Spring Harvest & Flowers and Aphid Control

24/25 October 2011 - Cloudy and drizzly.
25 October 2011 - Pioneer bean plants (sown much earlier) emerges.
25 October 2011 - Sown more water spinach/kang kong seeds in pots.
26 October 2011 - Sunny day
26 October 2011 - Loads of aphids on the underleaves of artichokes.
27 October 2011 - Warm spring day.
28 October 2011 -  Warm and windy day. Rains expected in the evening.  It's our 11th wedding anniversary! Off to have a nice meal!

Yesterday was a warm spring day.  My boy and I spent early morning watering the front garden.  I took the advice of one very helper gardener/blogger, Scarecrow, and blasted the under-leaves of my artichoke plants.  Their leaves were virtually coated with green aphids :

There were also lots of tiny winged insects which I strongly believe are lace-wings. However, I did not take chances and blasted all of them off the leaves. I was amazed at what a strong jet could do. Fortunately I have invested in a few fantastic nozzles. When I examined the plants later, they had most of the insects removed. They were on the ground so I decided to spray them with soap solution, in case they crawl up the plants.

Mr/Mrs Spotted Neck preening his feathers on the fence.

It was also a wonderful day watching the mynahs and spotted necked pigeons come feed in our garden. Oh I can stand at the kitchen window just watching these creatures. I told my son I wish I could stroke the pigeon in my hand but I know he/she would just feel feathery haha...

Mr/Mrs Spotted Neck balancing on the plate for seeds. Very funny to watch.

Mr/Mrs Spotted Neck decided to have a sun-bath.

I harvested more rocket from the planter. Oh they taste so yummy with sandwiches. Even my husband and son love them :

Also harvested my son's favourite herb, Coriander. He would eat them fresh off the plant :

The few pots of herbs (Vietnamese Mint, Bay, Coriander, Thyme) are doing well bathing in morning sun daily :

We were counting lady bug babies on the peach tree. There were more than 15 of various sizes. Oh thank you lady bugs for doing a good deed feeding on the aphids!!!

The first spring rose has opened. My only rose plant, a standard, was also plagued by aphids. Thankfully, my boy discovered them and we were able to spray with pyrethrum. My husband kept 'threatening' to pull up this rose as it is useless. Of course I objected because I have pruned it into a beautiful healthy plant. Was it my imagination, it actually have a mild fragrance now! :

Pak Choy flowers. Edible, pretty, dainty and very fragrant. They attract bees :

 This year, our fig (brown turkey) 'Figgy' is looking better than ever. But it only has two figs at the moment. I yearn for more! :

 Our grevillea has beautiful curly flowers.  I am going to try get some sweet nectar, just like the honeyeaters :

 As usual, the arum lilies never fail to disappoint. Such a pretty sight :

First Strawberry Delight, Rocket & Spinach.

Hooray! I harvested my first ripe strawberry delight yesterday before going to church. Super sweet and juicy! Cant wait for more to come!

The free rocket seeds given by Bunnings have provided us with yummy salad greens for sandwiches.

Kao Kee Vegetables.  They are growing well and I harvested the tender shoots for stir-fry together with my spinach so that the plants can become bushier.

One of the many clusters of Carolina Black Rose grapes.  I gave the whole vine a good trimming so that the larger clusters can grow better :

The spinach this year is doing very well. Very big and leafy :

 Here's the basketful of spinach and the kao kee vegetables on the left :

We had the spinach stir-fried with garlic, shitake and golden mushrooms.  Hubby said 'Yummy!'.

Calendar of Garden Activities.

17-19 October 2011 Lawn and garden watering in the mornings due to hard windy weather.
18 October 2011 New top soil (free from neighbour!) for two areas of garden.
18 October Planted yellow capsicum seeds.
19 October - Scorching windy days. Leafy greens and hydrangea mild wilting.
19 October 2011 Fish fertilizer for calamondin cumquat and eureka lemon.
19 October 2011 Epsom salts for calamondin cumquat (testing for Magnesium deficiency)
20 October 2011 Lawn and garden watering in the morning. Temp 30 deg cel, windy and hot - sown    Peacock's ladyfinger/okra seeds - sown more coriander seeds.
21-22 October 2011 Cloudy and drizzles and at times showers. Hooray!!!
22 October 2011 Pruned Big Fig (Fleming's Brown Turkey fig), Yellow Peach tree and Carolina Black Rose Grape Vine. Wanted to experiment with pruning deciduous branches apart from winter and see the results.

