It was a bitterly cold day (for Brisbane) when standing in the wind at soccer - but once I was out of the wind and in the sun back at home, it was just perfect for gardening.
Which was a good thing because I really needed to get some planting done.
The strawberry hanging garden & strawberries arrived in the post a couple of days ago. They recommend planting straight away, but I had to get some potting mix first. So, as per the instructions, the strawberries were watered and put in the fridge. Today I planted them & hung the garden up. This is what it looks like.
I also got busy and planted all the rest of the fruit trees - six plants.
I was only able to get all this done because SMD decided to take J4 & L6 for a walk up Mt Coot-tha. They asked if I wanted to go, but were happy for me to stay & continue gardening if I wanted. I don't think I say often enough how wonderful he can be.
Anyway - back to the fruit trees - on four of them (the three I planted last week and one today) I have put Eco Bags, which automatically drip water the plant, and act as a mulch, and insulate the soil, maintaining a more even temperature. Here is a picture of the newly planted Dwarf Cox's Orange Pippin Apple tree with one in place.
Orange, Mandarin, Lemon, Lime, Fig, 2 Apples, Guava, Pomegranate, Raspberry, Blackberry, Native Peanut Tree, Burdekin Plum (I think), Dragonfruit & Passionfruit.
I still want to add a couple of red pawpaw. And I have two Midyim berry (a local native) to plant. There are a couple of other bush food plants but they are unlikely to supply significant amounts of food stuff - they are more for interest really.
I also planted some more potatoes, Royal Purple and Pontiac. When I lifted the hessian bags which were acting to keep weeds down I discovered lots of termites in the strawbale bed. Not a worry, or really a surprise. The termite man said we would have termites in our forest mulch within a year - but not to worry about it as it is well away from the houses. Elsa had a lovely feed on them, and the huge juicy worms I dug up while planting the trees!
But I have lost some veges. When I went to water them this evening I realised that the Bush Turkey which had visited today had been digging in a couple of the beds. I knew it would happen. Just wish I had put the net up last week. Mr Skivvy is coming over with the A-frame ladder first thing in the morning to help - I don't want to lose anymore.
I finished working at sunset, 5.15pm, and by the time SMD & the kids got home I was showered and had tidied the house. Sounds like they had a good time - they found that an Oxfam fundraiser was going on when they arrived - so they had dinner there before coming home. The boys were fast asleep when they got back.
A fantastically productive day!
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