In the increasing effort to ensure pollenation of all our plants, especially the fruits and vegetables, we have decided to plant some of the 50 Gladioli bulbs in spite of it not being the best time to plant in Australia. That said the Sydney summer so far has been mild to date, so with luck that will hold out for the next few months whilst the Glads develop and flower. We have planted them in some of the many accumulated seedling pots. Excuse me for the photo, but Dame Edna and Gladiolis go together.

I am quite interested in seeing what colours we get from the Gladis as the corms we got or mixed ones with 50 all up. We planted around the 20 mark in 16 pots. I am hoping they will put a burst of colour in the garden and attract many pollenators to the garden to keep the crops producing.

We are also waiting for several seeds to germinate in my planter tray. As I do not have a sheet of glass or a proper cover I have placed a sheet of thin plastic from a wrapping across the top of the tray to hold the moisture and warmth in. It is certainly doing the job. The seeds that we are waiting on are some carrots, corn, and another vegetable that at the moment escapes my memory. As I am not near my diary I can not even look it up. I will update that tomorrow.

We also planted the roly poly carrots that were bought as seedlings prior to Christmas. It is a tribute to the strength of the plants that they are still alive. I am relieved to have them in the soil. Also sharing the tub is some corn seedlings. These will produce first and will be harvested, hopefully in time for the freshly germinated seedlings to take over the corn producing role. The zucchini is also now in the Rich Gro Pro Mix and is developing another zucchini. As I love zucchini in dishes this is good news.

The tomatoes are also coming on strongly. There are 6 fruits developing nicely on the Beefsteak Tomato bush. Likewise there are 6 Grape Tomatoes on the way. One of the Grosse Lisse tomato bushes also has a fruit developing. More importantly both Grosse Lisse tomato bushes are growing strongly. Clearly the move of the tub has improved their lot and is allowing the soil to dry out, rather than remain waterlogged. The stunted Cherry Tomato is laced with fruit. I will be looking at this again in the morning as some were looking very close to harvestable today. The new plants are in a position out the back and are really in a growth phase.

The Ebony Fire chilli is also growing well with more fruit to be picked tomorrow. The mystery chilli is likewise throwing more fruits. They are not yet harvestable, but I certainly will be taking a close eye to them tomorrow. I will also be looking at the Jalapeno that as yet has not produced fruit. I suspect it may be in need of its own pot.

On the capsicum front things are looking grand indeed. Both Yolo Wonder plants are full of flowers, buds, and developing fruits. I am very much looking forward to these as they are a staple of any stir fry that I cook.

Finally, I should mention the perennial spinach. I will be harvesting some of this tomorrow. It is going gangbusters to the point of filling the bottom part of the wheeled planter.

Tomorrow I will make the effort and get some photos for you all to look at.

The South Coast crew began driving from Batemans Bay at 02:15 am, an insane time, but an appreciated sacrifice when they arrived at 07:15 am. It was fantastic to see them and spend the day with them. Their sacrifice of sleep and sustenance was much appreciated. The local Brother in Law was up all night wrapping presents. His cooking efforts and selflessness on Christmas day was great. Cooked a great ham amongst other things.

My Mother also gets a special mention with the cooking efforts. We had so much to eat that I am sure most of the desserts did not even get touched. In particular my favourite wine trifle. Traditionally my cousin and I would demolish a large dishful between us. Last year I think I ate about half of it on the day. This year I simply had no room for anything on Christmas day. I though have made a huge dent in it on Boxing Day.

The gifts were insane. It took about 2-3 hours to get through them all. My personal highlights are the iPod Classic (160GB), a much needed and funky Potting Bench, and a Coopers Home Brewing Kit. Looks like I have another hobby, so I am going to see how it goes, who knows this site may become the Beer Brewing Gardening Geek site soon.

The overall highlights on the gift giving was the surprise stunt pulled on the nieces with a bike each from the Brother in Law, a new 7 piece outdoor setting for the South Coast Crew, and a Gomier adult tricycle from Frasers Cycles Taren Point for my Mum. The latter brought my Mother to tears of joy and appreciation. Just the week before she commented to me:

I wonder if I can get my leg over my bike

The bike in question there was a standard two wheel pushbike, though it was a great lead in to the surprise that laid in wait. Unfortunately we will need to go back and have the crank modified to allow my Mum to ride it due to double knee reconstructions restricting the bend my Mum can get in her leg.

