Our First Pixzee Peach for 2011 Plus Other Garden Updates.

Today's temperature is predicted to reach 35 deg celsius. Not a big deal as I believe this year's summer will be cooler and I doubt we are going to experience 46 again. Also, the garden is all mostly mulched up so the water retention will be good. Having said that, I spent one hour giving the whole garden water this morning. I have also put up some white cloths on three areas : over the burdock, over the hydrangeas and the ocra (ladies' fingers). I was trying to show my son my dwarf peach (pixzee) tree with its five large fruits. We could smell the fragrance without putting our noses near. One of them felt soft and when my boy reached out to touch it, it fell. We realised that this one was ready and shared it. Yummy, sweet and juicy!!!

This little pot of strawberry delight is producing quite a few strawberries. And the other plants are also having lots flowers.

I germinated some lemon balm recently. It is growing steadily but slowly.

Clockwise from top : bitter melon (bittergourd), evening primrose, watercress and eggplant. I know I am extremely late planting the bitter melon and eggplant. I sowed them with experimentation in mind but all of them germinated.

These are four pyrethrum daisies which I bought from Diggers. They grow so slowly and wilt so easily. I have repotted them into this pretty terracotta pot.

A Vietnamese kinder mum gave me these two Thai Basil plants which I repotted in this large pot. It's been difficult growing this basil probably due to the climate. It flowers too easily which is not good for herbs.

My two burdock plants in this vege patch are easily burnt by the hot sun due to their large leaves. I covered them with white cloth today.

More kang kong (water spinach) growing after the last harvest. This will be one vege I will keep planting every year. The seeds are of very superior quality.

My beloved yellow capsicum plant is in its 3rd year and fruiting!!! What an amazing plant!!!

Strawberry Delight, Fig (Brown Turkey), Chilli Padi, Sweet Potato

Still enjoying new strawberries in the making.....

I finally harvested one edible fig(brown turkey). Some bird has actually pecked a hole in it. I had wanted to harvest it yesterday but put it off thinking it could be riper and more succulent today (with a thought that a bird might find its way first). Yes, it was not very big but quite nice :

The last four of my bitter melons have succumbed to frost bites on a very cold Sunday morning and I had to pluck and throw them out :

A handful of chilli padis :

Another harvest of sweet potatoes for dessert with ginger :

Lemon grass - Cymbopogon citratus

I have a total of 5 tufts of lemongrass growing in my garden. So far they are doing very well. They grow to become this big tuft of grass-looking bush. They are certainly better than grass because they can be eaten. I have not harvested any yet as the stems are still thin. I surely cannot imagine how they will look like when their stems become as thick as those in the markets. This is the first tuft (at Patch C) and their stems are getting thicker : And this is the second tuft in Patch E :

And three tufts side by side on the front garden :

I hope they can survive the winter as this is my first time having them since spring. Yesterday morning I had to pluck all four of my last bitter melons and throw them out as they were frost-bitten. I did not expect the frost in autumn. Will have to protect delicate tropical fruits the next season.

Bitter Melon, Chilli Fire Harvests.

Another pride and joy this season, besides my cucumbers, eggplant, lemongrass, strawberries, chillies, sweet potatoes, is my bittermelon. Several of them harvested and several to come. What a sense of satisfaction! One bittermelon for dinner at my friend's house. Her mum commented that it was very pretty.

Loads of green chillies harvested for pickled chillies. And two melons.

These are my mum's hand harvesting the green chillies.

Yet another bowl of harvest.

I have made four jars of pickled green chillies which we take out for dinners at restaurants.

Another bittermelon and a bunch of purple king beans.

More to come.

More more more....

:)

Harvesting...harvesting...

Finally. My eggplant is a late bloomer. It is already autumn and it has put on a good number of eggplants after flowering heavily. There are a total of at least 7 eggplants growing though two of the largest had been plucked by my dog. How frustrating! Well, it's not like I am going to eat all the eggplants but the sight of having a plant loaded with growing eggplants is so wonderful. The worst thing is he did not even eat the eggplant, just simply plucked and chewed it all over the ground! I have been harvesting purple king beans, hot chilli and some chilli padis.

And this purple pak choy is looking irresistible. I took a picture of it before any caterpillars come and make holes in the leaves.

Harvested two bittermelons and loads of green chilli fire. These are the 3rd and 4th melons and there are two baby ones growing. Yay!!!!!!!!

The mother strawberry plant continually produces strawberries for me to pick...here's big two yummy ones.

Bitter Melon, Pioneer Stringless & Strawberry Delight

A bunch of parsley for baking dog biscuits to freshen up Marco's breath, and a bunch of buk choy for lunch.

My aloe vera plant is really huge now with lots of growing pups.

I sliced off one piece for soothing a bit of itchy skin.

Hooray! Another eggplant is growing!

Two bunches of sweet strawberries growing from the two plants I have successfully propagated from the parent strawberry delight plant. As the two plants are under nets, they are growing very well without much pest disturbance.

Beans Pioneer Stringless are ready for harvesting. Going to simply blanch them in boiling water. They are named as such because there is no strings to be removed from their sides, unlike some beans.

My harvest of my first bitter melon/bittergourd and a bunch of beans Pioneer Stringless.

My pot of Kalanchoe has been attacked by caterpillars again though it was netted.

It's a new caterpillar which I have not seen before. It's colour is very similar to the kalanchoe branches but still not difficult to spot. I found more than a dozen!

Garden Update

Finally...one growing bitter melon / bittergourd on the vine! This market seed that I germinated had a good number of flowers and baby melons but just one managed to develop larger...I am still feeling satisfied :)...and this growing melon was a surprise because I only saw it a few days ago...under the net and cloth-shade : My chilli padi plants finally are having loads of chilli padis...the plants are having milder spots which was a concern to me at first :

The calamondin comquot has put on loads of flowers since addition of potash. It has been the centre of attraction in my backyard as lots of bees are visiting it...the smell of the flowers is awesome :

Just harvested the longest ever cucumber...1 cm short of 40...:

Silverbeet growing well :

Buk choy ready for harvesting :

Buk choy cum silverbeet for lunch :

Sweet Potato leaves for dinner :