They look good. Are you going to be able to eat all the melons yourself, or are you sharing them around?
They look good - you will have to show us some inside pics too. What area are you in and how many vines do you have?
Why do zucchini have to be so scratchy? I've just been out trimming and tying up my plants and have scratches all over my arms. They are being quite prolific though, I have a load of slices in the dehydrator to grind for flour and took 8 up to the local food cupboard. The button squash have not grown so well, but it looks like I miight have one soon. Better than nothing I guess.
I have also harvested my first beans of the season - only four today, but I suspect I will be swamped soon. The climbing beans are paticularly rampant this year, so once they start producing I will definitely have more than I can handle. The tomatoes are still not ripening, but I have a lot of green fruit and flowers. I guess it just needs to hit the right temperature for them, and then I am going to be overrun with those too.
I am extra excited that I have some capsicum fruits, I've never had much success with those before. The same with the eggplant, they have lots of flowers which will hopefully become fruit, something I've never managed before.
I don't think I'll be getting any loofahs this year - the vine is alive, but has been growing so slowly I don't think it will get big enough to produce anything. Not sure why, the pumpkin nearby is going really strongly (although my plans to grow it onto the top of the shed are not going to work out as the leaves that get that high are being eaten, presumably by possums). Another pumpkin variety in the front yard is now growing onto the roof of the carport, leaving the lattice on the side of the carport for the sweet potatoes which are growing very strongly, and hopefully forming lots of nice tubers under the ground for me.
Surprisingly I have some wombok growing really well in spite of the number of cabbage moths around this year - I'm not sure how long it takes to form the heart, but it is definitely starting to form.
I suspect rats of eating all of the sunflower seeds and my carrrots last year. Little bugger also stole all of my chilis - I located it's nest and it was stuffed full of them! I've done a lot of clearing of areas they can hide in, so I'm hoping to have less problems with them this year. My tomatoes are still subbornly green at the moment though.
Birds primarily. I have netting drawstring bags that I put over each bunch of raspberries once they start to get a bit pink. It's a bit of pain to constantly put the bags on and off, but without them I wouldn't get any raspberries at all.
I am still waiting on any tomatoes to ripen. I keep seeing other people posting about the tomatoes they are picking, but I think I'm still weeks off any ripe ones here. There are a lot of flowers, as well as fruit starting to develop, so when it does get there I think I might be a bit overrun! It will be nice if I am, I can donate excess to a local food cupboard so it won't go to waste. I've also planted a row of mixed cherry tomatoes along the front fence to allow people to pick there own on the way past.
My raspberries have mostly finished round 1, but I keep finding occassional stray berries still. I need to make more bags to protect the fruit before round 2.
My dog really likes grass, and will want to stop and graze every time we go past a juicy overgrown patch while walking. I don't have any lawn, so this is the only grass he can get at home.
I discovered today that corn does not need the full kernel to sprout. I had some corn cobs that I stripped the kernels from and threw into the compost bin, and today there were shoots coming up from it everywhere. I am a bit intrigued and have planted it in the garden to see what happens. Mr Woof will be very happy if it continues to grow as he has taken quite the liking to my corn plants, they are apparently very tasty.
I've converted my front yard to be mostly edible plants, I think they are often underrated in how ornamental they can be.
The vegies have all been enjoying the Melbourne weather this week. There are lots of tomato flowers and a few small fruit starting to form. I also have flowers on the capsicum and chili. Zucchinis are in plentiful supply, the button squash has put on a growth spurt, and the pumpkins are starting to spread out as well. The cucumber plants are still struggling along, I lost all the earliest plantings to snails, and the ones I have managed to keep alive are not growing paticularly strongly.
For some reason the beans are not enjoying the raised planter beds. The climbing beans I put in the ground at the same time are much more advanced, and the dwarf beans in the raised beds just aren't growing strongly at all. The brassicas and tomatoes in the raised beds are all doing well, it seems to just be the beans that are having issues.
The citrus trees I planted are putting on some new growth - I bought some very ratty small cuttings and was not sure how well they would go, but they seem to be thriving. I was originally going to buy more advanced plants but could not find the right varieties, so decided to take a risk on these rather than wait until next year to plant. It also means I spent less on the four varieties I planted than I would have on one slightly more advanced tree.
I have tomorrow off, so it does feel a bit like a Friday for me. Three whole days of freedom await me!
That's the aim. I'm hoping to get a higher score on my blood pressure test next time I visit the doctor.
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From Melbourne Zoo's Facebook page:
Melbourne Zoo is closing today due to high winds in the area.
Our priority is keeping our Zoo Members, visitors, staff and the animals in our care safe, so we will be closing for the remainder of today. If you have purchased a ticket online and had not entered the zoo before midday, you will be automatically refunded and you do not need to call us.
Werribee Open Range Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Kyabram Fauna Park all remain open today. Melbourne Zoo will reopen tomorrow morning at 9am. We look forward to seeing you then.
University of Tasmania currently have a Certificate and Diploma in Sustainable Living available with a HECS waiver - meaning that if you are eligible for a Commonwealth Supported Place you can enroll and they will waive the student contribution. The courses are fully online with no fixed times you need to be available, so are quite flexible to fit around other commitments.
Many of the courses are practical and the assignements relate you your own situation and local area. I am just finishing the Science of Gardening subjects, which has deepened my understanding of how plants grow and the interactions between different organisms in the garden. The assignments have included things like assessing the soil in my garden, and the final assignment is pulling together everything to create a comprehensive design plan for my own garden.
There are also subjects on sustainable housing and biodiversity, if you are interested in doing some study I highly recommend looking into this.
My zucchini produced a beautifully matched set of flowers yesterday morning.
The one on the left is female, the one on the right is male - you can tell the difference as the male has only a single stamen in the centre. You can also tell the difference if you look behind the flowers, the female has a tiny zucchini attaching it to the plant, the male has a normal stem.
If your baby zucchini are withering on the vine rather than growing you need to hand pollinate them. You can either pull off the male flower, remove the stamen and brush it onto the centre of the female flower or use a brush to transfer the pollen (the flowers wither soon anyway, so I just remove the flower).
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How to handle Australia’s ‘plague’ of cabbage-chomping moths | Australia news | The Guardian
(amp.theguardian.com)
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Based on the sort of questions people ask in the Super/retirement groups I'm in I think its highly likely to be real. I'm not sure that putting all your retirement money into crypto is actually a worse strategy than the more common strategy of taking all your money out of the market every time it drops and buying back in when it goes up.