Back From Holidays!

We went away for a five-week holiday and came back, right in the middle of the heat wave. Thankfully, the damage was minimal.  I was actually so happy to see my plants/trees again, though lots of tall weeds welcomed me too!  After the heat went away, Paul (hubby) and Samuel (my first son) and I started the weeding work in the back garden.  Some weeds were as tall as 1 metre.

Okay here's the update on some of my edibles.  The Trixzee Pixzee peach tree produced a surprising number of peaches again this year.  We did not get to eat a single peach last two years as our dog ate all the unripe ones.  After our last house move (autumn 2014), we planted the tree into the ground in winter and I protected the tree with some plastic mesh.  I did not notice a lot of flowers in spring but when I returned in Jan, I found many peaches... probably 20.  I decided not to thin them this time.  This morning, one fell off the tree, still small but soft.  I cut it open and ate it with my boys.  Thumbs up! Sun-ripened sweetness and clingstone-free!

Here's my ginger! It's about 40 centimetres tall. I planted a piece of ginger (that was showing some green buds) in early spring.  It was in a large pot at a corner of my deck that constantly received sunshine in the day.  I also protected the pot with good translucent plastic.  Towards summer, the plastic protection was removed.  When I left, there was no sign of life.  When I came back, the ginger shoots have grown! I have tried growing edible ginger twice so far and both times they were successful.  However, they don't survive the winter and probably rot away underground.  So, I have not successfully harvested any ginger stem for use so far.  Hopefully I will this time!

Tomatoes.  Alright, I am no great fan of raw tomatoes but I love them well-cooked in soups.  But I was convinced to buy these two vines from Bunnings when I visited one centre.  Before I left for my holiday, they were started to flower but after five weeks, lots of fruits.  And these tomato sweet grapes are really sweet and juicy to munch on!

I wouldn't mind crunching on a few each day!

One cold morning, I noticed these two tawny frogmouths roosting on the large branch of the silky oak tree in our back garden.  The boys and I were really excited! Months ago, one roosted on the stool at one corner of our deck.  We are definitely happy to see more!

The frogmouths spent the day cuddling and cosying up to each other.  They really have good leg strength, sitting on that branch whole day long and at times very still.

I am thankful that my friends (Keng and Ad, who stayed over regularly) have been feeding the birds loose bird seeds in a pot on and off.  As they could not be at home (like I do since I am a home-maker), this resulted in many spotted neck pigeons congregating on my deck.  About 10 come regularly now, from the initial four. I am trying to make them go away as I do not appreciate their voracious appetite (they hardly stop eating) and pooing all over my deck.  I came back from grocery shopping early last week and hanged a new seed block.  And then I heard the familiar calling sound of the beautiful king parrot one evening.  And Ahhh! Here he/she comes!  We hope to see the rainbow lorikeets (which we hear in the trees and flying past) and the eastern rosella (which I have not yet since our holiday) come to feed too.

First Week of the New Year and Summer Work-list

We have not had proper rain for more than a week since before Christmas Day.  Weather has been sunny especially these few days. 

1 January 2012 - Max 38 deg. Sunny and still.
2 January 2012 - Max 40 deg. Scorching heat, sunny and breezy-windy.
3 January 2012 - Max 35 deg. Cool morning, sunny and still day.
4 January 2012 - Max 24 deg. Sudden downpour early morning that lasted for less than 15 mins :(.
5 January 2012 - Max 23 deg. Sunny and cool.

This is our hottest start of the year in many years.  We will be expecting a very hot summer this year.

Work done -

Raking up olive and peach leaves.
Watering garden.
Catching white cabbage butterflies.
Caterpillar check on pak choy.
Stink bugs removal from tomato silvery fir.
Pruning vietnamese mint as they wilt easily in the hot weather.
Staking flowering and seeding coriander plants.
Pruning wisteria.
Pruning tomato plants.
Staking eggplants that are growing taller.
Moving black pots of ginger and thai basil into shade.

Harvesting -strawberries, sweet corns, tomato silver fir, stringless pioneer beans, water spinach/kang kong, pak choy, plums, peaches, white currants, green chilli fire,

Collecting - pak choy seeds, rocket seeds, coriander seeds.

Progress update - Sunflowers blooming, grapes still growing, Big Fig fruiting, Figgy's figs getting bigger, watermelon flowering, cucumber burpless' leading vine is 50cm tall and flowering, water chestnuts sending up new plants, more ginger shoots emerging from pots, pomegranates about pingpong ball size, lawn's greening and seeding and needs mowing.

The two pots of ginger are growing well.  Two new shoots are emerging.

One pot of lemongrass which I propagated. Hopefully with such a large tub of good potting mix, these stems will grow larger than those in the ground.

The second pot of lemongrass.

Galangal ginger still looking bad but I know they are alive.  I also notice a new shoot emerging.

Sunflower pollenless from Diggers' Club has bloomed. I did not expect these plants to be very big but they turned out to be very tall, about  1.2 metres.

I am not sure what it means to be pollenless as I do see bees visiting the sunflowers.

Our last yellow peach of the season is OURS! After sharing with beetles and possums, we had only about 10 to eat.

Everyday strawberries! 

Heaps of tomato silver fir and some sweet corns.

Took a picture of a crimson rosella (wildlife) in Emerald during our Friday outing to the Dandenongs.

I came upon this awesome tree (a type of conifer I think) and my son climbed it. I grew up climbing trees (not this big) and I think it is a wonderful experience. This amazing tree gives my boy much pleasure, he started at one end and went around the whole tree walking on its branches. In fact, soon after, two other older boys came and joined him. I love this picture but wish I had a better camera, which hubby wanted to buy me but I refused the offer.

I harvested lots of thai basil for a spicy chicken dish...My husband and son's favourite.

Spagetti Squash, Sweet Corn & Yellow Peaches.

I have about 4 or 5 good size spagetti squashes growing at the strip of vege patch. Due to the crazy weather of rain and hot days, the vines developed bad powdery mildew and I sprayed the leaves with lime sulphur. It was a stinking yellow liquid.

We have so far eaten 3 super sweet corns and wow they are yummy!

The yellow cling-stone peaches have been steadily harvested, a few looted by birds, but mostly fine. They are marvellously sweet and I cant wait for next summer as we have almost finished them. Oh we have also enjoying some sweet meaty plums (on the right).