Africanaussie

Happy Easter to all - a little late, but I was out in the garden!  Four whole days doing gardening related activities.  Can life get any better? On Saturday we went shopping and I spent my birthday coupons - what fun!  I decided to incorporate a couple of plants inside and have a row of terracotta planters with aloe vera on on the kitchen counter. Then I also found an amazing stand and pot that now has a spathiphyllum in it.  Bringing the outdoors inside a little bit! A lot of work was done in the veggie patch.  I laid out another soaker hose as my old ones perished.  Chook poo (chicken manure) was spread out over the main bed where I added lime a couple of weeks ago.  This was then covered over with a few layers of wet newspaper and some sugar cane mulch.  Some things have done well in the greenhouse - my tomato seedlings have done well - I planted a few out into the garden.  Red cherry and yellow pear, the rest of the tomato pl...

I have spent time out in the garden the last two weekends, and everything is looking much tidier now. .  The asian greens I planted in the boxes seem to be doing ok and in fact are just loving all the rain.  The taller box is waiting to have tomatoes planted in there.  Since I have bacterial wilt in the soil regular tomatoes have to be planted in potting mix. The coffee tree came out a couple of weeks ago since it was getting diseases  and generally taking up too much room.  The green peppercorn vine has been happily taking over the whole area during the wet season while nobody was watching, so that got a very severe cutting back.  It supposedly only fruits on new growth and I see a few peppercorns, so once those are harvested it will get even more of a prune. That opened up this area quite a bit and I have planted corn behind the compost bin (the soil is lovely there!) and trombocino squash against the fence.  Cucumbers against the tre...

This year I am going to add some polystyrene boxes to plant tomatoes in.  Large tomatoes don't do well here - we have bacterial wilt in the soil, and I think a myriad other diseases that are commonplace here.  I like tomatoes though, and I did get some free seeds to experiment with.  I am going to try a sort of wicking bed system as in the past I have had blossom end rot as well which indicated uneven watering.   I am putting some boxes front and centre.  They are resting on the front of the the asparagus bed, making use of every inch of the garden.  I hope I wont be disappointed. assemble what you need: The idea is to drill a  drainage holes about a quarter of the way up the box.  Add drainage rock - I used quincam, scoria is another good one to use.   Below this line the boxes are filled with small rocks for drainage. . Now I am not sure if there should...

Once again it is time to catch up with other gardeners in our  Garden share collective and the theme is SAVE. Link to the other gardeners here . I really dont make jams or preserves out of the garden - I prefer to just grow enough so that it is eaten right there and then while fresh.  I did plant extra ginger last year, and dug that out a month or so ago.  I like to keep a big bag in the freezer, so easy just to grab a chunk and grate it - I do that with turmeric as well.  My favourite after dinner drink at the moment is grated turmeric and ginger in hot coconut milk, with a little black pepper grated in.  A little golden cup of goodness. Oh another thing I have been doing is picking and drying our coffee beans, and the first batch was roasted last weekend.  I just pick them as they ripen, so it looks as though I will have one pot a week :). I do love to grow from seed - it seems proper somehow.  If someone else has started the seedlings it seem...

My hubby looked out the study window to see a kookaburra hanging out in the veggie garden so I went around the side with a camera.  He was not at all shy and let me take a few photos before he flew off. enjoy!  I hope you are having a lovely weekend!  

For multiple reasons, I have not spent much time out in the garden lately.  Life sometimes takes over, but I am so lucky to live in a climate where the garden merrily keeps on growing, all by itself....The old gazebo trellis is where I tied up a bunch of Tilladsia (airplants)  and placed a bunch of orchids in pots on the shelf below it - they are all badly in need of re-potting.  I have been noticing a bit of colour in the area lately, and the Tillandsia are really putting on a  show.  the tibouchina also love this time of year, and are continually covered in these lovely purple blooms.  These angel wing begonia struggle through the heat and humidity of the summer, and then show all their glory as the weather cools down a bit.  Even the cordeline leaves seems more brilliant.  I keep threatening to pull out all these tissue paper costus, until they flower that is......  There are always lots of birds in my garden, but a ...

It is garden share collective time again!  I hope everyone had a very happy Easter, I had lots of fun with friends and family and even managed to fit some gardening into my four day weekend!  Link up here  for this months gardens. April is a busy time in our gardens up here in the tropics.  Of course we never know if we will get a late cyclone, or if the hot weather is going to hang on and fry everything before it gets established.  I had taken down the shaecloths, but then a dear friend gave me a vanilla plant, and I realized that my little perrenial bed really does need shade full time.  The pepper plant was also showing signs of distress from the hot sun.  The perfect spot for the little vanilla plant was chosen, with a nice trellis to climb.  The small shade cloth was put back up again, and lots of lovely leaf mold and compost spread around. The long green beans are suddenly taking off, but climbing right over the canopy of the bar...

