Upload Monday 21st June 2010

Yesterday we traveled out into the countryside to visit the property of a colleague who is growing Jujube/Chinese Date trees. There are not many growers of these trees yet in Australia, but they are described as being perfect for our conditions. We had a lovely time learning about the trees and also got lots of tips on pruning deciduous trees and had a very relaxing walk around the property. Above is a picture of fungus nestled in the fallen leaves in the bushland area.

 

The Pomegranate Tree has also now been planted, and soon we will plant the Jujube and Persimmon Trees that we bought yesterday. These tress will be grown in quite a small space, hopefully will provide fruit and summer shade, but will be kept compact so that they stay manageable.

We are now also extending the front No Dig garden and using sand from the tree holes and recycled pavers, there will be a central path to make access easier. You can see the Perpetual Spinach, Dwarf Kale, Japanese Turnips, Carrots and Capsicums to the right. In the back ground are the Pineapple Fejoas, and a very small Almond tree,  which one day will be a hedge.

In the front of this garden you can also see the volunteer Rocket plants, we love volunteers.

Update

Another lovely day in the garden, we have the tank set up now so I am using that to water the plants.
I have moved some very tough plants down the side, and they seem to be surviving, fingers crossed.

As well we have planted the Mango Tree aswe were able to pull down some of the old pool fence as a new one has been put in.

The seedlings in the front garden appear to be going well with plenty of Perpetual Spinach, Dwarf Kale and Turnips coming up, hopefully the carrots will succeed too.We have put some Wormwood cutting in the trenches to deter pests.

 And finally we have planted a hanging bag of Strawberries and herbs, so it will be interesting to see how well this works, these are all plants propagated from the garden.

Planting Fruit Trees and Tidying Up

We have decided that it would be better to plant some of the fruit trees that we have in pots. That way they will produce more food, some shade and habitat. Deciding what could go out on the nature strip took a while, it is a tough position, so we finally settled on The Loquat and Fig Trees to start with. Using compost that we had made the, old pavers for edges digging began.

It looks so easy when it is all done, but it was a huge job as the grass is so thick, Andy was terrific doing it! He also scattered some of the Everlasting Daisy seeds around the bottom, so hopefully they will come up.

The other job that needed doing was the No Dig Garden out the front, so we pulled out all the old plants and lots of weeds and added compost, manure and worm castings. The we planted carrot seeds, Japanese Turnip seeds, Perpetual Spinach seeds and Dwarf Kale seeds. As well i transplanted some Spinach, Strawberries and a Marogold from the old wheelbarrow garden, it was time for that to go.

As you can see we have some fruit on one of the Pineapple Guavas, and the Pineapple Top under Mat's window is still hanging in!