From the Patch

We're experiencing a glorious warm day here in Brisbane today so with the weather just right the girls and I spent plenty of time enjoying the outdoors this morning.

Miss M saw mud pies being made on Playschool earlier this week. This seemed to inspire her so off she went to get herself a pie tin from the recycling box and a spade from me before she headed straight for the veggie patch. She made herself a gooey mud pie but it wasn't long before another idea started. In the spot where my basil plant once was, she made a little flower garden by putting nasturtium flowers from around the yard into the soil.

Miss H enjoyed picking the cherry tomatoes, unfortunately some before they were ready. I am trying to teach her to pick the red ones instead of the green ones. Hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon. She seemed happy with her little harvest and carried them around for most of the morning. Mmm...squishy squashy tomatoes!

Counting her harvest

We've been so excited by the food we've been getting from our veggie patch. You may recall us constructing it and planting back in March/early April. The tomato plants have been very kind, giving us a continual flow of tomatoes both big and small. I enjoy putting them with breakfast or lunch and we really loved adding them to our soft taco dinner. My favourite lunch meal is making a sandwich with the rocket. It is added to cooked chicken and mayo - yum! Just talking about it makes me want one.

We have also enjoyed adding the tasty herbs to lots of our dishes, especially the dill to our scrambled eggs and the basil to our spaghetti. I was not much of a green thumb before having this garden so it has proved to me that there is lots to learn. It was a bit scary picking the corn, not knowing if it would be ready but it turned out to be absolutely delicious!! We're so excited about our small corn crop that we'd like to plant some more now.

One of our cobs of corn

Look who else we found having a nibble on our tomatoes. Obviously we're not the only ones enjoying our garden. He was a very happy catapillar after eating the centre out of the tomato. Well maybe not that happy after being held captive 'till daddy came home but we returned him to another part of the garden so he could nibble elsewhere.

"Cheeky Mr Caterpillar" taking a nibble

After just a few months we've really started to see the difference it makes to grow our own veggies so I'm super keen to construct another patch and then hopefully another. Could I be turning into a green thumb mum?

Do you keep a veggie patch? If so, what have you been growing and eating?

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Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will grow a harvest.