Sunday, April 20, 2008

A jungle in the middle of a paddock!

See what I mean! We have been living here for just over 3 years now, and when we bought the place there was a house in the middle of a paddock, nothing else. Since shifting here we have built fences and seperated out the land into smaller paddocks. I have also attempted to establish a vege garden which will have all the veges and flowers and fruit trees in. The idea was to keep them all fairly close together so that they are all easier to look after! Unfortunately being in the middle of a paddock means the area is pretty exposed to wind! So it is slow going to get things established. We have planted trees as shelter, and I am soooooo impatient waiting for them to grow!
The photo above shows my tomatoes! It's just one big 'free-for-all'. My aim this weekend was to make some headway into clearing some of this. I picked most of the tomatoes, (and made a large pot of soup last night, mmmm). But there are also cape gooseberries growing in there too!
I did manage to find some raspberries ripening while I was exploring. These vines are growing in my strawberry garden, and I think I need to dig them out and plant them in the ground somewhere else. I have a funny feeling they may just want to take over the strawberries!
Last spring I planted 9 fejoa plants as a hedge along one end of the garden space. They have struggled to grow, but are growing some fruit! I love fejoas, one of my favourite fruits, and they are ripe in winter. I checked my plants and I have 6 fejoas coming. This is amazing, and I should pick them off now so that the goodness goes into growing good strong trees, but I love the fruit toooo much!
Finally this is my strawberry plot. I found one strawberry yesterday, but basically they are finished now. I have lots of runners everywhere, and am not sure what I should do. I think they are usually happy to stay in one plot for 2 or 3 years and then need throwing away and starting new with the runners. I did think that I should plant some of the runners up into planter bags, as these might make nice gifts? Last year I planted 2 peach trees an apricot and a necterine tree. They are all looking well, so this week I am going to order 2 plum trees, an almond tree and a manderine tree for spring delivery. I can't wait to be able to pick our own fruit!
I hope you are all having a great weekend!

"Bacon and eggs. A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig!'

3 comments:

Fannie said...

Abundance! Thanks for sharing.

Barb's Blurbs said...

Carol, can you tell me more about the fejoa? How do you prepare it and what does it taste like? Fruit or vege? Most interesting I must say!

Barb in Selah, WA

morningDove said...

I wish I had more land to plant fruits. Your pics made my mouth water.