Thursday, December 9, 2010
This is on my mind...
Saturday, November 27, 2010
We were lucky to inherit some established plants with our shack when we bought it. However we've slowly been building up a collection of fruit trees over the last year in order to have our own good supply of fruit in the future. It's hard being patient, knowing that these little seedlings in some cases won't provide fruit for up to five years. Looking back at pictures of the Jaboticaba & the Lychee, these don't seem to have grown at all! But to my surprise, my nectarine, which has only been in a year has blessed us with our first fruits (a grand total of 3!) And one of our little apple seedlings is trying valiantly for it's first apple after only a year in the ground as well. Some have given us small rewards, the mulberry has managed a few berries, even though it's barely more than an upright stick with a couple of leaves, the raspberry did the same & then died off, only to shoot up again this year. Others like the Cape gooseberry has provided us with lots of berries & is covered in fruit again already. Of the vines, the kiwi fruit started off strong, but went into hibernation for winter & have only just started to show leaves again. According to the info I read on them, we may not see fruit on this for a few years yet. The grape cuttings given to me by a local friend failed miserably, with me only succeeding in keeping just one alive, and just recently planted out in to the garden. The grape we bought got off to a great start & then disappeared into the belly of the most amazing grubs and didn't really recover again last season, but this year it's been reborn & has lovely green leaves promising hope. The purple passionfruit gave us a dozen or so fruits last year while the red panama one barely grew. We've also put in the shrubby type fruits like blueberries and pepinos, which have given me a one off harvest. Recently we've added a collection of citrus trees, which for the time being are in pots while we decide where they'll live best for the long term. When asked recently what we have now I found it hard to remember them all so here's the list of what's permanent in the garden now;
Lemonade tree (existing when we moved in)
2 x Mango trees (existing when we moved in)
Macadamia tree (existing when we moved in)
2 x subtropical suitable Apple trees
2 x subtropical suitable Pear trees
Lychee
Jaboticaba
Black Mulberry
Brown Turkey Fig
Black Fig
Peach
Nectarine
2 x Cherry trees
Kiwi vines
Banana passionfruit
Red passionfruit
Mandarine
Tangerine
Navel Orange
Cape Gooseberry
2 x Banana trees
2 x Banana trees
3 x Pepinos
3 x Blueberries
1 x Meyer Lemon
1 x Lime
1 x Cherry Guava
1 x Loquat
1 x Tamarillo
2 x Grapes
18 x Strawberries
Many great fruit salads ahead I hope!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
A busy little day
Today was another quick day, with just a limited time spent in the garden. Most of the time was spent putting in another couple of posts for our new fence. A fence to keep the vegies in & the chickens out, without all the mess of mismatched odd bits of chook fence, an entire collection of assorted shapes & types of stakes holding it up all attached by bits of wire, cable ties & left over bits of string. I really would like to think I can have a vegetable garden & a neat back yard as well, and I'm hoping this fencing will form a great frame work for making that happen.
There was a lot of thought that went into the design of the new fence. It needed to be fairly cheap as money to spend on it was limited. It needed to be able to be adapted to allow the chook pen to still move in & out as we rotate it around the finished garden beds. It needed to look good as the finished product occupies a fair bit of our land space. And it needs to last a while. After a bit of of compromise we came up with the finished concept, and I'm really happy with it.
At first I wasn't keen on using treated wood for the framework and posts, but hardwood was going to be too expensive, quite heavy & not readily available nearby to purchase, and we couldn't really spare the extra to do a metal fence this time around. The design was based on our external fence, which is a Bunning's DIY job. It was great for giving us the feeling that the yard remained open, but kept the visiting children in, safe & sound. The new fence consists of panels in the same way, which can be bolted on or taken off fairly simply to allow easy access to bring the chook pen in. It's been fairly inexpensive with each panel being made up of just 3 180cm fence palings, one cut in half to form the sides & the other two used as the top & bottom railing. We then stapled the existing chook wire to the frame work. These panels are then attached to posts. The panels were aligned with the existing garden beds, and are just wide enough to allow the chook pen to fit through the gap when removed. Between the garden beds where there were existing trees instead of garden beds we've made a couple of fixed panels & also a couple of gates for easy access daily.
