13 for thursday - Garden

  I decided today to take a walk and take some photos of what is growing in the garden at the moment.

1.   Lots and lots of tomato plants.

2 Green Zebras. I chose these because they are meant to be low acid which will be good for Saana.

2 Tigerellas. I chose these because the look so pretty and I suspect they are also lower in acid.

1 Amish ox-heart. I had two of these but I gave one to mum.  I kind of wish I had brought another one.

Lots of bush tomatoes in the back bed.

4 Tumbling cherry tomatoes in hanging pots and one in the ground.   I transfered the one in the ground because it wasn't doing well and I needed the pot for the next tomatos.   I think I brought 3 red and 2 yellow, but I'm not sure.

2 Siberian cherry tomatoes. These are meant to be good for hanging pots and the cold climate.  I'm looking forward to seeing how they go.

2. Lots of corn

2 different types of sweet corn 

2 punnets of baby corn These are a lovely red colour on the stems

Under the seedlings I put the seeds of

3 different types of beans

cucumber
Balinese sweetcorn
Yellow Empress sunflowers

3.  Fruit

               My New Passionfruit                Strawberries                                               Rhubarb

4.  Herbs 
basil,  coriander,  dill, chervil,   2 types of thyme,  lemon balm, lemon grass, sage, rosemary, marjoram,  oregano, chinese salad leaves, curry plant, garlic and normal chives,  mint

5.  Carrots and beetroot.  

  I also planted parsnips but they didn't come up. 

6.  Capsicums and Chilies
Normal capsicums
Banana capsicums
Jalapenos
Cayenne pepper
Haberno
Some of these are from punnets and some are from larger seedings which we put into paper bags and wrapped in paper for a few weeks before planting out.

7. Beans
normal blue lake climbing beans
dwarf beans - butter
Purple King - climbing beans These look so pretty already, you can see them at the back

8. Eggplants
A normal eggplant ( I think, I lost the tag)
Listada di Gandia This is a diggers eggplant, it is stripy.






9.  Lots of lettuce

10. Silverbeet

11. Alliums
Leeks
spring onions
red onions
garlic

12. Self Sown

Peas 

cucumber or squash

13. Grapevine

1st Annual 'Save The Frogs Day

As brought to my attention by Stuart today is the 1st Annual 'Save The Frogs Day .

I have been considering how I can attract frogs into my garden. We already have a pond, but it was not very frog friendly due to being
* Deep
* Steep
* Close to the house and a long way from the gardens.
* Goldfish donated by a friend
I have been working to add things to the pond to make it more friendly. There are now ways for the frogs to climb in and out of the pond, and we have extended the garden so it comes right up to the pond. Now I just have to lose the goldfish, not sure how to go about that.
I am currently creating a wildlife friendly native garden at the back of the yard and I'm looking into how to create a bog garden, which will hopefully increase the frog friendliness of our overall garden.

General thoughts

Time is getting away from me, I have lots of blogs in draft form, which I'm not ready to post yet, but I don't ever seem to have time to sit down and write them properly and add in the photos etc. Too busy writing assignments and stuff I suppose. Not much is happening in the garden at the moment, I've got some cyclamens going in my bedroom now and I will post more about them soon. Two weekends ago I replanted some plants, my first real attempt at this, and I feel like I"m starting to get my head around it. What was particularly special was replanting my Nana's African violets, that will be a post soon too.
Tonight was special, I'm about to make omelettes for tea and I went to the garden and pick a leek, silver beet and parsley for my omelettes. The leek was the first I've picked, my mum told me to cut it off at ground level and it will grow again. So that is what I did, I hope it grows. If the leeks do go well, I will plant more next year as I love them and have a lovely leek and chickpea soup I would love to make with my own leeks. The silver beet is a dream, it grows with very little love and attention and every time I get a craving for green veges I go and pick some and steam it, to have with my dinner. No more rotting veges in the fridge.
Early autumn I got very excited and planted broccoli, Brussel sprouts and mini cabbage. They all got eaten by caterpillars and with my busy schedule I gave up on them and decided to do it next year. But some have come back, but now I have no idea what they are. Hopefully they will grow and I will find out.
Better go and cook those leeks and DH is starting to look hungry.

