Christmas

It's been a busy and frustrating time in the garden. La Nina is causing havoc across Australia and here in the Blue Mountains we have had a lot of rain too. However it is wonderful to see everything growing again after so little rain for so long.
We have planted a Cidrella Sinensis (chinese cedar) which turns bright pink in spring. Also I have planted my sasanqua camellias in the front.
The vege garden is a bit overgrown but the beans are doing well. Tying some string to the top of the lattice and letting it drop down was a good idea I picked up on the internet. It gives the beans something to grip onto and a bit of movement. I find I garden in spurts and when I go back to it my climbers are crawling along the ground. Then you break them when you pick them up. This seems to work for me anyway.

Three eggplants just planted. My mortgage lifter tomato seeds look good and will be in soon. The strawberries are beginning to bear fruit and I've counted about twenty apples on each of my trees. Maybe next year we'll have a lot to eat from the apples.

Really hot here so I'm having a break. The three dahlias are up the pot luck being the most robust. next Isabel Rose and Boy Scout is only about 2cm high.

My beautiful mollis azalea has bloomed well this year "Wryneck" is it's name.It is golden and scented. So I went out and bought another deciduous azalea which is bright orange called "Gibralter" I also bought 4 sasanqua camellias "Pure Silk" to put along the front of the house.

The garden is very overgrown at the moment.The rain comes almost everyday or every couple of days.This is the forst time this has happened since we arrived here.

I went to Bathurst yesterday. The roses are beautiful this year.

My asparagus is still giving asparagus but only a couple at a time. The parsley is everywhere and even the tomatoes seem to be growing fast. Snow peas are good and the beans are coming up now.

Deciduous azalea" Wryneck"

The asparagus is still sprouting spears. First time I've had a reasonable amount. The cherries have bloomed and there are small cherries on the tree. Need to net soon. The snow peas are blooming and I've planted some climbing beans near them. Lots of things have gone to seed. The rocket,mizuna,kale,turnips.
The apples all bloomed together this year and it looks like there are quite a few tiny apples on the pink lady and granny smith.
There are a few black currants but I didn't prune them this year so they probably won't do much. The heritage raspberries are growing really well. I should have quite a few this year.
The spinach was a bit disappointing. It didn't grow through winter and is quite tough now when I pick it.
The beetroots seem to be growing OK. A lot of seeds grew from the original pant last year.
The carrot seeds and tomatoes and zucchinis are really slow. We've had a fair bit of rain but the temperatures have been quite low this spring.
My broad beans are bearing now. I'm going to try and cook some tonight.
Quite a few lettuce here and there too. Celery a bit is growing but it's fairly stringy.
My hazelnuts - cosford and american white have leaves on them.
My olives- kalamata and picual aren't doing much. I don't think this is a great climate for them.
I tranplanted my rhubarb and it's struggling.
So far the critters haven't eaten anything yet- so far so good.
I have an enormous amount of parsley.
I planted some coriander and basil seeds a couple of days ago.
I'm really looking forward to some warmer weather. I'm sick of the cold.

Spring is here. My pink lady apple is in bloom and simone cherry. The others are waiting to bloom in the next few days. My new hazelnuts are getting leaves too. The varieties I planted are cosford and wanliss (american white?). Things are going to seed all over the place. Rocket turnips mizuna and I suppose the parsley will be next. The raspberries and currants have sprouted leaves. Only the olive trees seem unaffected by the sudden surge of spring.

I need to get the nets out soon as there are birds all over the place building nests and pecking at my veges.

I planted two more dahlias One is a pink one called Isabel Rose and the other is a pot luck from the nursery.I don't know what it will be.

Today was a beautiful day again. I started to get my seedlings organised.
Carrots-chanteney variety. Zucchini -blackjack Cucumber-black russian. Tomato-mortgage lifter.
Mulched my beetroot seedlings and spinach.
Another project was to paint the handles of my tools red. I keep losing them-hopefully this will help.
My first two spears of asparagus have appeared and I cut them today.
The apples and cherries are about to sprout and bloom. Things are looking good.

It's nearly a month since my last post. I have planted my hazelnuts down near the lemon meyer.
I've also replanted 3 grapevines up in the vege garden. Don't know which variety.
I replanted my black currents and hope to replant my crab apple floribunda today. The weather is slowly getting warmer.
We've had a lot of rain which is good for the tanks and the garden. Everything looks green and fresh not all dried up the way it was.
I've decided I need more flowers so I planted a dahlia on the weekend It's called boy scout and is a beautiful deep purple. Dahlias aren't very popular and it's hard to find a good variety to choose from.
My next chores are - make some more of my soap and organise my seed beds for the coming spring.

