A Night of Downpour to Refresh a Week of Sunshine.

8-9 December - warm and sunny days up to 32 deg celsius.  Thunderstorms in the evening.

9 December -cool change
- collected 3 buckets of worm casts from worm farm.
- checked hydrangeas.  Milk sprays seem to have worked to rid powdery mildew.
- removed powdery mildew-affected grapevine leaves (still manageable).
- removed powdery mildew-affected kao kee leaves (milk spray didnt  work). Applied more milk spray.
- lots of pomegranate flowers dropped.
- collected pak choy pods.

11 December - Rain last night.
- Worm casts to kang kong on Patch F.
- Worm casts to kao kee and strawberry pots.

One of the cucumber vines which I have planted here (Patch B) took off well and is having cucumbers already. Two others died.

I planted 4 more pot-germinated seedlings in Patch B.  These are cucumber (burpless).

Several chilli padi seedlings emerged in Patch B where I placed the pot to over-winter.  The seeds must have survived winter from dropped chilli fruits.

Patch B+C has kang kong (water spinach) and carrots growing.

Patch F has kang kong (water spinach) and Tung O (edible chrysanthemum).  It is also where my Carolina Black Rose grape vine is.  This picture is taken before I applied worm casts.

This raised vegetable patch looks a little run down.  I cannot really plant much as I am still waiting for pak choy green seeds to dry.  The brocoli greens did not do well. I think the seeds are dodgy as this is not the first time I am unsuccessful despite changing planting sites.

I got my boy to casually sow pak choy seeds out on the front vege patch and amazing lots of tiny healthy pak choy are growing.

Yummy, fresh strawberries every day!

This summer, I have 4 cally lily Majestic Red  blooming in our front garden.  How exciting to see them returning year after year!

With an overnight downpour, the duckweeds in the water chestnut tub  multiplied like crazy covering the whole surface.  The colour contrast of green and blue is very nice.

Guess what I found? A ginger shoot! That's from last summer!  Ginger (the common one that I use for cooking) actually survived our winter and has emerged! Wow! I feel so excited and hopeful growing ginger. 

This ginger shoot recently emerged from some stems which I planted in  two 40cm diameter pots.  Hoping for good results.  So far so good.

Here's another shoot in the other pot.

The galangal ginger which I planted here looked withered, not a pleasing sight. However I strongly believe the underground stems are alive.  Time will tell.

While I was preparing dinner, I looked out of my kitchen window very often.  We had a wonderful downpour last night and this really refreshed the whole garden.  The greenery looks greener, the plants look more alive and beautiful as ever.  I love this view so much.

 

Early Summer - Newly Mown Lawn & Harvesting a Fig.

5 December - sunny day with strong wind. Had to secure Figgy to stakes in case its branches break.
6 - 7 December - sunny days with mild breezes - 28 deg celsius
6 December - sprayed diluted full cream milk onto grapevine, kao kee, pak choy, hydrangea infected with mild powdery mildew.

I had to water the garden all these few sunny days.  This is  important because we have just mown the lawn and trimmed the lawn edges and I have to keep it from drying out too much in the sun.  The bare patches on the lawn are filling up with new growth and looking beautiful again.

I also dusted some pesticide on the front lawn two weeks ago as we found some African black beetles. They feed on the roots of grass, mainly Kikuyu. We have Buffalo Sapphire but I reckon if they are hungry, they will eat the roots of our grass as well, cause the grass to die and therefore bare patches.

The beetles were good specimen for us to study during homeschool.  We also caught stink bugs on our eggplant, white cabbage butterflies and caterpillars on our pak choy and grapevine moth caterpillars on our grapevine.

I found a few egg clusters on the pak choy this week. I left one cluster in a plastic tub and they hatched into some ant-like insects with wings. I have no idea what they are but I do believe they are good bugs.

I thought I have settled the possum problem for good but I still found nipped off plum tree shoots and peach leaves on our lawn. How frustrating! I am wondering if some flying animal visits our garden at night and did this. Gardening isn't an easy hobby. It takes a lot of brain power. Surely a hobby that helps keep human beings from dermentia.

At least I got to harvest our first fig from Figgy. Very big and sweet but a little dry (due to my under-watering). I was really upset with my dog on Sunday because he toppled my pixzee peach tree and ate one of the two beautiful pink peaches on it. The other peach dropped off and I had to throw it away. They were of good size but not ripe yet. I waited for one whole year and now I don't get a single pixzee peach!

