Grazing the garden

Discussion in 'General chat' started by Terra, Jun 19, 2012.

  1. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    mmmmmmmmmmm strawberries
    Im eating the odd strawberry, waiting for the runners to grow and be planted out,the dream is to eventually gorge on strawberries in a few years time.
     
  2. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    The Fruit season is just starting here , a few beaut apricots of the early tree the next tree is about a week away . Picking and bottling almost ripe peaches as the B#%XX Bees have decided they want them as well , i have put a tray of sugar water out for them hope it helps , otherwise i guess they will hammer everything as it ripens , anyone have any suggestions other than the obvious .

    I have to wipe out hives from time to time we get too many and they take the tree hollows that the birds need . Thinking all the canola grown these days creates a feeding / breeding bonanza in the spring .

    The last decent rain we had was in the first week of september i have a buried bathtub for a frog pond and the bees are at the water all the time so i guess they are desperate.
    Rob
     
  3. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Our strawberries are doing fantastic this year! We only have a small patch but we are getting the equivalent of about two to three punnets every third day! Yesterday we made some jam. Today I made a rhubarb relish which is divine. Our rhubarb is the green stem variety which can look not as appetising as the normal one but tastes just as good.
    Also being harvested now are potatoes, lots of brown and red onions. The garlic has all been harvested and I am really pleased with it. The stuff in the supermarket is usually so old it is rubbery. Yuk! First zucchini picked yesterday, tomatoes not yet ripe. The indefatigable kale is still going and I continually find new uses for it.
    I fantasise about the day we will get fruit off our trees! Between the frosts, the hot north winds and 40+temps, the plagues of brown beetles and lack of rain it will be a minor miracle. Of course the quinces sail through all of that!
    Terra the bees are also constantly at our little ponds in the vegie garden as we have only had half an inch in the last couple of months so its pretty dry here too.
     
  4. No idea

    No idea Junior Member

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    Terra try spraying the trees with vinegar mixed with water, apparently the bees don,t like the smell and will stick to the sugar water you put out. This is what my next door neighbour does and she reckons it works great.
     
  5. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Thanks for the vinegar tip will try it for sure we have another apricot a peach a nectarine and two plums to ripen soon in the same area so no doubt the bees will move onto them .

    Our strawberries were good again this year but have pretty well finished flowering and are going mad on sending out runners

    Mouse can you share your recipe for Rhubarb Relish would like to try that , we have heaps at the moment (must make more Rhubarb Wine )

    Have lots of Tomatoes mostly from the Aquaponic setup (growbeds in a hothouse ) picking a few from the garden its unusual for us to get any tomatoes before Xmas so im pleased with the effort required to set up a hothouse should have done it years ago tried varied temporary setups with disapointing results .

    Picking Tomatoes , Corn , Butterbeans , bochoy , onions , garlic , chives (garlic) , cucumbers
     
  6. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Rain Wonderful Rain nearly an inch in the old scale (showin my age ) last decent rain was first week of september last year . Picking beaut Apples now , not going to have much of a mandarin crop , tree got a bit dry when i was busy and its dropped most of its crop . Aquaponic system is still cranking out Tomatoes and Celery faster than we can eat them , grapes and plums were terrific but finished now . Have a couple of Corn left not sure about corn needs a mountain of water here to grow it .
     
  7. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    we are just coming to bumper season in first veg gardens of new block, tomatoes like fleas and still coming, bok choi, lettuce, beans and more beans, silverbeet like we couldn't believe shared oodles with family and friends. first crops of brassicas in and wow oodles of these little grey months laying gazillions of eggs, have to mossy net next season. asparagus for teh first time large and healthy 1st year plants have sampled a couple pencil sized shoots taste great. citrus mango qld nut trees all new plantings but looking good, got custard apple, nectarine, citrus and black sapote seedlings in if nothing else shade for chooks and poor quality fruit for them as well. melons all failed but we are getting 9 japs when it looked like they could fail through teh dry from july to end of january but hade well over 1 meter of rain now.

    keep up the good work, chook house work in progress all depends on the readies.

    len
     
  8. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Sounds fantastic len!

    Despite our woes with heatwaves, beetle plagues, no rain forever (endless bore water though) and frosts we have had good eating out of the garden. Pumpkins went wild and although they frost nuked now we have good ironbark, the pepita ones, jarrahdales, golden nuggets and a couple others I forgot that need an axe to cut them. :D SO also won 5th prize for the local giant pumpkin competition. My pick: ironbark - not prolific but great eating.
    We also have the right soil here for terrific carrots and beetroot. The squash were great - lots of soup made and frozen. Warrigal spinach is established but haven't used it yet. The zucchini fritters with our own zukes and garlic and spring onions were my favourite summer supper with home made greek style yoghurt and our own diced cucumbers.
    Eggplants were delicious but not large numbers, were slow to get going. The Aztec corn was fun, got to 2m high, not prolific. It is a bit starchy but ok in fritters or could dry and grind. The quinoa experiment is still ongoing. It almost matured but didn't. lol. Still alive after heat and frost will let it stay there and see what happens.
    Kale - my new favourite - it just keeps on giving. Almost trees now! Chillies terrific for a short time - frost got them. Heat got the capsicum before we got any despite shading it.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Love your corn! It's too pretty to eat!
     
