Flowering in the garden.

Some of the things flowering in the garden the last couple of months.

Cacti Flowers

There were over 80 flowers on our cacti out the front this year, late January.

A berry good year despite the lack of water.

We have done really well considering how little water we have. We are now surviving on seven rungs of the big tank and less that a quarter of the small one. But despite this we have had reasonable crops of berries and currants.
There is still some rodent getting into our strawberries, but I think it is just one mouse for now, as we have had some fruit.
The raspberries have had hardly any water at all but we got some and they were very good.
The redcurrants have gone absolutely nuts and I have gotten to freeze some this year. Not bad for a two year old bush.

The boysenberries and loganberries haven't done too badly either. We just ate the last of the boysenberry crop the other day.

We have had our first blackcurrants too and even though there are not many they are very tasty and a flavour I remember and love.

The blackberries are just holding in there. I transplanted two and they have no fruit. The other two established bushes are coping but the fruit will be pretty small and dry.

With some good autumn rain we may get some more raspberries and hopefully next year things will be even better.

First hot scary day of the year.

Second day of the year and we have our first catastrophic fire danger day, with expected top of 42c and high winds.

It is not the heat so much as the wind, that makes days like this so scary and there is nothing you can do about it except try and stay cool and wait it out, hoping no nut lights a fire, or dry thunderstorms come through.
The garden is protected as much as we can, watered well over the last couple of days and most of it is veiled like a bride.

Now it is just a case of waiting and hoping to get through, with no catastrophes to go with that rating.

2015 Ambitions.

2014 has not been a great year. It started well. I was back into mosaic art, started drawing again and made an attempt to get back into my writing. Then disaster stuck, when my step grandfather passed away suddenly in July, a couple of days before my birthday.

Things have pretty much ground to a halt for me since. Mosaics, art and writing have been non-existent. The renovations I wanted to start back up in spring never happened and emotionally I have been a bit of a mess. All I have to say is, thank goodness for family support, or I would not have coped at all.

I can't solely blame new family commitments on my lack of creativity either. This last year has seen me go through new stages of health changes, as I grow older, and my concentration seems to be going down the gurgler with it.

I am angry at myself for not spending more time on exercise and watching what I eat. I have gained weight, which has not helped my overall health either.

And to cap off a not stellar year, our rainwater tank sprung a leak. Good news,we think we have fixed it. Bad news, the rain pretty much stopped once we had.

We are surviving with just 7 rungs in the big tank now and have been getting just enough rain to keep us going. Shower rationing and not being able to do the washing at home is the pits, though. Thank goodness once again for family.

There is no veggie garden this year but the fruit is doing fine, despite the lack of water. In short, we are managing because there is not much more we can do.

So, 2015?

I have so much I want to do, but realistically I don't think I can manage them all. 

Renovations are at the top of the list. I have painting to do and floors to lay. Hall, office, lounge, bathroom, toilet and laundry. Blah!

I need to get back into mosaics, I have commitments there and have promised people my help and I have projects I want to compete.

Writing and drawing. God, I so want to get back to these, but I create on an emotional level and if I can't feel, then I can't create. Writing wise, what I used to do in a continual flow of words is now just a trickle and very disjointed at best.

One of the solutions I am thinking of is getting away from the internet, I really don't have the time and it does me no good emotionally and uses up most of my mental energy for nothing. The problem is, I don't want to loose contact with friends I have made over the years, so it might be a case of rationing and set times only. Which should also help stop my arse from spreading any more than it already has. I hope. :P

I would love to get to know a few people on a different level, start using Skype more. I am finding trying to communicate with writing and just a few lines here and there to be more and more frustrating.

Sims. Yes I play sims. I want to get this back on my computer and get back into world building, but in all honesty it wont be a priority, there are too many other things sucking time already. I did have the idea of getting back into sim story writing, to kick start my writing again, but after my game computer died and needed fixing, the appeal has left me. Maybe when I get a few more of my more practical goals cleared I can get back into it. Will just have to wait and see.

The garden. This is the one thing that is going okay at the moment. The front yard needs a good tidy up, but apart from that I have kept on top of things, with main thanks to Winnie and his garden maintenance, without him it would be a disaster.

The house. The house is clean! Got this done just before Christmas. This was getting a bid depressing. I hadn't done a proper clean in a while because of renovations but it should be easier to keep on top of now. 

