Mid-Summer (January) Garden Tour & Update - South Australia

Happy New Year. I hope you had a beautiful holiday season. How have you celebrated? I just got back from Sydney with my husband. We spent a few days visiting family over there and just had a really relaxing time. Just making the most of the beautiful beaches and scenery. Went to some beautiful gardens. Now it was only five days, but the garden has gone a little bit crazy. So I want to just go through the garden. Hopefully we'll find some things to pick and just do a little bit of cleaning up and give you guys an update on what's kind of growing at the moment. So let's get into it. So this is my almond tree. I've been picking them for like a month now, and they've been kind of slower to ripen fully, which has been great for me. And the lorikeets usually love them and the cockatoos, but yeah, they've saved me some this year, which is lovely. Just like the inner ones, which are hard to get to. For a shorty like me. But anyway, excuse my dodgy printing job. I'll work better on it next year. And so next door we have our pomegranate tree. No flowers yet. So yeah, I don't know. I had a bunch of flowers last year, so I thought this year was going to be a really strong year. I don't know if they're just late, but I did see one and it fell off. So I'm not sure too much about pomegranate season, but I do feel like they would have definitely flowered by now. So bit of a bummer. This one is, I think it's wonderful. Anyway, it's meant to have big juicy jewels. So we've got a pear tree here. This is the second year it's fruiting. So last year I reckon we got like two fruits, which the birds ate. And this year they're probably going to do it again. No, I don't know. Yeah, but it looks like the birds have already had a crack at the tops of these and they still have a fair while to go. So bit of a bummer. I mean, I'm not too fussed because pears aren't my favorite, but Mark likes them, so we'll net a couple for him. I think all here, what you can see here on the leaves is, I think it's a black slug. They're the tiny little slugs and they always go for like pears and cherries. Um, and I think the quince behind me as well, cause it looks like, it looks like that's been attacked as well. So you find them on the back of the leaves. They might have actually died now because it's too hot for them, but I kind of let that go. Um, and then we've got our quince tree. This is probably one of the oldest trees. It was here when we moved in. Yeah. So we've got heaps of fruit last year. They kind of all fell off. We've only got a couple that fell off this year that are about that size. Whereas last year we had about 20 or so that fell for that size. Um, so I reckon possibly the promising, which is exciting. Yeah. I don't know what people do with quince, but we had one growing up in our backyard and I just liked eating them fresh really. It's kind of like a pineapple-y apple with the fairy skin and stuff. You just need to rub that fairy stuff off and um, yeah, it's really tasty. But I reckon this year now I've got my dehydrator. I'm going to do some dehydrator slices, the garnishes and things. Might even try quince paste. I don't know. So this is my lemon tree. It's a Eureka lemon, I believe. And um, yeah, I think the leaves are kind of getting a bit yellow. So it indicates it's got either an iron or magnesium deficiency. So I think iron generally will be nice and green and then the old leaves will be yellow. Whereas magnesium is the other way around. Um, and so originally I thought it was iron. Um, but now both the older and the newer are showing yellow, which could mean it's deficient in both. So I'm going to have to do some more research to see what I can do about that one. So most of these tomatoes that I put in this second row, so this is obviously the first row of planting I did. I only put these in a couple of weeks ago and they have shown up and they're actually from, um, side shoots, like suckers that I just, um, broke off from these plants and they are just doing really, really well. Um, except they're quite bendy. So I'm going to have to get some twine and fix that up. I usually try and get by, but I think that's what I've already done just by twisting around the trellising, but I think they need a better job. I've also just put a couple way too close just because to test my luck, test the odds, because I didn't think that they would actually do well, but they all seem to have survived, which is pretty cool. I just threw some cosmos seeds in around here where the larkspur was. These are kind of ending their final flourish and going at seed totally. So I've got to chop those all back. Um, but I've been collecting so many seeds. It's been wonderful. Um, they were just such a prolific provider of flowers this year, which is just awesome. Um, I'm a bit naughty. I