Starts here…

AussieDJ said:

Starts here…

Seems so.

And so the watering starts. I’ve bucketed a couple of buckets each to the mandarin, orange, tangelo and avocado. And some into the flat dishes for the birds. This evening I’ll have to go out and water the veggies (I’m in Casterton today) so I can pick some nice juicy asparagus in the morning and perhaps a handful of snap peas.

Cue continuing drought. We are not even up to average rainfall for the year…..

buffy said:

And so the watering starts. I’ve bucketed a couple of buckets each to the mandarin, orange, tangelo and avocado. And some into the flat dishes for the birds. This evening I’ll have to go out and water the veggies (I’m in Casterton today) so I can pick some nice juicy asparagus in the morning and perhaps a handful of snap peas.

Cue continuing drought. We are not even up to average rainfall for the year…..

Washing machine helps water a lot of stuff. I use about a third of the recommended washing powders and put a hose out the back off the washing machine. Keeps the grass green.

Hiyas :)
Yes the heat starts and watering everything. I’ve got bees again. This time they are happy and settled. It’s great to see them all over the blossoms :)

Some pics.
Ever seen a dog roll down a hill?

And just a little of what I’ve been doing. Candied mixed rind for fruit cakes and plum puds. All from my fruit trees.

Installed two small tanks. The metal one is replacing the pondy tub. It’s going to a property to be used as a stock feed trough.

With my little grandson.

And best of all, youngest daughter and her fiancé have announced they are expecting their first baby next May :D

I have just concluded I will have to wield the hose this evening. Suddenly things are drying out pronto. I did remark to myself yesterday that the rose bushes seem to be growing like fury, almost as if their lives depend upon it and they have to have a last flourish or something.

Happy Potter said:

Hiyas :)
Yes the heat starts and watering everything. I’ve got bees again. This time they are happy and settled. It’s great to see them all over the blossoms :)

Some pics.
Ever seen a dog roll down a hill?

And just a little of what I’ve been doing. Candied mixed rind for fruit cakes and plum puds. All from my fruit trees.

Installed two small tanks. The metal one is replacing the pondy tub. It’s going to a property to be used as a stock feed trough.

With my little grandson.

And best of all, youngest daughter and her fiancé have announced they are expecting their first baby next May :D

Looks like it is all happening at your place :)

I have a new ‘puter and am happily setting it up.

Tomorrow I plan to do some weeding – will it never stop!? – and set up a Brassica bed to get the Brussels sprouts underway for next Winter. The frame is already there for the mosquito net to go up, and I put a bag of sheep poo over the area about a month ago. There are some carrots still in the middle, but I can work around them for now. I have the seedlings on the go in peat pots, so planting out as soon as their little roots show through. Also various sprouting broccolis, for a more immediate gain.

I’ve rather fallen in love with the peat pots from Diggers:

https://www.diggers.com.au/shop/garden-supplies/propagation/large-peat-pots-12-pots/hpeb12/

I don’t mind the outlay for the lack of setback they provide. I’ve also got tomato seeds just starting to germinate….which reminds me, I should go and give them a drink.

buffy said:

I have just concluded I will have to wield the hose this evening. Suddenly things are drying out pronto. I did remark to myself yesterday that the rose bushes seem to be growing like fury, almost as if their lives depend upon it and they have to have a last flourish or something.

Removed all my roses decades past.

Roses are allowed in my garden if they are old and/or special. They have to be really special to get a place if they don’t have perfume. And I grow red and white together because that is what I carried when we got married. And it makes a stunning garden. Today I cut a spray of a hot pink climber with few thorns and a divine perfume which was growing in the Casterton garden when I bought the house. It grows well from cuttings. I suspect it might be Zephyrin Drouin.

http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/zephirine-drouhin-rose.html

This is the original at Casterton.

I have now pillared it up by plaiting the canes in on themselves. I have also grown a cutting up a wall. And another pillar out in another part of the garden. It’s a gorgeous thing.