Okay so the list is already long and that's not with all the other commitments that go along with life. I think if I apply myself and try and build some routines, it just might be doable. My main ambition this year is to at least get some of this done. I am not going to push too hard and over tax things. If I can make good headway into at least the renovations and health, I will be happy, the rest might just have to fall into place as they happen.

Blows cobwebs off blog

This spring has hit hard. We lost around 8000 gallons of water just before the rains stopped so things are a little desperate on the water front.
We have put on now summer veg and are now just trying to keep the fruit alive. The raspberries are basically on their own this year, they will survive I am sure, even if we get no fruit. The strawberries are a bit pathetic, so I can't see us getting much from them, which is a shame because the rodents got all the fruit last year.
The blackberries, bramble berries and currants have exploded with fruit this year and I have put in a bucket watering system, thanks to my mum. It seems to be working a treat so far and we will get the rest up and running tomorrow. With that and the mulch, hopefully we will get something edible from our garden this year.

The new watering system uses 72 Liter bucket, with lines attached to dripper hose, that is looped around each plant.

Winter Is Finally Here

It's been really mild here over Autumn and the plants are really showing it. We have only had to light the fire a few times so far and the days have mostly still been comfortable with just a jumper.

The berry patch is looking good. We are hoping to add blueberries next spring and hopefully get the rodents under control so we actually get some strawberries. I am also hoping to get some black currants next year.

The blackberries have gone a bit wacky, one of the canes has started flowering, which just shows how warm it has been.

Next years canes are huge and we are thinking of making and arbor out of them.

Herb garden is going strong, just needs a bit of a tidy.

The raspberries are going nuts and putting out a big Autumn crop, which makes up for there pathetic summer crop we had.

The pineapple sage is putting on a lovely show this year.

We have feral borage coming up all over the place and the bees are loving the blue flowers, they should help with soil condition too, in the berry patch.

And finally, Winnie put some wires up for me for my bramble berries. Boysenberry and Loganberry.

Easter Already!

This year already seems to be zipping by. Summer has not been kind to the garden but it's survived despite the baking conditions and looks quite good at the moment as it heads towards winter.
After the loss of our little cat, Kitty, last March, we have been having an outdoor rodent problem. Our existing elderly cat is too old to be bothered. This means we had not strawberries over summer, each and every one of them was taken but rats or mice. I have recently seen a naughbour's cat in our garden and we have had a few strawberries ripen, so I am hoping this cat keeps visiting our garden at night.
I am in a bit of a dilemma about getting another cat for outside. First we do not want to upset our dear old girl, she deserves a nice quiet life as she gets on towards 19, and also we have has a colony of blue wrens in the garden, as well as a number of other birds that we have not seen here before. If the rodent problem persists I might have to get some traps.

Work is going well. Both Winnie and I are getting fitter and it's nice to have some money coming in. I don't much like folding the catalogs but delivering them is fun. I have good wet weather gear and new boots to keep the wet out, so I am set for winter.

Big projects for this year will be to finish the drainage around the back of the house, get a winter garden going and finish off house renovations.

The Veiled Garden

It is hot. It is stinking hot! Five days now of extreme heat, crippling heat. Adelaide was named on of the hottest cities in the world. We have had about a week of 40c and above and it's not been a pleasant time at all!
One of the hardest things is keeping the garden from literally cooking. Winnie and I went around last week covering everything we could with some form of shade. So now our garden looks like this.

Thankfully it's worked too and with nightly watering the garden is holding in there.
One of my main concerns were the blackberries, they were just coming on to getting ripe and I didn't want all that lovely fruit to fry to nothing.  Some of it still shows signs of withering but they are not the dessicated husks that would have been left if we didn't cover them.

Fruit Thief!

We could not figure out why we weren't getting any strawberries for the last week or so. Turns out we have a thief!
I was hanging out the washing the other day and saw a rat running along the railing of the fence that runs along the back of  the bed.
Rotten little blighter is not going to win. His execution is being planed!

Strawberry order.

