Africanaussie

This really is the most wonderful time of the year in the tropics.  The weather cools down, and we are still having the occasional rain which keeps the soil damp.  In the side area we now have a roll out awning, which is great as it keeps the open feeling of the garden, but still gives us protection from the rain. I spent some time clearing out the pathway and generally tidying up.  Tropical plants can take over and need to be tamed! The area that you look out on against the fence was looking a bit sparse and uninteresting, so I removed one of the elkhorn ferns from the tree and attached it to a frame on the fence.  The fan palms are growing too big as they used to block the fence, but the leaves are now all above the fence....  I hung a few bromeliads on the trunk of one of them, and planted out a few cordelines.  I also strung some solar lights along the fence so it looks pretty looking out onto the garden at night. Out in the back I am lov...

I am very excited to be preparing the raised beds to grow my vegetables this year.  I grow from seed so do not want to miss the beginning of the growing season.  Of course we never really know when the wet season is going to end, but most people rely on April being the time when one can plant out seedlings.   I might be a little early, but want to stagger my plantings, so will only start off a few each weekend. I did go a little crazy with seeds, but will share around some of the seedlings with friends and family.  I am starting out marketmore cucumber, San Marzano and Tommy toe tomato, Tsakoni eggplant, and rainbow chard.  The greenhouse where I start the seeds is semi shaded, and I am making sure to water every day.  This is an old greenhouse, and the zipper no longer works, but I dont think I want it zipped up tight anyway because I want the fresh air inside. It was a great buy, and I have had it now for about three years.  Even though I ...

I have been following the articles posted  on The Conversation.    Research from The Food and Agriculture Organization has discovered that in actual fact three quarters of the worlds food  is grown in family farms.  I get quite frustrated when I hear of all the food that is actually sent to landfill from large scale agriculture.  I know that each little deformed tomato or spotty cucumber out of my garden has been loved along its growth journey and gets pride of place on my plate, but I certainly don't grow enough to feed the family.  I think Morag Gamble at our Permaculture Life  has done some marvelous work in introducing permaculture classes to families in Kenya. Every little family farm and home veggie garden should be inspired and helped in every way possible. I am a great believer in building up healthy soil in order to produce lots of healthy produce in my little garden.  There is so much conflicting thought on the matter, and in ...

I have been busy every spare minute getting the veggie garden organised.  A couple of weekends ago we were looking at the swale/hugulkuture area, and thinking that the front part with the raised beds looked so nice and neat and didn't want to have the back area looking untidy.  Here you can see the small hand dug swale area and raised area mostly consisting of roots and branches behind the two raised beds.  I have only ever read about swales in large areas, and the same with hugulkulture, so would it be possible to combine the two into a raised bed system, and have another raised bed behind the two - essentially having the hugelkuture contained in a raised bed?  Our nearest Bunnings had run out of the same type of raised beds, so we ordered one in, and last Sunday went down to pick it up.  I had hubby assemble it, while I dug out around the mound I had created - the hugelkuture mound - I love saying that word :)  I popped it right over the top, added ...

Since I last posted there has been lots of digging going on.  Two trees were removed - a moringa in the herb spiral and the barbados cherry in the veggie bed. Those roots were everywhere, and I think were robbing the veggie beds of nutrition.    This is looking from the back, and I have collected the roots that I dug up to go into the high part of the swale -  as these roots break down they will add to the soil structure.  I am also going to empty out the compost bin and cover it with soil for the same reason.  You can see here that the soil is lower at the back of the beds and then rises up to the swale.  I still have leveling and digging of these paths to go.  I am not sure what I am going to do with the bed alongside the fence.  I like the idea of a row of those wicking polystyrene boxes as I like to  grow solanacea family in them as I have bacterial wilt in the soil. With the rest of the garden looking so nice and neat, will the ...

Having done two overseas trips this year, and suffering drought conditions which led to water rationing for a year means my poor little garden has suffered.   My hubby did his best to keep watering at prescribed times, but we have had high winds, and then also visits by plenty of bandicoots.  They find a way in through the smallest possible little gap under the fence. This has of course been very frustrating, and I began to wonder if in fact I really do love gardening.  It is all so hard.... miserable .... depressing......Oh my gosh I got myself into a deep place of miserableness.  "Hello"  said the flowers on the dragonfruit, cheering me up a bit, and the golden candles seem to be thriving in this weather, Plus ....Yes!  there are lychees ripening, and I am sure there are other creatures watching for the minute they are ready to pick, just as I am!   After having the family over for  a breakfast out in the garden, hubb...

