Category: Vegetables

Tomatoes

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30 Dec 2024

A Bountiful Garden: Tomatoes, Watermelons, and the Joy of Growing

There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a garden thrive, and this season, it’s all about tomatoes and watermelons! Our backyard is bursting with life, and every visit to the veggie patch feels like a small celebration of growth and resilience.

Tomatoes Galore

The tomatoes are growing beautifully—vigorous, green, and full of promise! Clusters of little tomatoes are already forming, and the plants are adorned with plenty of yellow flowers, each one a sign of more delicious fruit to come. Among the varieties, my dad’s special pointed tomatoes are a standout. He fondly refers to them as “friendship Borghese.” This unique variety is shaping up well, with lots of tiny tomatoes already developing. Watching their progress has become a joyful daily ritual for both of us.

A Special Connection Through Pointed Tomatoes

My dad has a special bond with these pointed tomatoes, lovingly tending to them and tracking their progress. There’s a charm to these tomatoes—not only because of their shape but also due to the sense of tradition they carry. It’s like they’ve become a symbol of connection, care, and continuity in our family garden. We often joke about their determined, pointy shape, but they’ve earned a special place in our hearts.

Watermelons: A New Experiment

While the tomatoes steal the spotlight for now, our watermelons are slowly making their debut. I’ve planted two in pots and two directly in the veggie patch, eager to see how each group fares. Watermelons can be a bit of an experiment, needing just the right combination of sunshine, water, and patience. But their growth feels exciting and full of potential—like watching a story unfold and waiting for that first sweet reward.

The Joy of Growing

There’s magic in planting something and watching it grow. The garden teaches patience, resilience, and the importance of nurturing. Each bloom and each little fruit is a small reminder of nature’s ability to thrive with care and attention. Whether it’s the pointed tomatoes or the sprawling watermelon vines, this process is filled with hope and discovery.

As the days get warmer, I’m excited to see how things develop. Will the watermelon vines take over the veggie patch? Will we be snacking on “friendship Borghese” tomatoes fresh off the vine in a few weeks? No matter the outcome, the journey of growing these plants is already a gift in itself.

Orange Tree and Purple Cauliflower

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21 April 2024

ORANGE TREE

This tree was a lovely present from my wife Sandra to add to my citrus collection. I now have lemon, mandarin and orange trees and it looks much better with 5 large pots instead of four 🙂 .


These 37 cm half wine barrels from Bunnings are great for this purpose. I do place them on top of a concrete paver so they drain around the base and don’t rot and at $3 a paver that’s also very affordable.


I have teased the roots out and added some homemade compost and a decent potting mix. Have given it a decent watering and as always the waiting commences – but I do love the aroma of citrus flowers while we wait.

PURPLE CAULIFLOWER AND BROAD BEANS

I planted the purple cauliflower the other day and a white cauliflower later on. They seem to be doing quite well. Just gave them a little bit of watering and pulled out a whole heap of left over tomato plants that have just randomly sprung out from the compost heap.


The beans have taken off as well – everything is growing beautifully.


In the garden section in Bunnings there is a throwaway section of seedlings for a dollar each and I brought quite a few. We’ll see how they go. Absolute bargain because they’re usually $4.99 each.

Happy veggie patch anywhere in pots!

Broad beans
Letuce
Cauliflower and broad beans

Strawberries in a tin

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10 Mar 2024

I’ve always loved strawberries and recently Facebook sent me a reminder of something I did years ago when my son was a baby.


I repurposed the baby formula tins by poking a few holes in them and then hooking them onto the chain link fence. I then planted the strawberry plants inside these tins. The seedlings loved it and I had a great crop that year. My son loved eating them too 🙂


This once again proves the fact that you can basically have a Veggie Patch Anywhere… even an ugly chain link fence can be made pretty this way.

Keep gardening and be kind – always.

Veggie Patch Cleanup and Strawberries

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17 Feb 2024

It’s that time of the year again – to clean up the veggie patch after the season ends.

This year I had a total of around 300 tomatoes (big and small), six cucumbers (mostly very large ones) and then it all ended with a whole heap of mulch and mess to clean up.

I have some lovely bunches of basil that I’ve put into a couple of pots – making the veranda smell amazing. That will definitely be used used for cooking over the next few weeks.

