Hi all,

I weeded. Again. I'm beginning to think that is all I shall ever do!

I'm not used to having nothing to harvest.

Lets have a gardening day! I need some company in the garden I think, to motivate me. We used to do that where I lived in Vic. A group of us took turns visiting other people's places for the day. The host would put on lunch and we'd get heaps done.

Cheers,

J*

Sounds like a great idea Jstar.I wonder if you can organise something like that again.

Hi Mark,

It was, it was wonderful.

I live in a totally different part of the world now, and no longer a single mum. I guess my circle has changed.

Much more conservative, more's the pity!

But would love to have those kind of connections again.

We'll see. I have cut some ppl loose so I'll see what new friendships and connections manifest!

Whats for dinner from your garden Mark? I can enjoy the thought of you eating from your garden at least. Tho I did pick up some locally grown button squash and cucumber today, and rainbow chard. So thats nice. So much firmer, you can feel the life force in them.

Cheers,

J*

Today for dinner out of my vegie garden I had green beans and eggplant.I still picking tomatoes and and will be ready to harvest another lot of potatoes soon.I will get it ready to plant it up around Easter for my winter crop.
Take care,
Mark.

Hi all

Picked my first chilli today. Popped it in a stir fry and really liked the flavour.

Hi Lillylane unfortunately I can't eat chillies or anything hot these days.They are great to grow in the garden and enjoy the colours of them.I had one at one of my old places and it grew to a out 2 metres tall and was covered in different coloured chillies.

Hi all,

while I was weeding yesterday I dug up a couple of potatoes that I'd missed in the spring harvest.

Mark I had no idea you would still be harvesting potatoes now! When did you plant them?

Cheers,

J*

I think I just planted them after Christmas.I was a bit slack and didn't write down the date like I normally do.You can be harvesting them up to winter here.Just waiting for the vine to completely die down and then I will dig them up.

I just checked my potatoes the vine is is finished and the potatoes are ready to harvest which is good it is another spot freed up.

I just talked to my neighbour who I planted the tree for.She was so delighted and says it's got new growth on it and flowers coming on.Its a crepe Myrtle and says it growing better then anything else she's planted.

Hi folks, just harvesting the last of my cherry tomatoes, Black Cherry, Red cherry Fig and Bumblebee along with some seed as well though I must admit we brought the plants this year as my homegrown seedlings didn’t do well.
regarding I swear by worm castings, I have a couple of large bins your 240 l garbage bin types and my worms eat better then me.
I’ve a dwarf Lemmon, mandarin, blood orange and Tahitian limes in half wine barrels. Lemons had the branches breaking, so must be feeding them right. The eco oil works as well but not on a warm day.

ive been busy collecting wood or sticks on my walk with my dog. I get the weirdest looks, I don’t care I burn the wood, use the charcoal and castings mixed together and shall see whether I reap the rewards in years to come or rue my decisions. It’s got to be better than using chemical fertylysers .

This is a great thread. You can’t go wrong being amongst gardeners. I only wish I paid more attention to my parents when they dpgardened,

Wow gorgeous gardeners, SO MUCH TO READ about your shenanigans in each of your gardens!

Aren't they magical places to be?..... so much to discover about our plants, our soils, our worm friends lol, ourselves.

Hey J* maybe you can look up LETS in your area?
They're a Community based "trading" system and it's world wide.

It's not "commercial" but it's full of eco loving peeps - my kindred circle.

I started a Gardening group in our local LETS when I was at home with the kiddies.
Don't do anything in it anymore but I may again one day.

I organised weekly visits to ppls gardens and farms and acreages, even Community Gardens that joined LETS too, that wanted to share their gardens with us, it was such a beautiful time.

The owner could give a talk or a tour or just let us PICK STUFF if they wanted lol!
We picked Kiwi Fruit and in exchange we pruned their vines (I got 10 buckets of fruit mind you).
Same with cumquats, and all other citrus that was growing.
I can't tell you how much we gained from these visits.

Sure I'm "only" doing weeding but I still love it lol.

Did you all know that Darwin's Theory of "survival of the fittest" has been superseded by "survival of the most cooperative"?

You've all demonstrated how cooperation bears much fruit and not just in the ways of food, but in the ways of relationships, here and IRL.

Mark, I love crepe myrtles, I have too many of them! lol. I only planted 3.
They're the perfect passive solar option, amongst many other options I'm sure, they're so pretty!

What an awesome neighbour you are.

Hey Airies, you GO MAN!

Lilly, you're crowing glory MUST be the mangoes you've grown. Congrats dear lady.

