WHAT’S GROWING | SUMMER Vegetable Garden Tour & HARVEST VICTORIA AUSTRALIA | SMALL BACKYARD GARDEN

WHAT’S GROWING | SUMMER Vegetable Garden Tour & HARVEST VICTORIA AUSTRALIA | SMALL BACKYARD GARDEN

Hi and Welcome to Utility Jane.
My name is Tanya, Thanks for stopping by!

It’s the 4TH OF JANUARY let’s see what’s growing in my small backyard vegetable garden here in Central Victoria Australia.
We have had a many weeks of changeable weather, days of high 30 degrees then followed up with beautiful days in low 20 degrees, and lots of wind sweeping through.
To my surprise the growth in the garden has keep going, watering has been high priority followed with keeping the tomatoes pruned.
I have moved some chard to a cooler spot and plan to plant carrots to harvest during the cooler months
There has been a lot of growth from the pumpkins, zucchinis, cucumbers and melons, purple beans, tomatoes are ripening and so many capsicums!
Let’s harvest some produce and see how much food can be grown in a small backyard garden.
This week I’ve ticked off a few jobs on my list and am very happy with how the new raised beds are settling into the space, and like all gardeners I keep extending the growing space, well until I get the next 2 beds and glasshouse in place!
At the start of October I invested in 4 large raised steel garden beds for my 55th birthday, to replace an area of lawn that the previous year I had laid cardboard, mulched and started growing in a couple months later, I had mixed feelings about how the extended vegetable garden had gone but thought I would continue with it again this season until I started thinking about raised beds.
There is never a good time to change over to raised beds when they need to go where your cropping winter garden is so I just went for it, ordered my raised beds which were custom made so I had some time to either eat the veg I had been growing or move it.
After a few doubts along the way I am so glad I didn’t wait any longer, the first vegetables I’ve planted in them are thriving, the down side of it was that it has taken a lot of dirt, compost, straw and mushroom compost to fill them, they are just over 3m long and 1.2m wide and .60m high and extremely heavy to move around and position.
But apart from topping up the beds with compost before planting each season until all the organic matter inside them has broken down and compacted I think they will be low maintenance.
In total the 4 beds I purchased will equal the same amount of space I had been planting into and with the addition of a secondhand glasshouse I found on Facebook market place 2 years ago I will be able to extend our growing season for tomatoes, cucumbers and raise lots of seeds.
In addition I have changed what used to be my whole veg garden into a perennial vegetable garden bed that has a new asparagus patch, dwarf apple trees, rhubarb, dwarf lemon tree and an area for herbs.
It isn’t a big area but looking to the future I hope to challenge my growing area and just see ow much food I can grow in the small footprint and hopefully I will grow enough for us and some of our neighbours.

With the cost of living crisis everywhere pairing back pantry items so multiple recipes can be cooked with the same basic items is a necessity, along with growing a garden that is any size, big or just a pot with your favourite herbs or leafy greens, after all they can be the most expensive items in the fruit and veg section at the supermarket and usually the things that never get used up and are thrown out.
Cooking from scratch can feel overwhelming but with a few prepped ingredients from my freezer, a pantry and our fridge stocked with simple staples, scratch made meals flow from our kitchen. 
I cook with gluten free ingredients and a budget friendly mind set always.

I would really love you to join me cooking budget friendly gluten free meals in my tiny kitchen and appreciate you spending your time with me, please consider subscribing so you don’t miss my next upload.
Have a great day and I hope to see you in my next video.
Bye for now…

PS….I post on my community tab in real time, things I am cooking in my kitchen, vegetable garden updates and thrifting finds, often after filming it can take me a couple weeks to edit and voice over my videos so it gives you a sneak peak at what’s coming up.

