The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

Let the fun begin, sowed the first 32 varieties of tomatoes and 16 capsicum/bell peppers/chillis today.

Tomatoes,

42 Days
97L97
Adelaide Festival
Amana Orange
Amish Paste
Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart
Blueberries
Bowerbirds Yellow
Chang Li
Costuloto Genovese 'Brokenbar'
Early Wonder
Elbonian Hip Deep
Elbonian Mudslinger
EM Champion
Japanese Onion
John's Giant
Kelloggs Breakfast
Lithium Sunset
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
Midnight Sun
Orange Cherry pear
Pruden's Purple
Rainey's Maltese ex A Sunny Day
Rainey's Maltese ex McSee
Red Bean
Red Cherry Roma
Russo Sicilian Toggeta
Shere Khan
Sijira's Love Red
Violet Jasper
Volvo's Apple Cherry
Zena's Gift

Caps etc

Anatohi Romanian
Candy Cane
Chilli Pie
Gilboa Orange
Gypsy
Habanada
Leutschauer Paprika
NuMex Joe E Parker
Orange Bell
Pasill Bajio
Pimenta Luna
Red Bell
Santa Fe Grande
Tobago Seasoning
Trinadad Perfume
Yellow Bell

Need to sort my tomato seed collection, it has gotten a bit messier than I had realised, will probably add a few more to the list, likewise the pepper list will expand when I have a bit more time to sort through those seeds.

The Red, Orange and Yellow bells are seeds taken from commercially grown fruit, indeed I cut the red and yellow bells, extracted seeds and planted straight away.

Some of these are older seeds, so everything gor a water with a 0.5% Calcium Nitrate straight after sowing.

[PlainJane]

Fun indeed!

[AKgardener]

Wait what haha your season still going oh my goodness. Enjoy

[Whwoz]

Wait what haha your season still going oh my goodness. Enjoy

Just starting here Down Under @AKgardener

[AKgardener]

Aww ok ya sorry just backward today good luck with your season

[Whwoz]

Garlic scape harvesting season has started here, with a small handful pulled about a week ago on the first of the Turbans, more are ready to be harvested tomorrow and the garlic plants themselves are starting to noticeably dry off, so will dig the first in about 10 days time I reckon, weather permitting.

Weather here today, glorious, hardly a cloud in the sky and 25C/77F, expecting more of the same for next 3 days with a change on Saturday afternoon, back to 14C/56F on Sunday.

Managed to get 3 Sunflowers, unknown variety in the ground today, along with a Californian Wonder bell, 4 Crystal Apple cucumbers and 5 unknown cucumbers, I had better remember to get the covers out for the cucumbers as they are only small.

[Whwoz]

When I woke up after night shift, the wind was down to only a very gentle breeze, so I was able to plant some Parsnips (Harris Model, Hollow Crown and Proto Fatso), some carrots and beetroot. More will go in the next time the wind is down to a gentle breeze otherwise the seed will blow everywhere.

Also have some watermelon up and some Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia), giving them a try for the bees for the first time this year. We now have 3 hives back on the place and will probably wind up with a fourth early next week.

Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and some Italian basil are also coming up.

[PlainJane]

What’s happening with the hardscaping and greenhouse?

[Whwoz]

Greenhouse is waiting to go up, all concreting works are done, just cannot get a decent spell of still weather to put it up without risking damage to the polycarbonate panels.

Gardenbed wise, the construction works are nearly finished, rain permitting, I intend to finalise construction these days off, need to get some more photos.

[Whwoz]

Pulled about 1kg/2.2 lb of garlic scapes from the Turban garlics today. This will be cut into 1/2 inch long pieces, blanched and frozen. Plants are starting to loose leaves, with some down to 4. Nearly time to lift them. The later varieties are not showing scapes yet.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Pulled about 1kg/2.2 lb of garlic scapes from the Turban garlics today. This will be cut into 1/2 inch long pieces, blanched and frozen. Plants are starting to loose leaves, with some down to 4. Nearly time to lift them. The later varieties are not showing scapes yet.

Was wondering where you's were with yer Garlic; this early/middlin'/late? Our scapes show up 'round the middle of June.

