Lemongrass and Ginger Growing

My poor neglected blog. It's been months since I blogged. Life has been so busy!!!

I have been quite successful with growing lemongrass this time.  I think the trick is to plant them in the ground with good soil.  I have done so in pots due to renting but they did not do well.  Finally there's good result :

And hooray I am absolutely stoked that I have success with ginger growing this year! It's difficult to grow them in Melbourne since I am in a temperate area.  But the piece that I grew in a pot with good potting mix and composted manure did excellently! I harvested a piece recently and it was fat and fresh!
                                       

Since winter is fast approaching, I have designed and erected some form of protection over my tropical spice growing in the garden. I hope it works!

Balmy Summer Days - Chickens Members

We have had a few cold summer days and it's back to sunshine.  And today we had a brand new bird visitor - the crested pigeon.  It's super cute! We have had a dozen of the usual spotted pigeons visiting and pigging on the bird seeds.  This one is on his/her own and I have not seen it feed. It just stayed around for a while but it's not very shy at all.

The rainbow lorikeets visited again.  We don't seem to get enough of them.  They are just so pretty to look at.  It's like living rainbows!

So we finally bought our three chooks.  Welcome Rubie (Rhode Island Red), Chessie (Leghorn X chequer) and Snowie (Leghorn White).  Guess who's the kids' favourite for now? It's Snowie!  She's extremely friendly and very easy-going.  She comes out of the coop first each morning and lets us pick her up without struggling.  My boys love patting her.  I just find it so amazing that every chicken has her own personality! And I am amazed at how gentle my children are towards these chickens.  It's a great decision getting these chooks.  We are definitely in love with them.  Hopefully Rubie and Chessie will warm up to us soon.

This is the choko plant which sprouted and planted at this little spot before I flew off end November 2014.  I was not sure if it will survive the cold but it certainly did.  By the time I came back, it was looking good and climbing up.  I think eventually it will sprawl over the wire fencing.  For now, I had to protect the vine from the feathered girls as it is in their large chicken area.

Selwyn (my little boy) loves picking tomatoes.  I thought he would love them.  He enjoys picking them and putting them into his mouth.  However, he soon decides to spit them out.  Perhaps it's the tomato skin that he's rejecting.  That does not stop him from trying to pick more and putting them into his mouth!

Today my little boy was very excited to see the chickens.  He was even dancing around the chicken coop.  This of course frightened the chickens hahaha! He could not wait to pat the chickens and was glad that Snowie is always so receptive and approachable.  Marco (our dog) was the first time that close to the chooks.  The chooks were oblivious and Marco was wagging his tail.  We had to supervise closely.  So far so good!

Oh my chilli plants....Chilli Fire.  Both plants really looked on the brim of death in winter and I did not hold up too much hope.  However, they looked great when I come back from holidays.  And they have flowered and fruited.  Awesome result under neglect!

Back From Holidays!

We went away for a five-week holiday and came back, right in the middle of the heat wave. Thankfully, the damage was minimal.  I was actually so happy to see my plants/trees again, though lots of tall weeds welcomed me too!  After the heat went away, Paul (hubby) and Samuel (my first son) and I started the weeding work in the back garden.  Some weeds were as tall as 1 metre.

Okay here's the update on some of my edibles.  The Trixzee Pixzee peach tree produced a surprising number of peaches again this year.  We did not get to eat a single peach last two years as our dog ate all the unripe ones.  After our last house move (autumn 2014), we planted the tree into the ground in winter and I protected the tree with some plastic mesh.  I did not notice a lot of flowers in spring but when I returned in Jan, I found many peaches... probably 20.  I decided not to thin them this time.  This morning, one fell off the tree, still small but soft.  I cut it open and ate it with my boys.  Thumbs up! Sun-ripened sweetness and clingstone-free!

Here's my ginger! It's about 40 centimetres tall. I planted a piece of ginger (that was showing some green buds) in early spring.  It was in a large pot at a corner of my deck that constantly received sunshine in the day.  I also protected the pot with good translucent plastic.  Towards summer, the plastic protection was removed.  When I left, there was no sign of life.  When I came back, the ginger shoots have grown! I have tried growing edible ginger twice so far and both times they were successful.  However, they don't survive the winter and probably rot away underground.  So, I have not successfully harvested any ginger stem for use so far.  Hopefully I will this time!

Tomatoes.  Alright, I am no great fan of raw tomatoes but I love them well-cooked in soups.  But I was convinced to buy these two vines from Bunnings when I visited one centre.  Before I left for my holiday, they were started to flower but after five weeks, lots of fruits.  And these tomato sweet grapes are really sweet and juicy to munch on!

