This was a chicken and vegetable stir-fry with chilli and basil Jac cooked recently. The chilli was fresh out of our garden. It was a delicious dinner.
In the past, we’ve had lots of tomatoes growing in our garden. This year, it’s been chilli!
You may remember Jac used our homegrown chillies in a recent chicken, green bean and chilli stir-fry. Jac took pity on me this time and used fewer chillies, taking care to leave out most of the seeds. :D
The capsicum Jac used in the stir-fry was from the supermarket, but we’ll soon have our own homegrown capsicums. They still have more growing to do. Grow, grow big and plump, my capsicums! The weather has now turned cold and rainy though – the little capsicums may not be getting enough sun. :(
While Jac loves gardening, and I love that she loves gardening, it doesn’t appeal to me at all. Sure, I like the thought of growing my own food, and I always help with harvesting. And the eating. And I encourage, appreciate and praise my gardener for her efforts and fine green fingery. But me, I really don’t like anything about gardening. I don’t mind admitting that I don’t like all the work that is involved – digging in the dirt, mulching, weeding, dealing with pests and disease, using various garden tools, remembering to water the plants, watering the plants… Thankfully, the garden beds where the chilli and capsicum plants and most of Jac’s herbs are growing are on automatic reticulation, so when Jac goes away all I need to do is water her pot plants.
What’s growing in your garden? Or are you like me, not at all into gardening?
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve just recently gotten into gardening, more by the fact that I now live in a place where I have a house and a yard!
This year it’s my crop of herbs again: parsley, basil, thyme, tarragon, sage, chives. My rosemary wasn’t as hardy as I had hoped and died but I think I will try again. I am also going to plant catnip for our cats!
I’ve also decided this is the year I am going to try my hand at veggies: tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers and lettuces, all of which I am told are good starters for a first time gardener.
I look forward to a satisfying summer of fresh vegetables and herbs!
My parents’ garden has a calamansi tree. You know, those little limes you use to make ais limau? I poach them whenever I’m there. They grow their own curry leaves and pandan leaves too! My dad’s attempt to grow papayas failed when every tree he planted was the wrong sex. LOL. Me? I don’t grow anything at my place. I have no green fingers. I do like the supermarket and wet markets though!
Kali,
Fantastic! For all my complaining about the work behind gardening, I do love the fresh herbs and vegies Jac has planted. If I lived alone there’s no way I would be bothered though. :P
Dea,
Oh yum, ais limau lines! I’d love to have my own supply of those in summer. My grandma used to grow curry leaves and she’d send me to the garden with the scissors to chop off a couple of sprigs so she could cook chicken curry. Your mention of your dad’s papaya tree failures remind me of Jac’s and my big failure to grow corn. This was more than ten years ago, in the first rental house we lived in together. It was a stinking hot summer, and despite our best efforts (made all the more challenging by our lack of automatic retic in the backyard), our corn got burned and was pretty much dead after couple of especially scorching days.
Those chillies do look good!
The reason that the capsicum are not doing so well may be that all of the capsicum family (which includes chillies) do not like the cold. Here in Durban, and I think our climate is similar to yours, they do tend to die off a bit in winter. They sort of go to sleep and don’t do much when the temp is lower than about 10˚C. Depending on how cold it gets they may wake up again, or they may die. Durban is a summer rainfall area (I think yours is year round right?), so lack of water during winter might be what causes them to die! :-)
Right now we don’t have anything besides mint growing as we have shut down our veggie garden due to our move. Before that we had tomatoes, cucumber, chillies, spinach, tons of different herbs including basil, rosemary, lavender etc… We had most of those in a hydroponics system, which we have now sold.
I love to grow veggies but our problem here is the monkeys. While they may be cute, and their babies even cuter, they are naughty little buggers and the troop comes past our house once a day. If they find anything ripe they eat it. We were going to make an enclosed area for our cats and the veggies but since we’re moving we won’t bother now.
