Picking Up Treasures for Gardening

My boy and I are down with a cold thanks to the unpredictable hot and cold weather here in Melbourne. However, that did not stop us from spending a few hours in the morning sun cycling around the neighbourhood and then doing gardening.

 My green globe artichoke plants.  What a relief to know that the three which I divided late winter survived and are growing well. See them right after dividing.

 The two tomato silvery fir plants which I have rescued See the rescue here from Big Fig's pot, nursed under cloches, and planted here are growing bigger too. I have removed their cloches since yesterday (background).

 Doggy. He trotted around the neighbourhood while we cycled. Now he is happily resting under the olive tree and trying hard to get the treat out of his toy.

I captured a picture of my boy making himself so comfy on the lawn and looking at his car pictures.

It is the time of the year when the council comes in their trucks and collect bulk refuse, which everybody will place on their nature strips.  Every time we cycle around the neighbourhood, I kept an eye out for things which I can use for my gardening.  This morning, I picked up two glass door panels.  I cleaned it up and use them to cover over my seedlings to create a mini green-house.  It sure beats using plastic sheet!!! People's rubbish certainly can become my treasure!!!

 And I also picked up a showerscreen panel.  I know it may sound disgusting and I was really hesitant at first.  But it was rather clean without any human scum.  I took it home (it was heavy and I needed to come home to get my car to return to the panel) and gave it a good wash.  I want to use it over my vege patch during colder days.

 This morning I did some work, including sowing new seeds of Choy Sum in this planter.  Note the wire protection over the planters.  I cut this out from a larger piece and simply bend it into a curve before placing it over the planters.  It would deter any pests from landing on the veges when they grow bigger.

This is the second season for the tulips next to my small gate. Pretty! I do notice the stalks are rather short this year. I dont mind shorter stalks, just curious why they came up so short this time.

Today is a rather hot, scorching and breezy day. Temperature max 22 deg cel. It is a glimpse of the hotter weather to come and I seriously pray that we wont get any heat-wave coming summer.

Updates After Our Trip

Our family just came back from a week of getaway - to Mt Buller for the snow and to Sydney + Nelson's Bay.  With a hobby such as gardening, I had to do all that I could to keep it going fine before I went away.  I was happy that not one plant died on me when I came back. The pak choys and gai choy/mustard green in this patch are growing well.

My propagated strawberry plants have done well too.  Before I left, I placed pot dishes under the pots and water them well. Whatever excess water was collected in the dishes and the plants get their water throughout the week from absorbing the water in the dishes.

This is galangal ginger which I bought last autumn from the Melbourne Flower Show. I have removed their plastic protection so they would not get frosts. They dont look too good now but I am quite confident they will take off soon.

I germinated some rocket seeds which were given by Bunnings when I went shopping.

My lemongrass with its plastic protection removed.  Surely looks better than without protection.

Found a herb growing in Figgy's pot.  I thought it was a coriander but it turned out to be parsley.

I realised I am not the only gardener who uses styrofoam boxes for gardening. I used this box to place the 'Kao Kee' vegetables which I am trying to propagate. After using the leaves for soup, I made a mix of propagating sand & compost, trimmed their stems, stuck them into the mix and watered them. I covered the box with plastic and stood the box in the shade while we were away.

Here's how the stems look like. Hopefully, they will root and give me Kao Kee vegetable for soup.  I have no idea what the English name for this veg is.  I only know the dialect name for it.  It is yummy when cooked with pork liver and wolfberries.

Just found out that one of the two original green globe artichoke plants is having a flower!!!

Four of my 12 sweet corn seeds have germinated. That was very long time but I guess we didnt have much warmth to germinate the seeds with the cranky unpredictable spring weather.

Carolina Black Rose Grape Vine

Is that a cluster of future grapes?? I am not sure as I have never seen grape flowers before. But it is something which I have never seen before on my grape vine so I assume this is a flower cluster. Anticipating my first crop of grapes this year!

I pretty much pruned my grape vine based on my instinct in winter.  Obviously I have made some mistakes. Some of the new shoots that emerged are growing against the overhead beam and I had to adjust the branch to give the shoots room to grow.

I take pictures of new shoots as references so I can look back next winter to improve my pruning work.

Here's another shoot growing against the beam.

Here's how my grape vine is growing along the beams.

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.

Flowers Update & Mucking Around in the Garden.

Little man and I were admiring the blooming tulips along our driveway when we discovered loads of green juicy aphids attacking the poor tulips. They have been planted here along the shady driveway so this welcomed those pesky creatures. My son and I had fun squishing (sounds cruel) the aphids, esp my son. 

The centre of the tulip is very pretty so I snapped a picture of it.

The little yellow daffodils at the patch next to my garage are slowly blooming, it's 3rd season.

Below the plum tree are the King Alfred daffodils.  They are very tall but not as big and beautiful as I thought they were.

Little man has the habit of putting his hands into his pockets as he walks nowadays.  He was enjoying the fluttering white petals of the plum tree as the wind blew and I snapped a shot of him.

Mid-winter, and all the daisies are flowering their heads away.

 Calendulas too...

The three cyclamens out of my kitchen window are looking glorious. I love the leaves and the butterfly-like bright flowers.

Finally I divided up the very much neglected evening primrose plants.  I threw away a lot and have about 6 pots left.  I wonder how they will end up (I mean in terms of look) 

The star jasmine plant is growing well on this fence and I cant wait for it to flower.  I cant wait to indulge in the killer fragrance they produce.

 I have decided to hang my two pots of kalanchoe out of my kitchen window so I can admire their flowering day and night (since I spend so much time spending in front of the window where my sink is!).

 This is the pot of kalanchoe which I have propagated successfully.  It is blooming beautifully.

Tulips from last year are sprouting up next to the small black gate where my conifer is.  This picture shows the left side of the gate.  Unfortunately only one is sprouting up from the right side of the gate.