The Last Day

I thought I'd use the last day of the year to recap what 2010 has taught me...

1) Patience. Without it, I would have never discovered that worms WOULD grow in my worm farm. Guavas WILL grow on the Indian guava tree. And eggplants WILL develop when given the proper conditions - after 6 months of trial and error. (They are also extremely thirsty!)

2) Progression. The garden will continue to evolve, and remain in a state of flux. If something dies, it can be regrown. Or replaced. There is never an absolute, absolutely. I will continue to view it as a journey, and not as a final destination.

3) Natural does not always mean Non-harmful. Take the case of Neem Oil for example. Spraying it on capsicum plants caused fruit to rot. Leaves were also affected and appeared 'burnt'.

4) Perseverance. Like some of the plants in our garden, which have amazing abilities to persevere despite my mistreatment of them; I too, must learn to overcome setbacks and keep going.

Full Wet Season

It has been raining just about every day. The Wet is - without a doubt - finally here.

The buckets I have strategically placed about the garden are doing their job and I have plenty of rainwater to water the undercover plants with.

The passionfruit trellis has sufferred a setback; the vines are so vigorous they have collapsed the archway! Hmm... I'll have to motivate myself to do something about it soon, but have been busy entertaining a visitor from south.

A strange thing has been happening to the capsicum plants. The capsicums are growing and ripening, but when picked, they are soft and rotten. I have a feeling it may be the Neem oil I have been spraying to deter mealybugs, which are everywhere in the garden.

Although deemed organic and has been used for centuries, Neem oil is also harmful to certain plants. It seems to kill mealybugs ok, but may also be responsible for the rotten capsicums. So I have stopped spraying Neem and am now just waiting for a good capsicum. If I'm wrong about the Neem, then it must be a rotting disease - heaven forbid!

Oh, and the zucchini plant has well and truly died. It had blossom end rot. The rot starts at the flowering end of the fruit and spreads, rendering malformed lumps on the fruit and eventually the whole fruit decays - from the inside. The zucchinis looked almost normal except for the external lumpiness. I guess the rot spread throughout the rest of the plant and the leaves started wilting and eventually the whole plant died.

I REALLY hope this is not the same thing happening to the capsicums... The chillies are going strong though. Brilliant yellow colour. When will they turn red? It's been at least 6 weeks already...

Passionate Trellis

My ever-helpful boyfriend has brought another one of my ideas to fruition.

I said to him the other day, "Wouldn't it be good if we had a passionfruit trellis?" as I showed him what I meant while we were in the garden.

So, using the existing fence as one side of the trellis, he constructed a curve with chicken wire, and attached it to three star pickets, which formed the other side of the finished trellis.

Now we have a nice arbour in which to provide some shade and cool. It also breaks the monotony of the garden, and adds some height.

The passionfruit vines are flourishing too, with no sign of disease or bug infestation. Which is a relief, after the pruning given to it by a neighbouring possum! I just wonder when it will fruit?

Heartbreaks

Still no change in the worm situation. I have emailed the supplier to see what other advice/tips they can offer.

The worms are hardly eating the food. As it is quite warm here, I am not sure whether the foodscraps in the container is breaking down due to the weather and moisture. I have also poked my fingers around the container in the hopes of finding worms, but there are no signs of them. I don't want to keep poking, as it may stress the worms. Imagine if you're in your house and a big hand comes crashing through the roof trying to see where you are!

Another sad thing is the state of the veggie garden at the moment. My brassica bed has been under attack by small green caterpillars (Cabbage moth). These green grubs have eaten their way through my Chinese cabbage, buk choy and are now chewing through the cucumbers and bananas!

I have looked up several organic options for killing them, and apparently chilli and garlic spray seems to do the trick - provided the caterpillars are in the early stages. But there is also a bio-organic control, called BT. Bacillus Thuringiensis is derived from naturally-occuring soil bacteria. It works by paralysing the caterpillar's digestive tract, and they die from starvation. Bad for the caterpillar, but good for plants and other helpful creatures like bees, ladybirds and earthworms as BT doesn't affect them. Will be applying this onto any caterpillar-infected plants soon. Watch out!

