BLOG PAGE - 2018 - CURRENT
Hi, this is the blog page where I can add some details about the garden that just don't seem to fit in the VEGGIES page.
This page will be a running account of how the garden is going so there should be something new to see here every few
weeks (except in winter).
Late Summer 2021
Well it has been a while since my last blog entry. 2020 was, of course a pretty unusual time and well, things just didn't get done.
The garden was largely ignored apart from the usual chores of weeding and pruning so there was very little to show you.
The summer of 2020 and the new year 2021 haven't really seen us doing much with the garden. In fact it looks rather good
but it has been left to fend for itself for a long time now.
The lemon grass is taking over the central garden bed and a large pumpkin vine has taken over most of the area next to the back fence.

Lemon grass
We think the pumpkin variety may be a Queensland blue but could also be one called a Jarrahdale. Either way it must have come up from
some home made compost we put down because we certainly didn't plant it.
It is the most vigorous pumpkin vine we have ever had in the garden and so far has produced two large pumpkins with more coming along.
(Scroll down to the end of Winter 2019 to see just how much the garden has changed since then.)

Mystery pumpkin
The lemon balm plant we put in some time ago is growing well, in fact it has to be pruned regularly to stop it from getting too large.
As yet we really haven't found much of a use for the leaves but we are currently investigating ways of making pot-pouri or something similar
with the leaves. They are edible but we find them a bit rough to eat.

Lemon balm
The grape vine produced a huge number of grapes this year but sadly they were sour and only a few were sweet enough to eat.
If anyone has any ideas about how to make them sweeter, we would love to hear ways of sorting this problem out.
The warrigal isn't doing that well as it is being shaded too much by other plants. They seem to need a lot of sun
to produce large leaves so we haven't been eating much of that lately.

Warrigal
Other notable thngs include some sort of stone fruit tree growing in the front garden. No doubt we will find out what it is next season when
it starts to fruit.
The curry tree and citrus trees are all doing well. The Kaffir limes are doing too well and require regular pruning and the thons
on them are real devils requiring thick gloves to handle.
The strawberry guava is under constant attck from fruit fly when it fruits so we are getting nothing from that at the moment.
We are just destroying the fruit to stop the larvae from developing.
I guess the only other plant of note right now are the daikon raddishes. They always seem to do well but we don't do much with them other than
pickling and making Asian daikon cake (which is a savoury dish).
Oh and our poor laksa plant finally expired so we will have to get a new one to replace it.

Daikon
Spring 2019
Despite the fact that many seeds are still failing to germinate, the garden is looking better than it has for quite a long time.
We are persisting with making compost and adding it to the veggie beds and adding some slow release fertiliser from time to time.
The broad beans, that looked as though they were going to fail miserably, suddenly burst into action and now we are cropping every few days.
Perhaps it was the increase in temperature that triggered the 'fruiting' to start.
M
Broad beans
The beetroot are also doing well. This is the first time since we first started trying to grow beetroot, that they have really reposnded well and it looks like
we will get a good crop.
The first planting didn't get going, there are only three plants from that, but the next planting did much better and they are growing faster than normal too.

Beetroot
We were given some of the seedling starter pots from Woolworths and they seem to have all germinated. Today they were moved from the bathroom (nice light from
the big window) into the garden.
We have planted them under the netting but that is no guarantee that some pests won't get in and eat the lot. We will just wait and see.

Seedling planting
The rest of the veggie patch is looking better than it has for a while and most of the established plants are roaring back to life.
Vietnamese mint, grapes, lemon balm, warrigal and all the other long term plants are growing. The grapes already have signs of setting fruit, which is good because it has been 3 years since we last got anything out of it.
The plants that aren't starting off quickly are the apple trees and the bananas. The bananas look like thay might not recover this year but
that isn't such a bad thing because they always seem to get ratty and untidy so if they don't come back, they won't be missed much.

Spring garden 2019

The garden 2 years later
Winter 2019
The garden is never that exciting in the depths of winter but we do have a some different types of plant that we put in in Autumn but some are doing better than
others.
The best performers to date have been the broad beans, although not all the seeds germinated.

Broad beans
The second type of plant that has started to grow are the beetroot but they are notoriously slow and are nothing but tiny little seedlings at the moment.

Beetroot seedlings
The third variety was the brussel sprouts but there is no sign at all that they have germinated.
The shallots are doing well, as they always seem to do. In fact there are so many around the garden beds now that there will have to be some culling
during the next harvest to ensure they don't completely take over the garden.

