What's Happening Recently in the Backyard?

Recently, I have been doing gardening in starts and stops and have not recorded much of what I had done. Besides being unwell physically, the weather has been rather scorching for much to do in the day time. I tried as much as possible to do gardening when the sun sets yet still bright enough. I have used some pieces of wood which was left by the previous owner to build a little vege patch just next to the back pongola (if I have named it correctly) :

Before weeding & filling up with soil (above) After (above)

The black carolina rose grape vine is growing well at the spot where I just put in the vege patch. My next 'challenge' would be to erect some support for it as it grows.

My capsicum plant in the pot has put forth several fruits, with me wondering how large they will get since the plant is confined in such a small pot.

Three tomato plants are growing in a larger pot since transplanting from their little pot. Where in the garden can they go? Or they would have to grow in a large pot.

The few calendula plants are growing faster with the warmer weather.

Strawberries are developing in two of the three strawberry plants in the pot and on the ground.

Protection against birds half-way there.

My passionfruit panama gold is still surrounded by a tree shield. Fortunately the leaves are not being eaten anymore since I surrounded the skirt of the tree shield with soil.

Peach (pixzee) fruits growing bigger. Just wondering where's the space for further enlargement since the branches are so close. I never thought about that when I bought it.

Snow peas are still fruiting but slowly dying down. Go to the compost soon!

Tomato beef steak has grown a lot, some flowers but no fruits yet.

Purple king seeds have germinated and are this big now! They are actually in a more shaded area and thankfully with more warmth and sunshine recently, they are steadily growing. Lots weeding to be done with the unmulched areas.

The first patch of grass has grown well and is now looking like this...good!

I have germinated some cucumber (burpless). Well germinated. Trellis and space to figure out.

I really have no idea how to care for this pot of kalanchoe. So I decided to prune all the dying flowers. New leaves have grown and I shall see if it flowers next season.

Kaffir kaffir...since into the ground, it looks a little better but still leaves still drop. Here showing some tiny fruits.

The apricot (Moorpark) which I pulled out of the ground and pruned still does not look too good..drooping leaves...may or may not survive me.

Cayenne Pepper Grand Harvest.

Weather has been cloudy for days with short hours of sunshine. Today we had a fine drizzle. I am preparing to leave for our holidays and had to make sure the whole garden is settled. My neighbours Jenny and Janet have kindly agreed to help me water the plants and look after my garden babies while we go away. I know they will be in good hands as Jenny and Janet manage a one-hectare garden. I harvested 30 over green and fat chillies from my cayenne pepper after waiting and waiting for them to ripen. I think they are not ripening very much, probably due to the cold temperature or lack of sunshine. I did a jar of pickled green chillies and am going to give the rest away.

Also harvested two capsicums (left from the potted capsicum plant and right from the capsicum plant at the vege patch). They too are not ripening but I still can cook them. And a few purple king beans.

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I think my main worry is my lawn at the new property. The mossy patches and bare patches are quite a concern. They just show the lawn is not very healthy. Also, despite weeding the lawn thoroughly, I spotted more tiny weeds sprouting up within a short few days. I really wonder how I can control the weeds. I wish I can get a landscapist to re-do the whole lawn!!! That is a wish but I doubt I can, bearing the fact that I am already spending a bomb getting the pittosporum hedges done! I have sown lawn seeds but it seems a bad time of the year to do so. Anyway, just going to enjoy my holiday!!!!!!!!!

My Purple King's Journey

My Purple King Bean plant is a survivor and I have been repeating that many times in the various entries. Firstly, it was one of the two which germinated well and grew. The other one did germinate but somehow did not grew on. Secondly, I have sown it when it was well into 1/3 of summer which was a little late. I got my seeds from my shepherd at that time. Good sowing time would be spring. Thirdly, it resurreted after certain death in the heat wave and continued to prosper.

7/2/09 The effect of the heat wave.

14/2/09 Signs of life after some time.

1/3/09 Flowering stage!

Early March to April - harvesting a few beans at a time.

End April, 30 over beans now on the plant.

Some of the older leaves are turning yellow and dropping off. The purple king will not survive the coming cold winter. It is going to be rather sad seeing it die eventually but I am very grateful to be able to see it grow these months.

Cases of Powdery Mildew Attack!

Recent weather has been warm and then cold and then warm and then cold with scatter rains. Some mornings were wet and cold and followed by warm afternoons. I had to do a bit of work moving pots of more delicate herbs/plants into the mini green house and out into the sun and vice versa.

