Home & Garden

Hey check out my capsicum!

Ages ago, I found the plant growing out of my compost heap. I stuck it in a pot, and it started to fruit! This is what it looked like 2 months ago.

I pointed it out to my 5yo and I tried to explain how fruits and vegetables grow. But he couldn’t contain his excitement.

He keep saying, “WOW! Can we take it to the markets and sell it? We’ll be the richest people in the world!!”

“Don’t you want to eat it?” I asked.

“No, I want to sell it.”

“What are we going to do with all that money?”

“I don’t know. Buy more stuff?”

“Hey mate. We don’t need more stuff. We ARE the richest people in the world.” Even as I said it in exaggerated mock sincerity, I heard the audience in my head roll their eyes.

“Oh. Ok then. Let’s put it on some pizza tonight!” he chirped.

We snipped the capsicum off its stalk, and my son carried it into the house, while rubbing it in his little hands like a golden lamp.

I love composting. It’s so easy, eco friendly and my one small step towards sustainable living.

We own an open-style compost heap – which simply means, all our vegetable and fruit scraps, leaves, tree cuttings, and lawn clippings get tipped into a big pile. That’s it. It’s probably the most laziest (and inefficient) method of composting, but it works for us.

One of my small thrills about our compost heap is that when I clear around the edges, I always find dozens of mysterious plants growing out from the base.

I have often replanted the little seedlings to find them turning into avocado plants, rockmelon plants, pumpkins, and tomatoes. It’s such a treat. Like a little surprise gift from my garden itself.

Today, I discovered my newest surprise – a baby capsicum!

Sometimes I’m pretty close to giving up on this whole “organic gardening” thing – because trying to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs without chemical pesticides is really hard.

In a very ironic way, I now appreciate why farmers choose to spray their crops, and why I would rather pay extra to buy pesticide-free organic produce.

Anyway, I’ve finally found ONE spot in my garden where snails, slugs and caterpillars can’t touch my herbs. My basil is so much happier there.

In Australia, we don’t have snow. We don’t have snow men, snow flakes, or snow angels.

During this time of year, our trees and roads are not covered in white.

They are covered in purple. The most spectacular display of dazzling, light purple.

I know Jacarandas grow all over the world, but to me, the sight of those gorgeous purple tree tops dotting the horizon can only mean one thing – Christmas is near.

Back in April, the kids and I planted a handful of snow pea plants in our little organic garden.

It was a fantastic gardening activity for the kids. We made several climbing frames out of bamboo (collected from a neighbour) and natural twine – which looked like cute tepees.

We made labels for the seedlings. I also drew them a little plant growth chart. Explained how plants grow, why they need water and sunshine, how the flowers turn into snow peas.

Now, 3 months later, our snow pea plants are as tall as I am! Plus there are tonnes of snow peas!

Every couple of days, we’ll sit in the garden and harvest 4-5 of our juicy, organic snow peas. The kids munch on them raw and savour them like delicious chocolates.