Autumn/Spring Kitchen Garden

The day is still warm and in fact it is warmer than usual. It is early October and the sun is still scorching hot in the middle of the day and the temperature can go up to 28 degrees Celcius.

I planted more or less the same vegetables like last year but without beets. However, I planted more red cabbages, Italian parsley, Sicilian broccoli, romaine lettuce and 'puntarelle'. Puntarelle is a family of chicory and is best eaten raw with garlic and anchovies. It is an early spring salad and you have to cut them in small strips and put in a bowl of cold water. Then, these small strips will curl up and become very crunchy. I love to clean and cut them into small strips. Eventhough certain people might think that cutting and cleaning puntarelle is more suitable for old ladies with some spare time to spend, I think it is so 'therapeutic' and even relaxing. I love to see them curling up in the water.

The organization of my kitchen garden this year is more 'linear' with some flower bulbs in between the vegetable rows like tulips and daffodils. Last year the daffodils were extremely spectacular and I am planning to extend the space for them this time. My kitchen garden will blend with many spring flowers and usually it will have an explosion of colours in early April to late May.

This year, I am planning to sow various types of poppies too, (I am a BIG fan of poppies!) like Iceland poppy( I am not that lucky with this poppy) , American poppy and opium poppy and I will put them together with the peas!

I love to do the winter/spring kitchen garden each year as it so rewarding. Working with the nature and observe how it works wonders and only through preserverance and patience, we can see the abundance. However strong my wishes are, there are still a lot of work to do here. Weeding really makes me feel so helpless. It is such unending task. But, as for now I have a few dahlias to admire!