BT is effective on caterpillars such as TOBACCO HORNWORM (Manduca Sexta)

The two cucumber plants in the large bed have also shrivelled into yellow-nothingness. I'm not 100% sure whether this is due to the hot weather, the mealybugs (which are ALL over the plants) or the caterpillars. Maybe a combination of all.. but apparently cucumber plants only grow in the cooler months of the Dry. They were still fruiting up to about a month ago. The lone cucumber in the middle bed is struggling on. It's still fruiting sporadically and producing some huge female babies! I have never seen the female buds this big before, probably because the plant knows the game is almost up. I haven't fed them anything else that's for sure.

My lemongrass has also fallen victim to its home relocation. It was moved to a different spot, along with only half of its roots. The other half are probably still in the ground from where they made their way out of the container and got ripped up.

Still.. the zucchini is doing well. (Except I've learnt not to plant them in beds anymore - they just take over!) So is the basil, pumpkin, Ceylon spinach (not that we eat it!), most of the chillies, and the marigold. I now have golden moss in a hanging basket. The cosmos have also bloomed! And our "watermelon" is thriving. Turns out it is a chilli plant! My boyfriend still has no idea how it got into the pot where he was growing a watermelon seed.

Worms!

The compost worms I'd ordered finally arrived. Two thousand of them.. in the form of 'worm bombs'. Apparently there will be an "explosion" of worms once they get settled and feed and... hopefully, mate with each other!

We decided to use a polystyrene container with holes punched in the bottom (for drainage). Recycled shadecloth as lining (so worms don't escape). The most important thing was the bedding, as this is where the worms will breathe, eat and (hopefully!) live.

I had done a bit of initial research on appropriate worm bedding, but different sources say different things. Some said to use shredded paper, others said soil, but the instructions which came with the worms said to use compost and well-matured manure. A friend of mine whose dad once had a worm farm said he used lawn clippings.

So in the end, we decided to go with a mixture of shredded paper, compost, grass clippings and a bit of soil. After moistening it and mixing it all in together, we let the worms free!

We left the worms to settle in overnight. The next morning, we fed them a handful of chopped up cucumber, buk choy, banana skin, carrot and potato peel and even a teabag! When we checked later that night, unfortunately none of it had been touched. The instructions did say to leave them to settle for a day or so before feeding, as they may take time to get comfortable after their big trip.

Checked again this morning and still no joy... no food eaten and no signs of worms. I sprayed the entire surface to keep the bedding nice and moist. Worms have no way of controlling their body temperature and rely completely on their surroundings to keep them within the right temperature range.

Will write more once there's something to report....

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Been a bit AWOL on this blog lately... However, there is change in the air, heralded by the torrents of rain we have been receiving - unseasonably early. It is welcome news to me.. as the rain brings some cooler air temps and gives me time off from watering the garden!

Grass has shot up everywhere due to the extra rain, hiding the growing pumpkins.

I haven't watered for the last four days now. But am still spending time in the mornings harvesting, mainly cucumbers, and pollinating whatever's flowering (mostly cucumbers, a handful of pumpkins and the odd zucchini).

My boyfriend and I have also been busy scouring the neighbourhood for unwanted goods for our garden. It is what's known as Hardwaste Collection. The northern parts of Australia are susceptible to cyclones, and as Cyclone Season approaches, the local councils will take away any bulky material / goods that is no longer required by households.

We managed to scavenge quite some good stuff! Among them were hanging baskets, chicken wire, shadecloths, metal poles, sprinkler heads... and an old carpet. We lay the carpet onto one of the heavily weed-infested areas in the hope that the lack of sun and air will smother them.

So while I have been busy at work, the boyfriend has been busy adding improvements to the garden. He has put in an entirely new irrigation system for all three garden beds:

The latest additions to our garden:

A mulberry sapling...

