Saturday 22 August 2009

The Garden provides...

Fragrance; Brugmansia


Fruit; Mandarin tree;


Fresh juice; Blood orange juice with Passionfruit;


Bananas;
Visual delight; Camellia Polar Bear;


Nectar for birds and insects; Callistemon;


Vegetables; Carrots;
The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus, Etymology: Middle French carotte, from Late Latin carota, from Greek karoton, originally from the Indoeuropean root ker- (horn), due to its horn-like shape) is a root vegetable, usually orange, purple, red, white, or yellow in colour, with a crisp texture when fresh. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot. It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It has been bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the same species.


Carrots can be eaten in a variety of ways. The simplest way is raw as carrots are perfectly digestible without requiring cooking. Alternatively they may be chopped and boiled, fried or steamed, and cooked in soups andstews, as well as baby and pet foods.

The carrot gets its characteristic and bright orange colour from ß-carotene, which is metabolised into vitamin A in humans when bile salts are present in the intestines.[3] Massive overconsumption of carrots can causecarotenosis, a benign condition in which the skin turns orange. Carrots are also rich in dietary fibre, antioxidants, and minerals.

Carrot flowers are pollinated primarily by bees. Seed growers use honeybees or mason bees for theirpollination needs.
Carrots are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Common Swift, Garden Dart, Ghost Moth, etc.




Herbs; Mint, chives and Rocket to give zest to a simple Coleslaw.


Mint is a very versatile herb.

The mint family (Lamiaceae or Labiatae), a plant family which includes int (Mentha), a genus of strongly-scented herbs, some of which are used for flavouring

Mint is used as a medicinal herb to treat stomach pain. Mint tea is a strong diuretic. Mint also aids digestion, in a way that it breaks down the fats.




Enjoy and make yourself a cup of mint tea.

32 comments:

Sunita Mohan said...

Well said, Trudi! And beautiful photos. That Camellia really is a visual delight. So is that Brugmansia, by the way!

Barbara said...

Während ich an meinem Computer sitze und mich wieder im blogland à jour lese, nippe ich auch ab und zu an meinem eisgekühlten Pfefferminztee und träume, ich hätte einen Garten mit sooo viel feinem Essbarem, wie du es gerade in deinem post zeigst. Aber ich "tröste" mich damit, dass im Moment die Tomaten, Brombeeren, Holunder und viele Gewürze (u.a. auch verschiedene Minzensorten) geerntet werden können :-) !!
Sei ganz lieb gegrüsst,
Barbara

Ingrid said...

Welch wundervolle Teekanne.
Auch ich genieße jeden Tag meinen Tee, zur Zeit Zitronenverbene
gekühlt als gesundes Erfrischungsgetränk.
Liebe Grüße
Ingrid

Alice said...

Your garden provides food, perfume, colour, beauty, and great pleasure to you, and to us via your photos. Thank you, Tatiana.

I would love to grow Brugmansia here, but Canberra's frost wouldn't treat it kindly.

easygardener said...

I love the Brugmansia. I feel quite thirsty looking at those lovely glasses of juice!

Sisah said...

Paradiesische Zustände in deinem Garten, so einen Blutorangensaft mit Passionsfrucht würde ich jetzt auch gerne trinken. Momentan geht es hier im Berliner Raum zwar auch tropisch zu, leider reicht das nicht, um Orangenbäume pflanzen zu können. Also begnüge ich mich hier ebenfalls mit Zironenverbenen- oder auch Pfefferminztee eisgekühlt...
LG
Sisah

littlewing said...

I love the picture of your garden with the Brug! It looks very inviting.

sweetbay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sweetbay said...

Deleted the above because of misspelling.

You grow so much in your garden, and it all looks wonderful. Your brug is magnificent.

Laura in Paris said...

Oh, I feel like saying the garden provides peace of mind, it stimluation to our nurturing drives, it provides joy and so so many things!
Beautiful shots - as usual.

chaiselongue said...

What a wonderful harvest - especially the mandarins and oranges.
You asked about our barbecue - it's one which Lo Jardinièr made with a platform of concrete slabs on which he lights the fire and then puts a grill, resting on bricks, over the charcoal. Not very sophisticated, but it works!

Susie~From My Home To Yours said...

I just found your Blog...beautiful. What attracted me was your name YTT. Just wanted to ask if you are aware that there is a plant by that name? I live in Florida and have several of these beautiful bushes. The reason for the name is that it first blooms white, then lavender and lastly purple, so at any given time there are the three colors on the bush! It blooms here in the spring.

