this week

Hello friends.

It has been an interesting week in our neck of the woods. To date from late Wednesday we have had 95.5mm {376points) of rain, with Thursday being the day we received the most. Yesterday and today there have been showers on and off all day and it has been so cold! The cold will be here for a couple more days and then it should warm up again.

The plants have received a huge drink and this will be a boost for them leading into summer.

I planted pumpkin seeds and they are really doing well at the moment. I struggle to grow these most years because the heat ruins them while they are developing. I am hoping for better results this year. I dug a couple of holes and filled them with aged manure, popped in some seeds, watered and mulched. These are planted near the orange tree so I am hoping they will get some shade from the hot afternoon sun. I have planted butternut, ironbark and spaghetti squash. I am going to separate some of these as I didn't expect them all to come up. But come up they did, especially after the rain last weekend.

Tiny figs are appearing at last.

Gifted beetroot seedlings in different beds.

And these tomato plants were also gifted from the same friend.

Lebanese cucumber ready to pick.

Still getting zucchini.

Eggplants are taking off now.

Fresh crop of lettuces. I love growing these, they is so easy and tasty.

I planted dwarf beans, but have already lost a couple of seedlings. They look good to start with, then just shrivel up and die for some reason.

I squashed and buried a tiny tomato the other day and now the seeds have sprung up.

The dragon fruit are growing out of control. I never got to prune all these this year, but the ones I did get to are shooting everywhere and heading for the roof.

Not a huge crop of blueberries, but they are getting better each year.

I placed another gifted grapevine to train up the trellis on the outside of the veggie patch.

We have water in our salt lake out back. Even more there now after this last lot of rain.

I harvested my first pigeon pea seeds.

This coleus is growing up against my window, it seems to love this spot. Its hard to get a photo without background reflections.

Pale pink succulent flowering.

Portulaca.

Native Eremophila in flower, so pretty. This shrub has spiky leaves.

A special visitor to the veggie patch.

I have had to cover some of the veggie beds with bird netting to keep the destructive black birds from scratching all the dirt and plants out. And from eating my strawberries, they have discovered how good they taste!

Because of Mum being ill, I never got around to eating the spring onions this year, so I left them, along with chives and a couple of leeks to flower. This attracts native pollinators like the blue banded bee and others. 

The last of the sage flowers for this year.

The yarrow just coming into flower.

Old bushes, new tomatoes.

There are a lot of baby cucumbers forming. These are Lebanese.

And a baby continental.

The climbing spinach is back! Otherwise known as Malabar spinach or Ceylon spinach. 

And these are all the seeds left behind from the spinach last year. Normally I would have collected them by now and saved them for later.  Will get to that job soon.

Nearly time to harvest and dry lemon balm. This is nice made into a herbal tea.

I have potted up some volunteer parsley plants for my daughter.

More pumpkin pictures, they grow really fast after rain.

And the grapes are doing well considering I was really late pruning them. I think I will cover these with netting this year so I actually get some.

Pretty flowering gum for the bees. I think this is a coral gum.

And a faint rainbow from yesterday just after a sun shower.

Saturday...

It was beetroot making time today. Once cooked and in jars, I water bath them for thirty minutes to make them shelf stable. I had seven jars but one cracked while in the hot water, so only ended up with six.

I have more lettuce growing in a foam wicking box. It is growing outside my side door from the kitchen so nice and handy, just need to prevent the birds from eating it.

I lost my artichoke plant last year when I tried to transplant it, so I bought another one and popped it in the ground along a dripper hose.

Native hibiscus...

My basil seeds are up...

The dill is growing, hoping it doesn't bolt on me.

Whilst looking for strawberries today, I found this fungi growing in among them.

Really healthy looking strawberry plants.

This is what the black birds do to my garden beds. I am going to have to net everything at this rate!

We had more showers of rain pass through today.

We are a little waterlogged now...

Sundown today. The pretty colour changes on the nearby hills of the Flinders Ranges.

Have you received rain at your place? It seems to be pretty widespread.  What an unusual year we are having.

xTania