FWIW, ours went in on Friday viewtopic.php?t=4863

The Gotch

[Whwoz]

Pulled about 1kg/2.2 lb of garlic scapes from the Turban garlics today. This will be cut into 1/2 inch long pieces, blanched and frozen. Plants are starting to loose leaves, with some down to 4. Nearly time to lift them. The later varieties are not showing scapes yet.

Was wondering where you's were with yer Garlic; this early/middlin'/late? Our scapes show up 'round the middle of June.

FWIW, ours went in on Friday viewtopic.php?t=4863

The Gotch

The Turbans are the earliest that I grow and around now is typically when they are lifted. The porcelains, creole, purple stripes etc will be progressively harvested over the next 2 months, with the last being lifted around Christmas time.

[Whwoz]

Harvested the Turban garlics today, overall size probably down by 10 % on what I expected with a couple of globes showing what was almost a slime layer around them. Wiped or rinsed off globes seem fine. Probably could have left some another week, but easier to lift them in one hit and gave me better comparison of relative growth.

Bees: we have been hosting 3 bee hives for a fortnight, one of which was a swarm gathered in Warragul where our local bee keeper lives. This hive was in a single box and he was planning on adding a second to it tomorrow when he will be doing Varroa mite checks. Only problem is that the box wasn't big enough and they decided to swarm. Noticed them flying around the area about 3 pm , rang him and by the time he arrived about 3:45 the bees had settled on a bit of Scotch thistle. By 4:30 they were in a new box which I will move from where they settled to alongside the other hives tomorrow morning when I get home from nightshift. Both single hives will have a second box put on them tomorrow.

[Wildcat82]

Harvested the Turban garlics today, overall size probably down by 10 % on what I expected with a couple of globes showing what was almost a slime layer around them. Wiped or rinsed off globes seem fine. Probably could have left some another week, but easier to lift them in one hit and gave me better comparison of relative growth.

Bees: we have been hosting 3 bee hives for a fortnight, one of which was a swarm gathered in Warragul where our local bee keeper lives. This hive was in a single box and he was planning on adding a second to it tomorrow when he will be doing Varroa mite checks. Only problem is that the box wasn't big enough and they decided to swarm. Noticed them flying around the area about 3 pm , rang him and by the time he arrived about 3:45 the bees had settled on a bit of Scotch thistle. By 4:30 they were in a new box which I will move from where they settled to alongside the other hives tomorrow morning when I get home from nightshift. Both single hives will have a second box put on them tomorrow.

It's so nice you have your own bees at your place. When I was a kid, we had a 10 acre patch of red clover in our back pasture and the local Beekeeper had something like 20 boxes back there. Every Fall, he'd give us 5 gallon jars of honey. I really miss that unprocessed milky white/light tan honey. Can't buy that in a store.

[MissS]

How nice that you have the bees back again. I know that you enjoyed them last year. It's good that you noticed their swarming behavior and got them back into a box before they were gone.

[Whwoz]

Had a second hive swarm yesterday, was out racking some grass cut by either myself or the young fellow when I noticed bees flying everywhere. Fortunately they settled on a small fruit tree that the bee keeper could get a box under easily. As he was due out to do Varroa mite testing checks, as now required to hold a bee keepers license, I gave him a quick call and he added the extra bits necessary. We have gone from 3 hives to 5 in 24 hours

[Whwoz]

Today was a clear sky day, around 30C/86F although the humidity built up a bit in the late afternoon. Managed to get 10 tomato plants, 4 X 42 days, 1 Amish Paste, 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Early Wonder and 1 Russo Sicilian Togeta along with 4 Biloba Orange Capsicums into the ground after dinner. Next few days cooling down a bit each day but no rain forecast.

[Whwoz]

After work today was time to plant an 11 foot row of Willow pea, a shelling variety and a 9 foot row of Fin de Bagnol beans before dinner. After dinner was plough up a couple of lands in readiness for the addition of compost, another chop over with the rotary hoe, a quick shape up and then plant out more tomatoes, which will happen over the next day or two, time, weather and bees permitting.

[Whwoz]

Planted a few more tomatoes and bells today, 7 USDA 97L97, 4 Shere Khan's and 10 yellow bell peppers/capsicums. Making progress slowly but surely. Beetroot, carrots and parsnip are up.

[Whwoz]

Another 8 tomatoes in this afternoon, 2 Blueberries, 2 Kellogg's Breakfast, 2 Sirja's Love red, and a couple of red cherry Roma's.