This is the first time in years that we have grown a crop of pumpkins. Last spring we got six pumpkin plants growing from seeds that we had saved from a store bought piece of butternut pumpkin. We actually thought that we would only need about three or four plants but we put in six because often some seeds don’t germinate. They all did and we ended up with six very strong plants! They soon got going and quickly took over a large section of the vegetable patch. For a long while we only ever … [Read more...]
Frost Protection for Plants
Over the last few months we have planted a few new plants that are labelled as ‘frost tolerant once established’ - meaning they require frost protection in their early years. Some of these plants are leucadendrons which we have experience with. They seem to cope with the frosts that we get in our region just fine without any protection. One plant that we are a bit worried about however is a waratah (Shady Lady Red) which was planted out in the garden during spring last year. We have never … [Read more...]
May Gardening 2014: What’s Going on in My Garden!
Well now that we are getting towards the middle of autumn, and May is almost upon us, it is really starting to get cool. We have even had a couple of mornings so cold that we have had frost warnings! And as April comes to an end we now have to turn our attention to the many May gardening jobs that need to be done. One of the more major jobs that we will be doing in our garden during May will be to plant out some of the ornamental shrubs that we currently have in pots. We always seem to … [Read more...]
Drying Gourds for Decoration
Once you have successfully grown some gourds the next step is to dry them. Here I share what I have learnt about drying gourds for decorative uses. A couple of years ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you much at all about gourds. I had seen the cute little pumpkin like fruit that are often used in decoration but I didn’t really know what they were. My mum became interested in them when she started learning about floral art and that is when I found out what a gourd was! We had … [Read more...]
April Gardening 2014: What’s Going on in My Garden!
Well we have just said goodbye to March and it is now time to start thinking about the April gardening jobs that need doing. I can’t believe that April is here already – I still haven’t done some of the jobs that I planned to do in March! Despite being well into autumn we have still been having some nice weather over the last few weeks. Earlier this week we even got up into the thirties, which is quite hot for this time of year. It is starting to feel a bit more like autumn these last couple … [Read more...]
March Gardening 2014: What’s Going on in My Garden!
Gee hasn’t March come around fast! Seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the New Year and now we are talking about March gardening! The weather has certainly changed in the last two to three weeks. The days have been just lovely lately with the temperature only getting into the high twenties or early thirties. The garden is also enjoying a break from the heatwaves that we had in January and early February. Now that things have cooled off a bit we can now finally start … [Read more...]
Growing Watermelon at Home
If you have never tried growing watermelon it can seem quite daunting. Here I share some great information on how to care for and harvest watermelons. I had never even thought about growing watermelon until earlier this year. That is because we didn’t actually plant any watermelon seeds. Despite this we had four watermelon plants come up in our garden. We’re not sure exactly where they came from; maybe the compost – but we usually don’t put watermelon seeds in the compost! Perhaps they … [Read more...]
February Gardening 2014: What’s Going on in My Garden
Oh my goodness it has been hot these last few weeks! A week or so ago we had a run of 5 days over 40 °C and the last few days have been really hot too. It has been so hot lately it has been hard to think about what February gardening jobs might need doing besides watering the plants! We reached 41 yesterday, 42 today and we have another hot day tomorrow coming up before we get a much needed cool change. We have basically been spending our days indoors because it has been just too hot to work … [Read more...]
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!