Author Topic: Australian Gardening Thread  (Read 144752 times)

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #550 on: November 09, 2017, 11:14:27 PM »
Looking good GT!

Anatidae V

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7626
  • Age: 34
  • Location: Fourecks
  • Nullus Anxietas
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #551 on: November 10, 2017, 11:18:01 PM »
Aww, adorable plant babies!

All my plants are dead in this heat.

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #552 on: November 11, 2017, 12:24:05 AM »
A King Parrot is sitting on the wires EATING A CHERRY!!! They will be netted tomorrow. Hopefully some will be left.

Spiffsome

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 215
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #553 on: November 11, 2017, 01:28:52 AM »
My potatoes have failed. Tops browned, dug them up and ... nothing. One tiny new potato the size of a marble that I re-buried. Ah well, I'll try again in autumn. Because leaving bare dirt in this climate is an invitation to weeds, I bought some squash seedlings and planted them in the bare patch. Thanks to all the potato-related digging, the ground is quite loose and ready for planting. The weather obliged with a couple of overcast days and a bit of decent rain.


Sapphire

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 402
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #554 on: November 11, 2017, 08:30:03 PM »
Sorry about your potatoes Spiffsome.

Looks great GT.

In breaking news in our house - I think it was last year that I discovered pear trees need a friend to play with so I put in another pear tree.

Drum roll please...original pear tree has little pears coming out...I am very excited!

Deborah - I will need to net too I think...

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #555 on: November 11, 2017, 08:48:53 PM »
In breaking news in our house - I think it was last year that I discovered pear trees need a friend to play with so I put in another pear tree.

Drum roll please...original pear tree has little pears coming out...I am very excited!

Amazing!! I would love to see a photo of the tiny pears.

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #556 on: November 11, 2017, 08:57:20 PM »
Lots happening right now - but nothing ready to pick and eat!
Beans are flowering.
Tiny fruit on the mandarins have started to grow past the initial fruit set phase - might actually get to eat some this time!
Lots of tomatoes growing, but none are ripe yet.
Basil (from seed) is sprouting everywhere.

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #557 on: November 11, 2017, 08:59:41 PM »
Apple trees (granny smith and pink lady) are flowering for the first time - we planted these two years ago.
Jalapeno should be ready to pick soon.
Strawberries are looking promising.
Native everlasting daisies have started to flower - a month or two behind the rest of Perth!

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #558 on: November 12, 2017, 01:27:24 AM »
That looks great, HAH! Love all the pics.

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #559 on: November 12, 2017, 02:03:32 AM »
The cherries are netted. King Parrots, Cromson Rosellas and a Cockatoo have been viewing the netting (probably with some consternation). However, the peaches and apricots are not netted, and they can have some of those. The birds do leave enough peaches and apricots for us, which is why I don't net them.

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #560 on: November 12, 2017, 02:06:19 AM »
What do you use for netting? Last year a wattle bird attacked our nectarines.

Fresh Bread

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3370
  • Location: Australia
  • Insert dough/bread/crust joke
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #561 on: November 12, 2017, 02:06:35 AM »
Your garden looks great, Happier. We can mirror your strawberries but our citrus tiny fruit got stripped by something. Happens every year. We are also losing unripe passionfruit to rats so I've got to step up and protect some more with rodent wire. We have 20+ fruit now across 3 vines.

Today we strung more wire on the fence so our biggest vine can continue to take over the world. And I made a bamboo trellis to help a star jasmine block out the neighbours window (hopefully). That project is to be continued next week. The bamboo was free from someone chopping theirs and we got a bit of proper trellis from the side of the street. We'll move jasmine from another part of the garden. It's going to be a bit of a hodge podge but the plan is that jasmine covers it all in time!

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #562 on: November 12, 2017, 02:13:45 AM »
Wattlebirds are the pits. They bury their beak in an apricot , pull it out and go on to the next one. This allows the bugs to invade, and turn the fruit into a soggy pulp so the wattlebird can treat it like nectar. We got a gigantic roll of netting from Bunnings a few years ago, and are gradually using it. It even keeps out the silvereyes (who were also eyeing off the cherries). I'll bring a bit to the meetup.