During the cleanup process, I also found three more strawberry plants that were growing quietly on runners. They’ve been divided up into individual plants and put into a pot – one of the stand-up pots. These stand-up pots had quite a bit of sun damage, are quite brittle and are just breaking up so they’re probably going to end up in the bin after this.

On another note, the fig tree has fully rejuvenated fully and it’s looking quite healthy so maybe there will be a “saving the fig tree part 3” soon 🙂

After the cleanup. Some cucumbers still growing on the left.
Strawberries replanted and the compost container buried in the soil.
Strawberries covered to protect against the critters.
The fig tree (once again 🙂 )

Mandarines and the Fig Tree

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27 Jan 2024

Mandarins

I’m exploring all the plants in the garden and have come across our first mandarin. The tree is a great little plant that is very green and compact; not much needs to be done.

There is something wonderful and tasty about homegrown mandarins. I am partial to citrus fruits; in Sicily, there are thousands of lemon trees.

I also enjoy the brilliance of the Pansies; they give the garden a lot of color, and they are my wife’s favorite. Absolutely beautiful!

Mandarins in the making
Beautiful Pansies

The Fig Tree

My ongoing saga with saving the fig tree continues. Too many offshoots have dried out the soil, and the plant has withered, losing all its leaves. It is a stubborn plant; I know it’s very hard to kill.

I decided to repot it with new soil and get rid of all the offshoots, except for one that I pulled out weeks ago, and it is doing well.

Additionally, I placed some old newspaper sheets underneath the mulch to retain water and slow down evaporation; hopefully, the weeds won’t thrive either. Today, I noticed new budding leaves.

I also collected a bunch of unripened tomatoes and am letting them ripen in the sun. The wildlife is very hungry and will eat anything, even before it’s ripe.

I have collected over 180 cherry tomatoes so far and have enjoyed many garden salads this summer—very delicious!

New leaves
Growing nicely again

Tomatoes and Cucumbers galore!

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09 Jan 2024

Lots of rain, roads flooded and small lakes forming in all the fields around where I live.
Lovely cherry tomato salads for work lunch straight from the garden with another cucumber from the crop – very nice, sweet tasty.

I have noticed though that the stand up vegetable tubs do dry out quickly so I have to keep a close eye on them.

There are also at least another 20 smaller cucumbers on the 3 plants in my 45cm tub. Next year I may have double the plants if possible because they seem to be doing really well in the tubs.

15 Jan 2024

I just did another bit of harvesting again and my count today was 88 tomatoes and 2 huge cucumbers.
The heritage tomatoes are a bit of a hit and miss unfortunately – lots of worm holes and mush but a few are still hanging in there.

The tommy toe tomatoes are doing great. I had a huge heavy crop and it’s still growing – so much that I need to fold the plant over to let it run on a trellis for support.

Happy harvesting and enjoy the bounty!

Salad, Pesto and the Day Care Garden

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05 Jan 2024

Today I made a beautiful salad with basil, cucumber and lots of tomatoes of course!

I trimmed all the dried, lower tomato leaves and picked a few bunches of basil. With this I made some pesto that I will freeze and use in the future. I think I need two more tubs at least 🙂

The children at the day care are picking all the salad leaves and herbs in the veggie patch at work for the “Grow your own salad” project. It’s a joy watching them smelling all the different herbs, watering the plants and chatting away about their little adventures.

I will transplant the sweet potatoes into the veggie patch and see if it takes off. I have also mixed in some coffee grounds and buried some compost from the compost maker.

Roast Chicken with fresh herbs

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22 Dec 2023

The tomato plant that has drooped also has tomatoes that are being eaten by something, so I spent half an hour today just picking the damaged ones and throwing away the lost causes.

I gave all of them good a water and trimmed away dried leaves. I also spread some more coffee grounds that should do until next year as I don’t want to add too much coffee grounds either.

Fourteen tomatoes and a bunch of basil – a great harvest so far! The mint, lemon, thyme and parsley that I transplanted also worked very well. I used it in the roasting tray with some whole chicken roasted with a bunch of herbs.

Delicious!!

First of the 23/24 crop!

