My July to do list

Welcome to the first day of July! (Well it was the first day, but then I got busy doing other things!!!)

I've been sitting down thinking about everything that needs looking at in the garden and thought I'd share my to do list, maybe it will inspire you too.

* Asparagus need attention. At this time of year a lot of the fronds on the asparagus have died down. Now is the time to chop them all back and re pot or feed them for the coming season. I discovered last year that they respond well to a good layer of new composted and composted manure. I also build up the soil level over them as it tends to drop through the year and they grow thicker growing up through more soil.
*The bananas are looking a little untidy, the wind is up and the dead leaves are blowing the trees around. It's time to prune off the dead leaves and have a look if there are any excess suckers coming up that need removing. Ideally I try to keep just one leader in the group and two followers, any additional take to much energy from them. I've also got a bunch of bananas on one cluster. Removing the flower once the bunch is established also helps conserve energy and prevents visiting bats attracted by the flower nectar. I normally hesitate to do this as I love watching the birds that come daily after the nectar as well, but there's a new flower about to open so the old one can go.

Banana flower needing removing to allow bananas to put their energy into the bunch.

Spring bulbs I'm hoping to get planted early this month.

*I'm a bit late for spring bulbs, but I haven't yet missed my opportunity. We'll be putting them into the small wicking beds around our new pergola for a bit of colour.
*The jerusalem artichokes have had their flowers die down a while ago now and have been awaiting me digging them up for eating. This is my first time trying these and I'm excited to see how they've gone. I'll eat some of the tubers and keep some for replanting which can happen now.
*The ginger plants have died down last month, and that's the sign that they are ready to harvest. They can be left in the ground for a while, but they get 'hotter' in flavour the longer they are in, and come spring they will shoot again. As I'm not a fan of really spicy, I tend to dig them up sometime in July. Again, some for me and some for replanting.
*The turmeric is beginning to die down now as well. Related to the ginger family, I'm going to treat them in the same way. Harvest this month and keep some for replanting.
 There's probably a whole heap more that will get attention this month, but I figure that's a good starting list.
What's on your to do list this month?

what have I been doing with my time???

Gee, I can't believe as I look at this that it's been 3 months since my last post. This is not because I'm too busy, although I have been up to stuff, it's often because I don't think things I'm up to are all that interesting, or I've been working on a new project and I think I should have all the details together before I post it. Well, enough procratination, here's the update on recent stuff, at least the bits I'm excited enough to mention.

Firstly, I'm pleased to say my chickens have resumed laying. I've noticed a pattern over the last few years. They always begin to lay again, just after the winter solstice which for us was the 21st of June this year. It took about a week before the first egg appeared. Unfortunately it would appear that only one of my chooks is laying though, and this was the case before they stopped for the winter, so my thoughts have been straying towards getting another, although I am concerned about whether I can just introduce a stranger to their little group. If you're reading this and you've got any tips for making the transition easy for them please let me know. I recently spent a day at a friends home and was amazed at the wonderful chickens she had and my husband was inspired by her idea for raising guinea fowl as babies with baby chickens.

I've not planted much this winter, just one lot of broad beans and some peas, with the peas giving me my first small harvest today. The choko vines have continued to keep giving me the occassional choko, and from the rest of the garden, a few bell peppers, lots of chillis, a pile of ginger, lots of gooseberries and even some waterchestnuts. Spring has started to warm the garden and my peach, nectarine and plum have donned their first green sprigs and delicate flowers. Even the citrus have joined in, with my new baby lemonade tree even in flower for it's first time.  The rain has kept everything green, and my blueberries have never been happier.

 Winter has also been a time for getting jobs done in the garden that I'd hesitate to tackle during the heat of summer here. The neighbour has cut down and cut back lots of overgrown trees and let the sunshine into areas of my garden that have been really dark until now. Spurred on by the sunshine we've cleared some overhanging branches and had a big tidy up as well. The old shed has been moved onto a concrete pad that was on the other side of the house and had two sets of old metal shelves we've had for years assembled inside to give me great storage for all my gardening bits. And we've put up some great fencing that we got second hand at a bargain price to replace the holey fencing that was previously around that side of the house as well. As much as my chickens haven't tried to escape through it for some time, I've been concerned that it isn't much protection for them from dogs wandering around the neighbourhood. In tandem with digging holes for the fencing I've pulled out a lot of the singapore daisy that's got out of control here too. There's still a heap more to get out, but I've at least halved it. Everytime I pass the area now I look for any new little shoots popping up that I might have missed. It's time consuming but it's the only way I know to get rid of it. Again, if you're reading this and you've got any organic suggestions for eradicating this weed please let me know as I still have days, if not weeks of weeding ahead of me at this point.

