Rain, rain, and more rain

It's been raining heavily for the last three days which means I've been unable to get much done in the garden this past weekend. It was raining on my last day off as well. The grass that only a month ago was dried, dead and brown, is now flourishing at knee height. The only plants wilting now are those that are drowning. It's amazing how much the weather and climate can change so quickly.

A fortnight ago, after we had the first lot of deluge I pulled out the cucumber plants which had been flourishing happily in the number one wicker bed up till that first rain. They thrived, protected from the worst of the heat with a shade cloth canopy, and had enough constant access to water via the wicker bed setup, but kept free from water directly on the leaves. My first successful cucumbers! No problems with powdery mildew, no problems with them becoming dried out from lack of water. They were perfect, and delivered a bountiful crop of white cucumbers until the rain came. With the constant wet weather came the powdery mildew, and then the vine in it's weakened state fell victim to an invasion of bad (24 spot) ladybugs and their hungry offspring. I decided to cut my losses and pulled them out. Out too came the first crop of peanuts, perhaps in retrospect a little early, but I still have enough to be able to use some of the crop to replant and go again, and some for a little snack. In their place have been planted a variety of lettuce seedlings and asian greens from seed.  A fornight later the seedlings have sprouted and will soon need to be thinned out.

The chickens were moved off wicking bed number two, and onto bed three, which was already sporting a thick cover of green manure ready to delight the chooks and nourish my soon to be next planting area.
Wicking bed two has been planted out with some snake beans grown from seeds I'd struck from last seasons crop, some tomatoes and basil, edged with the rest of my peanut seedlings and accompanied by some parsley. About a week ago I also popped in some dwarf bean seeds, a mixed of borlotti and butter among others, and some beetroot. I have to say that I think the seeds may have been too old, because nothing has shown itself yet. I have to admit, I'm not feeling positive, given that beans and normally really quick to show.

On the positive, the rosellas I planted out have all settled in really well courtesy of the rain. So too has the sweet potatoes I'd started from slips from others I'd grown. These are outside the wicker beds in the ground gardens created by the retaining walls I've built to level the garden for the wicker beds to sit flat. Older plants like the pawpaw (papaya) and the artichoke that I thought had all but died off in the dry, have been given a new lease of life by the rain and are coming back strong. All sorts of things are popping up, including lots of self seeded parsley, nastursiums and even some basil right at the back door.

The first bananas were cut down a fortnight ago as well, and finally today have started to show a flash of yellow, indicating they are about to ripen. I find once one starts, they whole bunch follow suit really quickly. So hopefully Thursday will see me with some fresh home grown bananas, and by that night a well stocked supply in the freezer ready to use in home made icecream.
Today I also picked the one pineapple that had grown this season. It looked a little the worse for wear today, and when I went to investigate I discovered the base was aready blushing golden on it's way to being ripe.

In all lots coming along nicely. I am keen to make sure the three wicker beds really prove their worth over the next seasons, although with this rain, I wonder why I even needed them in the first place. How's your garden surviving the wet, or are you somewhere where you're still battling the heat and dry?

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.