It's been a long while since I last updated my blog. I have been rather ill-motivated recently due to some incidents regarding a neighbour who was renting the next house. It's nothing to do with gardening, just really affected by her character especially when we treated her like a sister. Anyway, she has moved out and our lives' sort of back to normal except some losses we have suffered. I had been doing a little here and there whenever necessary. I finally went back to my garden in full swing yesterday.
I have been waiting for these two larger strawberries to ripen under the bare sunshine we were receiving lately. Finally my boy and I harvested them and each of us had one. So sweet having sun-ripened strawberries. The thought of it makes me drool!
I do have more strawberry flowers blooming. Such dainty flowers, so sweet and pretty as usual. One of the tasks for winter would be to divide all my strawberry clumps up. I have 8 pots to do and that's a big job! But if I dont divide the plants up, I wont get big berries next season.
My 5 Stringless Pioneer bean plants are fruiting, beaning?! These bean plants take up very little space. They dont need staking because they are dwarf and dont climb.
A plateful for lunch today.
I was extremely excited discovering a few of my fig (brown turkey) swollen and ripening two weeks ago. Since then my boy and I have eaten 3. This tree is in a large pot out of my dining window and it is in its 2nd summer. Last summer I had figs from this tree but they were dry and yukky. As this tree has a really tall and slender trunk, I chopped it down but it regrew in spring 2010. (See
http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2010/09/fruit-trees-update.html )This summer, with ample watering, I have managed to eat some yummy, sweet and juicy figs. There is another fig (brown turkey) in my front garden, also confined to a pot, and is having figs that are also swelling. Can't wait to eat off that tree because this one was bought from Flemings Nursery!
There were some days when it was quite cold. My water spinach (kang kong) and Thai Basil suffered some 'burns' to their leaves and I had to resort to covering them with fleece. I expect to do a lot of frost protection this coming winter and have already starting work now in early autumn, driving stakes into the ground where frost-tender plants are.
This pest is the caterpillar of the grapevine moth. I have had quite a number eating the leaves of my Carolina Black Rose. Squashing them is the only way and I had to reach the leaves by climbing the ladder. The leaves are also having mild Downy Mildew which I need to treat with fungicide again.
The grapevine is doing very well growing everywhere on my back pergola roof. I had to add new strings across to support all the new growth. Soon the leaves will turn an autumny colour before shedding. Meanwhile I am enjoying this living green frame out of my kitchen window.
The two Clementis The President have transplanted very well. I mulched them today with oops! Uncomposted pine bark chips. Not sure if the leaves will turn yellow due to nitrogen draw-down. Have to keep an eye. Mulch is so essential esp in hot or windy situation as evaporation rate is very high. Cannot keep up with watering so best way to conserve water in the potting mix is by mulching or using water crystals.
Here's a not so well-taken picture of my red cyclamen. It is flowering like mad now in autumn. What a strange sight.
How winter protection on my property looks like. I use strong plastic sheets around stakes driven into the ground. And then peg them. The pegs must be really strong ones that wont come apart when strong winds blow. This protection is half-done. My chilli padis, thai basil, capsicum are going to take shelther here. Last year the chillies were well taken care of in this manner.
One lemongrass clump fully covered. Last year I did not do protection for my lemongrass and they looked really bad when spring came. They took a long time to revive and grew. So this year I am not taking chances.
11 pots of strawberry delight plants after dividing. I read that dividing should happen in winter but I decided to do it now. Let's see if they survive. So far not bad.
Giant leaves. Burdock in the raised vege patch. Hope to harvest soon.
The mother kalanchoe plant. Why? Because I have successfully propagated a baby plant from its cutting! Hooray for me!
The baby's looking not bad at all. It has put on a lot of growth from a tiny cutting. Looking forward to red bell-like flowers in winter.
I planted this whole clove of garlic in a pot of compost cum premium potting mix cum bulb fertiliser. Hope it will work to produce more garlic cloves. Fun! And a BSF friend gave some large chilli padis (the left is hers and the right is mine! See the size difference.) I planted the seeds of her chilli and shall see if I have any chance of growing this chilli in my garden.
That's the back sapphire lawn which I have sort of aerated. It looks a bit patchy because doggy uses it to pee and poo and this burns the grass!