usually put like half in the seed packets and half just chuck them wherever the heck I want. Uh, and Mark loves that. So I don't have a seed packet on me, so I might just do that now. Oopsie. Maybe they'll come up next season instead of this one. Um, so this side of the path, it's actually pretty good, but the other side is a huge mess. So need to clean that up, do a lot of tying, um, and pruning of these tomato plants. So many cool varieties. I'm a little bit sad that I didn't do that many red tomatoes now, cause I just got so excited with all the different varieties, um, and picked all these funny ones. And now I'm like, damn, I didn't even get any Romas or like San Mazan, the ones that you use for Posada. Um, so anyway, we'll see, but they look pretty funky. So this is the cosmic eclipse, which is just stunning. The only tomato that actually didn't come up as plant, which I thought it was going to be was this one, which I had last year as well. And I don't even know how, but this one has just taken over. Like I had another one, a few of these seeds that popped up in the old patch. So something, I don't know if they're coming up by themselves. I definitely planted these in a seed punter tray. Anyways, they've got this like kind of tiger print and they come up yellow and red and look really beautiful when, um, they're ready. But yeah, there's just tons on here as well. They're just incredible fruit. I should probably just take that whole sucker off. It's got fruit on it here and here, but, uh, and then we have this one, which has just gone nuts. It's amazing. So this amethyst jewel is just beautiful. It's got this purple top. Um, and it just has tons and tons and tons of fruit. Second to last, we have these, which are my, I'm just so excited for these ones. They're called Santorini. I think they're meant to be, oh, quite sweet. Um, yeah, quite sweet. And they're just so cute. They're kind of like the, um, Mont de Marmarde or whatever's, um, but even more squishy looking at the top, like that real bunch. I love it. It's just so cute. You know, it's like, it gives you that satisfying, like when you're squeezing it, squishy thing. And yeah, anyway, so they really squishy and cute. Um, and I love them. So this one is a moneymaker and yeah, it's doing pretty good. It's got one really large bunch at the bottom and it's getting some more at the top. It's got a huge sucker here that I'm going to just snip off. I reckon because I just wanted to keep putting, um, energy into getting these ones ripe and these ones as well. So yeah, that's that for that row. And then in between I have the merry goals, which I think are just working amazingly for attracting all the beneficial bugs and, um, deterring the bad ones. So yeah, I've noticed so many ladybirds, which is just awesome. They're loving the tomatoes and the capsicums and stuff this summer. Um, and then this one is a native time. Um, and yeah, it's probably the smallest one. This, that one's a bit bigger, but yeah, it's doing really well and it's delicious in a gin or a soda, whatever you like. Oh no, it's fallen over. Sunflowers did beautifully, but some of the hot days didn't do so great. So yeah, they're kind of flopping over a bit and, um, I need to prune them back cause they're repeat flowering sunflowers, which is awesome. So I can just keep kind of cutting the flowers and I did have a dahlia in there, which has a sprouted. Um, it's my only one that has a sprouted, uh, which is a bummer. Just letting that go to seed and then I'll collect that and put some more herbs in at the end or some flowers. Here I've just got some beetroot, which yeah, the leaves are looking really nice. So you can use them in salads. Oh yeah. They're nice and juicy and sweet. I always thought it was like bullshit when people said this was good, but it actually does taste like a sweeter, spicier spinach, more flavor. Actually I gotta get onto that. All right. And then next door, this section is a little crammed. I didn't, firstly, I thought that these bush beans that I put in weren't going to make it. So they actually pushed through. They just look like straggly little stems with like one or two yellow leaves, like a good month or so. And now they're just, they're looking great. They're getting some cute little flowers. So that's fun. And then next door I've got some capsicums that I think I grew these on some seed and yeah, they're just doing great. Um, getting some capsicums on those ones. And then here in here we have these Lebanese cucumbers, um, Lebanese eggplants. So they're a bit more of the longer kind of purple one. Um, nice and small, not the biggest eggplant fan. So I think in small doses, I reckon I'll like them. Um, I love Kasundi. So it's like a kind of spicy chutney. I might make that. Um, but yeah, these are so healthy. My dad gave me a few of these seedlings