#vegetablegardening #nodiggardening ##UtilityJane #gardentour #thediggersclub

[Music] hi my name is Tanya and welcome to my garden it is going to be another hot day I’m up early watering my garden and I need to harvest a few things and I thought I would bring you along as I have a look around the garden see what is growing and what I can pick at the moment my last video was about 11 days ago and since then I have moved a few things around one being these delers that were up the back on the fence line I have moved them down here and moved the larger ones out of the wind they have a larger flower and are more affected by the wind these ones have only just been moved here these are gorgeous I love coming out and seeing them out here these are just a cheap punet of bedding delers our Alpine strawberry are still fruiting you can come out and grab a strawberry off there most days at least one and the bedding strawberries here in The Perennial bed are back to fruiting I’ve fed them up and they’re getting plenty of water the th plant around them seems to be protecting them and keeping them a lot cooler the dwarf garas are growing some of them have got sunburnt but they seem to be holding up not too bad I am losing a few just to the wind and just them falling off all the lemon balm has gone to flour and this lemon verbina has just grown so beautiful it’s taking off the curry plant is flowering and now I’ve got some baskets so we’re just going to head up and see what can be picked that is a parsley that’s gone to seed I still getting some asparagus Spears which really surprises me but I have mulched and fed and I’m watering plenty through this garden bed because I have a soaka hose that stretches the length of it cleared out my sweet peas bought those Holly Haw to replace so hopefully they’ll take off this is the crook neck pumpkin which is really starting to take off now so that is getting established the rhubarb is [Music] growing I’ve got three marked down Tomatoes along there and then moving up here I found this off a local lady who was selling plants where I got the Holly Hawks a loofer plant I’m hoping that I can train that up and it will take off along the wire I may not get any fruit off it or sponges but we’ll see what happens because I think it’s kind of late that was the lemon Verina and I’ve planted an eona here in the herb bed now I had a question about my compost bins I have three there I love them they’re called an arrow bin it’s the 400 size it’s not the smaller one I have three here and I have two out in my front garden along the fence and I use them all the time compost down really well I have a lot of worms that are inside them this is 6:00 in the morning when I opened them the bin is warm and there are a lot of worms just up around the edge I pile things in this one now needs some straw over all this green uh tomato leaves and I put everything into there especially things I’m cutting off in the garden in the vegetable Garden or the flower garden and they go in there I put Dynamic lifter in with it to keep the heat at the moment really probably don’t need it but it feeds up and I find that it composts really quickly and easily there’s the pear tree the berry BOS pear tree the slug seems to be gone and there is my comfrey plant and this is where I have put the sweet peas that I pulled out they dried I put them along here and then planted the sage in around because what I want is the sweet peas next season I want them growing up this fence I cannot grow food on here because the possum it’s possum Highway the top of the fence so hopefully these will be okay it’s bad enough the pear trees are there and they’re going to be all stolen this is the bean tunnel this the purple beans these are the first ones that I put in and really the succession planting I did just beside them is not very far behind even though it was 2 weeks it really goes to show that once the season has started whether you plant now or in 2 weeks time once they get going it really does not make a difference I’ve been snacking on these while in the garden and I absolutely love them here’s another favorite this is the Cucumber that is in the pot it’s a good size and we are really enjoying them picking one or two off this most days so a good yield this is the wrinkled butternut and are going fantastic I keep the leaves down I’ve left some of the bigger ones because it’s it’s going to be so hot for a little bit of shade but we have had a lot of wind and this is the highest part of my whole garden so it does catch a bit of the wind up the top and the flowers are amazing there’s I think did not pollinate so maybe when we had the windy days the bees weren’t out as much I’m not quite sure but I do keep the larger older leaves around the bottom or where the flowers are trimmed back I tidy them up just so the bees can get into those flowers and down here are the sunflowers here on this corner it’s a bit protected from the shed so they didn’t get snapped off with the wind and I’ve got more purple beans here I’m not sure if I will be able to find them once the pumpkin on that end gets really going so there’s plenty of flowers this is an airoom pumpkin and grows quite large as far as I know over here I’ve got the Sweet Basil in the old copper pot and I’m going to harvest that because that just looks beautiful I’m wanting to pick a whole heap of this and make a pesto and freeze it in some ice cube trays some silicon trays so I can have it during winter in the freezer and when I want to cook with it I can just grab out a cube and put it in anything that I’m cooking and these ones along here although these were a it the other ones in the pot i s seated myself these ones aren’t doing too bad and this is The Traveler tomato that I cannot wait until it fruits I am so excited I’m not sure if anyone’s heard of them they are the lumpy traveler Tomatoes or the lumpy tomatoes and this is such a good uh Harvest of Basil this is quite a large basket and I plan to put some into pasta this afternoon this is the tromino and I’ve got two of those plus the Patty pan squash when I seed these I wasn’t sure I thought they might have been the button squash but I think that they are the Patty pan and they are loving it here this is this is not much space between the wire and the two metal beds and they are loving it got lots of flowers on them so hopefully plenty of squash to come and that’s the traveler tomato which I really do have to get in and prune because when you see the rest of the tomatoes after I have taken the time to prune them it’s the amount of fruit is quite amazing I am always so amazed when I go up there this is the other side of the pumpkin Arch and it is growing up over I’m sort of training them back towards themselves because I have Rock melon and watermelon planted the other side and they are just getting going so I’m thinking that they might need that space to go up that’s the Jack B little pumpkin and that one I’m thinking if anyone knows did not get pollinated because there’s a couple like that and then there are some aren’t so I’m thinking that’s what it is I am no pumpkin expert but I’m quite amazed because we’ve had two and three really hot days and then days of you know low 20s and it’s back and forth which I