It's been so cold here that it's very hard to garden. However this time of year is a good time to get rid of weeds and plan for the spring. I have bought 2 hazelnut plants( a cosford and wanliss) and they look very healthy and need planting. I hope to buy a couple of pear trees next. I have replanted lots of beetroot seedlings not sure if it's the correct timing but they're up and growing. My turnips are ready to eat. My snow peas haven't flowered yet which is good as it's very icey.

Very cold here at present. Quite crisp and beautiful but not vert enticing to go out into the garden. The plants are growing very slowly indeed. I put some powerfeed on them-hopefully that will kick them on a bit. I went for a walk around the Katoomba community gardens to see what was growing. Everything looks pretty static there too. Onions are growing well there which I don't have

Salad Recipe from the garden
A good salad recipe for this time of year is a combination of rocket,mizuna, baked beetroot peeled cooled and cubed, slices of pear and a small amount of fetta cheese. Except perhaps for the fetta the other ingredients are seasonal and it is quite a delicious salad. Serve with a dressing of your choice.

Well my spinach seeds,broadbeans,parsley ,mizuna, snow peas, rocket are all doing quite well. This is a picture of some of my seedlings. Mainly the spinach, parsley and snow peas, there are a few lettuce and cauliflowers as well.

It's an absolutely beautiful day.

The raspberries are looking tatty. I'm going to try and layer some of them today. We'll see how that goes. Today is weeding day and trimming day.

It feels like winter today.Overcast and cloudy and cold. I transplanted some cauliflower and spinach seedlings. The spinach look haelthy the cauliflower not. There's lots of parsley popping up here and there.
It's taken five weeks for the seeds to be big enough to transplant. Quite a long time really.
The snow peas and broadbeans are about 6inches high and look really healthy.
I think I have some turnups coming up too. I put seeds from a really old packets of seeds way out of date randomly at the base of the apple tree and the're growing. Surprising really.
The rocket is healthy and growing fast and the mizuna is chugging along.
I have had a lot of raspberries this year and hope for a bumper crop next year.

Today is a beautiful autumn day in the blue mountains. I planted some snow peas and garlic and dug up a few jerusalem artichokes. The snow peaas are along the fence line and the lattice. Two different kinds. One one the north side from the plastic bag and the other from my jar. Both are collected from the last crop at different times.
I can just see my beetroot seeds coming up.
I also replanted some rocket that's come up among the lawn.

Just planted a row of broadbean today ! That's all folks.

I'm going to try to chronicle my gardening because I keep forgetting what I've done and planted

Blue mountains apple trees. I have planted three apple trees granny smith, pink lady and ? ( golden delicious I think)
All are supposed to cross pollinate. They do not flower at the same time or they haven't for the last two years.?????? This year when the granny smith blossomed I found an apple in bloom elsewhere and rubbed the pollen on my granny smith. I had 2 apples this year which tasted really good! Not much but a beginning.

I have two cherry trees which were planted two years ago and gave delicious fruit both years. Stella and starcrimson? They definitely need netting (which I did) but the birds don't eat the fruit really early so it gave me time to net.
Two olives kalamata and picnal. A bit of fruit last year but nothing this year.
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Raspberries of the autumn bearing heritage variety. I never have much luck with summer fruiting ones but these ones are very reliable.

I have about 10 camellia sinensis (tea plants) which are going OK. We originally planted about 50 but they died a few years ago because of the drought. They are flowering at present and are quite pretty.

I have a couple of red currants I never see the currants (birds)

I have 3 lemon trees - one doing really well with about 4 large and some smaller lemons and a little one in a pot has small lemons and another struggling to survive.
I have a kaffir lime in a pot wjich dies each winter and then sprouts back again so it can supply leaves to cook for most of the year.
I have some rhubarb and 2 asparagus

My vege garden was destroyed by animals this year. I fenced it and that kept out the wallabies only to have it destroyed by bower birds,magpies etc. The only surviving plants were rocket and mizuna which actually thrived.
I netted a small area away and that was more successful.
I have about 10 grape vines which are alive but not thriving at present.
I have a lovely herb garden with thyme,oregano,curry plant,rosemary ,sage,parsley, some stevia which dies back and comes up the next year and comfrey which struggles.

It's 27th March 2010 and I've planted seeds of spinach,cauliflower,parsley and mizuna(red).
The mizuna are my seeds that I collected and there are a lot. I have a few rocket that are self seeded in the garden too.
There is lemon balm everywhere at present and it is a problem although it smells beautiful. Yesterday I moved some of my worms up the back to start worm farms under carpet. . This is to improve the ground not to harvest worm tea. The ground isn't so great up there so it's a bit of an experiment.
That's enough for today - time to garden.