that were looking really bad. He got them from like a sales section in nursery and um, just like we split the pack and they look so bad. I reckon like I took all the bad leaves off and it had one leaf on and now they're just looking incredible. Like compared to my fairytale eggplant, which actually does have a little fruit on it, but it's a lot smaller plant. Whereas when I got it, it was huge, like huge. It was, you know, pretty much the size it is now. And I got it a month ago, same time I put these in. So these have just shot up, In between those is my paprika chili. So good. And they're organic. I grew them from seed and I am so excited to dehydrate these and make my own paprika and maybe smoke paprika powder because we go through that stuff like anything. Um, so yeah, I'm just excited to taste them because I'm not the biggest chili person and I think they're a bit more milder, which is nice. And then we've got two more capsicum plants. I think dad gave me these ones as well. They're doing really well. Got one here that I think I'll pick today actually. So yeah. And then I've got all these blurrable greens kind of still just around this area, kind of just acting like the ground cover really for these sunflowers. Um, yeah, so they're teddy bear sunflowers. I actually saved these seeds from, um, my sunflowers last year and the birds ate all the seeds so that I saved it from a tiny little, um, flower bud. So I don't know if that'd be the best. They kind of don't look like they're going to be huge, but they're still cute either way, bringing some sunshine to the garden. Yeah. And then at the end, we've just got more silverbeet and, oh, at the end we've got silverbeet and rainbow chard that's going to seed. And I really need to pull that up. Uh, so this is a cocozelle zucchini, I believe, and it's quite shaded. So once I take the silverbeet out, I hope I'm going to do better. Little trellis for these cucumbers. Um, so I think there's a couple of the mini muncher Lebanese style cucumbers. Um, and then I've got some fennel. Looks like it just bolted. So I might let that go for a little bit just because I don't have anything. I've got a few things to pull out, so I have some extra space for it. Then I've got some, what basil? I don't know, some sort of basil here, um, which is going to flower. I haven't been picking it, but this one's nice and like Luxor and stuff. Then I've got another paprika chili, which is doing a lot, um, slower than these two, but, um, yeah, she's still doing good and it might be nice because I'll get a later harvest of that one. So yeah, but these ones are so funny. They look like creepy fingers or witches hats or something. I'm so excited. They're huge. I've never had great luck with corn. I think I always underwater. So fingers crossed, we get some nice cobs this year. So the mulberry's all finished, but now we've got heaps and heaps of things. I sort of missed it with the pruning this past year, I think, and let this go bonkers. It is way too big. So I'm going to have to cut it back so much this after this season of pruning and the cherry blathers are looking amazing this year. And forming, which is super exciting. So hopefully we get a couple of rounds of these because, uh, not last year, the year before we had a really good harvest of these and they just kept flowering and fruiting more into like May, June, which was sick. Um, excuse this fricking giant weed. Very embarrassing. I don't know how we missed it, but look, it's trying to outcompete the fig. Um, yeah. And then we've got for Joe is they're kind of looking like not much now because the color kind of blends in with the leaves and they all just look the same. Um, and they're at such an early stage of development with the fruit. So it's kind of hard to say, but I think we are going to get a good harvest. So we have two grapevines that are going over this pergola. This one is going the best by far. The other one is really straggly and it had one bunch on it, which, uh, just burnt in the sun. So I picked it up when we just got back yesterday. Um, but this one has so many grapes on it. So they're just super yellow, um, super small and yellow and super sweet. So I'm hoping that's what these ones are. And I've just started to put a bag around some of them, a bit of netting. Um, but my dad also told me that apparently if you use newspaper and make a little cone around the grape bunches, it will protect them from the birds. So I might try that as well. So yeah, not the hugest harvest this time, but yeah, there's just so much growing in the garden and I've got heaps of jobs to do with all the pruning, which will hopefully put lots of energy back into those tomatoes and capsicums to get them to ripen quicker. Um, yeah, but I hope you all had a beautiful start to 2025 and I'll be seeing a lot more of you. Thanks for watching.