Ravishing Radishes and that Rogue Darwin

Just look at the green on the radish in the bottom most pic. It is a daikon that I decided to grow in a not so large pot who is destined for a dinner plate sometime soon. Originally he had 3 friends, sprouted from seed.

But space was limited and they all got Darwinian amongst themselves and this guy turned out the victor. I thought he was a goner at one stage as the aphids took a very strong liking to him.

But I like pyrethrum on occasions (when necessary) and the aphids didn't so Ravishing Radish was safe for another day. I thought he would be like my beets and some of the carrots, a good guy for green foliage but less effective in the growing of a root part. He surprised me and it looks like he will be a fair size for such a small pot.

Question is what do I do with him? I am thinking as part of a tuna sashimi platter ... and will the two black radishes I planted in his place thrive?

Slow-Leak Leeks

I started growing leeks quite a white back now, probably not at the intended time and some were not paired with amicable companion pants.

The examples pictured above are nearly ready to be pulled. They were planted with golden and slow bolt beetroot (two plantings in each pot) and a late addition of some rocket in one of the pots.The leeks took so, so, so long to reach this stage that I nearly gave up. Unfortunately because the pots are fairly shallow the leeks themselves will not have a significant amount of bleached area. I was also too lazy to mound up the soil around them, or use the toilet roll method. Still they are homegrown leeks, and will be added to the pot fairly soon as part of a potato, leek and bacon soup for the balcony garden Sunday lunch!

I grew some other leeks, most noticeably some poorly placed ones pictured above which were planted at a much later date in a pot with two bush beans (can you see the lone leek trying to peak through in the rear of the above picture??) Not very good chums, the beans and the leeks, but they struggled on. You can see them in this picture below, the beans were rapidly growing but the leeks, being less than good companion plants for the beans were stilted in their growth. You can barely see them peaking through the bush beans.

I thought the leeks would be much happier when the beans were eaten and replaced with a tomato! Tomatoes and leeks have an ok working relationship and should at least get along quite well. Alas the leeks took one look at Mr Big Rainbow tomato and keeled over. A quick transplant of two of them seems to be promising and they have a largish pot all to themselves. The other three remain in the tomato pot and only a miracle and some sunshine will help them now.

Hanging Out

I have a few hanging pots in the balcony garden, they help make more of the space as you can see in the above picture. You hear a significant amount about the ones along the edge, those that in summer hold tomatoes and currently hold a mix of snapdragons, violas, pansies, lettuce, rocket, beets and a strange moss I am not too sure about.

Less often, but still on occasions I blog about the largest of the three hanging pots on the pole. This one currently holds a cornflower and some other supposedly blue flowers, but in the past has held tomatoes.

What I rarely post about are the two hanging succulents. They could be considered grandparents in this balcony garden as they were some of the original plants to be put in. I bought one, the donkey ear/tail/dragon-whatever it is called at the markets from my favourite succulent seller (he is actually the only one at the markets but he is awesome).

The other was a present from my old housemate, and it grows quite slowly. I love the various shades of green and purple.

So here is a post just for them, my two hanging old dears, who have survived high winds, forgetful watering and a complete lack of transplanting!

Indulgent Leftovers

A little while back Mr M and I had a feast of sorts, which we shared with Hurricane J. Our other friend Miss J was away and she has an interesting array of allergies. While the cat was away the mice decided to play, and play with things the cat could never eat. Dessert was a blood orange creme caramel (substitute milk or cream with orange juice, it is a total winner) as eggs and oranges are high on the allergy list. Main course was Mr M's cuban stew, which included prawns amongst an array of other meaty and vegetable things.

My other dish (I made the blood orange creme caramels) was an entree inspired by the overhyped, but occasionally watched show masterchef. It was a smoked salmon terrine, rich and delicate. The recipe is here, but I certainly didn't do a full size. I quartered it, and made serious modifications. I served it with a simple green salad from the garden, no walnut dressing or poncey microgreens. I am on a student budget here so overt decadence was out of the question.

On the night it was lovely, but I severely over-catered and was left with a second small terrine. What to do? The answer was easy, replicate the greens, add some other salad veggies and enjoy an indulgent Sunday night leftover feast.

Suffice to say it was delicious but ooooh so filling and overly rich. I mean the night before we only had 3 slices each!

Mushroom Madness or A bit more Yellow

Ok so this picture below did not come from a balcony garden pot, but it was added to some silverbeet and spring onions to form a rather well to do pasta ... and it was yellow, which adds to yesterday's golden post.

