WEATHER:
The nights are still pretty cold - less than 10C - but the days are in the twenties, and we're due for some 30C+ day temps this weekend.
RAIN
Not much. A couple of storms, half a day of some downpour, and otherwise...very little regular. And we're heading into hot-and-dry season.
CHOOKS:
In August, Goong was in clucky mode for the usual two weeks, came out of it, laid an egg, hasn't done much since. Siyao and Carambah are laying every couple of days. Chouquette's comb is getting red, but she's still not laying!
They get really grumpy when they're not let out of the yard - Chouquette in particular gets exceedingly vocal. Admittedly right now they only have one part of the yard to run around in - I'm trying to grow things in the yard on the other side. Not so successfully, admittedly. Once the chooks get in there, it's really quite difficult to grow anything else.
OBSERVATIONS
APRICOTS are not flowering - again. Interestingly, CHERRY has a branch that looks like it's going to do some blossoms, but that's the only one. The PEACHES and NECTARINES are as usual. PERSIMMON appears to be the 'off' year (biennial, I believe). FOUR-APPLE early grafts aren't flowering at all and the late ones don't seem to be budding either. The TROPICAL DORSETT graft on the DELICIOUS is doing a second flowering.
AVOCADO is back in flower again - still harvesting avos off it, need to pick up the pace. MULTI-CITRUS still has some of the smaller orange fruit on it (and an orange or two). MAKRUT LIME had a huge harvest, but I think it's falling prey to some kind of scale infestation, which need to be treated ASAP. (White oil.)
Big BLUEBERRY is in full flower, medium is half-flower, baby is still stuck in a teeny tiny pot, and the newbie I got given by mum is still sitting in its pot.
Have some SPINACH ends from the shop, but they have this white dust all over them. I washed the dust off when I cooked the original spinach, but i set the spinache ends in water and picked one out today...and it's got all this white dust again! Anyway, after a quick Google, I discovered that the white dust things are trichomes, and they're part of the way spinach grows! How interesting! Okay, good to know - I was thinking it was a mite infestation or something like that!
PREPARATION:
PLUM-STONE: get bed frame wired and into place. Plant out spinach ends.
APPLE-CREPE: eat the brassicas and peas, take frame off, get bed frame wired and into place. Put chooks on for a few weeks.
CREPE-APRICOT: get bedframe wired and into place. Plant CORN, CUCUMBERS, BEANS
APRICOT-AVO: flower meadow (that was the plan, unfortunately the girls getting out and scratching around in it means it's not doing so well right now).
AVO-SHED: Get bedframe wired and into place. Plant...something that doesn't need too much sunlight...
PLANTING
TEA CAMELLIAS and WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY need to be planted out into bigger pots. So do the PINEAPPLES (3).
I planted out a whole slew of seeds during August, with the intent of taking them along to the course I'm teaching this Saturday. Some of it will be planted in the community garden where I'm doing the course, but I'll probably hand out the excess to the participants.
CARE:
TOMATOES that over-wintered need some trimming back and feeding/mulching.
RIPENING
Brassicas all over the place.
HARVEST
Avocados and oranges, mostly. Could do makrut lime shampoo if I had the time/exec function to get on with it.
CARROTS and BEETROOT are harvested. The beets (golden detroit) are super tasty and I regret giving the ones I had away! Carrots are decent, but I already gave away three bunches. Unfortunately the PARSNIPS are disappointing: there wasn't any frost to make them sweet, so they're mostly just starches. I'll harvestthem from the bathtub in the next few weeks, then scatter BASIL seed there as I usually do.
PRUNING
Everything's pretty much pruned back, but the runner grass on the back path needs pulling up and disposing ASAP.
THOUGHTS
TO DO:
treat scale on MAKRUT LIME (possibly also on PERSIMMON?)
properly pot two BLUEBERRIES
properly pot WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY
properly pot TEA CAMELLIA
trim back TOMATOES from overwintering and feed.
This Saturday I am teaching a course at a local community garden, run by the next council over. It's a little terrifying; I can rabbit on quite easily, but I don't know if I want to - it's about learning and drawing people out. There's a garden bed at the community garden that I can plant out and which I've kind of agreed to take over for the next few months - it'll be something of a community plot, possibly also an example of what can be done in a small space. I'm kind of excited but also mildly terrified!
I might make another post with my notes.
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