I feel a bit of a fraud calling what I did a design.  More of an evolution. A note about my old photos: I was having trouble with my smart phone and stopped syncing photos, then thought I would delete them off my phone so free up room.  Take my advice - don't do that - it removes them from Picasa permanently.  So you will just have to use your imagination about what the garden first looked like. :( Basically there was just lawn and I covered sections with cardboard, and lots and lots of mulch.  (I got an eight ton load from the tip)  Slowly as that broke down I planted, ornamentals on the side and a veggie garden out the back.   The veggie garden is a triangular shape. One of the first things I read about was a herb spiral and I got a few big rocks and built up a small spiral, filling in the centre with crusher dust which is very well draining. I managed to retrieve an old photo of the herb spiral.  My main purpose was to be able to grow rosema...

I have had visitors so am a little late for this post. Here is Lizzies post where you can see the other bloggers talking about the size of their gardens   Garden share collective. Over the weekend I paced out my garden and it is a triangle 12ft long by 10ft wide.  This photo is taken looking roughly South, so gets the morning sun, and afternoon shade.  To the right I have climbing snow peas and beans with lettuces and tomatoes in front.  Also a few volunteer pawpaw trees.  To the left I have (from the front) spring onions, barbadoes cherry tree, rocket, cucumber on a frame, eggplant in wicking beds, lettuces, volunteer sweet potatoes, tropic tomatoes and a dwarf mandarine lime tree. This photo is taken from the herb spiral where my veggie garden comes into a narrow point, looking West.  The first bed is a herb spiral that over the years has flattened out and merged into the surrounding area incorporating some gerber daisies as that is one of the few s...

Here is the big reveal of how the veggie garden edges have been extended.  The end towards the wheelie bins (that is what we call our garbage bins here in Australia!) and tumbling composter had to allow easy access to the path and compost but still match the other side. Along the fence the ginger is doing great - I am not harvesting it all - will leave it to bandicoot as needed. I will be making another batch of pink pickled ginger soon which is awesome.  Then I have my little cassava tree and behind that was supposed to be the choko, but that rotted away.  I will grow choko eventually.....  a few little volunteer cherry tomatoes sprouted in front of the fence so I decided this is where the tomatoes will grow this year....  Bigger tomatoes in the wicking beds and pots. .  Soy beans and black beans were planted against the fence, but with all this rain nothing has come up.  There is a row of silverbeet in front of the tomatoes, along with some warri...

I know I said I was not going to do any gardening until  after the week down in Brisbane in early March.  Well physical work, that is - but there has been lots of planning going on....:) I wandered out over the weekend, put on my big hat and gloves and started to pull out a few weeds, just in the herb spiral, mind you!  I tied back the franzipani that was leaning over it, and the mandevilla that grows-like-crazy, but never stops flowering so it can stay.   A nice thick layer of compost was spread over the area, and then a layer of mulch.  Now that can sit and brew, and the worms can do their job, and when I come back I should have some good soil to plant my herbs into.  The mint and tropical coriander, garlic chives, mother of herbs and basil are perrenial, and I just re-plant dill and parsley every year. The next bed over is the perrenial bed, with four asparagus...

You might remember that I got a whole stash of seeds to trial for the seed company Mr Fothergill.  I may have started them out too early, since this was an la nina year and the wet season was extended later than "normal".  I figure though that you never know until you try.  A lot of the seedlings became long and leggy with the lack of sunshine, but for about a week now we have had a fair amount of sunshine every day. I like the little grow pots that come with their own little sauna cover and in fact my grandson came up with two of his own as well. - basil and tomato, to add to my parsley.  Parsley is a notoriously slow starter here, and I felt that the sauna environment gave it a good start.  The basil also did very well, but they do need to be kept out of the rain as there is no drainage hole. The tomato has done nothing - even though I also put in other seeds, not sure what is going on there. ...