Africanaussie

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!  

Parts of my garden are quite shady (epsecially since the heavily pruned lychee tree is growing back) and spots of white really show up in those areas.  The butterfly bush is dripping with flowers and the honey eaters love them so there is always a carpet of white flowers that they have ripped off and tossed ot the ground!  I took this at dusk with the flash with my phone and like the way the white flowers show up. One of my eucharist lillies started to bloom and I noticed how pretty it looked with the pink and white in that area. This is another plant that has slowly recovered  now that there is more shade.  I just love the strappy leaves with curly edges.  No idea what it is called. Just a couple of months ago this poor garden was looking very sad.  The whole top of the lychee tree was pruned, leaving sun pouring down on the garden.  I erected a few shade cloths and umbrellas, and now lots of little leaves have appeared so they are ...

The latest garden share collective calls for a a post about colour.  Well I suppose brown is a colour! I have been preparing the soil for my main growing season during the last couple of weeks.  I spread out some manure (brown), sprinkled a little lime (white)  and after lightly digging that in I spread brown cardboard over the top of that! Our local Coles supermarket has been selling little potted herbs for 1.98.  These are the best deal ever, they are so crammed with little plants, that I have been buying them and then using them as little transplants.  3.95 for a six pack or 1.98 for a million pack!  I got fennel, parsley and even capsicum (the capsicum had two plants.)  Here is  some of the fennel.  They are such delicate little plants, so I just lay them into a trough and filled in from the side.  I know we are on the edge of the fennel growing area, so they might not form a bulb.  Two different kinds of parsley were plan...

About six weeks ago we had the lychee tree pruned again - this time we had the top lopped off. that was what should have happened last time.  Now it should be easier to maintain the tree at a manageable height. Of course this meant that the entire middle section of the tree had no leaves for shading my lovely tropical shade loving plants!  There were definitely some sunburn issues, even death in some cases.  I have had some shades cloths and umbrellas over the vulnerable areas. but new leaves are sprouting and at long last the intense summer heat seems to be waning.  The area with my umbrella palms can stand out now as a feature, instead of hiding away behind the lychee tree branches.  This area was not affected, even though it now gets more light.  The golden candles definitely is enjoying the sunshine, and I love the purple of the geisha girl together with the yellow.  This is a favourite area for the sunbirds and honey-eaters.   They are...

Once again I have not posted since the garden share collective.  This month is supposed to be about preserving.  The only thing I have preserved is the peppercorns that I preserved in brine.  Whenever I see a new stalk I pick it and pop them into the brine. Easy peasy. Certainly not going to keep us in pepper for a year though.  I read that the peppercorns only fruit on the lateral branches, and since the vine is sending shoots out, I thought it might be a good idea to put up a trellis.  Hopefully those will climb up and spread out and then it will be easy to harvest.  Only one aspargus plant has been really succesful - the purple asparagus, so I moved the other two onto that side of the trellis and will see if they do ok there.  I have harvested some of the asparagus already this year and it is the most amazing aspagus I have ever tasted.  Even if I let them get too long they are still tender all the way to the end.   The other side...

Welcome to the garden share collective hosted by  kate at rosehips and rhubarb  and  Kyrstie at a fresh legacy.   Thank you for doing this, it keeps me motivated! The theme this month is fruit, and since I have a small garden I never really thought I would be able to grow much fruit.  The main feature in my side garden is the lychee tree and this year I really wished we didn't have it in the garden.  We had it pruned a while back and the gardener said that he couldn't lop the height off for some reason (I was at work when this happened) Of course it has now grown higher and when it fruited over December, we couldn't reach a single fruit, but believe me the bats and rosellas could!  The noise, and the mess were horrendous.  My poor hubby was raking up leaves and rotting fruit a couple of times a week to try and gain control, but the fallen fruit still attracted fruit fly. Well, end of the sorry story we are digging deep in our pockets and going ...