Buckwheat has been a useful crop for me, and I’m sure it will be one of the staples here. I’ve planted a few stands, starting back in Winter, so I’m getting a feel for growing buckwheat in our conditions.
Read MoreCategory: Country life
Can a fungus be rude?
Here’s a bit of late Summer wildlife from the veggie garden. Demonstrating our innate need to make sense of what we see, mycologists have named this genus of fungi Phallus. It’s doing well on the decomposing grass in my plot down on the Mid-levels, and sends up a fruiting body every week or so. This morning I saw what appeared to be two squid rings sitting on the grass (outside the veggie patch fence), and then realised that they were Phallus fruiting bodies that had been neatly eaten off. I’d…
Read MoreBiological control?
It’s nice to see that caterpillars sometimes eat the weeds too. This mallow burr is a major weed here, and comes up on any disturbed ground. It gets up to 2 m high and has burrs that stick firmly to any fabric. Fortunately it’s relatively easy to pull, when young, but I was delighted to see some caterpillars helping me with the job. This caterpillar is in my old school colours, too! Green, black and gold, and even the red head fits with the later addition of the red house. Biological control…
Read MoreSandpaper fig
This attractive tree is growing on our driveway, decorated with its red fruit. There are a few sandpaper figs locally, but this is the rainforest (upland) species Ficus fraseri. The creek sandpaper fig, Ficus coronata, has edible fruit, but these ones just taste recognisably figgy – thats as far as I’d go for palatability, although the fruit bats love them and land for a feed every evening. By the way, the name is for real. The leaves are very finely rough and can be used for sanding wood. I think…
Read MoreSunflower harvest.
This week I started the sunflower harvest in earnest. I’ve grown sunflowers before but harvesting them is new to me. Sites I visited said that they are harvested earlier than I would expect, some say as soon as the heads turn down or turn brown on top.
Read MoreRed Aztec maize
Red Aztec maize is worth growing just for the wow factor. The deep red cobs look great, and I couldn’t resist them from the seed catalogue. I had everything to learn about growing maize, and it’s been an interesting crop, but the first lot of cobs are mature now. From the main picture you can see that they’re not the big, full cobs one might hope for, but with this lot I would at least recover my seed.
Read MoreJanuary harvest
The second half of January has seen the picking season move from just a few items to plenty. My parents were visiting for a couple of weeks and Mum made me this arrangement of a day’s takings.
Read MoreMung bean early harvest
The mung bean bed was a spur of the moment thing that paid off. I had a bed dug at the mid levels and a pack of mung beans that had beetles, which I was using for sprouts for the chickens. So I took a handful of beans down and tossed them on.
Read MoreSowing into no-dig beds
With another series of rain days forecast, it seems a good opportunity for sowing into no dig beds that I made a few weeks ago. We have been busy with visitors for that time, so yesterday was my first chance to get down and have a look at how the hay rows are doing.
Read MoreChristmas trees
With Christmas coming in the longest Summer days, Australia and New Zealand have a range of trees that flower spectacularly now, and so are called ‘Christmas trees’, even though most houses have a plastic or even real pine tree over the presents.
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