A watermelon seedling....

A yellow-flowered shrub.....

Wilting Toms

Sad to say, but although the tomato plants are yielding fruit, they have been afflicted by wilt. I would suspect it is the infamous 'bacterial wilt' which tropical soils are known for.

Fusarium and Verticilium wilt are deadly because they attack the roots of the plant and stop it from receiving nutrients from the soil. The plant displays early symptoms of wilt through its drooping leaves and branches. In the intermediary stages, the branches and leaves of the affected plant look severely brown and dry, no matter how much water you give the plant. The final stage, brown discolouration may take place on the plant stems and at the base of the plant. The affected plant withers a slow, lingering death. Fruit may remain unaffected, as the plant pours all its remaining energy into it. However, fruit produced may be drier and more tart than normal.

The only way to avoid wilt is to plant in pots, using sterilised potting mix and not letting plants make contact with any soil from the garden. I thought I had isolated two Grosse Lisse tomato plants using this technique. However this was before the wilt began rearing its ugly head in the garden beds affecting the cherry tomatoes. Unbeknownst to me, I had dealt the fatal blow to the Grosse Lisse by layering the bottom of the container with regular garden soil. The wilt slowly crept upwards and although the fruit was still large and healthy, the Grosse Lisse fell victim to this grim reaper of tomatoes....

The worst thing is that the wilt has spread to the eggplants. I thought eggplants were immune to wilt, as some gardeners recommend grafting tomato plants onto eggplants in order to avoid wilt. However, I found out that this applies to only certain types of eggplants, such as the Thai variety (small and green).

Perhaps the wilt has also affected the sweetcorn plants, which took on a cardboard brown colour a few weeks back. All the corn ears being produced were dry and 'unfinished'. Or maybe it is the mealybugs that the ants have farmed, which have sapped the corn dry. I don't know. But between the wilt and the ants, I DO know that corn and tomatoes did not make it through this season. Question is, has this put me off planting tomatoes ever again?

DRIED UP CORN EAR

Small Critters

There has been an increasing number of bugs and small creatures which call our garden home. From the numerous and annoying: ants and aphids, to the useful and ever-cute: ladybirds.

I've also spotted a few grasshoppers, ranging in size and colour. The biggest is about 6cms long and is predominantly brown. There's also a camouflage expert, a green hopper which looks more like a leaf insect, but it 'pings' from my tomato plants to the garden bed, and is very hard to see unless it is moving.

There are also these orange and black winged insects. They look like a cross between a ladybird and a cockroach. For they are roach-shaped, but orange with black spots, and roughly the size of a ladybird if it was squished sideways. They have a fondness for eating zucchini leaves. This one here is traversing a dried corn leaf.

Until about a month ago, I was convinced that our garden did not have any earthworms. In my diggings around the yard, I never came across one. Also, I think the soil is far too dry for earthworms to proliferate. I was proven wrong when I was transplanting my lime seedling into a bigger pot. I found this very skinny, almost translucent, earthworm in the process.

There are also a handful of skinks and a white-striped lizard or two. The residential skinks like our garden beds and come out in the morning when I am watering to quench their thirst. They are quite tame, and will stay very still while eyeing me the whole time. I managed to snap this photo of one underneath a basil plant.

There are also, from time to time, some pigeons and birds who sit on the fence eyeballing me as I water the garden. The pigeons coo away, while the smaller birds (I don't know their name, but they're tiny zippy little grey & white things) usually wait till I am at a safe distance before descending quickly into a garden bed and making off with as much hay mulch they can carry in their miniscule beaks. They are very cute, and always come in a pair. I like to think that I'm helping in their nest construction. No photos of them as yet, as they flit away and are quite alert and wary.

Harvesting Cucurbits

Well today has been another day of veggie-picking. Two big cucumbers and one GIANT zucchini! I had already harvested two other cucumbers on a previous occasion, but had left them on the vine a little too long, and they were full of seed. I still ate them though!