Shallots
We have one large kai choy that has a few leaf holes thanks to the attentions of the garden snails.
It will keep growing for a while yet and if it doesn't get harvested, then we will let it go to seed.

Kai Choy
The pandan plant is safe and warm in the laundry and is doing very well at the moment. The small plant that was the only pandan we have
managed to propagate so far, was out in a plastic green house for a while but it was looking too sickly and has now been brought inside
until the warmer weather turns up.
The rest of the garden is fairly empty except for weeds that are doing their best to take over as this time of year, much less attention and
effort is focused on the garden beds.

Winter garden
Autumn 2019
The garden is slowing down as winter approaches but we have planted some winter crops including broad beans and brussel sprouts.
There is no sign of seedlings yet but we hope something starts to show up in the next couple of weeks.
The banana didn't respond to the extra fertiliser it was given and still remains a sickly yellow colour. Since it will be cut back again
after winter, there isn't much point in trying to do anything about it now.

The banana leaves didn't recover this year.
Daikon are usually a good plant to grow and they have done well in our raised plants beds. In fact they are about the only things that have done
well in that location. They grow quickly and don't seem to be bothered by pests.

Daikon in raised beds.
The strawberry guava is rapidly turning in to a decent sized tree. Fruiting time is over and it is now flowering.
The fruit this year was a bit larger, although they probably won't get any bigger than cherry sized and I assume the names
comes from the red appearance of the fruit as they taste nothing like strawberries.

Strawberry guava
Speaking of strawberries, there is just one remaining plant and we still have hopes that it might spread and turn into a proper strawberry patch.
So far there seems to be no sign of that happening.

Strawberry
We have a new plant in the garden which is both highly productive and a native plant.
Warrigal is also known as Australian or New Zealand spinach and grows profusely.
So far there is no sign of any pest problems and best of all it is great to eat stir fried with a bit of garlic.
It is quite invasive so we will see just how much it needs to be kept in check over the next couple of years.

Warrigal or Australian spinach.
The pandan plant has done well but it is almost time to bring it inside for the winter. Last year we waited a bit too long
and it took a long time to recover.
At the moment it is looking beautifully lush and dark green.
We finally managed to propagate the plant after re-planting one of the 'babies' that grow from the sides. We lost count of the
number of times we tried this before it was successful.

Pandan looking healthy
For quite a few years we have been growing shallots but the variety we have, grow only to about the size of a single garlic clove.
We recently bought a much larger variety at a veggie store and planted those to see if they would start to grow.
They seem to have taken well and are now growing in one of the raised garden beds. We will report later on how well they have done.

Large Shallots
The laksa plant (Vietnamese mint) has spread out nicely during the summer but now the cold weather is here, it is starting to look a bit sickly
As always we just hope that it will survive the winter and come back next spring.

Laksa plant
Early Summer 2019
The garden is starting to look just a little better but many plants are still failing to germinate.
Another unplanned plant has popped up and is out shining most others.
This one is a single zucchini that has, against the odds, started producing some nice 'fruit'.

A single zucchini popped up
The rogue tomato is still doing well and we are now harvesting from it. So far we cam see over thirty tomatoes on the one plant.
We will certainly be doing some seed saving from this one.

Rogue tomato producing many fruit.
The beans have now gone crazy and seem to be trying to take over the garden. At least we will have one crop this season that does really well.
As usual, we will save seed from the late beans and re-plant next year.

Beans doing well
The raised seed beds finally produced some plants but we didn't do much about insect control so we wont be harvesting anything from them.
The reason they have been allowed to continue growing is to get some fresh seed for next year.
The plants on one side bolted very quickly and are already setting seed.

Raised garden beds
We chopped the bananas down to ground level again and they seem to respond well to this seemingly harsh treatment.
We are yet to get anything useful from them but they are nice decorative plants so we just keep bringing them back using this chopping method.

The banana re-growth
We are keeping a close eye on the grape vine for any early signs of powdery mildew but so far it seems happy enough.
We don't know if it will manage to produce any grapes this year but we will just cross our fingers and hope.

Will the grape vine produce this year?
We still can't get chillies to grow but now the hot weather has finally arrived, we might give it another go with some seedlings from Bunnings.
There aren't any big plans for more planting at the moment but a little later we may put in some new pumpkin seeds as they seem to enjoy
it when the weather warms up.
We are getting a large number of small curry tree plants popping up in the lawn. We can't leave them there so will dig them up, put them in pots
and give them away to a local op-shop to sell. They are in big demand so hopefully it will help them raise a bit of money.
The Vietnamese mint, or laksa plant, is returning to life after winter but it has taken it a very long time.
I think it would be best to get it growing in the centre patch to give it more sunlight in the colder months but it is such a touchy plant, I am reluctant to move it.

