Toadie the Bus:and the Yummy Yams
Our NZ yams are over due for earthing up. They are just like potatoes, when they have grown through the soil a bit, you can scoop more soil over them to help promote extra tubers for harvest.
Once they’re earthed up, I plan on planting out the scarlet runner bean seedlings our friends gave us.
Beans and yams grow well together!
Toadie the Bus: and the Camera Caper
We went on a wee road trip on Saturday. We took the camera, and now I can’t find it. It’s here somewhere, I just don’t know where. I had to make do with the crappy camera on my phone for these.
Sorry!
The fucsia bush is back and flowering and I’m looking forward to the berries already.
Last year I found out that fucsia berries are edible, and I added them to some jam I was making. It turned out great! It ended up being our favourite jam of the season!
Raw, they taste like a peppery grape, and very refreshing.
The raspberry canes are looking great too!
Whoa! Bad photo!
SORRY!
Toadie the Bus: and the Sweet Survivors
We had blossoms, and then wind, and then storms, and then more blossoms.
That was only a couple of weeks ago, then we had another windy, rainy type storm over the weekend. I was holding my breath when I wandered down the garden this morning.
And there I found these!
There were loads of them! But my camera wouldn’t focus on them properly. =(.
Yay Peaches!!!
=).
Toadie the Bus: and the Strawberry Surprise
The one little alpine strawberry plant that we planted last year has come back stronger! The flowers are almost twice as large as last year and it looks like there will be more off the original plant!
And, the wee guy multiplied!
This is a plant formed by a runner from the parent plant!
And then of course are our non-alpine, traditional garden style strawberries that have come back too!
Strawberry plant usually last a minimum of 3 years.
=).
Toadie the Bus: and the Fruitful Flowers
At the back fence are our fruit trees.
They had alot of blossoms before the storms and I was dreading looking at them incase there was nothing left.
But there they were.
=).
Toadie the Bus - and the Self Sown Seeds
The weather is awesome today! So hot outside and inside that I looked at the last room to be packed and though ‘Screw it’! I’m going gardening!!!!
Last years tomato patch has played host to some wayward celery seed from the neighbouring bed. There is loads of celery!
And a purple sprouting broccoli!
I’m off to look up celery soup recipes!
The Garden - Silverbeet
The rain let up a bit, so I went outside to take these photo’s.
I planted this very silverbeet LAST year, and it is still giving us silverbeet even now!
What ever you do, don’t think that just because it’s autumn or winter that you have to pull out everything from the garden. These 3 plants have been producing almost constantly for us!
When they went to seed, we cut back the seed stalks and let them continue growing.
(NOTE: if you let winter leaf vegetables go to seed the vegetable themselves will be really bitter, BUT after they are finished seeding cut back the dead leaves and seed stalks and leave them alone for a while. They’ll come back like these did!).
The Garden - Yacon
Yacon. Apparently also know as the They are of South American origin, and I just bought some rhizomes on TradeMe (New Zealands favourite online auction).
(This is the photo of them from TradeMe)
These are REALLY hard to find here. So when I accidently came across them on TradeMe for only $5, I had to buy them! I’ve never eaten one, I’ve never grown them, and the growing season here is not til September/October, BUT I am looking forward to all of it!
From the rhizomes (above) they sprout stalks and leaves and can get to between 5 and 7 feet tall.
(photo off the net)
They also flower and have a nice big sunflower type bloom.
(photo off the net again)
But that’s not the exciting part. Underneath the soil they grow edible tuber roots that you can eat raw, and are sweet and crunchy!
(this one too)
I’ve only really just read up on them even though I knew I wanted them ages ago.
They take up quite a bit of space to according to the gardening sites I’ve been visiting. I might try and grow them in half wine barrels and I don’t know how well they store or if they can be preserved yet……?
The Garden - Yams (New Zealand Yams)
I’m worried people will get confused with the type of yams people grow in America. The yams we tried to grow are what are more commonly called New Zealand yams. They are much smaller, and look nothing like a Kumara.
Kumara:
New Zealand Yams:
Although we wanted to grow kumara, we didn’t get aroung to it. Mainly because we started too late for a decent growing season for them. But we did plant yams!
That’s them in the back ground under the peas and behind the silverbeet, sometime back in summer.
And today I harvested them!
A few unearthed:
Half full bin:
And full bin:
And I don’t think I’m finished either! They really spead themselves around where ever you plant them, and apparently they are hard to get rid of once they’re in your garden. My Mum told me that once you’ve panted a yam, you will always have yams.
I’m not complaining, just sounds like free food from now on if you ask me. =).
Gardening - The Pumpkin Harvest
The pumpkins while they were growing:
We got a whole lot of flowers that didn’t pollinate, and a couple of plants that seemed to only grow male flowers. So, although we had a lot of long string vines navigating their way around the garden, we didn’t get too many pumpkins.
But somethings better than nothing, right? =)
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