Africanaussie

I got two different types of organic fertilizer  in the pack that I won, and decided over the weekend to add some to the rest of the garden.  I recently planted lots of seeds in the veggie patch and think it will be a good idea to wait until they grow up into seedlings before I add any fertilizer to them. The seeds themselves are their own little fertilizer packages for the first few weeks. I did dig some fertilizer into the area where I planted the snow peas, after I removed the Rosella plants so will be able to compare the difference.. Firstly I cleared the paths and edgings of excess leaves. The beds around the lychee tree are layered with fallen leaves and leaves and branches that I have cut back while trimming plants.  I noticed that there is a white mould/fungus in some very shady, wet areas.  I hope this is mycellium which is what we want to build up in the rotting matter and not some nasty fungus. I moved the rex begonias into one section - I think the...

I do have a thing for seeds .... Lately I have been picking the rosella, and then drying them.  To dry, I just lay them out on the windshield screen in the back of the car - as I travel around the sun shines in and dries them, it take three to four days. I will be removing these bushes this weekend to make way for more seeds to be planted there, specifically snow pleas.   I told my grandson that the tea I was drinking came from the rosella seeds he saved last year. (I thought he would have been more impressed! - I was!) This makes awesome tea. I have made seed tape before, Here is the tutorial. and wondered if that would be a good option with something like silverbeet and beetroot seeds which do better if soaked overnight in a mild seaweed solution.  I have never had much success with either of those seeds, so thought I would give it a try.  I laid out two strips of toilet paper and then evenly spaced the seeds, and folded the paper over. ...

A couple of weeks ago I bought a dragonfruit from the markets.   It is one of my favourite tropical fruits.  Sweet, but not cloyingly so,..... beautiful - I didnt share it with anyone. Dragonfruit is actually a cactus, and the plants I have seen are huge - and supported by a central post, so needing lots of room.  Then Lousie from     told me about how she sees them in Darwin growing against a carport.............  hmmm well, either side of fruit salad alley has a nice wooden post.  Driving home from work I saw my gardening friend had put out some dragonfruit cuttings for anyone to pick up.   Supossedly you just place them into the ground, or into a pot as in my case.  So now we just wait and see..... Rather strange looking aren't they?

As you know I am continually looking for ways to garden in a way that is self sustaining.  I "grow" my own fertilizer with comfrey, worm castings and prawns shells.   Sugar can mulch is something I have been buying for the veggies, and with all this wet weather it rots down so quickly I have been looking around for an alternative mulch solution. I called the local hay guy (whch is cheaper) and he said it is too wet to cut his hay. Some gardeners have talked about using shredded office paper.   I dont have a shredder, but tear paper into thing strips occasionally  to add to the compost.  In clumbs it can mat up and would stop water getting to the soil under it.  When adding it to the compost I always make sure I mix it in well with the leaves etc already composting down..  So I tried the same idea in the garden. My tumbling composter is full of red wriggler worms and I think regular eathworms.  I am not sure how they got in there, but I am sure...

During the wet season mould and mildew have built up on our pavers.  Not only is it unsightly, but they are slippery, so something had to be done.  We borrowed my stepsons pressure washer and my hubby got stuck in.  wow! doesnt it look great! I didn't like wasting all the water, but then again I don't like the idea of chemicals that are painted on and then leach into the ground.  Some of the fences were done too, but not those with lots of plants against them.  Funnily enough the ones with deep growth against them do not seem to have much mildew.  Why is that?  I thought it would be the opposite way around. The clean fence seems to make the colours pop out more.  I like the entrance of the path to be a little wider, so a few bigger rocks were added to widen it a bit.  Our leaves need to be gathered up, mulched and put into the compost bins continuously.  Leaves are awesome in the compost, though so I am not complainin...

I had a bit of a slump in the garden - life took over, and I just never seemed to find the time to get out there.  This last weekend I found two and a half glorious free hours so I rushed around doing an amazing amount of gardening in that short time.  I have noticed cockroaches in the compost bin and think it must be because I have not been mixing it as often as before.  I think we are just about ready for a new bin - this one is collapsing, the next one will go against the back fence.   I am wondering about moving my lime tree out of the pot and into that space vacated by the bin.  That soil must be amazing by now, it seems silly not to use it for something.  I am still not a huge fan of fruit trees in pots.  It is called a patio lime so I imagine will be able to be kept small with pruning in the ground.  The bottom section of the herb spiral is where I normally plant my parsley but this year I have parsley in odd pots around the garden and ...

I have been mulling over whether to do a post on nutrition and all the new fads that keep coming up.  What exactly works, and what is just a new fad. For the last couple of months I changed a few things, and something is definitely working. albeit slowly.  I don't know if like me you change a bunch of different things at one time, or try things one by one. I thought about doing a survey to see if the majority of people think hard before changing to a new fangled idea or put a lot of thought into it, or add things one by one to see what actually makes a difference. Then I saw that Jenny at   one body for living  started a similar idea.  see her badge off to the right and sign up if you want . these are the things/ideas I have changed recently: 1.  I get up half an hour earlier and straight away have four glasses of water. 2.  I go for a walk for that half hour, sometimes it is dark when I start out, but I love that quiet time and to see the sky lig...