At the other end of the garden my garden beds are undergoing a transformation. To date my gardens have started as 'no dig' beds and then after a crop has been grown, the chook pen would be moved on top, and the girls would work in lots of sugarcane mulch as they dug around searching for seeds and bugs, then left to rest after having some extra compost worked in, ready for their next crop. The system has been great except for a couple of draw backs. During summer these garden beds get large amounts of direct sunlight and watering once a day isn't enough. At times when their is no one to water them each day I've lost many new seedlings and the daily drought then flood at watering time has resulted in poorer production. So this winter I've taken time from the gardening to create new garden beds that I hope will solve this problem, but more on this when I've finished and got photos etc ready to post.

And just to finish off, I was delighted to find a big green frog in the garden. I haven't seen one for quite a while.

New Birdie finally gets a home

For my birthday this year in January my parents gave me a Birdie. For all those not familiar with them this is a self assemble (luckily they'd already put it together for me) raised corrugated colourbond garden bed. The one they've given me is the same size as the ones they have been using with really great success, about a metre squared.
At the time I had no idea where I would like to put it in my garden plans so I just put it to one side, and ended up using it like a temporary compost bin until I could decide where it would live more permanently. Since then it has had all sorts of garden debris added, the occasional kitchen scraps, and even an "in the garden" worm farm (although no worms yet). The compost has broken down so quickly and I've overfilled it several times now.

Yesterday, after a fairly rainy week it was down to about two thirds in height again, and with the rest of the garden a little out of control, I decided to use it to plant out my the tumeric and extra ginger plants I'd struck into small pots over the last few months as they were starting to put down roots into the ground below the pots, and if I'm going to get any real harvest from them, I've only got a few months left at best.

My collection of garlic, tumeric and ginger I've managed to strike.

 So I topped the garden up all the way with a mixture of potting mix, composted manure and the leftovers from my abandoned worm garden and planted away.
I also popped in a couple of Pepino's I'd bought recently. Previously I had Pepino's growing in the front yard, but although they got a couple of fruit, they weren't very successful there (much drier area, lots of eucalytus leaves from big eucalypt overhead) and all but one have died back. I have to confess here, these new Pepino's came from a moment of weakness, when I also bought a punnet of coriander, two punnets of beans and a couple of comfrey plants which had now been sitting on the back verandah for two weeks.
In a last desperate act before sundown, I've also added the coriander to the new garden in the corners and a few of the bean plants (not the climbing type). The rest of the beans went into the top garden where the snake bean is now on it's last, but I didn't want to rip out it's climbing frame yet as the choko vine has taken it over. It may be important to note here that the beans may not make it, when I said desparate before I didn't mention the driving incentive came from the fact that my chickens had eaten every bit of leaf off them while sunning themselves on the deck! Not to worry, we'll still give them a go.

And the comfrey, well it's still sitting there waiting for my next day off. I have plans for another banana garden area...

One of the many chokos growing. The vines have taken over everything!

The bean eating culprits, not looking remorseful at all!

January Garden Update, it's all about multiplication...

My poor gardens have been so neglected of late. With the longer trading hours at work over the leadup until Christmas, and a lot of time spent inside the house to get things done ready to received visitors (my lovely sister and her kids) I haven't spent much time at all out in the garden.
Many of the seedlings I'd struck had grown too oversized and pot bound to be able to transplant into the garden. The gardens themselves had become overgrown with weeds and grass and the chickens had dug up anything that looked half decent! So just over a week ago I started the clean up. Out with the strangled seedlings (actually into the compost heap). All pots cleaned and stacked up ready for my next try. I'm pleased to say as I look around my garden, that much of what I've planted recently has been the offspring of last years plants, and my numbers are increasing.

Most of the ginger plants (I'm proud to say I've about 18 plants from last years roots, which started from 1 plant the first year and became 4 last year) planted out into one of the garden beds (new philosophy, not enough spare time to keep this many garden beds going with changing crops) where they will sit happily now for between 6 to 18 months. I normally like to harvest my ginger around August as the leaves die down, but these may not have had enough time in the ground by then to develop good sized roots. They've been given a good sprinkling of "Rooster Booster" to help get them kickstarted in the hopes of getting a great surprise come this winter, but the books all say they need at least 12 months, so we'll see.

