Zinnia hiding in the vege garden
At last, I’m being particularly good and am updating my blog. Blame the summer, Christmas and having lots of friends over to stay for the sparse postings. Oh yes, and blame Toi Toi wine as well why not!
So NIWA said that we would have a long dry summer, and so far they are spot on! The fissures in the ground are always a good sign that the soil is very dry and believe me it is. The wind hasn’t been helping much either and there has been plenty of that. Thank heavens for our duck pond which we use to pump water up to hose the beds and gardens. No water, no vege – simple as that. Yes we are very lucky!
Garden … what is happening? Well the beans are flowering nicely on the steel trellis, although they are still getting buffeted by the wind. The green shield beetles numbers are on the up and up .. bloody things. They do love the cleome plant though, so I have been grabbing them from that, truth is I have been seeing them all over the garden. Even saw them sunbaking on the tomatoes the other day … what a nerve!
Those beans … all heirloom
The zucchinis are doing nicely .. the odd one gets missed and then when it is findly found it resembles a leg. In other words … huge! These monsters always end up getting chopped up and cooked for the chooks …
Sadly the carrots that I broadcast haven’t done well at all … although the radishes and self seeded alyssum has done nicely. I suspect that when I first broadcast them that I should have placed a damp sack over the bed until they had germinated. This annoys me immensely as I knew I should have done this and I didn’t. Go figure!
The chillies are doing very well with the exception of one that was suffering burnt leaves – easy answer was to erect a sack next to the plant offering much needed shade.
Garden madness
Given the lack of rain the pumpkin in the secret garden is doing fabulously as is the yakon which it is sharing the bed with. Andrew put down some steel mesh a few weeks back which the pumpkin is happily clambering over. I must go down and give it some fertiliser though …
The orchard is looking divine … promise to pop up some pics next post. The damson is laden with fruit, as are 2 of the peach trees – Christina being one of these. We must remove some of the fruit and where possible brace some of the branches which potentially may snap with the weight of the fruit. Time also to net these to prevent the birds and possums from having sneaky feasts … and believe me they will too.
Not many crab apples this year, while the Packhams Triumph pear is going berserk! The graft pear which had a branch from the root stock covered in quince is now bare … which makes me think that something has had fun removing these. Anyway, time for me to chop this branch off … The plums haven’t done well this year .. or should I say that the crops are much smaller.
Sadly the Bindweed is doing famously … damned stuff! It really is prolific and keeps popping up everywhere. It is a pretty vine but you don’t want it in your garden … smothers other plants and its weight can make others topple over. Me I can’t stand the stuff … nearly as bad as Wandering Jew!
Check out this site … has some interesting info
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/weeds/p/Bindweed.htm
Yes my garden is looking fab … and it is time to give it some more fish fertiliser it just loves the stuff!
A very happy self seeded poppy