Lovely Ladybirds and Marvellous Mulberries

The temperature has soared here today, we will reach temperatures of 36 degrees for the first time, and some of the plants look very sad in the heat of the day. Not the Mulberry Tree though, and these two beautiful mulberries have been harvested and eaten on the way to the letter box.


And meanwhile, despite the heat, an army of ladybirds is working its way through the unwanted bugs on the Kale and Spinach.

Lettuce, Lizards and Ladybirds

The no dig garden out the front continues to bloom with more and more plants that we have grown from seed planted straight into the soil. We currently have three different types of lettuces and Italian Parsley growing next to each other. The mulch is the new sugar cane mulch we have just put on to retain moisture as we have a very dry climate.

This shows the other plants, Lettuces, Tomatoes, Spinach, Kale, Rocket, and Beetroot. In the background the Pineapple Fejoa hedge still has a way to go, and the Fig tree finally has new leaves on it.

One of the reasons for starting to grow our own food was to reduce the damage that we do on the environment by producing organically grown food locally. Outside your own front door is about as local as you can get! What we had not expected, but are thrilled about,  is the continual  build up of wildlife, bringing the garden to life on a whole new level. The Butterfly is heading for the Spinach, which has now gone to seed, we are hoping to start saving our own seeds this season.

We are sure that this Lizard, and the many, many frogs we have in the garden are the main reason our crops survive so well.

Other welcome guests were a whole group of ladybirds/beetles who appeared last week to clear the Kale and Spinach of unwanted bugs. They were a little camera shy but very fast workers.

And finally, the number of birds has increased dramatically, here is a 28 Parrot, one of about 12 types of birds that visits our suburban yard each day. They include Honey -eaters, Doves, Willy Wagtails and Honey eaters to name a few. It is great to see so many other creatures enjoying the garden as much as we do.

Doing our bit for Sustainable September

Our tiny Almond tree has about nine flowers on it, perhaps we will be able to double our crop of two almonds from last year!

Today we have harvested lots of Spinach and Kale, giving some away, cooking some and blanching and freezing the rest. Transplanted tiny Lettuce seedlings and planted some more seeds, including Capsicums.

We have realized that Andy had been planting some of the seeds too deep, not realizing that each plant likes to be planted at a certain depth, we live and learn.

 The Chinese Date/Jujube finally has some leaves sprouting, we have been told we will even get fruit from it this year- fingers crossed.

The Pomegranate and the Persimmon are now covered in leaves, they both have such elegant forms and leaf shapes they are lovely to look at.

The garden just outside the front door is doing well, here you can see Carrots, Coriander, Basil, Sage, Thyme and Capers. Once the Carrots are finished we plan to add more herbs that way they will be close to a door and easy to use for cooking.

36 kilos of Produce and Purple Dragon Carrots

Just a few of the items that we are growing, here you can see Purple Dragon Carrots, Tomatoes, Chives, Spinach,  Capsicums and Spring Onions. 

Could not resist taking a photo from another angle, the carrots are interesting as they are an heirloom variety with a purple skin and are orange on the inside.

Chinese Date

This is the tiny Jujube Tree that I mentioned in the last post, we have been told that it will produce fruit next year, which would be fabulous!

The white posts are so that no one walks into it as it is so small. It also has lots of large thorns but these will disappear altogether after a couple ofyears.

 It has been planted in the front lawn and will hopefully at some point in the future provide shade on the front porch which gets very hot in summer. as it is deciduous it will not block the winter sun which we need to warm the house up. and as it is happy to be pruned we can keep it to a manageable size.

The pot has some Rosemary cuttings in it which are doing well and in the background you can see the Nasturtiums, Kale and Perpetual Spinach. All of which are doing very well.

Update 27th May 2010

We have now mulched the garden beds and i have added a Mexican Tarragon to the new herb garden at the front door.

The No Dig garden  at the front is progressing very well, the large leaves are Japanese Turnips -Hakurei, we had not realized until we harvested one today that the leaves and the root are edible, making it a very useful plant. The leaves taste like Cos Lettuce and can be used in salads or cooked in stir frys etc( which we did tonight). The white root is sweet and crispy and also tasted delicious raw and in the stir fry.

The other plants that are growing well are the Carrots, Perennial Spinach and Dwarf Kale, all grown from seed, which is great.The Nasturtiums are also filling in any gaps and continuing to self seed all over the place. We put those in salads and Risottos too and they are great companion plants.