It’s the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere – the longest day of the year – and its time to remind myself that there’s more to the garden than the seemingly endless list of chores which always peaks at around this time on the Adelaide Plains.
The Christmas morning garden tour will capture the state of my crops – just now it’s time to capture the quiet beauty of some of the vegetable flowers that are blooming in their understated fashion.
Some of these flowers are to be found on plants that have gone beyond their useful productive phase as far as the cook is concerned and remain in the garden only to provide the gardener with next year's seeds. These include leek, onions, celery, lettuce, carrot, parsnips and many of the herbs.
Various other plants must flower before they set their crops – potatoes, beans, tomatoes, chillies, zucchinis, eggplants, capsicums and pumpkins – to name just a few.
Many vegetable and herb flowers are small – only the camera can capture their complexity and intrinsic beauty.
Others – such as those of the cucurbits (pumpkins and zucchinis) – have large and showy blooms that are either male or female and so have different shapes and internal structures.
Some flowers - such as celery - form large bushes.
Even comfrey – a herb – sets many flowers in late Spring that bees enjoy.
Some of the tallest blooms belong to carrots – these can rise to 2m in height.
Even the other herbs - thyme, rue, lemon grass, wormwood and nettles - are all blooming.
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