Way back in May it was international compost week and it got me thinking about compost. Of course by now the week is long over, but I still thought a post about composting seemed in order right now.  Here is my compost bin.  I have often posted about my compost bin, and have met others who say that a compost bin does not work for them.  These are a couple of my observations: 1.  Forget the hot compost/cold compost debate, as there is not enough surface area to hot compost.  A bin works best by being as full as possible.  As everything composts it reduces vastly in volume, so you need to be continually aerating the mix, but if you have two bins you can leave one to mature while adding to the other. 2.  Air is so important!  I mix up my compost with a garden fork a couple of times a week.  I have seen spiral shaped tools for this purpose that look to be quite effective.  My five year old bin is breaking ...

A couple of months ago, while we were having a little holiday down in Brisbane, my very good friend gave me a kit to make a bali bag.  I never seem to have the time to sit down and sew, but Monday was a holiday and  I decided not to put it off any longer. The kit has such gorgeous fabric that I thought I would try the technique out first with some scrap fabric from my stash.   Look at the little basket I made :)  First of all you cut long strips, sew them together and then fold them over cotton washing line, sewing into a long strip of cotton covered rope.  Then you begin to coil and sew with a large zig zag stitch.  I still need to work on my tension -my cheap little sewing machine was quite stressed.  Hubby made the suggestion that a nice new sewing machine might be on the list for a future birthday present :)   I mentioned that Spotlight have Brother sewing machines on half price specials at time to time ;)  I learnt to sew at 10 on m...

I think my theory this year has become to fill every inch of space.  Luckily MrFothergills gifted me with lots of seeds, and since I have a small garden I am planting seeds in any empty spot I see. The bok choy is doing very well this year, and I have not been shy with lettuce seeds, scattering them quite thickly.  I tend to like picking the small leaves, so there is no sense in spacing the leafy veggies out to give them room to grow to full size. With the lettuces I cut the outside leaves away, but with the bok choy I cut the middle out and it grows a whole new bunch.  We are having a bit cooler weather than last year, and so the snow peas look as though we might get a good crop this year.  I planted out two trellises. We have had a lull with pawpaws, I think they like more sunshine, not these overcast days we have been having.  I like to start my day with pawpaw and passionfruit.   One of these days I will have to lop the top off my tall tree so that ...

I have been thinking about the veggie seeds that I  grow for immediate consumption.  I suppose they just take from the soil, then covert it into vitamins and other goodies that we in turn use when we eat them.  I have been reading a lot about how much more nutritious our home grown organic vegetables are than those sold in most grocery stores. There are all different ways that I continually add goodness back into the soil, because if the growing vegetables are taking it out, then I better be replacing it with something. I am cropping quite intensely and also want to try to produce food year round.  I know outright of a few things I do to amend the soil, but wonder if there is something else I am missing.  If I want to take so much out of the soil how do I know I am putting enough back? Generally in this area of the tropics vegetables are grown in the "winter" or dry season, and the ground is left ...

I love the splash of color that the Cordelines and hibiscus flowers give to the variegated green and white foliage in my front garden.  So I decided to insert a few more along the length.   Cordeline are so easy to propagate -  cut off a branch and stick it in the ground, and it will grow.  Out in the sun the colour becomes very vibrant.

Our units are going to be painted, and in preparation for the work, excess vegetation needs to be cut back.  Our rather large lychee tree is going to have to be pruned back.  The leaves clog the gutters, and in a cyclone the branches might snap and cause some damage to fences or break windows. I love that tree - I love all the birds that hide in its branches and call out with their different songs.  I love the cool shade that it provides to the garden - on a hot day you can feel the temperature drop the minute you walk into the back.  I love all the free leaves I get for my compost bin and I imagine those will be drastically reduced.   My hubby, often the one to mulch all those leaves is not so sad about it :) I love the lychees that we get to eat. I don't love the bats that came very night when the top half of the tree was filled with lychees nobody could reach to pick them. I do...

Years ago when my non gardening youngest daughter was living with me in Florida USA, we bought a hibiscus together.  I don't know if that was its official name but we called it poodle hibiscus.   She has always requested that I try to grow that beautiful flower again. I live in Australia  now and she in New York, so I love to find connections that reduce the miles between us.  Over the weekend this bloomed :  I must have at some stage found one and taken  a cutting.   I nurtured that little slip not really remembering which one it was.  I e-mailed my daughter, and she confirmed it was just like the first poodle hibiscus we grew together.  Don't you love those delicate red veins running through the petals? the lower "tail" part looks so lush and full, yet delicate, and what a gorgeous salmon color. My daughter is at the moment...