Nectarine Blossomfest 2012

The nectarine tree is always the first to blossom on the balcony. I guess you could argue that the lemon and the lime both really take that honour as they had blossoms well before the nectarine, but given they don't seem to ever stop blossoming I thought I'd take them out of the competition.

The first hint of flowers came a few week's back and I posted about it in GBBD. I'm still surprised this guy stands up to the conditions, I mean he lives so close to the airconditioning unit! Then again it blows out, not sideways, so he is actually pretty sheltered.

More and more blossoms joined the bloomfest, and even leaves began to poke through.

 

Now only two things remain, and both of them waiting games:

1. Will any of the blossoms turn to fruit?
2/ Will curly leaf strike again (highly likely)

Culry leaf is a major problem in Melbourne with certain stonefruit. It can be somewhat combatted with spraying but the timing has to be right and half the time curly leaf hits anyway. It weakens the tree a bit, and there may be less fruit, but I find it rights itself most of the time. Last year the plant got curly leaf early in the season, then shed those leaves and grew new, non-visibly infected ones. It went on to produce 3 lovely nectarines (one was a surprise) and seemed relatively happy and healthy.

The tree has way more blossom than last year, but that doesn't always translate into more fruit. So many factors are at play here, weather, pollinators, and luck. Fingers crossed I get a few goodies.

What's blossoming in your garden?

Even more flowers

Well not exactly flower, but potential flower, and in some cases, potential fruit. These were the pics of bits that didn't quite make it into the garden bloggers blooms day lineup, because they hadn't quite got their bloom on.

The nectarine, buds forming for blossoms. There aren't many so I don't like my chances of actually getting any fruit this year, but fingers crossed.

And little Mr Succulent! See the flowers forming. They will slowly grow out on a long stem, then open. I never really appreciated succulents until I saw them in flower.

So today is dedicated as garden blogger's almost blooms day.

Harvest Monday (the first for 2012)

It's been a while since I managed one of these - so here are some pics of what I've harvested over Christmas.

Corn (about ten ears all up from this first batch)

Tomatoes (a few green zebras and lots of lemon drops and red tumblers), Cucumber (just one so far, but more to come), Basil (lots of basil)

I've also picked lots of mint of various kinds.

Ands nectarines, three of them, all tasting slightly different.

Gotta love a good harvest.

Some new additions at the end of 2011

Mum and I enjoyed that nectarine yesterday. We halved it and ate it while watching the cricket on my couch. The sweet fruit contrasted with the bitterness of Australia's batting collapse!

We also bought some new lovelies for the balcony garden. First was a fuschia to replace the one I had for three years that never flowered. I wanted a Winston Churchill fuschia (which is dark pink and dark purple) but then decided this one was more striking.

I also got some berries and cream mint. I covetted Lisa's mint collection, so I am starting my own.

I also have normal mint, which is doing better after a bug attack (the pic is from when it was sicker.)

And ditto on the chocolate mint. For some reason I thought hanging baskets would help keep them safe.

Any end of year new purchases in your garden?

Nectarine and Other Hijinks

My nectarine tree has two nectarines on it, two. These are cherished and coddled little sweet things just ready to be eaten (the pic above is an oldie). I plan on sharing one with my Mum today and one with my lovely boyfriend in a few days. Both will be blissful eating experiences I am sure. Now as you can tell from this I am a sharer. I love sharing the produce from my balcony garden. It isn't much, but it goes around a fair way. I cook meals for my friends with it. Occasionally if there is a glut of tomatoes I take some to my cousin's house. Even my neighbours sometimes get a stray carrot or two.

But not everyone is a sharer, some are stealers! And I've heard some bonkers stories about fruit tree use and abuse this Christmas and I just wanted to share them with you.

Story 1 - beware the mother in law

My cousin told me the story of a friend of his who has a lovely stonefruit tree in his backyard. For the sake of the story let's say it is an apricot. The tree is often laden with fruit, bulging, sagging, just waiting to ripen. You have to be quick to beat the birds to it, but in his case he was too slow and a bird got it. Yes, just a single bird - his mother in law! She came over one day and cleaned him out of fruit. What's worse is that it wasn't for her own consumption - but she gave them to her friends at church!!! RANDOM! I don't think I need to say much more, except that this is wrong, wrong, so many levels of wrong.

And it isn't isolated. Another friend at uni had the entire contents of his apple tree stolen by neighbours while he was away. And no neighbour will own up to it - but given the isolation of his backyard it had to be one of them.

Story 2 - karma counter

My Aunt has a neighbour who counts the fruit on his avocado tree. Even though technically the fruit hanging over my Aunt's side of the fence is hers (a fact that sent him pale with terror when she told him) he keeps them for himself. Now if the tree had one or two fruit, like my lemon tree at most times, then I'd understand this hoarding and counting and keeping to oneself. However, the tree, in its worst year, usually has over seventy fruit! SEVENTY! All for him, and his wife. And the day one accidentally fell off on my Aunt's side of the fence ... well ... she threw it back over for fear of this little man and what he might do lest the counting fall short.

I know if I had a tree with that much fruit I'd be gorging on avocado each day, and giving them away to those I love best, those nearest, those a little over the way and probably anyone who just walked by.

He does this each year. And then one year there were only a few avocados on the tree! Karma for the counter, karma.

