Garden update

Apologies... it has been a few weeks since I posted as life has gotten in the way of blogging. Exciting things have still been happening in the garden though, especially with the new seedlings and potatoes I planted (more on the potatoes later). There have been so many posts I have wanted to put up, but havent had the time to even think about downloading the photos from my camera!

The garden is looking fantastic at the moment with everything growing like crazy. Flowers are popping up everywhere, the lemon tree is covered in shoots and blossoms, the vegies are growing like crazy.

The seeds I planted a few weeks ago quickly pushed up into the world. First the rocket came up, then the beans raised their huge head. The two pictures below are after one week.

Here they are three weeks after planting. As you can see the beans have gone crazy, and there has been a lot of success with the tomatoes (top tight) and rocket (bottom right). The basil has been the slowest - I'm only seeing the first little shoot now - almost a month to the day after I planted them. I was quite unimpressed with the germination of the spinach and coriander. Of the 12 spinach seeds I planted (2 per tube), I only got 2 seedlings. And only four little coriander. There are still a couple of late beans coming up - so maybe there is hope for the rest.

As they were getting so big, I planted out the beans with a pack of peas I picked up recently. The rest of the seedlings have moved outside to harden up a little and will be transplanted with their first real leaves start to grow. I think these zucchini (above) will go in next.

In other garden news, the kale is growing like crazy, even with the green smoothies I've been drinking.

I've also planted a number of other 'pre-started' tomato and capsicum seedlings for a bit of an early crop.

Finally, the nasturtium I planted down with the lemon tree is looking amazing and has just put on its first flower!

Farmers market finds

This morning I stumbled across a farmers market not far from where I live. I had heard about it before, but had never managed to remember to go down on a Sunday morning (I am usually curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee).

As well as picking up my usual fruit and vegetables, I came home with some lovely flowers, a bunch of adorable heirloom carrots and four seedlings wrapped in newspaper. There was a huge selection on offer but I eventually went with red spring onions, purple silverbeet, red russian kale and some broccolini. I also picked up a bulb or planing garlic which will make an interesting experiment as growing garlic is completely new to me.

While not from my garden, a neighbour recently gave me a large bag of lemons and baby mandarins that were growing on their tree. The mandarins were polished off quickly, but the lemons have been waiting for the right dish. I've finally decided to go with a lemon butter so I use them before they go mouldy or dry out. I'll post the results of that later.

Welcome to my tiny garden

I decided to write this blog to record the changes in my garden through the seasons and to track the progress of little projects I'm working on. 


I live in a ground floor apartment in Melbourne, Victoria and am incredibly lucky to have access to a private courtyard garden. Growing up on a suburban quarter acre block, I was always surrounded by plant-life and spent my childhood climbing trees, playing in our 'jungle', or reading on the grass in the sunshine. As an adult, I've moved between share houses, usually without the luxury of a garden. Where I've been able to, I've grown vegetables or flowers in pots, but have found this quite limiting. 


My current home has a small 8m x 2m courtyard. It is half paved and half grass, with a raised bed running along the side. When I moved in the bed was already filled with flowers and herbs, so I have been gradually updating as I go along. I'm trying to grow mostly vegetables and herbs, but I still like to scatter flowers throughout the garden to keep it looking pretty. I've also got a sad lemon tree who I am hoping to bring back to life and finally bear fruit. 


I try to grow organically as much as possible, especially with edible plants. I'm also learning as I go, so if you have any tips or ideas please feel free to comment and let me know. 


Thanks for reading.