Hot days and feral pests

baby avocado

The Alcatraz of rat traps...

Today the temperature is over 30 and it is unpleasantly hot outside. However, there is shade around the trees, even though they are not high.  Have a look at an avocado. They are quite hard to find as they hang under the leaves so you have to look into the tree to see them.







But the rats are around. A ripe fig was snaffled today. So I have set new traps. They are a hard plastic trap, and I've filled it with peanut butter which seems to appeal. I'm sick of other traps being snapped but the animal gets away. There is a war on as far as I am concerned. I don't mind the odd fruit taken but bites out of every apple, or bits off every cluster of grapes is not on.



The quince are getting ripe. A wallaby got into the garden the other day - not sure how - it jumped a one and a half metre fence twice... I think it was spooked by treecutters working nearby...
The wallaby bashed into the tree but doesn't seem to have done any lasting damage.
Any good quince recipes?  Spanish people used to have membrillo (quince in a sort of slab) with white cheese, which was stunning. Not sure what kind of cheese we have would go with it.

Update on Mum
It is now nearly 2 years since Mum went into the home. Yesterday she saw her great-grandson again, and as usual he put on a stunning show of what he can perform on cue- leg kicking (olympic standard under ones), clapping hands, smiling, waving, and generally flashing his pale blue eyes at anyone who would pay him attention. Mum loved it. She seems to be struggling with numbers now - has difficulty remembering how many babies there are and to whom they belong. She will argue fiercely if anyone tries to correct her. But she appreciates visits and is very positive about her "home".  I left her a music cd this time to see if she likes listening to hymns like she used to.

What a Lovely Pear...



Echidna at the back door




Today has been too hot to be in the garden except to swim. But the fruit is ripening and the possums are at bay. So far. Since the fence was improved we have had no trouble from rabbits. Well, we baited a bit but I haven't seen any inside the fence for a while now. The little echidna we had was welcome, because he eats the ants. This was him at the back door one day, not long after we moved in.
Good ad for seasol...



Russian blacks, Romas and baby tomatoes with grapes

Back to today. Isn't it a good feeling to pick something that is good enough to eat? Even if the birds get some and the possums eat some apples, it's a fulfilling feeling to eat home produce. Not always cost effective if you add the hours spent digging and weeding, and the tools and whatnot. Saving seeds is helpful, especially the big seeds that are easy to recognise like coriander.









What a lovely pear...

This is the fourth pear! Not a great crop but the tree is espaliered and I don't think the soil is rich enough around the fence. It was also badly eaten by possums last year. However, it had about a dozen fruit which is ok for a young tree... Hoping for better things. I fancy blue cheese and pear salad... Still waiting for someone to tell me how to prune it and when.


 And just a short note on |Mum's progress. Last week, her first Australian great grandchild came to visit and it was astonishing to see the positive effect that had on Mum's behaviour. No staring into space that day! She was animated and alert. He played along, and smiled on cue, which was just great. It made me think of how good it is to be part of a kind and happy family. Which reminds me, I still have her outfit which I brought home to wash and left on the hall table, waiting to be returned so she can wear it again before summer is over!...



From This to This

Isn't it interesting to look back. Here is a photo of the back yard when we started. It had loads of blackberries. The first thing to do was get a rotary hoe and turn over the soil. We paid someone to do that. Then I started from the back fence and worked forwards towards the house. Now I wish I'd planted more carefully at the back - especially along the fence line, which would be covered by now - 8 years on.





It was a big task but very enjoyable except for the mosquitos. The land is clay soil, and tends to be marshy, or bone dry. I brought car loads of oak leaves from where we lived in Melbourne, to improve the soil, but it would have taken hundreds of loads to make a significant difference.
It is a slow process to make a garden on a budget, and maybe some big plants/trees would have paid off, but it's getting better. I don't want anything edible getting too big, because it is hard to control pests if I can't pick them off!

I love palms but they are expensive if you want the good ones, so we settled for cordylines - and I cut the spent leaves and put around the garden to compost.  Lavendar makes great mulch, but rosemary is slower growing , so doesn't need trimmed so much. The different greens feel good to walk amongst...

It's hard to plan a garden that isn't built around the pool, and we wanted a garden, not just a landscaped pool. It took ages to think what would work around the pool itself - eventually we settled for a lavendar hedge to add privacy to the pool itself, and as a windguard on one side, and river stones with olives and a rosemary hedge on the other.  Still a work in progress of course...

A Stevia plant

Here is a plant that is quite hard to grow from seed. After a few attempts I was given a young plant, which is reasonably healthy but likes to be kept damp.It's STEVIA - the leaves are as sweet as can be - way sweeter than cane sugar, and there is no damage to tooth enamel. It is also very low in calories so why hasn't it caught on? 


Stevia plant in pot

Well, you can buy it in supermarkets as a powder. Maybe you could do as I did and buy some, using it in baking as an alternative to cane sugar. It tasted a bit weird but I thought it might be better when the meringue I made was actually cooked.

 It was revolting. There is an after taste that does not go away for some time, and it is just not nice. Sweet, but not delicious. Shame. I had thought of growing loads of plants to sell. Anyway, the climate here is not really suitable. I think it will be too cold in winter. Does anyone have stevia plants growing successfully in a garden in a temperate zone?

