Scorching Summer but Happy Plants

Before we moved, I gave away my Chilli Fire plant. It was already 2 years old and I did not want to keep it. I did stash away some of its seeds and sowed some at our new rental property. Amazing 4 plants sprang up. 3 of them are in the vege patch while one is in a pot. They are all doing well. I am even getting some chillies now :

Succulent green chillies @ vege patch.

Green chillies popping up in the potted plant.

Now to my chilli padi plants. The previous 3 plants were also old so I had to throw them out. One stray seed landed in my brown turkey fig's pot and came up over autumn. Though it was not growing great in winter, it was a survivor. It underwent the cold winter without any protection and even had a few rounds of aphid attack. When spring came, it came back to life. I then moved it to a separate pot where it flourished! I bet there are at least 100 chillies on it now :

And I finally have the authentic lemongrass in my collection of garden babies. All 6 pots which I got from Flower Power at a dear price were fakes! A previous neighbour gave me some to grow and then I got a pot from a friend in Sydney. Yay!!! I always have wanted to plant lemongrass. The only thing is I have to do them in pots. I am not sure how 'fat' they will get. Being in the ground is the best but we are currently renting, and I am too lazy to prepare the ground and then dig them up eventually :

Thai basil. This one came up on its in the vege patch. I am just letting it flower and get more seeds. Given it a round of liquid fertiliser hoping it gives me great seeds :

And my beautiful garlic chives are needing a hair cut :

Rhubarb. Hmmm...I havent used any at all. I dont really know what to do with them. So they are growing and dying down. It was dug up from my previous garden and potted but it is doing better than ever being in a pot! The leaves are green and large.  The stems are fat too but just not red :

I am exciting to share this photo of my brown turkey fig. It's Figgy. It has at least 40 fruits on it. I was really surprised. I pruned this fig heavily as I thought I would not have time taking care of it this year. Yet it gave me even more fruits. However, being in a pot does it an injustice! It would do well in the ground. I am not sure how many figs I will get to eat cos I am not sure if the fruits will get to grow well with limited nutrition I am providing, and with possums active in this area :

Here's my Carolina Black Rose grape vine. Or do you call that a grape tree?? Well, I did not remove my whole grape vine from my previous garden. It has gone too big for me to remove it. I left it for the new owners and they loved it.  This plant decided to come alive from a stem which I cut to use as a snow pea stake at the previous vege patch. I have let it grow, potted it when we moved and it is gloriously growing! I even had to constantly trim off the shoots coming up. Not sure if I will get any grapes but I am just happy to keep it growing cos it looks so pretty! :

My Baby...and Vegetables Update.

Hello! It's been a long long time since I last posted. Life has been very busy with my new baby, and lots of changes along the way. We went for a holiday, moved house and then had our baby. Baby S (yes, another S) is already 15 weeks. He's such a joy and I am savouring every moment being a new mother once again.  Here is a picture of him :

I havent been doing a lot of gardening compared to before.  We moved house, so there is less to maintain but still, my garden of potted plants/veges/trees demand attention every now and then. I have been harvesting a good amount of green veges esp garlic chives. I am very excited to share that the gorgeous black seeds I have collected from my very first planting back in our old property, have grown into beautiful garlic chives successfully. I recalled busy bees working on the chive flowers back then and was wondering if I would get seeds. And yes I did! And yes, the seeds are of fantastic quality too! Here's the first new crop :

Another exciting thing to share. Thai basil! The last few plants I had (which I rooted from market cuttings) died down last winter and their seeds survived the cold winter and starting growing in the pot. So I am getting thai basil leaves now! I really love thai basil. Though I have been too busy to do any cooking (been catering food nowadays) and usethe leaves now, I am still excited. I plan to store these basil leaves in olive oil so if I need them, I can always have a stock of them! Here's some of them drying :

I also have some tomato silvery fir to harvest. They have all sprung from seeds blown into pots. A few grew in the pot of the Kaffir lime tree. I pulled up some and left two to grow. Had to net the plants as caterpillars attack them, those which burrow and make holes in unripe tomatoes, I cannot recall the names now.

 A while earlier, I also harvested green buk choy. Amazing they sprang up from seeds scattered by wind on my previous property. Smile....It's just wonderful to be able to harvest edibles without having to even plant them!!!

Cute Furry Possum Melts my Heart.

At about 230am last night, I heard noise on the roof so I decided to get onto the front of the house to have a check. When I shone my torch, I saw a bush tail possum (wildlife) scrambling across the lawn and up the fence behind the plum tree.  Immediately I got indoors and went to the back door. I shone my torch and found a pair of red eyes staring at me on the shed.  I turned off the torch and waited. It was dark and quiet. Then I heard a noise coming from the left.  Another possum is walking on the fence.  I shone my torch and it scrambled off.  That could be the mother? I turned off the torch and waited again. When I turned on the torch next, the possum was on the fence where my choko vine is. I was not scared this time (the first encounter was a bit scary as I did not know what to expect). The cat-sized furry creature looked at me and I at it. Almost immediately my heart melted.  It is so cute! I was actually talking to it in the middle of the morning!

It decided to get back onto the shed.  I could not see how it walked behind the grevillea and pomegranate trees as it was dark. I turned on my torch, went near the shed, stood on my garden chair and shone the torch at it. Oh it was on the shed's roof and it was very cute! Again, we looked at each other. It looks very docile and unfazed. Then it went onto my neighbour's fence.  I returned to my back door with light off.  A while later, I heard slight noise.  It came back to the fence where my choko vine is. Obviously, it has hoped to get some choko shoots. I shone the torch again. For the very first time, I saw how this agile creature walk on the fence. It can actually avoid jumping over the chicken wire mesh and my black netting by walking on the horizontal wooden bars supporting the fence which is on the same side of my neighbour's fence. 

