Stocking up on market goodies!

How's this for a burst of Spring colour? I don't usually go for these kind of potted annual flowers, but these were just so cheery!
We went out to the local market today, and it was brilliant. I usually enjoy the markets anyway, but this month there seemed to be so much more 'good stuff' (and less scandalously priced rubbish!)

I filled the tray above with 15 decent size pots - for $22, which I think is a bargain! I could have had any combo of veggies/herbs/flowers. This was my choice today:-

2 hot chillies
2 Black Russian tomatoes
2 curly parsley
1 lemon basil
1 pot of celery (about 10 plants in it!)
 and 6 lovely flowering annuals.

(I don't even know what flowers they are, I let our children just pick what they wanted!)

I thought the flowers can go somewhere in the centre of the back garden, so we can see the lovely colour from our lounge room doors, and they will be near to our second patch, so hopefully attract some bees.

Also at the market today - a new stall which sells vegetable seeds from the local seedsavers and small amounts of herbs/plants/veggies that local growers have excess of. It is such a great idea, I hope it takes off. I bought 5 packets of seeds from there, at only $1 each !!!
Ruby Chard, rocket, New Zealand spinach, curly kale and marigolds (for beneficial insects) are now added to my ever growing seed collection, but not for too long - they will be potted /planted this week. There is info on every packet including the harvest date and where it was grown. Brilliant!
I also bought some beautiful lemons there, and bay leaves (can you believe just 10c a sprig?) so I was very happy with my purchases.

I also picked up a handful of seeds yesterday from a Cherimoya, which is a kind of cool-climate custard apple. Never had one, but apparently it is the fruit of the Gods, a mix of beautiful fruit flavours! I guess it tastes better than it looks ....... !

I got them when went to a talk given by the Cooerwull Plantsmen from Lithgow, about growing fruit and nut trees in the Blue Mountains. It was a great morning, loads of info & tips, nice friendly crowd of about 20 people, and it was in the community gardens in Katoomba which I hadn't been to before, so it was really interesting to have a look around there too. Oh, yes, and of course I got the Cherimoya seeds from a generous man who had brought a bag to share around!

Speaking of nut trees (and yesterday we did!) our hazelnut trees are starting to wake up from their winter sleep. The buds are bursting open with beautiful tiny green leaves, looks lovely. It was good to see some mature hazelnut trees at the community gardens, to get an idea of what our will look like in around 5 years. For now they are in large pots until we build and move, but I was told that they will be fine like that, even for a couple of years.

So lots of planting and seed-germinating ahead for me this week, although I never feel like its a chore, I really love getting outside into the garden and having lots of plants at various stages of growth. Hopefully we will have lots of edibles soon!

:-)