Spathiphyllum

After my last post I decided to do a search and find out exactly what is a Spathiphyllum. I search in google and found this link to Wikipedia entry. As soon as a saw the picture, my mind went "Oohh, one of those." So now I know that it is called a Spathiphyllum.

Are you a green thumb gardener?

On Stuarts page, he had put links to some older posts, one on African Violets I will post about soon, but I thought this little quiz gave an interesting outlook on where I'm at on the scale of becoming a green thumb gardener.


Are you a green thumb gardener?


So you've been pottering around with a couple of plants, got your hands dirty in a bag of potting mix and even removed the odd snail that was molesting your cabbages. Does that make you a green thumb gardener?

Let me paint a couple of scenarios for you and see how you fair.

1. You visit a friend's house and notice that their spathiphyllum is wilting on the window sill. Do you;

a). Immediately grab a container of water and pour it onto the plant
b). Point out to your friend that their plant is not as healthy as it could be
c). Mourn over the loss of another indoor plant
d). Type "Spathiphyllum" into Google to see what it is

As much as I would like to chose something higher, I would not be game to comment to a friend and I certainly wouldn't water it for them. OK I admit it, I'm off to actaually search to find out was a "Spathiphyllum" is on google. Make that a D. :(


2. You have heard that composting is a great way to recycle your garden refuse. Do you;

a). Build your own compost bins and start filling it with garden waste
b). Head to your local hardware store and purchase a manufactured compost bin
c). Feel bad when you put the next lot of garden waste in the garbage bin
d). Wonder if it's okay to put some of the kid's toys in the compost

I'm so excited, that's exactly what I did. OK maybe lining a few bricks up (I didn't use mortor or anything) is not quite building. But it is working, I love my compost.

3. There is a gardening fair coming up on the weekend. Do you;

a). Schedule your weekend around attending it
b). Phone your neighbour to see if they're interested
c). Stay at home thinking that it would have been a great idea to go
d). Buy tickets to the football

And if you are me, travel 3 hours to sydney, stay in a hotel and wander around for two whole days. Yes I was in heaven at the ABC gardening expo last year and I am waiting with baited breath for this years. That reminds me, have to book the hotel.

4. Your friend has just purchased a "Wollemi Pine" and invites you to come and help plant it. Do you;

a). Drop everything and rush over - even if you had to wake the baby
b). Try and schedule a better time during the week
c). Tell them that you intend buying your own Wollemi Pine and you'll check there's out next time you're visiting
d). Type "Wollemi Pine" into Google to see what it is

Especially because they are cool. But also because I'm still earning how to plant trees and it would be a great learning experience. Now I just have to find a friend who would buy a wollemi pine. Oh and a baby.

5. You find some snails in the garden eating your lettuces. Do you;

a). Instinctively know how to eliminate them organically
b). Pick each one off by hand
c). Reach for the Bayer snail pellets
d). Remove the lettuces because you think they're a weed

Time consuming I know, but is there a better way. Better go and search on google :), so I know how to instinctively eliminate them organically.


6. As you flick through the channels on your TV you come across a gardening show. Do you;

a). Make yourself a herbal tea and cancel every other appointment to watch it
b). Make sure nothing else is on the other channels
c). Note the time and channel so you can watch it next week
d). Write a letter of complaint to the broadcasting tribunal

I will watch most gardening shows, I also marked C, because I would want to know so I can watch it next week and the week after. My favourite show will always be Gardening Australia on the ABC, and I'm slowly teaching my husband that 6:30 on Saturday is quiet time in our house.

7. Your children get inspired to garden and want to help you. Do you;

a). Find creative ways to educate them about gardening
b). Give them a packet of seeds to plant
c). Get them to pull out all the weeds in the veggie patch
d). Give them your gardening tools and go and watch TV

Let's be honest here, I would definitely try and find creative ways to get them involved in garden, such as the ideas given the Gardening Australia magazine each month. But I would also get them to plant seeds and plants in the garden, and yes I would get them to help me in the vegetable garden. Now I just need to get myself some kids, maybe I could steal some nieces and nephews sometime.


So how did I go I got A= 5/7 B=1/7 and C=1/7 Does that equate to an A or a B. I think at the moment I'm more a B, but with time I hope to become an A, which equals a Green Thumb Gardener. I'll let you know when I get there.

