Polytunnel

[foxy]

View attachment 21189 Got in from work and decided to knock up some chutneys with yesterday's harvest....a sweet one on the left and subbed out the apple and sultanas on the right with aubergine, peppers and a load of hot chillies for the other....with added spices,garlic and ginger

Mango season here, so mango's are dirt cheap, (if buying the fully ripe ones) I wanted slightly firmer to go into my Spicy Mango Chutney follow an Indian recipe but also add lightly toasted peanuts broken up under the side of the meat cleaver, gives a bit of a crunch surprise.

 

[foxy]

Another day another chutney, an abundance of pears in the garden some for bottling, these for spicy pear chutney.

 

[foxy]

I wasn't keen on making any more chutney but my wife has taken off all the apples because the bats, rats, possums, birds and wasps are having a beano with the fruit on and off the trees.
Not that I don't like chutney it the preparation.

 

[Clint]

Talking of rats...got up this morning to a frenzy of activity from our three terriers and a couple of the cats in our extension centering around the settee.... closer inspection,on her hands and knees,Mrs Clint pointed out a great big,live rat! Brought in through the catflap by one of the animals ..we've had dead ones and an assortment of birds, frogs and mice before...anyway I'm all for bashing this rat or letting Pip the JRT deal with it ..she was shaking like a jelly in desperation...Mrs Clint opened the patio doors and the thing legged it..albeit on what looked like only three good legs. I've tried looking for it to kill it but it's gone. The cats are still interested out there so they will probably catch it. Such fun!

 

[marshbrewer]

I'm with you, @Clint , I would have let the terrier deal with it. All over in seconds.

 

[Dutto]

.......Mrs Clint opened the patio doors and the thing legged it..albeit on what looked like only three good legs. ..........

We once had an infestation of mice so I set the usual traps and the next day I found a trap with a single leg in it ...

... and two days later I found a dead three-legged mouse in the same trap!

Happy Days - for me if not the mice!

 

[marshbrewer]

and two days later I found a dead three-legged mouse in the same tra

Well, obviously, it came back for its leg!

 

[foxy]

Autumn is only 2 days away, harvested half of my Butternut pumpkins the others are still colouring up, bit of a nip in the air this morning so time to dust off the fishing gear. Could almost smell them roach this morning.

 

[Clint]

You got roach in Australia?

 

[foxy]

Yes, love them, not to eat, though the Italians do eat them. Best haul I ever got was around 50 lb on a slider. Every species was brought out from the UK in the early settlers years, the only ones to survive were carp, tench, roach and perch. We do have another species of carp which is called the European carp but I believe comes from Asia, spreads like wild fire and is now a pest. One of my dogs in the spring would pick them out of the shallows in his jaws the water was that thick with them.
The fisheries over here are going to bring out the virus from the UK which you are trying to eliminate, herpes virus, Australia doesn't have a good record when it comes to eliminating pests, look up Cane toad.

 

[foxy]

So today I picked what is almost the last of my tomatoes, more pasata sauce coming up, planted cabbage, swede, cauliflower Romanesco broccoli getting the garden ready for my winter vegetables.

 

[Clint]

I've just potted on around 30 tomato plants of mixed variety,from the propagator as they'd gone a bit leggy. They've been pushed down to the leaves in individual pots so hopefully they'll be ok. Leaving the heat on at night and maybe not enough overall light can cause this, although they were in quite a sunny spot in the house. I've moved them to the greenhouse...
Chilli germination is a bit slow...and only one aubergine has appeared. Might bung some more in.

 

[Dutto]

To all you people who are busy planting Tomatoes I give you a tale from the past!

My shift decided that rather than have the perennial domestic argument about sandwiches with our wives (*) we would pool them and share!

This went on successfully until “Tomato Season” when Brian started to bring in first one, then two and then three tomato sandwiches as his pack-up!

We finally refused to share with Brian when he turned up with the usual tomato sandwiches; but on this occasion they were garnished with Green Tomato Chutney!!!!

(*) The perennial pack-up argument starts on Day One after the honeymoon ends!

“What do you want for your pack-up?” asks the dewy eyed bride.

“Owt!” is the usual response but, after much cajoling, “Jam, ham and cheese sandwiches will do.” is elicited.

The next day hubby is pleasantly surprised to open his pack-up and discover 1 x Jam Sandwich, 1 x Ham Sandwich and 1 x Cheese Sandwich! His heart fills with love and affection.

Three years later (should the man dare to suggest a change of sandwich) he is greeted with a barrage of tears, claims that “YOU said that YOU liked my sandwiches!” and the man finishes up making his own pack-up!

Go on! Tell me I’m wrong!

 

[Dutto]

No bull! Just had this plonked in front of me!

 

[Clint]

The food of kings! Get it down ye!

 

[foxy]

I've just potted on around 30 tomato plants of mixed variety,from the propagator as they'd gone a bit leggy. They've been pushed down to the leaves in individual pots so hopefully they'll be ok. Leaving the heat on at night and maybe not enough overall light can cause this, although they were in quite a sunny spot in the house. I've moved them to the greenhouse...
Chilli germination is a bit slow...and only one aubergine has appeared. Might bung some more in.

It won't make any difference burying the tomatoes lower they will be fine, my turn to be envious of the summer vegetables you lot in the Northern hemisphere will be growing. Though I do like the planting of the seeds and watching them grow, no matter what the season. But tomatoes seem to have a special space with the home gardeners.
So my initial sowing's are done, a small tip my labels are knives from the $2.00 shop, don't know if I have posted it before but a damn sight cheaper than labels from the hardware stores.

 

[Richie_asg1]

For plant labels I've been using strips cut from Nuco's waterproof notepads. They were reduced at my local CoOp so I bought 3. The paper is totally weather resistant, but took a while to find an equally suitable method of writing on it. In the end it turned out to be the humble pencil was the best. It doesn't like sharp pencils but a used one works brilliantly. To see how tough it was I buried some in hot compost for a year and it was still legible after that.
To use as a plant label - cut a 1" strip, write on it then fold the end over a trowel and just push in. Or use a ruler in seed trays.

 

[Ajhutch]

My tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers are all coming on nicely. Chilli germination seems to have been ok for my first attempt. But my sweet red peppers are looking bad. I’ve ‘pitched more yeast’ (planted some more seeds!) so we’ll see. My growing is on a pretty small scale, I’m basically hoping for about 3 of each plants. It’s troughs and pots on the patio and the kids enjoy it. But there is more space available for future years if I have success. Other things planned for this summer are carrots, beetroots, lettuce and courgettes. We’ve got a reasonable amount of garlic looking pretty good and four broad bean plants, many more fell victim to the wet weather over winter.

 

[foxy]

Good to get the kids involved, my Dad tried to with me, but I had no interest in gardening, not until a guy who worked for me started bringing in broad beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes and eat them at lunch time. Never been able to stomach broad beans until I put them in a blender and made a puree with garlic olive oil and some lime juice.
I used to put my zucchini in large pots, put one in a smaller pot this year and it did the best out of all the plants, though it is in a more shaded position, taken note for net year. Love my capsicums made a 'Left over roast chicken Biriyani' tonight, got my capsicums, Asian eggplant and beans into the mix.
Passion fruit now dropping fruit everyday, pineapple guava flowering nicely and a shed load of Feijoas forming.

Flowering Guava.

The grass looking plant at the back is from putting rice hulls into the compost, obviously not been in the mash tun, would have prevented any germination.

 

[foxy]

Can't find the foragers thread so put this here.
A swag of Horse Mushrooms, and there are loads of them in next doors paddock.