What are you planting, harvesting and preparing your soil for now? Mid Autumn to Spring

[Dianne Caswell]

This is a New Blog for Mid Autumn to Spring..

I thought it might be helpful to see what everyone is Planting, Harvesting and Preparing for in the garden now. Perhaps this would be helpful to those of us who would like to plant something a bit different to our normal fare. We have a few member who always have some out of left field ideas that we have picked up with gusto, and we are now finding ourselves eating many new & interesting foods.

Is anyone preparing beds etc. for the next Seasons Produce & what type of Preparations are you making, Soil Type, Fertilizer, Manures or that Special Treatment. What have you found works best for certain types of Produce, Fruit & Nut Trees, Vines, Herbs & Spices etc.

This Blog could be useful to use as a continuous one as we would be posting for the now not a specific season of time of year.

[Dianne Caswell]

Everything is still growing well, the Lettuce are looking nice and the Beans have been full and tasty, Silverbeet is coming on, Aubergines and Kale are doing well and I think all of the Garlic is now up. I had my first flower on a Finger Lime that was a buzz. The Clementines are almost ready to eat and have picked some beautiful Lemons to make an old fashioned Lemon Meringue Pie. The Limes well the Limes just keep falling off the tree.

Well I have had a pretty big week in the garden. I have planted out Allysum for the Bees. Also I have been adding to my Gingers and planted Native Ginger Atherton - Red Form, Asarum canadense Wild Ginger, Native Ginger, Japanese Ginger - Zingiber mioga,

Chilli - Ghost Pepper, Tree Collard - Purple Leaf, Yuzu - Citrus ichangensis, Dwarf Avocado - Wurtz (A), Atherton - Raspberry, Panama Berry and a Davidson Plum (Qld)

Enjoy your Winter Gardening.......  

[Dianne Caswell]

Yes it must be the year for a great Garlic Crop as mine are all up and looking good. I have quite a variety so am looking forward to seeing which ones are the best, so pleased I labelled them all.

[James Rosenlund]

Heh Susan and Dianne :- I have 100% success rate with the garlic cloves that you shared with Christine. The last one put up a new shoot yesterday, hope to harvest 9 healthy garlic bulbs next year.

[Dianne Caswell]

Another week of beautiful weather for gardening, where else would you rather be. I have cleared out and cut back hard the Salvias in the Salvia Bed. I intend to scatter some seeds randomly of Beneficial Insect Plants, hoping they will come up in between the Salvias.

The front garden has also been partly cleared, manured and had a blanket of Lucerne put down. There are now 4 new Tropical Fruit Trees in the garden, still the Roses along the front, and "shock horror" couldn't resist it but have planted my English Style Cottage Garden again. There is Parsley, Rekko Onions, Perennial Leeks, Russian Sage and a few more Edible additions in there.

My "Thyme Walk" is coming on beautifully with many edible and non edible Thyme varieties planted along the edge and in between the stepping stones. Thyme is one of our favourites here so at the moment we are sure not to run out.

[Dianne Caswell]

I will have to put out a call for that Daisy tonight Christa.

James I am pleased your Garlic has started coming up, I am a little worried I planted mine too deep. Just loved that bit of rain we had, but am hoping for a little more.

[James Rosenlund]

I added more mulch along side the rocket seedlings and sowed some parsley seeds which I collected in 2013. I have been slack with planting lettuce so tomorrow morning  I'll recycle Rob's 6 seedling tray and sow  some lettuce seeds. I try to plant new lettuce every couple of weeks.

[James Rosenlund]

Dianne 3 of the 9 garlic cloves that I brought home from Susanne's G. V.  have popped their little green shoots up and am awaiting the other six. The rain has been soooo welcomed, my 3 passion fruit vines are producing madly, I think their roots are in the same stuff the chokos are in. I wonder if its the enormous leguminous  tree that shading them?

[Christa]

Dianne,  that daisy is hard to get now, it was growing here for years and always put on a yearly display that looked stunning and grew easily by cutting.   Some older gardeners still have them.

[Dianne Caswell]

Pleased to hear you also have a Petrea, they are so pretty. Would you by any chance have a daisy that I am looking for - It is a very Old Fashioned, Yellow Marguerite Daisy (the type our Grand-Mothers used to grow), Argyranthemum frutescens. Not the Federation type they have now, they grow 80cms-100cms. 

[Christa]

Petrea is beautiful, Dianne,  mine has got away up a trellis and flowers high up. The idea of a standard is the most perfect for this decorative plant.  Wonderful rain we have had as well.  Just enough time now to get in some plants before it gets too cold.