October 2008 the second hottest after Oct 2003

[Jovial Monk]

I planted trees

2 peach
2 apricot
1 plum
7 apple
12 Shiraz vines
1 Muscat vine
4 other table grape vines
1 cherry
6 citrus (dwarf)
3 bay trees (fresh bay leaves, hmmm!)
2 quandong (one of which FINALLY flowering!)
some decorative trees in front.

Mulch heavily with peastraw, fertilise with manure, have achieved some carbon sequestration and lots fresh delicious fruit. Ten peaches eaten straight off the tree ooohhh so good!

[freediver]

I've got my first crop of mangoes on the tree at the moment. I've also had a bout half a dozen pawpaws ripen, and escape the possums.

[Jovial Monk]

No possums here, just @#&* birds, but they can be netted against. Last two years weather been crap and so was the fruit, last summer it ripened so fast due to unseasonably hot weather that the birds got it before I even knew it was ripening and what I managed to pick was overipe and most got thrown away

CO2 is a greenhouse gas tho and is having effects.

[mantra.]

I planted trees

2 peach
2 apricot
1 plum
7 apple
12 Shiraz vines
1 Muscat vine
4 other table grape vines
1 cherry
6 citrus (dwarf)
3 bay trees (fresh bay leaves, hmmm!)
2 quandong (one of which FINALLY flowering!)
some decorative trees in front.

Mulch heavily with peastraw, fertilise with manure, have achieved some carbon sequestration and lots fresh delicious fruit. Ten peaches eaten straight off the tree ooohhh so good!

Your garden sounds so tasty Dita - even the description you gave of your tomato plants and the delicious meals you make from them. Do you make your own wine as well?

It would be great to have a green thumb though. I have some nut trees - wouldn't have a clue what they are - a plum tree, a fruitless avocado tree that doesn't get enough sunlight and a massive mulberry tree that does give beautiful mulberries - the rest are natives and tropical plants.

My trees and plants look after themselves - they haven't got a choice, so it's the survival of the fittest. I have bore water which I use during the hottest and driest months - but that's mainly for the benefit of the native birds, frogs and other thirsty little creatures.

[Jovial Monk]

No not really, the vines I could grow wouldn't be enough for a reasonable batch of wine. I make mead tho and pyment (honey & grape juice) can be done from the vines I have, could have. Difficult with water restrictions, 2 hours drip irrigation per week isn't much.

[Jovial Monk]

The mulberry tree might make growing other stuff difficult. Roundup is great on weeds Don't compost weeds with seedheads: put them in a big container of water and after a while the 'silage tea' so made can be applied diluted as a foliar feed.

[mantra.]

The mulberry tree might make growing other stuff difficult. Roundup is great on weeds Don't compost weeds with seedheads: put them in a big container of water and after a while the 'silage tea' so made can be applied diluted as a foliar feed.

I don't use chemicals and never would because I've achieved a healthy eco-system of sorts and the weedkiller would harm the frogs. I have a few native grasses that grow randomly, but overall get few weeds because of the lack of sunlight and natural leaf cover. Weeds also get strangled by various native shrubs.

There are a few farmers who have gotten into sustainable farming where they use no chemicals and leave the weeds to grow for long periods of time. This helps repair the soil apparently. We really need to stop using so many poisons and allow nature to reclaim some of our land. So many farms are dry and leached of all minerals and through constantly stripping away every inch of natural vegetation, then adding chemicals, replanting - using more chemicals, more water etc. - the land dies.

In a "drought" ridden country such as Australia, we really need to plant more trees. We are still logging in an unsustainable manner. Even if our gardens and streets had more trees - we would need less water and less energy for cooling our homes and the trees would absorb more of the CO2 rather than us.

[Jovial Monk]

Ah, sorry, misread earlier post. Thought you had a lot of weeds.

Yeah I don't use chemicals apart from roundup--nothing else really copes with the fucking kikuyu grass!
Oh, I tell a lie, I also use Epsom Salt on the tomatoes to stop blossom end rot.

[freediver]

I bought some of that weed n feed stuff more my lawn, but I'm not sure what else it will kill. I've got passionfruit vine growing everywhere, pawpaw seedlings coming up etc.

[mantra.]

That weed n' feed obviously has poison in it. I've heard a few complaints about it. How does it distinguish between the good stuff and the bad stuff?

You must live in a tropical area FD to grow paw paws so easily?

Yeah I don't use chemicals apart from roundup--nothing else really copes with the fucking kikuyu grass!

Kikuyu must be the easiest grass to remove. You just grab the end of it and pull - and out comes a sq. metre of the stuff. Every time you use roundup think of those poor little insects feeding off the grass roots, choking to death on a mouthful of chemicals - then along come the lizards who eat the poisoned insects and begin to die. While the lizards are dying - predatory birds pick them up to take home and feed to their babies. Poison sets off a whole chain reaction of deaths in the insect and animal world.