Summer Update - End January

Since my birthday mid-January, we have not got much rain fall. The weather was dry and warm and we did have a few hot days. Finally we had a bit of rain fall last night and today, to freshen up the plants and the lawn. I love the rain because it has this magical power of making the lawn look really really green.

Out of the few seeds of yellow capsicum I have sown, two emerged and after re-potting twice, they are doing fantastic.

My little experiment to root market cuttings of sweet potato plants (even after placing in the  vege compartment for two days) worked. I planted four of the rooted cuttings into a large pot (50cm wide x 50cm deep) with loads of cow manure and potting mix. Last few days were hot and I shaded the pot with white cloth. They survived each day and are growing!

These are the same sweet potato cuttings and they are putting on new growth. I could not wait to tell hubby he was going to have sweet potato leaves for dinner soon!

I harvested our first cucumber (burpless). It is about 35cm long. It has a few bite/beak marks which I believe are from birds.

I decided to take my eureka lemon tree  out of its pot (where it was dying)  and planted it in my back garden along the fence. If it survives, I will try to espalier it onto the wooden fence. Amazingly after several rounds of watering on warmer days, it seems to be alive. It is throwing up lots of flowers and growing a few new leaves. Fingers crossed, I still have my lemon tree alive.

I commented about my galangal ginger plants in one of my previous blogs. Here is the picture showing new shoots coming out of the ground.

Gorgeous looking pak choy keeps giving us a constant supply of leafy green.

I am so happy to have homegrown cut flowers - sunflowers and white lilies.

These gorgeous white lilies have fragrance that permeate my house. It was almost bewitching! They last much longer when cut and put in a vase. Out in my garden, they wither within two days.

Woohoo! My Carolina Black Rose grapes are ripening! As the ripening is  not very consistent, I pick the ripe ones off the bunch rather than harvesting the whole bunch as grapes do not ripen once picked.  

When ripened especially by lots of warm sunshine, the grapes are really sweet.

Very happy to say that about 9 pomegranates are developing on the tree after loads of flowers.

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!!!

Tomatoes, Cucumber, Capsicum and Coriander

A cloudy day with predicted rain. It's indeed very rewarding to see the fruits of my labour. Two yellow capsicums are ripening under the last few days of hot sun : I harvested one capsicum along with a few tomatoes and a bunch of coriander. Hmmm...something for my lunch :

Few days ago, another batch of ripened tomato silvery fir and a large cucumber for dinner :

Looking forward to harvesting more greens such as buk choy, silver beet and sweet potato leaves...

Coriander, Yellow Capsicum, Cucumber (burpless)

I have forgotten about the coriander seeds which I had sown around my turkey fig tree...When they emerged, I realised it was them : My yellow capsicum plants is bearing more fruits. Never bored of snapping a picture of them...always so pretty :

How fast are the cucumbers growing! Here's #1 :

Here's #2 :

Here's #3 :

Here's #4 hanging upside down :

Tender Loving Care is Important.

A gardener must pay close attention to her plants. And I love spending time just doing that - lots of attention...lots of tender loving care. When this is done, I can make sure I prevent lots of bad things from happening. Close observation of a cluster of strawberry delight flowers (even though the pot is netted) shows that some caterpillar activity. The flowers and buds were kind of white-webbed together and upon peeling them open, two caterpillars were found. After squashing them, I had to remove some buds and flowers as they were already damaged by them :

I have since propagated five pots of strawberry delight plants :

My second try at planting Thai basil from nursery purchase is not looking so good. Leaf edges turning brown. I wonder why :

Worrying about the cucumber pollination was unduly indeed. Actually bumble bees do visit the flowers. How wonderful! I have at least five developing cucumbers and they are growing fast :

My yellow capsicum (officially calling it yellow after the green ones ripened to yellow recently) plant is making more flowers and fruits after some of their lower older leaves fell off :

I had to remove some little fruits and lower suckers as I did not want so many fruits. I want larger fewer fruits :

Chilli Padi plants are growing taller and flowering more but still having blotchy spots on their leaves :

Harvested some mint for omelette from the recently propagated mint :

Harvested three calamondin comquat limes and purple king beans :

Passionfruit Panama Gold is putting on new young shoots well here. Good thing I dug it up and potted it :

This is the spot I am going to plant it. Now working on it :

Stir-fry Black Pepper Beef (Recipe)

Still about yesterday. Son was using the computer while I had a look out of my front garden. The rain was a cool refreshing change. The patch where there is a rose shrub and dying-down calla lilies...that still requires further work. I plan to plant hydrangeas or kangeroo paws and some other flowers. It is too boring at this moment. However, hubby wants me to take my time as I am burning up my budget every month! The pittosporum golden sheens are doing well but I wish they would grow bushier faster and taller! The sweet potato creepers among the sheens are doing great :

The two white nettings are where my other two tomato silvery firs are planted. Doing great. In the foreground are my sanorita and vietnamese mint in pots.

Two conifers flank the small gate. My eureka lemon in that square patch.

The yellow capsicums harvested and spanish (red) onions ready for my beef stir-fry.

Two slices of blade beef steak sliced into thin pieces.

Onions and capsicum fried in ready-to-use black pepper sauce (which I bought). Add beef. Fry till cooked. No need to add water.