Showing posts with label chives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chives. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Busy Saturday

It was a really busy 3 hours I had out in the garden last Saturday.  I :
  • pruned my chilli padi plants.
  • thinned out my pak choy and gai choy/mustard green seedlings.
  • built a shade for my transplanted green globe artichoke plants & trimmed them.
  • sowed sweet corn and other vege seeds.
  • sowed lucerne seeds for green manure.
  • did watering.
  • deadheaded my daisy bushes.
  • deadheaded my King Alfred daffodils. 
I told my boy that this spring I would not grow any tomatoes.  We ate the frozen ones from last season really slowly.  One reason is that the frozen tomatoes thawed really badly.  They are so mushy that I could only use them for soupy dishes.  I have spoken too soon.  I found a few tomato seedlings growing in the big fig's pot and in the pixzee peach tree's pot. That was mid-winter and they were looking really purple and frozen.  They must be from seeds from the compost bin.  And they must be tomato silvery fir since I only grew that variety.  My first instinct was to let them die in the cold since I had no intention to do tomatoes.
But then two of the seedlings caught my eye, I knew I had to keep them. They were the two strongest seedlings. They looked really healthy, though purplish out in the freezing cold. What a tragedy to let them die when they were trying to survive!!! So I prepared two pots and pulled them out and planted them. I placed a newly-bought plastic cloche on them and let them get some sun.  With a little tender loving care, they are now no longer purple and looking even better.  Okay, tomatoes for the next season...
New chives emerging from the soil. Oh I just loving seeing life spring forth from the dead ground!
Our only plum tree has the whole tree full of white blossoms this year.  I sure hope to eat more than 10 plums this summer/autumn since we really did only had 10 or so each of last two years.
Very pretty white flowers lightly perfumed.
My Tung O plant (edible chrysanthemum) survived winter unscathed.  I gave it a light prunning to open the plant up and remove the browner branches.  I use this vege for steamboat/hot pot or Japanese Miso soup.  It is nice by me but my hubby doesnt want too much of it.
This is the shade I have set up for my green globe artichoke plants.  The weather forecast a really warm end to winter and I knew that my divided artichoke plants could not make it if I do not build them a shade.  Imagine, a shade in winter! Sounds crazy! Well, they have been recently divided and replanted and kept wilting in the day, so I knew a whole week of warm sunshine would do them in. After building the shade, I also remove more whole leaves and halved some of the leaves, leaving only baby leaves behind.  I also watered them with a few rounds of seasol during the week and checked them every few days. That should make sure they really survive.  Now I am glad to have divided them in winter.  Imagine doing so in spring or summer, they would have die for sure.
A really trimmed artichoke plant, staked.
Here's the patch where I have sown sweet corn.  I used plastic fruit containers as cloche and weighed them down using decent sized white stones.
I deadheaded the King Alfred daffodils right out of my son's bedroom.  Now all they need is some good fertiliser to help them make bigger prettier flower heads for next season.
My chilli fire surived winter with the plastic protection.  Since it has now turned warmer, I removed the top plastic for it to get some sunshine.  I did that for my chilli padi plants too.
I had to thin out the pak choy and gai choi seedlings heavily in this raised vege patch because greedy me oversowed by a great deal! The remaining seedlings here are just about 1/5 or less than what I have removed! The work almost killed me.
I sowed some yellow capsicum, kang kong (water spinach), egg plant, cucumber and lady's finger seeds.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Choko, Coriander, Saffron Sativus, Chives, Thai Basil, Poppy, EChinaea (Cornflower) & Strawberry Delight

I planted some flower seeds last Friday outside the garage where there is a strip of soil. Cornflower (Echinaea), Poppy and Foxglove. It rained and rained almost the whole of this week. So far I have not seen the seeds germinated. I also planted some Mustard seeds (Biomulch) and Clover seeds in Patch F. The patch is empty now and the mustard and clover when grown, will be dug into the soil as nutrients for the soil.
My bittermelon plants are crawling up the trellis and have flowers but no fruit yet. I doubt I would ever get one this seaon since they only started growing December.
All 11 strawberry delight plants have done well and growing! They are all in styrofoam boxes which leak which is great because the boxes will not collect rainwater and drown the plants. Yeah more strawberries next season!!!
My thai basil are doing very well even with the cold rains. I hope I would be able to keep them alive through the coming cold winter months.
Chives (Asian type) have survived the dividing and re-planting. All I need is some support as the long leaves are falling all over the place.
The planter of saffron sativus crocus are growing. So far those 12 under my peach tree havent sprouted yet and I am beginning to wonder if I have planted them too dig. :(
Surprise find! Lots of coriander seeds have sprouted where the old coriander plants were. Very happy gardener here!
I decided to invest in a choko few days ago. I love to grow perenial fruiting plants, vegetables and flowers because I dont have to pay money to keep planting new plants. So I thought choko would be a good idea. It has gorgeous leaves, is perenial and bears fruits for dishes. This morning I found the base looking a bit different. Something is sprouting. I guess it could be the root. Many websites talk about choko planting but they never ever mention properly how to plant it. So I chose to place it in a bowl and see it sprout instead of planting it straight into the ground.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Carolina Black Rose Alive!!!

