Thursday, November 19, 2009
Less than thrilled about thrip
Melbourne had its warmest November night on record. Aparently it is nothing too special, we are breaking records in almost every Australian state and poor Adelaide is sweltering with the parts of the state in catastrophic fire danger stages. My folks are heading here for the weekend, so at least they can trade in their 43 degree day for a 34 degree day.
The hot conditions are playing havoc with the balcony garden. Water saving is in full force and the plants are thirsty. They are also covered in thrip, absolutely covered. The leaves, the flowers, the stems, they are spotted with these little brown flea-like bugs. And there is nothing I can do, well nothing except wait. It should cool down on the weekend and then I am afraid I am going to have to spray the lot. Hopefully I can find the resident ladybug and his mate and put them in another garden for the day, and hope that the bees also steer clear for the day.
Thrip are the pits, seriously the pits. But I guess it could be worse, there could be bushfires. Fingers crossed the fireys don't have any work to do today.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
First Tomatoes for the Season
Last year it took until 3rd the of December to get my first tomato, albeit a yellow cherry tomato. This year I picked the first tomatoes (2 of them, pictured above) on the 15th of November! Probably all thanks to the unseasonably hot weather rather than my slightly early planting.
The race to the end was close. The tigerella which I was hoping would win is almost ready to eat, alas this reddening is a few days after the race ended. I knocked one of the tomatoes off the bush and put it in the window to see if it would ripen. It has certainly attained a blush of colour, but it wasn't quite quick enough.
The other hanging pot of yellow cherries looks full of green tomatoes, and it was the winner last year but none were big enough in time.
There was a second cherry tomato that was also beginning to ripen
but it was this one that took it out in the end.
Now to see when the first big tomato will ripen (and when oh when will the mortgage lifter set fruit!?!?!?!)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Harvest Monday
Zucchini has been an interesting producer. I have eaten 3 or 4 large ones any many more smaller ones. It seems to produce many more female flowers to male flowers, and with only one plant at present it has trouble pollinating. In fact at the moment it has 7 flowering female zukes and NO male flowers. Still I managed to harvest four small and rapidly deteriorating zucchinis which I will put into a curry tomorrow night.
Very delicious. Hopefully I remember to get the camera out a bit more often when I grab the produce for the garden. There should be a lot more coming in the future weeks, despite the major bug and other problems.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Garden Bloggers Blooms Day
The pansies seem to have gone from deep purple to white and purple! Very odd
Still the tomatoes are flowering well, when they don't drop off (even though I hand pollinate them.)
The zucchini has gone back to producing only female flowers, which means more baby zukes for my dinner but not any long ones for a proper meal.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Weather Patterns
Maybe it was the champagne from last night but I succinctly remember hearing the barman say that today was only going to reach 27. Trusting his word over any online bureau of meterology (come on that would involve turning the computer on and I was far keener to believe the onset of a slightly cooler snap fed to me by the man with the drinks than bother to turn on my lovely new machine that early in the morning.) On this knowledge I popped out into the garden early in the morning (half seven is early enough for me thanks) and happily fertilised the tomatoes that were turning a hideous shade of yellow, added some seasol to the mix for extra luck and then pyrethrumed pretty much the whole balcony until the spray bottle ran out. This is acceptable to do in weather under 30 degrees. It was only when I wandered into uni and turned the computer on that I realised the barman had either fed me a line about the cooler change or was a little mistaken. Today is going to get to 31, at least, and probably more. The weatherman in The Age says its a tad too difficult to get it exactly right but it is more likely to hit the higher than the lower figure.
Hopefully the garden survives. The roots might burn, the leaves too. Who knows. Fingers crossed and toes crossed at present. In happier news the sunflower opened, pictures coming soon, and I found within it two ladybugs (I made sure the pyrethrum went nowhere near them.) On a second happy note while I was drinking my tea on the balcony I noticed a little native bee hovering on and ducking into the strawberry flowers. Luckily I didn't have enough spray left to get to those otherwise Mr Bee would be a dead bee. Loving that even in this hot weather the bugs are having fun and drinking their version of midnight champagne.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Back to It

It would be rather fun for the fuller fruit to beat the cherry in the race to my dinner plate, and odds are surprisingly in the tigerella's favour. The other tomatoes are growing taller and fuller but still not setting much fruit. These pictures represent only a fraction of the 25 tomato plants on the balcony garden (19 full sized in pots, 6 tumblers in hanging pots.)
The zucchini keeps on producing, although hand pollination and thrip have again set back the production of fruit. Still baby zucchinis are so much fun to eat, when put with broccoli, snowpea and silverbeet infused lentils, roast apples and pork they make an odd happy face (and tasty dinner.)
And some gratuitous scenery shots of the prom. It was such a lovely trip! I do hope to get back to Wilson's Prom again one day, or at the very least back to the beach house, it was such awesome value and perfect for our little group weekend away (especially because I got the room with bunk beds! Such a grown up balcony gardener, hehe.)
Friday, November 6, 2009
Update
Will update this blog quick smart, as soon as I play with this fun new thing and get the photographs of the garden transfered. Thanks everyone for the kind words while I was whinging about my lack of usable computers. Pretty tomato pics on their way ...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Laptops, Halloween, Leaf Miners and Photos
Anyway yesterday I posted about the Gazanias and other leaf miner victims in the balcony garden. It seems though that the balcony garden is not alone. As I was wandering into Uni I noticed several weeds on the way that were similarly afflicted. Plants too on campus seemed to have occasional signs. This is not somehing I have noticed before. Beginnings of a leaf miner epidemic in Melbourne?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
RIP Gazanias
Now they are gone, victims of a newly rigid policy against leaf miner! Gone too are 4 of the 6 sunflowers. Not happy Jan!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
While I Was Away
The balcony garden was neglected while I was away but given the reasonably cool but sunny days it managed to survive (though quite wilted by the time I got back.)
One amazing thing did happen while I was away - the lego people renovated! They now have a swimming pool, a kebab guy on the balcony, a sweeping staircase, a garage and a front garden!



















