harvest

[piranha]

one of my favourite times, *heh*. i made plain raw apple sauce today, just from the transparent apples that had fallen -- why should the wasps get all of those. the blackberries have started to give up about a medium bowl a day; soon i'll have them coming out of my ears, despite having eradicated them completely from most of the backyard. i've been cutting and drying calendula heads (calendula officinalis) every day for 2 weeks already, and started to macerate them in safflower oil (for lotion; calendula is good for my very dry skin). the container looks great, very cheerful. i've also cut the lavandin (lavendula x intermedia) and it's drying in bunches, and will probably cut the angustifolia tomorrow. it's a bit late, but this way the bees had more to collect; i have no special plans for the lavender; just gonna put it in little sacs and leave them hanging around. and there are dill and borage (i am making herring salad later today) and stevia and horehound and hyssop and anise hyssop and french tarragon and greek oregano and basil and thai basil -- herby goodness all over the place. my garlic chive seeds were too old, only a couple of plants have sprouted up.

the tomatoes and sugar snap peas still need a little while; i was late getting them both in, and this corner is probably not quite sunny enough for the tomatoes. and we're gonna have grapes this year! instead of letting the plant go wild as in previous years, i've trained a couple of the grapevines around the front so as to shade the paramour's window, and kept the rest of the vines cut back, and as a result we're having a lot of grapes on those vines in the front.

i need to build a better dehydrating setup than the makeshift one i have.

Comments

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

You're making me all nostalgic for when I lived in places where all those things grew well. Ah well, maybe we'll get mangoes this year.

growing things

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, mangoes. :) that'd make up for a lot, *heh*. though what do i know; i've never lived in places where the things with which i am familiar don't grow well -- i suspect that i might not grow so well myself in different climes, certainly not in the hotter ones.

are you saying himalayan blackberries don't grow well where you are? if that is true, i'd have finally found a place where the effing weeds can't take over the entire native flora. these, and scots broom are horrible invaders here.

Re: growing things

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Now you mention it, I haven't seen any blackberries around here (they're a noxious weed in Canberra, where I used to live).

I just had a check in Wild Plants of Greater Brisbane, which has a section on weeds at the back. The listing of serious environmental weeds:
Lantana
Fishbone fern (we have some of that in the back garden, ack)
Mother-in-law's tongue
Singapore daisy
Madeira vine
Dutchman's pipe
Balloon vine
Cat's claw creeper
Chinese elm (trying to eradicate that one, arg)
Camphor laurel
Golden rain tree
Large-leaved privet
Ochna

In the "sad" department, I recognise a far larger fraction of the weeds than the natives (rest of the book).

And one day I want a (blue) quandong, because those turquoise berries have just got me suckered in. Actually, I see that blueberry ash is from the same family, same nice colour, and a more manageable tree size for a garden.

Re: mangoes and climate

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Didn't want to ignore this. I think Brisbane might be too hot for some people to live. It's at my upper margin in summer, but I think the winters have real health benefits for me. I think I get at least mild SAD, and because winters are so short and don't get so dark, it doesn't bother me so much.

I think the sunshine thing is most important though; in Denmark, the problem wasn't at all the cold, but how little daylight there was, and how grey that daylight could be. I had less trouble living in Pennsylvania, because it was often clear and sunny during winter.

Back to Brisbane: I think I heard a suggestion that local tribes had six seasons, and I like the idea and am trying to adopt it. Each season is roughly two months, starting with mid-June to mid-August: winter (by Brisbane standards, i.e. actual freezing is unusual), spring, early summer, sticky disgusting summer, late summer, autumn.

It's only really sticky disgusting summer that is bad for me, and air conditioning is more or less essential for my sanity during this period, as I simply can't sleep when it's 22C or more and humid.

But even if our tree doesn't crop, I do enjoy being able to buy trays of dirt-cheap mangoes (14 or more for $5) and I guess it makes up for the humidity a bit.