A selection of my red and whites:

The dreadful Mermaid…..thorns that run backwards, rampant…..and stunning in flower:

Oh yes, and the climbing, nearly thornless white (Madame Alfred Carriere) that doesn’t like reproducing from cuttings. Although I think I might have one going this year. I want to interweave it up the verandah with Zephyrin. Should be stunning:

My goodness…I’ve been weeding and digging over in one of my veggie patches….the soil is dry. And I watered last night, too.

buffy said:

My goodness…I’ve been weeding and digging over in one of my veggie patches….the soil is dry. And I watered last night, too.

Apart from when it is actually raining, this has been the case for me since the last wettest period. Which was in the 1980’s

roughbarked said:

buffy said:

My goodness…I’ve been weeding and digging over in one of my veggie patches….the soil is dry. And I watered last night, too.

Apart from when it is actually raining, this has been the case for me since the last wettest period. Which was in the 1980’s

By that I’m discounting the flood we had in 2012.

Continuing on the dry theme, though this year isn’t the driest we have had over the past 25 years. The soil water has been down for so long it would take a good decade of wet years to put it back to where it was in the decade between 1970 and 1980. My peas and broad beans have been going strong though they look to be short and seasonal this year due to the aridity of the soil. The broad beans are collapsing under the struggle.

Ooh, thornless loganberry flowers have popped out!

I think I should plant a lot more lemon thyme just for the joy of clipping it back….aromatherapy!

buffy said:

I think I should plant a lot more lemon thyme just for the joy of clipping it back….aromatherapy!

I love lemon thyme for all of what you’ve mentioned plus its decoartive border usefulness.

I’m hoping the espaliered snow apple will set fruit this year. I think it is nearly mature enough now. It should look stunning!

And people carry on about magnolias….but a quince is just as stunning….and produces fruit at well:

Love the quince, and apple espalier looks great.

I bought a redcurrant and a friend is bringing me another redcurrant and a white currant from her garden. If and when they fruit, they’ll be dried and used to make my own muesli with apples, goji berries, dried mountain pawpaw and chopped citrus peel. A little of my honey on toasted oat bran, should be nice. I’ll mix and match ingredients to suit our taste.

Selfie

Happy Potter said:

Selfie

:D

Happy Potter said:

Selfie

So you died with your boots on?
I do that every day.

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

Selfie

So you died with your boots on?
I do that every day.

Hahaha! I hardly have them off nowadays, lots of garden doings, planting fruits and changing areas :)

Thankfully, yesterday I did a lot of mowing and gardening. Was hoping that today I could do a lot more but my much loved mother in law passed away last night. Alone because the nursing home was in lockdown due to influenza.

roughbarked said:

Thankfully, yesterday I did a lot of mowing and gardening. Was hoping that today I could do a lot more but my much loved mother in law passed away last night. Alone because the nursing home was in lockdown due to influenza.

Sorry to hear that RB :(

I am eating her mother’s oranges now. I grafted the wife’s grandmothers fruit trees and planted them here 35 years ago.

If she died in her sleep, that is the best way to go. It is unlikely anyone was going to sit with her every night on the off chance it would be that night. I suspect the lockdown was irrelevant. I think things just happened normally, from your comments here and in the Holiday Forum.

buffy said:

If she died in her sleep, that is the best way to go. It is unlikely anyone was going to sit with her every night on the off chance it would be that night. I suspect the lockdown was irrelevant. I think things just happened normally, from your comments here and in the Holiday Forum.

Yes.

roughbarked said:

Thankfully, yesterday I did a lot of mowing and gardening. Was hoping that today I could do a lot more but my much loved mother in law passed away last night. Alone because the nursing home was in lockdown due to influenza.

Oh that would be awful being alone. My condolences RB (hugs)

It’s been so long since I bought any fruit from a shop, save for the occasional bunch of lady finger or Cavendish bananas. I did come across a beaut fruit shop though and spent ages looking at the produce. I asked the fruiterer if he can get jam melons when they are available and he said he does get them but it’s too early yet. When they do come in it’ll will be in large crates out front so I’ll keep a lookout for them. And pineapples. The memory of pineapple and melon jam is a nice one.