Today we have been to the post Christmas sales at Big W and the big kids toy shop Bunnings, yes the curfew was broken again. However, we managed to pick up a truly excellent Talon tools garden kit from Big W in a hard plastic cover for under half its’ original list price. It has pruners, both standard and long handelled, an electric hedge trimmer and several other needed tools. I have also finally found a pair of garden gloves that felt comfortable, so they were also picked up. We also procured a plant fountain. We bought one for the Sister in Law for Christmas and decided that we would also get one. It will be hosting some show ponies to attract bees.

From the big kids toy shop we managed to pick up a stylish black planter for more tomatoes, some bulb mix for some of the 50 Glaidioli bulbs, 4 bags of the Rich Gro Pro Mix, corn seedlings, various tomato seedlings including a Black Russian, seed raising materials, and a lebanese zucchini complete with a developing fruit. I know the zucchini is kind of cheating, but heck you can not look a gift horse in the mouth.

So tomorrow looks like I will be planting and arranging the garden. That is fine with me!

On the growing front, there are another half dozen ebony fire chillis ready for harvest. The Grosse Lisse tomato also is producing, at this stage it is one fruit but its been a struggle to get it doing much at all, so am proud that I have got it going finally. The Beefsteak tomato has about 6 fruits developing, as has the Grape tomato and Cherry tomato. The Cherry tomato has been heavily fruiting in spite of it being about 6 inches tall. I suspect it needs a bigger pot, but am hesistant to move it with the current crop of fruit. Also developing nicely is what is increasingly looking like a heavy crop of Yolo Wonder capsicums. I hope this turns into a monster crop as I will be going stir fry nuts.

The plants actually missed out on watering over Christmas. They did however get a rather generous soaking of worm juice on Christmas eve. They have been watered tonight and will love the drink.

Anyways, I must go and grab some grub, left over Christmas dinner, mmm roast pork roll sounds good!

The primary reason is that the four bean seedlings that did not get trellis space at planting really need something to climb. So I managed to get two more pieces of downpipe trellis. I will be once again cable tieing these back to back and training the sprouts up the trellis. It will give the seedlings a good start. I do though have a concern that it will not be tall enough. I do though believe it would be possible to join more in a vertical position. This will require an anchor stake, something that may not be possible in a pot.

Also, we spotted some horrible little caterpillars attacking my newly fruiting beefsteak tomatoes. As such we knew that we needed to take some action immediately. Due to the nature of the holiday season, especially when hosting the family dinner, we have elected to take the easy way out. As such we purchased some chemical pyrethrum based spray to kill the pests dead. This also necessitated a garden pressure sprayer. All well and good and the tomatoes have now had the treatment. I though will be trying the suggestions from Rid Pest Control Services in the future.

We also picked up another three storage tubs to be converted into planter tubs. One, or two of these will hold the carrots, corn, and other vegetables that will be grown from seed. The others will be hosting some Australian wildflowers, gerberas, poppies, and sunflowers. These are aimed purely at attracting bees to the yard to ensure the vegetable are getting sufficient polenation. Also, they will add a splash of colour and vibrancy.

We also procured two more bags of the fantastic Rich Gro Pro Mix potting mix. This will be used for the above projects.

I will be taking a look in the worm farm soon after Christmas, as they have been busy with another litre of worm juice harvested last week. I am thus optimistic that there will also be some worm castings available to further enrich the potting mix. So I still have 5 litres available even after using it this week. Needless to say the worm juice will not go to waste and will certainly be put to good use.

Also, tonight we had a BBQ. Rump steak and sausages was the meat on offer, and it tasted great when washed down with Grolsch beer. I also managed to try the ebony fire chilli I harvested last week. Socko sliced the chillis up and licked her fingers. Socko is not a keen spice-a-holic and we could hear the effects upon her from 10 feet away after verifying that she was indeed fine I was prepared for the fire that was to come. I tried the chilli and it is definately up there in the heat steaks. The seeds had been removed for drying, and reuse next year. So I can only imagine the heat had the fire crackers been left in the chilli. I was also to try the mystery chilli, but after the ebony fire I thought better of it.

