Summer Update - End January

Since my birthday mid-January, we have not got much rain fall. The weather was dry and warm and we did have a few hot days. Finally we had a bit of rain fall last night and today, to freshen up the plants and the lawn. I love the rain because it has this magical power of making the lawn look really really green.

Out of the few seeds of yellow capsicum I have sown, two emerged and after re-potting twice, they are doing fantastic.

My little experiment to root market cuttings of sweet potato plants (even after placing in the  vege compartment for two days) worked. I planted four of the rooted cuttings into a large pot (50cm wide x 50cm deep) with loads of cow manure and potting mix. Last few days were hot and I shaded the pot with white cloth. They survived each day and are growing!

These are the same sweet potato cuttings and they are putting on new growth. I could not wait to tell hubby he was going to have sweet potato leaves for dinner soon!

I harvested our first cucumber (burpless). It is about 35cm long. It has a few bite/beak marks which I believe are from birds.

I decided to take my eureka lemon tree  out of its pot (where it was dying)  and planted it in my back garden along the fence. If it survives, I will try to espalier it onto the wooden fence. Amazingly after several rounds of watering on warmer days, it seems to be alive. It is throwing up lots of flowers and growing a few new leaves. Fingers crossed, I still have my lemon tree alive.

I commented about my galangal ginger plants in one of my previous blogs. Here is the picture showing new shoots coming out of the ground.

Gorgeous looking pak choy keeps giving us a constant supply of leafy green.

I am so happy to have homegrown cut flowers - sunflowers and white lilies.

These gorgeous white lilies have fragrance that permeate my house. It was almost bewitching! They last much longer when cut and put in a vase. Out in my garden, they wither within two days.

Woohoo! My Carolina Black Rose grapes are ripening! As the ripening is  not very consistent, I pick the ripe ones off the bunch rather than harvesting the whole bunch as grapes do not ripen once picked.  

When ripened especially by lots of warm sunshine, the grapes are really sweet.

Very happy to say that about 9 pomegranates are developing on the tree after loads of flowers.

Mr Spotted Neck Has Found a Mate! Surprise Ginger Find.

Last week's weather became wintry. Finally we had a few days of intermittent downpours. The winds were strong at times and suddenly quietened down with sunshine breaking out of the clouds. Then everything started all over again.  Temperatures have been sometimes lower than 20 and sometimes a bit higher.

This week started really hot and windy. Temperatures up to 35 deg. Then it became cooler but still no sight of a much-needed rain.  My poor plants, I wonder how they cope with the ever-changing weather and temperatures. They must be a bit confused.

Our dear Mr Spotted Neck (wildlife) up on my neighbour's roof still looking for a mate. My hubby bought me a  digital SLR camera for my birthday so now, I can take sharper and better pictures.

My two silvery fir plants produced so many tomatoes. I actually have not finished the frozen ones from last season.

We now have a flight of sparrows visiting as well and so far they are the tamest birds we had. Mr Spotted Neck sometimes bullied them but when food is abundant, they can share a meal together.

To my surprise while tidying up the carrot foliage, I found a small ginger plant growing. I have planted some ginger slips last year but only one grew (the one in front). However, another slip survived the winter and it has sprouted. Wow, I am so inspired to try sweet potatos asap!

Five cucumber (burpless) vines this year hooray! A little crowded though. The leader vine is having a maturing cucumber plus 3-4 more growing!

More pak choy green thriving under the netting along with the tomato silvery fir.

Lots of green chillies on my chilli fire.

I am so proud to announce that Mr Spotted Neck has found a mate!!! My son and I actually felt sorry for him cooing every day for a mate and we, hehe...prayed for him.  Recently we noticed him courting a lady in our garden but kept getting rejected. These few days,  we saw both of them in the garden together. This morning we saw them feeding together! Finally! Congratulations! Bird-watching is really fun!

Vegetables Update and a Very Nice Surprise.

I think I have achieved the objective I have set last year about growing more leafy vegetables in our garden. I wanted to do so as these vegetables are more perishable compared to fruit vegetables so if I can have a fresh supply in my garden regularly, it would be great. On my market/supermarket trips, I buy more of the fruit vegetables such as capsicums, eggplants, cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins as they keep fresh for a longer time. And I plant more leafy vegetables so I can harvest them fresh from my own garden.  Of course when the weather is warmer (spring, summer, autumn), I do reserve space to plant my own eggplants, cucumbers, capsicums and beans.  Also, I am hoping my choko vine produce fruits for stir-fry as well.

