I went to the gardens to water the fruit trees today. It seems the twice-weekly deep-soaking is doing them good. That, and the extra mulch we loaded onto them on the weekend, should help the soil to hold moisture and stay cool. I did notice a few things while there worth noting: A few trees are shooting from below the graft - we need to keep an eye on this as we do not want them returning to their ‘root stock’. I also spotted some telltale ants running up and down certain trees (generally the citrus). They are ‘farming’ scale; a slight infestation will not hurt but, again, we need to keep an eye on them. At this stage the scale are easily removed but if it gets more serious we might consider using some eco-oil. The garden is hosting some weird and wonderful bugs too; the most colourful seen today being the caterpillar of the Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly (commonly known as 'Citrus Butterfly')
Both the caterpillar and the butterfly are awesome looking creatures. We only seem to have few so I think the rewards outweigh the costs at this point in time, so ‘live and let live’.
The harvest from the garden continues to impress. Kathy and I gathered cucumbers (both apple and Lebanese), eggplant, MORE zucchinis (or, in a few cases ‘marrows’) and a couple of small baskets of beans – 350 grms of which went home with me. They made their way into a warm beetroot (the last of my own summer crop roasted), bean, walnut and fetta salad. The basis of the salad came from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5181/warm+beetroot+bean+walnut+salad if anyone wants to take a look. It’s a true and tested favourite of mine.
One final note, the hot weather might have gone but the rain has not yet returned, so we need to keep up the watering. The fruit trees and passionfruit are covered, as are the pumpkins thanks to Vince, but if you can get along to water the veggie beds please do so!
See those of you who can make it along on Thursday.
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