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!