Nov 2013

A very wet month is November, my area alone has had close to 90mm in 3 weeks. The ground is struggling to hold any more water an my backyard, as it has a slight angle on it, it does drain from the top down to my dry grass area on a retaining wall, which drains a little to well. We kind of recently installed a gutter on our pergola (why one was not already there I don't know) and fixed some drainage issues but not enough it seems to deal with the heavy delude we keep getting. This time of year the rain is FAT FAT drops.

In amongst all the rain I have managed tone quite productive. I have planted two different aubergine; Bonica & Mini Lebanese, the Bonica. Also planted was a Bush Crop cucumber as well as a mixed Sweet capsicum, green lettuce of a mystery variety and some sunflower seeds.

The tomatoes I planted are already flowering but I have picked most to get it to get strong stems.

My carrots are getting close to pulling and look great & so lush, I just with I could eat the greens from them. I have looked up what to do with them and composting seems to be the best solution.

Photo's below of corn, beans & sweet pea planted a while ago as well as my red cabbage, Thai chilli plant as well as seedlings planted this month.

I picked about 250 grams of chilli and topped the stems off, and blended with 150 grams coarse salt. Topped up with 250 grams rock salt and placed in glass jars to be used for cooking. Instant Chilli Salt
Enjoy

Oct 2013

October was a rather uneventful month in the garden for me. I planted two Tomato plants; Heirloom Orange and Black Russian. I tossed in some beetroot seeds for the second time in as many months and they too failed dismally. My marigolds are coming along nicely and should be flowering shortly. I pulled up my sugar snap peas as they were not doing so well and have prepared that area for spring/summer planting.

I have yet to decide what to plant I have just under 2SQ metres of space for veg for spring and summer, decisions. The mini white Cabbage that I planted are about 50% successful, It appears every second one is sacrificing it self for the one next to it. I have been diligently plucking of the green caterpillars and feeding them to the local birds. I planted six and will only be able to harvest two. One of which I have already eaten, made coleslaw. So now I have one left. I am unsure if I will grown cabbage again, at least white. It takes up a lot of room even the mini ones.

Here is a photo of one that gave it's life so another could live.

Sept 2013

September was a lovely month for some spring planting & more veggie bed preparation. A good lot of weeding and pruning was also had, with my new toy.

Along handled electric (corded) hedge trimmer; from you guessed it Bunning's the Ozito PHT410. It has a length of 2M, however the handle is solid and does not retract. Which is fine as it is quite sturdy. The head adjusts depending on what angle you need. I still had to use a small step ladder to get the top of my Star Jasmine to get it flat. For my first try at hedging with an electric implement I was pretty happy with the job overall.

I planted Sweet Corn and Butter Beans, I may have planted them a little to close, well actually in amongst each other. To use the corn as stabilisers for the beans.

I had Sweet Pea seeds so in they went as well, around the edge of the garden bed, nears the corn & beans. Too bring a little colour to the veggie bed. Can not wait for those to flower.

My little green friend the frog has returned this year which is nice to see, I was wondering where he got to. He has grown a bit and is living in my Swiss Chard. One must be careful when harvesting the Chard not to chop the frog.

My Snapdragon seeds I planted have not produced so much as a leaf. Might have to buy some already in a seedling tray.

August 2013 Update

It has been unseasonly warm here in Sydney and the early planting of cabbage has paid off. It is well on it's way. Carrots are in, Chantilly & Harelquin, with a scattering of radish. Baby beets are I also.

The strawberry plants I put in the hanging planters are looking good and have settled very nicely.i have a few more of the planters leftover, they have pre-cut holes for plants, just fill with soil and pop the plant in. I think more strawberries will have to be done this way. Perhaps throw some nasturtium in.

Having let the Pak choi go to flower and the local bees coming in each day, I have pulled them up and have the seed pods drying.

My mandarin is blooming & smeels devine, but with all the trouble it has had over the 18 months I've had it, I hope it fruits. Possums stripped it bark and all.


The front yard is filling with freesia's and jasmine, the scent of Spring well and truly in the air.

July 2013

Well to date July has been a good month for some preparation of my garden beds for spring planting. And a little side planting also.
A while ago I threw some horse manure directly onto one of the beds, oops. Forgot to read up on how to apply horse poo. I found out the hard way, best used in a compost bin to kill any seeds from the horse feed/manure, then use on your beds. Anyway I have a few little sprouts here & there but easy enough to control. I have been turning the bed every week to pull the lower dirt up and push the poo down. The worms get a little upset seeing daylight & all. Speaking of the worms they are fat fat fat. I am most amused by the fact that I never added worms to the garden beds, they just magically appeared. My guess is word got out that fresh new organic compost had appeared overnight and "life was good in that yard". Same with my compost bins. I'm still going to get a warm farm in the near future. Back to the horse manure.....

The rest I did place in my ready to use compost, I then left it another 2-3 weeks and it was good to go. I gave all my beds a good turning adding home made compost and my favourite mushroom compost and chook poo pellets.