Do you have anything interesting that eats your veggies in Perth? Besides insects, you and Jac of course! :-)
I sort of want to do a little bit of gardening, see if I can keep something alive but… I rent so I can’t touch the garden, it’d have to all be in pots. It’s winter, and the rear of my house gets no sunlight. I could put them on one side of the house and they’d get morning sun, but that’s it. I could put them out the front and they’d get sun all the time but I am worried someone will steal them! I have bought many many solar garden lamps for my mother and people always steal them!
TFP, I hear you on that! If it weren’t for the gentle proddings of my outdoorsy spouse, I don’t think I’d bother either! I mean, I’d think “I really should grow my own veggies/herbs” but wouldn’t do anything about it! :)
I planted bell peppers (you call them capsicum, I believe?), chili peppers, sponge gourd and cucumbers about 3-4 weeks ago. Both bell pepper varieties are sprouting beautifully at about 15 cm high, and I’ve got two lovely healthy sprouts from either sponge gourd or cucumber. Nothing from the last one. I don’t know the difference between the sponge gourd or the cucumber because my mom accidentally mislabelled them!
I’m not really keen on the pests and dirt and nasty stuff in the garden, either. I just like to water my plants and the nasty stuff I deal with… or help deal with. ;P
Wei-Wei
I plant herbs and love having them close at hand. Last year my husband went crazy with tomatoes. Several different varieties. So many tomatoes, they came to feel like a kind of awful obligation! Tomatoes at every meal. Tomato sauce,grilled tomatoes, stuffed tomatoes. frozen tomatoes! He’s been put on notice about the dreaded T this year! It got so bad ,if our neighbors saw us coming with a bag, they’d lock the doors and turn off the lights! ;)
Looks really great! i think there is something satisfying about growing things,i grew about 4 different herbs at one stage but unfortunately i’m a bit clueless at the moment in how to grow veggies :P
I am like you, not into gardening. But we do have small herb patch where we have rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, chillies, mint and basil growing. We also have a curry plant and lemongrass growing in huge pots. We use the herbs often in our cooking and it saves buying a bunch from the markets.
K has the green thumbs in our household, mine tend to be black as evidenced by the fact that I kill cacti.
There’s a fair selection of plants and flowers in the back garden including
a very productive lemon tree, grapes, strawberries, chilli and tomato plants. From the herb contingent; rosemary, lemongrass, mint and hopefully some coriander as they are just starting to sprout.
Not at all into gardening, too lazy, but I am jealous of Jac’s chiles!! I’d love to have a constant supply of my own.
Another pretty dish by Jac. :-) I hope her knee is better (saw your Tweet).
“Or are you like me, not at all into gardening?”
Not at all, though I sort of wish I were; it’s therapeutic in more ways than one. Around age 15 I asked my parents for a corner of their garden (they were rotten gardners, lol). Said I wanted to grow pumpkins. Our neighbours (retired farmers) doubted that’d work (for reasons I can’t recall). I went ahead and planted the pumpkin seeds…and out grew a HUGE bumpercrop of pumpkins! :-o There were dozens of beautiful orange orbs, and big too. It was the pride of the neighbourhood. :-) Those went into pumpkin pies and bread. My only other gardening venture was at age 19; flowers. They grew well. I sort of have a green thumb but haven’t bothered since…
Nice chilis! I recently did a post about what we’re growing – cherry tomatoes, chili, strawberries and chives – you can see it here:
http://www.byootaful.com/2010/05/our-little-veggie-pots/
We haven’t used our chilis yet, but we’ve eaten the tomatoes now and then and they taste great! It’s always nice to know you grew them yourselves, rather than just buy them. :)
I love the idea of having my own home grown veges and herbs however despite repeated attempts I have not been successful.
I try so hard, following all instructions given to me by green thumbed friends and family only to end up with poor little plants that are mouldy or bug eaten or brown or in some other poor state after being touched by my black thumbs.
I have found a solution though, I buy the seedlings and then give them to my Dad who has green thumbs and he grows them for me!
Hate gardening. Hate it. Which is why we would be putting a garden into our previously all brick-and-fence backyard…
I must admit I love gardens, as they do so much for just about any structure, but like you, I hate the work involved. Largely because there’s no instant gratification – suffer through the stench of dynamic lifter, but nothing to show for it… until weeks and weeks later. My Gen Y sensibilities don’t like that at all! ;)
Hopefully what is to become our minimalist, japanese inspired garden will prove to be as low maintenance as we’re hoping!
