didn't make it except for the kale. Thanks to the warmer than usual Autumn and the greenhouse covers though, they are doing great. This bed gets about 4-5 hours of sun in winter.

These are the kale I mentioned. As well as rocket and mizuna. It gets a little less sun than the other bed but still enough.

That is self seeded basil. I suspect they will not survive the heavy frosts even under cover but I'll just leave them and see what happens.

Coriander.

More coriander. It had a bit of an aphid infestation that went unnoticed but I am spraying every few days with pyrethrum.

Meanwhile on the balcony, I still have fresh chillis. Shame it's not quite compact enough to fit in the greenhouse up here.

Habanero has been harvested too but it's still trying to push out new fruit.

This neglected and abused basil is still going.

This basil germinated in this unheated greenhouse, where it's a balmy 28 degrees inside despite being 12 outside. Obviously this doesn't work at night without any sunlight to trap but it's a fun experiment.

Mini cabbage is doing great. I found a caterpillar and squished it. I hope there aren't too many more. The second from the back is a double header. This is the sunniest growing area this time of year, maybe 6 or 7 hours - will be even better once the oak tree drops its leaves.

Thanks for reading.