Patch Next to Garage - Fresh Faces.

This challenging patch...with its very clay soil...leaving me clueless on when I should work on it...digging is tough on dry and warm days as the soil is hard like stone...digging is not easy on cloudy wet days as the soil clumps up and hardens into lumps. But with all the effort I have put in, I am beginning to see incredible results.

The tiny pot of annabel daisy has grown 6 times. I keep on with deadheading its flowers which encourages new blooms. So far this daisy is growing faster than any plant here. I hope the space I have designated for it would be sufficient. Compare with http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/09/calendula-germinates-patch-next-to.html

The little rosemary bush is also doing well. Compare it with http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/10/patch-next-to-garage.html

So is this oregano. Strangely, I am expecting it to spread outwards but it seems to be growing upwards. I would want it to be an edible ground cover here. Compare it with what I saw in the botanical gardens : http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/02/botanic-gardens-potting-on.html

The two candy tuft plants are also well. Notice that the annabel daisy, rosemary and oregano have been mulched but not the candy tuft. I was waiting to see if I need to pull up the candy tuft plants in case they did not survive.

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Tip : It is better to wait and see if a plant establishes itself well after transplanting. If it does, then apply mulch. Better to mulch later in case you need to dig the plant up for some reason.

The Lilium LA hybrid plants are budding.

3 of the 5 gladioli plants are growing big. But 2 others have not appeared.

These 3 calendula officinalis plants are the fresh faces of this patch. I have just transplanted them here. So far very good results.

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Tip : During transplanting, minimise root disturbance and maintain potting mix shape. Transfer the whole potting mix with plant over. Water with seasol after that and make sure the plant is hydrated daily.

Here's another new face...my bay tree. It is very tiny now and it is a slow-growing plant. I have planted it in the centre of the patch and it should be the tallest and the focal point of this patch in years to come. Edible too!

Patches A, C, D & E

The recent warm and long day time have made growth explode in my garden.

At patch A, the three purple king bean plants and the tomato beef steak plant are growing. I cannot seem to see any tomatoes developing at the moment even though there are flowers. I did not remember having trouble with my Mighty red tomato. Puzzled, I consulted fellow blogger 'Scarecrow' and she gave me this useful link : http://www.grow-tomato-sauce.com/tomatopollination.html

Putting veges and edibles aside, I am feeling really proud of this pot of Annabel daisy. It has grown in size about 6 times.

My beloved capsicum plant is developing its fruits steadily. It is ahead of most plants because this is its second season. Feeling more secure with it in a larger pot.

This is one of 5 calendula officinalis plants I have germinated. They are subject to caterpillars like many of my edible plants in the garden but with much vigilance, I have picked and squashed most of them. This one is budding already!

My strawberry delight at Patch C is doing well in its pot although also subject to caterpillars. Its strawberries are very sweet!

Lemon Verbena at Patch C is also doing well and I have allowed one stalk to flower just to see how the flowers look like.

Wow my lemon grass at Patch C which initially did not look like it was going to make it, has actually gone into growth spurt! Hopefully the eggplant supreme and passionfruit panama gold will speed up in growth as well or they could be overtaken by the lemon grass!

After treating my kaffir lime plant at Patch C with chelated iron (not much organic solutions for this), it leapt into growing beautiful healthy-looking new leaves and more fruits and flowers almost immediately...indeed it was iron deficiency!

Eggplant Supreme at Patch C is also doing well except having its leaves munched on probably at night by some insects. In the day, I cannot find any bugs on it.

This is Patch C : strawberries, kaffir lime, eggplant supreme, lemon grass, passionfruit, lemon verbena, capsicum and pixzee peach. Quite an assortment of plants cramped together.

This is Patch E : coriander and continental parsley both flowering and seeding. I did not care as I am surely alright for them to seed and grow new ones, which means new supply of herbs. There is another clump of lemongrass and my pot of bay plant there.

