How Does Your Garden Grow??

[Hello Kitty]

Put in the new vegie patch on the weekend. A version of a no dig garden. Lined the ground with a very thick layer of newspaper. All unfolded, overlapping. So n weeding or soil preperation. In time this will both kill the weeds / grass and break down. A border of lucerne bails. Then broke up and layer another three lucerne bails. Covered with 1 1/2sm of compost soil mix/. Plant the seedlings and done! In time the borders will rot, but then just break them up and dig them in to the soil, and replace them.

View attachment 183055 View attachment 183056 View attachment 183057 View attachment 183058

Wow candie, how amazing! I love the idea of the bails! I've just covered my veggie garden with cardboard, it was literally full of weeds when I moved in that were nearly six fee tall had the gardner whipper snipper it + he said that the cardboard will break down, which will be great mulch. I haven't broken it to him yet, but I am ripping it out lol It is positioned in a bad place, can't push a wheelbarrow past it!

Also, sheds, kennels, aviaries + chook pen demolished They were all revolting! Backyard had rabbit wire fencing, previous owners' dogs had dug huge holes. Just horrible!

Some pix, taken in April this year when I was deciding whether to buy the house -

Backyard


Veggie Garden


An aviary


Sheds


Driveway - Teri, this is where I plan to grow the roses, next to the house + have some climbing around the windows, which looks pretty.

The driveway is such a mess!!! Needs to be redone, levelled + gardens planted either side. Plus I plan to cover the colourbond fence with that Hardie blue board -

Will render it + paint it.

Front Garden - Magnolias
This is when I moved into the house in September

On the right, the verandah has sunk lol

You can see I have a lot of work to do!

 

[Hello Kitty]

very good idea about spraying the edges. We have a reasonable amount of other vegie garden, just never seems to be enough!

The comfrey plant in front is very happy.

I wondered what that beautiful plant was candie, it is wonderful! Beautiful flowers too.

 

[Hello Kitty]

Here you go- don't tell her I told you this but it looks like that comfrey will come in very handy as a fertiliser

http://permaculturenews.org/2010/10/01/the-wonderful-multi-purpose-comfrey-plant/

That is so interesting!

 

[Hello Kitty]

we have some random self seeding potatoes. I was giving the strawberry patch a big weed on the weekend and pulled a half a bucket of these out ...

View attachment 185791

Wow!!! Forgive me for this dumb question, you can eat the purple potatoes?

 

[Hello Kitty]

So good

I know I'm planting next in my garden lol

You do know @Cat Moree - those photos you posted are photoshopped?

More -

Also by the same artist

 

[Hello Kitty]

I am so bloody jelly!!!!

Just popped half the basket through to you + candiehappy

Teri, I am so excited!!! I've never had a fruit producing garden before! The cherries are a huge success! Birds haven't pinched them! The leaves hide the cherries! Probably another two baskets of cherries to come!

Blueberries are doing nicely.

Rhubarb is going berserk!

Mint is a carpet! It is gorgeous!

 

[Teriyakicat]

Wow!!! How beautiful! I've not seen a feijoa before, heard about them. What do they taste like, Teri?

yum. They taste YUM!!

The flesh is slightly pear-like in texture, softer type pear, though. You dig it out with a spoon, right up to the skin. Inside is sort of jelly-like. Seeds are pretty much undetectable when you're hoeing into them The amount of outside flesh vs jelly-like inside is probably determined by things such as temperature, water, amount of fertiliser, etc. because I have seen them with very large jelly-like insides and I've seen them with more pear-type flesh. Mum had a huge feijoa tree Massive amounts of fruit and much bigger and juicer than mine!

 

[Teriyakicat]

How is your lime tree going?

I adore limes! Live on them squeezed in water or soda water when I need a lift. I think I've told you, I had an espaliered lime at Paddington in my tiny courtyard.

Yeah, I think you mentioned that re paddington. Mine kept a few dozen leaves on each branch after I moved it and hacked it back. As they died off, I chopped each branch a little shorter. eventually I started winning the fight and one or two branches of leaves remained. It has now started to regrow more leaves on the bare branches- not a huge amount but some- and flowers keep popping up. I get rid of those because I want more energy in the roots, not wasted on fruit, much as I'd love the fruit.

 

[Teriyakicat]

In your photo -

I just adore the ruffled centre!

Had a little giggle with the spinach + rose together Companion planting?

I have basil, chives, oregano (that's in a pot with some kale), spinach has gone, but I will get more. I used to have it all in the vege garden but that became a chook pen due to separation of roosters, so you can imagine what happened to that...

 

[Teriyakicat]

Wow! It's spectacular! Teri, is that your garage or a car port with the lattice? I LOVE it!

it's the carport for youngest son's car and hubby's 4WD.
There's catmint and catgrass in the foreground, Sam the dog looking at me, assuming it's him that I am photographing. I love that dog

 

[Teriyakicat]

Wow candie, how amazing! I love the idea of the bails! I've just covered my veggie garden with cardboard, it was literally full of weeds when I moved in that were nearly six fee tall had the gardner whipper snipper it + he said that the cardboard will break down, which will be great mulch. I haven't broken it to him yet, but I am ripping it out lol It is positioned in a bad place, can't push a wheelbarrow past it!

Also, sheds, kennels, aviaries + chook pen demolished They were all revolting! Backyard had rabbit wire fencing, previous owners' dogs had dug huge holes. Just horrible!

Some pix, taken in April this year when I was deciding whether to buy the house -

Backyard
View attachment 197355

Veggie Garden
View attachment 197356

An aviary
View attachment 197357

Sheds
View attachment 197358

Driveway - Teri, this is where I plan to grow the roses, next to the house + have some climbing around the windows, which looks pretty.
View attachment 197360
The driveway is such a mess!!! Needs to be redone, levelled + gardens planted either side. Plus I plan to cover the colourbond fence with that Hardie blue board -

Will render it + paint it.

