Leaves, leaves, leaves!

The balcony garden is green and brown at the moment. More brown than green really, because the trees have lost their leaves. This was fine for the apple and nectarine trees who were long finished fruiting but it seems Mr Fig Twig decided to play copy cat.

While the leaf in the above picture has long gone, the fruits remain and will, thanks to its leafy-nakedness, not ripen. At least they look good.

Other leaves were thrown out - thanks to my old enemy powdery mildew. It attacked the swiss chard, the rosemary and the snow peas. The snow peas were dead anyway, but the chard was lush and delicious. I ended up cutting off all affected leaves of the chard, then transplanting them to greener pastures (a sunnier pot with good soil.) They seem happier and are not reinfected so we will see if these drastic measures worked. The rosemary was not so lucky, and given I have two other healthy rosemary bushes (one a new Anzac bush generously given to me by my lovely other half's mother) the zombie rosemary was sent to the great compost heap in the sky.

But it is not all leafy doom and gloom. The wonderful red kale my lovely other half gave to me (yes I am very spoiled) is taking off and I look forward to cooking with it soon. The tuscan kale is nearing its end but the leaves have been gracing soups of late, as have spare broccoli leaves. Broccoli leaves are way too stringy for my tastes to be a spinach or chard alternate, but in soup they blend up just fine and give a great addition to the flavour and nutrients of the dish.

I'm still tossing up whether to squeeze in some leafy green asian veg (bok choy most likely) before the spring season starts or just leave the pots for a couple of months. Thoughts?

That's a pretty fruity balcony you've got there ...

Indeed my balcony garden is so fruity, the apples grow upside down! If you recall a post a long while back - I decided to 'fruity' up my balcony in order to skimp on buying soil all the time. It worked a little - or maybe it just cluttered the balcony up even more - but either way the 6 fruit trees are here to stay, and it looks like this summer they are earning their keep. For those who aren't in the know, the balcony garden houses six fruit trees - they are (in order of entrance into the BG world)

A Lemon Tree (gifted by my dear friend the not-so-stinking Hippy G, probably Meyer, was kind of sickly, but seems to be happier now)
A Nectarzee (gifted by my birth mother, has issues with leaf curl but holding on)
A Tahitian Lime (gifted by me, to me, because, well, I wanted my friends to have G and Ts with style)
A Golden Delicious Apple (a me-gift again, but I love this apple, it's my favourite kind)
A Granny Smith (because every good apple tree needs a companion)
A Fig (gifted by the lovely Ms M for my 30th)

So how are they faring overall? The lemon tree has always struggled, but a larger pot, some care and careful fertilising and a prime position means it is covered in little lemons this season. When I say covered, I mean about 10-12, but when a usual crop is lucky to have more than one this is a total blessing.

The lime is less successful, no doubt because of its youth, the way-too-small pot, and lack of adequate fertilisation. He'll be my next care and repair task. At least he keeps on flowering, in the faint hope he will fruit, which smells divine.

The apples are amazing! They're still young but they're fruiting and unlike other growers who let their trees mature, I'm letting it fruit. I don't care what anyone says and how much they say this'll hurt the tree. I'm a free range gardener and if my younguns wanna let loose and fruit then so be it. I thinned the fruit back though, and they still look happy and healthy and I can't wait to try an apple in the later summer/autumn months.

Mr fig twig - he aint no twig anymore - and he is fruiting happily and well. Rust is still an issue, mostly because I keep not attending to it!

The nectarzee (that's a dwarf nectarine for the uninitiated) had huge problems with leaf curl, at least it did in the past. While one branch was affected this year the rest of the tree came away unscathed. I am loathe to spray for it, and seems my little fighter fended for himself. There are two nectarines ripening this year, so cannot wait to nibble on them both.

Spiders are a problem with all the fruit trees, they seem to have made themselves at home. Not a problem in a large garden, with large trees, but for an arachnaphobe with a balcony garden of small trees it can be a bit of a problem. At the moment we are in a pretend-ignorant coexistance, but it is an uneasy truce. I'll keep you posted if arachnowar goes down.

So what fruit trees do you grow? Any tips?

