Garden Update

I spent a goodly proportion of the weekend just passed in the garden, which badly needed my attention (oops). I haven't reported on the garden for a while because nothing much has been happening - I'm still waiting for most of my winter crop seedlings to grow big enough to eat. I guess that's a difficulty around here with growing plants by seed; if I sow the seed too early they won't germinate because it's too hot, but the time it is getting cool enough, I end up with a lag time between crops. Ah well, I'll work that conundrum out one day - perhaps next year I'll refrigerate the seeds for a while before sowing to try and trick them into germinating.

Anyway, since I seem to have uploaded a stack of photos - and I'll probably focus more on some of them in future posts - I might just do some quickie labels.

The turmeric is dying off, ready for harvesting as soon as I get the time.

I still can't convince any lettuces to germinate *in* the garden beds.

Once again, the dwarf peaches are weeping gum from the ends of their branches after the recent rains. Normally this would be a sign on bacterial gummosis, but I've since read that it's not unusual for immature dwarf peaches to do this (they struggle to cope with extra moisture when it's very wet so weep from the ends of the branches) but I think I will dig them up now that they have lost most of their leaves and plant them in three of the wine barrels I received for Mother's Day, to improve their drainage - I'm hoping to get a crop from them next year (they'll be three years old then).

The strawberry runners are getting away from me into the gravel paths. The whole bed needs digging up and replacing with new runners, as the old plants are three years old now. They would look great planted under the peaches in the wine barrels, don't you think?

The Camellia sinensis (green tea plants) are flowering. I'm still waiting for the grass to die off underneath the black plastic I got hubby to lay down where they will be planted out to form a low hedge. They are all bursting out of their pots!

I managed to harvest a second Amish Paste tomato (and later, a third), although I threw out another four. Sigh. I'm not sure it's worth devoting the garden space to them - I'd rather have more kale in I think.

We picked out first snow pea of the season. Hoping there are many more to come.

And we are patiently waiting for the two Imperial mandarins to ripen on my two year old tree.

I picked the three loofahs I managed to grow on my vines. They should be yellower than these, but the vines are dying off in the cold weather and I didn't want them to rot. As you can see, they aren't the greatest looking specimens anyway LOL. Next year I will plant them somewhere with far more heat and exposure.

I got busy in the front yard, where last spring I replaced ornamentals with root vegetables. It was time to dig up the yacon, and while I was at it, I also dug up some sweet potatoes and arrowroot.

Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) tuber.

Queensland Arrowroot (Canna edulis) rhizome.

Orange sweet potatoes (kumara).

White sweet potatoes - which are a stunning vivid purple inside (photos to come).

I also harvested the Chinese Water Chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) and Arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifola). More to come on that in another post.

Finally - does anyone want to come and help me clean up the aftermath of pruning the ornamental cannas back? I discovered when I finished that all the compost bins are full. Sigh.