Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Goji berries: rare fruit

Rare alright. I've had three plants in for about four years and had about ten of these tiny fruits. But they are available dried, really cheaply in Asian grocers so they must grow well somewhere.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Road trip: Bordertown

I have a real soft spot for this place. I travelled here selling Crovac bags from 1995-2001 and have some great friends here.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Citrus: Resist the urge to prune in late summer

The window for pruning here in Adelaide has more or less shut, as fat as citrus goes. I'll tell you why.

Pruning stimulates new growth and that growth is green and soft. At the end of summer the citrus leaf miner comes out and destroys those new leaves. As it happens you'll just be pruning all that deformed shit out next spring.

So my advice is that here in Adelaide you should just let it run. Its good to have a lot of leaf through winter. Citrus are tropical and need all the photosynthesis they can get when the soils get cold, the days short and they're trying to ripen their fruit.

Then, here on the plains in Adelaide, prune them hard in October. If it's a strong tree you'll be rewarded with an explosion of new green and a bunch of flowers.

Why nature rules: Living in the moment

Saturday flowers. Monday flowers.

The garden waits for nobody. When the fruit it ripe, eat it. When the time is right to spray, spray. When the flowers are there, enjoy them.

Tomorrow is tomorrow. Now is all we have.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Donut peaches late this year

I'm not complaining but the huge setback from green aphid has meant that I'll be eating mine in Feb while buddy Steve had his before Christmas.

But I should get about 10kg of fruit this year.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Why nature rules: Always an opportunity to learn, and teach

Walking down to the beach at Sellicks today gave me a great chance to tell one of the kids about millions of years of geology. Very simple, very obvious layers in these cliffs.

Just like millions or (hundreds of thousands at least) years all bottled, for us.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Repotting a Yucca

Take that, you shit. It was hard to get you out of the pot but I can now put you into a bigger one. You did fight me, though.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

My trees

Well, they're on my property. But who really owns a tree?

By at this time of night and with the light just right, looking up at them is a pleasure.

Watering just when it matters

A 39 degree day and if you loo hard enough you should be able to see the spray where I'm watering for a half hour. As the sun goes down and for these plants - it's just when it matters.