How exciting! I am totally over the moon as if I have struck lottery. That was how my hubby described me. My Carolina Black Rose Grape vine is alive! I found 3-4 green buds on it. A while ago, it looked like a dried forked twig and I have sort of lost hope that it would live. I will have to fertilise it and plan the support soonest, oh as well as protection against my golden retriever Marco. The pomegranate, which I have no clue about its name, is putting on beautiful red leaves. I plan to spray it with a mixture of pyrethrum and white oil in case of white flies or scale attack as last seasons.
I have propagated two pots of Aoenium. As I am clearing up more planting areas with my lawn revamp, I may need new plants.
Planted a little pot of coriander here in Patch C after the seeds germinated.
Most of the seeds - kang kong (water spinach), chilli padi, tomato silvery fir, cucumber, bittermelon - I have planted and pots kept in this plastic container (to imitate greenhouse environment) have germinated. It has been a really cold spring start and they are growing very very slowly. I wish I have a glass or green house to speed up things.
The pot of chives has also germinated. It is doing better out in the cold.
A new pot of thyme germinating too.
I had to remove growing pups from my original aloe vera pot as they were overcrowding the pot. This two are some of the babies I have removed. I think soon I can start some plant sale?

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Herbs and Vegetables Update

My 6 snow peas are towering, flowering and fruiting.
The chilli fire plant looks a bit haggard but I think it will pick up when weather warms up. I have removed the plastic around it and the fleece above it which I used in winter to protect it from cold, winds and frost.
This little rosemary bush is doing well. I propagated it from my original rosemary plant. It does not get much sun and had powdery mildew at times. Not the problem has cleared and it is taking off at its site.
I harvested some yummy greens for dinner : silver beet
Here are the mustard greens (Gai Choy) and spinach growing under net. The spinach are so slow. I think once the weather warms up, it will take off and then start produce flowers instead.
I gave this tuft of lemon grass a hair cut. It was all brown and straggly. Wondering if it will be okay. Wondering if they will grow. All five clumps of lemon grass looked really bad after the winter. Come the next winter, I will have to protect them if they survive this season.
Planted coriander in Patch C where the kaffir lime and lemon grass are.
This little clump of chives (Gu Chye) is doing well and clumping after I harvested it. I intend to buy a few more pots to plant at this spot so I can cook up a dish with squids or fried bean curd.
One strong parsley seed has found its way next to the shed where it does not get much sun but it is growing well.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Snapshots of my Garden Babies.

It's been quite a while since I spent some good time doing gardening. Our family had spent some time grieving the loss of our second baby because we had a miscarriage. We were thankful that it happened early pregnancy but still we were sad. And thankfully it is autumn and most work had been done. I spent little bits of time doing harvesting instead. The garden does need some tidying up and today I did just that as the weather was warmer. The chilli padi plants are doing well and the chillies are steadily ripening. My mum, who is here for holiday, has been the sole customer of my chillies. :) The three cyclamens which I have planted last year are coming back well. I cannot wait for them to flower and bloom :
And amazingly, they have sent out bulbs somewhere else and new cyclamen plants are sprouting up 1 metre away :
My calamondin comquat tree in its pot is doing great too, producing many bunches of fruits. Hoping to make belacan chilli out of them :
I have propagated some cuttings of sweet potato, hoping they can last through winter and be replanted next spring. Here is one successful one :
These few oriental radishes are doing fine under neglect at Patch A:
Recently I picked one brown turkey fig off this tree and it was a bit fleshy and pink. It was quite large. Here is another one waiting to be picked. This tree has produced a dozen of figs but so far only two are a little edible, the rest were dry and yucky :
My Flemings' brown turkey has several small figs. Hoping that they will be better in quality. So interesting to have figs in pots! :
Here's a tuft of chives which I bought and planted where the passionfruit panama is :
And here's the beautiful passionfruit panama gold. It has sent out so many new growth despite me pruning it again and again, cos I really dont know where to encourage it to head. I did not want it to climb up the shed's roof or in summer, it will be cooked :
Strawberry delight...dangling strawberries... :
I have this plant growing in the calamondin comquat pot. It looks like a marigold :
Today, I finally did some work to protect my chilli fire with plastic in preparation for winter. I hope it can survive the winter. This plant has given me loads of green chillies for pickling :
I transplanted the five snow pea seedlings out on the front where the sunflowers used to be. They are doing well :
A friend, Li, passed me some mustard and I planted them in the frontyard. I have not found out much about this vegetable but will soon :
Another friend, Eliada, gave me two pots of chives. They are looking the same after two weeks in the ground.
Today, I pulled up all the lucerne growing in this patch F. I am intending to use it for vegetables? Still thinking. Added some black gold compost to it. Notice one leading branch of my carolina black rose is missing? It was up the pongola ceiling but when I returned from Lakes Entrance, it was found broken. Not sure if the wind or Marco was the culprit. Anyway, I had to cut it down completely and now there is only one leading branch left.
"All that mankind needs for good health and healing is provided by God in nature...the challenge of Science is to find it." - Paracelcus, the father of Pharmcology, 1493 - 1541