In addition to this I started to sort out all my old seedling and plant pots. To date I haven't used them for a while as I started to find it just as productive to plant most of the seeds directly into the gardens, but I may have another little project coming up & if all goes well I might just need these again.
There was a lot of thought that went into the design of the new fence. It needed to be fairly cheap as money to spend on it was limited. It needed to be able to be adapted to allow the chook pen to still move in & out as we rotate it around the finished garden beds. It needed to look good as the finished product occupies a fair bit of our land space. And it needs to last a while. After a bit of of compromise we came up with the finished concept, and I'm really happy with it.
In addition to this I started to sort out all my old seedling and plant pots. To date I haven't used them for a while as I started to find it just as productive to plant most of the seeds directly into the gardens, but I may have another little project coming up & if all goes well I might just need these again.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Yet another rainy garden day!!!
Today marked another day off for me, and yet another day in the garden while it poured rain the whole time.
We started the day with a trip to our favourite nursery where we purchased a Tahitian Lime ( a dwarf grafted variety) and a Meyer Lemon (another dwarf). We also picked up another Blueberry taking my total now to three. I also got another six pacific blue eyed fish to go into the pond, as the last lot I bought coincidentally disappeared with the appearance of two Ibis strategically resting beside the pond ($60 worth of rainbow perch, an expensive fish dinner).
The citrus have now been potted up along with the left over as yet unpotted Mandarin from a few weeks ago, complete with some strawberries & alysumm around the stem, and the Blueberry put into the ground in front of one of the 'fixed' panel parts of my new garden fence.
In addition to this I picked up & planted a dozen corn seedlings right near the pond area. My success with corn hasn't been great, the first lot didn't get enough water, the last lot grew well, and really healthy looking, formed what looked to be perfect cobs, only to find that they were hollow inside after little bugs (I guess they would have been something related to weevils) had moved in & gobbled up the insides. On a positive note, a large number of tiny green frogs also were living well & happy amongst it, even though we didn't have a water source nearby. So my hope is that this lot of corn will provide at least some protection for the tadpoles as they emerge as tiny frogs, and give them somewhere to hide from the local fish eating Ibis. The corn if it works this time, will just be a bonus.
I've put in some Cos lettuce (my favorite especially for Cesear salads in summer) and some Bok choi in what was the sweet potato bed that had been overun with cherry tomatoes. The sweet potatoes had all been removed & dug up. Actually that's an overstatement! When I say 'all', it was actually just one! An entire garden bed, thriving shoots above ground, plenty of time to grow and almost nothing to show for it. I did however find at least a dozen or more big (really really big) witchety grubs living there, so I'm wondering if the lack of potatoes may have something to do with these guys? I don't know enough about them to be sure.
Finally, I planted some basil out in the front herb garden, near the Artichokes I planted a while back. My first basil plants grew to gigantic proportions in the 'no dig' layered garden bed, but I've not had the same success since. After some research it would seem that Basil isn't partial to chook manure, which would explain why it hasn't thrived in my 'chook maintained' garden beds. I've put it in near the Artichokes as I've found out a few weeks back from watching ABC's Gardening program, they like a feed with sheep manure & potash, so hopefully it will appeal to the Basil too. Also this garden isn't part of the chook rotation & doesn't get 'turned over' by the chooks when they free range around the yard.
There were still some more punnets of seedlings I didn't get too, but they have to wait until my next day off, along with the promised photos!
We started the day with a trip to our favourite nursery where we purchased a Tahitian Lime ( a dwarf grafted variety) and a Meyer Lemon (another dwarf). We also picked up another Blueberry taking my total now to three. I also got another six pacific blue eyed fish to go into the pond, as the last lot I bought coincidentally disappeared with the appearance of two Ibis strategically resting beside the pond ($60 worth of rainbow perch, an expensive fish dinner).
The citrus have now been potted up along with the left over as yet unpotted Mandarin from a few weeks ago, complete with some strawberries & alysumm around the stem, and the Blueberry put into the ground in front of one of the 'fixed' panel parts of my new garden fence.
