Garden protection

Spring brings lots of life and growth. There were two tomato plant from last season, which surprisingly survived the cold winter. And because of the possum problem around the backyard, I never had any harvest apart from one tiny tomato that survived the possum rampage. 

So when the two surviving tomato plant started blossoming and grew, I was just glad to see that maybe Ic an have a harvest again!

I had a pleasant surprised last weekend when I realised one of the tomato plant is actually a Grape tomato! (Something like a cherry tomato) 

Look! Can you see the little grape tomato there?  Unfortunately one week after this photo is taken,it's been eaten by the possums =(

Moving on to the other tomato plant, there are also many signs of good harvest this year. However....

Look at what happened to the neighboring sweet potato leaves! >_<

I was so looking to harvest them, and it's bulldozed by the possums. 

Even this little lime plant next to my Limey is also not spared.

Oh no oh no... How how...

I need to protect my tomatoes! 

So I found a temporary solution. 

Until Eric comes up with a better solution, hope it will stop them from eating my tomato plant. 

Kcan

Tumbler the compost bin.

Welcome to Spring! The nasty winter is finally over. Yay! This year, winter was the coldest for me because of the travelling between the houses and both the houses had very poor insulation. So I am actually looked forward to having warm sun and lots of sunlight around. The last month of winter had been very wet and windy. The laundry was piling up so high in the basket. Looking forward to having the sun out in the coming week.

Last weekend, even though Eric was unwell, he wanted to put the compose bin up to 'cheer himself up'.

My dear Eric, he loves going to Aldi for good bargains. Last year, he read about the different kinds of compost bins. The different designs, different rate of composting, ease of use.... And did I mention about worm farm?

And of course, the price difference can range from $30- >$150. 

So last week, Aldi came out with the gardening sale. And it includes a tumbling compost bin!

And before I knew it, Eric had bought a set and pack it nicely in the car. >_<

What's so cool about the tumbling compost bin?

Turning the compost had never been easier. And oh my, Eric had a fun time turning it like those lottery draw special numbers. 

It has handles all around the bin for easy turning. But the inside part of the 'handle' allows for maximum air circulation for composting. 

The bin has two compartment. So we can fill up one side first, then when it is full, allow it to be composted for two months, and still have another compartment to do more accumulation. So the door can be slide from one side to the other easily to access the compost. 

The compost bin is lifted up from the floor, so any rats, or possums, will not be able to dig through to find scraps. And also prevent worms to grow.

It has many small vents around for circulation, so it will help prevent smells.

And the best of all, the bin itself is made from 100% recycled plastic! And no, it is not made in China. To our surprise, it is actually made in Canada! So yes, we are quite impress with this purchase.

A tumbling compost bins are normally the higher end of the compost bins range. But because it is from aldi, it is at a low price of <$100.

Overall, I'm glad that Eric is such a handy man who can put things together in no time. Looking forward to getting my first compost in two months!

Kcan

Harvest: long bean

What a joy it is to know of the existence of the long bean plant for just 2days and I can harvest it today!

It's now safely in the fridge keeping fresh as I want to wait for a few more days for more harvest. 

Oh my, so exciting!

Kcan

It's a long bean!!

I had a surprise today when I went around my vege pots.
Long beans!!!

I had always wondered what plant that was in the same pot as my corn plants. It was bulldozed when the possums attacked it many months ago. So it took a while for it to regrow it's leaves, and started spreading.

Spreading??

Yes, it was spreading everywhere! I had a hunch that it was a 'capsicum plant' because I had been pouring water with capsicum seeds in there to the various pots when watering plants. And there were a few others in my 3 tier plant pots that is now fruiting capsicum. So therefore, I thought I had another lot of capsicum plant in my corn pot.

But what mystify me was that, a capsicum plant, like the chilli plant, is a 'tree' structure. BUT this 'mystery plant' creeps n spreads Everywhere! I thought it must have regained more 'energy' from it's bulldozed incident, that it wanted to grow n spread more. haha.

Anyhow, I noticed it was flowering, so I went to peep at the flowers when I realised there are many 'strings' hanging down from the stems!!!

Will update with the photos later in the day. =D

kcan

Commercially bought vs home grown

In addition to yesterday's harvest, I noticed something interesting.

As pictures speaks more than words, I'll let you see it for yourself. 

So happens that I have both lime n tomato from shops to compare. Those I've grown are so much smaller!

Kcan

Tomato harvest

My little tomato harvest from the garden.

After many months of watering, fertilizing, chasing away the possums, and jet spray away the white fly, here's the fruit of the labour. 

Have you had fresh tomatoes? They smells so good! Full of flavour, unlike the ones you get from the shops. 

A good tip, never store your tomato in the fridge. It will loose all it's wonderful flavor.

Kcan

Photo blog

My harvest from the garden!!

First little Japanese cucumber. 

Donoe why, but it is round instead of long. 

Here's how it looks like when cut. Just like a normal cucumber. =)

We bought an outdoor parasail for the new place over Christmas. We only open the box today.

Here's the 60kg worth of concrete for the sail. Cost $60! $1/1kg?!