I figure I can stop it from eating my plants completely by erecting a whole stretch of loose black netting.  It seems to walk on the thorny devils fine but I needed to have another good look to assess this.  Honestly, I am beginning to like this creature.  It obviously does not know those plants belong to me. It is just looking for a meal every night. It does not know that it is offending me by nibbling my plants.  It is just trying to survive. I reckon I can share some shoots every now and then.  Anyway, those stray shoots that go higher than the fence need to be pruned off.  So, why not let it do the pruning for me? At the same time, it can have a meal.  I just hope it will not come live in our roof!

This morning, I pyrethrum sprayed  both my peach trees just to deter the carpophilus beetles from invading the remaining few peaches .  I had already removed as many fungus-infected peaches and trimmed off as many branches to open up the big peach tree.  I think we will have about 10 or less peaches to enjoy this summer.  I managed to harvest a few, not fully ripened but already slightly fungus-affected and they still taste wonderful to my hubby and son. I noticed that one peach is missing from the tree.  When I looked around, I saw a clean peach stone under the olive tree.  And then I saw a peach on the lower part of the tree with a chunk bitten off.  Then the pictures pieced together.  The possum must be going for my peaches last night when I came out to the front garden. Oh well, one or two peaches for it is fine I guess. I just have to make sure it does not come for my corn or tomatoes or watermelons or beans. Gosh, I think I need a big cage to do gardening now...cage all my plants....

The strawberries and their flowers have been safe so far after netting them.

The strawberries and their flowers have been safe so far after netting them.

First cucumber vine is flowering but waiting for the other younger vines to catch up.

Yippee....a big bunch of Chinese/garlic chives!

Chives with squid.

Yummy silvery fir tomatoes ripening every day.

This mixed Basil is grown between my two tomato silvery fir.

Harvested tomatoes, pak choy and mixed Basil.

I have grilled tomatoes with basil and cheese every day.  Super juicy and sweet!

Sweet corns almost ready. It has thick layers of protective leaves so I hope the possums will spare them for us.

Sydney Crimson rhubard's growing big and strong.  Need to find a recipe soon.

I am very excited to find a carolina black rose grapevine growing on the front. I had used my grape prunings as stakes for my snowpea plants and one of the stakes decided to grow into a new plant.  There were two areas of leaves but I removed the lower set as I plan to experiment with this vine and turn it into a tree.

Edibles Update.

The last three days have been sunny and warm with temperatures between 21-23 deg celsius. So, every day, we spent some time out in the garden doing things. The work really does seem never-ending.

Common Onion Chives /Allium Schoenprasum

Two evenings ago, I went out to the front garden to harvest some chives for a pasta dish. It was then that I realised I have two types of chives growing at the same spot. I did some researching and found some info on http://www.herbsociety.org/factsheets/chives.pdf. The picture above shows the chives used in western cooking. I have grown these from seeds. These chives have leaves which have hollow cylindrical interiors. I did a check and am quite sure that they are called Allium Schoenoprasum or common onion chives.

Chinese or Garlic Chives/ Allium Tuberosum

The chives in this above picture is actually Chinese or Garlic chives, Allium Tuberosum. My friend, Eliada, gave two small pots of these to me. They were given to her by another friend. As the chives looked very similar when young, I thought they were onion chives. Now that they are older, I can actually see that these two tufts are Chinese/Garlic chives. In dialect, they are called Gu Cai. These have flat leaf blades. I am actually very happy knowing they are Chinese/garlic chives, as I use them in Chinese cooking and need larger amounts. Onion chives are used as garnishes and only small amounts required.

Yesterday, I repotted the  Kao Kee cuttings. They have 100%  rooted as each stem cutting is putting on new leaves. Now I will wait and see how they grow.

Water chestnuts! It's been a headache trying to figure how I should grow them. I dont like failed experiments but how can experiments always be 100% successful? The styrofoam tub where I first planted the corms is covered with a layer of algae. After chatting on http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/, I dug out the corms, prepared a few pots (potting mix+fish fertiliser), planted them in, topped up with garden soil, stood them in a tub of water. Here goes the experiment... The corms which I have harvested are really small, about 1 to 2 cm in diameter. I feel cheated by the company where I bought them from. I dont hold much hope that they will grow well.

Here are  some carrot seedlings.  Free seeds from Bunnings Wareshouse. It is my first go at it.

The rest of the seedlings (eggplant, okra/lady'sfinger, capsicum etc) are growing really slowly, even though I put the pots in a styrofoam box and cover well to get as much warmth from sun. I do not have a green house or seed propagator tray, which will speed growth up. At the local nurseries, I could already buy bigger plants.

My white currant plant has put on its green leaves and clusters of flowers too. Looking forward to having white currants. The blackcurrant plant is just beginning to catch up but no flower clusters in sight yet.

The Carolina Black Rose grape vine has produced lots of shoots. It is amazing to see new shoots sprouting every other day. And there are lots of flower clusters. I contemplate pruning off shoots to allow for fewer but stronger flower clusters but did not get down to it in case it is a mistake. I have not seen bees visiting my back garden but thankfully grape flowers are bisexual so they are self-pollinating.