November in the garden

[SueDonim]

What's going well and not so well?

The roses are in full swing - Birthday Present finished and Blossomtime is past its first flush. Climbing masquerade, Jeanne la Joie and Dublin Bay now at their best.  Others are budded up and coming out and a few that don't have colour yet but will soon. Lilies are up and the first buds about to open. The first cosmos is out (from punnets) and I have seeds coming along for later in the season (it attracts goldfinches so we get a good patch going). The geranium is nearly finished but still has a few left. There are several more plants (all self-seeded) but it looks like they will be next year.

The first water irises are out. Lotuses are leafing up well but a way off flowering yet (last week of December at the earliest). Next week's fortnightly feed will go to weekly after that. The white water lily has had a few flowers.

Dwarf beans are up. The first lot got dug up by the blackbirds just as they were germinating so I planted the next lot very close. The first lot recovered after all so now I have too many plants too close together. DH says thin them but I might just feed them well and see what happens. The beans freeze very well so there's no danger of having too many. And in a couple of weeks I'll plant the next row with a bit of space.

Lettuces are going well. Spinach (popeye and No7) is bolting but that's to be expected. I have started some seeds of Sprinter which is supposed to be heat tolerant so it will be interesting to see what it does. Leeks have also bolted. Broccoli is doing better than it was and is starting to head up after a slow start. One lot didn't get enough sun and for the other the soil became too acidic. With a better angle of sun for one and some lime for the other both are now looking good. The garlic is mixed, with some growing well and some struggling so I gave it some more lime and time will tell whether it was too late. Corn and potatoes are all looking good.

We have strawberries fruiting and the blueberries have heaps of berries. Two different varieties. One has few leaves and had heaps of flowers followed by a lot of small fruit forming which may or may not be big at maturity. The other has a lot of leaf and had a good number of flowers that have grown into fruit that are much larger so far, but still well off maturity.

And this morning I found my best secateurs that I lost two weeks ago. I had been racking my brain over where I last had them, as you do, and this morning spied them when I was checking the lotuses for aphids. They were tucked on the edge of a container and were hidden by the large leaves. So that was great. They are 25+ years old and still going strong, including the never-ending lose-find cycle (the worst one was being buried in the compost a few years ago and only found when I dug it over). A clean and oil and they are fine again until next time.

[king1]

mine amounts to...
grass is growing rapidly, weeds are springing up everywhere, roundup is being prepared...

Not big on gardening here i'm afraid...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

My secateurs must be as old as yours, but my lotus isn't doing as well. I am hoping for a late burst of energy, but we will see. The tiger lotuses in the tanks though, they are wonderful. Definitely my favourite aquarium plant, though I am guite liking getting to know the banana lily. Before it takes over!

And I was also delighted to see the tank with fish, fed those fish during my absence. It was one of the aspects of this little experiment that I wanted to test. So I am very happy with their progress.

[Olive]

Our November garden is looking much better than it did last year, when everything rotted in the unrelenting cold and rain.   The roses are starting to bloom, particularly Compassion, Falstaff and The Chelsea Rose, while Sally Holmes and Country Maid are covered in multi-headed stems.   

The citrus trees are flowering as never before - the navel orange, lemonade and Lisbon lemon are so encrusted with flowers and bees that the leaves are barely visible;  blood oranges, limes and mandarins are flowering abundantly.   It's  certainly making up for last year.

The only continuing disappointment is the olives; we have about ten trees of various cultivars and none of them have ever flowered or fruit much and this year it's the same.   We planted them with ambitions to salt-cure the fruit but to date have managed only a few small jars of tasty but very tiny olives.

[SueDonim]

My secateurs must be as old as yours, but my lotus isn't doing as well. I am hoping for a late burst of energy, but we will see. The tiger lotuses in the tanks though, they are wonderful. Definitely my favourite aquarium plant, though I am guite liking getting to know the banana lily. Before it takes over!

And I was also delighted to see the tank with fish, fed those fish during my absence. It was one of the aspects of this little experiment that I wanted to test. So I am very happy with their progress.

That's unfortunate that your lotus isn't happy. What is/isn't it doing? It could just be sulking from being disturbed. I have one that I had to move just as it was waking up because the container sprang a leak. It's now looking well behind the others with only a couple of above water leaves so far. I have fingers crossed that it will catch up to the others and have some flowers in January, but it may be one that will miss a year. Flowering is never guaranteed. Some flower every year but some don't.

I don't know banana lily. I looked it up and it looks interesting but too tropical for my outdoor pond.

What fish did you get?

[SueDonim]

I have just been reading that lily pollen is seriously poisonous for cats if they get it on their fur and then lick it when grooming. Our first lilies of the season are about to open and include some juvenile plants that are at cat height. I had never realised that that was a potential issue but I think I 'll need to either tie them up out of the way or cut them.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I just nip off the pollen loaded stamens with scissors, the flowers dont mind. I started doing that before I knew they were poisonous, because the pollen stains anything it touches, and I got fed up with marked wallpaper behind the flower bowl, and yellow spots across my boobs, lol...