This mushroom medley was a concillatory buy on trip to the Vic Markets. I had to resist the Chanterelles I saw at the Organic Shop, at $160 a kilo I couldn't even afford to smell them let alone taste them. They just looked so, so, so good. I actually went back to the shop three times, thinking yes/no/no/god no/oh but yummy/yes/no and ultimately settled for the prepackaged non-chanterelle mushrooms sitting beside them at a slightly more reasonable $6 a box. I think the two people who own the organic stall thought I was mad. Then the guy in front of me weighed the paper bag in which he was going to put his chanterelles, and I realised I wasn't the maddest person in the vicinity. (Ok he was not mad, smart really, and ultra frugal, but weighing a paper bag???)

I know you can get mushroom growing kits, and they have branched out from the old button mushroom to a few more exotic ones like swiss browns (yes, the irony is not lost on me in calling swiss brown mushrooms exotic when chanterelles are named in the same post) but I am just not sure it is worth the effort yet. I have read some posts praising the sweetness and texture of mushrooms grown in a homegrown kit. However my uncle said he grew them a few times and the tield was small and the taste unremarkeable. This might just be a case of when the range at the local Market is so good, and the quality so high, why not draw the line. Homegrown plants on the balcony are one thing, you can look at their beauty all day, and eat them whenever you please, but these mushrooms in their kits need a dank, dark place in which to grow, which limits the amount you can stare at them lovingly. Thoughts?

Yellow's time to shine

I don't really mean to repeat myself but that rainbow swiss chard really was a bit more red than purple. Thing is it is also golden (look at the background of the above pic, and the whole of the pic below!)

As are the golden beetroot. Although given how long this guy has been in the ground I suspect he will be all green leaves and no golden root.

The marigolds are of course a brilliant yellow

So too the now ripe lemons (yes there are yellow lemons, green lemons and many many flowers in this potted wonder, it never ceases to amaze me, or to stop flowering, it is the energizer bunnies of citrus trees!)

The gazania is very slowly unfurling a large flower, which is as yellow as they come

Yellow snapdragons are difficult to capture in their almost fluorescent yellow loveliness.

And the indoor tomatoes add a splash of colour with their flowers which round off the golden touch to the balcony garden (unless you count the yellowing and dying leaves of these same indoor tomato plants but we will save that for another post)

I see Red, I see Red, I see Red

Hot on the heels of my last two blue and purple posts I thought I might muse upon the other colours in my balcony garden. I mean that rainbow swiss chard really was a bit more red than purple, right?!? It is not the only red thing in the balcony garden either. The last vestiges of the chilis for this summer are hanging on. This plant will die back for a couple of months then come alive with flowers and fruit in spring. I have had it for almost three years now and it is still going strong.

The geranium is also a lovely, deep red

With hints of more red showing through the little buds.

And my favourite, the red and the red/orange/yellow snap dragons.

Spot the pink pyjamas in the background!!! Now if only these fellows would turn red!

Even more blue on the balcony

It was a blue and purple post yesterday, inspired by the blue sky, which, in true Melbourne fashion, turned grey about 3 minutes after I posted! It then swapped between the two types of sky (grey and blue) all day until it went to black at night. In the inbetween hours I managed to pop out and take a few more photographs and found a few more blue and purple bits, which had not been so obvious at the time. It seems the cornflower in the hanging basket have finally decided to flower. Though the wind was so, so, soooooo fierce it was near impossible to get a photograph.

Oh and Miss Lisa, the cornflower in a pot from the last post is your if you want it - didn't realise you were such a fan, I just grew it as a lark and one is enough for me. The foliage in this plant, trying to grow at the base of the cornflower is a lovely shade of purple.

This is a picture of the cornflowers from inside, I missed it in the last post.

The purple sprouting broccoli, while being miles away from actual vegetable output is at least beginning to show signs of purpleness in the stems and main leaves. Probably a little hard to see in these pictures but it is definitely turning.

Ok this this baby swiss chard is more red than purple, but I just love it.

This following picture is blurry, no matter what I did I couldn't seem to get a good one, but these are the new beetroot poking their little heads through. It's almost a miracle they germinated! So exciting.

And last but by very much not least is this little lemon flower(s). Ok so the flower itself is white, but it is tinged with the most magnificent purple.

So many beautiful colours in my winter garden!