School Orchard Finished

This is the finished product at the school orchard. One of the parents organised the planting of this project about 4 years ago, there is various citrus, a mango, a guava, pineapples and a beautiful white mulberry. The schools adopted farmers have also added some sugar cane. Along the fence a choko has been planted but I think it will be replaced by some pasionfruit next year.

The School Orchard

With the help of the school, P&C, the adopted farmers, parents and the students everybody pitched in to lay down newspaper and sugarcane mulch as weed supresion in the school orchard. It is quite a large area and each week the students come down a pull weeds. I thought they were fighting a loosing battle and suggested we do this.
It was all over in a couple of hours we had newspaper donated by parents and mulch brought in by the farmers and I. Hopefully we won't need to do it again till next spring. I will post some pics of the finished project later.

Hi all, sorry I haven't posted for a while, my iPhone has been on the blink and I only got it back the other day. Can't live with it can't live without it.

Plants are funny things, I have had these plants for a while, the plant in the picture above I inherited when a person I worked with left and I kept looking after it, I repotted it because the pot it was in was broken, so when i left I took it with me. The plants in the pot below have been in the same pot for 3 years without a change of soil. I never done anything special to them, I only water them when they start to wilt. I have never had more flowers on them than I do now, and I don't even know what they're called?
I have a cousin who has a purple one I should try to pinch some of hers!!!

Remember a couple of weeks ago I pulled up all of my tomatoes? Many of them have ripened on the vine and are ready to pick. Tomorrow I will pick them and think about hat to do with them. Maybe some Tomato Conserve, and some puree. I need to find a recipe for green tomatoes. I'll let you know how I go.

Gardenia's

I think this gardenia has been here forever, I do nothing to it except give it hair cut every couple of years. Each year I get masses of beautifull perfumed flowers. My girls gather up handfulls of them and pretend to be brides, then scatter the flowers everywhere.

Ain't It Funny...

I have a big old gum tree out the back with a garden around it. i have tried to plant a few things around it with varied success as the gum tree takes all of the available moisture and nutrients. Early last year I stuck a couple of pineapple tops in as I have all over the yard. I have found that this is the best place for them they are growing like crazy. I have moved most of my pinapple plants to this location now and they are all doing well. This must be due to the pineapple plant having a small root system and the gum tree is not interfering too much. Pineapples must also be drought tollerant as I don't give them a great deal of water.

Propagation

Starting a plant from seed is one of the most rewarding experiences in the garden. I am starting some basil seeds in these old egg cartons, they are destined for some guerrilla gardening in some unsuspecting school gardens and maybe the bus stop at the shopping centre. (shhhh don't tell anyone)
This is my cat's garden, this cat mint was planted from a cutting taken from a customer. The cat loves nothing more than to be rubbed over with a few leaves.

I have a spot near the neighbours fence that is bear and I had the idea of planting out some Rosemary as the area doesn't get a lot of water and would need to fend for itself without too much input from me. I was short a few dollars so couldn't buy any to satisfy my immediate needs. Being spring, there was a lot of new growth on my existing Rosemary that is growing under the front stairs (also grown from a piece pinched from a customer). I took a few pieces and planted them in some good compost. That was four weeks ago and they are growing strong, I should be able to plant them out soon.
The most supprising plant I have ever grown from a cutting is a hibiscus, I was driving down a long driveway from a customer and noticed a beautiful hibiscus flower, so as I drove by I stuck out my hand and grabbed a small branch, I stuck this in a pot when I got home some 2 hours later and a few years on it now stand over 2 metres high. When it is in flower I will post a photo.