One Rosemary Cutting has Flowered.

Cold morning. Cosy afternoon. A little drizzle interspersed cloudy and then sunny day. Collected a few drops of rain in buckets ;o. Since the soil was moist and soft in the morning, I did some weeding. The creepy weeds are growing very well at the sides of the vege patch and soon will come near my capsicum and mighty red tomato bush. One of the potted rosemary cuttings has decided to flower instead of growing. Flowering for herbs is not really ideal since it means its energy for growing has been given to flowering. But it is not a bad sight at all.

One dandelion weed growing well in the vege patch. Dandelions are common weeds and their leaves are nutritious for making tea, which can be used to water plants. In fact, shops sell dandelion tea bags for human consumption and dandelion flowers can be used in salads. They have deep tap roots that can draw nutrients from deep in the soil.

My capsicum is growing well, at least with much peace of mind since I am able to protect it from possums. Another on the right of the picture is developing.

One little purple king pod is growing near the ground just close to the very mature pod. I have placed a plastic sheet under it on the ground weighed down by rocks.

The aloe vera is growing two new pups in the centre...one tiny one and a slightly longer one.

The vietnamese mint overtaking the large pot's surface. It is really a sprawling grower. I am ready to harvest some for ladies' fellowship next Monday.

Two of my six lots of oriental radishes. I am now cracking my head on how to protect them from digging possums. Neighbours just told me possums dug their ground and ate their silver beets!

One cluster of chillies from the nellie kelly hot chilli.

Another cluster. So happy to see larger chillies developing before ripening. I have harvested some ripe ones in the past but they were really tiny.

So In Love with Herbs & Spices!

One of my greatest desires is to grow a lot of herbs and spices in my garden, whether in pots or on the ground. Herbs are such wonderful things to have - good to throw some into dishes, really beneficial for health, nice to just smell them or rub them with my finger tips and give such a glorious view. I can spend a lot of time just admiring my herbs. Currently, I have about ten pots of herbs/spices in my garden - thyme, rosemary, lavendar, vietnamese mint, oregano, thai basil, mixed basil (including lemon, thai and purple basil), bay, mint and chilli. I would love to add the following to my list - coriander, curry plant, curry tree, lemon grass, aloe vera, more types of chillies - some time soon. My revived Lavendar Bee Pretty sitting so prettily. Some flower buds are developing again. Hope that I will be able to see them flower a second time within six months.

Mint producing a few little plants at the base - slowly - I guess being confined in a pot does that to the mint.

Bay tree growing slowly as it is. More leaves but same height, I th ink.

Oregano is producing little shoots from below after the trimming.

Rosemary sprigs harvested one week back see them growing new ones again! :) A little pot like this is actually sufficient for my family's usage.

Thyme was given a boost by cutting back and here they go, shooting up new soft wood stems again. There is so much to harvest and give away.

My Mixed Basil from seeds...Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Thai Basil...rubbing the different leaves with finger tips and smelling it is refreshing! Even my boy wants to have a sniff at them.

Vietnamese Mint leafing more and more after harvesting one big handful to be dried.

The shallot flowers have opened...

Bay - A New Candidate in the Garden.

I caught this bug climbing up a wall in the house and wondered if it was a lady bug since it really does look like one except the strange brown-gold colour. I wrote to 'Ladybirds of Australia' and Adam told me that it is a leaf beetle of the family Chrysomelidae feeding on eucalyptus.

http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/ladybirds/authors.htm is a good site to identify lady bugs in our gardens. This one is a good one which feeds on fungus. I found it on my vegetable patch! :) http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2408773.htm is another great site to learn about lady bugs - the good and the bad and the evil. And I thought all of them are good!

Harvested 11 pieces of my precious vietnamese/hot mint for a meat dish. Yum!

Very pleased to say that my lavender is a survivor in spite of being under the hands of an inexperienced non-green-fingered gardener like me! I think the pyrethrum I gave it could have really burnt the leaves. Could have been too generous and too near with the pyrethrum when I tried to deal with the pesky whiteflies attacking it. Brutally chopping much of it, though it was already summer, proved to be a good thing (kept my fingers 'crossed')(Refer 9 Jan 09 - Keeping Check). It survived and has been putting on green healthy leaves. I never gave up on you. Please dont give up on me. :)

Bought this bay from Flower Power...only $2. No harm trying to grow it. I have re-potting it inot a gigantic pot, being hopeful that it is going to grow into a potted tree for my new house! In cheap potting mix + blood and bone + seasol + dried danelion leaves (at base). It was shaded by a large box for a few days before being fully exposed to the summer sun.

A few of the Mighty Red tomatoes are turning orange. It is really exciting to see that and I hope possums would not ruin my joy by stealing them in the night. Look at the shine! No pesticides or chemical sprays on the skin!

My largest Sun King Sunflower is due to open its flower soon, revealing its yellow petals today. Interesting to find out that they will face the rising Eastern sun each day.

Mixed basil germinating well in the pot. It will interesting to find out what sort of basils I have got and how they finally look like.

The two groups of capsicums are doing fine. This clump has been thinned out severely. The other clump has been attacked by grasshoppers or some leaf-eating insects but are good still.

This Purple King bean plant of two is doing well. I think the other one is going to die, looking at the way it is developing.

Keeping Check.

Sam and I harvested some more of the greengages. They are quite fragile and since the tree is tall, some fell onto the ground and the impact caused broken skin. Given that to doggy which happily ate them up.

Thought this oregano is fighting space and nutrients with one of the melons close by, as the melon did not seem to be growing healthily and turning yellow, so I have dug the oregano up and potted it. It did amazingly well even in 37-39 deg celsius weather in the potting mix with seasol. I made sure drainage is good by placing the planter box on a sloped ground.

My two beautiful Laksa plants (vietnamese mint) are flourishing, growing taller and having more baby leaves. One thing for sure is to keep watering them :)..at least I am sure they thrive with lots of water!

Rosemary is truly strong, not even showing any fuzz after being repotted in new potting mix! And seems to be growing, having more stems appearing.

The two potato plants in the pot are growing stronger day by day, with new baby leaves growing on the stems, which is a good sign of health. Leaves are also firmer now.

Thyme continue to flourish in the pot. Hoping to see some flowering soon before I cut them back.

All the four Buk choy seeds germinated. I should have placed all four separately instead of pairing them up. :( good lesson learned.

Tip : If soil is dry, water before sowing. Use a watering can which allows gentle watering. Never sow and then water as the soil may form a crust over the seed and prevent entry of water to the seed or even prevent seedlings from breaking through to the light.

The bare lemon mint stem is doing so surprisingly well, growing baby leaves even in the seemingly dry soil.

I have pruned many leaves off the tomato plant and tied drooping branches to supports. Also pruned off some flowers so that the existing tomatoes would get most of the nutrients.

The mint cuttings have rooted well so I planted them into the potting mix yesterday evening, with mulching and kept them indoors overnight, with lots of watering and seasol. They have been taking it in and are out in the sun this afternoon when the sunshine is not so harsh.

Cut the lavendar back and hope that it will grow better from below. Also tested the drainage of the soil. Quite sure drainage is fine. Hoping that the leaves will revive and not continue to turn yellow brown. Not sure if the pyrethrum spray has caused the yellowing and browning of the leaves.

Both purple king have emerged! This morning this one could not be seen and in the afternoon, I was shocked to see that it has come out! Driven two supports into the ground.

This potato plant looked like it was going to die few days back but it survived!