Oh and yes, I’m another that kills cacti (glad to see there are others out there!).
On a completely different topic, i bought a taco kit (Old El Paso) from the supermarket yesterday, the crispy chicken one, and MY GOD, I think I’m a convert. I’ve never prepared such a frigging easy dinner before. And it was tasty as. My Gen Y sensibilities liked that very much!
We’re growing salads until our new fence goes up then it will be having a full on garden patch , hopefully by then our chickens will be laying also 8)
funny , never was interested in gardening until I met Janine 8)
I like the idea of gardening, but I’m deathly afraid of bug (mainly spiders) so gardening is not an option for me. Those chilies look absolutely fabulous though! Mmmmm, I love spicy foods : D
Dea, your Dad needs to get bisexual Pawpaws. They’ve got Male and female parts on the one plant[obviously!] and soon his plants will be fruitful to overflowing.
Very nice chillies! they look very healthy, i grow alot of different varieties of chilli at home, bhut jolokia, tepin, birds eye, habanero, serrano, jalapeno and some others that i havent been able to identify.
We always have alot of left over chillies so we end up pickling them or making chilli oil. (just an idea if you have too many left over)
Good luck with the growing :)
Craig,
I checked on the capsicums this afternoon and while they haven’t grown much bigger, a couple look like they’re turning red. So that’s a positive sign. Over here in Western Australia our summers are hot and dry, our winters are cold and rainy. So gardens look scratchy and dead in summer, lush and green in winter. Wow, I didn’t realise you had monkeys in your garden! Heh. That would drive us nuts. But our entire backyard is enclosed with cat netting now, so monkeys would have to find a way to get through the netting (no monkeys here though :P). You do get flocks of white cockatoos or pink galahs sometimes attacking almond trees. My folks used to lose all their almonds to cockatoos or galahs – they just fly in, have a great time cracking nuts and eating to their hearts’ content, then fly out again, making lots of noise the whole time.
Chrissy,
We’ve never had solar lamps but I always wondered if people would steal them since they aren’t bolted down. Typical, isn’t it? People are such bastards sometimes.
Kali,
Yep. I would have zero motivation (well, I have zero motivation NOW!).
Wei-Wei,
Yes, we call bell peppers capsicum over here. I’m not fond of creepy crawlies but I hate the thought of being stung or bitten. And getting scratched by thorns. I’m not very hardy at all.
kathy,
Hahaha, the dreaded T sounds like code for some nasty disease! :P Wow, that must’ve been a bumper crop of tomatoes to make your neighbours hit breaking point and hide!
Kobe,
Well, you’ve done better than me – I haven’t even grown herbs! I’ve just enjoyed the herbs that Jac has grown.
Charmaine,
Yes, growing your own herbs is great. Saves money and time!
Chris,
I’ve killed cacti too. And an unfortunate venus fly trap. I didn’t mean to! Sounds like you have some good stuff in your back garden, all good for eating and cooking.
Melissa,
And what’s cool is you can freeze them too. One of my workmates does that – she freezes chillies in little baggies when she has too many to use.
Cindy.
She may have ligament damage and is having a scan next week. She’s been taking things easy – no hockey this weekend. I’m doing my best to be her nursemaid (or at least, her butler!). I never find gardening therapeutic because I associate every aspect of it with hard work. :) Wow, your pride of the neighbourhood pumpkins sound amazing.
Katie,
Fantastic! I read your mention of the anti-Puddy garlic chives…what does she think of the other plants? Yes, it’s always so satisfying to eat your homegrown fruits and vegies. Though I think it will always be more satisfying for Jac, seeing as she’s done most of the work.
Linda,
Sometimes it’s not your fault though – if you are unlucky to have a beetle (or some other bug) population that eats everything, or bad soil or harsh weather conditions (heat, cold, storms) it can all conspire to make gardening fail. The Dad solution sounds good to me!