Harvest Monday: Red for Hallmark Day

Another Harvest Monday rolls around way too quickly. And in keeping with my least favourite day of the year - Hallmark Day - the produce was lovey dovey red. More berries this week and more chillis than I knew what to do with. At the moment they are in the freezer waiting to jump into a nice hot chilli con carne when the weather seems appropriate.

All that red was all right, I suppose but the the piece de resistance this week had to be the fig. My first fig. Mr Fig twig was generous enough to give me an early sample and he didn't disappoint. Into a sandwich it went, with proscuitto and lettuce. Totally delicious.

This coming week there will be another eggplant harvest and maybe even a cucumber. I only planted them a little under a month ago but they are already fruiting!!!

How was your harvest this week? For more yummy stuff from the ground see Daphne's Dandelions harvest monday round up.

Bush Fig, Tree Fig, Hipster Fig, Fig Twig

Remember Mr Fig Twig? I introduced him way back when, when he was a pressie from the delightful Dr M-ski for my 30th birthday. He was called mr fig twig because, well, he was a fig tree but he was still a just a weeny little twig. Here is a shot of then of him in his figgy, twiggy glory. Skinny little guy, bit of a hipster really.

Well here he is now, complete with proto-figs between his leafy branches. No more mr hipster fig twig.

I love that with figs, the bit we eat is just an inside out flower. Awesome! He is starting to grow extra bits out the bottom, which I will let him do and make him more of a bush fig than a tree fig. He isn't grafted so I am not worried. Not sure if these tiny baby figs will fall off as he is still very little but if they reach maturity I think I will be having one of these.

Meet the Candidates: Elections in the Balcony Garden

Today in Australia many of us toddled off or will toddle off in these last couple of hours to the polling station to vote. So long as you are on the electoral roll here you need to vote. I like voting, I like my ability to freely and easily participate in some form of democracy. The problem with today's voting - the distinct lack if sausage sizzle stands and cake stalls at many polling booths. For shame Australia! Cheap sausages and democracy go hand in hand I say.

Anyway two wonderful friends of mine have been blogging about the leadup to the election, including a 'meet-the-candidates' section which helped outline the more obscure parties in the senate. If you are at all into politics, or just good writing pop on over to Carefully Scripted Remarks or The Adventures of Max U in Crazyland for a good political read.

But today on totally inept balcony garden I would like to introduce you to those greater candidates that have been elected to hold top position in the balcony garden - the fruit trees. Currently the balcony garden has six fruit trees, with a seventh position up for grabs. From the lemon to the lime, the apples to fig and not forgetting Mr Nectarine they all make up the balance of the balcony garden.

The first tree to join the fray featured in my first blog post. Mr Lemon tree was a gift from Miss G, a lovely vaguely hippy friend from up the road. She had procured a better lemon tree for her own garden and this one was free to a good home. I have nurtured it through the years and it usually gives me a modest amount of fruit, never more than four lemons, never fewer than three. He is about to get a repot, so new soil and a much larger pot to grow into. I am hoping that hill help with the problems he suffers, like new growth being nibbled away and leaves occasionally dropping.

Lemon trees are integral to my lifestyle, I grew up with one in the garden and the sweet scent of the blossoms is heavenly all year round plus the few fruits it provides are tasty. Solid, sturdy and reliable, a lemon tree is something all politicians should aspire to emulate.

The next tree was also a gift, this time from my Birth mother (I am adopted) for my very belated 28th or early for my 29th birthday or as a ate Christmas pressie I can't remember. I'd never thought about getting a dwarf nectarine, it just simply wasn't on my radar of things I wanted. But this tree is great. Last year it only gave me three fruit, and I definitely need to hand pollinate but they were some of the tastiest nectarines I had ever eaten.

Nectarines are a bit like the senator you never expected to get a seat but does, and then they prove to be a real winner. I hope it fruits again this year, it is already budding though it doesn't have a lot of new growth. Perhaps a top up of good soil and some nutrients will help.

The balcony garden stayed a two fruit tree zone for a while, quite a while in fact. It was only when I realised the benefits of pots that only needed new soil every two years, as opposed to vegetable growing which meant refilling the pot twice or thrice a year, that made fruit trees more desirable. Armed with a voucher and drive I went in myself for fruit tree number there - the tahitian lime. He has been here a while and seems to have settled in well. He is showing good signs of new near-Spring growth including new leaves and even possibly some buds.