I was cleaning the dusty leaves of my three cyclamens when I saw this. A search reveals them as the fruits of the cyclamens. I read that using seeds is tough so I am just going to leave them alone. I wonder if there are corms in the soil. Hopefully! So that cyclamens can cover the whole of Patch D and under my pomegranate tree and grevilia. They have glorious blooms! See http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/09/golden-sheen-pittosporum-and-cyclamens.html or click on 'cyclamen' label on right side of my blog.

Caterpillar Hunt.

I have been fighting caterpillar invasions. Nothing was spared - snow peas, tomato, strawberry, oregano, rosemary, disoma, vietnamese mint, common mint, plum tree, egg plant, passionfruit, kalanchoe, rose shrub are all victims. This brown caterpillar was found on the snow peas. There are a few types of caterpillars which I have found. As gardeners, we really have to be vigilant and observant. I noticed that my strawberry leaves looked a little strange. And flipping the leaves over was wise.

I squashed as many as 10 tiny caterpillars arching their bodies and feeding on the under-surface of the leaves.

These leaves drew my attention as there were patches on them. They were the parts being eaten underneath.

Fortunately I still have strawberries ripening.

I also found egg clusters on leaves of my tomato silvery fir. Must be caterpillar eggs.

This is the damage on my passionfruit. I am planning to protect the young shoots with some form of plastic since the young growing shoots are the ones under attack.

Eggplant supreme leaves also has lots of eaten parts. I hope I will emerge the victor in this caterpillar warfare. :O

Today's Work.

Strawberries in the pot are growing well. One seems to be ripening but it is a little small. I mulched the two strawberry plants that are on the ground. I use sugarcane mulch as according to the staff at Bunnings, it is excellent in reflecting the sun's light and it returns carbon to the soil.

Out of the three strawberry plants I have, one has not produced flowers until yesterday. And suddenly flowers are popping out of that last plant :

My traps of oil and water was good in catching earwigs (pests). However, there are many more under pots and I had to manually remove the pots from their positions to reveal loads of earwigs scurrying away. Last night, I found an earwig trying to gnaw on one strawberry and another parked on a strawberry leaf!

The three slow growing chilli padis have put on more growth. Yippee! Hope to harvest chilli padis soon!

This morning, I trimmed much of the two smaller pots of common mint.

The large pot which I have trimmed is putting on new growth.

However, I have found lots of caterpillar poop.

Searching got me two fat caterpillars.

This pot of bay has many leaves now. I am going to wait till the leaves mature more before pruning the plant.

Same goes for this pot.

Tomato silvery fir #1 at frontyard is growing fantastic after transplanting.

Tomato silvery fir #2 is also doing great.

This rose shrub which I have spared when I pulled up the rest are producing tiny pink flowers...not too pretty by me.

Patch Next to Garage...Spring's Ending.

This patch next to the garage has been a challenging one and I have spent intermittent periods of time working on it. So far so good. Results are slowly getting better. The plants went through a period of establishing themselves in the poor clay soil, looking not too good and then now looking much better. There is still space for more work and more plants. Colour theme here is a mixture of yellow, white, pink, orange and blue (if everything flowers at the same time). View from the back. Daffodils (dying down), Diosma Sunset red, Lilium La Hybrid, oregano, rosemary, blue maguerite, annabel daisy are all mulched with composted pinebark (ornamental mulch).

View from the front. The whole patch is surrounded by strings looking like a boxing ring because my dog would trot on it and even nip off my plants. The two candy tuft plants (front right with tiny white flowers) have bounced back and doing well. :)

This rosemary which I have propagated from the original pot looked really bad some time back but it is now doing well especially with the addition of mulch. I did find one caterpillar wrapped up among its leaves. The same caterpillar which I have been finding among many plants in my garden recently.

Oregano too is doing wonderfully on this soil and has been growing. Also found one or two caterpillars here but all is well besides that.

The two Lilium LA Hybrid plants are doing well and have put on some flower buds. The third one was nipped off by my doggy and will not flower.

I planted one calendula seedling here just to see if it will survive the soil here. As last two days were scorching, it withered in the heat. However, with constant watering and application of Seasol, it is doing fine and will bounce back in the evening. If this one does well, I will probably plant a few more seedlings into this soil.