Late June I planted out seedlings of silverbeet the coloured stem variety, this is also well known as chard. Red cabbage seedlings were also planted out. They are happy little seedlings, growing merrily.

I bought 2 strawberry plants last year, one a clumper (Nellie Kellie) and one that runs, I planted them all over the garden beds and throughout my yard in general. They have both grown quite well and were taking up a good quarter of one of the beds. It was time to split them up and repot. So a quick trip to my local Bunnings to get some pots to relocate the strawbs'. I did not go to the garden area, I went directly to the bucket isle and bought the 3 x 35 litre plastic tubs with handles, you know the one they come in many colours and are flexible..$3 each BARGIN. drilled some holes, add the compost and divide and conquer the strawberry plants . There were still so many plants left over I potted up 3 into terracotta pots I have strewn about the heard and reused old bought plant pots, so I also have 9 waiting to to in ground or off to a good home. They are even flowering just a week after being repotted. After replanting the little buggers I had to set up protection from the possums and critters that would pick me clean in a heartbeat if it was not all netted, caged & wired. So I took the opportunity to set up netting on my lemon tree and fig.

On a whim I planted some Sugar Snap Peas, I might be a bit early on that but let's wait & see. Tossed a few radish in also. But to e erythronium was happy planting in July. I finally pulled down my passion fruit plant. 2 years it had been growing, 2 years it was being eaten, yep those pesky possums. I even had this netted, but they got in. So no more passion fruit. At some point you must realise the local animals are just winning and let bygones be bygones.

June 2013

June was a particularly wet month in Sydney this year, but in amongst the wet days & nights there was a bit gardening accomplished.

I wanted to increase my fruit tree collection. I have a dwarf Kafir lime/lime tree, a Meyer lemon tree and a imperial mandarin tree. All of which the local nocturnal animals have had a go at ,be it eating the leaves or stripping the bark of the stem. I have not had to worry about birds eating my fruit as the possums stripped it all.

Back to what I just purchased, an apple tree, Pink Lady on dwarf stock and a yellow fig plant. Can't ait to watch them grow as they are nothing more than bare branches. I bought the apple as a bare root plant, put it in a 50 litre plastic tub with drainage holes drilled in the base. Staked on either side to stop any movement until a root ball forms. The yellow fig had the same treatment but in a smaller tub. Now I wait & watch.

Red cabbage and coloured chard as the label calls it, but we all know its really silverbeet, not spinach or chard, but silverbeet. That vegetable your mother would boil to death and serve with dinner that was almost grey by the time it was plonked on our plate. Thankfully I hold no ill will against my mum for overcooking veggies I ate as a kid. I will still plant & eat them.

The eggplant plants had a final harvest before getting the 'ol heave ho to make way for the winter/autumn crop. I got about 10kg of eggplant overall. I will grow again in summer I think.

Pak choi planted early in June are coming along nicely, though I do keep picking the smaller leaves for salads. White cabbage was planted at the same as the Pak choi, but Lordy knows that's month off

May 2013 - Getting ready for Winter

Well it has been a spectacular month for May in Sydney this year. Autumn has put on it’s finest. The sun shines every day; the sky is blue and the air crisp. The nights are chilly and the dew greets you every morning.

The weather reporters tried to predict rain in Sydney but as weather reporters are more often wrong than not. It was no surprise it did not rain.

I have been getting my garden beds ready for the upcoming winter. Late April saw the removal of the last of my Bush Beans. I aerated the soil, tossed in some cow manure and have basically let it sit for a few weeks. It still needs to have more compost added. My very bushy Thai basil got relocated as well to a better location for summer I do hope it survives winter. I also planted some of my flowering Pineapple Sage in what will now be known as the herb & flower bed. It gets minimal sun in winter but is good in summer as it gets the very early morning sun and mid morning but is shaded during the high heat of the day.

Another glorious Sydney day mid May & I relocated my strawberries. I seem to have plants & runners in every Garden Bed and stray pots. So after rounding up the little buggers I gave them all the same new home. However I given up some precious space in my Garden Bed to do this! I can see me relocating them again in a few months. At least I now have enough plants to actually get a decent crop on a daily basis next year.

I finally removed my Roma Tomato plant, it fruited but the result is green tomatoes. No matter how long I left them they did not ripen. Will have to find a new recipe for tomato chutney that uses green ones. Garden bed #1 still has Aubergines being prolific, there appears to 7 fruit and more on their way. I want to pull them out but while they are going so well and I have a great recipe for Tomato & Eggplant chutney I have decided to let them grow. At least for a few more weeks!

I have topped up my sad citrus’s with manure, shredded paper and compost. The lemon is flowering and the kaffir lime is showing new leaf growth. However it is the pup growing from the base that bothers me. The pup is growing off the grafted base plant. SNIP SNIP and that was gone. I don’t need a full size lime tree trying to take over my yard. I even went so far as to remove the wire I had wrapped around each plant to protect them form the local critters – possums my enemy – so far so good. No leaves or branches eaten yet.

I have decided to keep my passion fruit vine behind bird netting through winter and will decide its fate through spring. Will it flower, will it fruit, will the animals get at it again. Only time will tell.