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #563 on: November 12, 2017, 02:31:50 AM »
Wattlebirds are the pits. They bury their beak in an apricot , pull it out and go on to the next one. This allows the bugs to invade, and turn the fruit into a soggy pulp so the wattlebird can treat it like nectar. We got a gigantic roll of netting from Bunnings a few years ago, and are gradually using it. It even keeps out the silvereyes (who were also eyeing off the cherries). I'll bring a bit to the meetup.

I think that's what they were doing with our nectarines! We weren't sure what the culprit was until we caught one in the act. Little blighters.

And cool, thanks. We have a couple of little netted sleeves from Bunnings for our little columnar apple trees but they'll be too small for our nectarine tree.

middo

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1772
  • Location: Stuck in Melbourne still. Dreaming of WA
  • Learning.
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #564 on: November 12, 2017, 04:47:14 AM »
I pulled up the end of our garlic today.  We usually plant enough to last us for the year.  Think about 200 cloves planted, and 200 plants grown.  This year our water has been an issue.  Our usual bore pump failed, and the replacement runs on a petrol generator (i.e. liquid gold)  Cheap enough for animal water, but not for plant water.  So the garlic suffered (as the last rains in Geraldton are in early September), and we have some garlic, but not as much as usual.  It also looks drier than usual, so I am hoping it will be OK.

The next issue is to get water more reliably and cheaply.  A $500 cable to the bore looks like the best solution.  Water is not cheap when you are off the "scheme". 

Sapphire

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 402
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #565 on: November 15, 2017, 03:01:37 AM »
In breaking news in our house - I think it was last year that I discovered pear trees need a friend to play with so I put in another pear tree.

Drum roll please...original pear tree has little pears coming out...I am very excited!

Amazing!! I would love to see a photo of the tiny pears.

Will try and attach photo....I can see you've mastered that skill very well!

Photos look great, love the apple "flowers".

happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9294
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #566 on: November 15, 2017, 04:30:49 AM »
So my only produce is: a lemon tree in our new house, its struggling, needs some lurve, but its bearing a few lemons. Pumpkin and tomato seedlings growing out of a compost bin at our new house - will try to keep these going to get some sort of yield. There is also a banana bearing a hand, which is still green and the bananas look thin... won't have time to bag this, so not sure what will happen. At our old house there is some mint, some rosemary, and some Russian garlic which is still immature, but I am harvesting one by one.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2017, 03:44:01 AM by happy »

Anatidae V

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7626
  • Age: 34
  • Location: Fourecks
  • Nullus Anxietas
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #567 on: November 15, 2017, 06:41:03 AM »
I've started to fill our courtyard with flowers! Cheaper than a bouquet and lasts much longer, or at least I hope it will since I spent this evening fixing the irrigation. Wettasoil is my next job, then mulch over the top. Lovely to read about all the produce!

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #568 on: November 15, 2017, 08:38:14 AM »
The grapefruit and the lemon have a lot of fruit, and are being eaten as we want them. The grapefruit will be cut back a lot soon - it's too high and has definitely overgrown the space it is supposed to occupy! My citrus get the citrus stink bug, so I need to be able to get at the whole bush to keep them under control, otherwise I won't have much of a crop the following year.

Yesterday I ate a couple of artichoke hearts, and I'll be having more of them over the coming week or so.

The weeding is gradually progressing - there is miles more to do, but a lot has been done already. I need to get some dynamic lifter.

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #569 on: November 15, 2017, 03:19:24 PM »
Deborah how do you control citrus stink bug?

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #570 on: November 15, 2017, 03:23:44 PM »
I didn't get a chance to cull nectarine fruit when the fruit were small (our tree is only 3 or 4 years old) and now some of the branches are bending very obviously, even though the fruit is only about 2cm in diameter. Argh. Don't want branches to break.

