You really know that summer is just around the corner when the harvest includes tomatoes, zucchini and nectarines. In the last 2 days I have picked about 15 cherry tomatoes from self-sown plants that are rambling in part of the vegie garden. They are coming up like weeds in between the zucchini as well as over near the blueberry bushes. I must get some full-sized tomato plants too. I picked a zucchini tonight which was the size of a pencil on Saturday before I went away for a couple of days but now is just over 400g - I used it to make a zucchini quiche which I popped in the oven while I was cooking tonight's dinner. I also picked about 30 nectarines. Some of the wildlife (scrub turkeys I suspect) have been having a nibble at some of them in the past couple of days so late this afternoon I grabbed a pile of my calico bags and have covered a lot of the fruit. Hopefully that will save most of them from being demolished. The nectarine, like most of the fruit trees is only 18 months old and has a great crop on it. The other nectarine and peach also have heaps of fruit but they will be a little later. I think it is partly the variety of tree but also because they are a bit more shaded and protected on the southern side of the house. I planted them all on purpose on the southern slope in the hope that it would be cold enough for them to set fruit. My experiment appears to have been successful so far. I did not pick any mulberries today apart from a handful to eat but there are plenty so I will make time to do that tomorrow. While I was surveying the garden I noticed that there are about 30 pumpkin seedlings growing in the fresh compost that we added to the empty garden bed. I need to transplant some of them to the 'snakepit' down below the fruit trees and am also going to give some to my sister.
It has been a few days since my last post. Yesterday was cold, grey and windy then we had 3mm rain early this morning. Still very windy - blowing from the south-east up the valley and quite cold for October in Queensland.
I have been picking lettuce each day for salads and sandwiches as well as more mulberries. Today I picked another bucket of avocadoes as well as a whole bok choy and some basil. I will use these with pumpkin and potato (previously harvested and currently stored on the verandah) to make Thai Red Pumpkin Curry for dinner. I will also make some basil pesto this afternoon.
Whilst strolling around the garden checking out everything I found 8 ripe cherry tomatoes (the first of the season) and also picked 7 blueberries. These are the
first produce from my bushes that I planted 18 months ago. I ate one (taste testing is essential) and have put the others in a container in the freezer. I will add more as they ripen and I pick them so hopefully will have enough to have blueberry pancakes and muffins.
The snow peas seem to be struggling - I don't think they like the wind but everything else is doing well. The beetroot are growing nicely, there are a couple of zucchinis on the bushes so I will have to watch them so that they don't end up giant-sized. I am also watching the nectarines closely as some of them are now quite a good size and red but they are still firm at the moment.
When I was up the back picking the avocadoes I checked the bunch of bananas and a couple are just starting to colour so it won't be long and that will come down and get hung under the house to finish ripening. There was a pawpaw skin on the ground so obviously the possums/bats have had a snack. I don't mind too much since I picked 3 the other day. I must go and chop the last one up and make some fruit salad for dessert.
Away from food and on to other parts of the garden. There are several flowers on the roses - deep red one and also the yellow rose. This probably nothing to some of you but this is not really rose growing country so quite an achievement especially since we don't take a lot of care of them. Clumps of hippiastrums have appeared randomly through the garden - it is always a surprise when they appear. The clivea and also hibiscus are flowering, most of the azaleas are almost finished and the NSW Christmas bush is looking a treat - covered in white flowers and it won't be long until all the red foliage is out. The swamp cypress, liquidamber and cedar trees are all covered in new leaf. The cycles and renewal of the garden is a constant source of wonder and amazement to me.
I have been picking lettuce each day for salads and sandwiches as well as more mulberries. Today I picked another bucket of avocadoes as well as a whole bok choy and some basil. I will use these with pumpkin and potato (previously harvested and currently stored on the verandah) to make Thai Red Pumpkin Curry for dinner. I will also make some basil pesto this afternoon.