If you ended up with all (a)'s then you can call yourself a Green Thumb Gardener. If you mostly answered (b) then people may suspect you have tinges of green on your thumbs and if you answered (c) for most of the scenarios then you are likely to be classified as a weekend gardener.

However, if you found that all the (d) responses were resonating with you, (as hard as it is to say this) gardening may not be your forte.

Green Thumb Sunday -Flowers

When I went for a walk in my garden this afternoon, I was surprised at the number of flowers in my garden. I'm not really a flower person, my husband commented the other day, that I'm really only interested in plants I can eat. Not completely true, but close.
Near by garden pond, there is the pineapple sage with its pretty red flowers.
Also near the pond is this flower. I think the plant is called savoury, but I'm not sure. I love it's daisy like flowers.
Then there is the potato vine. I know I should prune it, but I do love the constant white flowers.

I really must begin cutting flowers and bring them inside occasionally.

Saturday Musings _ Things to do

Well now I'm suddenly back into gardening, there are so many projects I'm considering.

Big Gardens
I would love to start turning the back lawn into gardens, but I think that is going to have to wait awhile. Our lawn is on very bad soil at the moment. Very compacted, But I'm planning on doing these tests soon to see just how bad the soil actually is. Very bad is my guess. I think that I will have to use a no-dig style garden over every section of the lawn, so help build up suitable soil for gardening.
The lawn is basically divided into three sections, (see the photos below) I have different plans for each section, but there are reasons, why I can't get started on them yet.
Here is a photo of the whole lawn from the back step. Please excuse the rubbish and such in the garden, I'm slowly getting better about keeping a tidy garden.

The three sections are viewed from this point.
1) The first section is the one closest to the house. The vegetable baths, drain onto this section of the lawn, (when I'm watering). For this section I would like to create a cottage style garden with lots of daisys, bulbs and other stuff I haven't discovered yet. The problem with this section is it is held up using a retaining wall, which I'm pretty sure I will need to raise so I can build up the soil using my favourite no-dig style.
2) The second section is under the clothes line, it will also need the retaining wall built up and I suspect this will be the last garden to be developed. My plan at the moment is to have a sandy style garden with mostly low ground cover and plants that have low water needs. I am planning to keep the clothes line, as much as it is ugly.
3) The third section which runs along the back fence. At the moment there is a metre strip with a pine log style border. (Which I hate by the way). We have just had the privet cut out, but there is still a lilac and a few low fleshy plants. I don't really know what they are, but maybe one day I will take photos and see if anyone can identify them. My plan for this garden is a natural habitat garden with mainly natives. I had hoped to get this garden planted this year, but it is not going to happen. I didn't get the no-dig soil set up early enough, and now it is time to plant the plants and I haven't killed of the lawn etc. I did consider starting the no-dig part now, so I could plant in spring. But I suspect with level four water restrictions on the way , I'm better waiting and planting next Autumn. I'm sure I'll survive the wait, and it gives me plenty of time to plan.
So that is the lawn projects, which are long term goals.
But what about short term projects?

African Violets

I inherited these two African Violets off my Nana, they are in pots that I made for her one christmas. But I think they are due to be re-potted, so I am in the middle of learning how to do this. All a bit scary. I promise I will do it one day. At least I now know that you can buy special potting mix for African Violets.

Inside plants
I went for a walk through our local nursery today and boy did I start drooling. I was mainly looking for indoor plants for our bedroom and the master bathroom. For the bedroom I think I'm going to get cyclamen as mentioned in an early post and these miniature bamboo ferny things, which will match the bamboo in the courtyard.
For the main bathroom I saw lots of wonderful plants, some trailing ones and the maidenhair fern looked so beautiful and delicate.

Vegetable garden
The vegetable garden is still going, but I do need to plan some more plantings. I want to plant more silver-beet and rainbow chard, which is being eaten all most every night some weeks. As I mentioned early in the Rhubarb post I am planning to set up a perennial vegetable garden down the back of the garden. I'm thinking about planting rhubarb, raspberries, aspargas and artichokes at the moment. I'm still going to plant in baths, but this time I am going to try putting sand and gravel down before I place the baths. I am hoping this will stop some of the weeds growing up around the baths.

So there are some of the projects I need to get started. I might start by looking into where I can buy sand and gravel for the perennial vegetable garden and potting mix for the African Violets.

