What's growing?

GALEN , or anyone else for that matter what springs to mind ??

I luurve my garden !!

Merlot. I did mean FIVE YEAR OLD sloe gin! About seven years ago there was a bumper crop of sloes and Best Beloved went bezerk and laid down rather a lot. We've managed not to drink it all and maintain a reserve. And it's worth it! Three year old is good, but the five year vintage is superb!

The only way I'd be able to hang on to a bottle of sloe gin for five years would be to bury it in an unmarked grave!

You're obviously not making enough Merlot! Have you tried blackberry brandy?

I'm making crime de cassis for the first time this year, but have also got some of last year's sloe gin and damson brandy maturing nicely.

It will be spring in a month, my broccoli is just about ready, and we're eating Golden Acre cabbage, as well as silverbeet. I've just given my neighbour two mango tree saplings (mango grows true to seed, so you can grow from the huge seed in a fruit from your tree), and she's given me two white mulberry cuttings, which I've planted today.

I also planted some gypsophilia around the base of my biggest mango tree, and a few herbs in pots. My marigold seeds, which I saved from last year's crop, are germinating nicely and I've got them in a few places. Oh, and I planted cucumber yesterday, in my main vegetable garden.

On the failure side of things, my male paw paw died, so my paw paws won't set fruit now. They weren't doing well anyway, so I've dug them out.

The Gypsophillia sounds really pretty Joan, I have a soft spot for that and marigolds as well. The paw paw, which I guess in Europe is a papaia sounds similar to our avocado trees in that they need a male and female plant, although I think I'm right in saying that one tree can change sex in the middle of the day.
What sort of temperature is it there now? I'm only watering a few annuals for visitors, because our temperatures are in the high thirties and we conserve as much water possible.

Just started harvesting our Broccoli this week. I expect it is a different variety from yours in Oz, Joan.

Last night I made some pork stir fry with our own courgettes, yellow beans, broccoli, a handful of peas and a friend's cabbage. Totally delicious with HM plum sauce. Made blackcurrant jam on Friday and may do the last batch of raspberry later today. Raspberries have finished as have gooseberries, but next doors apples (which hang over into our garden) are ripening nicely and our own plums just starting to colour up - another bumper crop methinks! . Tomatoes not doing so well - only a few and showing no signs of turning red. Looks like green tomato chutney again.

My veg. patch is providing all the makings of ratatouille and now have lots in the freezer. This year I couldn't get the flavour right, so added a splodge of balsamic vinegar and a little squeeze of lemon juice. Worked a treat.

dustyangel the temperature here goes from around 2 to 6 celcius in the night, to the early 20s in the daytime.

The Paw Paw (papaya) needs one male tree for up to 8 females. You can tell it's a male when it starts to flower - the male's flowers are on little stalks, but the female flowers are tight up to the tree. So I plant loads of trees from the seeds of a ripe fruit, and hope to get a male among them!!

We are experiencing climate change here in South East Queensland. The winters are now colder, longer and wetter. We are still sub tropical, but I think we are closer to temperate than when we came here in 1979. It used to be too warm to need any heating at this time of year, but I'm still in winter woollies.

Why I planted strawberries are all dead ?? %>_<%

Each day I'm gathering strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, broad beans, last of the rhubarb, and a few Bramley apples have fallen so they've been cooked. I love this time of year, when I can pick fruit and veg minutes before they're needed.

Oh how I remember setting off on my bike this time of year, with empty national dried milk tins strung on my handlebars, and coming back with them full of blackberries. Mum managed to look pleased, and bake blackberry pies and crumbles. We did a lot of mushrooming too.

Alas, blackberries are a noxious weed here in Queensland, though I have managed to grow my own mushrooms in the past.

The passion fruit is coming ripe right now, and a few remaining pawpaws. I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with that.

PS
We do get mulberries, but not quite yet.

We have wild Fen mushrooms growing at the bottom of our drive. They grow underground and you can find where they are by looking for cracks in the surface. Carefully scrape away the gravel or soil and you have a perfect close cap mushroom. You have to be quick though or they are full of maggots

Ooh when, Bramley apples. Can't get them here, so I planted a Bramley tree 5 years ago. A slow start, but this year it's laden with the beauties!

You can't beat Bramleys, can you Butty? I've got some big, fat ones on my tree this year

In the sub tropics not many apple varieties will grow; we get lots from Tasmania though. However there is one that grows in the sub tropics; it's called Pink Lady and is delicious. I've got some in my fruit bowl right now.

I'm getting confused by the weather; I thought the frost was over - sometimes it has been warm for weeks at this time of year, but not this time. We had -1 Celsius last night and no doubt tonight too. The frost has killed one of my three choko vines, and another is looking very dodgy. My gypsophilia seeds aren't germinating at all, nor are my garlic chives and cucumbers: I hope they aren't all dead under the soil. My onions are quite happy though, and my almost fully grown brassicas are loving it.

I'm really beginning to wonder if my area is morphing from sub-tropical to temperate.

PS
Spell check wanted to turn gypsophilia into pedophilia, and my brassicas to brassiness. What does it think my garden IS?

We have had such a good, warm summer that I suppose our usual cold weather had to turn up somewhere else. Sorry that it landed up in your garden Joan. If it were possible I would Skype you some of the gorgeous tomatoes we got from DD2 today, along with yellow beans and broccoli from our own garden. If it is dry we are going to start lifting potatoes tomorrow and expect to be picking plums by next week.

If you think Bramleys are the best you probably haven't tried a Monarch. Can be eaten raw and when cooked do not need any sugar. Perfect for baking in their skins. Our Monarch tree is very old and one year yielded over 500lbs of fruit! I used to put them in a wheelbarrow and take them along to the school along the road (together with a supply of bags) for the mums to take home. How did we find out what variety they were? We sent 3 fruits, some leaves and a twig or two to Wisley and got a reply from the Director of Fruit Naming. I always imagined him at a party being asked what he did for a living, how marvellous to be able to say, '' I'm Director of Fruit Naming!

I have a new apple tree but I am not sure what variety.. green medium sized apples ripe now! Anyone help me? I am an enthusiastic but not very knowledgeable gardener.

In my last garden, I had a Grenadier (cooking apple) tree. The fruits can grow very large indeed. Sadly, I left before the tree grew to maturity. I first discovered this variety in King's Lynn market - it was very popular in Norfolk.

Could it be Crispin, Penstemmon? They are a Japanese variety and not unlike a Granny Smith in flavour and appearance.

Mine are almost there but they usually ripen after the Bramleys.

My MiL swore by Crispins and though I wouldn't often agree with her, she was spot on there. They can be used as eaters or cookers. I was delighted to find some in a local shop a few years ago - must have a look again this autumn though it's a shop I usually visit only when I go the the dentist.