Carolina Black Rose Alive!!!

How exciting! I am totally over the moon as if I have struck lottery. That was how my hubby described me. My Carolina Black Rose Grape vine is alive! I found 3-4 green buds on it. A while ago, it looked like a dried forked twig and I have sort of lost hope that it would live. I will have to fertilise it and plan the support soonest, oh as well as protection against my golden retriever Marco. The pomegranate, which I have no clue about its name, is putting on beautiful red leaves. I plan to spray it with a mixture of pyrethrum and white oil in case of white flies or scale attack as last seasons.

I have propagated two pots of Aoenium. As I am clearing up more planting areas with my lawn revamp, I may need new plants.

Planted a little pot of coriander here in Patch C after the seeds germinated.

Most of the seeds - kang kong (water spinach), chilli padi, tomato silvery fir, cucumber, bittermelon - I have planted and pots kept in this plastic container (to imitate greenhouse environment) have germinated. It has been a really cold spring start and they are growing very very slowly. I wish I have a glass or green house to speed up things.

The pot of chives has also germinated. It is doing better out in the cold.

A new pot of thyme germinating too.

I had to remove growing pups from my original aloe vera pot as they were overcrowding the pot. This two are some of the babies I have removed. I think soon I can start some plant sale?

Chillies, Herbs & Vege.

My original pot of rosemary recently was in a poor state. The leaves were looking really skinny compared to its daughter rosemary shrub at the patch next to the garage. Compare them at http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/11/patch-next-to-garage-fresh-faces.html . I was not sure if it was too dry or the pot has gotten too small. I had actually gave it a root trim (See http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/11/catching.html) somtime back before putting it back into the same pot, so I believed it had got too dry in the hot weather. I began watering it more often which is quite strange as rosemary prefers it dry. Deciding to dunk n drench the whole pot in charlie carp helped. It looked better since : I gave my second season thyme a good hair cut and it came back beautifully again :

Finally the three skyscraper-tall chilli padis are begining to fruit after some trouble with sickly spotted leaves :

And the sickly-looking chilli fire (see http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/12/garden-bird-rescue-heronswood-garden.html )which I bought from bunnings is also producing chillies :

And my Nellie Kelly hot chilli are fruiting its heads off :

Thai basil has also grown and is smelling glorious. Maybe this is the first success I am having. However they are seasonal as they produce flower heads very easily and I have to keep up with the deflowering :

A recent hair cut for my vietnamese mint also see them coming back beautifully. The logic 'kill the top and leave the roots' does work :

Nice bunch of crisp buk choy for lunch :

Loving these buk choys :

Herbs Galore!

First thing I did when I returned home after 2.5 weeks is to take a peek at my precious garden. I was very glad that things were under control (all thanks to my friend Paul for tending to it while our family was away). Great to be back to see wonderful growth of my herbs. The mints in the 50cm and two 30cm pots are so fat. I had to quickly harvest them to give them away : The two rosemary cuttings which I have propagated have also grown bushier :

The mother rosemary plant (which was attacked by powdery mildew previously but won the war) has put on so many new growth and gone bushier. Time for harvest :

Three new cuttings which I have propagated from the mother rosemary are also showing signs of growth :

My lemon verbena has grown but I wish it has grown bushier...there must be a way to do that :

The spring onions from seeds were straggly at first but after 2.5weeks (charlie carp treatment before I left), they are doing well and can be harvested anytime :

My curry plant has gone really really bushy in a neat way with all the trimmings I have done beforehand :

Bay tree put on so many new leaves...wow! :

Thyme was completely chopped off low but returned with a complete bushy hair-style. Time to harvest :

Vietnamese mint is spilling over th 40cm pot with wonderful growth. Time for harvesting again :

Speedy Winds

The wind speeds today can reach 60km/h and I prayed that none of my new golden sheens would be snapped down. Yesterday morning I discovered that my mosquito plant/citronella geranium had been snapped into two. It has a woody stem and is growing rather tall for its light pot. The previous day it was blown over as well. It was already budding to flower soon. Sigh, I snipped off the broken part and hope it will regrow again :

I trimmed off my thyme as I noticed that they seemed to be budding as well :

The cayenne pepper still doesnt look so good even after feeding of charlie carp or seasol or time-release fertiliser :

One More Month of Winter...How's Are Some of My Potted Ones?

Guess what? I really took a break from my garden this week since giving them charlie carp and seasol last week. Did not bother to open up the covers for my oriental radishes or buk choy. Did not bother to even inspect my plants. It was a rather nice feeling to take a break and let go sometimes. And there is a reward - they are all doing fine! No pests, no night looters. Well, everybody out there in the backyard is doing fine. The only exceptions are those on the frontyard -my lavendar bee pretty is fully infested with green aphids and my nasturtiums which have flowered so much but blown down by the strong winds as if it has a bad hair day. The planted daffodil bulbs have sprouted in the pot. Yippee! At least I can bring this pot to my new house at the end of the month.

Kaffir lime and a small pot of mint are doing fine surrounded by the plastic protection.

Chilli padis growing quite well though very slow. It should take off once spring arrives.

Puzzling to see the tips of aloe vera turning brown but new pups are emerging from the potting mix.

The vietnamese mint/laksa plant is growing from glory to glory...surprisingly able to take the cold winter without any protection...it will look very pretty on my patio (minus the water feeder haha)

Plants are really very affected by strong winds. A week ago, things look bad...My common mint in this large pot is flourishing! Harvest is round the corner.

This pot which almost died in the strong winds and minor aphid attack is back strong and healthy.

After being trimmed because of aphids attack, the lemon verbena is putting on new shoots. Hope the irritating aphids will not return!!! I am not going to bring a aphid-infested plant to my new house. Have to closely supervise and treat it first.

Same goes for this curry plant.

Spring onions sown from seeds still look rather skinny.

Spring onions from bulbs...fat and growing well...this is going to be the 5th or 6th harvest.

Mosquito plant growing well despite ants making its potting mix their home. I am thinking of planting it into the ground at the new house.

This pot should win the championship! Thyme...ever so gorgeous and growing so fine.

Not so the rosemary babies...growing fine but still struggling with powdery mildew. How am I going to stop this powerful powder?!

The mother rosemary has been dumped to one corner of the garden where it can get some sunshine and rain and cold. I am just leaving it to the hands of nature to treat the powdery mildew.

The snow pea seedlings are growing great. Good to invest in mildew-resistant breeds...can grow them in plastic covers without worry of mildew.

My calamondin/calamasi...the prettiest and largest fruit on the mini tree.

My neighbour Jenny came over with a bunch of gorgeous-smelling Daphne flowers. Really strong heavenly perfume.