I wouldn't mind crunching on a few each day!

One cold morning, I noticed these two tawny frogmouths roosting on the large branch of the silky oak tree in our back garden.  The boys and I were really excited! Months ago, one roosted on the stool at one corner of our deck.  We are definitely happy to see more!

The frogmouths spent the day cuddling and cosying up to each other.  They really have good leg strength, sitting on that branch whole day long and at times very still.

I am thankful that my friends (Keng and Ad, who stayed over regularly) have been feeding the birds loose bird seeds in a pot on and off.  As they could not be at home (like I do since I am a home-maker), this resulted in many spotted neck pigeons congregating on my deck.  About 10 come regularly now, from the initial four. I am trying to make them go away as I do not appreciate their voracious appetite (they hardly stop eating) and pooing all over my deck.  I came back from grocery shopping early last week and hanged a new seed block.  And then I heard the familiar calling sound of the beautiful king parrot one evening.  And Ahhh! Here he/she comes!  We hope to see the rainbow lorikeets (which we hear in the trees and flying past) and the eastern rosella (which I have not yet since our holiday) come to feed too.

Our Garden Visitors - The Birds!!!

I am beginning to get very excited living at this new property. We realise that the wildwife that frequent this place is massive! One day we got the Australian King Parrots visiting our deck.  I was not prepared and did not have any bird feed that was suitable for them.  The next day they returned, only to be driven off by the two resident Indian mynahs living up on my aircon unit! They left behind a few green feathers.

I went straight off to the local supermarket and got sunflower seeds.  I hung the seeds on the deck for days and prepared honey water.  I was disappointed.  My older son was disappointed.  Are they not coming back anymore?

Then one fine day in October they came back!!! Two gorgeous Australian King parrots :

I really don't know much about parrots.  But these ones have a quiet demeanour.  I can now identify their calling sounds, really gentle.

Then shortly after, we had another parrot visiting.  He/She's always on its own....a beautiful lone-ranger.  I am unsure if this is an Eastern Rosella.  Gorgeous little parrot's who's rather shy. There's more reading up for me to do :

Finally success!!! I have been wanting to get the rainbow lorikeets to land in our garden.  A bunch of noisy, beautiful parrots who make their presence known easily. Two landed once few days ago and one landed yesterday but never long enough for me to take a picture.  They finally decided to visit today and have some sunflower seeds.  They have plenty of food nearby as I see that they often feed off flowers and stuff on the tall gum trees in our garden :

How exciting!!! I have several orders to make and it's a busy time but this sight just made me put down everything to watch them!

Trees Removal in our Garden

The aborists came in today to remove several trees. Initially, I was excited about removing these trees from the garden but I know they were there for a few years and to have them removed brought a bit of sadness and guilt!!! Unfortunately I did not have time to snap a few pre-cutting pictures and have two pictures of the original state here :

The aborists worked quickly and efficiently and within hours, my garden looked completely different.  Here's a picture of the agile aborist cutting down the dead gum :

In all, about 6 medium sized trees and two dead gums were removed. All the low canopy is now gone and it's wide open, leaving the tall gum trees beyond my garden :

I think I can fall in love with such a view.  Pardon me for the overly bright photos! Was trying to figure out the best camera settings to use!

Aussie Rambler, Lemongrass & Rhubarb

One day during our regular walk around the neighbourhood, my older boy spotted this beautiful Aussie rambler while I was looking at the smaller version - the pig face - growing in the same front garden.  I instantly fell in love with these flowers! They are large, about 10cm in diameter, hot pink and glorious! I knocked on my neighbour's door to ask for some cutting, brought it home, stood it in water for a day and then popped it into 50% potting mix and 50% sand.  Here's hoping it will strike.  Then I was totally elated to realise a friend, also a neighbour down the street, having tons of these growing in her garden.  She welcomed me to take as much as I wanted. One day I will!

I have failed several times growing culinary lemongrass.  First, I bought the wrong ones, 6 pots of them! And when given some authentic ones from an ex-neigbhour, and then a friend from Sydney, I managed to get them going in pots but neglected them as I was too busy with my newborn.  They died in winter.  Finally I was given some by yet another friend.  I carefully protected this little plant in winter and it did well.  I planted it into Patch Deck recently, still with plastic sheets surrounding it. It is doing well! Hooray! :

 My pot of rhubarb sprang up quickly after being invisible for a while.  Such beautiful colours! :

Spring Photos - Mulching the Front Vegetable Bed

This morning's weather was fantastic. But when afternoon began, we had wind speed up to 100km/h. It was quite scary! After we mid-morning walk, I hurried to do some work in the garden - staking the passion fruit and my grape vine so that their branches/stem wouldn't break.

