Growing local

January 2010 Blog Posts (4)

Midsummer Munchings

The December storms and subsequent fiiling of the rainwater tank, brought hope to my heat-stressed, thirsty backyard. But I shouldn't complain, as we've never run out of veges for the wok.

Corn has been a good staple. The first dozen were in a shady spot, yielded small cobs.I planted the second block in full sun and was really successful, with each plant producing 2 and a few, 3 cobs. The first cobs were all large and full, the second, small but sweet.… Continue

Added by Addy on January 25, 2010 at 12:30 — 9 Comments

Midnight Persimmon Party

Following the first blog, here is the almost-final chapter.

These whatever-they-are variety of seedless Persimmons ripen almost all at once. They look green on the tree, one or two fall off minus their calyx which sits forlornly on the branch. That is the cue to pick the lot. Seceteurs or similar are needed, the very short stem is quite tough.

They sat in their styrene box on… Continue

Added by Elaine de Saxe on January 20, 2010 at 23:00 — 10 Comments

End of beginning of summer ~

We’ve had a warm spring this year, and December being the first month of summer has been very hot for the first part, and very hot and humid for most if not all of the whole holiday period.

A recently planted bamboo, and a couple of established and newly planted plants in the cucurbitaceae family have succumbed to the heat early in December. One of those 2am storm flooded the ground the coop was sitting on and the crippled chook who slept downstairs was rescued from stomach deep… Continue

Added by Florence on January 12, 2010 at 10:18 — 3 Comments

Persimmons

Just picked a few kilos of green Persimmons. This is a non-astringent seedless variety the name of which I have forgotten.

The tree is espaliered, one metre each side of the post, with wires about 500mm apart - not enough room horizontally and the wires are too far apart. The other trees which were espaliered at the same time (about 6 years ago) did not take kindly to that treatment. The Black Genoa fig, the tropical Peach, the Shahtoot Mulberry were more enthusiastic growers than… Continue

Added by Elaine de Saxe on January 11, 2010 at 13:30 — 5 Comments