Winter Vegetable Beauties

Curly Kale thriving in a quite a few plots

June and Queens Birthday weekend and the communal spaces and individual plots looked splendid with winter crops ready to harvest.  These photos were all taken on Monday 2nd of  June and show just how productive the gardens are at the start of winter.

John has a splendid crop of fennel bulbs. These
were planted in January and ready for harvest now.

A fine example of Savoy Cabbage

The cabbages in the communal patch were planted out as seedlings in early March and in just 3 months are ready to harvest.

Kohlrabi - a really strange looking vegetable 

At our shared lunch today at the gardens we enjoyed a pickled vegetable salad made with fine strips of Kohlrabi and carrot.  It has been described by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as a vegetable with a "radishy, water chestnutty crunch".

Cavolo nero - Italian Black Cabbage

They say the greener the vegetable the better it is for you - in that case Cavolo Nero's long wrinkled leaves are a healthy choice in this plot.  It grows like this in it's first year and then if left next year will grow quite tree like.

Most decorative standing about one metre high Cavolo Nero plant with a bit of age.

A kale you would normally find in a flower garden because of it's stunning colour patterning.

The cauliflowers growing in the communal area were also planted out as seedlings in March.

This year we grew orange and purple cauliflowers.

The red cabbages planted at the same time are taking a little longer to mature but are looking a picture all the same.

A Vegetable History of a Plot

In the garden shed there is a board where the dates of planting and harvesting are recorded for each of our communal garden plots.  In 2013 first broad beans were planted and harvested in spring, followed by a large area of pumpkins that I have recorded with my camera.

A Pumpkins Life over 6 months...

Pumpkins fascinate me and are a vegetable that seems to grow incredibly fast and big but at the same time takes a long time to get to harvest.  Last work day the stored pumpkins were shared out and you appreciate a pumpkin so much more when you follow its growth over 6 months.

The seeds were sown in spring 2013, starting life in the greenhouse.  The greenhouse environment kept them warm and watered and out of harms way of those playful pukekos.  It's great to discover a Pukeko in the gardens but each time you wonder just what damage they have done to our carefully planted seedlings.

Pumpkin seedlings before Christmas

The young pumpkin seedlings were planted out late November . The broad bean plants were strip harvested and the stalks cut down to about 20 cm above the earth.  They were left to rot down so that the soil would benefit from those nitrogen nodules you can easily see growing on the broad bean roots. By January when this photo was taken the stalks had broken down and the little seedlings had started to grow.

Pumpkins -  middle of January 2014

Once January and the summer heat was here the pumpkins took off...

Early February

 A second patch of pumpkins were grown in the fenced off area that will eventually house the plastic house.  In another area on and near a wire fence Trevor grew the official pumpkin variety Marina di Chioggia originating from the Adriatic coast of Italy for the Auckland Community Gardens Pumpkin Growing Competition.  On this day in February Trevor was showing me how well two of the pumpkins were growing.

The next day they were gone..stolen.   No stopping those pumpkins ...when they find a good fertile spot. The winning pumpkin of the competition was grown here hidden from the thieves by some protective weeds.

I particularly enjoyed watching the pumpkin's growing on the wire fence.

Meanwhile, more vegetables in the Cucurbit Family were being grown...

The plot holders grew an assortment of pumpkin, squash, courgette and scallopini and here are some that caught my eye over the growing season past.

What's Next for the communal plot?

 Well it's been given a well deserved rest.  This plot is going to be kept as a no dig garden area and has been well covered with leaves to keep weed growth down and to create a perfect growing medium for the next vegetable that will be planted here.