Enough warm days for basil

 

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pot of tiny basil seedlings and managed to transplant them into at least 4 pots, with about five in each.  They are doing very nicely.  The basils that were planted in spring are going to seeds but are still providing me with enough leaves to flavour my cooking or to add to my tomato sandwich to take to work.  I have been picking the tops when they start to show signs of flowering but some have been left to go to seeds because I have not got around to nipping the flower heads in the bud.  I will collect the seeds for next spring planting.  Only once, in my old garden, have I seen basil self sowing.  I suppose the seeds rot when left in the ground in the cooler months.

Last week I picked a large zucchini, a couple of eggplants and plenty of tomatoes to make ratatouille.  My pepper plant from last year only produced one small fruit and is looking quite useless in the garden box so I used some green chillies instead.  I picked sweet basil and Greek basil to flavour the dish.  I still get excited when I pick the produce from my garden.  The silver beets and bok choi that survived the rampaging possum I will pick soon.  The bok choi I have to pull out before they bolt.  As for the silver beets and rainbow chard, I pick the leaves when needed.

I notice the self sown coriander plants have produced plebty of seeds.  I may pick some for use in the kitchen when they have matured and leave the rest to drop and regenerate.  At this stage the coriander plants have on them very fine fern like leaves and when I need to flavour a bowl of yoghurt to go with a curry, a few sprigs will do the job.

The invasive Robinia

 

When I took over this garden there were four robinia trees.  I have removed two of them but if I am not vigilant I could soon have a robinia forest, even under the house.  The robinia is a suckering plant and according to some gardening advice damaged roots can cause suckers to shoot.  I have found a couple of robinia suckers under the house, and from under the pile of firewood where I doubt if there has been any disturbance to the invasive root of the surviving trees.  My back neighbour also has a robinia and I suspect that specimen is feasting from beneath my compost bin.  The two robinias left (a white and pink), are on either side of the entrance to the driveway.  They are beautiful trees, even when they look a bit unkempt from being muched on at the top, by resident possums.  Robinia shoots appear in the garden beds and on the nature strips where the mowing keep them down.  I cannot use roundups unless I want to kill the mature trees as well, but they so beautiful to look at when in bloom.  The pink robinia in the front I had to chop down to make way for the apricot.  It was impossible for me to remove the deep roots so I do get suckers from that spot, which are cut down the moment they appear.  The other robinia, the golden variety, had to be moved to make way for the garden boxes.  It was a very attractive tree, with golden leaves and white pea type flowers.  A friend agreed to take it to her property and I pruned it after gathering the slightly scented flowers for the house.  I dug as deep as I could, cutting the roots,  and for a couple of weeks before it was picked up, watered it daily.  The plant survived the move but the following hot summer killed it.  See picture of the plant after the pruning, with the landscape gardeners working around it.  Perhaps it was a good thing it did not survive.  I hate to think a robinia forest taking over my friend's 20 acre property.

  

On the two mornings when watering is allowed I keep a lookout for the robinia suckers.  Their pinnate leaves are easy to detect.  I may take the advice of a TV gardening show where unwanted suckers are removed and then boiling water poured on to the spot to kill the underground roots.

The last of the peaches

 

These are the last of the peaches.  They have all been juicy.  The underripe ones were picked because the cockatoos and possums were getting to the fruits even with the netting over the tree.  I like the slight tartness of the firm fruits and a few days on the window sill did ripen the peaches.  I am so thrilled the fruits are so perfect.  The tree was suffering from leaf curl in spring even though I had sprayed the bare branches with lime sulphur.  I managed to remove all the affected leaves and the tree seemed to prosper, producing unblemished fruits.  I was half expecting to see grubs in the fruits as the blossoms were not sprayed.  I have to wait for the other fruit trees to grow and I must remember to top up the ground around them, (2 apples, an apricot, a feijoa and a fig) with compost.  The soil in my garden needs humus and compost.  I am chopping up soft branches from the pruning around the garden, to dig into the soil.  In some parts of the garden where I have been piling up with compost and manure, I am beginning to see worms when I am digging.  I think the worms are the gardener's best friends.  I know the soil is alive and well when the spade brings up a few worms.  I really must spend more time digging in manure and replenishing the pea straw mulch.  The garden is looking quite scraggly right now.  I am waiting for the silver beets and new planting of basil seedlings to take off, to give the garden a lush green look.  The possum ate up all the bok choi in one of the boxes.  The roses are looking a bit worn around the edges after a few days of intense heat.  My favourite is the dark red which turns almost velvetty black as it matures.  It starts off as a bright red bud.

  

 There are a few sunflowers left and I suspect they will be gone within a week as the cockatoos are turning into permanent resident on the fence and roof.  They have eaten up half of the crab apples so I don't know if I can make even a jar of jelly.  I do enjoy watching the different birds but I wish I could keep them off the fruits.