Pasquali has been busy in grass cutting mode, leaving me with plenty of gras to rake up for the compost bins. Two are now practically full, just needing a final addition of fertilizer and a cap of mulch. Each bin is roughly 2.5 X 2.5 X 1 m, 6.25 cubic metres or 8.2 cubic yards ready to complete the composting process. Need to empty the ready one, cleaning up the cooch/Kikuyu that found its way into the bin and reset before I can fill the last two. The bin at the end has since had another 8 inch layer of grass added to it to fill it completely

Those bins are awesome. I never have enough space for all the stuff that I want to compost. It looks like you have that covered.

Wow, just so neat and efficient too!

Today's pick
Some more 42 days tomatoes, a lone Red Cherry Roma, some continental cucumbers, a couple of apple cucumbers, a Lebanese cucumber that escaped being picked as a baby and a handful of single serve sized beetroot that hit the pot before I remembered to take there photo.

Those apple cucumbers look quite large. Are those still good at that size? I had seeds for crystal apple and used to pick them quite small. I had grown lemon cucumbers before that and I noticed that they should be picked early so that the skin has not hardened, so I treated crystal apple same way.

@svalli , I suspect that our weather conditions are allowing the apple cucumbers to get a bit larger than normal. Those two have had 54 mm/2.16 inches of rain on them a day ago, will aim to photograph one when cut and post here. Seeds will be developed. Biggest so far weighed 595 g/21 Oz fresh picked, smallest 280g/10 Oz.
Here are biggest and smallest so far. I pick based on when the cucumbers are round, which is when the seeds are fully developed.

Have grown Lemon cucumbers before, more tennis to cricket ball size and yellow skin, a much smaller cucumber overall.

Can save seed if required.

While talking to Mum on the phone tonight, she mentioned that she had picked some peas, so I thought that I had better check the short row I had put in, yep some ready.
Roughly 735 g/26 Oz of shelling peas ready to be shelled. Variety is Willow

Nice peas! That looks like a good variety. A quick internet search turns up only Australian vendors. I wonder if it's not sold elsewhere, or if it's sold under a different name. Just four months left 'til fresh peas here!

Would not surprise me if it's only available here. There's a reasonable amount of pea breeding going on for commercial farmers to select from, some of which can spill over into the backyard garden scene.

Pulled a few more beetroot today for dinner tonight, delicious as cooked then eaten in under 4 hrs.
Today's tomato pick, Sirja's Love in both red and yellow, some more 42 days and the first EM Champion in at 135 grams/4.75 Oz. Was a pleasant surprise to see the EM Champion and Sirja's Love ripe, particularly the yellow SL as I thought I only had seed for the red..

Picked up another 1 cubic metre of soil for the long bed, got in in and planted 14 Pale Vanilla Lillies down the middle of that section. More strawberries will be planted on the house side and some Chilean guavas on the other.
They are not the easiest of flowers to photograph, especially if there is a breeze

One of the smaller Crystal Apple cucumbers cut in half for those interested

Whwoz wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 6:18 amOne of the smaller Crystal Apple cucumbers cut in half for those interested

The Crystal Apple is a WESconsin award given to exemplary Public School teachers https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=5 ... 9&dpr=1.56

The Gotch

Heading up to Mount Baw Baw tomorrow for a few days bush walking with some native plant enthusiast friends. Staying in a ski lodge during Green Season.

Found a few flowers today, we arrived late in comparison to most of our friends and missed the main walk for the day. One of our native terrestrial orchids, Prasophyllum Suttonii
About 3/8 inch top to bottom, 10-15 flowers per plant.

Trigger plants, Stylidium montanum are common here, beautiful purple-pink flowers heaps per stem and multiple stems per plant on larger specimens. Pollination occurs when style flips over and lands on the back of an insect.

Daisies,

There are a number of daisy species here, some annual herbs, some bushes

The highest point one can drive to in Gippsland, Victoria

Roughly 4840 feet
Add 91m roughly 300 feet to the summit of Mt Baw Baw

Rather wet here today, with 12 mm /0.48 inch of rain by 4 pm. We went for a walk while the rain had stopped, but it started again so some of the following photos may not be as clear as they could otherwise be.

Snowgums abound in the area, Mt Baw Baw is alpine but not cold enough to have an area above the tree line.
Juvenile foliage is beautiful, adult is typically eucalypt, nothing special. Bark can be spectacular under the right conditions

Australian Caraway

We have a native Caraway species or two, one of which grows around here
This was utilised by the local Aboriginals by all accounts, going to attempt to grow it