Strawberries, quite big ones this year!
Allotment tales 2009
Love in the mist in the Strawberry patch..
Sue - sorry to hear about all your damages and flooding around you. Your lounge looks very inviting. I like your iron shoe rack.
Terri - your lottie looks nice and neat. Could that reddish flower be a schizostylis (aka crimson flag, Kafir lily). Does it tend to spread alot and blooms in late fall too? if it does, then that is probably it. I planted some and have been pulling them out for the last five years - I should put my mother on that task LoL
Potatoes, Onions, Cabbages,Cauliflowers,Sweetcorn, Courgettes and Runner Beans at the back.
Hi Dianne,
Oh yes it is! Thanks for the ID. I remember I bought a little pot at the flower club, it didn't flower last year.
Cabbages and Cauliflowers in their new home!
View from the Beans end! with lettuce in the tunnel on the right.
The den is coming along, made a new bed and planted some Sweet peas, Straw flowers and Amaranthus.
Hope they survive the slugs!!
A freshly planted vegetable garden is such a neat thing. Everything is laid out perfectly, Terri.
Thank you Dianne, I am pleased with how neat it looks, it's taken 3 years to be this tidy. LoL!
I will be clearing the compost bins away next to make room for the Sunflower patch, at the weekend hopefully.
How are your tomatoes doing? I haven't put mine out yet, they are still tiny!!
Well w/o reading any posts I showed this to STeve as it is the prettiest veggie garden ever. I can't believe how great it looks. Must be true the third time is the charm and then I read the posts and find out you are amazed as well. Terri, you should be so proud what a great looking plot!!!
Wow, Terri! Its looking great. I can certainly see the effort you have put in. I don't think I'll bother with mine this year, I'll just drop in and see yours instead! Whens the lottie competition? I love your Kaffir Lily, and over here in Aussie, thats what we call the Clivia. I've not seen schizostylis before. Your sweet pea tee pee is going to look so cute! I can't wait!
Hi Candee and Dianne, all is well here and Bill and I are going to tackle the yard this weekend. I have to clean some gutters and trim some garden edges, and Bill will mow all the leaves up afterwards. The ground has dried out a bit and we now have a southerly wind, which is Cold. Bill lit the fire tonight and its very warm in here! Whew!
Sue
Ooo Thank you Candee!
I've had some nice comments from the other plot holders this year too.
I just hope everything grows and we get some food!!!! lol.
Oh Hi Sue!! Sounds cosy by the fire, enjoy! I'm so glad it almost summer here though.
Thanks and glad you like what I've done so far. Lottie comp is in July, but there are loads better than mine mate!!
Will go for a wander along the plots and take some pics soon.
Please bother with yours, love seeing your plants!
Hey Sue, we just turned off the fireplace and here you are just beginning. We use ours outside this time of year as we still have somewhat cool evenings occasionally. We had an outside fire every evening last weekend, I just love the flames and the ambiance of a wood fire.
Hope you post your plot as well, I know what you mean she puts me to shame as well - our veggie garden looks well like a veggie garden not too grand.
Terri I am sure you are right up there with the ones you claim are "loads better" - I tell you yours looks mighty fine from here!
Well, Bill and I did the lawns today. It didn't take all that long as the grass has slowed down ALOT!
The vege patch is not looking well at all, so I took a pic of the lawn between the shed and house. Lily is the blur in front and Leo has got the ball. The bonfire is to be lit on June 13, for my birthday the following week. We'll just ask a few friends over and probably sit around the fire and talk and drink. Weather permitting of course.
I might get some mulching done tomorrow, up in the brom garden
Oh Sue that is such a lovely photo. I take it that is the bonfire way in the back? Birthday, glad you reminded me, I am such a dunce at remembering them.
What a neat yard you got there Sue. Is having a bonfire a traditional way to celebrate birthdays in Australia? Sounds like fun!
Candee - my veggie garden is not very grand either (though I am sure yours is better than mine). I only allocated two small plots for them.
Terri - the tomatoes that I got into the ground early are about a foot tall now. The location is not the best spot because it doesn't get enough sun, but, with the way the house is, we don't have any areas with all day sun.
Hi Candee and Dianne. My birthday just happens to fall in winter, and the fire bans are off now, so an ideal time to burn off the waste branches. We have had such alot of rain in the last two months. Hopefully it will ease up soon. We usually have dry winters and wet late summer. The yard is looking neat, because the weeds and lawn have slowed their growth considerably. A blow and a mow is the easiest way to clean it up. (the blow being with a petrol leaf blower)
My poor veges are not doing well at all. Some cabbage caterpillars have been having a munch, so i squashed them, and the ground is so wet. I know veges like alot of water, but mine need to grow water wings!
Sue
lol - i know what you mean, although we aren't getting as much wet as you in OZ.