I am not sure if the slow-release fertiliser I put in the beds is working, but maybe it accounts for the super growth! The size of the zucchini has surpassed my expectations, and I hope I haven't picked it too late. Guess I'll find out later when I cook it for dinner one night.

I gave away both cucumbers, this time to Mrs Mulch, as she has contributed to the growth of the veggies with her chook poo. I know this will sound weird, but it feels unusual to be taking away the efforts of a plant that I have watched over and done all I can for. As much as this is what growing a food garden is all about, these first harvests feel like a rarity! Hopefully they won't prove to be, but at the moment, I am enjoying the novelty of being able to pick my own veggies and eating them. And sharing them round too!


FEMALE ZUCCHINI FLOWER

So far, most of the plants that have 'fruited' are members of the cucurbit family. Pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchinis are all part of the Cucurbitaceae group, which also includes gourds. Pumpkin and cucumber grow from vines, and their leaves are of similar shape, and can be a similar size (small pumpkin vs large cucumber). However the flowers are quite different in size and look. The zucchini plant is quite different again. The leaves are the biggest of all three compared and sit on thick hollow stems. However, the zucchini flower is similar in colour and size to a pumpkin flower.

I like the commonalities these plants share, and it's quite obvious why they are members of the same family. But they produce such different offspring at the same time. My conclusion is Cucurbits are pretty cool! And I'm glad they grow with such vigour in my garden. There is a bit of powdery mildew on some of the pumpkin leaves, but they haven't really affected the general health of the plants.
SIX DAYS AGO

ZUCCHINI TODAY

Tidying Things Up

I harvested our first pumpkin today. The abundance of rain had caused a small split in its skin, and I knew I should have taken it off the vine the day before. It wasn't growing any bigger either, which could be another giveaway sign that it was ready for plucking. It is however very edible and still fresh.

Later on I decided to give away the pumpkin to a friend who came to visit. According to an old custom, it is a sign of goodwill to offer the first fruits of your garden to friends or neighbours, as this will increase the yield of your garden. Whether or not it works, I like the philosophy behind it, and have put it into practice.

I then went all around the garden, placing plastic container lids under all the pregnant pumpkins (as I call them), to prevent damp rot or fruit splitting.

Six capsicum seedlings are now also planted in the largest bed, in place of stunted chillies which never grew. This is the third time the capsicums have been moved, so I hope they survive. They started life in an old egg carton, then I transplanted them into a plastic seedling tray when the egg carton became too shallow for the growing roots. After a few weeks in the tray, they are finally in the soil.

A couple of days earlier, I also planted eight chickpea seedlings by the fence where the dragonfruit had been. The dragonfruit plant seems to be fading away into a lighter shade of green, despite its position (full sun). Maybe the soil wasn't suitable, thus I have re-potted it.

Here Comes the Rain

It rained today. For the first time since round about April. Locals have remarked on how this has been one of the poorest dry seasons up here in the North the last few years. In my three and a half years up here, I must say this last 'Dry' has been quite humid and warm!

In a way I AM happy that the Wet is on its way. Why delay something which is inevitable? But I also hold fears for the new seedlings. Hopefully they will find their way and not be drowned by the watershed that is sure to come.

In a sad turn of events, the cherry tomato plants are looking a little bedraggled. Most of the ones in the middle bed have been afflicted by some sort of wilt. I'm guessing there is something in the soil which isn't agreeing with the tomatoes. I have put in potash, fed them with Liquid Powerfeed and chicken poo. Nothing seems to have made the soil to their liking. Though there is fruit on the tomato trusses, they are not growing noticeably bigger. All of the fruit is still quite green and minute.

Two of the Grosse Lisse plants in the large bed are also affected. It's a matter of time before the wilt spreads to the rest of the healthy plants. Most of the Grosse Lisse haven't even flowered yet, and are unlikely to. The plan is to leave the affected plants until the sorry end, then removal.