The salad that accompanied the barbecue was also nice. It contained some of the Ku Chai (garlic chives), the first time we have used it. It worked well within the simple garden salad. We also used more of the parsley, not that it looks like we have used any of the stuff, it is simply growing prolifically. No doubt it will get a hammering in the coming days across Christmas. The mint, that has gone nuts in a largish pot, will certainly be getting a hammering as Socko is going to prepare a Jamie Oliver Ezy Peezy Ginger Beer recipe. It will be good to taste, and good for the plant.

The worms are also living it up with a lot of egg shells being introduced to the general fare of salad greens and tea bags. The egg shells are coming courtesy of my mum that has moved into overdrive with preparing Christmas food. We must surely have a life times supply of short bread, rum balls and fruit mince pies in the fridge. Not to mention the White Christmas that I prepared last week. If anyone goes home hungry from our place on Christmas day then there will be something seriously amiss with them.

The reason I took the measure to separate the worms and compost was that we went to the big kids toy shop, Bunnings. All that we were going for was to:

1. Annoy my sister. Well spend time with her during a break as we have hardly seen her all week due to her insane hours.
2. Pick up several bags of our favourite RichGro potting mix.

Anyways, as always happens we walked out spending over $200. We purchased 4 bags of the potting mix, 2 large tubs, half a dozen vegetable seedlings, a china doll, seeds, ant deterrent, and cat deterrent. The large tubs are being converted to be used as planters. The tubs were $12 each, whilst the equivalent size planter is $48. Easy maths when the only difference is a few holes in the bottom, easily corrected with an electric drill and 5 minutes. One has already had such a conversion performed and is now the home of some of the seedlings cucumber, zucchini and dwarf pumpkin seedlings. The cucumbers and zucchinis are full of buds. I will get the varieties tomorrow when the light returns.

In that tub is 25L of the RichGro mix that has been further enriched with our first harvest of worm produced compost. This has to be the most nutritious potting mix we have ever planted in. In the half barrels that arrived from Deals Direct we have planted the remaining zucchini seedlings and some pak choy. Again this is within the RichGro/Worm compost mix. We are looking forward to our harvest soon.

In terms of harvests we have just enjoyed a rather nice salad with home grown lettuce, chives and parsley being the highlight. 10 minutes from harvest to consumption simply can not be beaten.

Anyways I am off to watch some wrestling before bed … see yas.

Everyone is familiar with the standard Bird of Paradise (Strelezia reginae), that I will refer to as the Orange Bird from here on, which has a unique bird shaped flower (pictured above) that is brilliant orange and deep purple. With it’s appealing tropical appearance the plant has become a very common plant in many Australian gardens as it requires very little (to no) attention once established. The plant grows pretty much on its own, as the one that is out the back and pre-existing when we began renting the current residence has proven. It got its first prune last weekend and is a big bushy healthy specimen. I will be taking a cutting from the Orange Bird soon so that I have this plant once we move to a new house early in the new year.

The plant pictured above is another fine example of a Bird of Paradise. It is the White Bird of Paradise (Strelezia nicolai). As can be clearly seen the White Bird of Paradise has a magnificent white and blue flower in the same bird shape. After some searching at local nurseries I managed to secure one of these plants and it is now in a massive pot full of the RichGro potting mix. I am hoping for some flowers soon as I am quite keen to see them up close and personal. Thankfully the flowering season is the summer months so it should not be a long wait.

Apart from the distinctive flowers of each variety the other major difference is the potential sizes the plants will grow to. The Orange Bird will grow to 1.2m high x 90cm wide. Whereas the White Bird grows up to 10m high and 5m wide. Neither require a lot of water and are suitable for pots and can be grown indoors (size restrictions obviously). They are both attractive plants and I am very keen to see both flower soon.

PS: The new page header is a photo of my plants leaves from up close. The sun brightened just as I took the snap and produced a nice shot.

