There is NEVER a time when there is nothing edible ready for harvest in our garden...Summer brings squash, beans, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, apricots, plums..Autumn's bounty of pumpkins, corn, beans..Winter is the time of Brassicas - cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli..and spinach, silverbeet and lettuce!..then Spring comes along, bringing broad beans, peas, bok choy, leeks, chives..and the herbs are looking WONDERFUL!
We TRY to grow heritage varieties of vegetables, so that the seeds we can save will be true to the parent plant. Saving seeds to grow the following season is a great way to have not only a sustainable garden...but also teaches the kids about the cycle of the seasons.

Our Kitchen garden has many flowers in it..flowers are important as they attract insects..important pollinators. The bigger & showier the flower, the better..it is also important that there is something flowering in the garden EVERY day of the year!

EVERYTHING that you see in our garden at Kallista is due to the enthusiasm and hard work put in by KPS kids!..They've dug soil..mulched..composted..collected seeds..propagated seeds..taken cuttings..planted..watered..fertilized ( with "worm-wee" from our worm farm)..used egg-shells as snail deterrents.......( and when the snails become too prolific, have been on snail hunts-feeding the bounty to our chooks) harvested..then seed saved again..and so the cycle continues. There is always weeding to do (our "weeding-warriors are amazing), plants to be trimmed. We also have to take in the climate - earlier this year our garden pretty much looked like a 1970's dry flower arrangement..the heat of summer had taken it's toll. But there was no use in moaning about it..we just got in and cleaned up all the dead plants, re-mulched, and started over. Lessons like this are important ones - gardens need nurturing for them to be special..and now, 8 months later, after a lot of hard work, we're back on track.

In our garden, it is important to have plants that mark a season..Plants that impress..that are memorable. We have Giaant Russian Sunflowers for the end of Summer-the beginning of Autumn..These beautiful glowing flowers are not one giant flowers..but THOUSANDS of smaller flowers, all opening in an inward spiral, creating amazing patterns, colors & textures. Each flowers has to be individually pollinated (here, by a busy bee) for the sunflowers seed behind it to develop. Later, when all the petals die, and the seeds fatten & ripen..we harvest the seeds, both for use in the kitchen, and for re-growing the following Spring-Summer.