  10. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    like your red corn, we have that as well nice eating got some volunteers at the moment nice big ears, almost no grub damage on 1st planting hopefully none now as it gets cooler, we are in teh process of topping up between seasons and the one corn plant we piled dirt aup around 8"s and then 4"s of mulch on top it was last plant up and the cob, but it has huge cob on it ahead of the others. i tend to pick corn fairly young and eat at at point of pick, got heaps of seeds saved for next season.

    good stuff this is what it's all about, producing food.

    i only have green thumb for jap's love 'em picked absolutely vine ripened, never had luck with melons but will try again next year after than just stick to what grows easiest.

    len
     
  11. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Possums ate all the mandarins. Great crop of lemons. Passionfruits just ripening and very tasty. Limes very tardy. Just waiting to harvest what I hope will be a big crop of golden and purple sweet potatoes. Normal potatoes-epic fail. Lost all bananas in the rains. Macadamia didn't fruit, it got flowers but they frizzled and did nothing. Loquat tree fruited but the bats got all the fruit.
     
  12. aneurine

    aneurine Junior Member

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    Hm loquats. I have about 45 loquat trees in pots about 1 1/2 yo and not many other fruit trees - conundrum - plant them and start off our food forest, grow them on larger in pots, give them away, stealth plant some around the shire, try to sell some? I can't imagine wanting to eat that many loquats. Plant them and get into the loquat jam business when they start fruiting? Maybe they'd be preferentially eaten by bats/birds and other fruit would be left alone?? I also raised 21 silver wattle from seed my sister gave me about 5 years ago on a birthday - would they make a good pollard tree for mulch/nitrogen in the forest?
     
  13. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    I don't think anyone needs 45 loquat trees unless you are 1. planning on feeding all the local birds or 2. starting a loquat farm! Can you swap them for other fruit trees? I like the stealth planting idea though.

    Is this the silver wattle that you have? Looks like it would be perfect for the job from the description given.
     
  14. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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  15. aneurine

    aneurine Junior Member

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    I like your thinking eco & grasshopper! Loquat liqueur. Yum. It has the same compound in it as bitter almonds. Toxic or cure-for-cancer B17 amygdalin, so makes sense it could be used for liqueur. I actually found a book once that used loquat seeds to infuse loquat jam as it was being made - giving it that amarettoish flavour. Or maybe it was for the B17/amygdalin.

    Yes eco that is the silver wattle, thanks for the link it's exactly what I needed. :)
     
  16. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Reminds me time to make another batch of rhubarb wine , have masses at the moment . Picking Mandarins , Apples , still a few tomatoes trying to ripen have a ton of celery im going to chop and dry some for soups .
     
  17. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Gender:
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    Occupation:
    Primary Producer
    Location:
    Curramore, Blackall Range, S E Queensland, Aust.
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    Sub-tropical to temperate 2000mm rain, elevated 350-475m
    Loquats ripe here at the moment, pecans turning brown and opening, macadamias dropping first nuts, blasted cockatoos are cackling and circling already, monsteras ready to pick, wurtz and hass avos ripening a week after picking, navel oranges sweetening up and orange skinned, Hickson mandarins nearly ready, emporers a week or so off, lemons and grapefruit changing colour, guavas en mass, chokos by the bucket being fed mainly to the pigs, no pumpkins this year due to a heavy, prolonged wet season. Rhubarb ready in a week or so, rosellas have no leaves left and fruits ready to pick for jam and teas, gingers and turmeric ready to lift, sweet potatoes full and crunchy, peanuts and potatoes wiped by the wet, tamarillos and pepinos ripening and ready to eat, dried chillies in jars all over the place. Tried the first of the new season apple cider today, not bad, but a bit frothy and not very sweet. Last lady finger banana bunches ripening, pulled cassava roots and cooked some in foil in a fire, a bit dry and floury needs butter or something. Arrowroot ready to dig and process, taro still too small, some jeruselem artichoke dug, not sure how to cook best yet or to cook at all. Snake beans finishing harvest, left a few for next seasons seed. When are yam beans supposed to make a yam? The vines are everywhere! First fire lit in the heater today, cooked a beef and hearty vege stew on it all day with lots of garlic, red wine and mulberry jam. Winter is near.
     
  18. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Well the possums missed some mandarins and I just ate one of the sweetest juciest full mandas ever! Lemons buckling under the crop on its branches. Sweet potatoes, well none. I'm thinking since I put in a lot of wood chip mulch in there it might have been too high in nitrogen.

    Tip don't use sweet potatoes runners as mulch or green manure. I tore up the bed and put in some straw mulch and compost and planted brassicas and lettuce. Well sweet potatoe vine coming up everywhere. Doh! Had to get in there and dig it all out.

    Passionfruit, nice, slow ripening but not many. Do you cut off tendrils and just leave one long vine? Mine is like an octopus, going in all directions.
     
  19. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Mine is 1 year old, and ALL of them went to flower. They did not even get red yet this year, just flowered massively.
     
  20. Three Happy Aussies

    Three Happy Aussies Junior Member

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    Loquat's as grog.... now this we didn't know... not that we are drinkers but we have plenty of friends who are an about a million of them on the tree behind our bedroom window. They seem to have been ripe and on the tree for ages and none of them are hitting the deck yet.... so following the link left by Grasshopper we might give it a go :D
     

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