This is just so I don't loose track of which strawberries I planted in the pipe.
From left to right;
Kamu Big Red
Alinta
Sweetheart
Cambridge Rival
Chandler

The Blackberries Are Covered In Buds

Last year was our first season for our blackberries, I was surprised when we got quite a crop of fruit. This year they are totally covered in buds and I had to lift the curtain that I used for was stopping the blackbirds from digging up the mulch, so that the bees could get to them. It was nice to note that there were baby praying mantis in amongst them again this year too.

The Red Currants are RED!

Sorry, I am a little excited about this. Have been waiting on this fruit ripening for a while. With all the wind we had in early spring, I was scared that it would all get blown away but it hung on and is finally ripening up.
I have never eaten fresh red currants before and am really looking forward to it. Winnie wont let me try one yet, but I really, really want to, even if it's still a bit tart.
I am a bit disappointed with the black currant, as it did not flower this year, but there is plenty of growth from last year and new growth this year so I am hopeful for next season.

Plant diary

This blog was meant to be a journal on what I do in the garden but I love posting pictures too much. So it's time to get it back on track.
Mulched the lemon tree today and fed both the lemon and back veggie patch.

New Strawberry Bed And Another Currant Bush

So we finally got stuck into fixing up the bed along the back fence, it's always been a bit of a mess and I only just planted my two currant bushes there last year.

Garden supervisor in place. Construction can begin.

Getting started.

The construction site.

All strawberries moved and new white currant planted. Pipes in place to hold bird netting.

 

We are trying an experiment and are growing some strawberries in a gutter and some in a PVC pipe to see how they go.

I also mulched with pine needles. They say the strawberries and currants love the acidity of the needles. The companion plant I have in here so fare is, borage, it is meant to make the strawberries taste better.

I am still deciding whether to plant blueberries and gooseberries. If I do, it will be a project for next year, I think I have enough to be going on with this coming summer.

The rain is still really good at the moment, but we could do without the really windy weather. Luckily we have not had any major damage and everything seems to be holding up well.

The Lemon Tree.

So we had a spot all picked out for the lemon tree. It was going to be out the back door and up against the back fence. Not a bad spot, plenty of light and not too much wind, but when we started to prepare the bed we discovered a problem with the area.
Our neighbors run a drainage pipe from one of their gutters along the other side of the fence and it stops around where the lemon tree was to be planted. When we planted another currant bush not far from where the lemon tree was to go we struck water about a foot down.
This will not be a problem for the currants, as they are in raised beds and it will actually give them an advantage in summer. But the lemon's root system would not be high enough out of the water and it would have drowned in winter.
This was where it was meant to go.

We will put veggies in here instead for this summer.
I was at a bit of a loss as to where we would plant our tree now. Winnie was the one to come up with the new site. 
I have a rose bed on the other side of the house and he said we could plant the tree in the middle of this. When we looked at it yesterday we found it was even more sheltered than the old spot. It was a very windy day and the middle of the bed was really calm compared to the rest of the garden.
It is guarded by trees on two sides and the house on one. The roses should protect the trunk of the tree from the westerly sun too.

So, plans have changed, but at least we will still have our little lemon tree.

Snail Hotels

Okay I have a confession to make. I like these little alien creatures. I mean what's not to love about that face!

But unfortunately my veggie garden and these little guys can't coexist together.  And I also have a really hard time squashing them too.
I have fed them dishes of beer, which they love very much and I imagine them dying happy and well inebriated, but it's hard to keep the dishes topped up and rather horrible having to scoop out the drowned snails and slugs in the morning.
So I have come up with a better solution; Snail hotels!
1) Snails like to hide under things, so if you over turn a pot in the garden and leave it, there is a good chance that snails will make it their home.
2) I also worry about how snail bait affects my worm population. And once it gets wet, it deteriorates fairly quickly.
So what I did was simply to put snail bait in a dish and over turn a pot over it.

You leave the snail enough room to get in under the pot and place these in areas that you know snails hide out. For added weather protection you can use a bit of twig or stick to block the hole in the pot. The snail bait stays dry and when the sails find this new home they have a last meal waiting.
About the only thing you have to remember with these is to top them up and also watch out for those pesky spiders, they like moving into these as well.
I also use an environmentally friendly snail bait, one that does not harm birds, dogs and cats. and I still sprinkle it around new seedlings, just till they are large enough to survive a hungry snail who is after a snack on his way to the hotel.
 So there you have it. I still don't like killing them but I do want my veggies. At least this way I can keep them under control.