Monday 20 May 2013

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 17

The garden is picking up slowly, with hopefully a few more thing starting to ripen and grow in the next few weeks. The chooks are still on strike with one dedicated hen laying an egg for me every other day. I went to go get some lemons and found an abandoned bush of kumquats that is growing very poorly. It was planted too close to our lemon tree and receives no direct sunlight. I didn't even know it existed until I saw some little orange fruit on it. It seems to have a lot of buds on it so hopefully we will get some more, but the tree is very scraggly... My 2.5 year old son loves them even though they are incredibly sour.

13/5/12 - 19/5/13

4 eggs
7 grams bay leaf
846 grams lemons
15 grams kumquat
174 grams beetroot
161 grams baby zucchini
78 grams capsicum
43 grams chili

TOTAL 4 EGGS 1.324 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

20 comments:

  1. Hi Nat, I was given a cross citrus tree of mandarine and kumquat, and yeah sour, good for playing tricks on people. I have found the best thing for citrus with colder weather now is controlled/slow release fertilizer. I used a 500g tub of general purpose food( for around $2.95 to $4) from them cheap shops or even bunnings, sprinkled it around the mandarine tree,(mother in-laws) wet it with hose water, then let nature take over.It blossomed with flowers and fruit by mid spring. If it shows recovery, add some more organic stuff/ or cow manure.

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    1. Haha I bet! These peeled like a mandy but pretty sure a kumquat and they were quite small, like a large grape! Yes I must fertilize my trees! Thanks for the reminder :D

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    2. While at Bunnings yesterday, i noticed there are 2 500g tubs of general fertilizer by 'Hortico', they maybe dressed different, but the nutrients info read identical, the only difference is one is $2.50 & other is $3.43, so if you dont want to spend too much, in case the kumquat tree dont make it, at least trying wont cost you lots.

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    3. Oh, winter is apparently the best time for citrus, they need cold for flowering & fruiting, lemons make great warm/hot drinks for the cold.

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    4. I didn't know they needed cold to flower! Mum's tree always seems to be in fruit, so I never thought about it! Mine is more seasonal (and we only live a kilometer away!) I love lemon in everything!

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  2. Lucky you to have citrus and kumquats in your garden line up! I am jealous. We are in the spring "it's all greens" mode at the moment. Lots of them, but the variety is missing for the time being.

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    1. Haha, there's not much on my trees, we have been in the house for 18 month and the trees were overgrown with jasmine and looked so sad. We have had some new growth and now some flowering so hopefully an increase in productivity as well since the lemon tree is quite old and large! Some healthy greens would be nice over here but things have slowed down with the cold winter weather we have been having!

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  3. I've lived in the metropolitan area my whole life and it must be very peaceful and refreshing to live in a farm. :-)

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    1. Hi Irene, we are in Melbourne Australia in Suburbia so far from peaceful and refreshing ;) Our dream is to have acreage 'one day' and hopefully sooner rather than later! I have converted my front garden to a productive veggie patch and the backyard houses our chooks and fruit trees (I would love more veggie patch in the back but our dog would use it as a bed so I don't bother!) We used to live in the hills on the outskirts of Melbourne (but my feral neighbours made it hard to enjoy the serenity) so we moved closer in to a flat block without too many trees so we could successfully grow our food.

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  4. Mmmmm....Kumquats. I wonder if you could transplant the bush to a happier location?

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    1. I would love to but I am scared to kill it! Is it ok to move a citrus tree and when is the best time to do this? I also have a blood orange that i would love to move into a more convenient location!

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    2. We are very lucky in Tas to have Peter Cundall as our local gardening talk back radio expert - he says we can move citrus now, remove all blossoms and fruit for two years to help it recover. Good luck!

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    3. Yes you are indeed what a wealth of knowledge he is! Thanks so much for that tip! I will get my husband on to it ;)

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  5. That poor little kumquat, it must be a tough thing to be able to produce fruit in the shadow of its big neighbor.

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    1. haha, yes it must! But they are quite tasty despite the intense sourness :D

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  6. Kumquats?! How fantastic is that?! Congrats on the harvests picking up :-)

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    1. Yes I think so (not sure what else they could be? Tiny extremely sour mandarins....) Thank-you!

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  7. Nice harvest. Kumquats used to be a favorite, but now I prefer them in a marmalade. LOL.

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