September in Retrospect

[Florence]

Spring’s been knocking on my front door ~ see the photo of our front garden (still needs borders put in, will be re-using our old pavers)

Although just planted, the mulberry tree’s full of ~ well ~ mulberries ~ We’ve harvested about a dozen, before this picture was taken. The blueberries are bearing fruits now too, but a long way till they’re ripe.

The pomelo have finished flowering, they were huge white flowers loved by the bees,

Also in the picture is a white luffa from Chris which is growing really well.

We abandoned the espalier idea because my parents didn’t like it… well, it’s their house. ^^” The avocado went into its own bed.

Since the building of all the beds are completed and filled with dirt and mushroom compost + a little bit of horse manure or coffee ground in some lucky beds ~ we’ve been busy planting ~

I’ve transplanted a batch of salad seedlings which were so crowded in the pot that they never grew more then sesame size. I was just giving it a try anyway, but they grew! Although the Mizuna kept trying to bolt..

Sown from seeds direct to beds are choy sum, cucumber, squash, radish, pumpkins, beans, spaghetti Squash, and corn.

I’ve built a frame for the cucumbers and spaghetti Squash to climb on from two shop bought tomato stakes, two stakes from Chris (thanks Chris), and some wire trellis. um.. can't seem to find a picture of it... maybe next time..

The four waterchestnut planted in August are growing well, except for one that didn’t germinate. Although they might have been even better if somebody didn’t tip out the water and disturbed the soil….

The tomatoes & eggplant sown on the same day (moon planting day for roots) into egg cartons germinated in a week, but did not grow far beyond that… I’ve transplanted some into garden beds, and some into bigger pots last weekend… Not sure whether it was the wrong moon time, or because they didn’t like egg cartons.

Out of the toilet rolls only the watermelons were transplanted to a veggie bed. Some Chinese celery has germinated, but they are tiny… the winter melons, pigeon peas, and angled luffas have always been difficult for me and none have germinated.…

The potatoes and peas are not doing so well….. peas must be because of the heat, although the snowpeas have flowered and started to grow pods... hopefully I can get some harvest pictures in the next blog ~

[Florence]

All my Pigeon peas are either rotted or showing signs of rotting... I think pigeon peas rots very easily.... maybe I should put them in seed raising mix as soon as they are germinated the little and keep the soil just slightly moist...

[Florence]

Thanks Scarlett, the soil's mostly mushroom compost ^^ .. they are actually cheaper then soil...

I don't know what went wrong with my Pigeon peas either Mick.. I've tried some on wet paper towel.. I think a couple rotted, a few have germinated... but seems to be rotting too... maybe they get rotted easily?

[Florence]

I hope you will get well soon so you can get back to enjoy working in your garden :)

Sorry about your avocado tree, they seem like fussy plants... mine have dropped a few leaves since I've planted it in the ground, and haven't grew any new leaves yet despite it being spring and all... I've also put shadecloth around it...

I probably won't try potatoes again for a while and grow easier stuff for now...

[Donna]

Wow, it all looks great Florence! While I was in hospital the dust storms hit and a lot of our plants (including the potatoes that were looking fantastic before) seem to have died.

Once I am healed I have *A LOT* of work to do to get the gardens looking good again, still have to clear the winter crops (that failed - planted too late) out and rejuvenate the beds for some summer crops.

I know what you mean about 'cheap' food - I kill almost half of my plants, and have just managed to murder a dwarf avocado tree - not sure how.. Ash even put a shadecloth around it when it started to look sick. Think I will buy an advanced tree this time. I just think of it as a huge learning curve, if I get no potatoes again this year I think I will stick to the sweet potatoes for next year until my skills get better lol!

[Mick Porter]

Only one of my pigeon peas germinated this year - I've grown them before OK, so not sure what went wrong? At least that one's going strong!

[Florence]

I've been trying to follow the moon planting calendar from a magazine I subscribed to, but on the day I planted those water chestnut I had some spare time and decided to have a go with sowing other stuff I wanted to grow too... I took a mental note to watch how things grow and in this instance it appears that the root crops were growing better then the above ground crops that are planted on a root crop day...

My family thinks I am crazy to sow certain things on certain days, but then they already think that I am crazy spending so much time and money on growing 'cheap' food.... .. like potatoes... and not even successful ^^"

[Elaine de Saxe]

Er, the tomatoes etc I figure are above-ground plants so I plant or transplant them on the waxing moon when my perpetual calendar gives 11 days to work with above-ground plants. There's only a couple of days, twice a month, when root crops (and they include onions in root crops) are recommended to be worked with.

[Scarlett Patrick]

those beds look great. lovely rich moist soil. everything looks very happy, beautiful