Laksa plant
Late Spring 2018
Well the garden has been an unmitigated disaster this season. I have no idea what is going on, we plant, water and add a bit of fertiliser
but the seedlings mostly die. The only plants that seem to do REALLY WELL are the weeds!
The ONLY thing that is thriving is a tomato plant that came up in the bike shed next to the compost bin. Yup, something we didn't even plant
is doing far better than the things we did.

The rouge tomato.
The raised garden beds have been the biggest failure of all. All I can think is that the soil we got from Aldi was just rubbish. I think it will have to be removed
and new soil put in next year.
We mostly like Aldi products but this was a complete waste of money.
All the tomato seed we put in either didn't grow or died as seedlings. They were all commercial seeds and those usually produce good results.
As they were different brands and different varieties, all I can think is that the soil was to blame.

The failed garden beds.
The grape vine has finally come back and is spreading nicely. I just hope that it doesn't get powdery mildew again. We will have to keep a close watch on it and treat with
the milk and water mixture we used last year. That cleared up the mildew but we treated the vine too late and most of the leaves and all the grapes died.
Plants that have at least shown some promise in the garden include beans, Vietnamese mint, shallots and... er.. well nothing much else.
The lemon grass we re-planted seems to be doing well so we will see how they go over winter now we have moved several away from the fence (which causes them to be
in shade most of the cold months.)
The rather sad pictures below show how poor the garden is but we will persevere.

A lack-lustre veggie garden this year.

A lack-lustre veggie garden this year.

A lack-lustre veggie garden this year.

At least the grape vine is coming back.
Late winter 2018
The winters seem to be getting colder and wetter at the momnent. Some plants coped quite well but others, like the pandan, bananas and
lemon grass, look very poor and out of sorts.
It is currently the end of August and we have put in a couple of new raised garden beds. We got the structure from Aldi for just $20
each and we also got the soil from there at $4 per 25 litres.
We have had such bad luck with the garden oven the past couple of years, we wanted to try and do a complete re-boot for some veggies.

The new raised beds. We have mostly planted tomatoes here.
The central garden beds have mostly been planted with melons and pumpkins. The failure rate in this area has been very high and we
just don't know why, so this year we are trying new plant varieties in several areas of the garden.
We have also bought a PH tester to see if we can work out if parts of the garden are too alkaline or too acidic and more info on
that will become available as we start to use it.

The central garden bed where we have planted melons and pumpkins
Some of the worst hit plants this winter have been the poor old bananas. They are in a shocking state and we are wondring if they will
recover. Other plants that were hit hard by winter were the Thai mint, laksa plant. lemon grass and pandan. The pandan we had to move back inside
as it went an alarming shade of yellow.
It seems to have recovered but we are still trying to work out a way of propagating this plant.

Battered bananas
Plants that are doing quite well include all the citrus. The kaffir lime, lemons and kalamansi limes are all thriving and the limes produced
so much fruit during winter that a lot went to waste. We had to resort to juicing them and freezing the juice for use later in various
recipes.

Kaffir lime, Kalamansi lime and Lemon tree.
We have deployed the pest-shelter early this year in order to avoid damage to soft leaved greens from snails and catterpillars.
This seemed to work well last year so we are looking forward to some nice green leaves that aren't full of holes and chewed edges.

Insect proof shelter
We have bought commercial seeds for a lot of our planting this year in the hope that they will produce better crops than the saved seed.
Some of the old seed has been planted but a lot is now getting to the stage where it is too old to be of much use.
The final pictures below show the lemon grass that we are considering moving to a site that gets more sun during the winter,
the strawberry guava that has really started to grow well and the curry leaf tree that has now grown so large that it requires
regular pruning just to keep it in check.

Lemon grass not enjoying the cold weather

Strawberry guava

Curry tree
We need to get some more fertilizer including some organic stuff such as sheep and cow poo. The watering system needs an complete overhaul
before the hot weather sets in and we will have to get some tomato dust, snail pellets and try again at producing some much needed
chillies so it looks like spring is going to be a busy time in the veggie patch.
As soon as there are some new developments we will post them here.

The spring garden all prepared