(05-31-2023, 12:51 PM)quintessentone Wrote:Cool nights and mild to warm sunny days. First day of winter tomorrow. Expected top is 25C or 77F thereabouts. I'll be in T shirt and shorts. Odd. Nights are cool but not unbearable. Have the hearth cranked up so keeps the house warm at bedtime.(05-24-2023, 10:55 PM)Bally002 Wrote:(05-24-2023, 05:40 PM)Chiefsmom Wrote:(05-23-2023, 08:40 PM)Bally002 Wrote:(05-23-2023, 04:25 PM)Chiefsmom Wrote: Well I hope some survive for you!
I managed to get most of the garden in Sunday. I have 31+ tomato plants. LOL Now lets see if I can beat the blight this year.
Of course we are not supposed to get any rain for over a week, and now they are claiming a slight chance of frost Wed. Night. I swear, if it does, I will just give up the garden this year. I don't even have enough stuff to cover everything!!!
All I have left are a couple shade loving flowers, 2 white pines and mint I have to get planted. So I will be able to be pretty lazy this weekend, which is a 4 dayer for me! Super excited about that!
Being winter here, although not as harsh as what you guys experience. (No snow where I am). I am still perplexed why things aren't growing well. (Stunted) Insects, particularly bees are missing from the equation and were during autumn (fall) and summer. Not even mosquitoes. Plenty of rain during summer and throughout 22, but things are drying up.
The beds are raised and have yielded plenty of worms, I'm slashing some paddocks to cut back the drying grass/pasture and use the grassess left on top of the slasher for composting. My experiment with boxed potatoes on the sunny verandah seems to be working but slowly, with packing the growing plants with such compost. (Wrong time of year). The only crop we are eating is Bok Choi and the odd cherry tomatoes which are hanging on. Tobacco failed miserably.
Lemons are plentiful but there is only so much I can do with them all. Harvested some oranges the other day from a friendly neighbours tree in exchange for wood.
With winter here we are busy cutting and splitting firewood but my plan is to strip all the beds, top them up with river loam, composted grass cuttings and chicken manure from the coop then cover the lot with black plastic to keep the weeds down and perhaps heat the beds a bit generating some grub and worm life before spring arrives.
Speaking with the neighbours about growing this year and associated problems I was surprised by one comment that a hobby grower surmised. He thought he was the only one with similar probs and was going mad. Glad I wasn't the only one. Will have to be patient and see what 23/24 brings.
Kind regards,
Bally)
Well that's not good. Besides the missing bee's, I am curious what is going on as well. You're in Australia? Have you had growing seasons like this before? Are your summer's normally better, or too hot?
I'm worried we are going to have a hot summer, with little rain. When the plants get a little bigger, I'm going to cut back on watering, to try and toughen them up a bit.
Not sure what's going on in my local patch. Tested the soil, all seems well and have a lot of worms. Pasture (mostly native) is going fine. Some fruit trees (not many) and have a mediocre crop. The pears, olives, mulberries, grapes, loquat, mandarine - (usually the best for a crop) didn't blossom or had stunted flowers and fruit. Also noticed that some trees are only just turning for autumn which is quite late. Winter starts next month so I was expecting to prune and transplant cuttings soon but may have to wait a little longer.
The eucalypts, of which I harvest some of the fallen for timber, didn't blossom this year or the acacias/wattles. One variety, 'red blood wood' (coryembia gummifera) did blossom for a short spell but shed the few blossoms early. The grey gums, spotted gums, iron barks and 'boxwood' type gums didn't flower.
The bees, well, 'true love' and I worked along with our 2 young lads at a commercial bee and honey concern for a time but 'hive beetle' coupled with floods in the region knocked the socks off that industry and some areas around here are quarantined. Eldest son now works for a company outside the quarantine area. So, we do have some native bees around the place but very few. At one stage we had commercial hives (about 80) on the selection and the surrounds smelt like honey. Another variety, 'wood cutter bees' (harmless)used to make their home in ours but haven't seen them around for a couple of years.
Flies and midges were few and far between this year and mosquitoes were almost non existent which was another unusual aspect.
We still have our native animals about with 2 families of roos visiting the cut pasture mornings and evenings. Bandicoots are about in large numbers which I've never seen before diggings holes all about the place. (A menace to gardens and lawn all year lol). The wild ducks, parrots and galahs visit, so nothing appears wrong there.
So I guess I really can't complain I guess (unable to get the pineapples to fruit godammit!but I'm perplexed as a few others within the surrounds about the growth this year. A short trip to the coast reveals the sugar cane, banana and berry plantations doing well. The local green grocer, (40 klms away) is always stocked. Planted a fig tree and plum tree. Seem to be doing well. Will wait until spring/summer. I have some "Australian bush Lemon trees". (Citris Limonia) along with Pomelo (Citrus Maxima) and they did alright although one bush lemon tree died. Dunno why as they can live through anything in this neck of the woods.
Perhaps these last years, a long drought, scorching bushfires afterwards, floods, mouse plague may have contributed and things will only get better.
We consider ourselves lucky to live in the bush here with solitude. Very quiet. But, sigh, if I look south, perched on a hill and built after the fires (2 years?) about half a klick away is a large OPTUS communication tower. Haha. In my face.
Kind regards,
Bally)
Corymbia gummifera
Hi Bally, so sorry to hear of all your problems there. Could it be an early Winter? I wonder where the grocer is ordering his/her produce? I'd ask next time I shop there maybe the grocer knows what's going on.
I am having the same issues as Chiefsmom, as we are basically on the same longitude line in North America, hot weather which is not normal for this time of year (so says the weather person) and I have to work a little harder to keep my garden container garden thriving.
My garden is on my deck and I have to water them using a watering can, but it's good weight lifting exercise.
Fruit and veg can be sourced by the green grocer from up north or from the coast where temps are warmer to mild. I expect it to get colder but we'll see. Have rain forecast for the weekend which is welcomed as ground is getting dusty.
Still burning off reducing fire hazards so the native grasses will regenerate quicker with some water.
Another odd thing is the emergence of pythons this time of year. Had another crossing the front yard today. That's getting up to 1 a week. Not the same ones as they are of different sizes and shades. Thought the one today was a black snake but up close the python head and chequered patterned skin revealed it for what it was. Cat was fist to discover it (as usual) following it and playfully tapping the rear end of the serpent. Gotta laugh, curiosity and all.
As for the garden soil, I'm mixing in some manures, other soils from the river bank and will let the boxes set until spring. Will see what happens.
Tomorrow I'll be cutting wood again. Sales have been half of what would be the normal but I'll still keep going with it. Could have something to do with the warmer weather methinks.
Kind regards,
Bally)