Starting From Scratch

[Sue]

When I first moved into my home it was mismatched conifers and overgrown weeds in amongst rose bushes.. the previous owner had planted a few new bushes that had not established well so i had to move them.. Since then i pulled all the conifers and roses out..removed all the weeds and started from scratch to make my dream garden.. I have a picture of myself in about 15 years sitting under a fruit tree on a garden bench and reaching up and eating fruit straight off the tree on a hot summers night..
SO i had a idea of what i wanted but money was short as i was not working...
I asked family members to make a "gift" of a fruit tree as a house warming gift.. I now have assorted fruit trees including Apricot, 2 X Apples, Peach, Plum, Lemon, Pear, Mulberry, Loquat. I also have put in Passionfruit, Grape vines. My veggie garden this year consists of Peas, Beans, Rosmary, Watermelon, Onions, Radishes, Leeks, Silverbeet, Tomatoes, Lettuce ( perpetual) Cabbages, Strawberries, Rhubarb, Carrots, Celery, Corn, Spuds, Lettuce, Snow Peas, Basil, Mint, Parsley. Last year grew one zucchinni plant and have learnt unless you realllllllyyy like zuchinni just buy the occassional one from the shops..


The old saying of why buy veggies when you can grow your own??? well for a $2 pkt of Lettuce seeds can have year round supply where the supermarkets charge you $3 just for one lettuce????


SO i installed a water tank ( just watering in a 2 hour span 2 times a week is not ideal when waiting for fruit trees to establish themselves...

I spent most of my time at Bunnings looking for Discounted plants and am happy to say the whole front yard is now full of flowering shrubs for cut flowers ( mind you have not got nearly as many as i hoped for as yet LOL)
The backyard is productive as ever ( until we got a puppy that digs up everything GRRR)

The puppy is called digger ( no we named him that before we even got him) and he has since spread the corn with the lettuce and strawberry and carrots into the lettuces and gee lets just say its all mixed up and will have to wait till the seeds grow to know what is now where LOL .. no matter... if nature allows they will still grow and i can transplant them once i know what they are into their rightful spots...
I have just started working too and my "part time" job has me now working 38 hrs a week... only till christmas maybe?? then back to 20 hours over summer.. but helping with the costs of getting some of the more substanital items i couldnt have afforded before like a rain water tank and trellis...

The grapevine is another story.. was always wanting one to cover a pergola and grew up lazing around my grandmothers with her grapes filtering the hot afternoon sun over her pergola and thought thats what i want so i was on the lookout for a grape vine.. heaps of ornamental grapes but not many of the eating variety.. Bunnings had a few that were about 4 inches high for $15 but was not really what i wanted.. 2 weeks ago went to the local market at Berwick where i got a large grape vine for only $10 woohoo says me till i got it home and realised i have no where to plant it.. so now i am spending my only days off building a pergola area with trellis to grow my grapevine on ( so far the cost is $400+) not really a cheap lot of grapes but should pay for itself in about 15 years LOL..
and time is NOT on my side the poor thing is sending out feelers trying to hook onto something to grow on so this weekend will be no holes barred full pergola building ( even if the forecast of rain is right )
anyways time running out before i head off to work.. will add another entry later


There is no such thing as too many plants.. just too many weeds!!

[Manda]

Hi Ladies, could the cactus climber that grows fruit that you are thinking of, could be the Dragon fruit

[Sue]

Thanks for that Donna.. I am sure once i can fuigure out how to keep the puppy out of the veggie patch will be as fruitful as ever.... Got home today to find he had "eaten" the chicken wire off the veggie fence i put up and eaten the wiring loom from the trailer...( yes he is still alive have not killed him ...YET!!) I was also thinking of getting Kiwi fruits but our local bunnings only ever has femals have not seen a male in there once..
I have noticed i have EXTRA trellis fencing so maybe thinking of growing a raspberry.. YUMM love raspberries on a pav..
I got some more strawberry plants ( the puppy ate one) and the rest i saved and am thinking of planting them under the grapevine... I will put up pics for all to see what i have been up to this few weeks...
The cactus fruit climber has a fruit??? never heard of that before.. wonder what it tastes like???
Anyways better put the pics up..
Have a great day..
Sue

[Donna McCallum]

Your garden sounds fantastic - good luck with the pergola building! I actually have a pergola and can't decide what to plant on it. Kiwifruit are supposed to grow up to 9m in one season but are pretty expensive and you have to get at least one male & one female (of course I want one male & three females). Living in Bne though apparently should get yellow as they do better in this climate. Mind you I still want grapes, and I saw an interesting cactus fruit climber (I forget the name now) - I am hopeless, I want all of them!