Midwinter harvest

I managed to grab 20 minutes in the garden today to tend to my vegetables which seem to be thriving on neglect. 

The salad leaves are a little overgrown but they're the most wonderful colours. 

I filled my trug with ingredients for the next few nights - celery, spring onions, bok choy, oregano, marjoram, chillis, cos lettuce and beetroot. I've finally worked out that I can just break off what I need from the celery and spring onions rather than bringing a whole head or clump. The beetroots are a bit small and there's not many of them but they're growing moss so I picked half for a casserole. The leaves are still in good nick so I can use those as salad. Jasper got some of the cos leaves that were battered in the storms. 

The cawliflowers are still tiny but I should be able to use some broccoli next week - fried with butter, garlic and some of the chillis from the garden. The chilli plant seems to be re-growing from the main stem and coping with the frost but unfortunately my tarragon has all gone. 

My cultivated garlic cloves have sprouted and the broad beans look strong. I thinned the radishes and kept the thinnings to give away on our local trade and swap page or else eat as micro greens tonight. The carrots have been slow to germinate so need a few more weeks to establish themselves before I thin those too. 

Over in the compost heap, a new choko vine has taken off - the pukekos will be delighted! And I think there's a pumpkin vine next to it with tiny fruit already appearing. I need to work out how to protect them as they seem to be rotting in the damp and cold. Fingers crossed that some survive at least... 

Weather front

One of the things I love about our place is watching the weather move towards us across the valley. 

Last week was particularly dramatic. This was the view from the back of the house one lunchtime... 

...whilst this was how it looked from the front windows... 

...and five minutes later, it looked like this at the back. 

And after another five minutes, the bush in the paddock was steaming. 

A couple of hours later, it did it all over again. 

Native flowers

I walked over to this dwarf kowhai yesterday fearing that all the leaves had yellowed and we're going to drop off. When I got closer, I could hardly believe that it had actually produced such a splendid display of flowers only six months after planting. 

This manuka is a few years older but it's still trying hard - I hope that its seeds spread into the regenerating bush adjacent to this border. It'd be lovely to have deep pink amid the more common white flowers.  

This hebe was planted about four years ago now and seems well-established now. I think I'll plant a few more along the edge of the existing bush now I know that they do well in that spot.