Now that spring is really here, you should all be getting out into those vegie beds or setting one up if you haven’t already.

 

This adorable and delicious new capsicum has just been released through Oasis Horticulture and is ready in nurseries to be added to the patch.

 

Unlike larger capsicums, Sweet Stuff is a high-yielding variety that produces loads of teeny versions of the usual fist-sized fruits, each only around 8 x 6cms, which in my opinion is great cause I never use a full one at any one time when I’m cooking and the rest usually goes to waste. They are great for salads or stuffing with meat and fetta.

 

Plant seedlings 20cms apart, water daily and apply an organic liquid fertiliser fortnightly for good results. Picking the fruits will also trick the plant into thinking it hasn’t done its job (setting seed) properly and produce more for you later on. Grow them in the warmest part of the garden and away from any possibility of frost (which would be rare at this time of year anyway). They’ll start fruiting for you from around 12 weeks. 

I was really excited today to see all these yummy pods on my broad bean plants. I know it’s still early days as they’re only half the size they should be before harvest but there are still masses of blooms ready to turn into a great crop. They have typical pea shaped flowers (alongside all from the Fabaceae family) that are black and white and positioned along the ends of each climbing stem. They need a bit of room and support, so get crafty with bamboo stakes and poles and make a little frame or series of teepees for them to grow on.

 

And grow they do! They really make you feel like a successful vegie gardener as they come along in leaps and bounds for the first month or two - reaching over a meter in height, kind of like Jack and the Beanstalk. But then there is a bit of a waiting game until harvest, which is around three to four months from planting. They are great nitrogen fixers in the soil, so they're good to use in crop rotation of your vegie beds and an easy one for the kids to grow.

 

Its always the way…a plumber never fixing his own pipes or a chippy having broken cupboards at home. But for me it’s so frustrating at the moment that I barely have enough time to ‘stop and smell the roses’ in my own modest inner city garden in Sydney. I was so excited to actually get out there for an hour and finally get the pineapple sage under control and take note of what needs doing in my own backyard for a change, rather than writing about it or giving others advice. My pandorea jasminoides is growing out of control along the wall, which is great for vertical green and with the spot flowering for most of the year it’s great for adding colour to a sunny wall. I'm about to replace the tomato frames with beans and put in some more lettuce and other greens into my potted vegie patch which is exciting. One thing that seems to be getting better is my bleeding heart vine Clerodendron thomasoniae. I have the magenta form and traditional white beside it.

 

The Perilla ‘Magilla’ (pictured) - that could easily be mistaken for a coleus with it’s fabulous magenta, green and bright pink leaves - is performing so well. It has trebled in size only after a few months of planting and adds such lovely colour to a dead area of the garden bed. I’m also impressed with the pentas I've added for colour - they're a great smaller shrub.