We had rain!
Finally at last there was 13mm in the rain gauge this morning. Or 1/2 inch/50points for those of old school. This happened last night and it was music to my ears to hear it falling on our corrugated iron roof.
It is amazing how plants respond to rain. This morning I went for a wander around and took some pictures of the veggie garden to share with you all.
I am getting a lot of tomatoes ripening. These are the plants that I almost lost from the heat in January. They came back!
Freshly planted spring onions.
Silver beet and basil.
Spring onions and basil.
Trying to grow ginger.
Garlic shooting up.
Thyme growing in a foam box wicking bed.
I have just transplanted some yarrow into here.
Dragon fruit.
More tomatoes.
Dragon fruit cactus and a self seeded capsicum.
Dragon fruit.
Tomatoes.
Silver beet.
Sage.
More tomatoes
With chives growing underneath.
Amaranth that grew by itself.
Tomatoes I kept in pots during the heat in January. Just starting to get fruit.
Oregano.
Baby spinach. This is so easy to grow and tastes divine!
Celery.
Jerusalem artichoke.
Beetroot.
Yet more silver beet. These are just about finished, so I will be putting more in over winter.
Eggplants are almost finished too. I have picked about fifteen off these bushes, and there are still a couple left.
I am letting this basil go to seed. The bees appreciate the flowers also, there are not many around due to the drought.
Apricot plants ready to go in out in the ground in winter.
The rhubarb is doing really well. Also growing along here are lemon balm, a nectarine tree, a pomegranate tree, lemon verbena and bay leaf tree. All in pots.
The sweet potato is taking over...
More baby spinach.
And sage
planted with the capsicums.
I am picking plenty of these at the moment, they are so juicy and delicious! I eat them like apples J
At a glance...
Sadly the kangaroos have stripped the fruit trees. We need to put a fence all the way around them.
My chomped on rose bush...
I am hoping someone can help me identify this plant. It came up in a pot and I am not sure what it is. It has quite a sturdy trunk and I presume it is a tree of some kind. It is not a caster oil plant. The leaves are soft and light green.
Have a look at this cutie. This is a Thorny Devil and is found in the Australian outback. This little fella was rescued and is now living at a friends place. His diet is ants, and there are definitely plenty of them around here!
Have you been blessed with some rain?
I sincerely hope so.
While we did get rain, this does not mean the drought is over. We need follow up rain because there is no sub soil moisture deep down below. Our last decent rain was June last year, so it has been a while.
I will see you soon with a post about pickling olives. We have just finished pickling seventy five jars.
Until then, take care,
xTania
Hi Tania, Great news about the rain....we had 11.5 ml here and more this afternoon. Rain running into your new tank would be music to your ears. Your plants look amazing and productive. You have done an incredible job keeping everything going so well. Can you tell me about the Dragon Fruit..... I think you may have identified something I found recently in our garden. Thanks for sharing... enjoy the rain. Cheers Jo
ReplyDeleteHi Jo,
DeleteI cant give you too much info about the dragon fruit only because this is my first time growing them. I picked up these pieces last year and they have really taken off now. I know they come in three colours, pink, red, and yellow and I don't know which one I have yet. And they have a gorgeous looking fruit. Mr Google would be your best bet, there is also information on youtube.
xTania
Hi Tania. I'm in Victoria at present where the paddocks and lawns are bright green..(jealous sigh!!) but when I spoke to B this morning he said 6mm fell at home in the Barossa overnight and more is on the way apparently. I hope you too get the follow up rain. What a difference it makes to everything, not just the plants. Still lots of productivity happening in your garden and that thorny lizard is something to behold.
ReplyDeleteHi Sally,
DeleteYes we definitely will need follow up rain, but I don't like our chances by the weather map. Nothing significant showing in the next week.
You probably got quite wet in Victoria. The green will get greener :)
That lizard certainly is an eye catcher!
xTania
Great news about the rain. It does so much more than hours of hand watering ever does. Your little plant looks like a Paw Paw. Have you been eating and composting Paw Paws? We've had enough rain to green things up, but once you start digging in the garden it's still very dry here. Keep an eye out for a camouflage Oka truck around your way in a couple of weeks as we are headed through in a few weeks to spend some time out in some of your glorious desert areas. Regards Sandra James, Dungog, NSW.
ReplyDeleteHi there Sandra,
DeleteMy friend who lives down Port Lincoln way, gave me a young apricot tree and that plant came up with it. So I think you may be right about the pawpaw. I have found information confirming this on google. I am hoping I can keep it alive now...
That's exciting that you are going to be travelling around our area. Are you going to Lake Eyre to see the water? We will be doing that in about a month. We recently went as far as Lake Eyre south and then headed back home through the beautiful outback.
