Citrus update

It’s a cold, windy day. I come out to my garden to look at my lovely citrus trees. The bugs have disappeared, and they’re looking fantastic. I planted some pansies at the bottom of the pots. I gave them a good feed, and the lemons are looking and tasting beautiful. I also tasted some of the first peas of the season. The broccoli are turning out nice, the broad beans are growing, and I’ve covered all the herbs with bird netting. The strawberry plants have got new leaves, and they’ve got a surprise tomato plant growing. I’ll let that go and see how it does in the middle of winter.

Lawn bare patch

I have to give my lawn a mow. I noticed a couple of round bare patches. The birds have been busy digging up the roots and eating the bulbs and seeds that are underneath, so they’ve left a couple of bare patches. So what I’ve done is roughened up the area, poked holes for aeration, sprinkled some patch-up seed with fertilizer, and watered it in. We’ll see how it goes.

Daffodils and Dutch Iris

One of the things I like to do is go to Bunnings in the plants section. They usually have a little corner where they have plants that have seen better days and have bargain seedlings and lots of other goodies at very, very cheap prices. For three dollars, I got myself some Dutch Iris and some red daffodils, and I have also been lucky enough to find a mandarin tree for a third of its price. I need to figure out whether I need to buy a new pot or whether my fig tree decides to die. Anyway, the fig tree’s replacement is sitting right next to it just to give it a little bit more motivation to grow. I planted these in the tub, and we’ll see how they look in a couple of weeks once they start growing. They did seem to shoot up just in the last two days; that was quite fast. Anyway, have fun with your veggie patch and enjoy your weekend.

Winter Solstice

On the shortest day of the year, on this lovely 1°C Melbourne winter morning with very icy grass, I ventured out into my veggie patch to discover that my purple broccoli has developed and it looks spectacular. The herbs are taking off, and I found a surprise tomato plant growing with flowers. I’m wondering if I’m going to get any tomatoes out of this winter. On the shortest day of the year, it’ll be dark before 5 o’clock tonight, so I’ll make the most of looking after my veggie patch, rug up, and stay warm, hoping for a little bit of sunshine.