Grow Your Own

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The rockmelon babies got eaten 🙁 I have one left that I put a cover on, but three of them got eaten even with a cover any way. I planted a zucchini seedling out and hope its old enough to fend off the slaterbugs. It had outgrown its little pot and it was ready to go into the ground. Fingers crossed!!

Still one more chayote to plant out, currently growing in the fruit bowl in my kitchen.

I took some cuttings and flowers for around the house. I see that video on insta about propagating cuttings in water but its never worked for me, everything just rots. So once they start to droop they can go in the compost pile.

Chopped a bunch of kindling this morning. I used the powered hand saw but still a lot of that tree to cut back. I was surprised at how much I did get cleared considering what a big job it was. One of those things where I should have taken before and after pics, but the before is so shameful that I didnt. Also whippersnipped this morning and am all out of cord now. Planning another trip to bunnings with the dog!
 
Do you peel potato's if so put the peelings in a separate pile to all other peelings / food waste to grow good potato's.
 
I had only ever had blueberries from a supermaket until last year and I always thought they were ok but a bit bland. Then I got some from a farm store and it was like I was trying them for the first time - they were so full of flavour.

Out of all the fruit and veg I have eaten, blueberries are definitely the food with the biggest taste difference between the supermarket version and the real thing
 
News reports are saying tomatoes, cucumbers and pears are going to be the next shortage due to how energy intensive they are.
I was hoping to do cucumbers next year, but I think I'll do a small batch of tomatoes as well, not a fan of them personally, but easy to make into sauces.
 
Yeah Im not a big fan of tomatoes either. My neighbour is so much better at growing them than me. I can manage to grow cherry tomatoes but dont like tomatoes enough to bother with them. Pears are easy. Wish I could send some!! I always have too many and they end up rotting in the food relief store cos every one else has excess pears too.

Our sweet potato and potato crops got wiped out in the floods. There has been a hot chip shortage! But the Spud King of WA rekons he is going to fix it. They really need a netflix series on that guy. I wish there was a spud shed near me now, such cheap food there.

Im trying to grow a corkscrew willow out the front of my lounge room. I know its the wrong time to try and get it going, but I didnt know I would need it until all the trees got cut down around me! If it doesn't take this year I can try again over winter next year. The other straight trees make for better kindling, but dont grow as fast as the corkscrew willow and Im seeking shade as fast as I can.

It rained overnight so yay for no watering needed today! I am starting to plant purple swan river daisies and pink geranium in sandy soil spots. I know they take over but I havent been successful in growing anything else and would really like some root systems in those spaces to stabilize the land. We've had a couple of earth tremors and everything seems to be more uneven this summer. Trip hazards!
 
Alaskan bush People always inspires me to have a go. They dont have a clue what they are doing but do it anyway. And today, I definitely agreed with the line "Dont ya wish you had brains sometimes?"... I tried to start my hydroponics up. The pipe was too small and the hose blew back. Dirty pond water all over me. At least it made me wash my hair!

Will give it another go another day.
 
I haven't had time to go up the allotment in ages, so no idea what has survived this cold. I probably won't have any time until boxing day at the earliest, so I'll just have to wait and see what everything is like.
Hopefully the frost has killed the last of the weeds though, so I can clear that easier.
 
I'm really disappointed in how much energy I have been wasting with these shade cloths. I know they can be in better positions for optimum shade. What I am thinking now is that I need one tall central pole. I have one from the old fruit frame, so I will try to find a spot for it. I know there was a shed there eons ago so I want to avoid trying to dig into that old foundation!

My aqua/hydroponics is one disaster after another. I've taken so long to get the pieces together, that when the water filled one of the sump buckets, it broke into a million pieces... Into the pond and garden behind the pond. The power of the sun! Ha. It would have saved me SO much hassle if I could have just afforded the set up front rather than getting it piece by piece over 5 years. I will keep working on it. At least the water trickling back into the pond sounds lovely!

Planted some cucumber seedlings today. I hope I didnt destroy their roots in the re-potting. Im clumsy with my hands when I am tired. I hope at least 3 survive! Next step is to keep the bugs off them!


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So much got fried the last few days. Now I am too. Its not even 9.30am yet and i am so sunburnt and heatstrokey. I just cant get these shade clothes to work with the materials I have. I need more rope and more cover. By the time I save for it, summer will be over. I wish I had known those trees were gona go. They have no obligation to tell me of course, but it would have given me more time to prepare. Hopefully the babies are covered enough for today... I guess i will find out tomorrow!
 
HowiMetdaSlayer
HowiMetdaSlayer
hope yer ok!
Gona be another very hot day tomorrow. I will hold off on the fertilizer until the temp drops again but everything needs to be fed soon!

