Spinach and pumpkin frittata

We had some silverbeet in a delicious and simple chicken stir-fry a few days ago so I was inspired to try another recipe. This spinach and pumpkin frittata used silverbeet, basil, and spring onion from the garden. Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with pumpkin this year - I think maybe I planted too late in the season or perhaps just not enough water. We did get a few butternuts but they were too small to do anything with. Next year I'll be more careful about where I plant and also managing them so that they don't sprawl all over the garden without actually producing any fruit.

Tomatoes again

Tonight's dinner - currently cooking - is home-made chicken pizza with basil, capsicum and tomatoes from the garden. Smells delicious. My basil plant is doing wonderfully - must be loving all the sunshine. Sadly the dill didn't make it.

I've got several 'sugar snack' cherry tomatoes in two different beds that are producing regularly. At least, I think they're sugar snack - I've been a bit lapse with my labelling. In the original bed is a Grosse Lisse which is the one I've had insect issues with. There's also another that's just begun producing delicious, golf-ball sized tomatoes that don't need bagging. Unfortunately I've misplaced the tag for it because I'd defintely plant them again. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of tomatoes but these ones I'll eat straight off the plant. I think they were 'Tiny Tom' but the plant has easily grown a metre and a half so perhaps not. Maybe I should have a go at harvesting some seeds from the fruit and propogating my own. There's also a self-seeded seedling from one of the tomato plants that I'll leave for now and see what eventuates.

Am having a bit of trouble working out what to do with all these tomatoes. I suppose I could make chutney but I'm not a big fan of chutney either. I might have a go at making some homemade tomato sauce.

Do the salsa

I picked the first of the summer squash today but it wasn't going to go far between the six of us. So to go with our steamed barramundi - that my 4yo insisted on buying at the fishmongers today - we had steamed beans and from the herb garden I picked basil, mint and parsley to make this salsa verde. It's too hot for mash (34 degrees today) so we had potato salad and beetroot as a side.

Our mint grows wild in the dog's yard and is quite strong so next time I'll use less as the salsa verde was very minty. Overall a very yummy and fresh-tasting light meal, perfect for a hot summer's evening. Now I'm craving mango and ice-cream...

Sweet capsicum

There's a lot of stuff almost ready to harvest but not ripe enough to eat yet - tomatoes, leeks, summer squash (button squash). So for dinner last night I just picked a couple of long sweet capsicums (pictured below). These are similar to the bell-shaped capsicum (bell peppers) but milder and seem to be a lot easier to grow. They added some texture to our meatballs with spaghetti - great to use in place of onions if you want texture but not too much flavour. Into the tomato sauce I also threw some oregano and basil leaves from the herb garden which made it smell divine while cooking.

It amazes me how much the garden changes from day to day. I usually pop out in the morning to check on things and again in the arvo - do a spot of weeding or watering if needed. Yesterday I was thrilled to see a chilli on one of the chilli plants and that the cucumbers seem to be coming back to life after looking a bit sickly. Sadly, the beetroot, brocolli and cauliflower don't seem to be faring too well but there's a fair bit of rain forecast for the next few days so we'll see what that brings.

Tonight's dinner will be crumbed fish with jacket potatoes topped with sour cream sprinkled with chives. I'm going out now to see if there's any beans ready to have with some mushrooms.

Intro

I got into gardening a few months back after an innocent request to remove a small tree turned into a full-on landscaping epic. We are a fairly typical family on an average suburban block (around 610sqm total) on the outskirts of Sydney. Our yard is L-shaped and by no means large. A portion is fenced off for the dog, another section houses the blow-up pool (in summer, trampoline in winter). Some of the rest is given over to a play area and what will hopefully be a deck, and also a meditation garden.

We have four beds assigned to vegies, another which I haven't completely decided on yet and is currently home to some lovely sunflowers and another bed which is for flowers only. I probably could have planned the bed rotation better but because the whole set up was a bit haphazard (made up as we went along basically) there are plants alongside plants that probably aren't recommended to be together. But hey, Brooke Shields and Michael Jackson were happily dating for a short time so why not corn and beets?

Here's a list of what's currently growing (to varying degrees of success):

Bed 1 (kitchen garden bed)
Tomatoes, lettuce (various), capsicum, dwarf beans, lavender, basil, marigolds and a sick zucchini.

Bed 2 (along a fence)
Ballerina apple, cucumber, lavender, watermelon, leeks, carrots, capsicum, squash, cherry tomatoes, rosemary. And just planted runner (climbing) beans.

Bed 3 (the organised bed)
Cherry tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, capsicum, zucchini and newly planted runner beans.

Bed 4 (the anything grows bed - pictured below)
Ballerina apple, dwarf beans, squash, sunflowers, chia.

Bed 5 (new raised bed)
Corn, butternut pumpkin, cos lettuce, beetroot, cauliflower, radish, broccoli.



Also around the place are dotted a few pots containting various herbs, strawberries, blueberries and a dwarf peach. Nearly all of the plants have either been purchased as seedlings or grown from seed in the past six months.

This blog was inspired by a tip I read in one of Jackie French's books. She said to get the most from your garden, as motivation for doing all the yakka if you like, eat something from it every day. Even if it's a sprinkling of herbs. So for the past few days that's what we've done. Yesterday it was a handful of dwarf beans cooked with mushrooms to go with our sausages and mash.

Can we keep it up for 365 days? Let's see.