A sea of pumpkins

There must be more than 50 punpkins left in the patch - and we would have already removed 30 so far.
So, many pumpkin dishes will be on the horizon. This year has been the most successful fo far for pumpkins as i have 1) had the space 2) did not need the space for any other things 3) grew a number of varieties so i could have eaters in the summer as well as good storers. I learned last year that Jap's don't store at all.
I also learned this year that pumpkins are more vigorous than rock melons and water melons so don't grow them together as the pumpkins will smother the others. I'm getting a few belated water melons now after the pumpkin leaves have died back.

The pumpkins were planted with composted cow manure mixed in with the top soil. We had some wide spaces between rows but found during the summer that they appreciated some extra water between the rows as they put their roots down into the soil when they crawl around.

The grasshoppers seem to still be active but not eating as much. The situation with these guys is unprecedented so i don't really know if they are going to disappear over the winter or not. i have several netted rows of plants (peas, broccoli, caulis) that are more than ready to be un-nettted but i fear they will still get munched.
My carrots are coming up a treat under one of the netted rows. This is the second sowing after the first failed due to not enough water while i was away. There are a couple of plants left from that first sowing that are growing a treat.

The Broccoli is heading and we are picking plenty of leafy greens so all is good in the world.  I planted some Fennel seedlings, Kale and coriander as well as seed of more cabbages, Raddicio, lettuce and Paak Choy.

A trip out to Owen Springs on the weekend revealed the land seething with life and noise. The huge goat moth in our back yard is just adding to the soup of life out there.

goat moth just emerged from the cocoon

weeds a hoy

So after 5 weeks away i wasn't quite sure what to expect from the gerden - and i often purposely lower my expectations in preparation for disaster. However this time it was not so bad - just a lot of weeds. Such was my fervour to put it all back the right way again i didn't even stop and think to take a photo. Amaranth and love grass featured prominantly and while some things like the brocolli seedlings put up a small fight, other things growing from seed were swamped - like my coriander and fennel. The main reason for such a proliferation of weeds was the rabbit poo top dressing that i use which is not composted and so potentially full of weeds that get fed to them.

my other effort at the garden plot was much less weedy as we had used compost and everything looked quite decent.
At home the snake beans had gone to seed. Cape gooseberry had still not formed any fruit despite the flowers i saw before i left. however i did tast some cape goseberries on the beach near Lakes entrance where they grow wild.

mozambique maize

The weather as you might know continued to stay warm which means we still have grasshoppers and also means that my citrus trees are under the biggest fruit fly attack i have known. I've never seen them this bad and i think it may be due to a higher mean temperature this year and possibly made worse by the the warm autum and mild winter last year.  The ground is littered with fruit - quite heartbreaking really. Still not as heartbreaking for those who no longer have citrus trees - because of the grasshoppers they have citrus twigs and branches.

The shame about fruit fly in Alice is that we could easily get rid of them if the government was perpared to put in the resources. This involves releaseing sterile male flies. when these males mate with other females they also make them sterile. the whole process was trialled quite successfullly in eastside a couple of years ago to see if it would work - and it did of course. genetic studies also show that the fruit fly in alice was introduced from a single introduction with no other indication of subsequent reintroductions. What this means is that if they were got rid of - it is very unlikely we would get another reinvasion anytime soon.

the maize had patchy pollination but there are some half decent cobs which are still drying out.
The pigeon pea is up high and flowering, with some struggling to support some huge african horned cucumbers that were hiding in the Asparagus waiting to make their move when in was away.
Chines egreens , shallots and others grew well and probably need a top dressing of bunny poo.

pigeon pea

No baby bunnies are evident yet although i still live in hope that they are hiding out in their burrow waiting to suprise me one day . it wouldn't be the first time. Bunnies are back togeter now so i should expect another litter in a months time.

Bantam has been laying while we were away and no doubt will go broody any minute - then slowly waste away for the next 2 months or more. maybe we should get some fertile eggs this time?? That'll be a job for my clone i think.

Had some of our turkey lasy night marinated in rosemary and lemon and it was tasty but a little tough - maybe some longer stewing required? although the one we roasted whole was quite decent.

Great to be back home with our own food again!

cabbages -( the reason for the little cabbage on the right is gue to a pumpkin germinating and growing over it while i was away. i think you can just nice the pumpkin seedling in the previous blog post.)

So how are the grasshoppers now?

In the areas that were sprayed they are in much  lower numbers than they were last week. I'd say it has reduced them to less than one twentieth of the numbers last week. I can only assume that it has worked and worked well. I even planted the tomatoes under fine netting, such was my confidence.

So no more spraying this week.
A flurry of planting was in order in the home garden.
First we needed to attack  a patch of couch grass that had been getting and bigger over the summer - thanks to my dearest for that one

Planted seedlings of Broccoli, paak choi, Gossip cabbage and seeds of Fennel , Coriander, Diakon radish.
All of these seeds have been saved from plants from previous seasons.
I cleared out one clump of snake beans as they have slowed down dramatically since the weather has been below 30 degrees, and the beans have taken on a bit of a purple tinge.