Fresh Bread

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3370
  • Location: Australia
  • Insert dough/bread/crust joke
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #571 on: November 15, 2017, 03:26:47 PM »
Deborah how do you control citrus stink bug?

Ditto. Just googled and I saw one critter on our lemon tree 2 weekends ago. Something eats the immature fruit every year, this could be the culprit. There is one fruit remaining out of hundreds and I'd like to save it!

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #572 on: November 15, 2017, 04:56:01 PM »
Deborah how do you control citrus stink bug?

Ditto. Just googled and I saw one critter on our lemon tree 2 weekends ago. Something eats the immature fruit every year, this could be the culprit. There is one fruit remaining out of hundreds and I'd like to save it!

There's a commercial spray... But maybe Deborah has a secret method.

I didn't get a chance to cull nectarine fruit when the fruit were small (our tree is only 3 or 4 years old) and now some of the branches are bending very obviously, even though the fruit is only about 2cm in diameter. Argh. Don't want branches to break.

Can you cull now?

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #573 on: November 15, 2017, 05:33:50 PM »
The deborah secret method???

1. Each time you go past a citrus squash at least 20. People on the internet suggest getting pliers or tongs to take a bug from the tree, but I use my fingers to gently grab the varmit on both sides (doing it gently stops them from spraying you), immediately let it drop to the ground and use a shod foot to squash it. If I have no shoes on, my other hand has a stone to squash it against the concrete. My face is never anywhere near the bug (they have a very caustic spray, so don't let them anywhere near your face). This tends to keep them in check if you do it every day.

2. If you have black ones around, they are laying eggs (they go from green to orange to black). Trim back the tops of the citrus in spring to stop them growing too tall, and to get all the eggs.

3. Pyrethrum spray.

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #574 on: November 16, 2017, 02:10:45 AM »
I didn't get a chance to cull nectarine fruit when the fruit were small (our tree is only 3 or 4 years old) and now some of the branches are bending very obviously, even though the fruit is only about 2cm in diameter. Argh. Don't want branches to break.

Can you cull now?

That would be the sensible option, yes. But they seem very difficult to pull off now that they're this size (and I keep tearing the branch). Haven't really had spoons to do it (on top of minimal energy, I have a frozen shoulder one side, and an unhappy shoulder on the other side from radiation and surgery nerve damage and scarring). DH could do it, but also has a spoons issue atm.

Mostly it was just a whinge that it would have been easier if we'd done it when the fruit was small but it wasn't doable back then. Ah well.

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #575 on: November 19, 2017, 02:34:19 AM »
The weeding is gradually happening. Another raised garden bed has been weeded, and most of the side garden is done. However, there are metre high weeds under the apricot (which has some quite large green apricots on it) and through the garden beds that I have yet to weed. The fruit trees all seem to have reasonable crops this year, even though everything is still green. The weed pile is absolutely enormous already (I think I am more than a third done).

I have planted some tomatoes that self seeded, but there is a lot more vegetable garden to plant.

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #576 on: November 19, 2017, 04:53:51 AM »
Good luck with the weeding, deborah! And don't forget to be careful of snakes if your garden is a bit overgrown atm. Our neighbours lost their dog to a snake bite last week :( and we're not that close to bush/farm land.

GT

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3029
  • Age: 49
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #577 on: November 20, 2017, 08:55:46 PM »
Dad sent home some advanced tomatoe seedlings with the girls from their weekend visit.

Scored an Oxheart, Tommy Toe, Money Maker and a Black Krim.  I headed to the big green shed and picked up some more self watering pots and soil to plant them out today and grabbed another pot and filled it up with the standard herbs we use from the garden.  Thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, Italian parsley and for me a Habanero chilli.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbvi7sUjnKh/

Northern gal

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 328
  • Location: Australia
  • Life at the beach shack
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #578 on: November 23, 2017, 01:58:55 AM »
Dad sent home some advanced tomatoe seedlings with the girls from their weekend visit.

