Growing: Winter Garden Update

Here is an update on my nifty potted garden that I have growing out the back of my place. I have good news and some not so good news. I will start with the not so good news about my citrus plants:

If you are following this blog, you may remember this Little Anchovy bang on about my Buddha’s Hand plant I even showed you the flowers that would produce the fruit that would bring the possibility of future culinary endeavours. Remember?

Lets just put that little dream on hold for a while shall we?  It seems that Mother Nature did not feel that I was ready for such a task, and a couple of weeks ago called upon all her wintery strength (namely wind and crazy, crazy rain) and destroyed all but one of my precious flowers. The last bedraggled blossom held on as best it could after the rain, and I felt hope, but it too succumbed to the elements and one day just simply blew away into the great unknown that is my backyard. The Lemonade, well that one has remained the same since the day it arrived from Queensland so I haven’t had any heartbreak from it, yet. I am crossing my fingers that it shows me some flower power come summer.

But it made me realise that I needed to do a little reading on citrus if I was going to be a proper citrus owner and I had to try to get these plants growing well before I go and introduce any more plants to my vegetation menagerie. 

A couple of things I have learnt:

1-      Citrus plants do not like windy conditions. Yeah OK, noted for next time
2-      Citrus plants LOVE fertiliser. Huh,I didn’t think of that.

So I went out and bought some Dynamic Lifter which smells feral but is supposed to be fantastic for plants and some Osmocote for citrus. I hope they like it. With the fantastic weather that Sydney is having now, I hope that my little guys start to get back on track.

Now for some happy news from the garden of The Littlest Anchovy. The other day I bought some rainbow chard seedlings and they are doing very nicely. I think they are beautiful and they have helped me get through my flower loss. 

Every day I run out to check on them to see how they are growing and I cant wait to harvest them. I think I might make a tart with some of them and see how I go making short crust pastry for the first time.

Another addition is my red basil, it was an impulse purchase from the markets and although I think it is very beautiful, I am not sure what to do with it yet. The woman at the markets said that the flowers are tastier than the leaves and when I ate both raw, I agree the flowers are delicious.I guess they will make a nice garnish and I could maybe make a red basil pesto with the leaves? Or maybe I could make some sort of tempura with the flowers, OK now my mind is wandering, back to the garden. 

The garlic is going great guns, I am still very excited about harvesting these in summer. I have been collecting all sorts of garlic related recipes in anticipation. 

Finally, I am pretty pleased with the way my herbs are going in winter. I have some lovely purple sage which I bought after being inspired by a friend who also grows it, my mint is very green and the leaves are nice and full. There is also chocolate mint, thyme, oregano, winter savoury, garlic chives and parsley. Whew!

So there you go! Having a ball in my small potted garden, feeling very inspired and I  think I will plant some radishes next! I am not feeling so bad any more about my lost blossoms because Spring is just around the corner and I know that they will be back in good time.