January 2019

This has been quite a dry "wet season" compared to the previous one. There has been very little rain in January and for the last week or so plants and trees have begun to look stressed. Some, such as those on the swale area, are dying (jackfruit, pommelo, avocado). It is obvious that in this place in such dry years fruit trees cannot cope with natural rainfall, even with a swale. In fact, I had been giving them some supplemental water, but they just can't cope with these very dry, hot, and windy conditions. Days are constantly around 33, 34 degrees. At least the experiment has proven that fruit trees need to be in the "oasis zone" where they can receive lots of care and attention.

I've begun watering the veggie patch every second day, rather than every day. They aren't happy, and the amount and quality is decreasing. Generally, though, veggies have been quite successful, with heaps of okra and bitter melon. Eggplant also has produced well. Kang kong is amazing, and seems more drought tolerant than other veggies, which is a surprise. The fact that the leaves shade the soil may be part of the reason.

The tanks are running low. The shed tanks are just shy of empty, and the house tanks are at 20%. It will be touch and go whether we need to order in some water, which will be costly and poor quality chlorinated stuff. We are starting to ration the water - watering the garden less, trying to be more efficient with clothes washing etc.

The damn is looking very dry too, even though we have not taken any water from it.

Harvesting Garlic

Garlic harvesting has been a huge success.
However timing is key. The earlier ones I planted (April) were fully mature and ready to harvest before the October rains.
The others planted later (June) needed to be harvested as soon as the rains came to avoid them rotting, and they weren't as well developed.
Also planting in a raised bed produces a better result than directly in the ground.

Planting Summer Veggies

In the last month I've planted the following:
- Okra. Direct from seed and also in seedling pots. Both are fine
- Malabar spinach. Direct, but no luck so far
- Kang Kong, both direct and in seedling pots. Both are fine.
- Cucumber (in the ground and doing well, from seedlings planted into the ground about a month ago)
- Zucchini - already huge and producing fruit. The key, I think, is to get these in as early as possible so you get a decent crop before the humidity sets in. These were probably started from seed at the end of August or early September and put into the ground late September.
- capsicum. Tricky to germinate, and needs warm temps. One is a decent size and in the ground, the rest are still tiny.
- Egglplant (from bought seedlings)
- Yacon (from tubers saved from the previous year)
- Bitter melon (from seed to seedling to bed)
- Rock melon (from bought seedlings)
- Moringa (from seed to seedling to raised mound)
- Pigeon pea (from seed to seedling to bed/ground)
- Shiso - broadcast the seed. Seems Vietnamese shiso doing the best so far.

Turmeric

Harvested 400g of good quality turmeric yesterday. This was from one plant of orange turmeric obtained from Daleys. It was growing in the metal veggie bed, so had lots of soft soil (compost, potting mix, manure, rotted straw) and had been growing since spring. It produced the roots in a fairly small area. I waited until the leaves had mostly dried. The stem was still a little yellow and moist.
For propagation I'm trying a couple of different methods:
- 3 pots planted with tubers that had some roots attached and put in the poly tunnel
- original main rhizome planted in wine barrel in poly tunnel
- 1 brought inside and put in a shady area

Yacon

Today, 16 June, I harvested some yacon which I had planted last Spring. The stalks had mostly died down, though there was one that was still quite green. The soil at the base had heaved so it seemed like a good time to harvest.
Lifting the plant was easy, and didn't even require a fork - I simply grabbed the bunch of stalks and pulled, then rooted around for the tubers. There were a number of small pinkish white tubers near the surface which will be used for replanting (I have stored them in a bucket with just damp coir peat), and one I planted out just to see if it will manage to grow back.

Of the edible brown tubers, they were of a good size. Approximately a third of them were rotten - it would be interesting to try to harvest slightly earlier next year to see if I can get a better yield. Note, I had tried to harvest a different plant in another location a month ago, and there was nothing there to harvest, so it is probably worth waiting for the soil to heave and at least some of the stalks to die back.

I placed some in the sun for a day, and have stored in the fridge crisper in a plastic bag.

The plan is to cook these in a hotpot - they absorb flavours well but add a sweetness to the dish.

Update (26 June). Checked the yacon plants in the banana circle. The plants themselves grew well, but they produced no edible tubers. The harvest referred to above were simply in the ground (next to Panama Berry tree). I surmise that the difference is moisture - the banana circle is quite a moist area, whereas the area next to the Panama Berry is reasonably dry.

Trees Planted

Planted today:

Ficus macrophylla (Moreton Bay Fig) x 3 - on flood plain
Acacia fimbriata (Queensland Golden Wattle) - next to creek
Acacia podalyriifolia (Qld silver watter) - on rocky side of hill
Allocasuarina littoralis - on rocky side of hill
?Syzygium luehmannii - beside overland flow (grown from seed from a tree collected from the local swimming pool, hence the question mark, even though I'm fairly sure).


Planted Last Week
Diploglottis cambellii (small leafed tamarind)

Cockies

The white cockatoos have decided to visit our property this week, in the mornings and late afternoons. Cute, noisy, majestic, and a beautiful site. The price? All of our passionfruit and the our last sunflower.