Rhubarb

One of my favourite foods has always been rhubarb. Last year I decided I needed to grow some. It has been struggling in pots, while I decide how I'm going to set up my perennial food garden beds. But yesterday I was amazed by the large leafs and the colour in the sunlight.

Photo Hunter - cooking

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Today we pulled out our walk-in pantry and over the next few weeks we are going to make a laundry. But on our dining room table I ended up with all the things I use on a weekly to monthly basis to cook.
So to me all the things in this photo are the basis of all my cooking.

Herb Spiral

Accidently made this post, might as well finish it. Dad has still not arrived. Very typical of him. Safely I can say that as he refuses to read my blog because he considers it a diary, which to him is very personal.
Any hoo back to the herb spiral.
While waiting for Dear Dad, I've been wandering around all the blogs down the side of my page. At sturts page I found this post about a herb-spiral
I won't post a picture, because I don't have his permisson. But it looks like a really cool way to grow herbs.
Got to rush, car just pulled into the drive way.

cyclamens

It is a rainy Friday afternoon in Canberra and I'm waiting for my Dad to arrive for a visit. There is no point in me starting anything too productive, so I thought I would blog.
At the moment I have a beautiful pink cyclamen sitting on my kitchen bench between the sink and on the window. I orginally brought it for the bedroom, but I haven't found a suitable pot yet, and to be quite honest I think I would miss it now if I removed it from the kitchen bench. I just love it. I love the look of the flowers; they are so delicate looking, but somehow sturdy at the same time. But I also love the leaves, the colour and shape are so distinctive. I'm starting to think, that cyclamens are going to become a favourite of mine. My plan at the moment is to buy a couple, and put them in nice pots and rotate them between the bedroom and the courtyard. I have read that cyclamens do much better as house-plants if they get sometime outside in the cool night air. I haven't managed to take a photo of the cyclamen, my mum has taken the camera on holiday. But I have searched for some on the net.

This is very similar to the one on my kitchen bench, but mine is smaller


I searched the Gardening Australia website and found this factsheet the photo below is from the factsheet. That is a lot of cyclamen.

Green Thumb Sunday

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Well after a long break, a friend has inspired me to get back into my blog. Life has been a bit up and down recently, and the garden has been plodding along without much help from me. I've watered and I harvested most vegetables and stuff, but that was all. No new plants at all. For today's Green Thumb Sunday, I thought I would show some photos I took of my miniature harvest. We loved all the tomatos and I was so proud and happy to eat my own sweet corn. We also had lots of fun pulling up all the potatoes.

Green Thumb Sunday

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After confusing marigolds and geraniums over the years, I've just discovered that I like geraniums. Though my mum tells me they are not called geraniums any more. I brought three different coloured geraniums for the window box outside my kitchen window. This is one of them.

Garden Update

I was just checking the lemon tree and it looks like its finally given up on trying to reproduce. For the first time since I planted it last autumn it has put out new leaves, instead of flowers. Must make sure I give it a good fertilize this weekend. The tomatoes could also do with a fertilize. The rosemary in the lemon tree pot needs to be cut back. I think this weekend I will cut it right back, some I I will use in a roast, I might freeze a heap and try and strike cuttings from the rest. With me luck with that.

Everything else in the garden is going well, I went for a walk this morning while I watered. Both the normal mint and Vietnamese mint and going overboard, in particular the Vietnamese mint, it needs cutting back too. I suppose I could freeze it too. There are more flowers on the cucumber, and one cucumber ready to eat, must make a Greek salad tonight to go with the quiche. The corn is still growing, but a worry that it is not getting enough water, but there is not much I can do about that. There are lots of watermelons in the watermelon patch. Basil is finally taking off, after the second batch I planted; don’t know what I did wrong. The tomatoes in the bath and doing better than the pots, but the hanging cherry tomatoes, near the back door are also doing really well. It is everyone’s habit to pick one or too as they walk past and have a little snack. Spinach to be eaten might have spinach pasta later this week.

I have just realised that because tomorrow is the 1st after today was the 31st we get two watering days in a row, so I think I will try and fertilize tomorrow morning after they have all had a good drink today.

The camomile in the herb garden has had beautiful flowers for weeks now and are just starting to die off, but the feverfew has come into flower with similar shaped and coloured flowers, the flowers are just a bit bigger.

