Made time yesterday arvo to sort out my back area between us and the neighbours. It’s the 1m narrow, dark, south facing part of the place where I have plonked our berry canes.
The Marionberry, Boysenberry, Silvanberry, Tayberry, Loganberry and the Yarra Valley Gold Raspberries were up potted to bigger self watering pots. The smaller Golden Raspberries were potted up into pots the Yarra Gold’s vacated.
Just need to sort out the wire situation against the dividing fence to hold back the canes and have them pole up to where the sun shines.
The Thornless Blackberries and remaining red and yellow raspberries that were already in big pots were lined up against the fence. Everything is now off to one side and I can sort of make my way along the area without getting too hooked up on thorns from the canes that have them.
I have a couple of Coho and Chinook raspberry canes I picked up that need planting out too. Unfortunately I ran out of cow manure to mix into the potting mix to get them sorted this weekend. Job for during the week.
My landlord said the roofers are coming early to, I dunno, I guess set up and also do something to the gutters? So he said I had to move my plants this weekend. With help from Boyfriend for the heaviest pots, I hauled Every Single Goddamned Tomato Plant up onto the first floor deck (where no one lives right now and where at least they will get some sun).
The raspberry bushes were a huge PITA, I had to undo them from their DIY trellises and supports and then haul them, huge vines and all, under the deck as they’re too heavy to lift. Some of those vines have to be at least 10-12 feet long. What a mess. I hate that they have to live without direct sun for a week but there’s nowhere else to put them out of the line of fire of flung debris. Raspberries are hard to kill, right? I hope so because they are covered in unripe berries and if they all die because of this stupid roof thing I will be Angry.
Xpost from journal:
I just potted up 5 blueberry plants. 2 sunshine blue, 1 Burst, 1 Kisses, and yesterday at Bunnings I was thrilled to find the fancy new varieties in store, so I got a Peach Sorbet too. I’m pretty damn excited because I’ve finally worked out where they like to live (south facing walls) and we are going to eat so many fresh blueberries this year. Also I may buy another Peach Sorbet because they are so low chill, and only $18! Meanwhile I dropped >$30 on each of the Burst and Kisses.
Not xpost:
We’re putting in a “fairy garden” again this winter. Pansies and sweet peas did well last year, so that’s what’s going on again. I also have a bamboo teepee down the end for the Gnome that Duckling wants to buy (thanks Hammerbarn episode of Bluey). I’m going to start mixing organic matter through the soil and I’ll put in some succulents too. It’s a fairly dry patch so it will eventually be succulents and some natives for the local fauna.
This area was overtaken by faux onion grass last year and we had someone in to spray it. They did a great job and after another season or two it should be gone.
We liberated these peas from a park. They were all smushed and floppy. Now they’re perky and FLOWERING! Can you call it flowering if it’s just one flower?
I harvested a tiny bit of spinach, bok choy, romaine, and the mystery lettuce for dinner. I supplemented with grocery store lettuce, but I was happy to get half the greens from the yard!
I do wish the mystery lettuce were a different variety. It’s a little slimy and unsubstantial. Like a leafy Jeremy Piven.
Tbf that’s the point of home veggie gardening, isn’t it? It’s rarely truly cost effective. It’s about deliciousness and the satisfaction of eating your own pampered, carefully raised veggie babies.
So I’m a very inexperienced gardener, this is my first year growing anything and I have some zucchini questions.
Possibly pertinent info: I’m container gardening on a small balcony that gets tons of sun. My zucchini plants are massive! It looks like the plants are both successfully pollinating themselves (? this probably isn’t the right way you say that) anyway, what I mean is zucchini are growing without me doing much, so that’s good!
Each of my two zucchini plants has one pretty developed zucchini growing and then several smaller ones. Both larger zucchinis still have the flowers attached. On the small zucchinis the flowers have fallen off and some of them seem to not be getting bigger. Their texture is also different on the outside, a little…wrinkly almost? They just don’t look the same. Are these little ones just not pollinated? Has the plant aborted them to provide more for the big zucchini? Do I cut them off or leave them on? Can I eat them? Am I doing something wrong that this is occurring?
Just…basically tell me what to do. Many thanks!
ETA: I did cut some off just to get a closer look, there are so many!!!
I am not an expert on flower texture etc, but my understanding is that zucchinis have both male and female flowers. The female flowers become fruits, and the male flowers you just eat. (ETA: So my assumption would be that those flowers are the male flowers.)
Yes! So I can identify the male vs. female flowers. These are definitely from female flowers, and it’s like they start to grow into zucchini and then stop for some reason. One even started to get soft and almost rotten?
ETA: Sorry, I’m on a ton of meds right now. I meant the texture of the actual zucchini fruit! Not the flower.
Many thanks!
Poor little zukes tho.