In addition to this I picked up & planted a dozen corn seedlings right near the pond area. My success with corn hasn't been great, the first lot didn't get enough water, the last lot grew well, and really healthy looking, formed what looked to be perfect cobs, only to find that they were hollow inside after little bugs (I guess they would have been something related to weevils) had moved in & gobbled up the insides. On a positive note, a large number of tiny green frogs also were living well & happy amongst it, even though we didn't have a water source nearby. So my hope is that this lot of corn will provide at least some protection for the tadpoles as they emerge as tiny frogs, and give them somewhere to hide from the local fish eating Ibis. The corn if it works this time, will just be a bonus.
I've put in some Cos lettuce (my favorite especially for Cesear salads in summer) and some Bok choi in what was the sweet potato bed that had been overun with cherry tomatoes. The sweet potatoes had all been removed & dug up. Actually that's an overstatement! When I say 'all', it was actually just one! An entire garden bed, thriving shoots above ground, plenty of time to grow and almost nothing to show for it. I did however find at least a dozen or more big (really really big) witchety grubs living there, so I'm wondering if the lack of potatoes may have something to do with these guys? I don't know enough about them to be sure.
Finally, I planted some basil out in the front herb garden, near the Artichokes I planted a while back. My first basil plants grew to gigantic proportions in the 'no dig' layered garden bed, but I've not had the same success since. After some research it would seem that Basil isn't partial to chook manure, which would explain why it hasn't thrived in my 'chook maintained' garden beds. I've put it in near the Artichokes as I've found out a few weeks back from watching ABC's Gardening program, they like a feed with sheep manure & potash, so hopefully it will appeal to the Basil too. Also this garden isn't part of the chook rotation & doesn't get 'turned over' by the chooks when they free range around the yard.
There were still some more punnets of seedlings I didn't get too, but they have to wait until my next day off, along with the promised photos!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
A Rainy day's gardening
We spent my day off this week making some new plant purchases, followed by lunch with my parents and then finally when it began to pour rain, we got around to putting the plants in. I was determined, rain or not to get everything we purchased planted as often I buy seedlings and then don't get around to planting them, and come my next day off they are laying dead, eaten or gone to seed!
We had a fairly big buy up this time, as I am behind in my gardens & spring has already well & truly sprung! Knowing that time would be limited I decided not to raise my own seedlings from scratch although I have had ok success with this before (some people have said that they find it really hard to grow from seed), and just bought in a variety of bits I wanted.
Last week on my day off I managed to get my seeded sebago potatoes (these have been waiting to plant out so long that the pontiac's I bought at the same time have actually already been harvested!) I don't know how successful they'll end up being after all this time, but they've grown about a foot in height in the week & are looking good. Last week I also put in 4 zucchini & 4 squash seedlings (I was hesitant as I've failed miserably with these to date!) which are still surviving although not looking like they've grown any. Part of the reason I think I've failed with these before is probably lack of pollination, because the flowers grow, but no vegies result. To assist with this, I've planted some alyssum and a couple of nasturtium seedlings around them in the hope of attracting the bees.
Near this garden is a big ghost gum in front of which I've been piling up a bit of a compost heap. Into this I've dug a couple of small holes that have been filled with a mixture of worm tea soaked coir & rich potting mix and then planted with cucumber. Again I've popped in some nasturtium seedlings to keep these company. I'm not sure whether it will be successful or not, as the tree does seem to leach goodness away from anything near it, but the ground has slowly been getting richer so fingers crossed! On the other side of the tree I've popped in some rosella's. My nanna use to grow them & make jam, but the last of her bushes died off & she had no more seed left, so it's a bit of nostalgia more than anything that's behind this.
Along the fence line I've put in 4 rockmelon seedlings, two either side of the raspberry canes. Eventually I want this space exclusively for raspberries, but in the meantime I figure I may as well use the area.
To the herb garden in the front yard today I've added; lemon thyme, coriander, a curry plant & 4 butter lettuce seedlings ( I have had good success with lettuce amongst the herbs out front before so I figured I'd give them a go there again).
We bought a tangerine, an orange and a tangelo tree & have planted them into big black plastic tubs for the time being until hubby finishes the garden fencing and then they'll probably be planted along what will one day be the driveway to the garage. For the time being the pots should be big enough to give them plenty of room to grow. I've underplanted two of these with a couple of strawberries and some alyssum to attrack the bees once they start to flower.
