Good bye lilies!

 My little curry leaf tree is looking well; the rosemary and thyme are also looking happier.  This is in the side front where my monster sweet potatoes (white fleshed) and sick looking cape gooseberry are.

 My flowering prostrate rosemary is a constant lunch bar for the local bee population... who don't seem bothered about me at all.

 In my postbox bed we have globe artichokes which have resurrected themselves now the weather has cooled down.  We have also put saffron in near the top corner and put two rows of garlic in coming straight down that edge and across the bottom.  The leggy plant in the foreground is a Lemon Verbena which will if it thrives make some nice lemon tea and scent the house nicely of lemons as the breeze blows through.

We have our first (okay second but first not to get knocked off by an excited junior gardener!) lemon!  Fruit Fly is a problem here in Western Australia and so to avoid the problem and NOT spray any chemicals on our fruit we are employing exclusion bags.  This one is a jewellery bag but it will do the job until the lemon gets a bit bigger.  The nutrient deficiency has been treated (pale leaves) but it takes up to a year for the leaves to show improvement so we will keep on feeding the soil - it got a lambs heart yesterday just for good measure!   The rosemary hedge is starting to take shape.  In the mid-shot is the postbox bed with rosemary, globe artichoke, a mandarine tree and some chives. 

Passionfruit!  Well I was worried that these were NEVER going to fruit... Hubby decided to threaten them loudly with being chopped and composted.  I guess they were paying attention.  I still need to figure out which is gold and which is red... I suppose time will tell!  I am thinking maybe the first one might be the red... it is a little darker green?  That vine is in the background... it used to be over an arch but they don't build archways like they used to!
  In the fore-ground you can see the remainder of the sweet potato after bandicooting and a good cut back.  Ignore the plastic bags - they were from the lambs hearts, fry and kidneys - we were attracting the flies to our Orb spider web so they didn't bother this gardener! ;-)  I just planted a Lots-O-Lemons at the front of this bed so more fruit here we come!

 I am thinking these might be from the Gold Passionfruit?  They really took Chris' threat to heart and are producing like nothing else!  My dirty-garden hand is dwarfed by the fruit... such a pity I don't like passionfruit... but Chris and the boys will be happy!  As well as the neighbours with the amount of fruit setting!

 I ran wire through star pickets when the archway broke and apparently the passionfruit is much happier occupying this against the nice warm fence!  In the foreground you can make out lots of Sage, some ruby chard - not much as the crickets like it as much as we do.. some ornamental viburnums that we plan to eventually remove and replace with fruit trees and Sugar cane that came from a cutting at Jetto's Patch... it now has 4 stems on it and so far I have managed to keep everyone at bay - Chris wants to pull it out before it takes over and the boys want to cut stems to eat!

 This is my current work in progress - messy aren't I?  Top of the bed is asparagus then sage, then Midyum Berry, Sage, Midyum, purple sage and then right at the bottom of the shot is the new liquorice.  In the rear of the shot is the Ice-cream bean which we will bend along the wire - espalier.  There are also broad beans that Brandon planted all along the back of the bed - we are still waiting for them to show us where!  This whole bed was full of very scruffy looking Dietes Lilies.  So we are making progress!

 The passionfruit is making its way down the fence to meet the ice-cream bean.  The Dietes clumps are still on the lawn in the foreground - they were painful to remove - thanks Chris for the help!  The bed is looking a little bare right now but it will be worth it as everything settles in.  I would love to expand the bed forward but the water, power, council keep on digging up the lawn.

 So the Ice-cream bean went in  and got a new bed mate - a Pineapple Guava which will also be espaliered (maybe) along the fence.  Some of my Kale and chilli's can also be seen in this shot.

 I still have 4 more of these clumps of Dietes to dig out to make room for more Ornamental edibles...

 I managed to keep two rosella bushes alive and they are currently a mass of flower buds, flowers and more importantly seed pods.  Besides them is the last remaining Pop-pop's Super Tomato... Hopefully this one will not seccumb to wilt!  Behind it are some Diggers Mini Capsicums that have been producing nicely and in the front right is a ground apple - Yakon.  I have yet to try one of these so I am really hoping it manages to produce after an extremely slow start. 

 In this bed we have a Tangelo at the back since the boys tried them at Jetto's Patch and decided they were a MUST have!  I am not going to argue with boys wanting to grow and eat fruit! To the left there is another Passionfruit - because we thought the others may have been Nelly Kelly - thankfully I found a label the other day and they are simply "Red" and "Gold"... so we may end up with passionfruit for the whole neighbourhood!  To the right of the Tangelo is the Kumera which I hope to encourage to grow up the wire support.  In front of those are two dwarf pomegranates that are slowly finding their feet after transplant.  In front of those are Kale and Globe Artichokes... and dwarfed at the front is a tiny Goji berry plant which hasn't done a whole lot - we will see! I might need to get Chris to threaten to pull it out.