Big Fig on the front garden has finally produced a fig!!! 

And the cut branch has produced new buds and leaves. It is possible to trim deciduous trees in spring or summer.

 We have been harvesting strawberries almost every day.  

This is one of my silvery fir tomato plant. Lots of tomatoes and I sighted one ripening already.

 The golden sheen hedge has been trimmed too. It was a lot of work! The corn patch is doing well. We could harvest sweet corns soon.

The is eggplant hand-grafted bonica which I bought from Bunnings and planted on the front garden. I was impatient waiting for my eggplant seedlings to germinate. The weather was really too cold to help with germination.  I would lose a lot of time. Hopefully I get some eggplants this year. The ladyfinger plants are very hopeless. They are only 5cm tall at the moment.

Summer 2011 - December - Woo Hoo for Grapes!!!

I am so happy looking at the bunches of carolina black rose grapes every day!!! Our first since I planted the vine (bought from Daleys' Nursery) in Oct 2009. It did quite well all along except being seriously pruned by my dog two autumns ago (leaving it fruitless last spring) and getting downy mildew last autumn. I really really hope I will get to pick my own ripe grapes this autumn. Should get the vine netted very soon. 

Some of the grape leaves seem to have powdery mildew. I am getting this fungal problem on my pak choy seed pods, kao  kee leaves, hydrangea leaves and now my grape leaves as well. It is still mild and manageable but I need to find out an organic way (checking up on skim milk) to treat this as I am not happy using commercial fungicide anymore.

What a pretty ball of pink!!! Although I would love blue hydrangeas, they still came up pink this year. I will accept it. They are still pretty.

                                   

My son snapped a picture of this couple basking in the sun on our neighbours' roof. I am sure none of them is Mr Spotted Neck which we have been feeding regularly. We are loving watching pigeons. We find them so gentle, and they do not come pecking at our strawberries or kicking our mulch all over the place.  

Late Spring - November 2011

This post is very late. It is already the first day of summer.


17 November - Netted two tomato silvery fir plants to prevent caterpillar attack. Regular pruning of tomato leaves required.

18 November
- Did pH test for Eureka lemon and comquat calamondin - about pH 5-6 - treated with dolomite lime and fed epsom salts, hopefully their condition improve.

- Big fig is budding at the branch which I cut off in spring just for an experiment to see if it will re-shoot and also to test out controlling tree size. It seems to put putting on tiny figs but have to keep observing.

- Figgy is producing more figs on top of the two it grew in early spring. Exciting! Can't wait to eat figs again.

- Trying to figure out effective physical possum deterrent in the garden. Puts my head into full- time thinking mode.


19 & 26 November
- Rain Rain Rain...Shower Shower Shower...Hooray Hooray Hooray!!!

20 November
- Sweet corn seeds sown a week ago germinated quickly.
- Pruned rose bush. Remove old calendula plants.
- Remove fungus-infected hydrangea leaves.
- Pruned blackcurrant bush. Still no fruit in sight.
- Sown more sweet corn seeds.
- Eggplant peacock about 5cm tall.

25 November - Trimmed golden sheen hedges and work against possum invasion.

I removed all the plum branches overhanging this fence as I know the possum could use it to get onto the plum tree.

Hubby and I removed all these branches which were close to our roof to prevent the possum from getting onto our roof.

I drove in a few stakes and wrapped the trunk of my plum tree with strong plastic. This will deter the possum from climbing up the tree.

An ugly but workable piece of wire mesh to stop the possum from walking on the fence.

I need to buy about 8 metres of good netting to protect my grapes. Note the tall plum tree at the far end. If the possum can get up the tree, it can assess the roof to get to my grapes. No way am I sharing my grapes with them especially when it this is going to be my first harvest.

This is my back lawn in early spring, looking patchy and ugly due to my dog's urine and heavy traffic :

And I am relieved to see that most of the grass has grown to cover up the patches. It is almost impossible to believe that the back lawn will look good again. The difference in the pictures shows it is possible. Good thing we invested in self-repairing Buffalo Sapphire.  I have since trained my dog to do his wee on the big patch of mulch on the other side of the back garden. :

I finally bought $5 worth of duckweeds to cover the water surface of my water chestnut tubs. I put the two goldfish here to rid mosquito larvae :

Each of the two rectangular tubs  has a 20 cm pot planted with one water chest nut plant. I used some garden pebbles to stop potting mix from being washed out and plunge the pot into the tubs of water. Then I spread duckweeds on the water. I am not sure how productive these two plants will be.  It will be an experiment.  I have to get several more gold fish to rid mosquito larvae here as changing water can be a hassle.

