Dec updates

We took some Carob seed from Coffs Harbour during our last Easter visit there.  Four of them has germinated beautifully.

Beans are starting to flower ...

Eggplants and capsicum are planted together (no idea if they make good companion plants).  Well, they don't seem to mind each other.

We harvested some snowpea leaves for dinner the other day.  Waiting for the snowpea to flower soon.

Zucchini has lots of flowers and I can see one tiny zucchini started to grow.

Asian melon is growing nicely.  The reason I am growing this is hoping to dry the melon and use it as sponge for washing the dishes.

Cucumber has started to flower as well.  We were not successful with cucumber previously, so hopefully this season we might have some success.

Tomato is coming along nicely.  Since my last update, I have a few more tomotoe plants coming out of the compost.

Started growing next batch of coriander.  I have collected some seeds for next season as well as for cooking. Just checked online, they are selling 20g of coriander seeds for $4.50.  I collected just over 20g.  Guess you can't get rich selling coriander seeds!

Biodiversity at works?  The nectarin tree grown with all the vegetables around it (beans, silverbeet, lettuce) seems to be doing better than the others that are on their own.

Asian green.

4 weeks later

I saved some rockmelon seeds last summer.  So far only 3 of them have come out.


More nectarin trees growing out of the compost.     Keeping coriander seeds for next season.

Cucumber

Only one tomato plant coming out of the compost this season.

Oct 2010 updates

Finally we can see the fruit, it's nectarin!

The greens are coming along nicely.  (Have been eating sushi at least once a week.)  This is growing on the patch that the chicken has been 'working' on for the last few months.

I bought some organic seeds early this year, the lady who sold me the seeds said it's called 'Red Russian'.  Guess what, it's very green.

The beans are starting to come through.

Another Asian green we are planting this season.

Fruit Trees Flowering Spring 2010

This is the first time our three fruit trees have flowered.  Recalled they grew out of the compost, so we have no idea what type of fruit trees they are.  Life is full of mystery!

July updates

The capsicum plants are still thriving in the freezing Melbourne winter.  They don't grow very big but they still taste great.  They are in front of the chicken "play area".  We used the "play area" to grow some potatoes, rocket and some Asian green last summer.  The chicken has now prepared the patch for next season.  They managed to dig out some potato that yours truly missed in harvesting. 

At the back, the rocket are growing wild again.  Some has started flowering.  We picked some young ones for consumption, occasionally I picked some and feed my "hardworking" chicken.  We planted our first rocket many years ago, ever since we have supply of rocket throughout the year without doing much.  They taste great in soup, if you get sick of eating rocket salad.

Avocado - I have six of them growing out of my compost.  Would be interesting to see how they go.  A few potato plants growing along side the avocado.  They actually look very green and healthy.  By the way, they grow out of my compost as well.

Tips on composting - just start one!  When I first started, I read books on composting and I suffered from 'information overload'.  To reduce landfill problem, I really feel the need to do my part.  So I started my very own compost - the lazy way.  We have a few empty pots that someone has bought and never do anything with them.  I just throw kitchen waste in them (didn't have chicken to share them at that time), cover up with some soil on weekend when I have time.  No turning of the compost heap, watering etc.  If it started to smell, I do a bit of turning and cover up with more soil.  Sometimes I have tomato, pumpkin growing out of it, then transfer the plants to where I wanted to grow them.  The patch is usually prepared by putting some of the compost from the pots.  The pots are now used to grow chilli, lettuce, coriander and spring onion; ginger was my latest harvest.

I ran out of pots for composting, so I started one on the patch where I want to grow my veges.  This way I don't have to move the compost to where I need them.  (Got to do it the lazy way!)  It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.  Look at my potato and avocado plants in the photos above.  They are from the compost.

These days I have chicken to help me.  They are doing the 'digging' of the patch.  Chicken manure is now added to my patch as well.  Some work involved here, collecting them from the chook house - this is only done when I need them for my plants.

First harvest of ginger

I harvested my ginger on 30th June.  Total of 420g.

April 2010

A bit late, but the capsicum just started to really flourish!

... and the ginger is doing well as well.  Looking forward to my whole year supply of ginger in 2011!

By the way I just read about this interesting use of chilli.  Whether you eat chilli or not, plant one or two of them in the garden.  Dry the chilli and ground them to powder, then sprinkle around your vege patch, this will deter ants and bugs.

My very first rockmelon

 

Remember this 'unknown' plant growing out of the compost?  Well, I am pleased to annouce that it really is rockmelon.  We have had rockmelon plant growing from compost in previous years, but never get to the stage of fruition.  So this could be our very first home grown rock melon.  A few smaller ones growing but the success of them will really be dependent on one factor - the weather.

New season with enzyme

Not really a proof but I planted these with the soil treated with 'garbage enzyme'. The seeds germinated so quickly, I can see green after only 3 days. See photo below. Usually it will take 5-7 days before I can see any green. Interesting, next time, I will plant 2 separate lots, one with 'garbage enzyme' sprayed, the other without.

Potato Harvest

After the heat a few weeks ago, I really thought the potato plants are gone. I decided to clean up the patch and get ready for the next season. Long behold, I found one purple royal potato, then another one. This is what I ended up harvesting. Not bad for a 'compost' harvest.

Updates on Eggplant and Capsicum

Finally, the little eggplants are coming!  Fingers crossed.
Looks like capsicum will make it too.

Jan 2010

Eggplant - has purple flower, but not sure if it will make it after the heat.

Ginger - very slow growing plant.  The true test will be this winter - if this survive the winter cold, I will have a year supply of ginger. It's looking very healthy at the moment.

We have harvested a few cucumber this summer - sweet!  This species is white in colour, but taste just like the usual green cucumber.

Zucchini - haven't harvested any.  The heat killed a few of my baby zucchinni.  Let's hope this new batch will make it to the dinner table.

The beans - those wild birds killed a lot of our plants.  A few survived, the yield per plant is really high.

Tomota - haven't harvested any this season but they are coming along very nicely.  These grow out of compost, so I have no idea which species they are. 

Another one that grow out of compost. We think this is rockmelon.