Flower power – it’s my summer of garden love

Too young to have participated, too old to be conceived then I really feel that I missed out on the summer of love. Now, the 40th anniversary of the summer of 1967, I enter what can only soon become my autumn of Viagra.
For now though I’m enjoying flower power.
Last southern summer while traveling in Cambodia and Laos my structured front garden of small hedges died. I didn’t like the design too much and replaced it with a 4 square metre vegetable patch.
At the centre are two copper semi-circular planters, a remnant of a recent flirtation with modern sculpture now planted with ripening strawberries.
Although fresh young beetroot leaves are my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, invented by Kalyn’s Kitchen and this week hosted at The Expatriates Kitchen, they cannot sit alone from my summer supply of herbs – curry plant, sage, thyme, tarragon, Vietnamese mint and lemon grass. Of course, I’ve only just planted the tomatoes and basil. But the carrots, beetroot, silverbeet, cos, komatsuna (red mustard spinach) and various other lettuces are coming along.
I’ve a grape vine and have planted espalier apple, cherry, orange and kaffir lime.
My current joy is the pick a leaf from each lettuce and leafy vegetable for a quick salad, each with the kind of crispness you simply can’t find in the markets.
As is the vogue I toss is a few marigold petals, and the leaves and flowers from rocket (arugula), sage and thyme.
But the real heros of the home vegetable plot are the young leaves of silverbeet and beetroot. Too often these leaves are discarded rather than eaten. How stupid is that?
There is no actual recipe to what I do. Usually I simply coat a wooden bowl with a drizzle of walnut oil and some sherry vinegar, sometimes rubbing the surface with a crushed garlic clove. This avoids over dressing.
The actual combination rather than being a harmonious combination is more like jazz. The rocket offers a peppery note against the hot mustard of komatsuna. The beetroot leaves hold their own and add colour. It jars but keeps things interesting fighting palate fatigue in what night after night can be a boring dish of greens.
Here’s to my summer of love.

You can check out my progress here.

Design by Scott from the Garden of Eden.