Whwoz wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:11 am Stick Insects, as mentioned earlier we recently received 4, only for one to find a hole in the cage, going AWOL. So down to three who are growing well

Sticklet Male.jpg
Sticklet Male 2.jpg

From what I understand, we will receive a female shortly and she and one of the males will go to the primary school where the Daughter goes, while we will receive a further female to go with our remaining two males. These eat their old skins after moulting. Wing case is very evident in top photo indicating male, females cannot fly.

This reminds me of when my daughter was young and I would order lots of interesting insects for her to raise off of the internet. She had Praying Mantis, Saturnaiidae caterpillars and some Sticks too. The kids always enjoyed them when we sent them to school. She is a grown woman now but still remembers the bugs we had in our house and thanks me for the lengths that I went to support her interests and to teach her.

I think that you are doing a great job at being a parent and getting involved in your child's interests. Not too many parents do that these days.

Fresh home grown Sweet Corn for dinner tonight, absolutely delicious

Having a play with new phone here, so if anyone finds these images a bit fuzzy, please let me know. Tomato in question is one I call Bowerbirds Orange, a personal selection out a hybrid sold here as Orange Grosse Lisse. Grew OGL once, liked it and kept seed and what I have grown out since has been dwarf. Fruit size is typical of slicers sold here , this one is 4.7 Oz or around 130 grams. Largest Fruit picked so far this year has been pushing 9 Oz, around 260 grams. Plants are fairly well loaded. Nice taste to Fruit but yet to compare with some better known yellows or oranges that are growing.

I have mentioned before that kangaroo is one of the best meats available nutritionally, so tonight we are having skippy on a stick ( about 50 yeas ago, there was a TV program called Skippy the bush kangaroo)
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Also preping, some 'roo curry, which will be frozen with some mixed vegetables and rice for work dinners
Curry will summer for about 3 hours, will just about fall apart on its own then. Kids love both of these as well

Chillies Ajvarski and Oranjevote Chudo, lucky to get anything off them at all this year, weather has not been suitable for them. Will shortly set up a cover over the bed and overwinter what plants are there, these two, Sweet Datil and some red, orange and yellow bell peppers, looking for a better start to next season
Other varieties will be added to the rows next season

The great garlic plant out 2021 has finally started here in Wozland . Italian Red and 5 different clones of Russian Garleek. Have noticed a few roots starting to show on some of the Turbans, so these will go in in the next couple of days to get me back on track

May yet raid some of the bell peppers from the folks farm, they are bigger plants than ours and loaded with fruit but haven't ripened a fruit yet due to season. Might just pot up one or two of each to overwinter for a better start for folks next season

Italian Red garlic is up and away, with seven or eight different turbans and the first of the porcelains in the ground. More still to come. As an aside, I have planted all the garlic so far with the outside of the cloves to the East, looking to line up the growth.

Lakes Entrance.

2.5 hours drive east of here, at the far end of the Gippsland Lakes lies the port of Lakes Entrance. The township lakes about 30 miles west of where the big fires of 16 months ago stopped, with local shops impacted by the fires and then Covid 19. The effects of these two events are noticeable interms of empty shops and shops on point of closing. First time back to there for us in 3 or 4 years and different feel to the town. Have some photos of the entrance area, will post shortly.

15 out of 15 Italian Red garlic up, the Giant Russian garlic are starting to come through and most of the 8 or 9 turbans are showing. Music is in the ground and now that I have fixed up the next bed, I will get the rest of the garlic in the ground

Have also been busy planting peas for an autumn/winter crop. Bush varieties Sugar Ann (snap), Shiraz (purple snow) and Greenfeast (shelling) all roughly 4 meters of each and about 2 meters of each of the following climbers, Joni's Taxi (yellow snow), Yakumo Giant (green snow), Jupiter (purple snow), Golden podded (yellow snow), Snow (green snow) and Cascadia (snap). Might plant a few more once I get another bed set up

Four more garlic varieties planted today, a couple of porcelains and a couple of turbans that I had thought were in a different group. Some of the latter had started to shoot, but not too badly. Picked up some Asian green seedlings today, plus celery and brown onions,all in ground now. Two containers of wasp control powder also purchased, now for payback for those stinging European mongrals.....

Managed to get all the garlic in yesterday, now just waiting for the wind to settle enough for mulching to occur. Also need to fill in walkways between some of the beds with tree mulch from roadside tree trimming, mostly eucalyptus which will last a number of years.

Then onto the building of the chicken coop and run all while cleaning up tomato patch, building a second and probably third climbing pea and bean frames and rebuilding the compost bins out of eco-friendly sleepers and plastic pallets. Enough to keep me out of mischief for a little while.

That's what I need... some plastic pallets in case my source of free wooden pallets goes away some day.

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] , I get my plastic pallets from work, we get a number of ingredients in on them for blending into milk powder based formula. Maybe look around for a food processor and ask them if they get stuff in on plastic pallets, odds are that they throw them away.

Got 2/3's of the garlic mulched today before running out of mulch. Have picked up some more and will hopefully get an opportunity to finish tomorrow around the Daughter singing at the local ANZAC day service. Most of the early and mid season garlic is up, which is good

Finished mulching the garlic today and filled the walkways between beds with tree mulch

Keeping the Kang Kong Going

Kang Kong is a tropical relative of sweet potato which is harvested for it leafy greens rather than roots. I grow it mainly for my son, who loves the taste, the rest of us not so much. It is normally considered as an annual here and we get probably 4 to 5 months out of a plant. We have had a couple of nights around 40F and the plants are showing signs of cold burn. In an attempt to extend its life, I decided to try covering it to see how it goes.
Showing plant curled around inside a mini glasshouse frame . Stems can get around 2 yards/meters long. Peas coming up in bed behind now
Completed glasshouse in origional format with not very happy tomato patch in background
Because of where it is located is open and exposed to wind, I thought it needed a bit of anchoring, sleepers on clear plastic sheet all round with blocks on east and west sides. Still plenty of work for me to do in this part of garden

Doryanthes excelsa aka Giant Spear Lily

about 30 years ago I planted one of these at the folks farm as part of a garden of over 500 native species. They are very slow growing when moved around 600 miles south of their natural home range. Around Sydney NSW where they are from on the sandstone country there they take about 10 years to grow large enough to flower. This one has finally made it to flowering size but the spike still has a bit of growing to do. Will wind up with a cluster of flowers on a spike that is 20 feet/6 meters tall! This one is about half that at his stage.
ZTo give you some idea of stem thickness, I cannot fit my hand around it and I wear a size 10 glove

Xanthosia rotundifolia, or Southern Cross is a plant that came into our hands 15 to 20 years ago and is still going strong. This is a fairly rare WA sandbelt plant that is normally only short lived, around 5 years or so in cultivation. Flowers are arranged in a cross shape. plant would be 2 to 2.5 m across