Sunday 2 February 2014

Forster Foliage in February

We are officially in the middle of summer! 
Strolling around the garden there are so many delights to enjoy!
Here are mangoes, bursting with colour and vibrancy.


The biggest avocado tree is loaded with Secondo avocadoes, a semi dwarf variety
which is flourishing in our mid north coast climate.


Note the varieties of lettuce, protected behind a chicken proof fence
(I always think of rabbit proof fence when I walk past this garden bed).


Below is an example of what ten free ranging chickens can do to your garden.
This was a healthy patch of sorrel at Christmas time, before the chickens arrived!


The dwarf Pinkabelle and Granny Smith trees are a delight.
I plan to harvest them before the flying foxes do
(wish me luck).



 Figs Figs Figs!  Black Genoa, Brown Turkey and White Adriatic.
So sweet and succulent.
We check each morning and night to ensure we get them before the birds, blue tongue lizards or rats eat them.



A baby watermelon, proudly nestled on the ground, growing every single day.


The capsicums have been abundant, even looking slightly weathered as these ones do, 
they are still sweet and luscious when cooked or finely sliced for a salad.


I am so proud to show this Banana Passionfruit.
This is the first time I have ever grown a passionfruit plant successfully.
Previously they were planted too far from the house for frequent watering.

However I have found they are incredibly hard to spot on the vine.
The flowers were prolific, but I don't know where all of the passionfruit went -
did birds eat them or did they prematurely drop off?
 I don't know and would welcome advice as to how to harvest these passionfruits.


The next crop of bananas, biding their time to ripen to a golden yellow delight.


Tamarillos, or tree tomatoes as they are known.
I don't know what to do with them, apart from turning them into a chutney.
Any ideas are welcome.


I picked the first Pomegranate yesterday.
These are truly beautiful fruits.


I had to share this, these are beautiful chicory flowers, a traditional Italian vegetable,
the flowers are gorgeous and I love the idea of blue nectar in the bee hives. 


More rockmelons, we have been eating them for three months now, these vines are great~!


There are two (yes, 2) pears on the Williams Pear Tree.
I check them daily, as does a gorgeous Rosella, hopefully I will win
and taste the sweetness of the pears before the Rosella does ...


Three years in the ground and this dwarf Ruby Red Grapefruit has hit the jackpot.
It was well worth netting for protection.
You can see the colour is slowly changing.
Hopefully we will eat them in early Autumn.


This quince tree is only one year old and there are five gorgeous quinces growing firmly.
I can't wait to cook them.


My healthy bunch of lemongrass had to be moved as it was pushing out
the garden bed's wooden supports.
I literally dug a hole in the ground, in the middle of the lawn and planted some here.
12 months on and look at it flourishing, sometimes neglect is a good thing.


Tahitian Limes.  This Lime tree was a house warming present from my brother and three years on,
we will be picking many limes in the next few months.


This yellow aubergine (Eggplant) is fruiting continuously.


We have picked kilos of grapes, sweet and almost seedless, these are succulent.


Here you can see seedlings shortly to be planted out, gardening is a continual process.


These are the highlights of my February garden.
I hope you have enjoyed strolling with me around the Garden Share Collective this month.
Kind regards and buon appetito, Merryn

19 comments:

  1. Amazing stuff Merryn. I rode past your house the other day on my horse and your place is like a vegetable jungle - its so lush and green and healthy! Well done x

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  2. Thanks so much Gabby. I bet you had a wonderful time riding locally :D Next time tie your horse to the passionfruit fence and go and pick yourself some figs, there are four trees fruiting at the moment x

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  3. yum, so much goodness in your garden. I can't wait to have thriving fruit trees, plenty of water to keep my veggies alive. I have a very tiny pomegrante tree and seeing your fruit i really look forward to the day I will get a fruit off of it. Keep up the awesome gardening, Im a little jealous.

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    1. Liz, your pomegranate tree will grow very quickly. I had 5 on mine the first year it was planted and in it's third year it is loaded. That is something you can look forward too ... I am lucky to have water tanks and also town water, but they have just brought in water restrictions (1 hour hand watering each day) the first time for over 10 years, so hopefully the clouds will soon flow :D

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  4. you have an amazing variety of produce - quince, fig, watermelons, avocados, bananas - wow wow wow! it must be heaven. and a lot of hard work, i can imagine, but just delicious. thank you for making me envious! :-)

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    1. Thanks Erin, we are lucky to have a temperate climate here. I think weeding is the worst thing it is so continual but now the fruit trees are mainly established there is always something to pick which is wonderful :D

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  5. Your garden looks great, I admire your diligence.

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    1. Thank you for visiting my blog, it is a continual labour of love and persistence.

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  6. I am sooo envious of your amazing fruit abundance, I can only imagine the bliss of tasting a mango/avocado/pomegranate sun warmed and straight from the tree!

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  7. Thank you for dropping by Alex and I appreciate your warm fruit comments. I stopped by your blog but can't leave a message. You have divine brussels sprouts, kale and leeks and picking your first purple broccoli would be phenomenal. I can't imagine gardening when you have snow for part of the year, so you must certainly rise to the challenge. I will keep perusing your vegetable/garden blog at Dale;s Cottage :D

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  8. Wow your garden is pumping. No advice on the passionfruit, ours does well, but I'm not sure what the secret is.

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  9. You are lucky to be blessed with healthy passionfruit. I am hoping it is just that it is the first year of fruiting and each successive year will be better. Thank you for browsing my blog :D

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  10. Oh my lord, envy just doesn't cut it. I can't believe how much fruit you have growing, that would be my dream. Sadly lack of space and cold climate limits my possibilities. I do have a very young corella pear tree (that probably needs a mate to cross pollinate with) and a very sick lemon/lime. I also have plans for a few other dwarf trees but full scale production will be a while off for us. Hope you're enjoying all of yours.

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  11. Thank you Barbara we all have to make the most of our climate, space and enthusiasm. I am finding the dwarf fruit trees are more manageable when it comes to netting for protection than the normal varieties. This year many of our fruit trees will be pruned after fruiting so they are easier to care for next year. Corella pears would be amazing, we have a nashi and the williams variety so there is already cross pollination even though the nashi is only 8cm high, their flowers are delightful. In the cold climate you can grow great varieties, including nuts, which I am not having any luck with .... :D

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  12. Copy correction - Oops the Nashi pear tree is 80cm high 8)

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  13. Merryn your selection of fruit is wonderful! Just what I'd like to plant if I had gardening talent :P I especially adore figs :)

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  14. Yes figs are my favourite fruit too, so sweet and delicious. We wait all year for the figs to fruit. I will post some fig recipes shortly, before we eat them all 8)

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  15. Gorgeous photos, thanks for sharing :)

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  16. Thank you Rachel and Jamie for visiting my blog. Gardening is so worthwhile, relaxing and fun plus being beneficial.

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