Monday 3 December 2007

All that glitters is not golden corn

The beans are growing like magic! Okay I know it was only a fairytale, but these beans are vigorous. Doug and I are running out of freezer space. Sascha and Grace are enjoying the wet weather by running through puddles until drenched. The dogs are behaving disgracefully, and the sunflowers are beginning to flower. The tomatoes are really coming on now. We have bunches of tomatoes ready to go. Bottling is being considered carefully. The purple carrots have almost run out, and I'm particularly sad about this. The were delicious, but we have a new crop planted. We have cos lettuce ready to go, and lots of baby pumpkins growing. A mother of zucchinis growing delicately like an elephant in the garden. It now seems the golden corn was left on the stalk too long. It became all rubbery and translucent. Fascinating texture. Lovely to look at, astounding to eat.

5 comments:

Reality Raver said...

Looking forward to Rupert's blog, and his perception of The Good Life.

Reality Raver said...

Need help with citrus, our lemon tree has bugs on it, is there anything we can do apart from spraying it, which will then make the lemons non-organic.

We had the same problem with the cumquat and that died.

Fifi said...

There are a number of sprays out there that have chili, capsicum and garlic as the basis of their repelling action.
This may be the solution for you.
If there are lumps on the branches, this may be caused by a type of wasp, and will eventually reduce fruit production. The only way to fix this is to prune. Choose the right time of year to prune, I believe it is after it has finished producing lemons.

Doug said...

Reality Raver, If they are big flat bugs with a spike on the front of their face that they stick into the shoots, the only way I have found to get rid of them is to squash them one by one. For any other sort of bug like the leaf miner (which is tiny and digs little tunnels in the leaves) you can spray with agricultural oil. The most common is called white oil but there are apparently fancier new types as well. These oils are still organic because they are not a chemical pesticide, they kill the bugs by suffocation. You have to thoroughly spray the whole tree (top and bottom of leaves). This smothers the insects but doesn't (I believe) put any chemicals into the fruit. An organic farmer told me that oils are ok to use for this reason. Good Luck.

Reality Raver said...

Cheers thanks guys, appreciate it, will get the white oil.

Re: the pruning tip Fifi - when do you prune if you tree has not yet produced lemons????

Not everyone gets bountiful crops like you do, especially when our lemon tree is constantly sprayed with aircraft fuel.....