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Home » Edible Gardening Blog for Melbourne Based Gardeners » 2015 » September » 24

Daily Archives: September 24, 2015

How to Grow Cucamelons in Melbourne, Mouse Melon, Mexican Sour Gherkin. — Cucamelons are becoming an increasingly popular edible plant in Melbourne. More and more people are asking me how to grow them, and from where to source the seed. Last summer, I grew cucamelons for the first time, they were amazing. Here’s our guide on how to grow them, it’s pretty […]

How to Grow Cucamelons in Melbourne

This entry was posted in How to Grow on September 24, 2015 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

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leafrootfruit

Wednesdays are our internship day and today the te

Wednesdays are our internship day and today the team worked hard to assemble a huge hot compost.

We've harvested enough tomatoes, so all the saucing tomato vines were collected and added to the pile. We also fed spent sunflower and sweet corn stalks through the wood chipper which will help them to decompose much more quickly. Other items added to this compost pile included chook manure, cow manure, wood ash and plenty of straw.

In two weeks time we will begin work on an exciting new project... a large netted enclosure. Once today's pile has finished composting it will be used to prepare the soil for new fruit trees to be planted inside the netted enclosure.

#hotcompost #sohot #manure #internship #permacultureinternship #newproject #hardwork #sleepwelltonight #straw #autumncolour #kyneton

And the winner is.... with a very accurate guess o

And the winner is.... with a very accurate guess of 2400g, @kerryn.burgess ! The actual weight of the tuber was 2390g

Congratualtions Kerryn, you've won a ticket to our upcoming Science of Edible Gardening Workshop on "Reproductive Genetics: Seed Saving & Pollination".

Thanks to everyone on our social media platforms who had a guess in our sweet potato competition. (See previous post for more details)

Guess the Weight to Win!!!!! Recent frosts killed

Guess the Weight to Win!!!!!

Recent frosts killed off the foliage of our sweet potatoes. So yesterday we lifted the tubers and there were some huge ones . This one was about as big as a football.

So we've decided to run a little competition to guess how much it weighs. The person who guesses the closest will win a ticket to our upcoming Science of Edible Gardening Workshop on "Reproductive Genetics: Seed Saving & Pollination" (https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/event/reproductive-genetics-seed-saving-pollination-as-part-of-the-science-of-edible-gardening-series/)

There's one ticket up for grabs and the competition is being run across all our social media platforms (you can have one entry per platform). The prize is a ticket to the event only, so the winner will have to make sure they are available and can make their own way there. The prize is not transferable to another event in the series. Entries close Sunday evening at 8pm when we will announce the winner. Please include your guess weight in grams in the comments.

#sweetpotato #whatawhopper #kyneton #centralvictoria #frostdamage #competition #guesstheweight #grams #stonker #gardeningworkshop

We had a measly 2.5mm rain yesterday. It is rather

We had a measly 2.5mm rain yesterday. It is rather cold this morning and thin layers of ice have formed on any water lying about.

How's the weather in your part of the world? Did you get much rain yesterday? It's it frosty this morning?

#kyneton #icy #wherestherain #puddles #weatherupdate #autumn #goodbyeaphids

Our second and final batch of passata for the seas

Our second and final batch of passata for the season. Sixty seven bottles in today's batch making it a total of 114 bottles for the season. All the tomatoes were homegrown from over 60 San Marzano vines.

Our vines are covered with insect netting which helped to protect them from Saturday's frost. Our plants are still very productive.

How are your tomatoes doing? Are they still productive or have you removed them to make way for winter crops?

#passata #sanmarzano #sugo #sauce #vacola #preserving #homegrown #selfsufficiency #permaculture #autumnharvest #stillgoingstrong #growyourownfood

https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/how-to-grow-great-tomatoes-in-melbourne/

On Saturday we ran another workshop in our Science

On Saturday we ran another workshop in our Science of Edible Gardening Series. The theme of the workshop was population ecology. During the day we discussed beneficial insects and how to increase their presence in your garden ecosystem. Doing so increases the resilience of your garden and reduces garden pests.

At the end of the workshop our participants completed two practical activities. The first was to construct an insect hotel to take home and place in their own garden. Insect hotels are very easy to make. Simply take a vessel such as a washed tin can, a piece of pipe, a besser block, or in this case, a piece of cardboard tube. Once you have a suitable vessel, fill it with lengths of hollow vegetation. We used some bamboo stake offcuts, some old sunflower stems and even some dried stems of thistles. The latter two items still had plenty of white pith in the middle. It can be good to include materials with this pith as some of the native bees and beneficial insects like to excavate their nest before using it. Using a range of materials with different diameters ensures that a larger diversity of visitors can utilise the insect hotel.

The second activity we completed was a larger insect hotel. We made this by drilling holes of different diameters into a large piece of Redgum timber. The timber was then placed in our orchard so that the holes were protected from rain.