would think that would it would confuse the garden but it seems to be loving it’s almost like a rest there the spring onions been covered in so I’m not quite sure hopefully they’ll take off these are some silver beit that I moved out of the raised garden bed and I’ve planted them along here hopefully when they all the pumpkins and the melons go over it will get a bit of protection these are the silver bait that I put here and they were just spindly little things and they’ve taken off and really enjoying it now these are the watermelon and I’ve got rockmelon look there’s tiny little watermelons it’s the cutest thing I have ever seen tiny watermelons there the tomatoes on the other side and it’s sort of both mingling I have the space Master cucumbers on the other side of these melons and they’re sort of growing in amongst each other and I get quite confused about which little yellow flowers are witch and there’s another tiny watermelon that is adorable and that’s one’s even tinier there the silver beit that I’ve moved I keep the Pathways in between both with a lot of pastol mulch on them to keep the beds damp that way it can run in underneath there there will be roots from the plants sort of working their way down in there but if that does not dry out I walk on a it gets watered there and it mulches down and like I said I think a few videos ago it will be the soil that I put into the other raised beds and my secondhand glass house when I have raised beds in there this is the space Master cucumber and I’ve just picked some beautiful I think it’s triple curl parsley and now we can pick some Tomatoes these have been fantastic IC we have been eating them it’s been a great season because nothing has ripened all at once we’ve just been able to come out and pick as we need and I picked them underp because if anything’s going to eat them it’s going to be when they get color on them once they start to color up I pick them and take them inside and that seems to be working well the amount of fruit that is on these Tomatoes I am blown away by it’s just amazing those other black Russians are growing they’re growing actually on the back of this Frame and they’re sort of mingling in together these are the black cherry tomatoes this is the shadiest side of the garden bed so I’m I’m thinking that they will be slow to ripen but I’m pretty happy cuz cherry tomatoes when they ripen you end up with a glut of them but this seems to be a good way these are the mini yellow snack siiz capsicum and and they are more of the black Russian so much fruit it’s just I cannot believe how much fruit there is San Marzano I’ve got four plants of [Music] those and they are growing we’ve had the odd ripe one and they are so delicious got the chilies here this is a mild chili and there’s another mini snack yellow capsicum and I have beetroot here both ends in this garden bed as well pick these little cherry tomatoes that have just colored up and the sun is coming out and it is the clearest morning morning there is not a cloud in the sky so it is going to get hot I’ll be back out here watering again this afternoon I think that’s the biggest thing that you keep the water up to the Garden so that no plants are under stress mulching feeding and this is the other side of the Tomato bed with the chilies and the sanano tomato and these are the Black Russian just amazing I cannot believe it and if you hear a dog snoring he is at my feet he is snoring and that is the bean Arch that is Laden with purple beans the abundance is just mind-blowing these are the Tasmanian chocolate I going to pick this one and take it inside and just see how much darker it gets I cannot wait to taste this because there is so much fruit on these two little plants it’s amazing I’m having to tie all the plants in because the vine is so heavy even when you have the structures to hold them up pick some purple beans I will be back out to pick a heap more because the more you pick the more you get like I said I’ve been up here when I’m watering I’ve been snacking on these they are just so delicious they do not cook and stay purple but I will be adding these into everything thing and freezing some this is where the silver bead used to be it was getting very hot and it kept going to seeds so I have cleared them out and topped up the soil and that is where I want to plant carrots and some more beet I think these are the long sweet yellow capsican here beside the eggplant and I’ve got beetroot between each row which is quite tight that small amount of space but it’s doesn’t seem to be too bad because the beetro are bulbing up these look delicious and I’m going to add those in into a spaghetti sauce I’ve already got some meat cooked doing my usual I’ve prepped my minced meat and I’m just going to pick a whole hiap of things and add them into a pasta sauce I’m back here at these cucumbers these SP Master go from Tiny to huge in a day I mean look at the size of this this is going straight to my neighbor’s chks and they go crazy for the cucumbers look at this goodness we’ll eat this one and the CH the CHS can have the big ones we love to make them happy because we collect eggs while we’re in there these are the rainbow Romas it was just a punet of four plants and I’m not sure what color they are we’ll wait and see I’m thinking those lighter color ones will be the yellow and I’ve been keeping on top of the pruning of those and it seems to be very much worth it because I was away for a couple of days and they all fell out into the walkway again and there’s another large cucumber space master but he looks Keen the mini watermelon so cute and he looks pretty happy with the haul of vegetables most of them are his favorite cucumbers and tomatoes especially not so keen on the beans but he’d eat those tomatoes in a Flash and the Cucumbers if it was allowed now this is the spinach Perpetual spinach and I’ve taken some cuting of the salvas because a lot of the ones in the beds have died I just could not keep the water up to them and the possum has made quick work of the strawberries so these were the $1 markdown pets of tomatoes and capsican and they seem to be going okay the tomatoes have fruit and the capsican have flowers so we’ll see and this is the traveler tomato also so I need to get in and prune as many as I can so that we can get the yield up and this is the haul this is this is dinner really how much food can you grow from a tiny backyard garden my garden is 10 m by 7 m and that incl includes two extremely large garden beds that are not filled yet it’s another cucumber there and this is the squash plant the sun is just coming up there’s one squash there and one squash there and I’d say they will go straight to a chocolate zucchini cake I’ve got a little project going I’ve found this beautiful old copper that I’m going to fill for probably lettuces and I’m going to make it part of my little fence this is some more perennial plants that I’ve bought of a local lady so exciting I’m going to put those in the Border The Perennial border that I’m working on at the moment and hopefully that will bring in lots of bees thank you for joining me I really appreciate it if you are still here if you like to subscribe welcome and I hope to see you in the next video bye for now