Catching Caterpillars. Planting Cucumber.

Hot scorching week! Busy watering in the evening and at times in the morning. Several of the plants wilt in the heat including vietnamese mint, annabel daisy, thyme, rosemary, bay... I decided to plant the three gorgeous cucumber burpless seedlings in Patch B (where the existing snow peas are). If they survive, I will put a trellis up.

These three rosemary plantlets are growing but looking paler than normal. I have propagated several rosemary plants and ended up not knowing what to do with them. ;P

This bigger plantlet (or tiny shrub) was grown from a single sprig. I am feeling quite proud of myself hehe...The other one is doing well at the patch next to the garage. Trimming rosemary is important to keep it bushy and stout. That makes it a pretty shrub.

The curry plant and 'mother' rosemary have been root trimmed and put back into their pots to control their growth, so that I need not use larger pots.

A few snow pea pods are swelling as their seeds grow...here is one which is shrivelled and almost ready for collection.

Argh....many plants in my garden are under caterpillar attack, including my tomato beef steak. It seems the same culprit as they are all wrapped up in young leaves and they kind of spin a web.

Strawberries developing steadily in the pot. I need to sugarcane mulch the two strawberry plants on the ground.

Three purple king bean plants doing fantastic since the weather warmed up...they are picking up very fast on their growth and already twining up the supports.

My kaffir lime's young leaves look like that...looks like iron deficiency. How on earth did it take me so long to realise that there is a deficiency?

This is one deficient-looking leaf of the calamondin comquot. It is the young leaves that are looking a bit patchy yellow (mottled if that is the word). The tree is putting on many new fruits and I had better deal with any deficiency before they start dropping off or have poor development. Citrus are indeed hungry feeders as many books and programmes say.

I have potted on this Nellie Kelly hot chilli plant finally after months of neglect. Fed it seasol and hope it be revived. I do see small shoots growing along the branches.

Miscellaneous.

I have been doing some miscellaneous work these few days - sowing, planting, potting on, weeding, pest control, soil improvement...etc. Fig (brown turkey with its beautiful leaves).

Sown some mixed basil seeds and passionfruit seeds.

Planting two tomato (silvery fir) in the front garden.

My trailing kalanchoe is under attack! Could be due to stress of no watering. I had to manually squash caterpillars wrapped up in its leaves. Also found similar caterpillars wrapped up in young leaves of strawberry plant, common mints and pomegranate. I have to be extra alert.

Sown some cayenne pepper seeds again. Last year's batch germinated but stunted.

The bitter melon germinated!

Potted on my precious pot of capsicum. A larger pot and hopefully the fruits will develop large.

Potted on my tomato (silvery fir).

My kaffir lime plant is still dropping leaves. The new fruits also dropped off. There are a few bunches of new flowers. Suddenly the young leaves look to me like they are lacking some kind of deficiency - light green leaf background with dark green veins especially on all the young leaves. I checked it up. It was quite confusing at first but I decided that it is iron deficiency. Time to go Bunnings!

The french lavender bush is blooming. Really gorgeous.

The sunflower seeds which I have harvested last season have sprouted :

Here is one of the first sunflower Sun King seeds which I have sown, growing slowly but steadily :

My big pot of vietnamese mint has yielded lots of sprigs for friends but sadly I found that a lot of tiny caterpillars have actually attacked it. I had to remove all affected leaves. Perhaps failing to water it on time and wilting on a few occasions have caused stress and invited pests :

This is one of the fatter caterpillars which I have spotted...really luminous green. I put several of the coiled up leaves (meaning existence of caterpillars) in a jar and shall see what they become :

Some yellow capsicum seeds have finally germinated. I recognized the seedlings as soon as they emerged :

Several strawberries emerged :

This native (I believed...left by previous owner) is having cute candyfloss flowers. Interesting to look at out of my kitchen window :

Eggplant Supreme is growing slowly. I have remove the tree shield around it and mulched the area. The holes on the leaves are most likely caused by European earwigs :

I have prepared a simple trap of vege oil and water and overnight it drowned a few earwigs. They are indeed the culprits :

My Peach (Pixzee) are growing well for now and I have to remove those leaves affected by leaf curl. Give me at least two full size peaches this season please! :

The coriander I bought from Ikea is growing fine. Harvested a little for a dish :

A pot of lemongrass given by my fellow gardener friend Nancy is planted at Patch E where the parsley and coriander are :

I removed more grass from around my Eureka Lemon and applied mulch :

This is a protea (Special Pink Ice). I like the beautiful flowers so I bought it for $17 bucks! Burnt a hole in my pocket :

Yet another hole in my pocket. Senorita...I saw very similar plants in Tasmania and really hope to have both of them...saw them in Bunnings and bought them. :P :

The rose bush which I spared has put on many many buds. Almost flowering. Wonder if the roses will be an achievement :

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.