Have a beautiful week everyone!
Yours in a greener world!

Love EM

l've somehow created tomato monsters . l didn't realize the plants would do this l thought whatever was showing earlier was gonna be it. But guess what , there's more coming, little baby ones coming up too, millions of them . Some are full grown but these things are still making more. Shyt. And we're not sure when the hell gf will be back.

But l've got an idea ,theirs an organic fruit guy down the shops. At this rate l might have to box them up and sellem to him, there's just too many , well if they all survive, ,even to victimize up for the freezer. Quite funny really , think l've killed the pumpkins there's only about 4 on miles of plant all over that corner of the yard but eh , the tomatoes are a success.

rx

Great idea selling them on rx, why not!

That's amazing!

Yeah with pumpkins, I've found that unless we have alot of flowers around, their flowers (which create the fruit being the pumpkins) don't get cross pollinated by the bees and insects.

Then very little crop.

I used to throw handfuls of marigold seeds out amongst the pumpkin vine areas when I planted them (got bucket loads of those seeds free from Community Gardens).... then had TOO many pumpkins lol as you've found, it creates quite a journey to cope with.

You can literally throw the tomatoes into a pot with a little water and simmer them away.
Creating passata and all sorts of other things if you wish.

I even got fancy one year and roasted slices of them and sank them in oil in bottles in the fridge.
But didn't like how I had to use the oven to do this during Summer - making the house HOTTER.

EMxxxx

Hi EM,

‘Survival of the most cooperative.’
- this makes so much sense! I love it.

Found out my daughters’ school have a vege garden and they need volunteers so this sounds like something fun to get involved with.

Well it's funny she put in 4 or 5 different varieties of pumpkin , gorgeous plants love some pumpkin roaming about but there's only about one pumpkin on each after all that.

Hi randomx one thing with pumpkins is they first produce a lot of male flowers before they start producing female flowers.Em is right you need bees to cross pollination.Mind just come naturally but some people need to encourage them in.Just look at the flowers to see if you are getting male and female flowers.The female flowers are the ones with a baby pumpkin on it and if don't get pollinated properly just don't develop.

Hey all,

RX my H usually hand pollinates our early pumpkins. He probs does it all thru, I'm not sure. We've found that helps. We've got heaps of bees usually, altho sometimes it may be a lull in flowering or something. Male and female are easy to tell, once you know what you're looking for. I think he strips down the male flower and takes it around to any female flowers which are in full bloom.

Well, despite feeling like I'm only half rooted here in this town, I bought a few plants yesterday. Lemon balm, tiny sugarloaf cabbages, baby spinach. The things I don't have much success growing from seed. The lemon balm becos I have a hankering for mint and lemon balm teas!

So I guess the chooks are getting kicked out of the garden very soon, back to their own area. Good news for them is I'll be turning and moving the compost heap, so they'll love scratching around in the scraps that fall.

I'm glad it's getting cooler! Second day of Autumn and the weather is bearable again.

My daughter is starting up a club at school. Today they're planting seeds. I'm such a proud mama! All the work I've done to encourage her in gardening here at home, and at school when I was helping out, didn't seem to bear fruit...........Just goes to show, maybe I didn't wait long enough! For her it's about the animals, so thats the hook. Bees, loverly bees!

Lilly lane thats awesome if you can volunteer at your daughters school.Gardens are just the BEST thing for in schools, and there's heaps of research been done about benefits particularly for kids with behavioural difficulties. I've witnessed it myself, a few minutes watering the plants calmed a child heading for an oppositional defiance moment..........We used to call them temper tantrums I guess, but I see it more as an emotional overload now. Loads of govt. funding available too...

Cheers,

J*

Hi J*

How great and rewarding to see your daughter starting a club and planting seeds.

Yes I’m glad schools seem to be recognising the value of gardening for the students.

The humidity is so bad at the moment, I’m a bit over it. I’ve put off so many gardening jobs. Just mowing the lawn today felt like running a marathon.

More chillies and strawberries appearing at the moment. I need to decide what to plant in a large, wide spare pot. Was going to plant tomatoes but I think I’ve missed that window now. Though they are still stocking them at the local warehouse nursery.

Wow BB gardeners!

So much Community engagement HERE on the forums AND in your own communities and families too, how wonderful!

Absolutely totally and ENTIRELY agree about the whole shebang in having School Gardens that the children can really sink their gumboots into lol. And hands and trowels, the lot....

their sweet little minds most importantly.

Yes! Absolutely know for sure that gardening calms children.

