Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Garden Photo's

Thought it was time for another walk through my garden.



Red Cabbage (I have no idea why it isn't called purple cabbage but anyway...). This one I picked not long after I took the photo. It's still a bit on the small side but tastes really great.



Broccoli. My broccoli this year has done a little better than last year but still not brilliantly. This area of dirt is a bit tired and needs some compost added to it. Once the broccoli is finished, we plan to build it up a little higher with a trailer load of compost.


Farmboy got the fruit trees planted out. My idea of buying them and then he'd get around to doing the preparation work pretty much panned out. Originally I was going to wait for him to dig the holes before spending the money but realised that would put it on the never-never plan.

This is the Pink Lady Apple. We still need another apple for pollination but we couldn't get one at the time. I figured we'd start with this one and find a second one when we get a chance. I'm thinking I'd like a Granny Smith. According to the label, I can cross-pollinate with a Granny
Smith and they do make a nice cooking apple.


This is the apricot tree. I hope this goes well because we REALLY like stewed apricot, dried apricot and apricot jam (among other things).

The orchard is located outside the main backyard area. As you can imagine, we have plenty of room (being on a farm) but it's a matter of convenience and location of water supply as to the best place to put the orchard.

We've chosen the opposite side of the yard to the house. Which is close to where our Ozzi-Kleen waste water system is.


This is the only section of the Ozzi-Kleen you can see. The rest is buried below the ground. If you look closely, you can see the green backyard fence behind it.

ALL of our household water goes into this unit where it is treated. It then gets pumped out through a hose onto whatever section of the garden we choose.

Water is our biggest gardening challenge right now. Since we've moved here, we haven't had enough rain to even fill the rainwater tanks we currently have. Every summer it's touch and go whether or not we'll run out of water. So whatever the Ozzi-Kleen produces is about all the water I can have during summer.

Now that the front garden is pretty much established, I'm hoping that we can use the Ozzi-Kleen water on the fruit trees. It's considered safe to use on fruit trees but not so much for vegetable gardens (in case something gets into the food). Although I do tend to use it in the establishment phase of the vegetable garden.

And that's about all that is of interest in my garden right now.

4 comments:

Chookie said...

Ooh, please tell us more about the water treatment unit - I haven't heard of that brand. How does it work?

And I also vote for a GS as pollinator.

River said...

I have a granny smith apple, but as yet it hasn't produced any viable fruit. I'm hoping that's only because the tree is young. This will be it's fourth summer, so I may see some fruit next season. It's in a pot like all my other trees.
You red cabbage looks a lot like Audrey, the carnivorous plant in "Little Shop Of Horrors".
(Psst..photos in this case is plural, not possessive, so it doesn't need the apostrophe.)

lightening said...

Chookie - will write a post about the unit soon. Thanks for the feedback on the GS.

River - LOL about my gramma - shockin aint it??? ;) I assume you have a second apple tree to pollinate the Granny Smith?

I can see what you mean about the cabbage too. Wonder if the cabbage patch will start giving me nightmares now???? LOL.

River said...

I don't have a second apple tree, I'd heard that granny smiths were self pollinating. I did have one on order at the same time as the GS but the nursery got the wrong one in, so I didn't take it. I probably should get another but with the drought and a lack of space I'll wait awhile. Hubby doesn't eat fruit anyway, so I'll have enough plums, cherries and peaches that I can do without apples. Unless I fancy a pie or crumble, then I'll buy a few.