Hubby and I put on our masks and starting to level the soil and  mulch the front vegetable bed. I also planted two tomato sweet grape plants.  Finally done!!! :

The grape vine is looking so good! Love the glossy fresh green leaves and the flowers that have appeared. Within a week, the bare vine is covered with lush green leaves! Such is the magic of spring! Even my wisteria has put on a full head of leaves! And the pixzee peach tree too!

Carolina Black Rose Grape Vine in its Pot.

New leaves and new flowers for Carolina Black Rose grape vine.

Parsley thriving in the lemon tree pot :

Flat leaf parsley in the lemon tree pot.

Gai choy or mustard green in the front garden Patch

Another harvest of my gai choy/mustard green.

Okay now an update on my hydrangeas.  These were dug up from my previous garden, planted into pots and now I have found a new spot for them - next to the car port.  They were stricken by powdery mildew but done well after fungicide treatment :

Black Passionfruit Planted in Patch Deck

We had a fair-weather day today! I had a few errands to run mid-morning. Hubby decided to take the boys to Petbarn to get some dog food and let the boys look at animals, while I went to IKEA, Bunnings and Spotlight to get some stuff. So we had to go in separate cars and meet up for lunch. At the drive-way, when Little S (23 months) realised that I was not going in his car, he let out a scream and started to run to me. But then he switched to saying 'Bye bye Mummy' and 'Kiss Mummy' when I gently explained to him. Gave me a hug and a kiss before he went to Hubby's car. I want to record this here because it was such a heartwarming moment for me. My sweet baby!!! He seems very sensible at this young age.

So I finally bought the Nellie Kelly's black passionfruit and it is a non-grafted. Mister S and I dug at Patch Deck and planted it there.  Mister S decided to call this passionfruit vine 'Fred'. Fingers crossed it flourishes and bear us lots of passionfruit.  We also drove stakes around the vine and protected it with plastic sheet, as I was wary of possums coming to eat it up.

Fred the Black passionfruit.

Fred the Black passionfruit planted in Patch Deck.

I have always loved bluebells after reading a book when I was a teenager. I have seen bluebells in other gardens before. But now we have them on ours. Bluebells may be a flower of the past but it does not matter to me. I think I am happy to have them in my garden.

Bluebells blooming.

Edible Garden Bed - Plans for Patch Front

Now, a look at my front garden (though I am far from posting about the back garden). I shall call this garden bed 'Patch Front'. The photo speaks a thousand words. I find labelling much more efficient and clear. You can click on the photo to see a larger one.

The left side where the fence is is usually shaded. I would love to plant a vine of some sort in that area but a bit more researching has to be done. My faithful Pixzee Peach tree has finally gone into the ground after a few years of being potted.  It has been fungicide-treated and then flowered and now the leaves are coming.  I have driven stakes around the tree for protection in months to come, against my dog and possums. For two years we hadn't eaten a single peach from it because my dog chewed it.

The kaffir lime tree was also planted a few months ago.  However, it did not do very well. I am not sure why and hope it greens up after a while, or I will have to investigate. Next to the kaffir lime, some mustard green vegetables are thriving.  

As I did not know where to plant my grape vine Carolina Black Rose (due to the shifting sun all over my garden and I know grapes need lots sunshine to sweeten), I have re-potted it into a larger pot. Wishing for the same sweet juicy grapes I had last summer/autumn!

Eureka lemon tree, brown turkey fig tree and wisteria remain potted.  Right where my entrance is, I plan on putting Saffron Crocus bulbs.  

Dreaming of an edible garden bed! And a beautiful one too! :)

DIY Garden Revamp Plans

Hi all! I am back!

Just for an update.  We have moved into our new property in March 2014. Took us a few months to settle down.  It's a two-storey house and this did get us some getting used to. Little S tumbled down the stairs a few times but he got the hang of getting up and down pretty fast!

Spring is finally here! In winter, the garden was not inviting and I merely kept up the maintenance. Can't wait for warmer and longer days!

This new garden was not at all what I had wished for.  To be honest, I was absolutely devastated.  This house was definitely a good buy in terms of location and price.  The garden is far from my dream one.  There is plenty of work to do if that dream was to come true.

