veggie musings: May in my garden

Things are generally very wet and soggy in my garden in the Dandenong Range's at the moment. There is some lovely Autumn colour and foliage, lots of different forms and textures as well.

The first Narcissus has bloomed, I am not sure which species it is. I do love it's simple delicate form and its small white flowers.

Kiwi fruit vine leaves turning
a beautiful golden hue

This large male kiwi fruit vine sprawls over the water tank, and provides a screen on the side boundary fence. This winter I will be planting two female 'Hayward' kiwi fruit near by. With any luck we will finally have some fruit soon.

The beautiful blue grey, green unfurling flower spikes of Euphorbia characias subsp. 'Wulfenii'
It can be a bit weedy, but I do love it's form, colour and the textural interest it provides.

Echium 'Heroswood Blue' flowers beginning to form. It will be covered with tall candle-like spikes of blue flowers by spring. I love this plant for the drama it adds to the garden.

Self sown seedling of Mustard 'Red Giant'. I love it's deep reddish, purple, wrinkly leaves, with pale green veins, margins, and undersides it always looks great in the in Autumn and winter garden.

New Radicchio trevisano leaves emerging through the mulch after an early autumn cut back of the woody flowering stem. I will cover the leaves with a terracotta pot as a blanching cloche to block out the light, this will reduce the bitterness of the leaves when harvested..

Self sown seedlings of Italian parsley and Mustard 'Giant Red'.

Smallest fejoa fruit in the Dandenongs

We have a very old, large Fejoa tree, it performs very poorly, each year I intend to give it a severe prune. However it is doing a marvelous job of screening out the rowdy neighbours so I end up leaving it alone. Maybe a light pruning is the compromise needed.

Bronze Dill seed heads and flowers

The Dill in the garden has given me a months of joy this year;bronze feathery foliage in spring, towering umbels of yellow flowers all through summer, followed by masses of delicate seed heads in the Autumn.

Salvia ulignosa Bog sage co-exists happily in my perennial potato patch, though I think it maybe gaining the upper hand! Its azure-blue flowers are a beautiful sight for much of the year, while also providing much needed pollinator habitat.

Broccoli "Green Sprouting
calabresa"

This Broccoli ;Green Sprouting Calabresa' was planted as a seedling last spring and has been one of the main stays of the veggie garden this season. I harvested the central head in early summer, then lay the plant over on its side to promote the growth of the side shoots. I have managed to keep it going by cutting off all shoots and not letting it flower, which it would like to do during summer. It should keep me in broccoli until the next lot of seedlings mature in around six weeks time.

Physalis philadelphica Tomatillo

Too late in the season for any of the Tomatillo fruit to ripen now, I did not realise this self sown plant was there and almost weeded it mistakenly as a deadly nightshade. If it had had more encouragement it's fruits may have ripened.