Flowers Galore!!!

This is a close-up of my snow pea flower. The 'veins' on the petals reminds me of fingerprints, wonderful creation : Once the flower withers, the pea grows :

My mosquito plant is flowering! I could have seen its flowers much earlier if some of the branches did not break in that strong winter wind :

This flower here is so far not identified yet. I suspect it to be some canna lily. Very orchid-like :

2.5 weeks ago, the lavender were still in leaves. 2.5 weeks have passed and I came back to glorious blooms. Even the bees are visiting these blooms. We watched in safety behind our living room window : The three cyclamens have grown a lot compared to when I just bought them :

The pot of gorgeous nasturtiums continues to grow and bloom which is really eye-catching :

The pot it is in is only 20cm but the nasturtiums have long since spilled over and toppled that I had to put the whole pot into a 30cm one for support.

The sunflower (Sun king) have sprouted in two clusters. Strange that the other two clusters did not :

Clearing Vegetable Patch, Mint Cuttings.

This morning is a cloudy and still one. All the pots are still wet with a good amount of rain from the past few days. Hubby saw a portable mini greenhouse in bunnings and bought one for me. It was really affordable and useful to have. So, after morning chores in the house, I got to work in the garden. Hubby set the house up and I just had to place some of my plants in especially those that are still establishing themselves - three pots of mint cuttings recently potted, the original pot of mint, a new pot of aloe vera, a new pot of geranium citronella (mosquito plant), two pots of rosemary cuttings and two pots of vietnamese mints (one salvaged & potted on and one almost died in the green planter but re-potted) I also moved some of the pots of herbs/plants which I have placed on the empty part of the vege patch (space where melons were rooted). I am clearing space to start raking soil, putting cow manure, weeding a little to prepare for growing chinese radishes. I have also stripped the leaves of the three tall sunflower stems so that they will not be photosynthesizing or taking any nutrients from the soil. Well with the roots and stems still around, I reckon some water and nutrients would be used by them but should be neglible. I intend to grow some autumn/winter peas/beans so they can use the stems as supports to climb. Recently I read that sunflower seeds hulls can emit a chemical similar to juglone from black walnuts which can inhibit growth of beans. So I made sure I cleared the hulls which the birds left over.

Lining up the pots outside the patch (above). It is important to ensure the plants are free of pests before placing them so close together, as pests can spread from plant to plant. Also important to make sure they are strong and healthy. Whiteflies are especially expert at locating stressed/weakened/sick plants. I read that plants which are sick/stressed actually emit chemicals that attract pests. Regular fertilising and adding plant conditioners such as seaweed solution, especially for pot plants, help strengthen them.

Part of vegetable patch being prepared for autumn/winter planting. And the stripped sunflower stems.

Three horrors this morning : finding caterpillar chewing on my lavendar and rosemary and the same green caterpillars on my buk choy. It is annoying to find them there. I do not use any pesticide on them and so I have to be very vigilant with regular inspection. My thyme also did not look very healthy and are getting woody. I fed the lavendar and thyme some aquasol.

The three pots of mint cuttings are doing well. Using premium potting mix is a good idea to help establish the young cuttings. The two in the black pot are putting on new shoots. I somehow am not very successful at growing mint in pots but I am determined to try and improve :

The two newer pots of common mint cuttings.

The first pot of mint cutting putting on new shoots.

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds. Sweet Irrigation/Rain From Heaven.

We had a sweet portion of rain fall last night, after a warm windy dusty day. I placed three buckets out to collect rain and had 1.5 cm in each this morning. Not a lot but more than the past rains recently! It was good enough to wet the vege patch and the pots. I am sure the veges and herbs and fruit trees were grateful for it. The coming of the rain last evening was made even more exciting as it happened the same time when I was reading the book 'Plants without Poison' by a Tasmanian farmer and writer, Paul Healy in which he says, rain, especially the slow-falling and fine type, absorbs nitrogen as it falls onto the plants. The plants got a feast from heavenly irrigation! God, thanks for sending rain!!! This morning, I was inspecting the garden as usual and found that the small sunflower's seeds have been half-ransacked. When God says he provides for the birds of the air, he really does! :) Through gardeners like me! The opened husks are lying on the ground and on the ledge of the fence next to the sunflower. I did not wrap up this sunflower and sure enough, the birds were here for a feast. Nevermind, I have lots seeds to spare.