Firstly, there are several medium and tall trees.  I am sure the roots are well established down below for anything else to grow. And the back garden, where most available land is, is mostly shaded due to the trees' canopy.

Secondly, the land is slope and has 'terraces'. There are plenty of rocks to deal with.  We have a creek at the back and the area is sprawled with overgrowth of creeping weeds.

Our plan is to remove much of the medium-sized trees to allow more sunshine. I doubt we will have permission to remove the large trees, but I do not plan to do that anyway.  I like the kookaburra's visits on the tall gum tree and we are getting rainbow lorikeets coming on our neighbour's eucalyptus tree.  I am sure my two boys will enjoy bird-watching. I would like to retain a bit of the towering greenery.

Okay. Here's my deck. I love it that it is right out of the kitchen. And here's some proposed plan :

I bought a passionfruit vine - Panama Black, which is most suitable for our Melbournian climate. I prefer the Panama Red but unfortunately it may not be that frost-hardy. It's strange that the garden centre is selling the red since it is more of a tropical vine!  My boys love passionfruit.  So do I. And they cost quite a bit to buy. I love the look of a climbing fruit vine too. I am thinking of planting it in the soil below the deck and allowing it to climb up built trellises up to the deck.

You can see the canopy of the medium-sized trees  and tall trees beyond. The spotted-neck pigeons frequent these trees but I really need to allow more sunshine by removing them.

The is the patch right below/beside the deck. I shall name it Patch Deck.  I removed most of the weeds in winter and covered the ground with weed mat.  Not sure what I will plant just yet but definitely something edible. I am planning to plant the passionfruit vine here where the compost bin stands temporarily, build trellises and let it climb up the deck.

I have also just put my culinary lemongrass into the ground.  There's sunshine at that spot and being able to grow really tall, it would be ideal to put the lemongrass there.

Two trees and a shrub most likely will be removed, plus all those groundcovers. I found some hellebores and rosemary growing in the same area and I would like to keep them.

Scorching Summer but Happy Plants

Before we moved, I gave away my Chilli Fire plant. It was already 2 years old and I did not want to keep it. I did stash away some of its seeds and sowed some at our new rental property. Amazing 4 plants sprang up. 3 of them are in the vege patch while one is in a pot. They are all doing well. I am even getting some chillies now :

Succulent green chillies @ vege patch.

Green chillies popping up in the potted plant.

Now to my chilli padi plants. The previous 3 plants were also old so I had to throw them out. One stray seed landed in my brown turkey fig's pot and came up over autumn. Though it was not growing great in winter, it was a survivor. It underwent the cold winter without any protection and even had a few rounds of aphid attack. When spring came, it came back to life. I then moved it to a separate pot where it flourished! I bet there are at least 100 chillies on it now :

And I finally have the authentic lemongrass in my collection of garden babies. All 6 pots which I got from Flower Power at a dear price were fakes! A previous neighbour gave me some to grow and then I got a pot from a friend in Sydney. Yay!!! I always have wanted to plant lemongrass. The only thing is I have to do them in pots. I am not sure how 'fat' they will get. Being in the ground is the best but we are currently renting, and I am too lazy to prepare the ground and then dig them up eventually :

Thai basil. This one came up on its in the vege patch. I am just letting it flower and get more seeds. Given it a round of liquid fertiliser hoping it gives me great seeds :

And my beautiful garlic chives are needing a hair cut :

Rhubarb. Hmmm...I havent used any at all. I dont really know what to do with them. So they are growing and dying down. It was dug up from my previous garden and potted but it is doing better than ever being in a pot! The leaves are green and large.  The stems are fat too but just not red :

I am exciting to share this photo of my brown turkey fig. It's Figgy. It has at least 40 fruits on it. I was really surprised. I pruned this fig heavily as I thought I would not have time taking care of it this year. Yet it gave me even more fruits. However, being in a pot does it an injustice! It would do well in the ground. I am not sure how many figs I will get to eat cos I am not sure if the fruits will get to grow well with limited nutrition I am providing, and with possums active in this area :

Here's my Carolina Black Rose grape vine. Or do you call that a grape tree?? Well, I did not remove my whole grape vine from my previous garden. It has gone too big for me to remove it. I left it for the new owners and they loved it.  This plant decided to come alive from a stem which I cut to use as a snow pea stake at the previous vege patch. I have let it grow, potted it when we moved and it is gloriously growing! I even had to constantly trim off the shoots coming up. Not sure if I will get any grapes but I am just happy to keep it growing cos it looks so pretty! :