Summer Time

As the summer approaches and it really heats up there is still lots of things going in a tropical garden.
I planted some dwarf green beans in late september and they are comming on nicely at present.

My climbing beans I also planted last week have'nt sprouted, I'm not sure why but they may not be fertile?
I've slowly established a strawberry garden having found a spot they seem to like, they are still producing some small strawberries. I'll just keep them watered over the wet and come April will dig them up spread them out and replant for the winter crop.

I got some Marigold seeds and planted them in late August and they are almost ready to flower. Marigolds add vibrant colours and attract benificial insects to the garden.

I have some chicory growing nicely - however wer'e finding it very bitter when added to salads so most of it is going to the chooks. I'm told it needs to be harvested when very young, but the leaves are so tiny when young mabe not worth the effort.
With a little extra patience they make a good addition to the salad bowel.

The capsicum planted back in April has been producing for 5 months now, and even in the middle of October it's still flowering and fruiting, a fantastic addition to a garden in Cairns.



As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I planted(Aug 26th) Soya beans. The pods have now formed nicely and I'll just watch and see how they develope.
The small grape tomatoes were planted back in april and also still producing though in limited amounts compared to mid winter but have by far outlasted the larger tomatoes.

I planted a bed of corn(see previous blog) straight after taking out the cucumber from that bed. They have been developing well and hopefully ready by mid November.

I have developed an egg plant garden over the winter by grafting black beauty variety onto what's know as "Devils Foot" ( see previous blog for detailed how to) I now have about 8 plants. I'm just starting to harvest some fruit.


The green onion you see in the picture below was grown from the roots of onion bought from the supermarket. So next time you buy green onion use the tops and go out and plant the roots. Its grows very well!

This is a pile of palm frods with the hard stem taken out ready to go into the chook pen - then run over with the mower and composted and added to the garden. The constant addition of organic matter keep things growing nicely.(See previous blogs)


Finally a new project I'm doing maily born of necessity to stop water seeping into my house during the wet. "A low light garden" I want to includes some evolutionary plants. Plants evolved from green algae 450-470 million years ago. Gradually making it onto land first with seedless non vascular plants(Brophytes)Then gradually gaining a vascular system with the lycopodes. Then the ferns, gymnosperms and finally the dominate Angiosperms. I'll try to represent some of these evolutionary lines in this garden.

Coments or any new garden info always welcome!