Mr Spotted Neck is getting really fat.  He is about the fattest pigeon I have ever seen. He comes almost every day. Here we took a shot of him perched on the fence, all fluffed up.  He is still very scared of us and will take off whenever we went out into the garden.

Gardening Update

There was a few nice showers last night.
Harvesting pak choy, spinach, rocket, coriander, parsley, tung O/Garland Chrysanthemum, strawberries.

My two pots of thai basil propagated from market cuttings. They started flowering straight away and I had to pinch them off to generate more leaf growth.

Pak Choy Green in a pot and doing so well.

I harvested the pak choy for dishes over the next few days. They are really yummy for soup.

The pot is now home for some lemongrass which I have pulled up from one of the clumps. I am hoping they will grow thicker stems here. I replenished the pot with lots of composted manure.

Three of my strawberry plants which I had propagated have put on lots of flowers.

However, my joy was short-circuited when I found the flowers of two pots eaten up in the night. I highly suspected some animal walking on the fence and eating them.

I cracked my head over what to do to protect more flowers from being eaten. Finally I used some wire mesh, wrapped it over with strong plastic sheet and clamped it over the fence to form a cover over the plants. (above pic) Then I threw a layer of net over as a double layer of protection. I think whatever animal that returns will have a hard time trying to reach the flowers now, since its body weight will probably make it fall over that cover.

My tomato silvery fir plants grow bushy very quickly despite weekly pruning. Both have lots of flowers and also some fruits. This time I am very excited about growing tomatoes cos I have found a new way of eating them - salsa!!! Why didnt I think about doing home-made salsa before? It's yummy!

Rhubard Sydney Crimson is establishing very well. I like the idea that its new leaves are all crumpled and gradually they become pretty flat leaves.

Our little corn patch is doing great! I am already spotting the male corn flowers!

Candy Red watermelon seedlings finally taking off. I wonder if I seriously have time and space to grow some watermelons for Yates watermelon challenge. For the sake of free seeds and free fruits and fun, I will continue to nurture them.

Early spring when I looked at my lemon verbena, my heart sank. It was a dry leafless lifeless twig outside my bedrom window. I pruned it hoping it will spring to life. And it did!! Full of new growth!! Looking forward to making more lemon verbena tea this year.

Today, after thinking so hard and reading up a lot, I improved on how I am growing my water chestnut plants successfully. A new pot is hard to come by even if I have money to buy it.  I decided to use a strong plastic tub, add heavy clay soil (fortunately I kept some from our lawn project last Sept), composted manure and replanted the strongest plant there. I added water and the two goldfish that I bought. My son decided to name them Goldie and Fishie. How original is that hahahaha!!!

The original tub looks bad. The water is murky thanks to me putting in garden top soil which is a true disaster. The mud is also too shallow to accommodate so many growing plants. As much as it was a pain, I had to dig up several plants and dump them to avoid overcrowding. I wont be able to accommodate so many big tubs of water chestnuts as it would be too time consuming taking care of mosquito/algae problems. I read that one or two plants can give a lot of chestnuts, so if I am successful, I should just need two plants.

The kang kong seedlings which I have planted out a few days ago are doing well.

These carrot plants are home for tiny critters which fly very fast like whiteflies but they also hop and they are green. No idea what they are but hopefully they are not too pesky.

This is the first year our pomegranate tree produce a dozen or more flowers. Will I get to eat some pomegranates?

Caught Mr Spotted Neck sunbathing on my kang kong patch. He is so adorable. I think he comes every morning and coos on our roof. Almost works like a rooster and my alarm clock each morning. Poor guy still no girlfriend in sight. Recently another pair of pigeons also started visiting our garden.

This morning as I was inspecting our plum tree, I found possum poo! Not very good news. I have been suspecting them as the culprits which nipped off a lot of young plum shoots and stealing my plums. Now the poo confirms my suspicion. And I also think they are the culprits which ate my strawberry flowers. I have to soon put up nets for all the fruit trees and vegetables.

My boy and I spent a whole morning in the garden. He stumbled upon a dead bee and we had a great time examining it. We also studied some ants carrying eggs in their tunnels when we overturned a square tile at the vege patch. Lastly, we studied one common brown butterfly which I caught resting on the grape vine few nights ago before freeing it. It was Insects' Day!!!