Whilst strolling around the garden checking out everything I found 8 ripe cherry tomatoes (the first of the season) and also picked 7 blueberries. These are the
first produce from my bushes that I planted 18 months ago. I ate one (taste testing is essential) and have put the others in a container in the freezer. I will add more as they ripen and I pick them so hopefully will have enough to have blueberry pancakes and muffins.
The snow peas seem to be struggling - I don't think they like the wind but everything else is doing well. The beetroot are growing nicely, there are a couple of zucchinis on the bushes so I will have to watch them so that they don't end up giant-sized. I am also watching the nectarines closely as some of them are now quite a good size and red but they are still firm at the moment.
When I was up the back picking the avocadoes I checked the bunch of bananas and a couple are just starting to colour so it won't be long and that will come down and get hung under the house to finish ripening. There was a pawpaw skin on the ground so obviously the possums/bats have had a snack. I don't mind too much since I picked 3 the other day. I must go and chop the last one up and make some fruit salad for dessert.
Away from food and on to other parts of the garden. There are several flowers on the roses - deep red one and also the yellow rose. This probably nothing to some of you but this is not really rose growing country so quite an achievement especially since we don't take a lot of care of them. Clumps of hippiastrums have appeared randomly through the garden - it is always a surprise when they appear. The clivea and also hibiscus are flowering, most of the azaleas are almost finished and the NSW Christmas bush is looking a treat - covered in white flowers and it won't be long until all the red foliage is out. The swamp cypress, liquidamber and cedar trees are all covered in new leaf. The cycles and renewal of the garden is a constant source of wonder and amazement to me.
It has been a few days since I last updated this - so what have I been doing? Mostly harvesting - avocadoes, pawpaws, mulberries, lettuce and bok choy.
Today we removed the top half of the compost heap (in the cut down water tank) and moved all the yummy stuff from the bottom into an empty portion of one garden bed. The chickens have been having a field day in there!!
Then we dug out a garden bed on both sides of the kiwifruit trellis, dug in some mushroom compost, fed the kiwifruit and mulched the whole bed with barley straw. I am still thinking about what I might grow in those beds alongside the kiwifruit. Any suggestions are gratefully accepted.
We also weeded around the raspberries. The original 2 canes that we planted 18 months ago have now multplied heaps. There would be at least 100 plants come up now. We transplanted about 10 of them today. Within a couple of years we will have raspberries along about 5 metres of our front fence. I can't wait.
The next big project was doing the design and planning for the perimeter fence for the vegie garden/orchard area. W have worked out how many posts, metres of wire etc that we need so may get around to buying that next weekend. I just have to do some more research to get the best prices on the materials. My husband has designed an area 7 metres x 3 metres and 2 metres high which will be bounded on one side by the fence which will be completely netted for our 6 blueberry bushes. There will be photos posted once it is created.
Speaking of photos - I took some today of various aspects of the garden - have a peek!!
In the vegie garden are:
Today we removed the top half of the compost heap (in the cut down water tank) and moved all the yummy stuff from the bottom into an empty portion of one garden bed. The chickens have been having a field day in there!!
Then we dug out a garden bed on both sides of the kiwifruit trellis, dug in some mushroom compost, fed the kiwifruit and mulched the whole bed with barley straw. I am still thinking about what I might grow in those beds alongside the kiwifruit. Any suggestions are gratefully accepted.
We also weeded around the raspberries. The original 2 canes that we planted 18 months ago have now multplied heaps. There would be at least 100 plants come up now. We transplanted about 10 of them today. Within a couple of years we will have raspberries along about 5 metres of our front fence. I can't wait.
The next big project was doing the design and planning for the perimeter fence for the vegie garden/orchard area. W have worked out how many posts, metres of wire etc that we need so may get around to buying that next weekend. I just have to do some more research to get the best prices on the materials. My husband has designed an area 7 metres x 3 metres and 2 metres high which will be bounded on one side by the fence which will be completely netted for our 6 blueberry bushes. There will be photos posted once it is created.