---

My secateurs must be as old as yours, but my lotus isn't doing as well. I am hoping for a late burst of energy, but we will see. The tiger lotuses in the tanks though, they are wonderful. Definitely my favourite aquarium plant, though I am guite liking getting to know the banana lily. Before it takes over!

And I was also delighted to see the tank with fish, fed those fish during my absence. It was one of the aspects of this little experiment that I wanted to test. So I am very happy with their progress.

That's unfortunate that your lotus isn't happy. What is/isn't it doing? It could just be sulking from being disturbed. I have one that I had to move just as it was waking up because the container sprang a leak. It's now looking well behind the others with only a couple of above water leaves so far. I have fingers crossed that it will catch up to the others and have some flowers in January, but it may be one that will miss a year. Flowering is never guaranteed. Some flower every year but some don't.

I don't know banana lily. I looked it up and it looks interesting but too tropical for my outdoor pond.

What fish did you get?

It has put up a second leaf, so there is life there yet. I picked up five ember tetras to start off in the blackwater and gave a place in the clearwater to two homeless white clouds, who have adjusted quite well to the jungle. They all survived being abandoned for the few days I was in hospital, so I am very pleased with the way both systems are establishing. I will get more embers once I am more mobile, and maybe a few ottos. And if the minnows can adjust slowly to warmer temps I still have a yen for some chili rasporas, but we will see.

Thing is, I am aleady thinking about a bigger tank. The addiction has me in its thrall, lol...

[SueDonim]

I just nip off the pollen loaded stamens with scissors, the flowers dont mind. I started doing that before I knew they were poisonous, because the pollen stains anything it touches, and I got fed up with marked wallpaper behind the flower bowl, and yellow spots across my boobs, lol...

---

That's unfortunate that your lotus isn't happy. What is/isn't it doing? It could just be sulking from being disturbed. I have one that I had to move just as it was waking up because the container sprang a leak. It's now looking well behind the others with only a couple of above water leaves so far. I have fingers crossed that it will catch up to the others and have some flowers in January, but it may be one that will miss a year. Flowering is never guaranteed. Some flower every year but some don't.

I don't know banana lily. I looked it up and it looks interesting but too tropical for my outdoor pond.

What fish did you get?

It has put up a second leaf, so there is life there yet. I picked up five ember tetras to start off in the blackwater and gave a place in the clearwater to two homeless white clouds, who have adjusted quite well to the jungle. They all survived being abandoned for the few days I was in hospital, so I am very pleased with the way both systems are establishing. I will get more embers once I am more mobile, and maybe a few ottos. And if the minnows can adjust slowly to warmer temps I still have a yen for some chili rasporas, but we will see.

Thing is, I am aleady thinking about a bigger tank. The addiction has me in its thrall, lol...

Cross fingers for the lotus. If there is a leaf actively growing it's probably OK.

The fish sound nice. The little rasboras would go well in the black water tank with the tetras. I think the minnows can go pretty much anywhere and won't be bothered by warmer water. I have mine in the pond and the temperature varies a huge amount - well above the limit for the rasboras in summer. I understand about getting the "bug". I'm always teetering on the edge of getting another tank but have to remember the practicalities of fishkeeping when we go away so I stick to my resolve to just have the pond with goldfish and mnnows.

[SueDonim]

It's a bit late in December for a new thread so updating here. We were away for 2+ weeks - in a remote spot with few people and a chance to enjoy nature while contributing to citizen science.

In the flower garden, lilies are a good mix of colours, callas are all out, repeat flower roses looking good, climbing aloe still showing well and the geranium that I thought was finished still has some colour.

For the aquatic plants, the pontederia is making a good show and one lotus has a flower plus 2 buds. Nothing happening on any of the others yet though. It's time to give the pond a bit of a clear out to make more clear surface area to see the fish. The goldfish come to be fed but the minnows are so small that they get a bit lost in all the vegetation if I don't keep at it.

In the vege garden we had lettuce and broccoli to take with us to the campsite and they both only ran out as we were ready to come home so that worked well. The next lot of lettuces is nearly ready for picking and the broccoli has been a glut but I snipped and froze the tips of the "over-done" ones and we're eating well from the good heads. We've started harvesting potatoes and are averaging about 1.2kg per plant with some good sized ones. The plan is to cook, slice and freeze surplus for chips. Dwarf beans are underway with a meal every couple of days so far. When it's fully underway we will have surplus to freeze too. Blueberries are starting to colour up but are not sweet enough yet.