I picked a heap of cherry tomatoes for breakfast, but realised I don’t have bread for toast, I think there are dried biscuits so I might use those. I love having fresh produce for our meals, I’m really beginning to understand the concepts of eating what is in season.

Awhile ago Carol over at May Dreams Gardens made this post about plants that you planted and are now not part of your garden. This has encouraged me to go back to my photo journal about the pond garden to see what I planted that has survived and see if I can work out why.
The first one that jumped out at me was "the blob"(scientifically known as scleranthus uniflorus), this is a plant that has been in every family garden since I was a kid. I decided to plant one, but it died fairly quickly. I planted another one, but it died too. Thus I have given up. I still don't know why it didn't grow, but the back of the tag says "plant in very well dreained, gritty soil." and I now I'm wondering if it got too much water. I might try again in the new native garden.



The other plant that has "disappeared" is a Pratia Puberula - Alpine Pratia. The back of the label says "thrives in moist to wet soil". I can't decide if this died because the dogs walked on it to get to the lemongrass which they love eating, or wether I didn't get the water right. I don't think I'll try this again.

Watermelon

Well I finally gave in and picked my first watermelon. Think now it was probably not fully ripe but it was very exciting. It has lots and lots of seeds, but it does taste like watermelon.

Here is the outside of the watermelon after I sliced it




Here is the inside of the watermelon

Planning 2007

Well last night I sat down and looked at my gardening scrapbook calendar. In the “what to do in January” section was make a plan for the year. So that’s what I’m doing.

What do I want to achieve is 2007 in the garden.

I want my vegetable garden to become a more constant ongoing project, rather than just starting again in spring. Ways to do that are:
• Plant my Brassicas now
• Buy more baths and get dad to help me attach the axels.
• Fertilise my plants on regular basis.
• Plan what I need to plant in advance
• Use more seeds rather than seedlings

I want to get my native garden at the backyard established
• Plan
• Set up soil. I was going to use no-dig again,
• Put in structures
• Chose plants

Skills and Habitats I would like to develop or improve
• Dead-heading flowers
• Fertilising plants (How often and What to use)
• Growing things from seeds

Other things to work on over the year for longer term goals:
I would like to start caring for and extending the garden at the front of the house.
Plant bulbs in the back and front lawn
Start planning to turn the back lawn into two separate gardens.
Start building a mini-orchard along the fence.


In relation to this I have been thinking about ways to improve the vegetable garden.

What worked well?
The baths and the watering system within the baths
Corn, beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes all grew well in the baths.
The Chillies did well in pots and I would do that again.
The zucchini and pumpkin did well in the small child's pools.
I think the potatoes are doing OK, but I would try for something deeper next year.

Things I would change
Next year I would like to have two baths of tomatos rather than the pots, the pots dry out to quickly and it was only in the pots that I got blossom-end rot.
The capsicum plants really need to be in a bath, so I might consider 1 bath for the capiscums or putting them in with the tomatoes.
I think I could plant the tomato plants earlier next year, in particular the tub bush tomatoes.
The grape tomatoes are yummy when fully ripe, but they are very messy and hard to stake.
I'm still not sure if I will grow watermelon again, but if I do I won't go as many seeds and aim for a a few large plants rather than lots competing. I would also put the cucumbers with the watermelon, rather than with the zucchini.


Things I'd like to grow in the vegetable garden next year that I didn't this year.
I'd like to plan to grow butternut pumpkin's rather than the golden nuggets.
I'd like to try the roma tomatoes in the bath, rather than pots.
Beetroot
Garlic and onions
Broadbeans
Brussel sprouts
Broccoli

BRING ON 2007

Green Thumb Sunday

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I thought photos of pretty flowers were in order this week. I've only just got into flowers, but I brought 10 pots of summer flowers. But now I have a problem, I don't actually know what these flowers are, even though I love them. They are in all sorts of colours, dark purple, white, pink and light purple


Updated to say according to comments, I now think that is is a petunia

Photo Hunter - Wild

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I tried to take some photos of wild parrots in my garden, but they flew away.
So instead I took some photos of my "wild" pumpkin plant. I certainly didn't plant this pumpkin as seeds or as seedlings. I think it must have grown from seeds in the compost. As the photo shows it even has a pumpkin on it.