Loganberries

The Loganberry Rubus loganobaccus is a cross between a Raspberry and Blackberry with a taste somewhere in between those two. The plants are hardier (in my garden) than Raspberry canes. Because they fruit early in the season (November) they usually miss the hottest of the summer heat unlike Blackberries that try to ripen in February in the middle of our heatwave season. The Blackberries often dry out before they have a chance to ripen.

The Loganberries fruited well last November and now its time to cut them back ready for next season.
It's quite easy to tell the old canes which have fruited as these are dry and brown.
The new canes which will go on to produce a crop later this year (in late spring) are green and lush, as these have grown I have tied them together in a bunch to one side.

To prune them all I have to do is cut the old canes right down to the ground and remove them.
Then I gather the new canes and tie them against the weldmesh trellis. I usually have to wind them over themselves to get them to fit in but as long as I don't snap any ends off they are fine. Some of the canes have offshoots so from these I take cuttings to grow more Loganberries to plant around the garden for free!!

The soil beneath the plants has been cleared, topped up with soil and compost, mulched with organic sugarcane and planted with Parsley and Sorrel. These have replaced the Strawberry plants this year. 
This is Bed 14 and yes it is a Wicking Worm Bed...see this link for more info.
 

Update: May Week 2

I have taken down all the shade cloth covers and stored them away for winter.  As you can see things are happening with the downsize!

Temperatures:
Lowest Min 6.3C
Highest Max 27.1C
9.5 mm Rain

We have had a little rain but now it is really getting cold!

Propagation:
Seeds:
Broad Beans Coles Dwarf and Early Long Pod Vicia faba from DTBrown sown into the Tank Wicking Beds (4&5) for Green Manure
Radish Beauty Heart Raphanus sativus from Mr Fothergills
Radish Nero Tondo Raphanus sativus from Southern Harvest
Radish French Breakfast Raphanus sativus from DT Brown
Sown into a Wicking Box

Potting on:
Pansy Carrington Deveruax Purchased seedlings
Stocks Dwarf Mixed Purchased seedlings
Coreopsis Early Sunrise Purchased seedlings
Calendula Lemon Daisy seedlings
Tagasate seedlings that had volunteered in my Bathtub Bed!

Cuttings:
Gooseberries Captivator
White Currant

Division:
Mondo Grass
Catnip Nepeta cataria

Planted out:
Silverbeet Erbette x 8
Sorrel French x 1
Sorrel Garden x 1
Sorrel Red Veined x 3
Sweet Peas x 9 not edible but may add a little nitrogen to the soil

These seedlings went into a bed in the old main veg area that I haven't moved yet!! This bed is growing greens for the chooks.

Kale Red Bor x 3 and Vates Blue x 4
Lettuces Red and Green Salad x 3
Leeks Sleek - Purcashed seedlings - small punnet
Corriander - Purchased plant - 1 pot of many seedlings
Planted into the new Wicking Bed (no 13) in the Kitchen Garden
Catnip Nepeta cataria - division planted into the new herb area next to the Fridge Beds
Small Garlic cloves and Elephant Garlic cloves planted into the new herb area next to the Fridge Beds

With the forecast at 90% chance of a decent amount of rain I set out on Saturday morning to get lots done before it came. I needed to get the last Wicking Worm Bed made up ready for planting out the Kale. 
Most of planting for winter is now complete, there will be some more onions to go in but they will wait until winter. 
I can relax now :)

Sorrel, Sorrel, Sorrel.

Three types of Sorrel!

French Sorrel Rumex scutatus I found one of these in our local garden shop in amongst the herb pots
Garden/Common Sorrel Rumex acetosa seeds from Eden Seeds
Red Veined Sorrel Rumex sanguineus seeds from Green Harvest

Sorrel is a useful perennial leafy green that seems to do well all year round in my garden. As long it gets some water it provides year round greens for the chooks and the new tender leaves are a useful addition to salads in small amounts.
Here's a link to an older post back in 2007 on French Sorrel.

Earlier this year I split the pot of French Sorrel and made 4 new plants. I dug up a clump of Garden Sorrel from the garden and have 5 new plants now I am looking forward to seeing what the Red Veined variety looks like - from the photos on Green Harvest here it looks great.
Red Veined Sorrel also known as Red Dock, Bloodwort, Bloodleaf, Bloody Dock, Wood Dock and possibly other names!

Already on these small seedlings you can see signs of the red colouring!

One point to remember though: Sorrel can be invasive (sorrel is a weed in some folks minds especially in farming areas) so I try very hard to never let it flower by snipping back any sign of any central leading shoot that resembles a flower stalk!!

Late Zucchinis

The seeds for these Early Zucchinis came from Inspiration's Seeds in Tasmania  and were sown in containers in the greenhouse at the end of August last year.
At the end of October this zucchini (one of 3 leftover seedlings) was planted into the ground at the base of the mound garden bed in the Old Chook Run Garden.

Unlike the other 2 that were planted nearby this one survived the onslaught of earwig attack...and being smothered most of the summer by a rampant pumpkin vine. Since I cleared the pumpkin out the zucchini has taken off.

It is now May and we are days away from the first frost and it is still pumping out tasty zucchinis. Normally I would have planted some more zucchinis in January but that didn't happen this season...

As this plant was in a fairly isolated and sheltered position I decided to save what I thought was the last zucchini for seeds but this plant had other ideas. That was a few months ago.
The large zucchini that has been earmarked for seed is still sitting there while all around the new growth has been happening.

It looks like it was a good plant to choose for seed saving. In April alone it produced over 2.5kgs of fruit and is still growing strong.

This post from 2007 is a basic guide to growing zucchini. 

Update: May Week 1

Pots are being sorted and tidied...potted on and cuttings taken. Any frost intolerant plants have been tucked up in the greenhouse for winter. May is here and the morning frosts can't be far away.

Temperatures:
Lowest Min 4.9C
Highest Max 25.6C
No Recorded Rain 
  

The weather remains warm for this time of the year but a change this weekend is set to bring winter weather with rain!

Propagation:
Potting on:
Thyme seedlings
Gypsophila seedlings
Strawberry Runners

Cuttings:
Cotton Lavender Santolina chamaecyparissus syn S. incana
Purple Sage Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens'

Division:
Golden Marjoram Origanum vulgare 'Aureum'
Red Shallots

Planted out:
Cauliflower Macerata
Salad Burnett
Alyssum Royal Carpet
Cauliflower Mini
Salad Burnett
Alyssum Royal Carpet
Planted into the Fridge Wicking Beds 11 & 12
Strawberry Runners 'Alinta' (PBR) & Hokowase into some 'Besser Blocks' (cinder/concrete blocks??) I've placed at the end of the Fridge Beds
Red Shallots into the Herb Bed next to the Fridge Beds

The Fridge Wicking Beds have been emptied and moved over into the Kitchen Garden as I begin the re-design to downsize the garden. Doc has been very helpful cutting back dead tree limbs and moving the heavy stuff. That is in between a major re-vamp of his workshop.
The bed next to the Fridge Wicking Beds is destined to become a bed of herbs and flowers with a bird bath in the middle and a smaller wicking worm bed behind that. 
 Clearing the Oregano from this bed seems never ending. Any small piece left in the ground will shoot. Argh!!!


To see how we built our greenhouse from old windows go here 

In this post I describe how we built the Fridge Wicking Beds using Hugelkultur. They have been re-built in the same way.

This is where I get the weather info from just type your postcode in the Search bar and click Go!