Charlene,
Oh yes – dynamic lifter. At our old place, our neighbour seemed to use dynamic lifter at least once a week. Geez that stuff reeks. Yes, I’m in the cacti killing club with you too. Really? You never had Old El Paso taco kit dinners before? Far out! :-O Well, yes I’m glad (and not surprised) you liked it. We usually have at least one taco or burrito kit in the pantry.
minimike,
Fantastic! We used to have chooks but there’s no room in our new backyard. I loved having the fresh eggs – they made the best scrambled eggs…and cakes. I didn’t use to eat dessert until Jac – I seem to have caught some of her sweet tooth. :P
Nina,
Ugh, I don’t like spiders either! I don’t like really spicy foods, but I love the flavour of chilli.
Paddywagen,
When I lived in Malaysia as a kid, we had a mango tree in the backyard that never bore any mangoes. Must’ve been a similar issue to Dea Dad’s papaya trees.
Thanks, Ant. Ooh, sounds like a great range of chillies. Oh yes, thanks for the chilli oil suggestion. Jac says she plans to do exactly that (make chilli oil)!
Yeah, we have Vervet monkeys, you take find them on Wikipedia if you’re interested. As cute as they are, and as much as they can’t be blamed because humans have taken all their habitat, they are quite destructive and cat netting would not keep them out. With little hands just like ours they’re very good at tearing. We were in the process of putting up a cat enclosure – we would have had to use steel mesh to keep them out!
Oh I know about the cockies and galahs, we experienced them last year when we were there. They’re about as noisy as our Hadeda Ibis – maybe even more so. But I love parrots so that’s ok! :-)
Last year we put in a 60′ X 35′ garden. I don’t think I’ve gotten greater enjoyment from anything in my entire life. Instead of sitting on the couch eating bon bons in front of the TV at night I sit out on the ground and weed and nibble on anything and everything. Tomatoes, peppers, bok choy, onions, beets, carrots, kohlorabi, greens and herbs galore! I also made my first attempt at home made salsa and canning, it is fantastic on eggs!
We’re just planting here this year and I went even bigger than last year!
Wow your chillies look amazing, if only we had the Sun that you guys do in WA over here in England :(
Great blog :)
I’ve currently got 3 huge vege pots near my pool where they get full winter sun. The strawberries have not done well…. not fruited well and have had mildue on their leaves. I decided to plant Jalapeno chillis and omg they have been amazing….. I’ve had hundreds of lovely chillis of them… some I pick green but most I leave to go red. They are crisp and very flavoursum and although quite hot are actually not as hot as the other red chillis we’ve grown and have much more flavour. And then there is the cherry tomatoes. They have gone feral…. the pot is 3 foot high and the tomato plants stand at 7 foot upwards and also over the edge touching the ground and growing along the ground. The 2 metre high wire cage placed in the middle of the pot and staked in 4 positions has literally been pulled over by the weight of the plants. There are hundreds of cherry tomatoes and they are just beautiful in flavour. I have also put in 4 snow pea plants (which I have never grown before) on the edge of the strawberries and we all pluck them off and eat them when ever we pass (not one has made it into a dinner yet!). I will definately be growing them again!
My mom likes growing bunch of herbs and more herbs. As of the moment, there are corns, some greens and cilantro growing out in the backyard. And at the side of the house, some really really spicy peppers! I love those haha. She also has a lot of medicinal plants growing everywhere.
I don’t have a green thumb myself, I seem to kill every plant I bother with, so I leave that to my parents, who enjoy working around in their little garden. I should go and buy myself a little bell pepper plant and try my best to help make it grow as I love them.
Lovely pictures by the way.
Great, Kim! Sounds like you get lots of pleasure out of gardening. I wish I could say the same about me. :)
Cheers, Alex. The sun does help – but it can also be a hindrance in summer when it gets TOO hot.
Sam in Perth,
Whenever we grow cherry tomatoes we end up with loads of them. When Jac grows lettuce it always ends up going feral! We end up with a field of lettuce! :) Hahaha, your snow pea snacking sounds great!
Houa,
Thanks, glad you like the pictures. I’ll have to take some more to show you guys how the capsicums are getting on. A couple are turning red now, it’s quite exciting. :D Yes, I’m an unintentional plant killer too – which is why I leave all the gardening to Jac.