Fruit salad alley update

Fruit salad alley had a makeover!  I had been thinking that the fruit trees needed a little bit of loving care, and when yet another lovely long weekend came around I set to it.  I cut back the passionfruit vine so that it can shoot out some new shoots and produce more passionfruit.  I removed the strawberry pots a while back as they were being swamped by the passionfruit.  They are now in the veggie patch.

I wrote about the process and the seed collection has published it on their blog - you can see it here.  I get paid in free seeds, so it is a win-win situation.  Here you can see my lime tree re-potted (and straightened up).

All the plants seem happy and there are lots of little green leaves shooting out which makes me happy.

Easter weekend spent in the garden

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 plants were transferred into deeper pots and remain in the greenhouse.  The tatsoi has just grown long and leggy as well as the lettuces, so think I will plant seeds direct.  The corn out in the garden has either been eaten or has suffered from dieback, so there are only four plants remaining.  Against this trellis in the above photo I planted cucumber and against the back fence I planted snow peas.   I cant always grow snow peas, but on the way into work this morning the temperature was 22* C so I count that as a good sign.

I want to start some silverbeet, and more kale -  already there is some doing well in the greenhouse along with the peppers and moneymaker tomatoes and I will be planting those out into the garden in early May.

The cactus rose along the front path were all tidied up and some of them re-potted.  I added a white gravel mulch.

I bought some more big pots and then the fruit trees in fruit salad alley were re-pottted as well. Home made compost and five in one were added to the potting soil.  The mondo grass at the back was trimmed right back and the passion-fruit vine was also trimmed.  The strawberries were moved into the veggie garden as they were being covered over by the passion-fruit.  I see lots of delicious tasty fruit and veg in my future.

Did you also spend your time over the long weekend working in the garden?

Getting ready for the new season

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 trellis.
The little greenhouse has some seedlings I have started. - yellow cherry tomatoes, tatsoi.

 I then cleared out the center bed, and added compost and lime.  I have not limed for quite a few seasons, and assume it probably needs lime since compost is my main soil amendment.   The soil looks lovely and loose and friable and filled with earthworms.   In a couple of weeks I will direct plant beetroot, silverbeet and kale into this space.  The turmeric can stay there and only be dug up if I need the space for something else.

 I planted out a few assorted greens into the empty boxes. Parsley and warrigal greens.

 My ginger didn't really do so well this year and I think I should plant something else there, but it is a bit shady.  I might try some cherry tomatoes anyway just because that area has never had tomatoes. I have pruned the barbadoes cherry down so that it is just one branch thickness so that might give the area enough light.
I love this time of year, with all the planning and planting, and best of all the temperature has dropped ever so slightly and it is downright pleasant out in the garden these days!

Garden planning near and far

I have my little sheet all printed out with the plants I am going to plant this year. I sway back and forth about moon planting, but generally try to plant by the moon.  It does make sense to use the gravitational force of the moon if you can.  One thing that has never been made clear to me is - does it work the same for seeds and for seedlings? I have lots of compost brewing, as well as three buckets of worm castings.   Exciting times.

 I have seeds, and have purchased a little greenhouse.  It might seem an odd thing to do in my hot, wet climate, but in actual fact, I am hoping this will at least control the amount of water my little seedlings get.  If it gets too hot in there, I will add a shadecloth over the top.  I also plan to grow the microgreens in there as they get so many bugs out in the garden.  There has been an ever so slight decrease in temperature,
Remember my gorgeous dragon fruit flowers?  Well, they matured into lovely luscious fruit, and my grand daughter was trilled to see this one was in the shape of a heart!.

 The garden has not been empty all this time, every spare spot has been filled with turmeric, ginger or sweet potato.  The polystyrene trays have been left out and seaweed dumped on top of them, so that will be some lovely soil built up in there as that all rots down.

 Even though the heat this summer has been excessive, some plants in the herb spiral have done very well. My moringa tree has taken off and I need to keep harvesting the leaves to keep it low an bushy.  the Mexican tarragon, sawtooth coriander and lemon balm look good, and the parsley is still going strong in the polystyrene box.