Scored an Oxheart, Tommy Toe, Money Maker and a Black Krim.  I headed to the big green shed and picked up some more self watering pots and soil to plant them out today and grabbed another pot and filled it up with the standard herbs we use from the garden.  Thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, Italian parsley and for me a Habanero chilli.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbvi7sUjnKh/

Oh you got me jealous! I miss beefsteak tomatoes from back home in Europe. We have three mortgage lifters growing in the acquaponics but it looks like tomatoes are ages away.

We seem to be pretty lucky this year (or maybe two years of work are starting to pay off?) and have our first mangoes and Kiwi berries growing. Really pleased with our hydroponics (lettuce, strawberries) and the netted peach
« Last Edit: November 24, 2017, 01:02:23 AM by Northern gal »

Fresh Bread

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3370
  • Location: Australia
  • Insert dough/bread/crust joke
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #579 on: November 23, 2017, 07:15:09 PM »
Getting ahead of myself somewhat here but... next winter I want to plant up my little orchard that I've wanted for ages in our front garden. We're having an overhaul of all our outside space at that time.

The space is about 5m by 5m, has a hedge at the front and a fence at the side and a concrete driveway on the other side. The utilities - water, gas, electricity run down the fence line to the house so the working area is probably more like 4 x 5. There's an existing small tree (umbrella tree?) at the fence and a passionfruit climbing on the fence.

Do you think I could fit 3 x citrus (lime, lemon, mandarin) and an olive tree? I would go dwarf varieties if necessary. Around all the edges I've already got lemongrass and the passionfruit but want to plant lavender and rosemary in vast quantities so it feels Mediterranean. 

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #580 on: November 23, 2017, 08:02:26 PM »
Depends what you want. Plenty of Greeks in Melbourne plant one large lemon in the middle of the garden on each side of a path to the front door, and that is their front garden, so two citrus would do you. On the other hand, you could plant them a couple of metres apart along the fence (or even replace the existing hedge with them, and plant rosemary and/or lavender as an under-story), and get them to form a hedge. You'd probably lose fruit to the passing foot traffic.

Northern gal

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 328
  • Location: Australia
  • Life at the beach shack
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #581 on: November 24, 2017, 01:05:07 AM »
Getting ahead of myself somewhat here but... next winter I want to plant up my little orchard that I've wanted for ages in our front garden. We're having an overhaul of all our outside space at that time.

The space is about 5m by 5m, has a hedge at the front and a fence at the side and a concrete driveway on the other side. The utilities - water, gas, electricity run down the fence line to the house so the working area is probably more like 4 x 5. There's an existing small tree (umbrella tree?) at the fence and a passionfruit climbing on the fence.

Do you think I could fit 3 x citrus (lime, lemon, mandarin) and an olive tree? I would go dwarf varieties if necessary. Around all the edges I've already got lemongrass and the passionfruit but want to plant lavender and rosemary in vast quantities so it feels Mediterranean.

There is something called lemonade teee which is three types of citrus grafted on one tree. But from what I hear one or two tend to take over.

Is there a reason you want an olive tree? There are a lot of wild growing ones around Perth. Our neighbours have three growing on their verge and are struggling to give them away...

Anatidae V

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7626
  • Age: 34
  • Location: Fourecks
  • Nullus Anxietas
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #582 on: November 24, 2017, 01:17:36 AM »
Getting ahead of myself somewhat here but... next winter I want to plant up my little orchard that I've wanted for ages in our front garden. We're having an overhaul of all our outside space at that time.

The space is about 5m by 5m, has a hedge at the front and a fence at the side and a concrete driveway on the other side. The utilities - water, gas, electricity run down the fence line to the house so the working area is probably more like 4 x 5. There's an existing small tree (umbrella tree?) at the fence and a passionfruit climbing on the fence.