The kang kong/ water spinach in patch F is ready to be harvested.

Some fresh pak choy green for soup. So far, planting choy sum, Chinese brocoli and buk choy has been a failure.

I bought sweet potato leaves from Springvale market and stir-fried it with my home-made sambal  paste. Hubby loved it.

I reserved some sweet potato cuttings and stand them in water, hoping they will root and I can plant them. This idea came a bit late but if it works, I still can have my own leaves to eat. The hot weather helps the sweet potato plants grow very quickly.

I harvested a few choko shoots to stir-fry with the sweet potato leaves. Amazing! They taste really good. I read on the internet that every part of the choko part can be eaten. Also the possums love these shoots and that made me try them. A good decision! Another vegetable for the dining table!

The Kao Kee plants are growing new shoots. They get mildew easily and I had to resort to spraying the bottom leaves with fungicide as milk or bicarbonate spray did not work.

Our first kang kong harvest. for stir-fry.  Plus a bunch of edible chrysanthemum (Tung O) for soup.

Hmmm...yummy kang kong with fermented bean curd.  I can finish the whole big plate!

We have been doing bird-watching a lot.  Today we had a flight of sparrows feeding on the bird seeds.

I put out two trays so the pigeon (wildlife) will not bully the sparrows.  Each bird variety has a tray. We notice the non-native mynahs bully the pigeons and the pigeons bully the sparrows...how funny!

We were out on our front garden when my son caught sight of a plane doing heart shapes in the sky!!! I rushed for my camera.

My son managed to get into the picture by sitting on the fence, literally!

Here's another heart the plane did. What a pleasant surprise!!!

First Week of the New Year and Summer Work-list

We have not had proper rain for more than a week since before Christmas Day.  Weather has been sunny especially these few days. 

1 January 2012 - Max 38 deg. Sunny and still.
2 January 2012 - Max 40 deg. Scorching heat, sunny and breezy-windy.
3 January 2012 - Max 35 deg. Cool morning, sunny and still day.
4 January 2012 - Max 24 deg. Sudden downpour early morning that lasted for less than 15 mins :(.
5 January 2012 - Max 23 deg. Sunny and cool.

This is our hottest start of the year in many years.  We will be expecting a very hot summer this year.

Work done -

Raking up olive and peach leaves.
Watering garden.
Catching white cabbage butterflies.
Caterpillar check on pak choy.
Stink bugs removal from tomato silvery fir.
Pruning vietnamese mint as they wilt easily in the hot weather.
Staking flowering and seeding coriander plants.
Pruning wisteria.
Pruning tomato plants.
Staking eggplants that are growing taller.
Moving black pots of ginger and thai basil into shade.

Harvesting -strawberries, sweet corns, tomato silver fir, stringless pioneer beans, water spinach/kang kong, pak choy, plums, peaches, white currants, green chilli fire,

Collecting - pak choy seeds, rocket seeds, coriander seeds.

Progress update - Sunflowers blooming, grapes still growing, Big Fig fruiting, Figgy's figs getting bigger, watermelon flowering, cucumber burpless' leading vine is 50cm tall and flowering, water chestnuts sending up new plants, more ginger shoots emerging from pots, pomegranates about pingpong ball size, lawn's greening and seeding and needs mowing.

The two pots of ginger are growing well.  Two new shoots are emerging.

One pot of lemongrass which I propagated. Hopefully with such a large tub of good potting mix, these stems will grow larger than those in the ground.

The second pot of lemongrass.

Galangal ginger still looking bad but I know they are alive.  I also notice a new shoot emerging.

Sunflower pollenless from Diggers' Club has bloomed. I did not expect these plants to be very big but they turned out to be very tall, about  1.2 metres.

I am not sure what it means to be pollenless as I do see bees visiting the sunflowers.

Our last yellow peach of the season is OURS! After sharing with beetles and possums, we had only about 10 to eat.

Everyday strawberries! 

Heaps of tomato silver fir and some sweet corns.

Took a picture of a crimson rosella (wildlife) in Emerald during our Friday outing to the Dandenongs.