I’ve harvested over two kilos of lovely ginger from raised beds of it and planning jars of preserved ginger in syrup. The next lot I’ll pickle.

Other garden stuff. I’ve pretty much cleared my front garden of various ornamental shrubs, just one cistus rock rose to go, then planting out lots of edibles. The bee hive is buzzing away beautifully, very active and the bees are really calm. It’s a good hive this time :) Between fruit trees will be yellow and cherry guavas and blueberries along the front, if I can keep the acidity up to them with composted coffee grounds.
There’s self seeded calendulas and borage everywhere. The front mandarin blossoms smell gorgeous.

In the backyard there’s self seeded tomatoes nearly everywhere I look. I transferred some and they look great. One is a yellow oxheart. I hope this year is a better year for tomatoes for me. The tomatoes coming up are all from toms that went into the worm farms then the casts mixed with compost and spread about.

>>if I can keep the acidity up to them with composted coffee grounds. <<

Do you know anyone with oak tree(s). We live over the road from the local park, with oaks, so the wind fills up my front yard with them. I run the mower and catcher over them and put the catchings around the blueberries to up the acidity. Although my plants are very small. I also have a nice ‘border’ of lemon thyme near the blueberries because I read it likes the same soil…..and wherever I read that, it certainly seems to be right.

I took some more photos of the Casterton garden this morning. It really is maturing well, even if I do say so myself. In one corner I planted a Banksia serrata and a Kings Park callistemon on each side of it. Here it is around 9 years ago:

And a couple of years ago:

And today when you go around the other side and can see the ‘garden logs’ and the big water dish for the birds, it’s developed into a lovely little nook:

Love it when things do what you envisage when you draw up the garden plan.

:)

And my citrus suffered the indignity of some thinning yesterday evening too. I planted an orange and a tangelo (on dwarfing rootstock) some years ago and I’ve pretty much let them do what they like:

Those were around 3 or 4 years ago, lush, but now getting quite crowded. So they’ve now had a feed, been thinned out in the centre, and got a dusting of the ash from the fireplace and woodheater this morning:

The fruit have been small but tasty, which I put down mostly to the fact that we have been pretty droughty and I’m not there to coddle them, so they only really get a couple of buckets of water each at quite irregular intervals. But perhaps reducing the quantity of fruit might help that too.

Happy Potter said:

I’ve harvested over two kilos of lovely ginger from raised beds of it and planning jars of preserved ginger in syrup. The next lot I’ll pickle.

Well done for Melbourne!

bluegreen said:

Happy Potter said:

I’ve harvested over two kilos of lovely ginger from raised beds of it and planning jars of preserved ginger in syrup. The next lot I’ll pickle.

Well done for Melbourne!

Dedication is everything. ;)

Anyway, I’m cutting down some of my broad beans to plant corn seed. Think it should be hot enough if I can actually manage teh water rerquired.

Putting in beans for the same reason. Hoping the wetter season we have had will continue slightly into the summer yet. Fools and their money are soon parted. Yeah, I know.

Planting out more tomatoes. Some of them already have fruit. Don’t ask me what varieties. Let us just say it is from seed I’ve collected from what seemed like nice tomatoes. Many heritage types.

Gonna have to net the loganberries on the weekend….lovely baby fruit forming. And the blueberries aren’t being too tardy either!

buffy said:

>>if I can keep the acidity up to them with composted coffee grounds. <<

Do you know anyone with oak tree(s). We live over the road from the local park, with oaks, so the wind fills up my front yard with them. I run the mower and catcher over them and put the catchings around the blueberries to up the acidity. Although my plants are very small. I also have a nice ‘border’ of lemon thyme near the blueberries because I read it likes the same soil…..and wherever I read that, it certainly seems to be right.