What hasn't gone well is the garlic. I pulled one up yesterday and although the plant looks ready, the bulb on the bottom hasn't done anything. We think the rest of the crop is likely the same but will give it a few more weeks to see what happens.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

My garlic is the same... but the beetroot is splendid, I have two big jars in the fridge. My lotus root rotted, so I unearthed it and am considering trying some seeds a friend gave me. Tomatoes are on the way, and the greens are wonderful, the New Zealand spinach especially good. And the flower garden is bursting with colour, especially the hydrangeas...

[Zurdo]

My tomatoes are taller than I am ! So not that tall really, but they are in danger of toppling over their cages, I've put up extra stakes, but the damn things just keep getting bigger. I did 2 jars of beetroot a couple of days before Xmas, one for me, one for the girls, and another couple of jars still in the garden. Not happy with my courgette, there was only a yellow one at the garden centre, but yellow is ok - but they are round ! I didn't expect that, and I don't want that. I've got a selfset going somewhere else, so will stick with that.

[Olive]

It's a bit late in December for a new thread so updating here. We were away for 2+ weeks - in a remote spot with few people and a chance to enjoy nature while contributing to citizen science.

In the flower garden, lilies are a good mix of colours, callas are all out, repeat flower roses looking good, climbing aloe still showing well and the geranium that I thought was finished still has some colour.

For the aquatic plants, the pontederia is making a good show and one lotus has a flower plus 2 buds. Nothing happening on any of the others yet though. It's time to give the pond a bit of a clear out to make more clear surface area to see the fish. The goldfish come to be fed but the minnows are so small that they get a bit lost in all the vegetation if I don't keep at it.

In the vege garden we had lettuce and broccoli to take with us to the campsite and they both only ran out as we were ready to come home so that worked well. The next lot of lettuces is nearly ready for picking and the broccoli has been a glut but I snipped and froze the tips of the "over-done" ones and we're eating well from the good heads. We've started harvesting potatoes and are averaging about 1.2kg per plant with some good sized ones. The plan is to cook, slice and freeze surplus for chips. Dwarf beans are underway with a meal every couple of days so far. When it's fully underway we will have surplus to freeze too. Blueberries are starting to colour up but are not sweet enough yet.

What hasn't gone well is the garlic. I pulled one up yesterday and although the plant looks ready, the bulb on the bottom hasn't done anything. We think the rest of the crop is likely the same but will give it a few more weeks to see what happens.

I'm sitting here right now admiring the serious rain that started 10 minutes ago.   It will do a lot of good to the figs, the plums and all of the green veges.   Everything here is doing fantastically well compared with last year, when almost everything rotted in the chilly damp.   Tomatoes, chillies, tomatillos and okra are all booming, herbs looking great especially dill and basil.

The only disappointment so far is the garlic, which was looking quite robust until a couple of weeks ago when it came down with rust, and now it hasn't bulbed at all and is starting to keel over.   Red onions always do well here so we're mystified by our continued garlic failures.   We have very rich soil and good drainage.

[SueDonim]

Garlic failure seems to be a recurring theme. Our crop failed last year from rust, but this year it looks like it has just failed as we haven't seen any rust. A few years ago we had a great crop but then didn't grow any for a while. We have now greatly increased our vege garden space and I was looking forward to home grown garlic since it is so expensive to buy. Maybe there's a reason for that if it's a fickle crop for the professional growers too.

[Olive]

Our garlic failure is a mystery to me. For decades I have grown it successfully in various locations with various kinds of soil. The most successful was in One Tree Hill, on coarse volcanic soil, but it also flourished on other soil types. This year it was planted in a raised bed in the hope that the increased drainage might help, but it hasn't. All of our other alliums (chives, red onions, spring onions) do very well here, with just a little rust on the spring onions.

Because commercial garlic is now so expensive I've been adjusting my cooking to use less. Paying more than $6 for a bulb seems absurdly extravagant. By and large it's not a disadvantage, however when I do make something that needs a lot it always turns out extra delicious.

[SueDonim]

My garlic is the same... but the beetroot is splendid, I have two big jars in the fridge. My lotus root rotted, so I unearthed it and am considering trying some seeds a friend gave me. Tomatoes are on the way, and the greens are wonderful, the New Zealand spinach especially good. And the flower garden is bursting with colour, especially the hydrangeas...

Sorry to hear that the lotus root rotted. That's bad luck. Maybe the growing tip got damaged in the move. Would the seller give you another one?

Seeds are a good idea too. Your aquarium setup would be ideal for starting them (but in a jar floating in the tank, not in the tank water). Heat and light work wonders. I have found the critical time is 9-15 months. A healthy seedling sometimes up and dies for no apparent reason although I have succeeded with several too.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Well, there are a lot of seeds in this packet, but we shall see. I did try some scarified seed a while back, got it to germinate but lost them a bit after that. It could be I am not meant to have lotuses. Except my lovely tigers. The red one of which is determined to flower, in the cold tank of all things.Keeps shooting leaves to the surface, almost overnight...