I must post more……
Yes I have been slack. But in my defense it has been winter here in Sydney and not much has been going on. Half of my lawn is dead, my over wintering broadbeans are still in flower and are 6 ft tall and I just git my tomatos in the ground. I will try and post about these exciting things this week.
I have also received soem scion wood for my orchard so there will be an orchard update coming in a couple of weeks showing some of the grafting work. Stay tuned!
A Month in the Fast Lane
Ok, so it’s been a while since I last blogged. A lot has happened and I’m chronically lazy when it comes to getting things out here.
Where to start? Here is the bullet point run down.
1. I got promoted at work, this was a nice surprise and a decent compensation increase but also a nice big whack on top of my existing heavy workload. Good bye social life.
2. I poisoned all the invasive kikuyu grass in my lawn which has resulted in about 20% of my lawn being now dead and shriveled up. Fingers crossed it will come back strong in spring with a hefty dose of fertilizer and a good top dressing to level it all up.
3. I had a brief holiday to the USA – San Francisco to be precise. Ducked out for a week and a bit just to have a look around. Gotta love cashing in those frequent flyer points.
4. I successfully identified the citrus tree in my garden as a lemonade tree.
5. Broad Beans are going nuts in the veggie patch, but so are the weeds as I have been slack and have not done much.
6. Kitchen scraps of spring onions and leeks are growing successfully after sticking the rooty end bits in the ground. Nice new green stuff growing.
7. Compost bin has shrunken down a bit an is awaiting more stuff to break down. I also now own a worm farm although there is nothing in it yet. I’ll sort that out this weekend.
Overall pretty busy hey! I have some other news but I have to keep it under wraps for another couple of weeks to see if it is going to come off. I’ll also try and write up some of the events from my US trip when I get the time. Most exciting of all is the possibility that I will get to spend a whole weekend sorting out my orchard in a couple of weeks. I’ll be able to get some photos up to show you guys where I’m at and what all the fuss is all about.
Till then.
Hass Appeal
The image to the left is a lonely Hass Avacado tree in my garden. This plant is really struggling since a possum has had a go at the bark and nibbled it pretty much through the cambium layer and into the wood. It’s effectively been ring barked. I only posted it here just in case for some fluke reason it survives.
On the subject of possums, my yard seems to attract them although I rarely see them. Usually I just see the ring tail scurrying up the paperbark tree in the background of the photo. Possums are not only an warm adjective used by Dame Edna, but are a marsupial commonly found on Sydney backyards. Normally they live in close quarters to humanity and the only sign of them is if you see them electrocuted on a powerline or the remnants of your tomatoes after they eat them all!
In New Zealand, that Scottish colony across the Tasman the Possum is an introduced species and is generally considered a pest. To help the eradication of the pest a cottage industry has arisen which uses possum fur for clothing. I am thankful of this industry for helping me keep my hands warm in the form of possum fur gloves whilst watching the Bledisloe Cup at Jade Stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2002.
Anyhow, I will report back on the fate of this particular tree in the future.
Citrus – What Kind of Tree is This?
Please behold two photos of a citrus tree which is in my yard. I have no idea of what kind of fruit it is, but it is pale green and not a lime or lemon!
The fruit changed colour a few weeks ago from dark green to the much lighter shade we have today. The fruit in the photo was on the ground this morning, blown down by the breeze. The tree is quite healthy and has recently had a dose of fertilizer and a good thinning of the foliage to keep it that way. It fruited really well in spring, but nearly all of the buds dropped off. The tree must have been stressed in some way. Most likely not enough nutrients and not enough water.
It flowered again in early autumn and seems to be holding the buds now – fingers crossed they mature into fruit. I am considering grafting other citrus varieties onto some of the limbs such as Meyer Lemon, Grapefruit and Mandarin.
Anybody know what kind of fruit it is?
Gymea Lily
My backyard is home to the worlds largest Gymea Lily. OK, that may be a gross over exaggeration but the thing is huge!
The flowering spear, which I might add has yet to flower is well over 7 meters tall and growing – The proof is in the pics, which I might add are not very good!
Its freakin’ huge
The Sad Patch
The image of extremely poor quality above (damn phone camera) describes the current state of my vegetable garden. Besides the fact that its rained lots over the last couple of weeks and the plants don’t get anywhere near enough sunlight, I think it’s looking pretty good.
The capsicum and chilli plants are going great guns and fruiting really well. The green manure broad beans are growing about and inch a day and the green leaf veges – broccoli, pak choy and spinach seem to be growing well and for some bizarre reason have not gone to seed straight away.
Other occupants are the lone lettuce which is starting to rot. Time for it to go, I have a row of carrots which are doing ok and the apple seedling and French artichoke could be better. The artichoke is interesting as its been in the ground since the beginning of October last year and has not really grown substantially. It puts new leaves out, but each time it does, one of the other more established leaves die! I don’t know if I will every get a heart from it, but I’ll persevere.
The vine up the back is a hop vine – the varietal is Chinook which is found in American style Pale Ales and IPA. Its starting to die back after its first year in the ground. Fingers crossed next year it will produce some flowers.
So that is the quick tour, I have plans to revitalize the space a bit better and employ some square foot methods and raise the garden bed slightly. The whole thing need a mulch of some type to preserve water and smother the weeds but I will get to that. I really just wanted to introduce what I have going to provide some context surrounding the changes I will make.
I also have the following sweet potato starting out which I started from a sprouted bit of skin. Most people I have spoken to have had trouble growing sweet potato, so I am interested to see how it goes.
Winter Flowers
Most of the flowers in my garden are starting to die off now, but there has been some flowering activity. The Orange tree up near my back fence has had an Autumn blossom and my French Marigolds are still running rampant. Currently the most beautiful flower in my garden is the Camellias which only bloomed over the weekend. Most of the other Camellias in the neighborhood are still in budded form so for some freak reason I am lucky and have had an early bloom. I am still debating whether or not to put a Magnolia tree in my yard. In my opinion the Magnolia is the most elegant of Winter flowers.
For those too lazy to consult the 