No I don’t know of any oak trees about. Not seen one in years. That’s interesting about the lemon thyme.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

Happy Potter said:

I’ve harvested over two kilos of lovely ginger from raised beds of it and planning jars of preserved ginger in syrup. The next lot I’ll pickle.

Well done for Melbourne!

Dedication is everything. ;)

It’s in a metal raised bed in a hot sunny spot, but also frost free. It’s been good to note the varying microclimates in my back yard. I’ll leave the rest of the ginger to come back up, it’s started with a few quick shoots. I was late in digging out some.

NOT impressed to see a brown snake near the chook pen this morning.

bluegreen said:

NOT impressed to see a brown snake near the chook pen this morning.

near is OK. They weren’t in there which is slightly more important. Standing on them while in an aviary about 2m sq is a bit more difficult.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

NOT impressed to see a brown snake near the chook pen this morning.

near is OK. They weren’t in there which is slightly more important. Standing on them while in an aviary about 2m sq is a bit more difficult.

Was IN the duck pen this morning, when I let them out. Will have to get the eggs later as it wasn’t in any hurry to leave. I don’t feel confident or equipped to dispatch it, but don’t want it around when the grand kids visit either.

bluegreen said:

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

NOT impressed to see a brown snake near the chook pen this morning.

near is OK. They weren’t in there which is slightly more important. Standing on them while in an aviary about 2m sq is a bit more difficult.

Was IN the duck pen this morning, when I let them out. Will have to get the eggs later as it wasn’t in any hurry to leave. I don’t feel confident or equipped to dispatch it, but don’t want it around when the grand kids visit either.

Call a snake handler if you aren’t capable of putting it in a bag and removing it.

Got a new TV. It is still in its box though. My old one died last weekend and yesterday afternoon I went to pick up a new one. Had to drive an hour to Shepparton where the nearest JB Hi-Fi is and locked my keys in the car (DOH!) Took the RACV an hour to come and open the car then another hour’s drive to come home. I was so buggered I even had McDonald’s for tea! Any way Marshall at the warehouse of JB Hi-Fi was fantastic and provided me with a chair to sit on and cold water to drink and a bit of company for the last half hour while I was waiting.

bluegreen said:

Got a new TV. It is still in its box though. My old one died last weekend and yesterday afternoon I went to pick up a new one. Had to drive an hour to Shepparton where the nearest JB Hi-Fi is and locked my keys in the car (DOH!) Took the RACV an hour to come and open the car then another hour’s drive to come home. I was so buggered I even had McDonald’s for tea! Any way Marshall at the warehouse of JB Hi-Fi was fantastic and provided me with a chair to sit on and cold water to drink and a bit of company for the last half hour while I was waiting.

I carry a spare car key with the loose change that gets transferred to new pockets when I change clothes. So if I lock my keys in the car, there’s always one in my pocket.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

Got a new TV. It is still in its box though. My old one died last weekend and yesterday afternoon I went to pick up a new one. Had to drive an hour to Shepparton where the nearest JB Hi-Fi is and locked my keys in the car (DOH!) Took the RACV an hour to come and open the car then another hour’s drive to come home. I was so buggered I even had McDonald’s for tea! Any way Marshall at the warehouse of JB Hi-Fi was fantastic and provided me with a chair to sit on and cold water to drink and a bit of company for the last half hour while I was waiting.

I carry a spare car key with the loose change that gets transferred to new pockets when I change clothes. So if I lock my keys in the car, there’s always one in my pocket.

I carry a spare in my handbag, but locked that in too!

I’ve planted out the hot chilli plants. They’ve been overwintering in my mini hot house. I’m punting on no more frosts this year.

And I’ve got bean seeds in. And this is the earliest I’ve ever had tomato seedlings as advanced as they are today. Some are almost big enough to plant out – they are in peat pots, so go in pot and all.

Ooh, ooh, ooh…..lovely healthy blue-tongue in the garden. Hei Long is a bit infatuated. But he wants to play. The lizard does not…