A big harvest of Pumpkins today - about 30. A mixture of Jap, Butternut squash, and one called Red Curi.
There are also some Ironbark pumpkin but they need to stay on the vine until the plant dies back to improve their keeping qualities.

Other things are progressing along well.

The maize is 10 feet tall

The cape gooseberries have decied to flower but  i read that they may take 60 or more days

to form edible fruits.

The pigeon pea is growin tall but no sign of flowering.

The New Guinea bean did not thrive here ovet the summer and i suspect it is not nematode resistent. This is in contrast to a bottle gourd that i grew which was absolutely rampant.

Operation grasshopper die! die! die!

No i'm not that worked up really about grasshoppers. They are annnoying and are preventing me from planting things which would otherwise be in the ground now - and i do like to get a head start mind.
The pumpkins seem to be a bit resisitent to them and that's mainly what i have left in the garden out at the plot. however if i planted tomatoes now they would be devoured in minutes. i don't even think my 20% shadecloth will stop them.

  Still, on the weekend i mixed up my fungal spores from the green guard and sprayed mercilessly. if this stuff works i will have have killed thousands of grasshoppers - mostly tiny little wee ones. I had a bit of a depot at my house where i mixed up the solution and had various grasshopper tormented people visit and pick up their solution.

There are so many grasshoppers though in the wider landscape that i'm not sure this spraying will have a very long effect - unless the fungus starts to spread by itself amongst the "grassies" population. but i think that's being over-optomistic.
i have kept a small captive population so i can closely study what happens to them after they have been sprayed. if they do succumb to the fungi i can perhaps blend them up into a new mixture.

So as well as spraying the grasshoppersat 3 locations on the weekend i knocked off the turkeys, ate off(rotten) pate, threw up and sat on the toilet for a while,ate a turkey (with stuffing),made stock, put the male and female rabbits back together (sorry i don't name them but if they did have names they would be sno ball and meat head). The rabbits were "at it" in a matter of seconds and within a minute meat head had thrown himself onto the floor and was groaning in a breif afterglow. everythings' breif with rabbits.

We also did a bit of mucking out of the rabbits cages and re-wired some parts of their cages that rusted through. they rust because they pee in the one spot and because my cages are not state of the art accommodation - but they are roomy.

watching my seedlings go a bit leggy because the hot house is too shady but the hardening off area is busy with other things i wish would move on.

I'm also watching (killing) the remaining grasshoppers around the corn as they have a habit of chewing of the "silks" as they emerge from the female flower. The fungus spray takes 7-12 days to work i think.

My cape Goodeberries have perked up again and have not bceome victims of nematodes after all

Now that the weather has turned cool coriander is on the planting list along with peas and radishes, carrots, pasnip, beetroot, more lettuce and chinese greens too - oh and Fennel and Stocks because i have a sentimental attatchemnt to them and probably other things i have forgotten.

Sopping Sunday Seedsavers

The worst day posible for sorting seeds - raining and humid. It has been raining for 5 days now and we seem to be picking up about 30 - 50 mls each day. Today is no exception as it has rained non stop for the last 20 hours.
So although the seeds were a bit too moist to do any sorting, a small band with undampened fervour for growing things turned up with raincoats and umbrellas.

There was a small exchange of stories about the likelihood of flooding in Eastside. Luckily we had a historian who had got the story straight thanks to talking to a lot of old timers in town - Warburton street will flood before Giles street by all accounts.

After our lovely morning tea we made our way out the back yard to discuss growing seeds and the like.

rain or shine - serious about seeds!

We covered potting mixes, types of irrigation , sunlight, seed depth, thinning, hardening off areas, humidity  as the wind buffeted the trees around. I think we felt quite stoic there out in the rain. This was followed by a small garden tour to see some of the goodies growing .

 We also talked out fertliser options, compost, manure, heap as opposed to bins.

Back inside to get a few seeds - and of course more refreshments!

Recent garden successes and problems were discussed and new plants discovered - yes you can eat Luffas!

This was all acheived whie looking after 10 children so well done all.

the growing challenge

http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1537

 

I hadn't heard of this until recently but it's a great idea for people who are new to growing plants from seed. It's about growing from seed yourself and getting 3 other people to do the same. click on the link below the pic and investigate!

Next seedsavers meeting -Growing seedlings and preparing soil for the winter garden

This meeting is well timed for all who want to get serious about their winter garden this year. There is still time to prepare soil if you haven’t already done so.

For me the brassicas are the star performers over winter but there’s so much more as you would know. The Brassicas are good to get in early.

I also encourage people to bring in seed packets they have purchased from Eden seeds etc as I always find I never use all of the seeds in them - then they go out of date.

This meeting will focus on raising seeds/ seedlings and soil preparation for the winter garden, but I’m sure there will be some seed sorting on the side. This will be followed by seed swapping and people are free to take seeds from the seed collection.


When:Sunday 28th of Feb, 10am
Where: 33 clarke st, 10am