Do you think I could fit 3 x citrus (lime, lemon, mandarin) and an olive tree? I would go dwarf varieties if necessary. Around all the edges I've already got lemongrass and the passionfruit but want to plant lavender and rosemary in vast quantities so it feels Mediterranean.

There is something called lemonade teee which is three types of citrus grafted on one tree. But from what I hear one or two tend to take over.

Is there a reason you want an olive tree? There are a lot of wild growing ones around Perth. Our neighbours have three growing on their verge and are struggling to give them away...
I like lemonade trees! The one my parents have just seems to be a sweeter kind of lemon.

Fresh Bread

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3370
  • Location: Australia
  • Insert dough/bread/crust joke
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #583 on: November 24, 2017, 02:06:36 AM »
Hubby's keen on the olives, he's been wanting one a while. I like the look of them. I might ask my friend who has one just how much is involved in processing them.

Spiffsome

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 215
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #584 on: November 24, 2017, 02:18:41 AM »
I just harvested potatoes in Brisbane! I thought I'd get nothing, since the tops were pest-eaten and sad, but I managed to get about 2 kg out of 2 square metres. Not great as far as potato yields go, but better than nothing. Two green tops are still thriving, so I've let them go until we eat the first lot of potatoes. Hilling them achieved nothing; all of the potatoes were below the original seed potatoes ...

The chicken run is three feet high in weeds (since we have no chickens in there at present). Next week I'll weed the entire area and lay down some mulch. The council has mowed the park at the end of the street and I've hauled a wheelie bin full of lawn clippings back already, so I can drag back a few more loads and cover the entire area. We're not getting chickens again until the new year, so lots of time for bugs and worms to get happy in that patch.

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #585 on: November 24, 2017, 04:32:18 AM »
Harvested strawberries and the very first cherry tomatoes of the season today. One of my bean plants is growing better than the others and has its first little bean growing! And there's at least one tiny apple forming on the pink lady.

Sapphire

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 402
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #586 on: November 25, 2017, 02:02:28 AM »
Just seeing if my pear photo works....

Sapphire

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 402
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #587 on: November 25, 2017, 02:03:18 AM »
Flush with success from Pear Photo...introducing budding apple photo...

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #588 on: November 26, 2017, 05:09:53 AM »
Nice :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

HappierAtHome

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8015
  • Location: Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #589 on: November 26, 2017, 05:16:33 AM »
The tiny apple and pear are so cute, Sapphire!

Do you have to bag/net for fruit fly where you live?

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #590 on: December 03, 2017, 04:16:32 PM »
I've been away for a week, and of course it has RAINED. It is going to rain all week (except Saturday). Everything will rot!

I have picked a litre of raspberries this morning (excluding the moldy ones). So we will have lots of my favourite desert! The cherries look like they are ready to be picked too.

There are beans coming up amongst the tomatoes I transplanted from where they had self seeded, so they need to be moved.

Fresh Bread

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3370
  • Location: Australia
  • Insert dough/bread/crust joke
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #591 on: December 03, 2017, 04:43:24 PM »
Oo raspberries, my favourite!

We spent the Sunday 'thinning' the garden. We got some outside advice and this will help us fight a mealy bug attack - every plant on one side of the yard has them - and generally help everything out. We have officially given up on our poor lemon tree - it was too boxed in to ever come good and we're putting one in the front instead (sunnier, less humid). I did take some healthy cuttings from it so maybe I can get a little pot plant going.

A week ago I took some mint cuttings, so those were planted up in pots on Sunday and I showed some bought mint seed. Apparently rats hate it and so I thought I'd proogate multiple plants and place pots around the garden near whatever's fruiting. There are other smelly plant deterrents but mint seemed a cheap solution.

Lastly I continued the process of propagating succulents that we already had for Xmas presents. I'm running a bit late but maybe the cuttings will root in 3 weeks??

Still waiting for our passionfruit to ripen - maybe 2-3 more weeks, just in time for our holiday!! Luckily we have friends staying at ours for their holiday so they won't go to waste.