Speaking of photos - I took some today of various aspects of the garden - have a peek!!
In the vegie garden are:
- Zucchini - starting to flower
- Button squash - plants growing bigger every day
- Beetroot - finally getting established after a slow start (they were tiny seedlings)
- Snow peas - 1 of the 6 has died but others are OK
- Basil - 11 plants and they are big enough now that I will be able to pick some to make basil pesto tomorrow
- Capsicums - looking healthy but fairly slow-growing
- Lettuce - picking leaves every day for salads and sandwiches
- Bok choy - developing quite quickly but something is having a nibble at the leaves (little holes in some leaves). I have picked some leaves to chop into stir-fries
- Tomatoes (cherry) - all self-sown (they come up like weeds) and I picked the first 3 ripe ones today. Pop them in my mouth and taste the explosion of flavour!!
I need to get some seedlings of full-sized tomatoes also plant some corn and cucumbers. I might put some corn in the beds alongside the trellis as this will provide a bit of support. It can get quite windy here.
I checked the bunch of bananas today as well but they are still very green. The top hands had started to lose their hard green a few weeks ago and the wildlife had a nibble so I covered them with 3 feed bags - 1 bag I opened the top and bottom and slid up over the bunch but didn't get very far as the bunch is too big. Then I got 2 more and opened them out flat and wrapped around the bunch. Hard to describe - must take a photo. The bunch is so heavy that we had to put a prop against the trunk the other week and also tied the trunk to a nearby fencepost with a piece of rope. Necessity is the mother of invention!! Could not afford to lose all those bananas!!
Time to make some dinner. We are having stewed mulberries for dessert.
Here is a photo of my mulberry harvest so far. 1kg mulberries made into jam very successfully. Fresh home-made bread with mulberry jam for breakfast - yum!! I picked another 800g this morning and I will freeze them this evening when I get home from work. There are still hundreds on the tree. All this from a tree which is only 18 months old.
As you can imagine quite a bit of our land is unsuitable for cultivation due to the 'lake'. You can see a little of the vegie area on the higher ground in the foreground of the photo.
It is now nearly 2 years since we moved here. There were some fruit trees here and we have planted lots more but they are still in their infancy.
The vegie garden is a work in progress as is the whole garden. There is lots to do so will be plenty for me to tell you about.
We live at 400 metres elevation in SE Qld and our block has a temperate climate, good soil with a sunny north-east aspect for the vegie garden and an average annual rainfall of 1800mm so we are blessed in that we can grow almost anything.
A quick overview of our fruit trees:
The vegie garden is a work in progress as is the whole garden. There is lots to do so will be plenty for me to tell you about.
We live at 400 metres elevation in SE Qld and our block has a temperate climate, good soil with a sunny north-east aspect for the vegie garden and an average annual rainfall of 1800mm so we are blessed in that we can grow almost anything.
A quick overview of our fruit trees:
- Existing trees when we moved in - avocado, orange, lemon, apple, custard apple, banana and pawpaw (all bearing) and mango, lychee, loquat and ?macadamia - have not borne fruit in nearly 2 years :(
- Planted 18 months ago - mandarin, orange x 2, kaffir lime, Tahitian lime, grapefruit, mulberry, nectarine x 2, peach x 2, blueberries x 2, kiwifruit x 2 and raspberries x 2 canes.
- Planted 6 months ago - avocado, mango, fig, blueberries x 4, apricot and Davidson plum.
We harvested about 300g raspberries this year - enough to use in a trifle for 12 people! The mulberries have been a great success. I am about to go and pick some more and will have enough to make jam. I will let you know how that turns out.
In the vegie garden I have successfully grown tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, rocket, peas, potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, spinach, capsicum, pumpkins and basil. At the moment I have lettuce, zucchini, capsicum, basil, potatoes, tomatoes, bok choy and beetroot all in progress.
Must do the jam now. I will post some photos later.