Back from Tasmania

Back from Tasmania! Glorious time I had! I came home to a little bit of nightmare - my purple king bean plant has mysteriously disappeared from its ground without a trace! See here before it was gone. No roots no leaves no beans left, except its stake still standing on its spot. I wonder if possums have done the deed. My spinach and rocket did not take off. Neither did the new snow pea seeds I have sown. Two small pots of vietnamese mints are dying and the oregano and lemon grass are not looking very well. However, things were not as bad as I had imagined. I managed to harvest some stuff - large bunch of thyme, some sprigs of rosemary, chillies and spring onions. What a pleasant surprise I got from my pot of nasturtiums! It has grown so much and so well and are flowering. In Tassie, I have seen beautiful nasturtiums at various locations and was wondering to myself how mine were doing. It was great coming back to a pleasant greeting from them.

My lavender bee pretty is well too. Just on the day I left, I sprayed the potting mix with pyrethrum+white oil mix because I spotted so many ants. Was a little worried about the lavender but came back to a blessing of bushy green growth!

This little small pot of mint is growing so prettily that I can resist admiring it. I cannot even remember how it looked like before I went for my holiday.

My most worried candidates turned out to be doing exceptionally well! The common mints and vietnamese mints all did fine.

My potted capsicum has four developing fruits when I returned.

One of the two at the vege patch has three developing fruits.

The other is have two developing fruits. Wow...three small capsicum plants produce enough for the family for months!

The mint (given by a friend and grown from a bare stem) is doing fine at the vege patch except that I discovered lots of bug?eggs? on the young shoots. All these were cut off and soaked in boiling water to kill them.

Similar things happened to my calamondin shoots and curry plant shoots.

The leaves of my oriental radishes were eaten down to the main stems by some creatures/bugs even though they are under net protection. Under the leaves, I can see the radish growing, still tiny.

The leaves of the oriental radishes

Preparing To Go Holiday!

I was looking forward for a good holiday in Tasmania but certainly had concerns over some of my plants, especially the vietnamese mints and common mints. I learnt that they are not cold-hardy. So I cut some stems to stand in water while I was away for two weeks, at least I would have some rooted to grow in case those in the garden die. I also made a topless cloche around my pots of capsicum, lemon verbena, curry plant, chilli padi seedlings and vietnamese mint. This should keep them out from too much cold at night and at the same time, they still can access sunshine.

For this large pot of vietnamese mint, I build a topless cloche around the pot with plastic and stakes.

For some mysterious reasons, my snow pea seedlings have been chopped down overnight. No snow peas for now.

I potted on the small pot of common mint and did the same cloche around it.

My other pot of common mint somehow has developed purplish tinge around some leaves. It is puzzling to have this problem before I leave. I sent this pot to my neighbour so that she can monitor its progress.

Okay. Let go and not think about my garden for two weeks! Hope for no casualty.

Cayenne Pepper Grand Harvest.

Weather has been cloudy for days with short hours of sunshine. Today we had a fine drizzle. I am preparing to leave for our holidays and had to make sure the whole garden is settled. My neighbours Jenny and Janet have kindly agreed to help me water the plants and look after my garden babies while we go away. I know they will be in good hands as Jenny and Janet manage a one-hectare garden. I harvested 30 over green and fat chillies from my cayenne pepper after waiting and waiting for them to ripen. I think they are not ripening very much, probably due to the cold temperature or lack of sunshine. I did a jar of pickled green chillies and am going to give the rest away.

Also harvested two capsicums (left from the potted capsicum plant and right from the capsicum plant at the vege patch). They too are not ripening but I still can cook them. And a few purple king beans.

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I think my main worry is my lawn at the new property. The mossy patches and bare patches are quite a concern. They just show the lawn is not very healthy. Also, despite weeding the lawn thoroughly, I spotted more tiny weeds sprouting up within a short few days. I really wonder how I can control the weeds. I wish I can get a landscapist to re-do the whole lawn!!! That is a wish but I doubt I can, bearing the fact that I am already spending a bomb getting the pittosporum hedges done! I have sown lawn seeds but it seems a bad time of the year to do so. Anyway, just going to enjoy my holiday!!!!!!!!!

My Purple King's Journey

My Purple King Bean plant is a survivor and I have been repeating that many times in the various entries. Firstly, it was one of the two which germinated well and grew. The other one did germinate but somehow did not grew on. Secondly, I have sown it when it was well into 1/3 of summer which was a little late. I got my seeds from my shepherd at that time. Good sowing time would be spring. Thirdly, it resurreted after certain death in the heat wave and continued to prosper.

7/2/09 The effect of the heat wave.

14/2/09 Signs of life after some time.

1/3/09 Flowering stage!

Early March to April - harvesting a few beans at a time.

End April, 30 over beans now on the plant.

Some of the older leaves are turning yellow and dropping off. The purple king will not survive the coming cold winter. It is going to be rather sad seeing it die eventually but I am very grateful to be able to see it grow these months.