Stewed Gooseberries

gooseberry bush

Stewed gooseberries with cream...yum! Little green hairy berries, but the thorns on the bush are really sharp. The bush I have is 4 years old, and grows at odd angles, so it's quite dense. Mine had hardly any berries this year but lots last year. I'm not sure if that has to do with climate (last year was wetter, this year hotter) or if it just fruits alternate years. I'd love to get a few other varieties to try if there are ones suited to a Melbourne climate. It is about a metre tall, and cuttings seem to take well so I''m happy to share....

This year the grape vine  (cutting from Mark, via Dan) has fruited well. I have netted it, halfheartedly because I don't like to go over to the neighbour's yard to fix up their side of the fence. 
I'd guess there are about 40 bunches on it at the moment but we have lots of wildlife to compete with here...



An orange-ish bouganvillea  is starting to take on the back fence. I love them. If it takes, it is a lot of work to keep in check but the bracts are beautiful. We need something to bring the bees and this and the lavendar seems to do the trick. It would have been a good idea to plant this when we moved in - by now it would be a riot of colour.  I have taken summer cuttings but they are looking a bit unhappy in the heat.



bouganvillea on the back fence

The perfect plant... well almost!

strawberry or Chilean guava fruit

The Chilean Guava. I got one as a seedling from Diggers about 8 years ago. The blurb said something about drought tolerance, edible fruit, and suitable for edging as it resembles box without needing to be watered as much. Well, maybe. It stayed alive (just) for 4 years in a place that was too damp. http://www.diggers.com.au/search/chilean%20guava.aspx
I moved it and it started to grow and fruit. The bush is only little and looks as though it could do with a good hack with the trimmer after fruiting. The amazing thing about this little plant is the fruit really does taste like strawberries! The hull is nearly as big as the fruit though, so you can see why it's not already a commercial success, but the taste is phenomenal. Not til about March though, cos a friend called Leena from NZ  tasted it in December one year and it was sour as...I've got a feeling cuttings would grow, so will check out if Autumn is the time and you can get some if you live near and get in touch. They are a long term project, but very hardy.

The apple trees- hardly an orchard! (5 trees)

There were some good apples this year, and one variety is yet to come. I tried Cox's Orange Pippins but they are very sour. Even more sour than I remember them at Halloween in Ireland.

Apples to come...

I'm keeping the trees all small so I can squish the bugs by hand (glove for sure). They have survived the hot days this year so far.

Please comment! I'd love to hear from you.

Alzheimer's up close and personal

On a completely different note ( possibly a weekend blog post only)...
My lovely Mum has Alzheimer's. She is 81. A few weeks ago she told us she was 90. The first signs I noticed other than being forgetful (which most of us are at times) was that she had 4 or 5 jars of the same thing in the cupboard. When she moved into a home 18 months ago I found 7 pairs of new gardening gloves in a drawer. For someone who disliked gardening most of her life that's not bad!

The process of getting a diagnosis was horrible for both of us. A pleasant team of assessment health professionals decended (in surprisingly quick response to a request, given the time I had to wait to see a doctor last time I tried) and wheels were set in motion. The first step was a diagnosis at a Memory Clinic. I was told that if Mum went there she would be assessed and if a form of dementia were suspected she would be given "strategies to manage". Apart from the diagnosing doctor whose manner was atrocious . Just face it dear. Your mother has dementia. It will get worse. I can't be certain [forgotten!] if those were the exact words but it was the tone. People were pleasant but I have yet to see the strategies to manage. There were requests to do a risk assessment of the house - fair enough. There was a letter to ask her to do a driving test assessment to check she could drive safely- again fair enough. But there was no warning that these were the automatic responses from attending a memory clinic and having - let's face it a fairly subjective assessment.

It's hard to say what someone else, even someone close to you, is thinking. Mum's reaction was sadness. I think that was sadness for the future. She was aware enough to know what that was likely to be. She cried quietly in the car going home.

quince on 4 yr old tree

Some pictures from our summer garden to get advice/comments. Very much a novice gardener so all help appreciated.

tamarillos

 Our friend Dan's cuttings of tamarillos has produced 2 trees both of which fruited well last year. They won't be red and ready til late Autumn from memory. The quince tree is still young, but has fruit despite leaves which have been eaten by something...


young figs

The smell of the fig trees today was lovely:- that really sensational fresh fig smell. Only have two trees, and am trying to keep them manageable so not too high.
The fruit I like best is the pomegranate. Now that I know it likes dryness it is going better. I think I leave the fruit on the tree till the leaves shed- is that right?
Licorice is really easy to grow - almost invasive once established. The bit above ground is about a metre high and insignificant, as is the root which is dark brown. This is the bit you peel and suck, like they do in Spain and Italy. An attempt last year to make sweet licorice looked good, but tasted strongly of the aniseed in the recipe. It also went very moldy very quickly. Anyone had success from a home gardener perspective?


pomegranate likes the dry heat

licorice stem and root with stripped white bit



The very first post and I'm still tossing up topics. Maybe start with the avocado tree. Funny how such a healthy looking shrub (7yrs old) got so wet this winter that the leaves all died. But it must be ready to fruit well soon...Hopefully before I die... There are currently 3 avocados that haven't succumbed to bugs, rain or rats. Not sure if rats do go for them but they go for pretty much anything judging by the bites out of passion fruit, tomatoes, and apples. Here's a pic of my garden, all from scratch.It should have had a bit more planning but is nice and "natural"...with a strong focus on the edible. Posting to see if others have similar problems getting viable crops from a home garden... Next time I'll tell you about my efforts with licorice growing (successful) and making (moldy gunk!).

My backyard

one of three egg sized avocadoes