The new Ginger bed, 15 plants here

I purchased some Tumeric roots from a fresh food market held near work each Wednesday and they had started to sprout so I popped some into pots to see if I could get them to grow and I'm thrilled to say I have at least one that has pushed up it's first leaf. I had already purchased a Tumeric plant last year along with a couple of Galangal plants (these two are both related to Ginger and given my success with that I figured I'd give them a go). I had wanted to buy more as they are a nice green plant with beautiful leaves, and they seem happy enough to grow in the garden under my giant Ghost Gum where not much else is thriving, but a little bag of roots for $3 seemed like a more cost effective way to get them going than $15 plants.
I weeded and tidied up another of the two garden beds near to the one now containing the ginger. They needed quite a bit of work as the chickens had slowly spread them almost flat. One has been planted out with my peanuts I'd struck from seed from the plants I'd bought last year (two original plants become about a dozen). These too had become seriously pot bound so I'm hoping I haven't left it too long to get some results from them.

Peanut shrub

In the clean up of the garden beds I dug up a couple of tomatoes that have sprung up and transplanted them into a better position near the fence line so I can tie them up and hopefully have a little more control over them as they grow! Each year since I first planted cherry tomatoes I've had them come up all over the place, many I just rip out as weeds, some I take pitty on as they seem so strong and healthy, letting them develop where they sit, only to get frustrated when they overtake other plants in the bed, so this time I'm determined to be the one in control!
To top off my gardening exploits, I put in some french beans in the third bed (my others were all dug up by the chooks in one of their escapades), some peas along the fence line, and lastly a few marigolds dotted around, just for good measure.

French Beans on the way

Reading this it sounds like everything in the garden came to a holt, but as I look around my bananas have grown, and look about ready to pick the first bunches,

 my snake beans have been producing steadily, my spinach has somehow survived the incredible heat through summer and it still going, the rosella seedlings are now about 2 foot high and growing quickly with recent rains,

One of the Rosellas

the Purple prince chilli that stayed no more than a seedling for the last 12 months has actually grown only a little but produced it's first chillies,

The purple prince, worth the wait

the water chestnuts have multiplied as well, quietly growing from last seasons bulbs I kept and put into another tray in the pond in the hope of getting enough to be able to move some into a new pond sometime this year,

The water chestnuts will start to die off ready for harvest

the gooseberries are growing some leaves back after the beetle problems left them stripped, the cuttings from the Brunsfelia (Yesterday, today and tomorrow bush) are holding their own, the raspberries are shooting canes up everywhere, the pineapples have produced new leaves,

the fig has 3 fruit on it, the lemonade tree is loaded down with fruit,

new growth one the potted citrus, the new paw paw has grown noticably,

there's frog eggs in the pond,


Those white bubbles are frogs eggs

 and the purple passionfruit has set fruit and the local pair of curlews have hatched two babies.

This protective parent has both chicks under her wings.

It all leaves me with hope that even without my contant input, things still have a way of getting slowly better.

Ginger

I've been patiently waiting for what seemed to be the appropriate time to harvest my ginger. I bought a Thai ginger plant some time last year & following the instructions stuck it somewhere where it wouldn't hurt for it to become prolific, sat back & Googled some directions on what to do with it. According to one source (I'm sorry I can't quote it as it was some time ago now, and at the time I never dreamed I would be writing about it) I could "harvest" it anytime from about April through till almost September, but leaving it longer apparently results in the ginger being hotter. The tell tale sign of when to dig up the fragrant roots coincides with the leaves yellowing off & turning brown. I'm not one for overly 'hot' dishes, so I didn't want to wait too long, but my leaves didn't seem to want to change colour either. So I've been waiting & waiting for a sign. Today was the day! Yellow leaves from the tips. And then, it poured rain!!!!Not one to be detered, especially after waiting forever, I took the opportunity presented by a break in the downpour & off I went.

Wow, nothing could have prepared me for the amount of roots I got from my one little plant, all hidden under a canopy of leaf fall, & just waiting to be snapped freshly off. I washed the excess dirt off, and ideally would have liked to dry them out in the sun, but it's not to be today, so instead I brought them inside to rest on a teatowel & dry out.

In addition, today was special as we had our new home stay daughter (high school children who come to study english from overseas) and her sister come to stay at the shack overnight. Today, regardless of the rain, we went for a walk along the beaches, and had a pasta for lunch topped with fabulous tomato & herb mixture(basil, parsley, rocket, garlic chives) picked fresh straight out of the garden. It's moments like these I feel rewarded for the work that has gone in and look forward to making it a larger part of my everyday life.