Savouring the nice weather before winter arrives

I've just been outside on this lovely morning  wandering around the garden, doing a little bit of weeding and just enjoying the freshness after the rain we had yesterday and enjoying the peacefulness that is a Sunday morning before the rest of the neighbor hood (or even just this household) awakens and starts to go about their lives.

Yesterday we had rain falling for most of the day but even so it was still nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the rain, checking the rain gauge this morning we only got 5mm, but it was the nice light soaking rain so everything is looking a bit more healthy in the garden this morning.

The lawn was looking quite sad so seeing that it is coming into winter where it will go dormant (santa anna lawn) we decided to make use of the rain and feed the lawn with some blood and bone, but already just with the rain I can see it has started to green up quite nicely.

Speaking of lack of rain I think I almost killed my lemon grass I thought it had some sort of disease with the leaves going brown and speckly but now that I have given it a bit of water it is starting to shoot green leaves again, so hopefully I have saved that one.

The worst one

Another which is not too bad, but shows the regrowth.

A few months back I put in some Chilli Seedlings (cayenne peppers) when I put them in I gave them a sprinkling of Sulphate of Potash and they have been producing really well.

Chillies which will be ready to pick in a couple of days

At the moment I have been picking a handful every few days, some of them get used in cooking, most of them are in the process of drying but we have plans to make some into sweet chilly sauce. out of 4 plants three are really healthy but one is looking very sick, again I thought it was lack of water but I'm not sure that is it, I have sprinkled blood and bone around all of these and will see if this is the issue, (I know the soil in this bed is not the best).

Sick Chilli

The four chilli plants in the herb garden bed

First of our wind break

Well last week on a lovely Sunday morning, a start was made to our first plantings to our wind and noise break in our "back paddock"

Three native tubestock I had bought at a local craft shop a few weeks earlier and had been sitting on our outdoor setting waiting to be planted.

First plant: Agonis Flexuosa (why do I get the urge to wave a wand when I say this??) Willow Myrtle as the common (less Harry Potterish) name

Second tree is an unknown eucalyptus "tall gum tree creamy flowers"

And third tree is a dwarf sugar gum 

And all importantly the whole view, well you cant see much but hopefully in time to come it will give a good contrast as these little ones grow into big tall trees full of birds and bats and other wildlife that will call it home.

friend or pest?

Discovered a couple of these in my citrus trees first one I picked off and threw over the fence for the birds to get, second one I decided to find out what it actually was.

Turns out it is the Caterpillar of the Dainty Swallowtail Butterfly, to grow up into this (from http://www.backyardbuddies.net.au/bmail/Bmail_February_2012.html): 

Last weekend I finally got around to spending a voucher I got for Virginia Nursery Last year for my birthday. So loaded up with 20kg of Blood'n'Bone, some garden gloves and some Seasol, there was a few nice days to be in the garden.

Sunday saw the Citrus trees get a handfull or two of Blood'n'Bone each and a good deep watering, and hopefully this will have them growing nicely. The orange is looking very sick, I originally thought it may have had weed spray sprayed a bit too close to it, but I am hoping it is just the clay soil we have and the lack of deep watering and the few days of cold and disgusting weather we have had which I am surprised the winds didn't rip the poor trees out of the ground.

Blackberries have lots of new leaves and even flower buds ready to start opening any day.

Peach tree has quite a few fruit on it and will need to be covered very soon to protect them from the dog and the galahs which have decided to fly in most days to eat the grass and weed seeds.

Have found 3 Apricot fruits which have set, but there is still more flowers to come, again this will need to be protected from the dog and birds.

Spring is here

Well I know I haven't posted for a while but I hadnt realised it had been all year, so whats happening in the garden?

The peach tree has flowered and has little fruit on it.

The apricot tree is starting to flower.

The Apple tree is still dormant but does appear to have a couple of flower buds on it starting to swell

The blackberry has grown quite a bit since putting it in last year and is now bursting into life again, and in amongst the leaf buds which are opening I can see flower buds (It was flowering when I bought it was planted last year)

The citrus are all coming to life as well, with flower buds and signs of new leaves, although the older leaves are still looking a bit yellow even though they have had a couple of feeds of dynamic lifter.

Something I am looking to try is planting a living mulch of legumes under them, for the nitrogen fixing qualities. I noticed that a Grevillia I had planted in the native garden was looking a bit yellow as well, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed some Wolley Pod Vetch had started to grow (I am assuming out of the pea straw I had used for mulch) Since this has been growing the new growth has been a darker green. 

If this works it will be a perfect example of  "a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place" because we have been trying to get rid of it from another area in the yard due to the risk of snakes, but I think in a bit of a controlled environment where it can spread along the ground, rather than ramble up and over other plants, it should have a job to do (provide nitrogen and out compete weeds) and look nice and lush with pretty purple flowers.