shiukopuppy's Blog
shiukopuppy's October 2007 Entries
Last Post 41 days, 22 hours Ago
Oct 27, 2007 | 6:39 PM PST
Tags: myna bird , magpie , birds
There are two types birds in the garden that I managed to get photos of. Above are two magpies. Magpies used to swoop on the chickens at my old house. These ones seem more tame and they follow behind me when gardening so that they can dig out the worms that I've uncovered. They seem a bit more submissive.. which is a relief! In the past, magpies have swooped and pecked my head - once so hard that I thought I'd been cut open!
I like the Myna birds but this is not a good photo unfortunately. Below is a better picture that I found on the internet.
I've caught them inside the chicken coop a few times, sampling the chickens' food. They've stopped doing that lately. Because they are small, I find them quite adorable and they are forgiven for stealing food.
Oct 26, 2007 | 3:49 PM PST
Tags: cherry , almond , fruit trees
This is my first year owning these almond and cherry trees. I'm well aware that I have to treat them with a lot of patience and consider them an investment for the future. I look forward to them bearing fruit for me one day, but I know that it won't happen immediately. The spring flowering has come and gone and I think that my harvest is already decided.. Below is the first and only almond that I can see on the almond tree:
And it looks like there is only one cherry as well. It's not a great harvest but as it is their first time, I can deal with it! ! Their cute attempt at making fruit makes me think of these trees as my babies! ^_^
Oct 26, 2007 | 3:34 PM PST
Tags: grape vine , kai laan
It's been raining for a few days so we strung up a support for our grape vine on the veranda where it is covered. The vine is showing tiny grape bunches already and it is almost 3 feet tall when supported. I came across a recipe for quails wrapped in vine leaves and I think that some of our leaves would be big enough to cover the little birds!
I've been enjoying the blooms from the foxgloves and snapdragons, and also from the native garden. I noticed that one of my olive tree flower buds is almost open. Only one more week until it is safe to plant frost tender vegetables. Below is my kai laan (chinese broccoli). Looking very healthy.. almost time to make kai laan in oyster sauce.. mmm..
Oct 22, 2007 | 1:38 AM PST
Tags: foxglove , apple , nashi , cherry , almond , onions , seed tape , garlic
It's an inspiring but also frustrating time in the garden. I'm trying to wait until the last danger of frost has passed before planting out my eggplants, chillies and tomatoes. The vegetable beds are bare and the greenhouse is full. The last frost frost should be in 2 weeks.. 2 weeks is such a long time! ! After this, I will move my dwarfed trees out of the greenhouse (apple, nashi, almond and cherry!)
My foxgloves are starting to bloom as you can see..
This morning I planted out some shallots bulbs as well as some spring onion tape. It was my first time using the seed tape and it was difficult to manage in garden gloves. I couldn't decided whether it was convenient or not. My white, brown and red onions are swelling, which is exciting. I transplanted some garlic and it was also forming medium sized bulbs. It's my first time growing garlic, and my second time with onions. I've learnt so much..
Also on my to-do list this morning was to plant seed potatoes, but the site I had chosen wasn't big enough. I had to go to work so that will have to wait until another day.
Oct 19, 2007 | 6:56 PM PST
Tags: PSP , Playstation portable , harvest moon , video games , lime , good bug mix , chicken , eggplants , hoverflies
I'm REALLY enjoying the new futuristic Harvest Moon game (innocent life). I play a robot who gradually develops a more human personality through farming - by experiencing the beauty of creating life by growing food.
I'm sure we can all relate to this joy of the harvest in one way or another!
Below is the farmer at his farm. It may sound boring, but growing vegetables in a game in fun because
you don't have to wait as long for them to grow, and they are cuter.
In the real garden, I'm still picking bowls of peas every day and have been admiring the blossoms on the lime tree. The lettuce and tomato beds are almost ready for the seedlings go in. Some of the onions are looking close to being ready and everything is growing so quickly!! I really need to plant the seed potatoes and shallots, and I need to plant chicken forage and good bug mix. I'm going to see if the eggplants are ready to go into their garden bed and review my companion planting strategies. Does anyone know how to set up a habitat for hoverflies? I have lots and don't want them to leave!
Oct 17, 2007 | 2:21 AM PST
Tags: peas , snowpeas , poppies , toad flax , calendula , Sweet Peas , raspberry , garden beds , pyrethrum , wormwood , rue , feverfew , rosemary , chickens
The blossoms have dropped on the apple, pear and cherry trees. The pomegranate hasn't fruited yet. I've continued to harvest peas and today we realized that we were harvesting three distinct types of peas. I was happy that all three of the varieties that I planted are cropping - the telephone peas, greenfeast peas and the no-name snowpeas.
Today I planted some more flowers - poppies and sweet peas. I felt inspired as I was planting out seedlings I had raised from seed - calendula, toad flax, poppies, native bluebells and sweet peas. I hope that they survive long enough to flower so that I can take photos.
I've been reading how to manage my chickens naturally, and tore off some wormwood branches to keep in their coop along with fresh leaves of rue, feverfew and some rosemary stems. I also scattered pyrethrum and wormwood leaves in their dust baths. Smells lovely and they ran around and investigated the shredded herbs.
I bought a new raspberry to replace my dead raspberry plant. I still need to prepare the lettuce beds for the seedlings I'm raising, and want to make my garden more ornamental for viewing as well as for eating. I think I'll be moving into an apartment next year, so this will be my last summer with a garden - how sad!!
