Hedge-Grows

So, we have 4 passionfruit, 3 lilly pillies, 3 acerola cherries, 3 macadamias, 2 avocadoes, a loquat, and a fig tree that are going to various parts of the property boundary.

The passionfruit are to go along the back fence, hopefully climbing up the new fence to cover it, and provide some screening between us and the neighbour, who feels a little awkward since his study window looks straight into our back porch. The lilly pillies, acerola cherries, and macadamias will probably go along the front fence, with the avocadoes and loquat. The fig tree is going to replace the mandarin that doesn't produce anything.

Actually, none of the citrus in the front garden segment are doing very well. I think they may need more/better feeding. Like loads and loads of horse manure/green manures.

The plan is to keep the lilly pillies, acerola cherries, and macadamias well-trimmed along the front fence (western border of the property) so they don't impede the sun to the front lawn, which I hope to someday turn into a full-fledged vegetable garden.

There's a part of me which would like to keep the avocadoes safely in the backyard, or behind the fence, because, well, avocadoes! But I guess one of the things I consider pretty important in gardening is community involvement - sharing of resources, crop-swapping. And so long as someone isn't going to run off with all my avocadoes, or people ask, then I don't mind sharing...

This has been a tricky winter in which to grow things - not weather wise, so much as the fact that I've been working from sunup until after sundown, and it's difficult working in a dark garden. (Plus, the neighbour's dog yaps at me from the other side of the fence when I turn the garden light on.) I can plant some seeds at night, and I kind of have to - still have many winterveg seeds to plant out.

Planting out the winterveg seeds is the Thing To Do for this week. I'll have to leave the hole-digging and the claybreaking to the weekend, when there's light and time.

Some thoughts on rearranging the garden

Upper step bed near carport is difficult to reach; not a good place for grow-and-pick vegies, better for fruit trees and perennials.

Lower step bed near carport is easier to reach, better for grow-and-pick stuff.

1. move grapes to upper and lower beds against fence.

2. move sage to upper bed, move rosemary (under cherry) to upper bed

3. move chilli/perennial capsicum to upper bed

4. move lavender to upper bed

5. plant bulbs in upper bed (save lower bed and side for easy annuals)

new fence, preserves, winter garden

I had to pull up some sweet potato plants for when we did the back fence.

Tricky part: persuading the neighbour not to paint or treat the fence with anything that might turn out to be toxic for my plants.

Wombok (I think)

Old Fence.

More old fence:

Still more old fence:

The root vegie garden - rocket and carrots and parsnips and leeks and a bunch of other things, most of which aren't growing at all.

New fence being put up (early morning light makes it tricky):

New fence:

More new fence (from same POV as the old fence photo above)

And the long view of the new fence:

I chopped down all the basil and made pesto:

That was a weekend of preserving, actually. Last of harvest: red tomato chutney, green tomato chutney, preserved lemons, and pesto. Everything but the lemons came from the garden, and I swapped the lemons for lemongrass I did grow in my garden! #gardenofsel #relish #preserves #homecooked #homemade

I pulled up the only parsnip that I'd managed to grow:

I've planted more parsnips, but they're not actually growing. They're difficult to grow apparently - need good sandy soil and the opportunity to grow straight down...

I'm thinking of pulling up the carrot seedlings and planting them out in boxes of sandy compost.