But back to my nectarines - and wouldn't you know it, sharing pays off. Like the neighbour of my Aunt's I had been counting my nectarines, but even a toddler with dyscalculia could tell there were only two, well two highly visible ones at least. Yesterday I looked out and saw a nectarine lying on the mulch, fully ripe. I thought maybe I'd knocked one of the two off, but no, there were still two on there, ready to be shared accordingly. This was a miracle third nectarine! As I was enjoying a day to myself I decided to let this third morsel be all mine. And it was delicious. :) Ok so in a post about sharing I end up keeping the extra to myself, but I don't think there's too much harm in that.

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?

Springtime for Mister Balcony Garden

Yes it has been a while, a very long while. Spurts of writing here and there but when you have cranked out 100 000 words on man's darker side you tend not to want to write much at all. Slowly I managed to start reading again (non-work books) and teaching took me away from Nazis, but still I couldn't muster the word-power to get back on this blog. But hopefully the winds of change are in town, and the inept balcony gardener can write once more. But just because I haven't written doesn't mean I haven't been gardening! Just take a look at the pic above, and you will see the balcony garden is going very well indeed. No camera cord yet (blame laziness and forgetfulness) so the pics in today's post are brought to you by my trusty little Motorola. Not bad either, if you ask me.

Above is most of the balcony at the end weeks of Spring. It is green, full of spiders and snails and vegetables and fruits are on their way. The flowers of spring have mostly died off, but I plan on adding a few pockets of annual colour here and there, mostly to attract some more bees. The abutilons are attracting birds (much to my delighted surprise) and the lemon and lime blossom works a treat on the bees but you can never have too much wildlife. Speaking of wildlife my neighbour's cat has discovered how to climb the fence, so he is an occasional visitor when I'm lucky.

But what about my pretties? The apples ... they're fruiting amazingly (I almost shed a tear thinning these)

Both the golden delicious and the granny smith have a few fruit left on them. I'm intrigued to see how well they grow.

Tomatoes are also thriving, some planted earlier than others. I'm trying a few varieties to see if they can outrun the early death. No hardcore boring hybrids this year with germ resistance. Instead I planted what I wanted, whether it is a softie and falls down dead at the hint of blight, or is a trusty old workhorse. I chose for flavour, variety, and what was in the shop at the time!!! Two green zebras, a lemon drop, a red tumbler and a black russian round out this year's contenders. I also planted a mortgage lifter in my friend's garden in the hope that it'll grow and she can supply the tomato crack. Here's a pic of the flowering and fruiting red tumbler.

There are also pumpkins (I'll do a whole post of them later) in a pot with corn and beans. Ok when I say pot, I mean mega pot, and yes, I'll post on it all very soon. I actually have two mega pots! There are also figs (just a pic of a bit of Mr Fig Twig below, but there are little fruits growing), nectarines (no pics), lemons (might be more than one this year!!!) and more. Garlic, mint (2 kinds, well 1 in a hanging basket and 1 that's been ravaged by the snails) lettuce, basil and so much more.

Right now we are getting a Spring shower, and the temperature has dropped. It makes me want to go sit in the Garden with a cuppa tea (or a long island version) and take in the Springy goodness. Instead it is back to first year essays! Until next time (and trust me, it won't be so long between posts.)

Curly Leaf Nectarine and the Nine Blossoms

I'd almost given up on the nectarine tree this year. Last year it bloomed amazingly, produced 3 tasty nectarines then went into Winter hibernation. When I forgot to spray it for curly leaf I knew I was in for a spot of bother but when I witnessed a total of about 9 blossoms on it, I gave up entirely. How on earth could I get any fruit from a measly nine blossoms?

I put some mulch on it to help trap water, and added some fertiliser but of course it was going to be too little, too late. The blossoms were joined by leaves,

then faded away.

Following that the leaves got major, major, major issues of the curly variety.

This disease wont kill your tree instantly, just shorten its life overall if untreated. Miss J has had a nectatine tree that was infected and it fruited every second year without fail. Just might not fruit for as long as an infected tree. Others have been affected by it this year too and I have since learned it is endemic to Melbourne. Definitely will have to consider spraying it next year, trying to get that window before the buds open, to kill the curly and make the tree happy again. That and remember to repot the poor thing and feed it on a more regular basis. Poor nectarine tree, he really is a bit neglected

Mind you all, was not lost - I just realised there is a nectarine on the tree! One tiny, little speck of stone fruit hope for this summer.

While I was away ...

Wow, where did the last week go? If anyone knows please tell me because I want it back. Too much uni work, with a few fun social times thrown in for good measure meant this blog got neglected. But the garden certainly was taken care of, and even a few new additions found their way into the fold. I'll post later on that one. In the meantime, above is a shot of the balcony as it was when I returned. Housesitter B did a splendid job and anything grew amazingly while I was away. The before shots can be found in my last few posts, but here are some afters for good measure! Some things blossomed, like one of the apples and a lime and the flowers on the boronia opened to let off a beautiful scent.

The crops got bigger, including the eggplants, corn, zucchinis and garlic while some things like snow peas and beetroots germinated.

The tomatoes, both seedlings inside, and larger plants outside became triffid like.

The currants took on a huge new lease of life.

Others didn't fare so well. The primroses don't like the heat too much, and the nectarine has a terrible case of curly leaf and I have only found one fruit on it so far.

Still not bad for only two weeks! Go my little balcony garden.