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The curry plant has been growing quite well but I was surprised that it has invited unwanted guests such as tiny caterpillars. There were also clusters of webby tiny black eggs mainly towards the ends of stems where the shoots are. Most of the stems which are strong and healthy but exposed to air did not have these webby eggs. The eggs were found in areas where the stems were very congested and hidden. I had to snip off several stems as a result. Guess I learnt a lesson : prune the plant on a regular basis to allow better air flow between the stems.

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My pot of mint which was potted on last Friday has got powdery mildew. I think placing it in the green house with all the condensation has caused this. I removed several leaves and sprayed a few infected areas with Mancozeb Plus. And quarantined the pot in another area of the garden. Will have to do a re-spray after 10 days. I have successfully gotten rid of powdery mildew on two other pots of mint but not the vine which was growing under the shelther. The condition was so bad that the vine is already succumbing to its invader. The common mint which was potted on last Friday.

White powdery mildew on its stem.

White powdery mildew patches on one of the mint leaves.

The grape vine is almost dead due to powdery mildew.

Powdery mildew patches on one of its leaves.

The oriental radishes are looking stronger and bigger. Hoping to harvest some crunchy yummy roots soon.

The purple king bean plant has leaves that are turning yellow. I am assuming that it is due to the colder weather coming as it does not survive winter. This bean plant is really running behind time due to the heat wave in summer. It has put out a lot of beans and I am going to let some of them stay on the vine to mature for seed collection.

2 Hours' Work

My work for 2 hours this morning : Potted the largest pot of common mint which I grew from two cuttings. Potted up the citronella (mosquito plant) Divided up the lemon grass into three pots. Fed seasol to those transplanted. Fed Charlie Carp to curry plant, capsicum plants, lavendar, buk choy, bay, hot chilli. Fertilised the orange and lemon trees. Removed weeds surrounding the lemon and orange trees.

The potted on common mint.

The original two cuttings which I propagated.

Two of the chilli padi seeds given by my shepherd have germinated. Not exactly a good time to germinate seeds at this time of the year due to lack of warmth and sunshine. I do hope they can make it and grow. I was able to harvest more purple king beans today and had them for lunch. Crunchy and sweet and turned green when boiled. The capsicum is my first harvest off the capsicum plant on the vege patch. I have a feeling it is a yellow capsicum as there is no sign of any redness. Four more coming!

I cleared the potato plant from the large pot and wow! Digging the potting mix out gave me a surprise of a few egg sized potatoes. This is also first time growing potatoes and I started out too late in the season. I suppose I can do better the next round but potatoes are really cheap! Perhaps just to grow them for fun!

I am propagating some ivy in a pot.

The two citronella cuttings in potting mix.

The divided lemon grass.

The oriental radishes have been thinned out to just one per lot.

More capsicums from the vege patch.

The onion bulbs. I think daffodil bulbs grow this time too.

One Rosemary Cutting has Flowered.

Cold morning. Cosy afternoon. A little drizzle interspersed cloudy and then sunny day. Collected a few drops of rain in buckets ;o. Since the soil was moist and soft in the morning, I did some weeding. The creepy weeds are growing very well at the sides of the vege patch and soon will come near my capsicum and mighty red tomato bush. One of the potted rosemary cuttings has decided to flower instead of growing. Flowering for herbs is not really ideal since it means its energy for growing has been given to flowering. But it is not a bad sight at all.

One dandelion weed growing well in the vege patch. Dandelions are common weeds and their leaves are nutritious for making tea, which can be used to water plants. In fact, shops sell dandelion tea bags for human consumption and dandelion flowers can be used in salads. They have deep tap roots that can draw nutrients from deep in the soil.

My capsicum is growing well, at least with much peace of mind since I am able to protect it from possums. Another on the right of the picture is developing.

One little purple king pod is growing near the ground just close to the very mature pod. I have placed a plastic sheet under it on the ground weighed down by rocks.

The aloe vera is growing two new pups in the centre...one tiny one and a slightly longer one.

The vietnamese mint overtaking the large pot's surface. It is really a sprawling grower. I am ready to harvest some for ladies' fellowship next Monday.

Two of my six lots of oriental radishes. I am now cracking my head on how to protect them from digging possums. Neighbours just told me possums dug their ground and ate their silver beets!

One cluster of chillies from the nellie kelly hot chilli.

Another cluster. So happy to see larger chillies developing before ripening. I have harvested some ripe ones in the past but they were really tiny.