While we were looking at our yellow peach tree few days ago, we spotted a lovely lady bug. We welcome lady bugs but that made me suspicious. Upon closer examination, I realised that most young shoots of my peach tree have been infested with green aphids (pests) :

I took a few days to think about what actions I should take to destroy them. The tree is a little big for pyrethrum spraying. This morning as I was examining the leaves again, I found baby lady bugs (pic below) on the leaves.  They were not a great number compared to the aphids but I was very pleased to see them. I read they eat even more aphids than their adults. I showed my son how the lady bug babies looked like, much like some spidery creatures :

'Big Fig' (Fig brown turkey) was naughty this year, not a fig in sight. So I decided to chop off one branch :

 And watch what the cut branch will do :

I think I have successfully propagated my Thai Basil from cuttings.  They are not withering since propagation at least 2-3 weeks ago. And if I am not wrong, some stems are actually growing new leaves. Celebration!!!

Today's harvest : a basketful of pak choy for chix macaroni soup. The picture uploaded could not be rotated. It happened to a picture of spinach recently. Hmmm same basket...maybe that's the problem?!

These are the tender flower stalks of pak choy. Yesterday my friend Fina came for morning tea.  She brought her parents to see our garden.  Her Dad pointed out that the flower stalks are very tender and delicious, so I harvested them too.  I have too many pak choy flower stalks and they will give me way too many seeds (perhaps millions!) so it is good that I can eat them instead!

Our lunch today : Chicken macaroni soup.  In the pot are my wonderful tomato silvery fir which I have frozen from last summer/autumn and bay leaves from my garden. Yummy!

Rhubard, Ginger & Space Ideas.

Today's an extremely windy day. Winds up to 45km/h and temperate 21deg cel. We had a relaxing day - swimming in the morning, lunch at IKEA, then back home to do some gardening. Hubby helped me to put up some fixtures so I can put my strawberry pots up and clear some more space for planting. I also planted some edible ginger (from market) in two 40cm deep pots in a mixture of propagating sand, premium potting mix and mixed manure.  I hope to be successful at growing ginger for consumption.  I also planted a Sydney Crimson rhubard which I bought from Bunnings two days back :

Good space idea (above) - fixtures on beams to hold pots.

Another good space idea (above) - brackets on wall to hold pots. Their weight should help them not to be blown off by strong winds, today's wind condition will be the test.

I sliced the ginger (quite cheap this time of the year) pieces where the green buds are and placed them in a shallow bowl of water for a day before planting.  Here is where I obtained the information about planting ginger  : http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-ginger.html

Rainbows in our Backyard!

This morning after all the work, I fixed up the nozzle and watered the garden.  And we were so excited to make double rainbows with the fine mist. My boy was having so much fun.

Before all the fun, we planted some watermelon seeds.

And then some native daisy seeds.

I caught a snail and we studied it.

I spotted a spider web on the pomegranate tree and asked my boy to spray the web with water so we could see the fine water droplets.

Four stringless pioneer bean plants have emerged.

Harvested a big basket of pak choy.

And a basketful of spinach too. (Picture could not be rotated not sure why)

And a big basket of gai choy for soup again!!! Yummy!

Yesterday we had homeschool out on the front patio table as the weather was superb.

And we harvested arum lilies and dutch iris bronze perfection plus a few plum tree twigs in our tall vase.

Bird Watching & Flowers

Recently, my son and I have gone more into bird-feeding and bird-watching. We have scattered some seeds around the grevillea tree (back garden out of the kitchen window) and also under the plum tree (front garden out of my son's window)

So far we have attracted two spotted-neck pigeons which come regularly.

And two non-native mynahs. Here is a picture of all four under the grevillea tree feeding.

One of the mynahs decided to take shelter on my neighbour's toilet window when rain poured.

Then yesterday we had two honeyeaters feeding on the grevillea flowers.  I only managed to take a rough shot of one as the other decided to fly off.  They are fast-moving birds.

I have many flowers in bloom now but I want to highlight a few here :

This is my pyrethrum daisies in a rough terracotta pot.  I bought the seeds from Diggers' Club. They did not flower last year but this spring they have rejuvenated and are putting on flower buds. Fortunately I was patient enough not to throw it out.

I harvested my first proper artichoke green globe flower  for salad last Saturday.  Not bad testing especially the heart. I ate it with whipped mayonaise and white balsamic vinegar.

 This is a picture of my edible Chrysanthemum (Tung O) plant. It survived winter very well and growing taller. It also started to form flower buds but I had to remove them in case flowering affect the leaves.  The leaves are what I harvest for soup (esp in steamboat/hot pots) or miso soups.

Some of the leaves have a funny curvy track on them.  I reckon it is some leaf miner?? Not a big problem as I removed most of the affected leaves.

 My two 'rescued' Tomato Silvery Fir are getting stronger and are having flowers.

Here is an inedible flower.  My first few Dutch Irs Bronze Perfection from Tesselaar have bloomed. Pretty things!