The Christmas Harvest

If you're anything like me, you're pretty busy in the week leading up to Christmas, and not a great deal gets done in the garden. This year, as I didn't have to work until Christmas Eve, I did a lot of Christmas baking for gift and for our visitors on Boxing Day. I made my 'famous' shortbread, made with my late Grandmother's recipe, and highly anticipated by some members of the family; Christmas cookies, sugared peanuts (that turned out really well and were gobbled up by my spouse well before Christmas!); and Oliver and I made chocolates. I also made a yummy trifle as I do every year.

I find though, that once Christmas is done, I'm super keen to get my jobs done while I have some time off from work. So in the last four days I've been pretty busy. I did some indoor cleaning and organising, but also did a few things outside, including harvesting my first crop of apricots, which I'm confident will ripen nicely off the tree. The one I tasted was delicious, so much so that I took the ladder into the garden to make sure I picked the really high ones. I'm amazed at how big the apricot tree has grown since I planted it last year. It's easily twice the size of the apple trees in the same garden.

I also picked my first zucchini (yum!),

a bucket of potatoes (which I cooked straight away and forgot to photograph!) and in the next week or so will probably be picking several kilos of blackberries. I'll go out and take a photo of the bush tomorrow, it's amazing!

I also did a bit (OK, a lot) of weeding, tied up more tomato branches and cut off some more of the un-flowering leaves (I'm sure there's a proper name for them!). 

The Vines

Not only are food plants amazing, they're also mulit-talented!

Today I'd like to introduce you to my vines:

My front door is in there somewhere...

Our front deck faces NorthWest. Which means it's full of beautiful mid-afternoon sunlight in the winter, but also very warm mid-day sunlight in the summer.

The only thing that can help you make you comfortable in both of those situations is a plant. If we had covered our front deck in colourbond, it would keep us nice and shady in summer, but would make it seem cold and uninviting. So, instead, we planted three grapevines. A deciduous plant like a grapevine loses its leaves in winter, and grows a thick canopy in summer.

The biggest we planted long before we ever considered a life of food growing. We built the deck in the early 2000s, and put in the 'ornamental' grapevine at pretty much the same time. It's now got two impressive trunks (and a lot of established growth).

Grapevine trunk (and its weed friends)

Of course, being an ornamental grapevine, the grapes are pretty awful. They're quite sour and full of annoying pips. The birds love them, and sometimes the bees, but they're not really all that good in a fruit salad.

Th old vine, on the northern end of the deck.

So, when we got a little more serious about growing food, we cut the old vine back, and planted two more vines at the opposite end of the deck. They're both red grapes, seedless, and very nice to eat.

The view from here....

Of course the best thing is that as they have all grown bigger and more dense, they have provided a lovely, sheltered space right outside our front door. In winter we can sit there and soak up the sun, but in summer, it's a lovely shady space. The air moves freely through the leaves and branches, but they still block out most of the sunlight. It can get pretty messy, but it's nothing a sweep can't fix, and the dead leaves are just more good organic matter to put back into the garden. And - bonus: they give us some great privacy!

Now, we just have to wait for the grapes to ripen!

October in the garden - planting!

Of course one of the big jobs in October is planting! Especially when you're growing vegies (and constantly finding fun new food plants to try...)

So in the bits that are already prepared, I've been planting.

I've planted lettuce twice, as the first lot was decimated when the chooks escaped from their yard (along with some of my precious garlic - aaaargggh!).

As well as some tomatoes, basil, eggplant and leeks. I had some little bits and pieces that I'd grown from seed (like some zucchini plants) but the chooks got those too. I'll put them in again this week. One of the pitfalls of having them I guess, but I wouldn't give them up. I love my yummy fresh eggs! I'll introduce you soon.

I've also put in some new raspberry plants from my dad (a very clever gardener along with my mum), planted some corn seeds, transplanted some strawberries and I thought I'd try a honeydew melon in a warm spot that I've got out the back. We'll see how it goes...

This is my garden

I live on a 1/4 acre block in Canberra, Australia.
Canberra is a good place for gardens, especially food gardens. While we can't grow tropical stuff like avocados and mangoes, we have the kind of climate that is good for lots of fruit (apples, stone fruit, passionfruit etc), as well as lots of different herbs and vegies, and my favourite, berries!

My delicious organic Tasmanian garlic,

This is the food I currently have growing in my garden:

• Tasmanian garlic (grown from bulbs a friend gave to me when I visited in 2012)
• Asparagus
• Herbs: chives, basil, dill, coriander, marjoram, parsley, comfrey, camomile
• Pears
• Apples
• Apricots
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Boysenberries (although I've been trying unsuccessfully for a while to get rid of these!)
• Strawberries
• Passionfruit 
• Vegies: tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, leek, spinach, kale, peas
• Almonds
• Oranges
• Rhubarb
• Cherries
• Pomegranate 
• Bay tree

Soon, I'm planning on planting more veg: corn, capsicum, chilli, celery (and all the other 'c' words!).

I'll tell you about it!