Probably too new to decide what kind of politician he would be, but judging by the dominant colour I'd put him in with the Greens!

Shortly after the lime tree joined the gang, was my 30th birthday, and with that passing into a new decade came a lovely present from Miss M - a fig tree. Ok I should really rephrase that, a fig twig, Mr Fig Twig to be exact. It is a black genoa fig, self pollinating which works well in a one fig environment. It will take a few years before he is of fruit baring size. I can't help but liken him to my favourite Australian Democrat of yesteryear - Natasha Stott Despoja. She was so full of hope and promise and ideas, but went in too hard too early and it just wasn't her time. I have heard vague rumours of a comeback. I, for one, think this would be a great thing as with maturity brings good things - like figs.

After the figs came what I term the 'accidental' purchase of not one, but two apple trees. As any good gardener knows you need two apple trees to cross pollinate to get fruit, and when two dwarf versions of my two favourites, golden delicious and granny smith, were avaible and they could cross pollinate I jumped. I had wanted a ballerina apple tree, but none were available that would cross pollinate with either of these. The bonus of a ballerina is its upright nature, and the lack of pruning needed. I am a terrible pruner, though as these were bare rooted trees I had to at least have a go.

As they've only been in for a couple of weeks it is far too early to suggest what kind of political style they'll have. As long as they don't form a coalition akin to the Nationals and the Liberal Party then we will be fine. Besides growing trees is far too green a policy for either of those parties, but it would be an interesting carbon offset.

So there are the six fruity candidates in my garden. And it would be a good balance if I left it as that, but there is, just a slight possibility, that the group of six could be joined by a seventh. There is a spare large pot just about to become vacant after the broccoli is pulled.

It could remain a vegetable only zone, or it could, just as easily, house a small fruit tree. The only problem is, what fruit tree would I choose? The major ones I would like are (in no special order)

• Self pollinating dwarf cherry (alas these only come in black varieties and I do prefer yellow/white cherries but imagine the blossoms)
• Persimmon (dwarf(ish) self pollinating varities are orderable, but the deep tap root would be quite a problem)
• Blood Orange (my favourite citrus fruit and one I cannot get enough of)
• A ballerina apple tree which can pollinate with one of the existing apple trees
• A dwarf peach/nectarine
• A white genoa fig

And those are just the tip of the iceberg. Do you have any other suggestions out there? What do you think makes a good potted tree?

Anyway voting in new plants in the balcony garden is a touch simpler than the election here in Australia today. The polls close in a few hours and I am off to an election party armed with green, red and blue macarons. It is no accident that most of the macarons are green. By tomorrow we may have a new Prime Minister (in which case if it is the horribly antiquated Mad Monk Mr Abbott I will be relocating to another country!) My hope of Greens in power is too far fetched for a voting public right now so I have my fingers crossed that the Labor Party retains power for another term. And for the record, the Lemon tree, when asked who he would vote for, refused to comment.

Meet Mr Fig Twig

Here is the newest addition to the balcony garden tree family. Ok it is a bit hard to call him a tree, or a sapling, or even, well, anything other than a twig, but he is Mr Fig Twig and he joined the garden shortly before I went overseas. Lovely friend Miss M and her man gave the fig twig to me for my 30th birthday. This was because I kept going on and on and on about how I wanted to buy a fig, oh how wonderful it would be to have a fig, a fig a fig my kingdom for a fig, and so forth, but never really got around to purchasing one. Ironically the day I recieved this lovely gift I had vowed to drive to the nursery to buy a fig, but was stopped by cold weather and an overwhelming desire to sleep in. Fortuitous methinks.

At the time I didn't have a pot for him, or potting mix, so in his dormant state I popped him in with the last of the yellow carrots. He seems to have survived. In a couple of weekend's time he will go into his new home, a larger pot all to himself. This of course wont be his final resting place, figs grow quickly so in a couple of years time I will have to invest in a decently sized pot. But until then he can just chat with the carrots.

Anyone else grow figs in pots? If so any tips?