I've also put in more rhubard ( this is my third lot & it keeps dying off). This time I've put some into the herb garden and some more near the lemonade tree and some into my original eggplant patch. Now we wait & see...
Unfortunately no pictures because of the rain, but hopefully when the weekend comes I can get some shots of everything progressing nicely.
We had a fairly big buy up this time, as I am behind in my gardens & spring has already well & truly sprung! Knowing that time would be limited I decided not to raise my own seedlings from scratch although I have had ok success with this before (some people have said that they find it really hard to grow from seed), and just bought in a variety of bits I wanted.
Last week on my day off I managed to get my seeded sebago potatoes (these have been waiting to plant out so long that the pontiac's I bought at the same time have actually already been harvested!) I don't know how successful they'll end up being after all this time, but they've grown about a foot in height in the week & are looking good. Last week I also put in 4 zucchini & 4 squash seedlings (I was hesitant as I've failed miserably with these to date!) which are still surviving although not looking like they've grown any. Part of the reason I think I've failed with these before is probably lack of pollination, because the flowers grow, but no vegies result. To assist with this, I've planted some alyssum and a couple of nasturtium seedlings around them in the hope of attracting the bees.
Near this garden is a big ghost gum in front of which I've been piling up a bit of a compost heap. Into this I've dug a couple of small holes that have been filled with a mixture of worm tea soaked coir & rich potting mix and then planted with cucumber. Again I've popped in some nasturtium seedlings to keep these company. I'm not sure whether it will be successful or not, as the tree does seem to leach goodness away from anything near it, but the ground has slowly been getting richer so fingers crossed! On the other side of the tree I've popped in some rosella's. My nanna use to grow them & make jam, but the last of her bushes died off & she had no more seed left, so it's a bit of nostalgia more than anything that's behind this.
Along the fence line I've put in 4 rockmelon seedlings, two either side of the raspberry canes. Eventually I want this space exclusively for raspberries, but in the meantime I figure I may as well use the area.
To the herb garden in the front yard today I've added; lemon thyme, coriander, a curry plant & 4 butter lettuce seedlings ( I have had good success with lettuce amongst the herbs out front before so I figured I'd give them a go there again).
We bought a tangerine, an orange and a tangelo tree & have planted them into big black plastic tubs for the time being until hubby finishes the garden fencing and then they'll probably be planted along what will one day be the driveway to the garage. For the time being the pots should be big enough to give them plenty of room to grow. I've underplanted two of these with a couple of strawberries and some alyssum to attrack the bees once they start to flower.
I've also put in more rhubard ( this is my third lot & it keeps dying off). This time I've put some into the herb garden and some more near the lemonade tree and some into my original eggplant patch. Now we wait & see...
Unfortunately no pictures because of the rain, but hopefully when the weekend comes I can get some shots of everything progressing nicely.
Monday, August 2, 2010
What's in a name?
You may be wondering how I came by the name PrincessScarecrow for my blog. It was coined by a good friend. We worked together in a previous life, during the highlight of my "princess" years. We stayed in contact & shared lots of lifes little ups & downs, and for her a succession of awful men who never appreciated that she deserves to be treated like a princess.
I'm a firm believer that every girl who chooses to have a man in her life needs a man who will treat her like a princess. By this for all the women screaming 'we can do it for ourselves', I mean someone who will treat her as special, above all others, and show her respect at all times. Unfortunately there seems to have been a lack of these in her life.
We were again building on the princess theory during my friends first visit to my little shack, where I'm sure she was amazed at the transformation my thinking (and dressing) had undergone. Always one to accept just who I am, or what I choose to do, she never made much comment. However after posting the below image to my facebook the following week after a stroll on a new stretch of muddy beach during an extremely low tide, I think she couldn't stay silent any longer and the title Princess Scarecrow was bestowed.
I'm a firm believer that every girl who chooses to have a man in her life needs a man who will treat her like a princess. By this for all the women screaming 'we can do it for ourselves', I mean someone who will treat her as special, above all others, and show her respect at all times. Unfortunately there seems to have been a lack of these in her life.