Today the sun was singing the birds were shining...
we went to the park & it was good:)
Dianne, we are having the same problem with the sun. We have so barricaded ourselves in here that the veggie garden only gets partial sun and we think that was part of our tomato problem last year so this year I stuck a couple in the full sun garden, we shall see.
Sue now be sure to post that bonfire. We just love to sit around the firepit, remember up at the cabin when we stayed up almost all night LOL singing songs and drinkin wine around the fire? Sorry the pests are eating your veggies, we put netting over ours - do you do the same?
dalfyre, nice you had a walk in the park and the sunshine, hope it keeps up for you. We have had more rain than usual here but must admit everything is green green and luscious and sure we will be dried up and wishin for more come July and August.
Too true Candee, re the 'green and lush' part. It is the same here. I netted my veges the first year, when I had a very tidy square patch, but now its a bit haphazard, and things self seed, so I'm never sure where to net exactly. The idea is that if we plant brocolli, cabbage and cauli's in April, the cabbage butterflies aren't active anymore, but because of the warm, wet conditions, they are still fluttering around making babies!
I will have to net the fig this year, as one or two got eaten by birds, and once they know where theres a source of food, they'll be back! I would really like to start again, with a raised bed just outside the lounge window. I'll take a pic and show you why, but hubby probably won't be in it! He likes to park things there at times. See, its nice and flat and sunny!
Yes, I remember the fire pit at the cabin. What a blast that was. I've never laughed so hard! The pictures were great!
Teresa, did you take the 'mations on your walk? Of course you did! I'm glad you had a break in the weather. We do actually get some sunshine too, its just patchy and you never can be sure what to wear.
Oh Sue what a view! I think those birds have a bigger birdbrain than I give them credit sometimes. Finding and returning to your figs that is despicable! How dare they intrude in your paradise?
Oh I know! he he/ Terri is away at present, did you know?
Yep the walk to the park we had two dogs, my two nephews & my sister...
I think it was the best day of their trip weather wise & of course the day they had to fly back home.
Since then we have had two snow warnings that have come to nothing - not even rain.
Roses are still blooming, will need a trim soon.
I don't want to prune too early, got caught last winter by bad advice in the paper.
After they said time to prune roses they ran another article saying we should wait another few weeks!
Good thing roses are forgiving.
I was drooling over online rose catalogues, I have decided I need some more named varieties...
I will dig out the noids that have no fragrance & replace them with carefully selected plants.
All I have to do now is choose two or three - from the dozens that I covet!
I am adding a huge walled rose garden to my list of 'must have when I win big on lotto' things.
Hope we haven't missed your Birthday Sue? I thought it was around the 15th?
Looks like a great spot for veggies there, just kick the bikes out the way and get planting. LoL!
Did you get the mulching done in Brom Palace? would love to see it !
Dianne, your tomatoes look great! much bigger than mine. Things grow much slower over here in our cold and wet!!
Your plans for a walled Rose garden sound terrific dalfyre!
How are your veggies doing Candee?
Haven't been to the lottie for over a week, so no pictures to update today!
terri - it's a case of dreams being free...
I would love to build a house & garden from scratch & fill it with the plants I love instead of inheriting old overgrown gardens full of the wrong things in the worst places.
Thank goodness for round up & helpful men with chainsaws.
:)
Teresa, Mmmmmm......men with chainsaws!
.
Birthday is the 16th so a few days to go yet. Its Jesse' 22nd tomorrow. Seems like only 22 years ago! he he.
Yes tez, mulching mostly done. I will take some pics if I manage to get home before the sun sets behind the trees. I've put the painting away for a couple of weeks as we have some visitors coming (my birthday) and I can't have paint and rollers and drop sheets spread all over the house. Its looking ok at present anyway, and the painting bug is almost over!
I just recieved two bromeliads in the post, one from Mum and the other from jess. Well, Jess and I decided to buy our own presents instead of making Australia post rich. Shes going to buy herself some skinny-leg jeans and go out for coffee, and I got my brom and will go out for coffee & CAKE! Mum had me looking on an internet auction site, so I picked a plant and then picked another from the same seller to be my pressie from Jess. They arrived today! I wonder what i can get myself from Bill, that would take all his stress away if i bought my own! I'd be happy to actually!
Anyway, looking forward to seeing how the lottie is shaping up into summer, but I guess you'll have to catch up with it again!
gotto go shower, cook and clean
Sue
I know what you mean teresa, I use round up here quite a bit and at the cabin as well. Don't have to worry too much about the flower gardens, but the rock beds still get quite a bit of weeds. I wish Steve was physically able to do the chain saw thing, but he is not supposed to use one because of the vibration so although we have a tree down must wait until Mike our SIL comes up to visit at the cabin again.
Sue sounds like your birthday is a grand success already before it gets here. Company coming, new plants and Jesse enjoying the same!
