Garden walkabout - join me?

It's been a while since I have taken you around the homestead...so come walk with me?

The indoor kitchen garden

The barley, wheat and sunflower kitchen garden which I started at the end of November is growing well. We have been harvesting the grass and sprouts for juicing and green smoothies.

It became a little obessive that each of us would peer at these growing shoots and run our hand over the new blades of grass in anticipation.

It all looks so pretty and neat in it's little stand.

Compost

Out back at the garage the compost is doing it's thing. Yesterday I asked Des to give it a good turn and sifting.

We let the chickens into the area and they had a great time eating the cut worm and mielie bugs.By Autum this should be ready to use in the garden.

The backyard which is paved has pots around the egdes and some small beds under the windows.

This is my favourite pot! It is an overgrowing cucumber plant. There are so many flowers on the plant and I planted it here as an after thought.

There are wire trelisses in the tub to support the growth and the flowers have attracted the well needed bees to the back garden.

Last year our cucumber crop was a failure, the year before we had so many that I didn't know what to do with them.

This year I hope we have struck a happy balance.

 
Rosemary and Sage grow in abundance, 2 asparagus plants in tubs, a variety of lettuce, strawberries and other herbs like basil, majoram, celery, oreganum, thyme, lavender and tea tree.

 Our sage is doing particularly well and we use it for pork dishes and then I dry what I can for soap making.

I have also stuck a trailing squash seed into the bigger pots and will feed these pots heavily with worm tea through summer.

You can see the squash growing out the pot below.

 Also in the backyard we have planted our fig tree. This was in the general vegetable garden but I transplanted it in Winter as I had realised that it would eventuallycast shade and rob nutrition from the plants near it.

It has handled the transplant and is full of fruit.

At its base I have planted tomatoes and aubergines. These are doing really well in the full sun position.

Fig tree full of promise

 Heading through the kitchen door the herb tower is growing madly with all sorts of herbs which we use almost daily.

In this area I also have the chilli bushes, strawberry baskets, lemon grass and grapevine.

I hope to put a little table and chair out here for still summer mornings to have my quiet time and coffee.

The original garden has potatoes, corn, courgette, bush beans and tomatoes growing. Strawberries are in baskets here as well along the wall.

Looking from the front gate with the pond to the left we have....

Tomatoes, beans, leeks, spinach, potatoes, courgettes and of course the big ferny asparagus plants which you can't see in this picture. The empty bed at the front isn't empty :) it has baby tomato plants.

Peek-a-boo!

 Looking back towards the gate is the rambling area which needs a good weeding but over here we have tomatoes, cucumber, corn, courgettes and some self seeded sunflowers.

The bugs are delighting in the big open faces that also delight us when we look across the garden.

Then we are back to the back gate where the cars are parked and the compost is cooking.

I hope you enjoyed the walkabout!

Enjoy the weekend!