We were again building on the princess theory during my friends first visit to my little shack, where I'm sure she was amazed at the transformation my thinking (and dressing) had undergone. Always one to accept just who I am, or what I choose to do, she never made much comment. However after posting the below image to my facebook the following week after a stroll on a new stretch of muddy beach during an extremely low tide, I think she couldn't stay silent any longer and the title Princess Scarecrow was bestowed.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Gardening Update
Only a short time to spend in the garden today as we’re off to lunch with friends. A quick round up this morning of any bits ready for picking.
Harvest today:
6 x Lemonade lemons
3 x Passionfruit
1 x Small Capsicum
9 x Gooseberries
A large pile of cherry tomatoes and another two nice large ones
The chickens have lain well again this week & I have a dozen eggs from them. They are laying 3 a day now (hold on, doing the maths on this, I think some may be disappearing to the helper gnomes home??)
Hubby has been keen for more of the lemons as he’s worked out they are great for making lemonade and I have to say, it tastes pretty great too. Up until about 6 weeks ago we were failing miserably with doing anything with the fruit from this tree. It was one of the few remaining trees left on the block and we assumed because of the shape of the green fruit that it was an orange tree (actually the picture on the top of the blog is fruit on the tree). We would wait patiently for the fruit to colour up, and of course it never turned orange. That got us suspicious so we did some research & found out it was a lemonade tree. Again we waited patiently for the fruit to turn golden yellow, but it would fall off rotten to the ground before this ever happened. We thought it must have been lacking minerals or water or even diseased although it looked pretty healthy. It had reached the point where even I had given up and had decided to let hubby dig it out & replace it with another new citrus. That was until just recently I discovered via comments on a gardening chat area that they recommend you pick this citrus when it’s just starting to show the first blush of yellow, that once it is yellow, it’s too late. Talk about ‘saved by the bell’. Not just the tree but us too. Imagine we would have been waiting years for another tree to get to this stage.
I would recommend this lemon to anyone who wants to be able to turn their lemons into a drink that doesn’t have the really tart bite of a real lemon tree. These are quite a bit sweeter and you don’t get the tart finish you relate to the aftertaste of a normal lemon.
Our fruit isn’t particularly attractive, it’s quite knobbly and they aren’t the quintessential shape you equate with a normal lemon, but once you’ve tasted them, you’ll forgive them their little bit of ugliness.
Harvest today:
6 x Lemonade lemons
3 x Passionfruit
1 x Small Capsicum
9 x Gooseberries
A large pile of cherry tomatoes and another two nice large ones
The chickens have lain well again this week & I have a dozen eggs from them. They are laying 3 a day now (hold on, doing the maths on this, I think some may be disappearing to the helper gnomes home??)
Hubby has been keen for more of the lemons as he’s worked out they are great for making lemonade and I have to say, it tastes pretty great too. Up until about 6 weeks ago we were failing miserably with doing anything with the fruit from this tree. It was one of the few remaining trees left on the block and we assumed because of the shape of the green fruit that it was an orange tree (actually the picture on the top of the blog is fruit on the tree). We would wait patiently for the fruit to colour up, and of course it never turned orange. That got us suspicious so we did some research & found out it was a lemonade tree. Again we waited patiently for the fruit to turn golden yellow, but it would fall off rotten to the ground before this ever happened. We thought it must have been lacking minerals or water or even diseased although it looked pretty healthy. It had reached the point where even I had given up and had decided to let hubby dig it out & replace it with another new citrus. That was until just recently I discovered via comments on a gardening chat area that they recommend you pick this citrus when it’s just starting to show the first blush of yellow, that once it is yellow, it’s too late. Talk about ‘saved by the bell’. Not just the tree but us too. Imagine we would have been waiting years for another tree to get to this stage.
I would recommend this lemon to anyone who wants to be able to turn their lemons into a drink that doesn’t have the really tart bite of a real lemon tree. These are quite a bit sweeter and you don’t get the tart finish you relate to the aftertaste of a normal lemon.
Our fruit isn’t particularly attractive, it’s quite knobbly and they aren’t the quintessential shape you equate with a normal lemon, but once you’ve tasted them, you’ll forgive them their little bit of ugliness.
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