4 of 6 of the patio cucumbers seedlings are still alive. Not at fruit stage yet. I have a zucchini plant just about to flower. Spring onions coming out my ears! Blueberries on my first bush are just about done. Very happy with that tiny tree, I was getting a small handful every few days and it really is a tiny plant. The new blueberry has got big berries on it but they are not ripe yet and some have already split and fell off. Its the first year here so I wasnt expecting much from it.


Herbs are going the best! Just pulled a bunch of parsley that had gone to seed, so now I have a garden bed free to use. Mint, oregano, thyme, lemon balm and sage have never looked better! The shade cloth has really helped all of those and I am extremely pleased. Dill keeps shooting to seed so i might plant some of that under the shadecloth too.

Strawberries got fried. All of them. Usually they do well here but this year they just didnt handle the heat.

Got some great pink flowers all over the garden at the moment 🙂 makes me so happy! I love pink 😀
 
I had a quick walk around the allotment this week, but couldn't do anything. It needs a tidy up and the parsnips could do with pulling up,but it's mostly in good condition.
Definitely want to get a little greenhouse soon, so I can start some seeds off.
 
Bought the greenhouse, just a little plastic one, and I'll secure it with some patio slabs and zip ties. I got given some seeds for Christmas so I'll start those in the spring, pumpkin, butternut squash, courgettes and broccoli.
 
The grapes are nearly ready. They are tough to judge when to pick, if I leave them too long, the bees or birds get them, if I pick too soon they are sour. There are a few on each bunch turning red, but not full red bunches yet. So I eat a few in the morning while I am watering but no real yield yet.

The second blueberry bush is giving some great BIG blueberries. I am surprised, I didnt expect anything from that one this year, but I get a couple every morning. It can go in a bigger pot once its done.

It doesn't look like I have a a lot of apples or nashis this year. Im hoping for at least half a dozen peaches though 😀

Got more spring onions to use. Tons of herbs. They've done so well in this mild summer weather. I only have 3 patio cucumber plants that survived and only one has flowers. The other two were moved too late, not sure they will flower. I have a pumpkin seedling that has come up, its way too late for it, but we'll see. If we have a dry start to winter it might work out.
 
Just took a bucket of grapes to the neighbour. Swapped for silverbeet and spring onions. I really dont need anymore spring onion but mine can mature in the ground a bit more over the weekend. The neighbour prefers someone take his stuff than him having to feed it to the pub chooks or compost. The grapes are not quite ready but as soon as they turn red the ants and bees are getting into them. The greens are not too sour, the reds are perfectly sweet. It was stinking hot yesterday and i figured it was better to pick now and get a few sour type than leave and lose the lot. Still a few good bunches on the vine, but Im glad the neighbour got some this year! The first lot off is always the nicest.

My second blueberry bush is just about done too. Maybe another two days of berries and then its done. The first one is not looking well, it got a bit fried yesterday. It might want a new pot too.

We have some very light rain today. Hopefully it helps save anything else that got super fired yesterday. But its not enough to water the place, so the sprinklers are on.
 
Hopefully I'll be able to put up the green house next week, and organise that ready for starting seeds. I need to go through my seeds and see what I have and what I need to buy.
 
Pumpkin has flowered but I dont know if they will grow to size before the humidity of autumn hits. The first year here they did well because I grew them on sand. But now I have a lot of mulch around and they have rotted every year since. We'll see how they go. I got some more seeds from a store brought chunk today. I will plant out so the seeds dont rot, but its way too late in the year now and I will see if i can keep them small for end of year. Doubt it, but worth a try.

Im hoping my celery that i let go to seed from a store brought butt gives me viable seeds to replant soon. I put out more dill seeds today but they probably should have been kept a few months before putting out. I just lose things too easy! A lot of parsley has popped up randomly after I let that go to seed out the back. Its nice to know I always have that 😀

I should have a good little group of leeks for winter. They survived the mild summer, so that was worth planting those bits from leeks I used last year 🙂
 
@Joan the Vampire Slayer what kind of tomatoes do you use for ketchup? Looking at growing some soon, and not sure on variety. Thinking something that doesn't have lots of seeds, anyone any ideas?
I think I've got leeks that I can take up next week, but not sure what condition they are in.
 
When I had a garden I would grow strawberries and other fruits now it's not possible.
 
TamsinValencia said:
When I had a garden I would grow strawberries and other fruits now it's not possible.
Click to expand...
I was the same, couldn't even do windowsill plants because the cat would destroy it. Getting the allotment though has been great, there was a waiting list for it, but it's worth it.
 
TamsinValencia
TamsinValencia
how much was it?
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