This weekend was a rather slow one. It was wet to begin with. But the sun always came through, as if I have unconsciously cast a sunshine spell while brooding about spending time in the garden.
The good old heated propagators are taken out of storage, just a quick pat to get rid of the loose dirt and what not, no need for a rinse out or bleach or whatever. Mix my last bag of seed raising mix into half a wheelbarrow worth of compost, 5 scoops each of neem granules and rok solid, mix it all up, and I’ve now ended up with more seed raising mix. This trick never fails.
I’ve sown the watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, and Siberian Pea Shrub. Next week I’ll get the sweetcorn and brassica sown.
Alnus Cordata. Very high strike rate with the seeds, just about everything I have sown germinated, and I sown like 3 seeds into each plug. I’ve divided them now and upsize into larger pots, that’s 2 and a half trays there. And I’ve still got another tray of undivided plugs waiting to go. Not a good strike on Alnus Glutinosa, and absolute flop on Alnus Rubra. Looks like we’re settling for an Italian fence.
When Caesar decides to preserve his piece of meat with my potting mix. Put the meat on the patio, give it a generous sprinkling of fresh compost. The perfect recipe to that compost aged meat.
The much brewed over idea of mine work. The edging for the Mandala Garden should be completed by next weekend. Drill a hole at the bottom of each piece, use a bamboo stake as a dowel and poke it into the ground. Link them all together on the sides with fencing staples. Viola~! As for cost savings, it cost about $10 per meter for similar style edging from garden centers.
Some sort of thing, is causing damage to the plants. The nasty buggers are chewing the bark. I wonder who would be doing it. They are also defoliating some foliage as well.
Flower of Nashi Pear.
Peach flower.
Crabapple in the making.
I thought only peaches and nectarines get curly leaf.
Seems that Almonds are also susceptible to it.
Rather unusual. But we shall see how things go. Probably a much higher disease pressure this season.
I’ve got plenty of mushrooms popping up all over the place.
Launching jet boats in the Rakaia River. Got roped in at the very last minute by my neighbour to marshal for the Salmon Run triathlon for the kayaking section. The minute I stepped into the river to launch the boat, I realized there’s a leak in my left gumboot. Next time, I’ll just go barefooted like a jakun. Anyway, the kayaking event got canceled because its too windy. So the lot of us just jet up the river to no man’s land before heading back.
A much more relaxing weekend.
Permaculture in Rakaia 