shiukopuppy's Blog
shiukopuppy's posts about: almond
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 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 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.
Sep 25, 2007 | 3:35 AM PST
Tags: almond , nashi , Asian Pears , apple , bonsai , flowering
Here are the first spring blossoms on my almond tree! The nashi pear, cherry, and apple trees also have blossoms which is very exciting as they my first fruit trees ever! I've spent a lot of time in Japan where they go to view the spring cherry blossoms and also the autumn leaves. My partner is into bonsai so he has been creating the same scenes in miniature! Some of his bonsai are flowering, and all of the deciduous bonsai are growing leaves again. You should have seen autumn in his tiny maple forest!
When a chilli or tomato grows from a flower, it's very exciting, so I look forward to the flowering of fruit. My avocado tree is extending its branches but it had an infestation of tiny white 'dots' - possibly aphids? I gave it a good spray of pyrethrum. I went to the hardware store to get some bird netting to protect the berry canes and couldn't resist getting some more spring onions (they were getting quite large!) I bought some planters to grow the chicken forage in too.
And is there any advice on fertilizing a herb garden? I haven't fertilized it for a whole year as I'd heard herbs don't need anything, but my partner was saying that they do need something. hmm.
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Sep 3, 2007 | 4:12 AM PST
Tags: green manure , choi sum , pak choi , kai laan , oats , companion planting , organochlorides , pesticide , Bokashi bucket , almond , snapdragon , coriander , mint , spinach , lettuce
After all of my uploaded images were deleted, I lost faith in garden
blogging. But I have done my grieving and am going to try again because I've had lots of fun hanging around on gardenguides. How have you all been? :) I've
also been busy preparing for Australian spring lately which left me little time for computer distraction..
During the last month, my boyfriend and I bought a cheap greenhouse and set it up in the backyard. There are shelves for his bonsai trees and cuttings and I have filled my side with seed trays that will grow my companion plants, herbs and vegetable seedlings. I've also sown lots of flowers and sprinkled some flower seeds over the lawn.
We sent our garden soil to a lab to test for organochlorides - if that goes well, we will get a couple of chickens to move in. If there are pesticide residues here, we will have to do without them. We also invested in a Bokashi bucket which uses beneficial bacteria to prepare compost, and prepares meat, citrus, eggshells for composting too, so there is minimal waste. Spring bulbs are flowering and cherries and plum trees are starting to blossom!
LOVING UPDATES on my pre-existing plants:
Almond tree: the buds are swelling, and it looks like the flowers will be pink and white!
The snapdragons look like they will also burst soon..
The nashi pear buds are also swelling but I have had to protect the buds with paper bags because the possums decimated all of the leaf growth last year.
Coriander, mint, spinach, lettuce, peas and flat leaf parsley are thriving. Onions are growing along steadily..
Asian greens - mibuna, pak choi, kai laan, choi sum, mizuna etc. are doing very well.
The green manure (oats) is almost ready to be dug into the soil to prepare for the gray water lawn.
And my garlic is growing! So satisfying.. ^_^
Jul 19, 2007 | 2:37 AM PST
Tags: guava , grapes , nashi , Pomegranates , almond , coffee , avocado , berries , lime , Lemon , strawberries , water apple , lychee , durian , mango , star fruit , papaya , honeydew , dragon fruit
There are varying climates in Australia, but I currently live in a temperate area. I'm growing the fruits that need winter chilling but I'm dreaming of the fresh fruit of hot summery places! There are things that I just can't grow here or at least not grow well. Especially right in the middle of winter! It's heartbreaking to taste the fruit in the shops and even sadder when the fruit has come a long way and suffers in flavour for it.
Rambutans here are overpriced and old. I used to eat fresh mangoes, dates, pomegranates, papyas and honeydews when I lived overseas. I even ate durians. The shrivelled tiny star fruits in the shops here are unappetising. Lime and lychee drinks - not financially viable! Bananas are expensive because there was a typhoon in the banana growing areas. Earlier this year I visited a fruit farm and spice gardens in Malaysia where I tasted dragon fruit and my new favourite is the wax jambu or water apple. Above is me at the farm gesturing to a plant that I forgot what it was!
So you can see that I love to eat!! This is a major motivator in the garden. Hopefully one day I can garden in a tropical setting. And I comfort myself that I get to grow a lot of my current plants that would not survive in the tropics. As spring is nearing, I am checking all my fruit/trees' health.
GUAVA: Died back completely this winter, but I read somewhere that they recover well.
GRAPES: Still can't figure out how to prune them - it has been a few years of struggle..
NASHI: Had some rust or something last summer. I have dealt with that. It's about to bud-burst!
POMEGRANATES, ALMOND, COFFEE, BERRIES: Still very dormant
AVOCADO: Looks cold and sad!
LIME: Going crazy, looks to be outgrowing its container
LEMON: Not looking very motivated..
STRAWBERRIES: Now they are working very hard :)
Jul 6, 2007 | 7:29 PM PST
Tags: Pomegranates , almond , pak choi , gai laan , shungiku , raspberry , red currant , black currant , pear , onion , coriander , cilantro , spring onion , olive
It's winter in Australia and very frosty with misty days. I used to do nothing in the winter, just play playstation, watch movies and ignore the garden, growing only herbs and lettuces on the window sill. This year I decided to see what could be done at this time of year.
Herbs wise, I have planted some coriander (cilantro). It's doing very well; in the summer it often went to seed. I also planted lots of onions. Usually I only grew spring onions and shallots (yum!) but recently I tried growing red onions and they were so delicious that I planted out white, brown and red onions again. I bought some flat pickling onion seeds but they need to be sown in warmer weather, alas!I planted several varieties of winter hardy peas. I was pleasantly surprised as they are now a few inches tall. Winter spinaches are doing well, as well as pak choi, choi sum, gai laan and shungiku. Some winter lettuces are also growing but they are very small.
I also bought some dormant plants - raspberry, red currant and black currant canes. An almond tree, a couple of olive trees and I bought wintry flowers: snapdragons and foxgloves. Today I want to buy another pomegranate tree and a multigrafted pear. It's been busy and I never would have thought that a winter could be this fun.