Happy mothers day everyone! When we moved into this unit I thought it would be simply marvellous to have someone come in and mow my lawn regularly.  Of course when we moved in there was just a lychee tree and lots of lawn.  I slowly encroached on the lawn until there was essentially just a lawn path remaining.  Two things that grass does not like is to be walked on and to have too much shade.   As you know from my last vegie patch update there is no longer lawn out in the back.  Look at what I have done to the side garden. I moved the swing back to where it was originally and now we have a nice clear path to walk around. I originally thought of having a stone path through the middle of the side garden, but then I thought if I made a little "meadow" of grass that nobody walked on we might still be able to have our patch of green.  Small enough to keep perfectly trimmed with hedge shears!  My little sheep can nibble on it, but no more garden...

I saw this recently on  The little black cow blog   - one of the readers that follows my blog and writes wonderful comments that spur me on to share what I do in my little patch.  Now, Kim has a farm, with a milking goat, and a B&B, makes cheese and  has published a book.  OK Ok I am envious, but I just so enjoy following along with her farming life.   This really resonated with me as I have been volunteering at the local markets, and slowly started to buy more veggies from there.  Veggies that are home grown, full of flavour and last through the week.... I bought a little bucket of some interesting eggplant, and cut some in half and gently sauteed them in a pan lightly greased with olive oil.  Oh my!  the taste!  Awesome.   The stall owner is a Thai lady (she also sells buckets of chillies - enough to last me for a year!)  and I asked her if she would bring in a plant for me to try and grow them in my own ...

As we were clearing up debris after the cyclone, my hubby called me over to see a Ulysses butterfly.  Now as you know they normally flutter about so quickly that it is very hard to capture good photos of them.  This one was showing some distress, flopping about, and other butterflies would flutter down to check on it.  I took the rare opportunity to capture some awesome photos. I am so blessed to live here where these colorful butterflies flit around my garden regularly. Recently my dear Mom passed away and I have noticed little things that give me comfort.  Butterflies live short lives and it is sad to see one die, but that is the nature of the world.  I don't know if the cyclone cut its life short, or if it had just reached its allotted time. We need to catch our beauty where we can, and stop and live in the moment, and tell our loved ones we love them. This quote from Ecclesiastes 3:1 sums it up for me.         ...

I know I often show you pretty colourful flowers, but there is another side to life in the tropics. Cyclones!  Technically cyclone season ends at the end of April, but lately we have become a bit complacent.  Cyclones have been forming anad wandering around the coral sea and then dispersing. Last weekend it seemed as though Ita was going to be different.  She became a category 5 and there was talk that this was going to be the biggest cyclone or storm of the year.  We readied ourselves and buckled down.  I took this photo outside our front door just as the winds started. Luckily it downgraded quickly and most of the damage was caused by flooding.  The most important thing to do at times like this is be prepared, sit tight, and wait for the all clear. We just got our phones back, but electricity is still out.  It will be a while until I am posting pretty flower photos again, but that is life in the tropics. 

Time to link up with other gardeners around the world for the end of March  Garden Share Collective .  All the best Liz for a safe and healthy delivery, next month we will have an extra little host.....  thanks for continuing to host this for us avid gardeners. Harvesting I am mainly harvesting herbs right now, and seem to have been able to maintain a few herbs throughout the year which is really nice.  Garlic chives are in flower, and look so pretty.  Parsley, which I use a lot of, struggles through the wet season, but I had a couple of little pots make it through, so will continue to keep some in pots, and maybe the ones in the besa bricks will last through as well.  The main thing is to have good drainage. My little herb pots that I planted for my stepsons are filling in - the parsley seed is taking its time though as usual. The pots were atually started peeling around the top edge, so I scraped that off and painted a lip around the top. The...

I had a little time over the weekend to plant out some of my little seedlings, and give the garden a good drink of seaweed tea.   The honeyeaters have a great time when there are little droplets of water of the plants, and they seem to chatter back and forth excitedly - way too fast for my camera.  In the shady area alongside the path this lovely little bush has started flowering.  I have forgotten what it is called, so for now it is just the white butterfly bush.  It doesn't really attract butterflies, but the flowers remind me of a butterfly. I used to have a plant with blue flowers just like this when I lived and gardened in Florida USA.  I also have another plant settling in - it is like a mini caladium.  These areas of white are great in the shady garden - they seem to pop right out at you.  The pink ginger is going great guns, and in fact I still...

We often used to get kookaburra's sitting on the fence posts, but since my neighbour decided to grow a hibiscus hedge that towers above the fence, we have not had our regular visitors. We have them in the area since we are alongside a creek and every evening is filled with them calling to each other - roll call I suppose!    I don't think there is a more Australian sound, and their laughing just makes me smile. Yesterday I went around the corner to water my seedlings, and saw, perched on one of my new veggie supports .... A kookaburra!  He was not worried about my presence, and I was glad to see that my plant supports remained firm and stable.  He was looking up into the tree, I am not sure what he was looking at.  then he got bored with posing and turned his back on me. I am always pleased to see birds in my backyard, and glad that they now have a new place ...