Got 2 more beds of garlic planted yesterday. This time I used a makeshift dibber to make deep individual holes rather than making furrows and then covering with mulch, worked quite nicely. Forgot to take a picture.
Also used up all the remaining blocks I have to edge out more of another sidewalk strip beds. Will have to get 35 more blocks tomorrow (as much weight as my van can hold) and that should complete the last one I am planning on building this year.
Is talking about livestock adventures okay here or do we want to keep this plants only?
Hereās a good article about it by the admin of one of my gardening groups:
It might be too late to get seed garlic from nurseries, not sure. I have some seed quality bulbs left if you want some. I have hardneck garlic, Music and Georgian Fire were the two varieties I planted, I no longer know which is which.
Netting bought and installed for the blueberries, but of course those effen blackbirds found ways in. This morning I pegged the netting to the sides of the pot and at lunchtime I caught one of them in there feeding on blueberries. Managed to locate the low spot where it had got in and pegged close the spot it got out. Didnāt see them in there for the rest of the day, but I did see them digging through the soil in the tops of other pots and snaffling worms. Must have some babies nearby.
Mum popped over from her house sitting gig this arvo and helped me divide and repot five Dendrobium orchids into even more pots. Now I can disseminate a white with speckled throat (Coburg community garden), white with purple throat (Latrobe Valley Orchid Show), a purple (my grandmotherās) and a pink orchid (mumās that she left with me to divide) to other people and the final orchid (brought home by Neighbour John from a gardening gig) may grow enough to flower and we can see what colour it is.
My Blue Ixia has flowered this week. Looks cool as.
I hope I can get a pic of the whole stem in bloom.
Swung past the Preston Market today, checking out the new digs for Rhubarb Rhubarb the Organic Grocer, grabbing some paella for lunch and walking away with six strawberry plants from the nursery vendor.
Was fun choosing strawberry plants based on the number of runners they had rather than the size of the plant. Picked up Tarpan and Loren, and have staked out four of the runners to generate more plants. A couple of them also had flowers, so may get a fruit or two this season.
Also have runners on the Strawberry and Pineberry, so will be staking them out as well when theyāre big enough.
Anyone have a suggestion for a sprinkler to cover about a 4m circle? Making sure everything within the circle got wet?
Canāt see me standing in the heat watering the pots in the centre of lawn (lol, what lawn?) regularly this summer when 10mins of a sprinkler could do the job for me.
One of the sprinklers that shoot up in a fan-like shape and then oscillate slowly back and forth would probably be best for a small circle like that. The fancier ones come with limit stops to control how much back and forth it does, then you can tweak it further with adjusting how much water pressure is going through the hose.
Went with the Pope Click & Go metal base and the rainhead sprinkler as it has small droplets. Took a couple of minor adjustments out of the box to get the best spray angle, range, flow rate and the front yard pots were watered in 15 minutes on the timer tap. Saved me a good chunk of time and cost less than $50, so payback on the purchase (if I cared about that sort of thing) will be just a couple of days.
I started removing morning glory and the other plants from our carport garden bed. Itās fairly well covered and shadey, Iām not sure if I should use it for compost, bins and garden stuff storage or if I should try for a shade garden? Depends on how much space I want in the carport itself, I suppose. The whole thing is currently a wind tunnel anyway.
It was too wet to do much when I got home from work, but I did plant three passionfruit seeds into tiny pots to see if theyāll sprout this time - Iām not having much luck with passionfruit, despite following advice to soak seeds beforehand.
Ewok sprinkled some Malabar spinach seeds around the garden a week or two ago and I figured there was no chance it would grow. Itās growing, alright!! We may need to add more to the same section of garden for a more deliberate effect.
We have over 60 bushes with about 22 varieties. Sizes vary from 5ft tall Blue Rose to 20cm tall Jelly bean. I can double check and do a proper count and variety list for you tomorrow when the sunās up.
Generally we have three bushes of each type, but I have a couple of extra here and there of some types and some I have only one bush of.
The way the fruit ripens on the bush (i.e. not all fruit at once), we find that three bushes of one type, ripening at the same time across the three bushes gives a good grazing of blueberries on a daily basis.
As you may have seen on the gram we picked 3 cups of blueberries today, which was six days since the last pick. I froze some of the last lot for cooking/winter use, but this time we shared between the kids and the neighbours.
Also some of my bushes have really struggled with their location in the garden. I lost a couple of bushes last year due to too much sun and heat and some others are getting reflected heat off a brick wall and not liking it. If I could, Iād move pots around to fix those issues, and it may be something I look at doing soon.