Front Garden - Magnolias
This is when I moved into the house in September
View attachment 197361
On the right, the verandah has sunk lol

You can see I have a lot of work to do!

A renovator's dream!! Your gardener must LOVE you!! So many ideas- you would be in your element designing it all!!

 

[Teriyakicat]

Wow!!! Forgive me for this dumb question, you can eat the purple potatoes?

There are all sorts of potato colours- purple, red as well. Have you seen them in the shops??

 

[Teriyakicat]

I know I'm planting next in my garden lol

You do know @Cat Moree - those photos you posted are photoshopped?

More -

Also by the same artist

gorgeous!! You'd better get started!!

 

[Hello Kitty]

yum. They taste YUM!!

The flesh is slightly pear-like in texture, softer type pear, though. You dig it out with a spoon, right up to the skin. Inside is sort of jelly-like. Seeds are pretty much undetectable when you're hoeing into them The amount of outside flesh vs jelly-like inside is probably determined by things such as temperature, water, amount of fertiliser, etc. because I have seen them with very large jelly-like insides and I've seen them with more pear-type flesh. Mum had a huge feijoa tree Massive amounts of fruit and much bigger and juicer than mine!

They sound delicious! Must get one. What did your Mum do, to make them so much bigger + juicier than yours?

"Sometimes called the pineapple guava the feijoa, although in the same family is not a guava. Becoming increasingly popular as a commercial crop, the fruit has the taste and aroma of strawberry, pineapple, lemon, passionfruit and guava. The tiny edible seeds are embedded in a jellylike center. The spectacular purple, pink and white flowers have sweet delicious petals that make a superb ingredient in sweets and drinks.
Trees are very attractive and can be planted to form beautiful flowering and fruiting hedges, screens or windbreaks. They espalier well and can be trained as a small standard tree or a multi-trunked specimen. They are well suited to pot culture and even seedling trees will produce flowers and fruits after as little as three years."
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit pages/feijoa.htm

They're frost tolerant too!

 

[Teriyakicat]

Just popped half the basket through to you + candiehappy

Teri, I am so excited!!! I've never had a fruit producing garden before! The cherries are a huge success! Birds haven't pinched them! The leaves hide the cherries! Probably another two baskets of cherries to come!

Blueberries are doing nicely.

Rhubarb is going berserk!

Mint is a carpet! It is gorgeous!

That sounds great! I finally bought blueberries after 3 failed plants several years ago. new version says they can be grown all over Aus. so here's hoping!
Your cherries sound great- if the birds do find them, you can always put a net over the tree just before the crop is ripe.

 

[Hello Kitty]

it's the carport for youngest son's car and hubby's 4WD.
There's catmint and catgrass in the foreground, Sam the dog looking at me, assuming it's him that I am photographing. I love that dog

How is his ear tonight?

 

[Teriyakicat]

They sound delicious! Must get one. What did your Mum do, to make them so much bigger + juicier than yours?

"Sometimes called the pineapple guava the feijoa, although in the same family is not a guava. Becoming increasingly popular as a commercial crop, the fruit has the taste and aroma of strawberry, pineapple, lemon, passionfruit and guava. The tiny edible seeds are embedded in a jellylike center. The spectacular purple, pink and white flowers have sweet delicious petals that make a superb ingredient in sweets and drinks.
Trees are very attractive and can be planted to form beautiful flowering and fruiting hedges, screens or windbreaks. They espalier well and can be trained as a small standard tree or a multi-trunked specimen. They are well suited to pot culture and even seedling trees will produce flowers and fruits after as little as three years."
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit pages/feijoa.htm

They're frost tolerant too!

Mum would've grown them in a different climate. Clay-ey soil, ours is sandy. Cooler temperatures- Melb vs Perth. Wetter summers- we get winter rain but not much summer rain.

Lots of differences. She gave hers more TLC as well

 

[Teriyakicat]

How is his ear tonight?

I have to put some antibiotic in it shortly. Was aiming to have a regular 12 hour schedule and it's 11 about now Hoping to gradually make it 7am/7pm for ease of medicating him.

 

[Hello Kitty]

There are all sorts of potato colours- purple, red as well. Have you seen them in the shops??

Shops? What are those things, shops? I never go to shops lol Order food online + it's delivered Except for meat, I like to see what I'm buying.

 

[Hello Kitty]

A renovator's dream!! Your gardener must LOVE you!! So many ideas- you would be in your element designing it all!!

Yes, it is fun dreaming about it. But so dry here! The bed of hellebores is looking very sad

 

[candiehappy]

Wow!!! Forgive me for this dumb question, you can eat the purple potatoes?

absolutely - the weird thing is that if you bake them with the skin on, the skin changes colour to "normal" ..

 

[candiehappy]

Rhubarb is going berserk!

so is ours - I'm worried it might be a Triffid !!

 

[Teriyakicat]

absolutely - the weird thing is that if you bake them with the skin on, the skin changes colour to "normal" ..

Same as purple carrots and purple beans- the purple just stains the water and you get orange carrots and green beans.
It's a novelty, though and a reminder that beauty is truly only skin deep.

 

[Hello Kitty]

absolutely - the weird thing is that if you bake them with the skin on, the skin changes colour to "normal" ..

Really? I feel like such a dunce! I'm not a big potato eater, so I'm using that as my defence.

 

[candiehappy]

Really? I feel like such a dunce! I'm not a big potato eater, so I'm using that as my defence.

I only found that out when I baked them! I was a bit disappointed to be honest ....