Goodbye October. You won't be missed!

October....what a month! It turned out to be one of the driest months on record and the ground is bone dry. The forecasted 'possible storms' rarely eventuated and even with the weekend forecast being for rain I don't think anyone is holding their breath. Unfortunately I didn't realise the heat would be so prolonged and didn't cover my seedlings one day resulting in many of them shrivelling up. Thankfully I was able to rescue some and covering them each morning has since become a daily ritual.

It can get discouraging losing plants but the plan is to start a few more wicking beds and also make more Ollas before summer starts. As we leave for the beach on Monday I had a walk around the garden to record what is still growing well before we leave.  Being so hot and knowing that there are a lot of snakes and blue tongued lizards around at the moment I normally walk very cautiously around the yard as I have been frightened a number of times by a lizard getting out of the way very quickly. However, when I stopped and looked up I noticed that the Jacaranda tree next door is starting to flower. They look beautiful all over the city at this time of year.

Nothing much is growing out the front but the dahlias are starting to flower and I noticed this beautiful flower growing on a succulent under the stairs.

The day lillies remind me of the Christmas holidays when my granddaughters sometimes come down south to the beach and spend some time in Toowoomba on the way there. When my eldest granddaughter visited as a one year old we took a photo of her trying to smell them and when I see them flowering I am always reminded of her when she was so little.

We have four pots of rockmelons to plant out soon. We saved the seeds from rockmelons that came up last summer after the seeds had been thrown in the garden on the off chance that they would grow.

I have discovered that the Brahmi seems to like being in a self watering pot after a few failed attempts to transplant some into 'normal' pots.

These are plants that have come up from seeds given to me by Fair Dinkum Seeds. One row is Huacatay Black Mint Targetes Minuta which is an interesting plant and worth reading about.

Huacatay Black Mint Tagetes Minuta Seeds

Huacatay Black Mint Tagetes Minuta Seeds

The CEO pulled up a lot of garlic today although it isn't Melbourne Cup Day! Have you heard that you plant garlic on Anzac Day and harvest it on Melbourne Cup Day?I learned that from the clever Down To Earth forum members.:-)

A few months ago we bought several punnets of cauliflower which were marked down to $1 each as I think it was at the end of the planting season. I am not a great cauliflower lover so we just planted them and didn't bother to cover them like we had with the cabbage. I picked off the odd grub that was decimating the leaves and would you believe it, we now have several cauliflowers ready to eat....all at the same time! LOL!

The asparagus is loving the warm weather and  really needs to be picked every day as it grows so quickly. I left these a bit too long as I forgot to pick them yesterday.They grow several inches a day.

The dry weather doesn't seem to have bothered the grapevines as they are growing right around the property. I don't particularly like the grapes that grow prolifically and which seem to feed the local bird population who sometimes leave some for us but perhaps I will make some grape jelly this year.

 

The figs are forming and will need to be covered when they start changing colour. We covered the fruit last year and ended up harvesting quite a few unlike in previous years when the pests got to them first. Like the grapevines, there are multiple fig trees on the property as well. 

So all is not lost. There are still some plants that are doing well and I can't complain considering that some of them are rarely watered. It will be interesting to note how they have grown when we get back from the beach. I hope the Garden CEO remembers to water my seedlings. However, if we do get that promised rain who knows what we will be harvesting in the coming months. One thing about not getting any rain though....even the weeds are dying!