*yawn* Good Morning garden...

I walk around my garden every morning, usually accompanied by the sound of one or more of the cats, protesting loudly that they aren't allowed to come too, and it always amazes me how much things can change over the space of a few hours.

Red oakleaf and green cos lettuce seedlings

Take the lettuces for example. I planted out the seedlings yesterday, a mix of red Oakleaf, and green Cos....ok, yes after a delay of a couple of days while I got up the energy to clear out the seeding lettuces that were in the containers. After I put them in, they got a good watering in, but it was very hot yesterday, and when I watered that evening I REALLY wasn't sure if they'd make it. They really looked like they'd been cooked!
Go out this morning, and they're looking just fine, and hopefully will get growing and producing greens, thought I still do need to put down snail pellets. On the subject of snail pellets, I'm not keen on using them, after all, they're poison and lettuce is a food crop, but in order to GET any lettuce I've come to the conclusion that they're the only way. It might be different if we had chooks or ducks, but we don't (yet). While I try to avoid using chemicals if I can, sometimes needs must, as they say.

netting on the deck

Now, normally, my morning garden excursion puts me in a better and more serene mood, and every little bit helps as I'm NOT a morning person, however some things are just BOUND to ruin my zen-like state, and the latest attacks in the Great Blackbird War is one. This morning I find HALF a tomato hanging on the plant (the covered plant I might add). Its bad enough that due to their depredations my back yard looks like a birds nest of bird netting, but to add insult to injury, they're STILL pinching the fruit!

The lastest casualty in the Blackbird war

I KNOW you have to allow for some losses to the birds, but I would like some of my tomatoes myself, and do they really HAVE to pick holes in fruit that isn't even ripe yet?
Having had a small mini rant, its on to something a little less upsetting, and thats deadheading.
I know people that don't like deadheading, but I find it strangely satisfying for someone who hates pruning, and every morning when I go out into the garden I take my secateurs. The good thing about deadheading is that it helps to keep the plants flowering, and also it acts as a light prune to help to keep the plants in shape. The trick with it is to keep at it. Little and often, which is a maxim that could apply to gardening as a whole (and one with which I only have a passing accquaintance) is the way to go.

garlic plants

My garlic plants are looking like they should be ready to harvest soon, as the foliage is starting to wither and die back a little. I suspect that I'm in for bad news again with it though. I really don't have too much luck with garlic. Last years was a bust, mainly because like everything else, it suffered from dehydration which was all down to me. This year, it looked like it was growing well, and leaves and plants looked good, but an exploratory poke around the roots hasn't shown much of a bulb developed. Oh well, i'll leave them a bit longer.....you never know.
I'm also keeping a close eye on the fruit trees atm, as I don't want to have them attacked by.......the BIRDS!!
So far they don't really seem to have bothered them much, other than knocking off a couple of unripe peaches and apples.

Aprigold

One of the fruit trees that I haven't mentioned yet is the Aprigold. This is a dwarfed apricot, that has low chill requirements. Chill, or Winter chill, is a requirement of some kinds of stonefruit, apricots and cherries spring to mind as examples. Normally, there just isn't enough cold in a northern winter to convince the trees that its actually BEEN winter and therefore that its time to fruit. A lot of work has been done however, to find low chill varieties that don't require such low temperatures to set fruit, and this is one of them. To be honest though, its worth growing just for the plant, its so pretty. In spring, when its leaves had just burst, they were the most delicate bright green, and the little tree has a lovely shape. It didn't flower this year, but I'm hoping it might this year. The variety is supposed to fruit regularly in the north so heres hoping.
Actually there have been several new developments in the area of fruit trees for smaller gardens and warmer climates. My dwarf pear, Garden Belle is another one, and they've also developed a sweet cherry on a dwarf stock that only grows to 4m....which given that a cherry can easily top 10m is pretty impressive. Its also a low chill variety, though I'd be very interested to know if its low enough for Auckland to be an option. Also low chill is one thing but you also have to take into account the LENGTH of chill time a variety needs, as they all differ. I would dearly LOVE to have a cherry tree though!

passionfruit flower

The passionfruit vine is still bravely flowering away, as it has done all summer so far. I have seen more bees around, though nowhere near what I'd consider normal, but with any luck we might get more than just the one solitary fruit off it this season. I guess I could try hand pollination, but from what I've seen it doesn't work a lot of the time and also, being a clumsy oaf, and passionfruit stems being fairly brittle, i can see it all ending badly, for one if not both of us. Think I'll leave it to the bees. I've always loved passionflowers though. They're so beautifully complex and the colours are so bold, yet subtle. They were named because the stamens and stigma looked like the instruments of Christ's passion, like hammer and nails. A slightly gory association for such a lovely and flamboyant flower.