 At the very end of the bed I popped in some garlic and leeks at the front of the bed and more Mini Capsicums and chillis.  Oh and another Yakon.  To the rear of the bed are some ornamentals that have a reprieve until I can replace and some lemongrass to supply my neighbour as rentals don't allow grow-your-own!  Anyway thats part of the front at the moment. The blueberries and mulberries are plodding along and  we will add more as we go I am sure.

Oh and when I am not looking after my garden I look after a friends twins and meander through her garden... I found one of this years baby bobtails sunning itself by the vegetable bed.  Good bye slugs and snails!

Rocketing Rocket!

Well on the 29th of July I planted a heap of seeds including Rocket... and today they are UP!?!  Lets hope that the Broccoli - Italian Sprouting; Mesclun; Turnip - Early Purple; Cabbage - Sugar Loaf; Cauliflower All Year and Leeks, Lyon Prizetaker aren't far behind!

Yesterday I planted Harlequin Carrots, Diggers Heirloom Carrot mix, Diggers 3 colour purple carrots, Baby Pak Carrots, Black Sapotes, Tomato Tigerella, Ginger, Turmeric, Chioggia Beetroot and Baby Beets.  Yesterday my first Stevia seed germinated so fingers crossed it survives AND my new Grape has burst into life with a tiny leaf!  By golly I think spring might be early!  My Mulberry has sprung also!

Today I transplanted and separated the strawberries into planters.  I found some very ripe Cape Gooseberries under the bush so squeezed out the seeds and popped them into a seed tray.  I am trying out some Cucumber seeds that are way out of date - Diggers Sweet and Striped and Lebanese Mini Munchers.  I over planted both of these as I doubt they will come up as they are over 3 years out of date.  Many of what I am planting are out of date but I figure if I don't plant them there is zero chance of germination... we might get one or two.  Finally before coming in I sowed some Gourmet Basil mix since the basil in the hydroponics is looking most unwell with the cold weather we have been having.

While we were at Jetto's Patch the boys tried some Tangelos and well they are now our FAVOURITE and they are EPIC.  So who am I to argue?  Hopefully I can get Mr T to dig a clump of Dietes out this weekend and we can pop this beauty against the fence.  This will take us to a Sub Lime, Imperial Mandarine, Dwarf Lemon and Tangelo in the citrus family in our garden.  Now we just have to get them all to hold fruit!

 As you can see the Flame Grape has sprung to life so I potted it up quick smart!

In the front bed are the Ruby Lou's that B planted... the bed behind are my Delawares... they just don't have the same oomph! I should have had Mr Green Thumbs plant both of them lol.

 The planters at the front have strawberries in which will hopefully up our production. The beds behind you can see my small Delawares finally poking their heads skyward and the bed of fingers crossed - out of date seeds.  Tatsoi, Mustard Mizuna, Mustard Giant Red, Pak Choy, Lettuce Yellow Leaf, Kale Tuscan Black and Red Spring Onions.  If any of them come up I will be happy, if not I will plant the bed out with more Beetroot and radish seeds.

 In the cups topped by bottles are my tigerella seeds, I am so excited to get these planted.  Reading my Diggers book they pack a punch in the taste steaks and one plant can produce 20kg of fruit!  So lets hope with our early start we can get some decent tomatoes and maybe even have enough to make Tomato Kasundi!

The Dwarf Pomegranate has put on new growth so I think it might be happy living under my kitchen window.

 I moved a shelving unit to the hydroponics corner to lift the Tomatoes skyward to hopefully help with their growth and fruit set (yes we might have to wait for warmer weather for fruit set but I can dream!).  The watercress got hammered by two boys and two dogs and it's still filling the box!  I don't think it will suffer having shade from the above shelf as Watercress likes creek and stream beds that are generally shaded by overhanging trees.  If it isn't happy I am sure it will tell me by walking lol.  If you have grown Watercress you know what I mean!!

As you can see growth is still happening in the hydroponics two of the rockets have gone to seed, the basil is looking the worse for wear!  The oregano, parsley and thyme are going great.  The self seeded cos lettuce and rainbow chard are complete superstars too.  We are harvesting daily not that you would know!  The strawberries are full of fruit and the rhubarb is none to sure what it is doing so I will keep you posted!  The very best thing about the hydroponics is working out the back and looking down to the corner only to spy boys and dogs standing pulling leaves off plants and filling their mouths!  You cannot get any fresher than that!  I cannot wait to expand to the rest of the fence.  Now I have seen how successful this is I am looking forward to implementing an aquaponics set up on the other 12 meters.  It will only have 4 levels however that will give us around 250 planting holes!  This will cover us for all our stir fry greens, rainbow chard and salad greens with room for growing!

Pop's Super Toms (Tomatoes) are flowering profusely.  They are not growing tall at the moment but they are very sturdy!

Even through the cooler weather we have been harvesting.  Lunchtime yesterday Radishes to go with salad and Lemongrass for a cup of tea!

Any my purple beans have decided it is NOT winter!  They are giving me beans?!?  Who am I to argue!

 In our quest for long carrots we are trying foam boxes.  We will see what happens.

Ok that's my update for today.. thanks for stopping by!

*hugs*

Sarah