April said...

This is such a lovely, bountiful garden! Your Camellia is gorgeous! I like growing mint, too.

Naturegirl said...

What a perfect post for me to view filled with all this fresh goodness! I squeeze red blood oranges each morning and drink w/ carrot juice...mint tea one of my favorite!Oh how wonderful I feel after seeing such fresh bounty!!This week I'll post more photos of my healing garden!

DeniseinVA said...

Hi Trudi, a fantastic post with many beautiful photos. A rich bounty of colors and treasures from the earth. Thank you for sharing them with Today's Flowers and have a great week.

Janie said...

Great photos from your lovely and productive garden. I think I'll go pick some of my mint and have some tea...

Hort Log said...

Awesome Angel's Trumpets you have there ! I have seedlings of its relative which hopefully will become equally free flowering !

Anonymous said...

Lovely post Trudi, and I am in awe of all your garden can do! Amazing.

Inday said...

Dear Titania,

I love those what the garden can do to us. I grew up with it and we never starved. Thanks to our dear industrious Mother. If she is here with me in Australia, she won't let any space unplanted. Be it flowers or be it vegetables, let alone be it fruits.

The mints, I am not fan of it but now I will. Thanks for the most helpful information.

I grew them once in Orange and they were running wild. I love their scents though. Very relaxing.

Thanks for visiting my flower blog.

MedaM said...

Wonderful and interesting post, Titania! Your beautiful garden provides you with so many beautiful and useful things. It is so interesting that you have your own bananas in your garden as well as your own Mandarin tree. Those glasses of mandarin fresh juice made my mouth watering. Those white blossoms on the first photo look like a chandelier; gorgeous flower including a lovely white Camellia! I love carrot (my sons enjoy to eat it fresh). I also love growing mint and a cup of tea of its fragrant leaves. Thanks for sharing your amazing garden with us.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Sunita thank you for your visit.

Barbara thank you for your visit. The Swiss summer garden is very productive and bountiful. The subtropical garden is complicated sometimes it is to dry or to wet. Luckily Citrus fruit are easy and Bananas as well to grow!

Ingrid; thank you, yes Lemon verbena I love too it has a lovely taste and is also good for you!

Alice, you could plant a Datura in a pot, they look similar to the Brugs,but you could shelter it in winter time.

easygardener thank you, have you got a heatwave as well?

Hallo sisah thanks for your visit.
Herbteas are the best when they come from your own garden.

littlewing
sweetbay thank you so much for visiting.

Prospero said...

You're right. The garden provides so much - for body and soul.

Mia said...

I will try that, adding those herbs in my Coleslaw, I only use horseradish. Bananas, Hoyas and all other lovely plants, amazing with a garden "over-there". I enjoyed my tour through your garden, until I came to your photo of a spotted snake in June... A Plum tarte is a good idea for using Plums:)

Rajesh said...

Very beautiful photos.

Frances said...

Hi Titania, what a garden of eden your spot is! I love carrots and thanks for all that info. I knew they had lots of good stuff inside that tasty root! Yum to blood oranges too. Very hard to find here. :-)
Frances

HappyMouffetard said...

What more could you ask for from a garden? Lovely post.

Kaos og Tutta said...

hello, from the other side of the earth. it looks like you are in paradise with so many different plants and fruits.

Anonymous said...

Your garden seems like a bountiful tropical paradise.

Elfe said...

Fantastisch liebe Titania! Und das wächst alles in deinem Garten, sogar Bananen? Ein wundervoller Einblick in euer Paradies ist das, danke dir dafür.

Habe einen schönen Sonntag und morgen einen guten Start in die neue Woche.
Liebe Grüsse
Elfe
P.S. Meine Blogadresse hat etwas geändert, ich kann nichts dafür, meine anderen Blogs weg sind weg.

Mia N said...

If you like to give me some of theses I like to have
1) funny carrots
2)bananas (all of them)
3) lovely camelia flower
THANK YOU!
and thank you for sharing.

Tulip said...

such a lovely garden full of fruit trees, herbal and flowers.

my entry http://southbrowneyes.blogspot.com/

Pia K said...

very enviable photos, and garden of course. it looks mouthwatering and being a garden for all senses indeed.

not so much a fan of mint am i - even less so after a rather horrible involuntary bulimic incident at a restaurant after a mint leaf went done the wrong way a while back, shudder - but carrots are my number one delight in the world of veggies! such versatile yum-yum!