Luckily the rest of the plants are still holding up. The zucchini plant has sprung up like never before, although no fruit as yet. The eggplants are powering on, and I'm proud to say we have a Lebanese cucumber growing longer and thicker than my middle finger!! So now I know that my hand pollination has been successful and will keep up the good work - as I have yet to spot any bees to do the job.

EGGPLANT FLOWERS

LEBANESE CUCUMBER

BIRD'S EYE VIEW (Middle Bed)

The Final Bed

Well... yesterday was another big development for the Troppo Food Garden. I prepped the third (and final) bed in the morning to plant later that the evening. The plan was for a "Brassica" Bed, and I filled it with Pak Choi, Chinese Cabbage (Wombok) and Chinese Broccoli (Kailan). In the centre, I transplanted an orange marigold from the middle bed, which was being slowly overshadowed by giant zucchini leaves. Hopefully this new spot will prove favourable.

This third bed is the smallest of the three and receives less sun. Which shouldn't be a problem as these brassicas are fine in either part shade or full sun. (According to the packet instructions.) The advantage of the third bed is that it also receives full morning sun and is shaded by the time the sun reaches boiling point in the middle of the day. As there are plenty of leftover pak choi seedlings, I have planted four in individual small pots, three in what spare space exists in the pumpkin patch. Will do a comparison between all the differently situated pak choi to see what aspect and soil they favour.

Not much mention has been made of the cucumber plants, which have silently been doing their own thing. My boyfriend discovered two open female flowers in the middle bed. I had so far thought that none of the cucumber plants were bearing. However, other dead unpollinated cucumber flowers were subsequently discovered, which leads me to think that the cucumber needs hand pollination, just like the pumpkins. I tried just that this morning.

There are a few challenges when it comes to hand pollinating cucumbers. The first is the SIZE of the actual flowers. The largest cucumber (Lebanese) flower which I have come across is roughly the diameter of a 50 cent piece. This makes pollinating them quite fiddly, as the actual organs of the male and female are no more than approximately 4mm in diameter.

The second thing is male and female cucumber flowers look almost identical face up, so you have to look at what's behind the flower to determine its gender. Obviously, the female will have a miniscule cucumber attached to it, whereas the males sit on a plain stem.

Thirdly, cucumber flowers don't seem to produce as much visible pollen as pumpkin flowers do. The fine paintbrush I normally use for the pumpkins was not sufficient for such a dainty task. In the end, I had to sacrifice two male cucumber flowers by peeling back their petals to reveal the stamen, and placing that as a whole INTO the female flower. A rather indelicate process I must admit. If it works, I shall be recommending this technique however!

FEMALE CUCUMBER FLOWER (with stuffing)

Dressing the Fence

Here is the final site for the climbing beans and snow peas. We decided to place them next to the bare fence in the hope that they will climb all over and eventually shroud the fence. My boyfriend placed some wiring on the fence with the hope of enticing the beans and peas to clamber onto. A bare patch of fence just seems like an empty canvas calling out for some colour and life.

We spaced the beans 15cms apart, according to the packet instructions. I decided to intersperse them with snow peas as well. Not sure how well that will work, and I wonder whether the beans will take over the peas. See what happens I guess!

The passionfruit vines planted nearby seem to be slowly but surely taking to the wires placed on their part of the fence. Our final aim is to have the whole back fence covered with food-producing plants or bee-attracting flowers!

To that effect, I am happy to report two of the nasturtium seeds have sprouted. I started off another four today in a recycled food container. I am becoming somewhat of a pro at punching holes into used plastic food containers for seedlings!

The chickpeas I planted 3 days ago have also germinated into what you see below (about a week later). I find the pale green leaves and long stems quite appealing. Apparently chickpea plants also bear white or violet flowers (depending on variety). Win-win situation for me! I must admit to being a fan of the humble chickpea. They are a versatile addition to curries, soups and many vegetarian dishes. Can't wait to try making hommus using home-grown chickpeas!