Latest Garden News



My vegetable garden at the start of winter. From left to right: peas about to climb their trellis, in front of the peas are lettuce, to the right and behind the peas is a big basil bush, snow peas climbing their own trellis, a row of young radish, clumps of carrot, two rows of chinese cabbage, two rows of broad beans. To the right of the broad beans are small pots of cabbage and a long pot of strawberries. The whole area is mulched with suger cane mulch.



Close up of carrots, chinese cabbage, broad beans. The white squares are offcuts from a kitchen cabinet someone was building in the neighbourhood. I happened to be driving by and scrounged them immediately. They serve as somewhere to stand when watering and weeding. Pretty handy.



My snow peas are cropping well. Every morning I pick a big handful to add to my lunch the same day.
Fresh and sweet, and totally organic.

Hope you like my pics. Click on any of them for a larger view.



Some people don't deserve to drive



I saw this pic on the internet. The note was left on the car.
You may have trouble seeing it. It reads:

"In this super-packed parking lot, I applaud your ability to find not only one spot, but four.
You, sir, are envied by all douchebag parkers." 

Some people don't deserve to live drive.



Sydney Royal Easter Show



Last week we visited Sydney for a couple of days, to shop, visit the Royal Easter Show and just get away from home for a while.  The pic of the Opera House above was taken from the Contemporary Art Museum.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance.



The entry gates to the Show. As you can see, the show is massive. And very popular. These kinds of shows feature fairground rides, arts and crafts and community events. But mainly these shows feature Rural and Regional competitions across all categories - farm animals, domestic animals, fruit and vegetable produce.
A way for the city and country to mix. It's all very interesting.



We travelled home via the local train which I have christened ProleRail. The level of comfort and luxury can be be seen in one of the exclusive rail booths above. All hail ProleRail!



Aussie Bugs

Last week I was at work outside, supervising students at Sport. I was talking to some kids when I felt a pain on my leg. I swatted at something attached to my leg, and the bug above fell off. I took it inside, took a photo, used a pencil for scale.
Check it out! Check out the mouth parts on this little bastard! Zoom in.

My leg after the bug was removed.
Yes, the red bit... that's blood. MY blood.
If you live in Australia you have to be prepared to get bit! 

Vegetable Garden Update

An overview of the main vegetable patch. In the foreground is a lone basil plant - a leftover from the tomato cull a couple of weeks ago. Behind the basil are three rows of carrot, covered in moistened pea straw mulch (it's important to keep carrot seeds moist during germination).  Behind the carrots are two rows of snow peas. A wooden frame stretches wire over the peas. Behind the peas is waste ground. Then a number of flowering plants. At the far end of the garden is my monster pumpkin plant.

A close-up of the snow pea frame. Simple but effective.

The Revenge of the Monster Butternut Pumpkin. Ok... a couple of weeks a go I posted a pic of this plant growing around the compost bin and slowly taking over. The bin in the above photo is at the right, house brick on lid. Every couple of days I have to hack a path though the jungle to get to the bin. And of course all the while watching out for snakes.

Click on each photo for enlargements. Bye.  

Latest Post

OK, it's been a while since my last post. And I have more pics, but will post them soon. What's been happening?

Ok... the tomatoes are no more. The crop ran to a tired conclusion, so I pulled them out (all except one plant which is still fruiting - bizarre). I them removed all stakes and wire and weeded the entire area. I applied some compost, then a light sprinkling of blood and bone. In went three rows of carrot - Manchester Table variety - using carrot tape (seeds embedded in light paper strips, like tape, which makes thinning easier).

Then over the last two days I've been constructing a wooden frame to support flattened rolls of wire mesh. In went the snow peas (also known as sugar or snap peas), well mulched with rotted straw and watered with weak fish extract. I planted the peas yesterday morning, and by that evening they had already attached themselves to the mesh! Amazing.

Ok, some pics to come soon. Bye.

To all those harmless lambs out there

I read this today at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-15/saudi-heart-breakers/3830624

I don't know if this is sad or funny:

Saudi Arabia's religious police have arrested more than 140 people for celebrating Valentine's Day.
The Organisation for Promoting Virtue and Discouraging Evil says officers have punished those caught so far, and that its campaign of arrests is continuing.

In a six-page statement, the religious police said they were saving women from "deceiving men", who used the day to give the fake impression that they loved a woman while pretending to be a "harmless lamb". The religious authorities say Muslims who take part in Valentine's Day are in fact weak, lacking imagination, and far removed from the "sublime and virtuous" objectives of their religion.

The organisation has also confiscated all red roses from shops.