Also, recently I decided that I wanted to spend more time outdoors and relaxing. Building some distance between my laptop and me as it was becoming far too easy to slip in an out of work mode, for example at 10 o’clock at night I was jumping onto work and picking stuff up unnecessarily. This has resulted in one little stress monkey who is holding on for leave beginning at the close of the next business week. Hooray no more work until the new year! That said the need to build that distance took effect several weeks ago.

So in order to alleviate stress and because of a desire to increase our level of self-sufficiency I have taken up gardening. We have limited usable sun filled area due to a plethora of units and established and shady trees around the yard. Also, given we plan on moving early in the new year we have decided that our best strategy is to take on the challenge of cultivation in pots. This will make the plants easier to transport when the time comes.

After an early drama with one of our pots not draining that led to several plants drowning we have the following plants and shrubs thriving in the pots:

• The Fruits and Vegetables
• 2 x Grosse Lisse Tomatoes
• 1 x Beefsteak Tomato
• 1 x Cherry Tomato (attempt 2)
• 2 x Yolo Wonder Capsicums
• 2 x Chili Plants
• 1 x Egg Plant – did not really want it but it came in a seedling pack
• 1 x Green Lettuce
• 1 x Red Lettuce
• 1 x Strawberries
• 2 x Passion Fruit
• 1 x Spinach
• The Herbs
• 1 x Curry Plant
• 1 x Chives
• 1 x Mint
• 1 x Parsley
• The Show Ponies
• 1 x Jasmine
• 10 x Dwarf Lavender
• 4 x Fairy Lights
• 1 x Blue and White Bird of Paradise
• 5 x Red & White Petunias

Of course the current weather conditions in Sydney have assisted no end in supplying ample water to the plants and a lot of warmth, fair to say it has been a bit like a green house when you don’t have a greenhouse of late. Horrible weather for me personally, but fantastic for the plants.

We have been using a mix of potting mixes. Beginning with a Coles brand mix and since moving through a Yates mix and now to a RichGro. I think we will stick with the RichGro given it is enriched with Seasol, Ezi Wet, and Ozmicote, Each plant that has been planted in this mix has instantly taken off. Whereas the others have taken a bit more encouragement and H2O to establish. All though are now very healthy plants.

In terms of garden harvests we have only had some curry plant and parsley. That said going by the abundance of buds and flowers appearing on the plants that is set to change shortly.

Also, whilst mentioning the garden, last weekend saw a monster cleanup. We managed to take a full trailer load to the tip and then promptly managed to get at least another trailer load of green waste ready to go. That is now stacked in the back yard slowly turning into mulch. Although, with our imminent move we probably won’t see that used. The cleanup continues with the vast amounts of leaf litter being dropped from the trees around us. Most of which are not in our yard.

After the bulk of the cleanup last weekend we set up our outdoor Christmas decorations. It looked great with 5 inflatable displays, 1 light tree, and several garden lights set up. Unfortunately since then 2 of our inflatable displays have died due to water in their air blowers. Not happy Jan about that and am awaiting a return e-mail from Christmas Warehouse on whether we can get replacement units. The display has also been attacked by next doors cats with one of the star lights broken.

The crazy old lady next door continues to support an insanely high amount of cats. Currently there are at least 10 next door. Most are kittens, and with the sighting of yet another pregnant cat there are more on the way. The RSPCA have been around several times since we have lived here, but nothing has changed in regards to her pussy habits. It is ridiculous and we now have them living on/in our stuff.

Yesterday was a prime example. In the yard currently I have a large cardboard box that the new Victa came in. In the box I have various gardening supplies, ie. pots, snail pellets, etc. Anyway I moved the box yesterday in order to get to the things underneath it. Next thing the box has fallen from a stable position. I have snapped my head around and this little rat cat furball is running away. So I smacked the box with a bamboo stake and another little rat cat furball jumps out and runs off. It is ludicrous that we are now expected to put up with it. I am on the verge of contacting the RSPCA and requesting they lay traps in our yard to round the cats up and take them away.

Anyways, I best be off again and start building another table for Christmas in the marquee set up out the back.