I came upon this awesome tree (a type of conifer I think) and my son climbed it. I grew up climbing trees (not this big) and I think it is a wonderful experience. This amazing tree gives my boy much pleasure, he started at one end and went around the whole tree walking on its branches. In fact, soon after, two other older boys came and joined him. I love this picture but wish I had a better camera, which hubby wanted to buy me but I refused the offer.

I harvested lots of thai basil for a spicy chicken dish...My husband and son's favourite.

It's Not a Mum and Babe, It's Mr & Mrs Possum.

Two nights ago, I heard noise on the roof again. I could not remember some parts of what happened but I somehow ended in the back garden.  I waited quietly and patiently.  Within minutes, I heard a slight scratching sound and the possum (wildlife) was walking on the fence behind the grevillea and pomegranate trees. I had switched off all sensor lights and my torch so I had to depend on my hearing and night vision. Then I heard a slight rustle and light crunching sounds. I felt safe to turn on my torch and was shocked to see the possum feeding on the seeds and grains out of the bird feeding dish I placed under the grevillea tree. Suddenly there was a noise (can't remember now) on the front garden and this possum stood up, pricked up its ears and listened.  I noted that it has an amazing sense of hearing.  When it felt all was safe, he continued to feed on the bird seeds. Now that I know that it feeds on seeds and grains, I have to keep the tray each evening to cut this food suppy.

The possum down on the ground feeding on bird seeds.

I took some pictures but they are not very clear as it was dark.  I quickly went to my son's bedroom and got him out of bed, sleepy and drowsy...to have a look at the possum. The possum found a clear space on the wooden fence and scrambled up onto the shed.  My boy had a look at it on the shed before it proceeded to my adjacent neighbour's fence. I put my son back to bed. Upon returning to the back garden, the possum has gone so I just kept standing near my back door and quietly waited.

Soon after, I heard a sound of an animal jumping onto a tree.  Then I heard another sound.  It was like a baby bird chirping and I thought somehow the possum has gotten a baby bird near where the plum tree is. I do have two nymahs which have been frequently my roof and I am not sure if they are nesting.  So I decided to go to the front garden.

When I opened the gate of my front door, I saw the possum run from my peach tree to the olive tree. He went up the main trunk. I did not want to scare it away and stood afar. I also confirmed for the first time that there are two of them.  The other one was on my roof close to where the plum tree is.  The one on the olive tree then came down, went to the lawn and went for the peach tree. I saw how it got up the tree, it was easy anyway as the main branches are very close to ground. It went for the peaches. I did not stop it, I just watched. Then I approached it and it ran off to the olive tree again.  I saw that one peach has been picked and was tangling in the nets, so I decided to take it out.  I rolled it onto the lawn for the possum.  Well, he really came off the olive tree and started eating the peach.  I forgot that I had pyrethrum-sprayed the whole peach tree in the morning! It did not seem to mind. I pray he will not get poisoned. Gosh, this little fellow took like 45 minutes to eat one peach. In the dark, I could hear the other possum calling out to this dining one, and it sounded like a baby bird chirping. The dining one was so pre-occupied eating the peach it did not respond.

The low branches of my peach makes the plastic protection useless.

I stood in the dark watching the peach-eating possum. When the peach became smaller, it took the fruit up the olive tree and stayed on a branch to continue eating, and pooing at the same time. After finishing, he dropped the peach stone and remained on the tree.  I went to sit on my patio step as it was getting a bit cold for my feet. I was just wearing socks. When I came back to the tree, I watched the possum move on the branch and used the wire to get back onto my roof and ran off.

Less than 10 peaches this year for eating after peach curl, aphid attack, carpophilus beetles attack and possum  helping themselves.  However the main damage was done by the beetles.

The possum eating the peach given by me.

My camera flash was reflected by the silver foliage of the olive leaves and the picture came up very clear.

While the peach-eating possum stays on the ground, its partner was on the roof  looking at me.

In conclusion, the possum cannot get to my plum tree (which was it's first target of attack) now, so it gets to my olive tree via the wire and roof, and from there it gets down the tree to access my peach tree.  Next step of action - prune the olive tree and plastic-protect the trunk to cut off access. I also confirmed that they can walk very well on the thorny devils we have put up, so we are going to return them to the nursery!