Oct 10, 2007 | 2:50 AM PST
Tags: mandarin , lime , Lemon , snowpeas , Asparagus , kaffir lime , lemongrass , vietnamese mint , coriander , cilantro
Weather has been cool again - so still not quite spring. Still.. there are blossoms and new growth everywhere, but my little lettuces got distressed by the recent cool nights. I've been yearning to garden but have had to do other things.
We're harvesting handfuls of snowpeas every day. I bought a replacement raspberry to plant in between my black and red currants. I planted an asparagus with them but think I should probably move it somewhere else..
I'm still waiting for the tomatoes to start flowering before I move them into the garden. The smell of citrus flowers from the lemon, lime and mandarin is invigorating!
I've never liked winter.. now I'm also doing a makeover of my home in preparation for all of the barbecues, dinners and drinks we'll be hosting during spring, summer, autumn.. there will need to be major garden tidying as well..
I'm growing chillies for Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, and Indian food as I eat them more during the summer.. The lemongrass and kaffir lime are perking up and the thai basil is starting to show. The Vietnamese mint (laksa mint), common mint and coriander (cilantro) are thriving.
Oct 8, 2007 | 2:56 AM PST
Tags: australian native plant , lawn
As I mentioned, the native garden is partly mulched. Here's a picture! It may not look like much but this humble corner is producing gorgeous flowers! I'm hoping that the sun will bleach the mulch so that it's all the same color. If not, I'll spread the darker (pricier) mulch over the top. We bought our natives as tube stock so their growth spurt has been exciting.
This photo indicates the neglect that this garden suffered - this area was previously used for parking. The soil is compacted and only weeds grow. Native garden aside, my neighbor and I spent a lot of our sunday removing flat weeds and prickly clover from the back lawn. She can direct her gray water onto the lawn so we will be planting drought resistant and indigenous lawn seed.
We also had a man hanging around our garden which is the reason that we put up the bamboo fencing where our fences were broken down. You can see some near the old plum tree in the photo. We now have better privacy and hopefully better security. We all love this little piece of land and want to protect our home, and my female neighbor and I don't want anymore men coming in freely.
Oct 5, 2007 | 3:43 AM PST
Tags: snowpeas , Strawberries , watercress , toadflax , bamboo screen , mulch
We've been harvesting snowpeas here and there. I've been eating a few but also blanching and freezing some for future use. My 'ordinary' peas haven't started cropping yet.
The main task of the day was mulching the native garden (they are all very young plants). I potted some strawberry runners that I recently bought on ebay (kunowase variety). Potted some watercress that I got from the nursery and re-potted some toadflax seedlings that I had grown. I also planted some tree seeds for bonsai - Giant Redwood, Banyan tree, Japanese Cedar and Australian trees - Cider Gum, Native Apricot, and some Tea Trees.
We started to put up a bamboo screen for some privacy. When we bought the bamboo screens from the nursery, I picked up some copper snail repellent and a shade loving plant - name forgotten - which I'll take a photo of tomorrow!
Oct 4, 2007 | 4:38 AM PST
Tags: grevillia , cherry , Pomegranates , nashi , almond
Behold the latest flower - a yellow grevillia!
It's been busy and I
can't seem to get on top of things in the garden. But that is just part of lovely spring..
Lately, I fixed the vegetable cages and added new doors. I weeded them and planted some companion flower seeds for later.
I began clearing leaves that had come in with the recent heavy winds and I fertilized some fruit trees - almond, cherry, apple, nashi, citrus and pomegranate.
I read up and worried a lot about codling moth! It sounds very difficult to deal with without chemicals. I did notice lots of the friendly hoverflies who made me feel optimistic about the health of my vegetables.
Oct 2, 2007 | 6:25 PM PST
Tags: cottage garden , snapdragon , viola , faerie garden
Well, still struggling along with the cottage garden. I've been weeding the native garden because somehow in the last couple of weeks, it has been overgrown by long grasses. It's nice to know it's warm enough for them to grow. We've decided not to let it happen again by mulching, and this will also mean less watering.
Here are some of the 'cottage' flowers that are blooming: snapdragons, and a viola. I love snapdragons, I played with them a lot during childhood. I never thought of them as dragons; to me they looked like goats. Wouldn't it be nice to plant a faerie garden? I'll try to find out which plants the faeries like. :)
Oct 1, 2007 | 3:28 AM PST
Tags: cottage garden , snapdragon , viola , peas , snowpeas
Well, today I did lots of work in the garden that didn't seem to amount to much! I started by casting some lawn seed on a tiny patch of earth that I had prepared. The lawn will only be a few square feet as we have had drought here for many years. The soil was full of worms, so hopefully the lawn will survive. I mixed in soil wetting granules and organic lawn feed pellets. Then I covered the seed with straw, which my partner and I have noticed that the council does when they sow lawns.
After that, I checked on my peas & snowpeas and pinched out the extra shoots. There are lots of little pea pods and flowers which was exciting. But there was a much more pressing task - a clover outbreak in the front yard. The clover in the front yard had grown halfway through the onions bed and had started growing those prickly little burrs on them (I think they are called bindi?) My partner and I tore them out for a while. This bed used to be a circular flowerbed. I had planted snapdragons earlier in the year but we must have torn some of them out. I moved some violas from another bed to fill in the spaces.
I have to say - I HATE English cottage gardens... but I'm renting a 1920s cottage, and as the last year has gone by, I've been finding that English style edgings and borders do suit this place, and I've been buying little flowers and lavenders etc and letting that style influence me. It's terrible, isn't it! ;)
