Fruits of the forest (well not forest)

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Not to hijack the tangelo thread, thought I'd show some of the other fruits of my personal forest.

Firstly Tomatoes. Saw a doco on an old Italian Organic gardner who was growing many tomatoes out of season. Knocked up a very dodgy frame (5' high), and tried some tomatoes with air and sun access to the fruit, and others grown as a normal "bush". Bush is full of snails, and little fruit. Tall man has some fruit, no snails. Nobody is getting red Tomatoes in the district this year, too wet, not hot.

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Old 4WD tyres with one sidewall cut out are useful for mini plots to move around the place from year to year. Have grown kipffler potatoes, garlic, carrots, beans, leeks, and shallotts (when cooking with them, we have to buy a bunch. The unused part gets planted in an old tyre, where they take root and keep growing, ready for the next dish).

Strawberries are good, as the children can get to them easily. They demolished the partly grown carrots picking and eating them.

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Pumpkins, squash and silverbeet, growing in some rubbish soil mixed with grass clipping, in the old coal skip. The leafy weeds seem to keep the snails at bay (or busy)..will fill in the coal skip with topsoil , cow dung and lawn clippings before next year.

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My Back fence has three Kiwi Fruit vines, a male with a female either side...sort of free range Kiwi fruit.

In the bay that the male sits is a thornless blackberry, and a blueberry (only a season old). Under the left hand female is a self sown cherry tomato. No fruit yet, but they come on late in that spot.

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Up close, here's a cluster in about a cubic foot of Kiwi vine. Estimate nearly 200 fruit on my side of the fence. Neighbours and people who walk down the lane are entitled to all that grow over the fence. Nearly touches the ground on the other side. Just wish that they'd stop picking them until they were ripe.

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As to Oranges and Lemons, and my original pic.
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This year's experiment is that I tried growing inoculated white clover beneath the two trees (inoculated with the nitrogen fixing bacteria). The Clover gets about a foot high, and I chop it down for mulch. I've checked and there are nitrogen nodules.

You might just see the terracotta flower pot. It's sealed at the bottom, and constantly filled with water, which leaches through the pot into the root area of the trees. Trying to keep water up to them without wasting. Gets epsom salts every now and then.

Better half was walking back from the shops today, and noticed blackberries growing in between a hedge and a rotten fence. 1 lbs of Blackberries in the fridge right now...can't imagine school children walking past ripe blackberries...no, I can't imagine them walking past a Mars Bar tree.

If I liked fennel, there's a plot growing next to the bowling club at the end of the street that has popped up since they cut back on mowing early last year.

Two dozen loaded apple trees between me and work.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Get after the weeds! (just kidding) We can say "knocked up"?

Sorry - nice stuff......we are getting a hint of spring!!


picking weeds or BITOG ?

The weeds are mostly grass, when they get long enough, in the compost bin they go.
 
mori, I couldn't handle living in the city.

Lived in Sydney for three years, and could never ever do it again.

45 minute commute got me less than 10km, while a year later, a 45 minute commute got me 75km with quite a few less buildings and centralisation.
 
Well, I live 300 yards from the beach. The city is "behind me." I can get out of the city within 15 minutes. While I can't handle living downtown, I neither can't handle living far from the city for more than a few weeks. Commuting for hours is not something I'd be willing to do. I must live near the ocean or near another large body of water.
 
Cogito, 950M. Latitude 33.49 S
Vinvent Vega, thanks. It's nice to walk past a plant, pick something, and eat it without a supermarket.
 
My wife and I have gardened together for 39 years. Our garden is now 30' x 60' and was bigger than that (a LOT bigger) when our three kids were at home (they've now left the nest). We never buy green beans, corn, or peas. They are all from our garden (we freeze them). We also freeze and can a lot of other stuff; so we buy very few veggies. We also grow our own raspberries and strawberries.
 
I didn't realize you are at about 3000 ft. (sort of a stereotypical viewpoint of Australia of beaches and flat outback, I must admit.) Same S latitude as Los Angeles N. Now I can get some better feel.....for your growing conditions.
 
Pablo,
I hope that someone can get a feel for our growing conditions.

Successfully planted tomatoes weeks before the recognised insertion date of the Melbourne cup day, and still don't have any properly red ones (neighbours haven't had any ripen yet either) Frost yesterday, 2nd March. The trellis method I tried this year is supposed to improve ripening in the cold, and there's still new flowers on the tomatoes and lemon tree.

At least the frost is good for sweet kiwi fruit.
 
About the same altitude here for Australia's capital city Canberra. Cold snap last week when it's usually in the 30c range in February. Possums got all our tomatoes and birds a lot of the strawberries
 
Originally Posted By: Vincent_Vega
That is a really nice setup you got there. That is a hobby that I would love to get in to and do well. Great picks of the Kiwi.


Birds started on the kiwis this morning, so they needed to be picked a little short of ripe.

65 lbs off two vines, 10lbs hived off to neighbours, now need to see what we can do with the rest.
 
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