This is the small sunflower with almost half the seeds stolen. The seeds are those under the yellow 'florets'. I fed the florets and shrivelled petals to my worms.

I decided to cut down all the three heads. This is one of the huge ones with full head of seeds.

Samuel and I were busy wriggling and digging out the seeds. Marco was on standby to chew the left overs. He even chewed the whole stem (4cm thick) which I pulled out from the ground. It was tough but his teeth were tougher!

Some of the seeds from the small sunflower. Two large ones awaiting to be worked on. It is not easy work. The birds are seriously better candidates doing this job. Also the sunflowers have since became habitats for many ants when they were growing and I had to wait for the residents to crawl off.

Collecting Seeds of Thai Basil

Refering to the thai basil (http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/02/long-long-entry.html) which was not very successfully propagated from stem cutting and had many flower stalks. I have decided to leave it to flower and see if I can gather any seeds :

The thai basil which produced very little leaves and kept bolting to seeds

Well I did. After many weeks, the white 'seeds' in the flowers have turned 'dark brown/black' (if you click the picture below, look into the leaflets around the middle of the stalk, you are able to see two seeds) :

Click on this picture to enlarge it. You can see two seeds encased within the sepals? leaflets?. There are actually four seeds altogether encased together.

I managed to collect a good deal of dried thai basil seeds. This is just the beginning :). If completely dry and ready, seeds should fall out easily when leaflets are opened, brushed with finger and turned upside down. If not ready, they will still be a little sticky and best left to dry completely before seed collection.

Some of the thai basil seeds collected.

Hottest Week of the Century

Weather Forecast says this week could be Melbourne's hottest time of the century! Temperature is expected to be 41 degrees celsius today. I woke up really early despite late shopping the night before. Had to give the plants a good watering before the heat came. Yates Multi- Nutrient Plant Food was on sale and I bought a bottle for my garden babies. It is made up of Chicken Manure, Blood and Bone, Seaweed extract and Fish emulsion and providing Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorous for good plant health. I prepared 10L of it and fed all the plants before the sun came up fierce. Here's a picture of my first sunflower :

Here's the two gorgeous Mighty Red ripening daily :

The shallot in the pot has produced two clusters of flowers on tall stalks. Before the sac burst, it really looked like an alien waiting to erupt. Here's a close-up after the sac burst and I am anticipating the look of the opened flowers.

Surprisingly, found a caterpillar feeding on the potato leaves which I thought are poisonous.

The buk choy look so much better now since their growth is not hindered by tiny caterpillars feeding on them.

Bay - A New Candidate in the Garden.

I caught this bug climbing up a wall in the house and wondered if it was a lady bug since it really does look like one except the strange brown-gold colour. I wrote to 'Ladybirds of Australia' and Adam told me that it is a leaf beetle of the family Chrysomelidae feeding on eucalyptus.

http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/ladybirds/authors.htm is a good site to identify lady bugs in our gardens. This one is a good one which feeds on fungus. I found it on my vegetable patch! :) http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2408773.htm is another great site to learn about lady bugs - the good and the bad and the evil. And I thought all of them are good!

Harvested 11 pieces of my precious vietnamese/hot mint for a meat dish. Yum!

Very pleased to say that my lavender is a survivor in spite of being under the hands of an inexperienced non-green-fingered gardener like me! I think the pyrethrum I gave it could have really burnt the leaves. Could have been too generous and too near with the pyrethrum when I tried to deal with the pesky whiteflies attacking it. Brutally chopping much of it, though it was already summer, proved to be a good thing (kept my fingers 'crossed')(Refer 9 Jan 09 - Keeping Check). It survived and has been putting on green healthy leaves. I never gave up on you. Please dont give up on me. :)

Bought this bay from Flower Power...only $2. No harm trying to grow it. I have re-potting it inot a gigantic pot, being hopeful that it is going to grow into a potted tree for my new house! In cheap potting mix + blood and bone + seasol + dried danelion leaves (at base). It was shaded by a large box for a few days before being fully exposed to the summer sun.

