Gardening Stuff

Although I have to admit to not doing too well in the daily gardening right now, I have achieved lots in the garden. I have managed to plant the second bamboo down near the house, some native violets in a nice shady place, and some daffodil bulbs in pots.

The carrot seeds I planted in the pot have come up, and are looking good. Hopefully they'll fare a little better than my original efforts, which were inedible. The chooks enjoyed eating the tops though.

I've been a bit discouraged that all those pea seeds I planted haven't come up. I think it was my fault, I planted them into some (store bought) compost, and I think it was too hot for them, as when I dug around, the seeds were brown and rotten. I've added some potting mix, and tried planting a few again, so I'll see how that goes before planting the rest. I also found that one of the strawberries I planted was dying, I think also because of the compost, so I repotted it in potting mix. Hopefully it will recover, but I won't hold my breath.

The original peas I put in are still doing well, although the bush peas at the bottom have been a little overwhelmed by some self-seeded cherry tomatoes. The climbing peas are going great, although I drastically underestimated their height in the original trellis as you can see. Still, I'm getting a few pods of them each day, so that's nothing to sneeze at. I'm definitely going to try this again, but with a better trellis.

The chickens have been devastating the leaves on this poor choko, so I built it a little wire cage for protection. Hopefully this will give it a chance to get a bit started and hopefully grow above chook height!

I'm getting some good harvests coming on. These Roma tomatoes are starting to ripen, picked about 5 already, and as you can see, many more coming.

This is the first of the pumpkins, about half full size now. There are about half a dozen more that are smaller, and still lots more coming each week.

The strawberries are getting more flowers by the day, and the newer flowers are much larger than the first few. I think all the watering and fertilising is paying off.

I finally found time to fence of the potato patch, the chooks kept trying to scratch up all the mulch, and I think eat the new shoots. I can't say for sure yet, but it looks like all 25 potatoes are going to come up. I've also planted another 12 seed potatoes in the space where my compost heap used to be. Hopefully there will be enough sun for them there.

I'm still trying to keep the fruit trees watered and fertilized. I was lucky enough to find a while mulberry tree at the markets last weekend, and I splurged and ordered an apricot tree from Daley's Nursery. The postage cost me more than the tree, but since I haven't seen one around here at all, it's worth it. Of course, having said that, they'll probably be everywhere at the markets on the weekend, in which case, I'll probably buy a couple more! I love apricots!