Berry tunnel

Jostaberries blackcurrants blueberries redcurrants and strawberries underplanted.

All seem to go together with similar tastes in ground conditions.

Plant Id

Plant Identification will take about 12 months plus to complete, apparently. (Update i started this 2017 02, I have just decided to publish a whole year later 2018 01) There is a lot of information to absorb and keep it in there. I am interested in plants that I can grow here on the North West Coast of Tasmania succesfully.
We have a goal of 35, with 25 from a chosen list and we have to add ten of our own.
To choose only ten is a hard task, there are so many plants I wish to discover. However I will try to choose one from each letter of the alphabet to give me a goal to start. and fill in the ten from what I can't find. If that makes sense.

SO Here is a list I have started in class this week. It is going to be fun, it will have potential to grow as I find time to sit and write.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Cheers Tam

Feijoa

So, really, I do have something eating my feijoa. It came to me from a friend in a pot, ants galore and I suspected their attraction to the scale bug. Sure enough they were present. But they dont eat the leaves. (edit: the ants can though, perhaps, but I'm unsure of this, looks different to the lemon tree we have had attacked in St Helens)

The leaves are being nibbled at by either a bug or a larger pest. As I was studying the plant, the turkeys arrived...aha moment, they are taking the nibble out of the leaves. But I am not convinced that they are not the only ones. ???...maybe its the earwigs???

I will have to keep my eyes on those turkeys.

So what do I know about these feijoas...so far I have found they are otherwise known as Pineapple Guava and have a egg shaped round fruit in summer. They are green as green and do not change colour as they ripen. The flower is a beautiful red blossum similar to a gum tree. I'll take a pic when it fruits. (or that of my friends tree because apparently everything likes a sweet nibble9). Mine may or may not fruit, Depending if its a self pollinator, I don't know. I must look at the graft, if there is one, and perhaps it will be a self pollinator.

You eat the fruit fresh when its ripe, to squeeze like a ripe banana, and eat like a kiwi fruit. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon. A lovely pineapple sweet flavour. Cooking enhances the flavour. Eat over ice cream or make jam. They are high in vitamin C and B6, iodine, minerals, folic acid, pectin, antioxidants. Good for you.

I have my tree in the north semi protected by the south winds, due to the house and azalea garden. I am planning on growing another tree beside it from a cutting of my friends to use as a pollinator if need be.

They need water and feeding spring/summer through to autumn fruiting. The teacher says, little amounts and more often.

Here is my plant ID:

Shortly when I work out how

2018 01 I have since publishing and starting this blog/record 2 years later...now i know what i want...That my feijoa is a self pollinator AND as my teacher said last year it can take up to two years for a pot plant my tree to gind its roots and take off... he's so correct. Heres the proof first time flowers and fruit buds. Yippee. Now to kjeep the water up to it for this really hot summer. 

Introduction

My family live on the "North West Coast of Tasmania" on 7 and a bit acres. We have lots of mini gardens and I dream big and for too long...I'll start with my gardens.

Bee Hedge: We have a bee hedge to accomodate one hive of bees. We harvested only this summer gone, 2016, with the sweetest honey ever.

The Grove: The bees are nestled amongst the olives we planted over 7 years ago or so, not really sure, hence this blog to keep a date on things. In the grove are various olives that we have not harvested prolifically from yet. There is an irrigation system to boot, when we remember to wander over and turn it on. Also in 'The Grove' are 4 hazelnut trees/bushes. We love the fresh nuts to boot. A thermomix would be wonderful...but I won't let up my other appliances just yet.

The Chickens Chalet: The chickens keep happy messing up my gardens. We love their eggs every weekend for breakfasts and Sunday teas. We hatched three turkeys and we have two surviving. They were destined for the pot, but they were so full of character we have kept them as pets. Very Cheeky.

The Potato Patch: a patch in the paddock where we have grown potatoes and corn mainly. And where Dave can use the tractor to plough the soil for easy digging spuds.

The Veggie Patch: Were I grow mostly beans, tomatoes and garlic. Jerusaleum artichokes (for us and the bees), asparagus, herbs, rhubabrb, and others.

The Berry Patch: Under recycled black vineyard netting I have blueberries, redcurrants, jostaberries and strawberries between. Beautiful summer time in the hottest part of the year for picking.

The Raspberry Patch: We have raspberries, which have recently been pruned for their second year and need a major overhaul.

The Orchard: many fruit trees and the most welcome of help from our horticulture group. It's so lovely for the big beautiful help the last two prunings. Apples, 2 lemons apricot, cherries, plums, pear, nashi, peach, quince, fig, bay tree, rosemary hedge and a walnut tree, which I may like to change it to an almond. We have planted a pittosporum (James Stirling style, the name of my grandfather that I never knew, how funny is that) hedge on the road side and an oyster bay pine row the orchard side. It works really well, when the cows stay out and the pittosporums stay up from the wind.

The Bulb Patch: A pretty overgrown patch of grass where most of my daffys have died. Need a major overhaul.

The Rhodo Garden: I have a beautiful brick pathway around the house, under the large and old rhodos and camelias. I love it in the summer. Leading into the garden I have established a rocky pathway and planted lemon thyme, I call it my river of thyme. Also hedged by manferns.

Out The Front: I planted only last year in the hot and less windiest spot, a lime, a japenese mandarin (as I was convinced from my neighbour to buy. Tasted one of hers and raced out to buy my own) and a cumquat. My Feijoa...and I have no idea what;s eating it. We will get to the bottom of this shortly. I also have azalaeas under the maples.

The Tea Garden: Next to the Out the front garden, I have camelia senesis trees to grow as a hedge. It is very slow and a beautiful and very healthy geranium rose lemon I think, (I'll have to correct hsi later) for tea also.

Across The Road: Just over the driveway another beautiful majestic flowering white cherry tree, nestled amongst more camellias, rhodos and azaleas. I will wonder hope to name them all. We (the horti group) have recently overhauled part of this garden to show off the cherry tree. I can't wait for it to flower.

The green hothouse: Once was a greenhouse working as an orchid shed, we transformed it into a hothouse. And as I am learning through this course, now needs an overhaul on the roof perhaps. I would love to make it a solar powered night time heating fan through a pile of rocks for winter. We will see. I have celery and mainly spinach growing here all year. Pots of strawberries and two bananas and a pup to be repotted.

The Vineyard: Last but not least, where the grapes grow. We also have thornless blackberries and a tayberry, with a row of either boysenberries or bramble berry. I am still unsure. On the road side we have planted manuka hedge to help break up the hot easterly winds. The kiwi fruit over a structure at the south side beside a small tassie berry hedge, that is not going so well.

The Three Fruit Trees: I have planted in a space behind Dave's shed to fill in space, and need a serious pruning. Here I would like to underplant with lavendar and other herby bee plants.

The Dirt Patch: Will be eventually be renamed as the Pizza Oven Patio or Fire Pot Spot,  and will be a huge huge space for us to play with this summer. This is on the north/east side of Daves shed and we'll plant herbs here too...

I'll continue to update this blog as I see the need and to use it as a record of "our place"

Welcome to "our place" Cheers Tam.

See #tamndavesgarden elsewhere :)