A leaf?

Over the upcoming days I will post some pictures of our slowly, yet steadily growing plants. We had many sunny days followed by a few rainy days and the garden is very happy!

Today only a shot of something, we found hiding out in the thyme plant, while we were cutting down the leaves from our bush mango, which unfortunately is infected by a rather bad bacterial fungus.

Here it is:

And isn't the thyme beautiful in flower?

Spring has Sprung

After a few silent months of growing, with the transition from winter to spring all our crops grow and flourish and we have started to prepare the spring plantings.

Our gigantic neighbour's tree (which in fact was just done *loosing* all its leaves) has now started growing them back:

We have just finished the last harvest of snow peas, kohlrabis, broccoli (just before it went to seed) and celery and today we harvested some Broad Beans, which will go into a delicious Broad-Bean-Lemon-Risotto, with even more delicious sweet fresh Lemons from our neighbours garden (finally! non-bitter lemons, I prefer them sweet-sour and always wonder what the commercial farmers do to them to make them so ridiculously bitter...). Here are our gigantic broad beans:

Also, our Mulberry tree is getting heavier by the day. A few berries are already black and ripe, but most of them are still red:

Arugula, Rainbow Chard and Spinach are ready to be harvested once more (we get a good meal out of each of them about every 1-2 weeks):

While other things are just starting to grow:

Peas

Tigerella Tomatos

Red Iceberg Lettuce

Carrots

A Raspberry Bush

A Russian Black Tomato

And the peppermint in our herbsnail :)

Last but not least our days are filled with joy thanks to our two little kittens:

A few hrs in the garden

Well today was planned to be most of the day in the garden but it didn't work out that way. I was called in for a meeting in the city and by the time I ran errands on the way home most of the day was shot. Raking up the leaves took over an hour so I only managed about a third of what I hoped to do. Ahh well them's the breaks.

 I started off weeding the herb snail and trimming off any sick or old foliage. The malky mint had to go and after some pruning I was left with just these two healthy parsley plants that are just coming back all nice and bushy.

 Above the parsley is the sage, rosemary & oregano. A good trim and weed out and they are looking good now. The sage is starting to put out tons of tiny new leaves as is the oregano.

 Here's the front of the snail showing the trimmed back lavender and thyme.

 Behind the parsley is a marjoram plant. I'm just amazed by this thing - it was the tiniest sickest little thing and now it's a turning into a real solid bushy plant. 

 Here's the back of the snail showing the chives, lemon balm & tarragon. Everything benefitted from a good trim back.

 The pots needed some sun so out they went for the afternoon. That's raspberry, juniper & passionfruit from left to right.

 I found a small thyme plant that managed to wedge itself into the rocks of the snail. I took it out carefully and planted it next to the bay bush. Hopefully it survives:)

 After the snail it was onto the first horizontal bed. It needed a good weed out too and I trimmed off anything that looked brown and old. Here's the a wombok cabbage that is starting to clump up nicely.

 The same wombok from above showing the start of the head.

 Here's the brussel sprouts, 2 big ones and two little ones:)

 Those womboks again!

 6 arugula plants. Pretty soon these will be seriously bushy like the other one in the other bed.

 The only parsnip that survived. It's a star!

 Here's the pak choy. I don't know what happened to it but most of it has bolted. I pinched out the flowers and trimmed off some dodgy leaves but it seems to be growing straight up. The one in the front is the only one clumping. Oh well - better look up what goes on here.

 Endless spinach behind the garlic:)

 Here's more spinach - the big ones!

 And here's the whole bed - all weeded and trimmed. Looking pretty good for a complete novice:)

I had to throw this shot in. As I was coming inside I noticed that the kholrabi are starting to grow more than leaves! Just look at that little beauty:D

Herbs Everywhere!

Herb Snail Update

Our herb snail has grown quite a bit since the last piccie was published:

From inside to outside: Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Lavender, Thyme, Tarragon, Passion Fruits and a strawberry plant (temporary), Lemon Balm, Coriander, Dill, Chervil, Basil, Parsley and last but not least Spearmint!!! :D

The herb snail in the morning sun - it makes me proud every day again :)

I love the herb spiral:D

 This herb snail goes from strength to strength I love it!

 Check them out - they grow every day!

 The coriander is really starting to come on - so is the dill

I thought basil was hard to grow^^

Herb update

 The spiral goes from strength to strength:)

Mint, parsley going crazy

 Check out that sage!

Chervil, dill & coriander coming on well:)

Rethinking

After getting some very good advice about overcrowding I moved the marjoram that I transplanted yesterday from here...

...to here... behind the chamomile, and I still have room to plant some chives:)

Herb garden:D

 Here's the whole spiral - it's starting to look like something

 I transplanted this rosemary from a pot - hopefully it takes.

I also transplanted some marjoram - my little piddly marjoram was making me depressed