Next weekend will also be a gardening one!

middo

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1772
  • Location: Stuck in Melbourne still. Dreaming of WA
  • Learning.
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #592 on: December 04, 2017, 06:44:26 PM »
We finally got our bore sorted, and nothing grows in Geraldton without water.  So the next couple of weeks will be planting summer veggies.  I will update with pics as we go.

GT

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3029
  • Age: 49
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #593 on: December 04, 2017, 07:41:02 PM »
The first of our peas are appearing already.


Spiffsome

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 215
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #594 on: December 12, 2017, 05:55:01 PM »
The squash plants are going amazingly well in the heat - three weeks from seedlings and they've basically exploded. At the moment, one plant is covered in female flowers and the others haven't caught up yet, so I'm getting a lot of underdeveloped baby squash. Hopefully that will improve.

I've weeded half of the chicken run and laid down grass clippings over the top to cover the soil. The run itself is about thirty square metres, so the area available is pretty huge. I'm going to plant melons - the plan is to let the patch go and run itself since it's down the back yard. Possibly some zucchini as well. The fence that originally kept chickens in is going to keep chickens out when I get a new batch in the new year.

The front garden is in full survival-of-the-fittest mode - I transplanted some sweet potato slips to cover the soil there, and they've taken off and are challenging the kang kong (water spinach) for supremacy. Every so often I have to pull them both away from the yarrow and the tomatoes to allow the less aggressive plants to thrive, but the original problem (rock hard bare soil) is well and truly solved.

happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9294
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #595 on: December 13, 2017, 03:59:17 AM »
Sounds good Spiffsome.

I have mystery pumpkins with some tomatoes mixed in self seeds from one of the compost bays at my new property. A rather unhappy looking lemon has produced a few more. It needs some love as soon as I get time. I have another mystery citrus, which also looked sick, but there are a few little green fruits starting, so as soon as I can I will give it citrus love and hope they might grow and I can figure out what it is.

I was layering up a compost bin, and disturbed a small snake in another bin. It looked black at first glance and I thought it might be a baby red belly black, but a bit more light on the subject revealed a grey colour with the characteristic markings of a golden crown snake.  Weakly venomous and quite shy, so no real threat. It was under hay and leaves in the sun - they love to sun themselves in warm leaf litter - another clue to its identity. Went and got my phone to take a photo  but it had gone when I came back.

GT

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3029
  • Age: 49
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #596 on: December 13, 2017, 04:14:28 PM »
Poor old Peas copped a hammering in yesterdays heat and fried their tips.


Anatidae V

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7626
  • Age: 34
  • Location: Fourecks
  • Nullus Anxietas
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #597 on: December 14, 2017, 04:18:30 AM »
Keep us updated on the mystery citrus, Happy!

Your poor peas, GT. My succulents have a lovely sunny spot in our courtyard, and are shriveling up. Apparently there is such a thing as too much sun (especially hot afternoon sun). I have some indoor plants I am shifting all over the house until I find a good spot for each - a fern which thought the north bathroom window was too hot, an orchid, a maidenhair fern which are as fussy as a diva and a chain of hearts which appears to be under water stress (yellow leaves) so I assumed overwatering and drained it a bit, and am hoping it will pull through.

At least my monstera is happy and produced a single leaf since I took it back outside. It has a bad midgy problem I have yet to solve.

GT

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3029
  • Age: 49
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #598 on: December 14, 2017, 09:14:52 PM »
Garden is looking a bit better at the moment, flowers are powering along, first tomatoe, peas and beans are appearing.








deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15967
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Australian Gardening Thread
« Reply #599 on: December 15, 2017, 01:15:33 AM »
The things I learnt today:

Currawongs love cherries.
Currawongs like sitting on the deck railing or on the deck itself when they eat cherries.
When birds eat cherries, they make a mess similar to that made when they eat mulberries.

Note to self: next year pick every cherry before taking the net off the tree, even if you decide you have picked more than you will use.