You will find it very dry around out parts.
xTania
Writing from So. Louisiana, USA, the plant does not look our pawpaws, but like a true papaya. Here, we've had too much rain for the last 15 months; so impressive what you've accomplished while waiting 11 months for rain!!! All the best, Laura
ReplyDeleteHi Laura,
DeleteThank you for telling me about papaya tree. I think they may be very similar to the pawpaw. I will have to research further...
xTania
What a marvelous garden you have. And oh, the rain! It makes everything so happy. So far so good on rain for us. But we are known to get long hot dry spells, so there's no way to know. Hopefully we have enough rain water collected to meet the need should it arrive.
ReplyDeleteHi Leigh,
DeleteOur tanks have been topped up so that is good. We wait now for some more rain to turn the countryside green. Its the not knowing that is hard. I think we will still be in drought for the rest of the year, but you never know...
xTania
Hi Tania, I am always so impressed with your garden. Everything looks so healthy and happy. You are an amazing gardener. We had a little rain her the other day. It's been the best year for rainfall since the drought. What a relief! Sorry about the kangaroos getting your fruit trees. I am harvesting artichokes right now.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Stephanie.
DeleteSo glad to hear you have had rain also. The kangaroos are a real problem at the moment because they have no food or water so they are venturing in to find something to eat and drink. Anything green is eaten! We are now getting emus visiting too, as they have run out of food. It is sad to see the animals in such poor condition...
xTania
Tania, I am glad you got some rain. I saw on the news that 65% of Queensland is still drought declared despite the floods in the north west. At the moment there is rain on the forecast for our farmers out west so I hope you get some of that on the way through. We have had some showers here but not enough to really help our farmers nearby I don't think. You grow so much produce for the two of you so I guess you give a lot away. It amazes me what you can grow there.
ReplyDeleteHi Nanna Chel,
DeleteI tend to share excess produce with family members, sometimes there is plenty for all of us. The frosts will arrive soon and that will finish the summer veggies off, just as they are doing so well. Sigh.
xTania
Great work on keeping everything growing in the drought, but of course nothing is like rain!
ReplyDeleteThe rain is a life saver. Fingers crossed for more to follow.
DeletexTania
Glad you got some rain we have had a lot of overnight rain in Brisbane the last few days and my back lawn is very wet.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kathy, yes the rain was definitely much needed.
DeletexTania
Hi. Having been brought up in West Africa I would say that is definitely a pawpaw - we had one in our garden. Lucky you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Julia, I am excited now to know it is a fruiting tree. I will try and find a good spot to grow the pawpaw. Do you know if I need two trees to produce fruit?
DeletexTania
Hello Tania. I'm so pleased you got some rain. Your garden is looking great and those tomatoes look fabulous. Are your blue containers 200 litre barrels cut in half? Whatever they are, I love them. xx
ReplyDeleteGood morning Rhonda.
DeleteYes those are 200 litre barrels cut in half. I decided to go with the wicking barrels and baths after seeing Rob Bob's videos on youtube. I also like the idea of using IBC containers but the outlay to get them and set up is a bit expensive. We were having a lot of trouble from tree roots in my raised garden beds so putting the plants into wicking barrels seemed to be best way. I do have a bit of rising salt happening from our water, so now we have had rain I will use the rain water in the barrels and hopefully that will help with the salt concentration.
xTania
Wow, your garden is amazing! Truly, yes, it's a wonder what a difference rain makes. Don't you just love the smell of it too? So glad to hear, the rain finally made an appearance at your place. Hopefully, the rain will return and hang around for a while - as it did (eventually) here. Took a few months after that initial burst. I concur, with others though, your plant is a Paw paw. Happy gardening. :)
ReplyDeleteHello Chris. We ended up with 22mm all up, so happy with that. There may be more rain this week. These days I believe it when I see it. The rain we did get was not forecast for us, so a pleasant surprise.
DeleteI am looking forward to nursing the pawpaw tree through winter and then finding somewhere suitable to plant it. They don't usually grow around here, so not sure if it will eventually grow.
xTania
Awesome! Bring on the rain. :)
DeleteI can’t wait for your post on pickling olives, I just pickled 8.5kg for the first time, it seems there’s so many ways to do it, it became confusing for me, I’m the end I tried a couple of different ways. I’d love to see how you did yours. Did you grow them yourself?
ReplyDeleteThe olive recipe post is almost done Cheryl, just got to add some photos. We have young olive trees, but at the moment we get our olives from our friend who has a huge tree that is loaded every year! Hubby is the olive man, he rounded up some recipes from Italian friends and then came up with his own method which cuts down the time significantly.
DeletexTania