And here's our massive shade in the front yard. It's 4 m in width. (Thus needing such huge base for support)  Unlike the concrete base, the sale was on massive discount of $30!!! We bought an outdoor table with chairs to go along with the shade, but we realised it was not well put together =(   

And because it was a discontinued item, we could not get an exchanged, only a refund. How good it will be to sit under here for summer lunch....

Kcan

My vege pots

Some time last year, I threw scraps of veges into the soil of my lime tree for compost. And behold, the corn kernels sprouted and out came my corn seedlings!

Here are my two precious miracles and it is beginning to fruit!

Look at the hairy bush on the stem, that's my baby corn nicely wrapped in there. =D 

I had to put the fencing there to scare off the nasty possum.

My poor tomato plant that was bulldozed by the possum few months back. Finally grew some leaves back.

Sweet potato leaves are my favourite! But they are still too small for any decent harvest. =( 

They were a favourite of the possum too, so it's hiding under the mesh as well.

My Japanese cucumber! Donoe what but it turned out to be round in shape instead of long.... Haha.

There's a few small ones fruiting soon too!

My hanging tomato plant!

Oh my, the possums learned how to use the planter box underneath it as a stool to jump off and eat my tomatoes. Need to hang them higher now. These are the 2nd crop of the season.

This is how the tomato plant hangs, in case you are wondering...so it's up sided own.

Quite confusing for the plant I think... As you can see, one of the plant refused to be pulled down by gravity!

My herbs tiers are growing ok. The basils and mints are growing extremely well, but ubfortunately the mints were frequently targeted by while fly or caterpillars... *annoyed*

The spring onions keep us constantly supplied with spring onions..lol... And we had a good harvest of corianders too.

Then one day, another mystery plant sprouted mysteriously, and we were wondering what it will become. It's creeping everywhere, and it started flowering recently. I think it is a pumpkin plant!

Not sure if there will be pumpkin harvest, as I don't see any female flowers, only male flowers.

It will be a bonus if a pumpkin grows!

That's all the report from my garden. Hope I can get some fruity harvest soon! Gotta keep an eye out for the annoying possum. Hump!

Kcan

Kidney belt

Aching back is still bothering me for the last few days, despite cutting down on lifting n bending. God had always showed great surprises to aid our needs by having things on sale in ALDI. Aldi is a German supermarket that sells regular common groceries plus weekly special items, ranging from grdening tool, laundry needs, winter clothings, baby accessories, painting and hardware....
And these items will only be on sale for the limited time.

Back to my story...
God had always been graceous and through miraculous ways, to the point that things we needed would be out for sale in the coming week or so. Like the painting tools we bought for painting the house, electric tools which we got earlier in the year for the wood work, grouting tools for the tiles, drills n drills bits when we were fixing the kitchen window frame, silicon for the toilet.....
And now, the kidney belt for my aching back!

What is a kidney belt?

It's actually a padded cloth belt that is meant for motor bike riders while ridding. Suppose to give some support and warmth while ridding. But for me, I'm using it to help keep my lower back warm andsupported while I'm at home. I had found that my aching back would felt cold, especially during the last winter. I hope that with this it will help reduce the aching.

Spring is now well and truely on its way. The weather is a lot warmer with longer periods of sun. Yay! Can leave the washings out for longer period of time and it means less carring the clothes rack in n out of the house, cause the clothes will all dry in a day.

My little garden is also thriving with life with the new found warmth. The salads are now flowering to get ready for seeds, while my snow pea had just produced its first pea! *ecxiting*

Not sure why but when my lettuce decided to flower, they grew so tall!

Look forward to more growth from my snow pea plant! 

Mushroom flower??

Now, I had always wanted to re-pot the strawberries plant which MIL had grown. Reason being it was in a big foam box which had degraded overtime. It had became so brittle that if you tried to move it, it will just break apart. Like all the other junk around the strawberry box, it just lies on the floor, making the wide path from the laundry looks dirty (from the soil that spills out and Possum's dropping all around) and cluttered.

Anyhow, I had noticing for a month or so, mushroom growing in and among the strawberries! 

White round mushrooms. Then recently, I realised something strange happening to the mushrooms.

I thought there was a Spiderman's disc (it's RED and BLUE!) that flew across the fence from the neighbour's house which landed in the strawberry box. But on a closer look, it was growing FROM the mushroom! *shock*

It looks really creepy I tell you. It looks as if the mushroom had 'exploded'. 

Eric had no idea that mushroom will 'flower' either. So off to the Mr Google we search. We were worried that it is a new species that 'evolved' from this dirty place. haha 

Finally after many days of search..... We found the answer! It was not easy k! Cause when ever we typed Mushroom n Flower into the search engine, we came to the results that says: Mushroom don't flower. 

LOL. Yesh, of course I knew! I was a biology student. >_<

Anyhow, I decided to look through the Fungi images in Google and I found a match!

Star fungi they are called, or Aseroe Rubra. 

Apparently, they are a little like the giant flower Rafflesia! It gaves out this rotten smell to attract animals and insects to come and disperse it's spores but it is poisonous.

**interesting... Because there had been a signifant decrease in Possums activities around that area lately**

I'm contemplating into whether or not to throw away this whole box of strawberries as I don't think the star fungi is doing good to the strawberries because of the poison it had. Maybe I should wait till I get some off-cuts that survives before throwing the whole box away. 

Wonder what other weird things I can find in this garden. 

kcan