As well as my own garden I am also going to be starting a little raised bed garden for my daughter when I go to visit her in America in July.  She lives in zone 7, so it is a whole different climate for me. I am thinking of getting them a raised bed, if any of my readers have any ideas of gardening in that climate please leave ideas or tips in the comments.

I also am going to have to think about making my garden as maintenance free as possible. since hubby will be left holding the fort here. 

Kimchi and fermentation

Last week I attended a two hour course on making kimchi - what fun.  I tried a couple of times before to make fermented vegetables and really was not that confident. It was nice to do a course.  This is done in the jar, so small quantities, which I like the idea of - I cant imagine how long it would take me to go through the amount of sauerkraut that one head of cabbage would make.
When I came home I found I had a few cucumbers in the fridge so set up some lacto fermented cucumbers.
Here is my kimchi:

Yesterday was five days, so I gingerly opened the jar and took out the cabbage leaf plug, still held very securely underneath the liquid.  It has very nice flavor and crunch.  It is hot here, so fermentation is maybe faster than it would be in colder climates. I make water kefir and it is ready in two or three days.  

The cucumber was tasty and about as crisp as other pickles I have tasted.  We cannot get grape or oak leaves here, so I put in a black tea bag. 

I have been looking online and researching other recipes. Does anyone else ferment?  What is your favorite recipe?

Seeds ordered

I know I have mentioned in the past that I really love to order seeds from The Seed Collection.  I just placed another order to get ready for my growing season.  They have a great selection and all their seeds seem to come up and grow into healthy plants.  They also have some great articles, a couple written by yours truly. .

Disclaimer - I did receive credit for some articles I wrote. This is one on  Wicking boxes  and the other one is one of my favourite subjects Composting. 

This is what I ordered - some old favourites and some new ones.

I packet of five assorted leafy Asian greens

Mibuna - this looks like an interesting one - quite mustardy so I plan to pick when young.

Choi San - similar to bok choy which grows well in my climate

Mizuna - I love this in my mixed salad greens that I buy but have never tried growing it

Garland - an edible leaved chrysanthemum 

Tatsoi - love this - one of my all time favourites. It is a little like baby spinach.

Corn Salad - we used to buy this in France - so awesome - I just hope I can grow it here!

Capsicum - Yolo Wonder - last year I had great success with capsicum so hope that continues

Silverbeet - magenta - everyone else grows great big gluts of silverbeet, I keep trying

Beetroot - bulls blood - I have yet to grow an actual bulb, but at least the leaves are tasty

Tomato - cherry cocktail - I do have these popping up everywhere, but want to ensure a good supply

Tomato - yellow pear - these are lovely - pretty and very very tasty

Chili - Hungarian yellow wax - I grew these years ago and they were very prolific and didn't seem to attract as many pests as capsicum.

Kale - red russian - I have never had huge success with kale, so am trying a different kind

Lettuce - Parris Island Cos - One of the few lettuces that grow well here. 

Rocket  - love rocket - I do have some of the wild perennial rocket growing now but this is an annual

Squash - trombonchino - these are just so cute looking - I don't have a lot of room, so hoping to grow it up a trellis. 

I always get so excited at this time of year, anticipating a garden chock a block full of yummy vegetables. Are you trying some new vegetables this year?  or sticking to the old tried and true favourites?

Dragons in fruit salad alley

When I planted the dragonfruit I really wondered if I was doing the right thing.  They can get very large, and they are quite prickly.  During the week one of the branches started to flop out towards the carport, so I tied it back, wondering if this plant was really such a great idea.  Glancing down I noticed some flowers started to form.  Well, that could be a game changer.
Heading out for my morning walk during the week my eye was drawn to the most awesome HUGE flowers.  Ohmigosh!

 Two flowers!

There were some native bees buzzing around and by the end of the day the flowers had flopped down and closed.  Now I wait and see whether the bees did their job.