Terri I took a pic of our veggie garden, it is doing okay although the bugs are already eating the cauliflower and broccoli plants and they have remained covered? Great plan not working LOL.
Some taters and carrots
Phew! thought we hadn't missed your Birthday Sue! It's elle's soon too, if I remember correctly.
Happy Birthday Jessie! well done Sue for being a great Mum all these years!
Good you are still managing a shower at your age LOL!
Candee, they won't eat much! Your potatoes are looking good, have you earthed them up yet?
dalfyre,we are not allowed to use weed killers or sprays at the lottie. I have to do all the weeding by hand, very regularly. No machines or hoses either!!
The sky is crying again today, at least the lottie is getting watered, it's hard work with the watering cans!
What do you mean earth them up? We bury them deep and then just let them go. We have done that with potatoes in a barrel but no need when they have been planted deeply.
I guess they could eat a lot considering how much broccoli and cauli we planted LOL!
I planted my potatoes just covering them, then when they were about 9" tall I 'earthed up'. bringing the soil up covering the stems and just leaving the top leaves.. I've noticed around the lottie everyone does it differently. As long as we both get yummy spuds to eat, thats all that matters.
Keith bought Nemetodes or something weird, you put the powder in the water, they will live in the soil and they eat all the slugs and snails, after six weeks they eat each other. They leave your veggies alone while all this is going on underground! We shall see if it works, not sure I like the idea, but he's already done it!!
Sue - we have quite a bit in common. My son, Aaron, just turned 22 on June 8th, 3 days before your Jesse. I have a daughter named Jessica, whom we call Jessie sometimes too. My birthday is about three weeks after you.
I think I have some volunteer potatoes from the composting that I do - but the snails munched on all the leaves.
Terri - You have to hand water your whole lottie with watering cans???? no hoses??? I hope you don't have dry summers like we do. LoL.
Candee, is your sister in laws name Mike? he he, No I get it, Son in law. Your garden is looking good, and I sympathise as my brocolli and cauli are being ravaged by grubs also.
Like Dianne, I have volunteer potato's which I'll dig up for a free feed. I get lots of volunteers from the compost, which is great, as they are all the things we like to eat.
Terri, how bizarre with the nematodes! I know their are good and bad ones, some eat roots, and thats the reason marigolds are supposed to be planted with your veges. I can't remember if they repel them, or attract them away from the vegies. If they eat slugs and snails, power to the nematodes! I think organic gardening, while being alot of hard work, is a great way to go! I don't know how I'd weed the driveway without round-up though. I hand weeded it three times this year because it was too wet to poison. I hope I never have to do it again.
Dianne, how bizarre about our kids and birthdays! Are you still young enough to get in the shower? he he.
We had our first really cold morning this morning. i don't know the temps because the thermometer is broken, but it felt severe, because it went from warm days and nights to cold in a week! I HATE it! So I'm getting around in layers of clothing, which I have peeled down to shirt by 10am, as the days have been lovely and sunny this week! Finally, it looks as though the rains are passed!
Well, this being my first stop, I'm off to the Aussie forum for a look.
See you's
Sue
thought I'd better put my flower arrangement on. Red hot pokers (again) Golden Penda (xanthostemon chrysanthe, a native) and some heliconia and variegated ginger leaves.
and a close up
Very nice Sue. I planted some giant red hot pokers this season and hope to get some flowers from the. I checked yesterday and dang I still don't have hardly any zinnias coming up in my beds. I musta planted 10,000 seeds on 4 different occasions and hardly see anything at all. They are one of my favorites and I have never had a problem with them in the past, don't know what is wrong?
I am sorry you are getting into the big chill down your way, believe it was just the other day I was complaining of the cold weather.
Nemetodes, will have to go investigate them.
Whoo hoo! Fabuloso! Thanks Sue, so pleased you are still making arrangements for us.
Great textures you have there, lovin the fluffy Penda! My red hot pokers have had it and I'm fed up!
Doubt I will ever have beautiful ones like yours to use in arrangements.
I think maybe they should go in the lottie, they might do better?
Your visitors will enjoy the new paint job and fresh flowers, have a lovely time!
No hoses Dianne, sorry did I forget to mention lottie ladies have watering duties? and when the time comes you help out!!!! lol.
Oh Dear Terri! It looks as though your pokers have been attacked by snails! They always flower here in early winter, but yours must flower more in spring? maybe the lottie is the place for them. They grow rapidly here, forming large clumps in no time. The flowers are quite short lived on the plant, but if cut, they last a week with no special treatment. Outside, the bird swing on them and the wind knocks them over, so might aswell cut them!
Candee, re your Zinnias, I have problems with ants carrying off seeds of potulaca and poppies. Could this be your problem? Yes, winter is not my favourite time of year, but at least it is sunny now, and everything is winding down, allowing me to rest a bit.
Sue