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Planted the potatoes i kept from last year last week kestrel should have planted earlier but the ground had clay and was too wet and sticky not the best seed potato kept too long but the problem with kestrel can take a long time to sprout and in the hot weather a waste of time so when these are harvested will be too late .Have purchase 10 small kestrel potatoes and waiting to sprout plus another 4 off cuts from a white potato that can plant when they dry.
 
My kestrel were just starting to chit when I left Australia,they should be just right by the time I get back, I hope we have been getting plenty of rain in the SE suburbs of Melbourne.
 
With all this fermenting going on, I thought I'd try making kimchi ... here's my cabbages on the go (photo about 2 weeks ago):

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Something you backyard vege growers may be interested in - native Australian bees:

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Little critters are great for assisting pollination. That little box there would have 6 - 8 thousand bees ... not really suited to southern states though.
 
Back from the hols, got some seeds in Czech Republic looking forward to trying these.
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Winter veg cropping up, peas in flower, beetroot, swede,lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, silver beet, pak choy, broad beans, and leeks with more leeks in the nursery.
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Iceberg winter tomatoes going well, strange looking leaves, no serrations.
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Tomorrow will cut my chitted spuds here is a blog by the Welsh Wizard Medwyn Williams.
http://www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk/blog/2014/03/cutting-up-seed-potatoes/
 
No I didn't get any potato seed, hired a car and toured some of the Balkan states, saw plenty of spuds growing in Bosnia, just about all of the gardens there were full of veg front and back, they then sell them by the side of the road. Gardening isn't a hobby there but part of survival, anyone who thinks socialism works should visit Bosnia.
 
Spent the last few days reading through this entire thread (and the bee keeping thread as well, which sadly, seems to have died... I've got Aust. native stingless bees).

What a great read and some great ideas.

I've got cabbage, carrots, leeks, onions & silver beet in raised beds you can see up there ^^^ somewhere. Mandarins are just about ready and had some nice lemonades ... My first bunch of bananas should be ready in a few weeks. Some of my other plants are a nectarine, which turned out to be a peach ... some tropical plums, 4 or 5 south american cherries. Who remembers loquats? Have a young one of those. Tropical apples, an olive from St. Helena Island. Choko vine is going good, getting plenty of those lately. I had a spare garden bed looking for something to do. Last weekend I put in a few Otway Red spuds to see how they'd fend ... I love beetroot & was interested in reading various preparation methods. I boil them up like a potato, skin them like everyone does, slice them thin, put them in a Tupperware container in layers with red onion - then fill the container with balsamic vinegar, which is a bit sweeter than malt or cider ... after a week or so, nice in a salad or a sandwich.

Anyways - keep up the good gardening everyone ...

[Edit] forgot to mention the dragon fruit ...

... and one of the plum trees, I took from a root cutting from my Dad's place. The original tree is probably 100 years old. It was well established in the '50's when they moved there. It's a deep red flesh plum and sweet. I used to gutz myself on them when I was a kid.

My motivation? My father in law is Hungarian, when he was younger they used to make a local drink called palinka, originally based on plums but often apricots were used as they moved over here to Melbourne.

I love the Hungarian culture, Sunday morning we go over there and have wonderful coffee with a shot glass of vodka as an accompaniment ... and a spread of hams, sausage, pickled veg - fresh home made bread.

I'd love to make some palinka before it's too late ...



Q
 
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I lived with a Russian girl early in my life, loved the Sundays, the spread her mother would put on, usually roast pork, but I loved the cauliflower dipped in egg and fried, sweet I couldn't get to grips with boiled wheat with more sugar than wheat I reckon. Out came the chess set and the beer and vodka after lunch.
Anyway planted my spuds this afternoon, I did cut them and let them dry on paper toweling dug 7 trenches sprinkled in general purpose fertiliser, had already primed the soil with manure and mushroom compost then a load of blood and bone and pellets on the top, will put a heap of compost over the top of that tomorrow.
 
Spuds just starting to poke through now, roughly 4 weeks from planting, rain has been a bit scarce so have watered a couple of times.
Harvested the Tiger nuts from just 5 nuts I have hundreds, not really nuts, they look like tiny yams and they are tubers.
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Growth of the greens in the tunnel going along nicely.
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Winter tomatoes starting to flower, be interesting to see if they vine ripen, though I have had one cherry tomato plant I left in the ground outside which is still producing fruit.
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Next summers tomato and capsicum seeds planted and on the green house window sill.
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Yes they are ! First pick of the crop. Very tasty too.

On another note, you were saying you're finding threads locked for whatever reason ... I'm getting that a lot too (this one for example). I found if I change to firefox as opposed to chrome, seems to fix the problem.
 
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Yes they are ! First pick of the crop. Very tasty too.

On another note, you were saying you're finding threads locked for whatever reason ... I'm getting that a lot too (this one for example). I found if I change to firefox as opposed to chrome, seems to fix the problem.
No mate, the reason that the GUTEN thread was locked and removed from new posts is it was getting moderated, there are some dark forces afoot, and one doesn't need exert much mental power to work out who was behind it.;)
 
Ahh, I see ... Just now in chrome, I couldn't post a reply in this thread, but in firefox, I can. I must have a different issue...

Anyhoos - back on topic, I planted my potatoes around the same time you did - all 12 are now up and doing well:

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Mine have only just poked their heads up about 10 mm, I earth mine up, then put the much over, are they tomatoes in that bed at the back?
The winter tomatoes I have called Iceberg or Glacier have an entirely different leaf, no serrations just a plain leaf.
 
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I planted these before we went away on holidays mid June ... as a "lets see what these will do" sort of thing ... I was saying to the missus this afternoon, I have to go and give them some attention tomorrow ... I'll build up a trellis of some sort. The cherry tomato at the back was delivered by the chooks quite by accident - excellent tomotoes! About the size of golf balls and forming in really nice trusses. Will keep some seed for next year.
 
I was trying to get some Rosada plum cherry (brix rating of 10.5) found some after I have just planted out all my seeds but have ordered some from the UK for next year. They are F1's so seed can't be saved.
 

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