Common Mint Update

I have been giving updates on my common mint in several entries. It is all getting quite complicated, so I have decided to dedicate an entry totally on it. Mint grows very quickly given the right conditions. Very much the same as vietnamese mint. However, vietnamese mint seems less prone to many problems that plague the common mint. Common mint is susceptible to many pests including caterpillars and aphids as well as plant diseases such as powdery mildew. This pot above was the original pot of common mint I bought from Kmart.

Since then, I have grown a large pot (above) from the original small black pot.

And another pot which was attacked by powdery mildew. See entry http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/04/cases-of-powdery-mildew-attack.html.

I have got three nos of cuttings here but did not really care much about it. Oops! Yellowing so I had to feed some aquasol yesterday.

This one also came from the original small small pot but in the midst of propagation, it was attacked by powdery mildew. I have treated it with Manzecob Plus twice and planted it at the vege patch. Looks like it is growing.

Similar case to the above - powdery mildew amidst propagation but treated twice. It is still potted in this ice-cream pot but signs of growth too.

The bare stem of another type of mint planted end of December 08 is growing steadily at the vege patch.

Oregano, Lemon Verbena and Lawn Grass Experiment

It is mid-autumn and I am quite puzzled that weeds are growing a lot all over the garden including in the pots and vege patch. They sprang up everywhere, more intensely than in spring or summer it seems. I am using my mini hoe a great deal during this time. It is a valuable tool, my first acquired garden tool and has served me very well, especially with the little price tag that came with it. It was this hoe, besides my little stool, which I used in ridding all the weeds on the vege patch before my gardening journey began.

Weeds gone yesterday here today.

The tiny pot of oregano which I bought from Bunnings potted on and doing well. I have fed it seasol during potting on and a week later.

Lemon verbena also potted on same time. It is a beautiful herb especially the lovely lemony smell. I was inspired to get a pot of my own after seeing it at Heronswood garden.

My lawn grass experiment worked in the pot. I was just trying to see how the grass looked like before sowing in my new property. Well those sown here germinated and grew. Those sown at the property did not - soil was too hard and lack of moisture caused the failure. My neighbour who has recently sown some lawn seeds too told me that the seeds can lie on the ground for quite a while, so I am hoping that after the recent rain, those lying on the lawn of my new property will take off.

Buk Choy, Spinach, Snow Peas

On Saturday, I used skewer sticks to support the four snow pea seedlings. They seem to be taking the support well. When they have grown longer, I hope to bring them to the sunflower stalks behind them.

This new snow pea (above) was sown after those which germinated on 7 April and yet it is growing faster. Strange!

The spinach seedlings have emerged after a mere 7 to 10 days (instructions stated 14 days). I have sown them together with spring onion (which have not germinated) in a large new pot with premium potting mix, compost and cow manure.

The two buk choys left after thinning out the seedlings are not looking good. Somehow there are holes on the leaves and they looked bruised too. I credited that to the tiny black flies (which crawled around on the potting mix). I have sprayed with pyrethrum+white oil mix to curb the flies and hope the buk choy will develop. If not, time for new seeds!

Update on Cayenne Pepper, Calamondin, Kaffir Lime, thyme, rosemary and Curry Plant.

My boy has gone to kinder to this morning and the sunshine was out in the garden. I spent an hour inspecting my plants. A few of the older lower leaves of the kaffir lime is turning yellow as per above. I am puzzled why, not being sure if it is iron deficiency (as I do not know how to assess that) or if it is its reaction to the cold weather setting in. I read that iron deficiency shows first in young leaves and the veins remain green though the rest of the leaves yellow. But these leaves are older leaves. Moreover, I did feed the plant citrus fertilizer before and after potting on. Lime-induced chlorosis happens commonly in citrus. Even though there may be iron in the potting mix, it may be locked up by an excess of other elements (Antagonism). I needed to research more so that I will not lose this plant.

This is a young leaf of the calamondin plant and it does look a little like what's called iron deficiency - green vein, yellowing young leaves. I have bought a bottle of iron sulphate but has been hesitant to use till the customer service of Richgro replies me on whether is it a natural mineral or chemically synthesized. Peter Bennett's book talks about using alum to rectify the iron deficiency but gosh, I wonder where I can get that from.

The new chillies of the cayenne pepper seem to be shrivelling and dropping instead of developing. I wonder if it is the cold or if it is iron again. The whole plant does look a little lighter green compared to before. I think something seems lacking especially with putting on so many chillies recently!

The young leaves of the cayenne pepper yellowing and falling.

Some of the older leaves of the thyme are yellowing too but I have a feeling it is due to the cold.

It is happening to some leaves of the rosemary as well. More research to be done.

My curry plant has been pruned this morning. I read that curry plants do not take continuous rain well and can grow moldy or get pests due to the wetness. I remove as much leaves as I could to allow air flow between the stems.

The center of the plant is not congested now. I also placed the pot in the mini greenhouse so that it wont get rain this afternoon.