The Organic Home Garden

The organic home gardener is home after a nice break down south of the state.

Had lot’s of great food, most of it from my sisters garden. I have a few photos to share from the visit and these will show you some amazing results from her sunflower bed!
The other great opportunity was to eat lots of fresh apricots, peaches (white and orange flesh) and some plums (only managed to get one since they are a little later ripening).

Jon is around 6 foot so you can see how monstrous these flowers are!

Steve and Jon picking more ripe fruit.
The netting is to keep out the parrots and the odd green eye.

We are still eating the peaches here at home as well as some cherries I picked up at Mt Barker on the way back from the Albany holiday.

In the Organic Garden This Week

When I got home the garden was looking pretty good! The shade cloth covers had worked a treat and the plants were all very healthy and in fact very much bigger than before I left. The plants are thriving despite the many days over 35 degrees Celsius this month.

The corn is huge and the cobs are thickening up nicely and I check them every day just in case any are ready to eat!

There are tomatoes on the bushes now and so we can expect to start eating them next week. I thinned out the carrots and had a little feed – I cannot believe how well they are growing! The capsicums are doing well and the egg plants are very productive and I will soon be picking them daily.

Today I planted some more cucumber and lettuce which should be ready just as the other plants start to deteriorate.

Drive In Food Bars for Magpies

Lastly today I wish to share a video I took one day when we were admiring the sights from a look out in Albany. A family of Magpies was sitting on a rail in the car park and quite calmly inspected each car as it arrived and helped themselves to the bugs caught in the grilles of the cars.
What we most amazed by was that they al;ways walked to the front of the car each time – never the back of the car!

Anyway have a great week and happy new year!

The Organic Gardener

Spring Is Springing

Well not much happening in the organic garden this week, other than watching my seedlings grow. I have seen a surge in caterpillars so I have been picking them off and using a little pest oil as well.

Our weather is very spring! We have thunderstorms one day and then high temperatures the next! I have lost a couple of seedlings to the hot weather since I have been sick with the flu and so did not get out enough to check on the little ones!
This is why I usually plant more than I could hope to eat so no great problem so far with the losses.

The silverbeet is thriving and is soooo green!

The corn, cucumber, zucchini and eggplants are doing well – as are the onions!

I have planted lettuce between the corn rows since I will harvest them long before the corn block out the sunlight!

The tomato seedlings are coming along at last and I should be planting them out soon!

New Flowers

As the weeks move on into late spring the type of flowers around the yard starts to change some what. The bulbs are browning off now and the roses are racing ahead. A few of my newer plantings from last winter are now flowering and we are enjoying a few different splashes of colour.

Compost Heap

The compost heap has grown to huge proportions as I am pruning and thinning out all over the yard.

This is currently about 1.5m high and will settle down as the rot sets in! I will need to add some blood and bone and give it a good turnover when I feel better.

Meanwhile the sweet-potato are enjoying the boost of nutrients that they have access to near the base of the heap.

I also think that the mulberry tree is also benefiting from the heap since they are well know to seek out nutrition over quite large distances.

Fruit Trees Racing Along

My Pinkabelle Apple tree is flowering – exciting prospects of lot’s of apples this year!

Apricots are on the tree now! I will be watching keenly for any fruit fly – have found an organic bait to control them this year!

Still lot’s of mulberries!

My fig tree is loaded and carries so much fruit for such a young and little tree!

Fruit Fly Control

The organic bait and control is quite an easy product to use. I simply mix it as directed and spray over 1sm of fruit tree in the yard. This attracts and kills the fly for roughly 70sm of garden – so for me just one spray once a week or two should control all the fly problems – tomato to apricot tree!

A great way to control the pest without the toxic chemicals of the alternatives!

Of course basic garden hygiene is also important – all waste fruit should be composted quickly or given to the worms to reduce the chances of the fly getting into the yard. Infected fruit can infect the soil and then the fly is a major challenge for many years to come!

The weather is still quite rough here in Perth at the moment but this has not hampered the plants. The spring flowers are bursting out in all their glory as I type!

This is a fine example the first buds on the apricot tree!

Bulbs still pressing on into the early spring heat!

Flowers Amongst the Organic Vegetable Beds

One of my tricks is to grow a range of flowering plants for the benefits of the bees and friendly insects. Ladybirds and wasps etc can hide amongst the bushes and get a feed on the unsuspecting grazers and visitors to my flowers.
This does two things, firstly it keeps the control insects in my garden longer during the year and also provides them with habitat to shelter from the weather at this time of the year.
This is all part of my pest management routine.

Colourful Vistas

The second purpose of the flowering shrubs and ground covers is simply aesthetic!
The yard looks a great deal nicer with lots of colour.
The following is what can be seen out the kitchen window for example.

Ornamental Plum

Jasmine, Bottle Brush, Daisies, Roses

This is my latest success my Strelitzia is about to flower in the little tropical corner I have out the front yard.

Update: the flower has opened and here it is in all it’s glory!