Praying for rain.
07:57:00
The beautiful blooms of the crepe myrtle at the back door.
The garden you could say has been rather negleted over the last month. In that there has been minimal weeding, de-heading, shaping, grooming, edging and I would dare say, not enough watering. With all of these 40+degree days that we have had, its a wonder anything is still green, flowering and producing food at all.
Now if you have been following along, you would have seen that my backyard is no green, tropical or landscaped oasis. We have two veggie patches, a good sizeable patch of lawn and lots of concrete with a tiny garden bed etched into it. I like to refer to them as my little garden oases. At this particular time of the year, the only oases that are genuinely thriving are our tomatoes, the lily pilly tree, a rosemary bush, the lemon tree and a dahlia. (Thats actually quite alot when you write it like that!!)
Here are all most of these delights in the following pictures. They tell the story so much better.
This is my pride and joy for the next month or two. A Dahlia. Its growing in the veggie patch from a singe tuber I pulled up from last year and relocated. It has produced a few flower buds but they have been scorched in the couple of heat waves we have had. It is huge and I can see that some more blooms are on the way. They are bright blood orange in colour. Cant wait!
Its a jungle out there. This is our awesome tomato crop of 2013/14. There is no order, its total chaos and scrambling but they are growing and tomatoes are ripening. The little Tommy tomatoes are so far the crop of the bunch with the Apollo tomatoes close behind. At the moment we are roasting them, making pasta sauce from them, tossing them in heaps of salads and stacking them on cheese and bikkies. I cant believe how good they are.
Some marigolds amongst the chaos planted for the sole purpose of keeping the bad bugs away. What the pros like to call companion planting. It must be working as apart from the sun damage on some of the tomatoes on the west side of the patch they are smooth, beautiful and unblemished tomatoes. They are also quite pretty.
Some lemons ripening away. Another good crop is on the way.
Two of the half a dozen capsicums that were planted after the beans finished their flourish have survived. Just. With a bit of dynamic lifter and lots of water they have sprung back and are growing well. Flower buds are always a good sign wouldn't you think?
We have a few corn cobs growing, keeping the capsicums company. Everything in this particular patch which gets the hot afternoon sun plus the radiation off the tin fence is always a surprise if its still alive at this stage in summer. We are even spotting the odd asparagus stalk that keep popping up at random. (Another big achievement in the patch). I also harvested half a dozen red onions which I totally forgot about amongst the weeds just as we got back from the beach. I love surprises.
I wasn't sure whether to put this photo up as its kind of blurry as I don't think I had the camera on the right setting and I couldn't be bothered going out to to take it again. ha ha. Anyhoo, here it is. My corn.
So a quick summary for you and my
Feed, feed, feed the plants. We used dynamic lifter and blood and bone as well as some of the old straw from the chook shed. The plants will thank you.
Water, water, water. A good soaking every 2-3 of days. You can always tell when your plants are thirsty. Dont water too much though when its really, really hot as the plants will be a bit stressed. The roots are apparently susceptible to water logging and rotting in these conditions.
De-head those marigolds when they finish flowering so that they keep on keeping on. Bad bugs be gone!
Organise and then thank ever so gratefully your garden fairies who have kept the garden alive while you were away.
Do some weeding. It looks so much nicer and saves you a huuuuuuuge job later on down the track. You dont want those pesky buggers going to seed in your veggie patch, or anywhere really.
Feed the lemon tree. Im trying to get Hugh to pee on ours. Apparently its good for them.
De-head those spent flowers. This I didn't do and unfortunately as a result I didn't get a second flush of roses nor will we get many more hydrangeas.
That's all I have done. Very slack I know. There is still lots to do and I cant wait to see my Dahlias. In the meantime Ill keep praying for rain.
What are your tips for January?
What's growing good in your little garden oases and patches?
If your get a chance please could you like my Facebook page. Thanks muchly.
Thanks for visiting today.
Elisha
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