This is really exciting for your children Lillylane and J* and I'M PROUD of them too!
And you too!
And Mark too!

oh everyone, why not lol.

You never know just how much knowledge you're passing on.
My grandchildren (and previously my own children) just knew off by heart the names of plants and flowers lol.
They help / helped their TEACHERS.

One grandson at 5yo was feeding the worm farm at school and when the teacher said "oh that's worm wee etc" my grandson said "Well technically it's called Vermicast" omg tact is not a THANG in a 5yo! They all use highly technical and scientific words at such young ages because they've had this exposure.

Our budding little eco babies, I'm so happy to read about this all.

I volunteered in so many school's Organic Gardens, LOVED every minute of it!
Organised a working bee once in a school that poo pooed the idea (only having 4 ppl turn up the time before)... we had 100 ppl turn up to OURS!
I ran a raffle to raise money, got huge donations of beautiful new garden beds, got LETS ppl to run workshops on the day.

Sure there are LOTS of Grants available but I got tired of applying...
I went to the Community instead.
It worked really well.

That school now has Organic Gardens EVERYWHERE, not only in that field in that spot we started in. That was my vision but the outcome was so much more beautiful.
I'm taking a new vege bed to this same school, donated by my friend last week.
I took seedlings and seeds last week.

It's just FUN!

Loving your enthusiasm.
It's so beautiful to witness, my heart is warmed and my soul is FULL of gratitude!

THANK YOU!

Yours in an obviously GREENER world! lol.

Love EM

Yeah gf's always telling me about the love life of the pumpkin haha, but l haven't worried about them, God knows what l'd even do with dozens of pumpkins anyway. l just love the plants themselves roaming over the yard.

Hi all,

in a bit excited. I planted lettuces and lemon balm today- finally! I even made a shade cloth cover to protect the lettuces from the fierce sun, at least for a bit. Tho it’s raining now so won’t be a problem.
the compost has Been moved and therefore turned. The garden beds are weeded- tho the nut grass keeps on springing back!- and one out of 3 beds is prepared, which is where I planted the lettuce.
my seeds are sprouting too, so pretty soon I will have my own fresh greens again. Have been missing that!

There was a great ep on gardening Australia about aqua ponics which has inspired me to try some different things to boost my greens and get them growing faster. Charlie carp, weed tea etc.

And I’m looking forward to flowers! Cornflowers, allyssum, calendula.
cheers all, and happy gardening!

J*

Turns out l might've underestimated our pumpkins . Took a good look today again through all the leaves and there's dozens of new little round pumpkins they're about 8cm across . Don't know if they'll survive haven't asked gf about them bc she been stressed to the max last few days. But she was saying a few wks back in sydney this yr a lot of the pumpkins are just dying at about this size so we see l suppose, l'm in Vic. Had to laugh though , zero love have our poor pumpkins had this yr , hg usually looks after them , but they've still been secretly growing away behind my back haha doin their theng. rx

Hi randomx it will depend on weather they pollinated properly or not if they will grow into big pumpkins.If they haven't been will shrivel up and turn black and fall off.If you do have plenty of pumpkins I do have a great pumpkin jam recipe which is so simple to make.
Take care,
Mark.

Hi Jstar,

That sounds great! Gardening Australia can be so inspiring. Have just heard some rain on the roof and it’s good to see things a bit greener again.

Have wondered about growing micro greens but haven’t looked into it further.

Ah right , thanks for that match.

No idea suppose all l can do then is see if they progress at this stage eh. She normally puts all sorts in and in this spot and they usually grow really well. There are some of those long pumpkins in there too they're just about ready l'd say, l thought there was only one of those but l found some more. Don't think we got anything last yr from memory though lady cross the road didn't either. Let you know how they shape up anyway. Cheers

Hi all,

Lillylane I felt the same way after that micro greens segment. Heaps more nutrients- could be a good way to boost the family's vitamin intake!

It's another rainy day today- cool too. Could be a good day to plant out the rest of my seedlings!

Cheers,

J*

Jstar drizzly rainy weather is the perfect time to plant out seedlings.I wish I had some and could manage it.

Hey Mark,

Yeah, as long as it's not heavy like last night should be good.....

how are you feeling today?

Did you get any planting done before hospital?

J*

Hi Jstar the rain here is expected to be drizzly most of the day.I didn't get anything planted in the vegie garden.I manage to harvest my potatoes before I went into hospital.I planted a couple of things out in the garden and a little pruning.Everything now has been growing crazy with the rain I have had At least it is topping up my tanks.
Take care,
Mark.