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16 Dec 2023

Big news guys … We’ve had the first taste of the 2023/2024 crop. Absolutely delicious – so sweet – nothing like the ones at the shop and zero chemicals. I decided the caterpillars need to eat as well 🙂 I did pick a dozen of them off the basil – that will do.

I tasted a tomato with some of the basil and my taste buds exploded!

The cucumbers are also comming along nicely. Next year I will buy another tub where I want to grow some zucchinni. Probably simply for the pleasure of growing and the taste of homegrown veggies

I don’t know what is happening to my tommy toe tomatoes though … There are heaps of tomatoes, but one plant is drooping and looks very dry. I’ve watered them twice and also checked the soil. I’ve put some Seasol solution – hopefully it helps. The other ones are fine – only this one seems to have a problem – very strange. Watch this space – we’ll see what happens with them.

Cucumber in the making!
Some of the 1st tomatoes and the 1st cucumber
Basil Galore!
Growing nicely
Seasol
Looking good

Non-chemical bug spray

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11 Dec 2023

After we had some very heavy rains I decided to have a look under the bird netting and discovered some caterpillars munching on my basil.

I immediately decided to make some vinegar bug spray to try and get rid of them. You have to take 1 part vinegar and 1 part water with a splash of dish soap. We’ll see how this goes zero because I really don’t like to use chemical sprays on my vegetable patch.

If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it so please feel free to make a comment below.

Nonno says puréed garlic with lemon and add vinegar and then you spray that in the soil and under the leaves. Other people have also suggested to try Eco Oil Spray from Bunnings.

Reuse and Recycle

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10 Dec 2023

An empty plain driveway is something I’ve never experienced growing up. Sustainability and recycling have been second nature to my dad. He would be able to reuse anything and everything he could find.

Old milk crates, old tubs, netting, homegrown bamboo tomato stakes, window frame, building supplies, torn up old linen as ties, mayonnaise buckets .. and the list goes on.

Babylonstoren (Part 1)

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8 Dec 2023

Today I’m veering off the veggie garden path a little bit to tell you about this wonderful place. 

In April of this year my wife and I went on a long overdue holiday to South Africa and on one of the days there, my brother and sister in law took us to an amazing place called Babylonstoren. It is an old Cape Dutch farm in the Franschhoek wine valley in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

It’s a working farm with agriculture landcare, fresh produce and more varieties off plants then you can imagine along with delicatessen hand made products, interactive activities and a wonderful cafe. 

To put it mildly – this place was my heaven!  We parked under an immense vine structure out in the car park. Hundreds of vehicles parked here –  greeted at the gate by three very friendly donkeys.  Just inside the gate we were offered some free pomegranates and they were absolutely delicious. As we walked through the building, our guide Marisa (sister in law) started giving us a tour which lasted a couple of hours or more. I was stunned at everything I saw there and I still think of this place often.

There will be many parts to this story as I experienced so many activities and sights there.  Part 2 will follow soon and will be about the succulents, the snake path and open air church.

Daycare Potato Cuttings

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6 Dec 2023

Today we showed the children some sprouting sweet potato that I found in a cupboard. We wet some paper towels and placed them in the bottom of a large jar and then placed the potato cuttings on top and displayed it on the window sill. Lovely hues of pink and orange – they look very nice. 

Watch this space for updates on these potato cuttings.

Driveway Veggie Patch

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3 Dec 2023

My mum’s cousin posted his veggie patch. Lots of vegetables tomatoes and compost – all done on top of a concrete driveway.

I’m loving it. Well done Giuseppe! 

Home made fly catcher

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28 Nov 2023

After visiting a big hardware store and seeing the fly catcher bottles, I thought I could make my own instead of spending $14.

Sugar, apple cider vinegar and a drop of dishwashing soap was all I needed.

Cut the top of a soft drink bottle, put the liquid inside and put the top upside down into the drink bottle.

I made a hole in the bottle and hooked it onto the fence, an hour later there was already a fly in it so it’s definitely working!

It’s a very good way to reuse plastic bottles. The liquid won’t keep all of them away but it will get rid of some of them. Being surrounded by farms, cows and horses is great but the flies are a nuisance so I had to do something and this seems to make a bit of a difference so I’ll keep you posted.