A few of the Mighty Red tomatoes are turning orange. It is really exciting to see that and I hope possums would not ruin my joy by stealing them in the night. Look at the shine! No pesticides or chemical sprays on the skin!

My largest Sun King Sunflower is due to open its flower soon, revealing its yellow petals today. Interesting to find out that they will face the rising Eastern sun each day.

Mixed basil germinating well in the pot. It will interesting to find out what sort of basils I have got and how they finally look like.

The two groups of capsicums are doing fine. This clump has been thinned out severely. The other clump has been attacked by grasshoppers or some leaf-eating insects but are good still.

This Purple King bean plant of two is doing well. I think the other one is going to die, looking at the way it is developing.

Summer - Warming up... ...

The pot of lavender bee pretty seems to have grown but are attacked by whiteflies. I used the yellow sticky trap which was quite good but no good with controlling them. So I did a pyrethrum spray and the flies were gone. The new flower buds have grown.

Mint given by a friend standing in jar of water (Christmas Day) waiting to root. Roots appeared 5 Jan 09)

I have harvested lots of plums. They turn from green to yellow to deep red. Taste sweet in terms of pulp but have sourish bitter skin.

The sunflowers are 0.5m tall for the tallest! Growing fantastically. Waiting for giant sunflowers!

An orange has germinated. However, I cannot remember which type it is. :(

I accidentally pulled out this plant but the smell seems so oregano. I replanted it and it is growing fine again. I hope it turns out to be some yummy wild oregano.

A friend has just given me two twigs of vietnamese/hot mint and I have re-planted them (26 Dec 08) in this pot with a thai basil which rooted while kept in a glass jar of water. The former needs lots of water. This time, I made sure I gave them Seasol to help with any shock. I kept the pot indoors and gave it lots water. So far so good.

I bought these two cheap pots of flowers ($2 each) to attract bees to come and pollinate my melons.

The Mighty Red tomato plant is doing well and have produced more than 10 fruits so far. These are the largest so far.

Clump of melons before thinning out.

Melon yellowing after thinning out.

Surviving melon plant with flowers. Seasol came a bit late on 22 Dec 08 but at least rescued most of them.

In my last blog, I mentioned that my peppers died of shock during re-potting. So, I have since sown some on 14 December after cooking some yellow and red ones. I also thinned out the clump of melons but they too went into shock despite my very careful job. Their leaves were turning yellow and thankfully I got some advice from a fellow blogger to add some fertiliser. So I did, with Seasol and they have survived. Some died but a good number survived. A few of them have flowered and I am so pleased to see bees coming to them one early morning on 27 Dec 08. That means pollination! I wonder if the two little cheap pots of marigolds are doing their job attracting bees on the vege patch. I hope to see melon fruits soon, either rockmelon or honeydew. I am not exactly a fan of them but it is fun just to see them grow.

Photo Update of Garden Babies

Pear sprinkled with cornflour which did not help with curbing pear slugs - experiment failed. Manual squashing with a disposable glove works best. Pyrethrum spray works but not so on windy days. Thyme growing taller - hoping to harvest some soon. Peach tree doing well...no pesky aphids due to good work of ladybugs. Green plum turning yellow and then will go red.

Plums on the tree.

My orange seeds have germinated after a long while (Sept to Dec). :)

Rosemary growing taller.

My friend has confirmed these are either chilli or bell peppers. However they soon died after thinning out and repotting. Should have added Seasol fertiliser during that.

Chilli plants are growing at a slow pace since sowing on 4 Nov 08.

Friend has confirmed these are melons (rockmelon or honeydew). Probably have to space them out when the rain goes and soil is soft.

Sunflowers are doing fantastic since sowing 1st & 3rd Nov 08.

Two types of plums harvested - maroon and yellowish-red.