Our #gardenjournal continues as we start to slide into Winter in Oz. Here's an entry for the challenge for May
With my birthday coming up (30 again!),and winter coming, I've been thinking about the seasons and time itself. Not that horrible clock stuff, but real time in all its rubbery, stretchy glory.
The transition of the seasons is well under way.This season is called 'Parnati' in our local Kaurna language. It means 'the windy time' and we sure are seeing some of that. There is a lot sunlight making its way through the canopy as the Sun dips on the horizon, little pools and arrows of it dart around the garden.
It's the time when imported trees from the northern hemisphere stop producing chlorophyll and the leaves shift from greenn to Autumn reds and yellows. They do this because the chlorophyll is what gives them energy from sunlight. Why bother making it during a time when there's little sunlight. So, the green goes away and the red and yellow stay. Why bother having leaves in those conditions either? Off come the leaves for us to compost and make leaf mould from.
That means that one of the busiest times in Ligaya Garden is coming up - pruning time.
As with last year, I'll be pruning to reduce the size of the trees to allow more light to the soil level but I'll also be pruning with a view to productivity and grafting. I have Andrew from Joe's Connected Gardens coming out to advise me on the job. We prune twice a year. Once in Winter to reduce vigour and once in Summer for shape. Plus I'm always snipping here and there to make minor adjustments.
All of the seasonal vines that we planted to shade the house need to come out and that means a big job cleaning their bioponics beds of their root systems. Sane for the Tomatoes too but they will be later, they're still fruiting heavily. The Hops is beginning to go dormant. We got a huge harvest from that, even though I only take about two thirds of the cones.
Across the board, gardeners I have spoken too are confirming my observations for last season. It was late in many cases. Some varieties of Capsicum.and Eggplant are just flowering! Whether they'll g8ve fruit remains to be seen. Beans too are late in many cases and don't talk to local growers about Pumpkins! It has been a season of male flowers, with hardly a female to be found. Hand pollination makes no difference of there's nothing to pollinate!
Many (non pumpkin type) Asian Melons, though, have been fruiting like crazy! We ended up giving away kilos of Long Melon and the Bitter Melon hasn't stopped. Luffas and Pumpkins, though ...nada.
One good thing about the seasons is that Mushrooms abound already. Its an early season for them and some never stopped. My favourite is out and about in droves - Scotch Bonnets. They're the earliest of the edibles to make themselves known locally.
This is the time to fertilize for Winter. Adding fertilizer now, while the ground's still warm and the microbes active means that the nutrients will be broken down into plant digestible forms and the plants get a good feed before the cold brings a change in soil fauna and chemistry.
The chooks have finished moulting, so they'll have nice warm feathers to help them stay warm during the cold. I have a strip of LED lights in the chicken house. Tha's connected to a solar panel on tje chook run roof. It only shines in the daytime, bringing a little extra light to the chook run. That was designed for shade and cooling in Summer, so gets a little dark in Winter.
Most exciting of all is that it's nearly Apple time. Some folks don’t know it but if you leave Granny Smith's on the tree until they go yellow, they are juicy and so sweet - a long way from the tart green stage that folks pick as cooking apples.
How's your Winter transition going?
I have a bitter melon which is producing only male flowers. I've been waiting for the female flowers forever and wondering what I've done wrong. Those long gourds look humongous.
Enjoy your apples.
I'll love the apples when they're ready! I don't actually know much about bitter Melons, it's my first year growing them successfully. A lot of mel9ns have mostly male fk9we4s first, then the females come.
Wow! Those upon (in our own language) the one you are holding in both arms are so big and so long. It means the soil is healthy and it likes the weather.
They're loving the bioponics and are almost as big in the garden beds. Jelina certainly is happy to be reminded of her birthplace this year
Wow, wish you to have a very abundant harvest. The fruit of the vegetable is very big in size😅
It surprised us with the size too!
I absolutely love the photo of you with the melons 😁 Your smile shows how proud you are.
Jelina certainly was happy! They remind her of her birthplace
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