Our participants will be able to check back in on the second project each time they visit for upcoming workshops. Our next workshop is Reproductive Genetics, where we will explore seed saving, taking cuttings and fruit tree grafting.

#kyneton #gardenworkshop #onehourfrommelbourne #gardenscience #insecthotel #beehotel #pestcontrol #beneficialinsect #gardenecosystem #functionalart #gardensculpture

Our first frost of the season here in #Kyneton. N

Our first frost of the season here in #Kyneton.

Not a heavy one, but still enough to completely finish off the sweet potatoes. Our tomatoes are under netting which should provide enough protection... this time around!

#winteriscoming #goodbyesummer #jackfrost #sweetpotato #pumpkinvine #sunnyskies #centralvictoria #greatday #gardenworkshop

A dozen tasty, freshly harvested figs.... Keen ey

A dozen tasty, freshly harvested figs....

Keen eyed folks may notice there are actually only eleven on the plate. I've decided to coin the phrase "a gardener's dozen" because there's always at least one piece that doesn't make it inside. Gosh it was delicious!

What do you think.... #gardenersdozen Will it catch on?

#figs #autumnharvest #notabakersdozen #elevennottwelve #beatthebirds #ficuscarica #stickysweet

Our basil plants are covered in flowers and will s

Our basil plants are covered in flowers and will soon succumb to the cold. If you haven't already noticed, you'll soon find small black spots appearing on some of the leaves. This is a fungal disease and indicates that the plants are nearly finished for the season. So it's a good time to harvest the whole plant and turn it into pesto. You can freeze the pesto to use over the winter.

https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/duncans-basil-pesto-pasta/

Good airflow and reduced humidity in Central Victo

Good airflow and reduced humidity in Central Victoria helps us to delay the onset of powdery mildew by about a month after Melbourne gardens. Our cucumbers, zucchini, melons and pumpkins are showing signs of this fungal infection taking hold. However, most of these plants are still very productive for us.

I often see social media posts asking for advice with dealing with powdery mildew. I encourage people to "do nothing". Powdery mildew is inevitable at this time of the year. To me it is just another indicator that the seasons are changing. Rather than trying to rectify the "problem" it's time to remove spent plants and replace them with winter veggies.

Of course you can reduce the onset of this disease, but it's impossible to cure. Where ever possible ensure that susceptible plants have good airflow and make sure you avoid splashing the leaves when watering. This can prolong the onset for several weeks.

Are your plants suffering from powdery mildew? Do you do anything about it, or just remove the plants when they are done?

#powderymidlew #pumpkin #centralvictoria #melbourne #fungus #cucurbit #autumn #plantdisease #donothing #whitespots

Following on from our last post about aphids... O

Following on from our last post about aphids...

One interesting pest phenomenon we have been observing in the garden is an outbreak of some black aphids on our sweetcorn patch. This year we have grown six successive plantings of sweetcorn. We have just finished harvesting from crop number four and are beginning to harvest from crop number five. These two sweet corn crops are planted right next to each other, with only a one metre of vacant space between them. The spent plants in crop number four are covered in the black aphids. Stems, old cobs and leaves appear black with the thick infestation. Crop number five are still completely aphid free!

I'm not overly worried about the outbreak as any remaining cobs in crop four are small and overdeveloped, so they lack sweetness. They are only good for chook food. There are plenty of ladybirds feasting on the bounty of aphids. Interestingly, the younger plants less than one metre away are showing no signs of aphid infestation. I expect that as the plant growth slows that they too will be overwhelmed with aphids. Hopefully we will have harvested and eaten all the tasty cobs of corn before this occurs.

#aphids #sweetcorn #organic #permaculture #succession #balance #flattenthecurve #pestpredator #upcomingworkshop #gardeningclass #booknow

Autumn and spring are times of mild temperature an

Autumn and spring are times of mild temperature and high rainfall. These conditions and an associated flush of new plant growth make perfect conditions for pest outbreaks.

We are currently experiencing some heavy aphid infestations in the garden. Broad been seedlings, brassicas and many of the ornamental flowering plants are suffering from outbreaks of various aphid species.

I've found that with a bit of patience, plenty of predatory bugs will soon follow. Predatory bugs such as lacewings, lady birds and hoverflies will eat around 30 aphids a day and will soon begin to curb rampant outbreaks. You may be able to spot a lady bird in this image. It is enjoying an absolute feast!

The next workshop in our Science of Edible Gardening series is titled Population Ecology: Pests & How to Control Them. We will be exploring pest-predator interactions and how careful garden design combined with dose of patience can go a long way to manage pest outbreaks.

#pestpredator #ladybird #aphid #ecosystem #gardenworkshop #gardenscience #kyneton #macedonranges #onehourfrommelbourne #classroom #bugsafari #minibeasts

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