Welcoming The New Guy

One of the most interesting facets of gardening for me is to witness and keep track of which seeds and seedlings take care of themselves, and which ones you have to struggle with to keep alive.  Sowing seeds directly into my garden has had many different success levels.  Using @Mr_Fothergills has even had mixed outcomes; but by far the best producing organic seed from the best Australian seed provider has been radishes.  And finally, after just four weeks of growing (we've had an incredibly mild, dare I say hot, winter Down Under)...my first radish appears.

Beneath my harvest you'll see just one small bunch of them still left in the ground.  After planting this first group, and realizing how well they were taking off in the garden, I decided to grow through the whole packet of seeds throughout different areas of the garden...looks like we'll be enjoying these for a while.  I separated the planting by about 2-3 weeks, as they take between 4-8 weeks before harvest and I didn't want to get a whole bunch at once, but rather enjoy them over a period of time.

This small chili pepper did really well until May, when I decided to harvest everything to start a collection of dried peppers...and finally we can see some new growth, flowers, and few small chilies scattered about.

Above: Kale and Silver beet, two staples in my cooking
and
Below: Rocket abound, we'll be enjoying this for a while as well...

A whole bunch of different varieties of tomatoes self-seeded the past few months, and they've survived shockingly well for this garden and climate.  We're just starting to enjoy the benefits.

And there you have it, the current state of affairs...

The Power of Juicing

Fruits and vegetables are an integral part of your daily intake; we've heard all the rules about how many and when specifically during the day, but to me what really matters is just making sure they go in one way or another.  If you have ten minutes to spare each day for the sake of consuming something delicious, juicing could be a good way for you to spend that time.  Here's an example of what goes into my juice...

The workstation: cutting board with heaps of delicious fruits and vegetables, compost bucket for food scraps, power juicer, juice collector (I prefer a measuring cup).

A good portion of what you see comes from the gardens and fruit trees at home: chives, kale, silverbeet, starfruit, roma tomatoes.  The oranges and carrots are both organic juicing products from local health food stores.

And a delicious finished product.  I'm not a nutritionist, and don't want to pretend to be a preacher of healthy living secrets...I am, however, a very healthy vegetarian who experiences the delight of consuming fresh fruits and vegetables first hand.  You can read more about what other's have to say here.