Lucerne bale no dig bed.

When I was a small child my mother and pop had a garden bed started from lucerne bails they spread out and let decompose into rich compost. My mother and father still talk about how successful the garden was and dad has mentioned that he went back to the house and said how the grass was still greener where the garden had been. So today we went out and bought a couple bales of Lucerne. I actually paid a little too much for them but it was good 1st cut quality not the twiggy rough stuff you get cheap late in the season. I also grabbed a few bags of stable horse manure and layered out a bed. Will be ready to grow in Spring I hope, I'll probably put a layer of mushroom compost and another bale of lucerne  on next week. I've netted it off to keep the dog out of it he loves horse manure, it will also help stop the lucerne from blowing all over the yard until it starts to break down
Can't wait for spring already.

Indigenous tuber crops

Indigenous tuber crops, what an extremely broad term. Yams, taro and or coccoyams and a various other interesting looking plants your generally not sure whether they are ornamental or poisonous. I am really interested in edible Dioscorea species yams and grow a few cultivars of winged yam a white and two purple and an air potato which I think is awesome. Most of the plants in the yard are finishing up and going dormant for the year. Putting out "seed potatoes" for next year. Its been such a long hot year they are all a month behind which I think is interesting. This summer started early and refused to stop so plants like the Dioscorea yams just kept on growing. Really attractive vining plant if you have a fence or trellis and are looking for a good privacy screen that will give you something edible back in return I highly recommend putting a yam in.

Giant Atlantic pumpkins Brisbane EKKA competition

I like growing unusual and interesting things one thing I have been hooked on growing the last couple years is giant pumpkins. I have one in the dirt for the Brisbane Ekka comp, weigh offs in May.
Here's an article.

 

Anyone interested in seeds or what not that may get on facebook should check out my pumpkin page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-city-giant-pumpkin-growers/219059978241733

Bits and pieces around the yard

Kale everywhere this year, the kids have already voiced their opinion and protested at the idea of eating it regularly. I really like kale leaf in salad but sautéed with a little butte rand garlic it's delicious. Children are always the worst critics.
Our early purple turnips are really powering along, I'll be cooking a curry with this lot before too long.
Chou moullier kale which appears to be more cabbage then not is starting to grow I am curious to see how it grows. There has been much talk about kale and when to plant in Brisbane, I noticed that a couple online planting guides tell us to plant in January. It needs cool nights to get sweetness in the leaf, don't grow it over summer, it will grow quick but gets bitter so quickly with limited water and too much heat.

3 metre garden bed challenge, update.

The 3 metre bed is doing well, we are starting to see some good growth in the purple kohlrabi and red Russian kale, I lost one to what appeared to be burn, hit the bed with large amounts of mushroom compost and chicken manure and I think there may have been a couple patches not turned in well enough. A few of the red kale nearly turned blue/ green. I have never seen that before. They seem to have got over this stress now and look fantastic. Vate's curly blue has started putting on size and the lacinato or black kale which I find to be the slowest to start is developing mature looking leaves.

Banana fruit forming

This is a totally new gardening experience for me. Bananas grow so fast here in Brisbane it really is a shame more people don't designate a little space to them.
I'm looking forward to this lot ripening.

Apparently it takes around 2 months for bananas to ripen but may take a little longer as it is already mid autumn and the temperature is a significant factor in ripening time. Everything is out of whack this year the plants are extremely confused from our very long "summer". 

Banana flower power.

My first banana flower is forming, very cool. I have not bothered to water or fertilise this clump in the year it has been in the ground, it came to me a small corm in a pot I planted it out against the neighbours shed in the hope it would protect it from the

 

 

wild winds we sometimes get and so far its been very happy.