Sometimes, you just need to be patient…..

I though the Strawberry Guava I bought in August was dead.  I transplanted it to a slightly larger pot within a week of purchase, and watered it in really well with seaweed solution, but the leaves looked a bit dried.

Soon after that, there was a couple of windy days, and all the leaves dropped.  It stayed bare since September… so I thought it was dead.  However, I kept it watered every time I water my other pot plants, so maybe in my heart, I was secretly hoping that it wasn’t completely dead.  I was soooo happy to found there are new leaf buds on the tree today!

It shows that a bit of patiences pays off 🙂

Now, I hope my golden shower tree will do the same….

Market Review – Kuraby Farmers’ Markets

Recently, I’ve been searching for information online about what’s the best market to find fruit trees, and vegetable seedlings. A number of active Brisbane Local Food members raved about the quality and price of seedlings, and interesting food and produce that are available from Caboolture Markets, but living on the southern fringe of the Brisbane City, it is really too far for us.

Markets is so trendy nowadays, that there’s a lot of information and reviews available online, but the specific information that I’m looking for is just not there! The best I could find was something along the line of “There’s a lot plants”……. So, here I am, trying to write reviews for people with common interest, and this would also give me an excuse to visit the different markets~

What’s a better place to start than the one closest to where I live?

Market Name: Kuraby Farmers’ markets
Website: http://www.kurabymarkets.com.au/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kurabymarkets
Where: Kuraby Train Station carpark, 1342 Beenleigh Road, Kuraby
What time: Every Saturday, 6am – 12 noon
Entry Cost: Free

There are a total of two places that sell plants. A large area at the back of the market, which might be comprises of more than one stall, but it looks like just one to me. There’s a good selection of different sizes ornamental plants, and some natives, but the only edible I can see are strawberries, plus a few fruit trees in a corner. There’s one each of different types of fruit trees in different size pots. I didn’t check every single one of them, but the single small blueberry plant was asking for $15, and there’s no variety on the label. Not quite what I was looking for.

However, there’s a small stall amongst the fruit and vegetable stalls selling organic seedlings, mostly in small round tubs for $2 each. There are some salad seedlings in seedling trays, which you select and they pick from the cells, and are sold for cheaper. There are also some seedlings in slightly larger tubs that cost a little more. They also have comfrey plants in pots, and worm juice in bottles. The varieties of seedlings appear to be F1 rather than open pollinated, but with a small growing capacity, I’m not really looking at seed saving so I was fine with that. I went home with a Sarian strawberry, and heartbreaker tomato ~

Just remember, information are correct at the time of publish, there may be new stall holders any time in the future 🙂

My baby crabapple tree went to a good home

I’ve decided to cut the air-layer and pot it up after my last post on my crabapple, considering that the tree was dormant, and was probably the best time to make the cut. Plus, I was a little concern about the mother tree due to beetle grubs ate a lot of the roots.

It sat there for a couple of months, and finally both the mother tree, and the new air-layered tree’s leafing out, and even throwing out flowers. The mother tree appears to be in good health, but I don’t see any suitable branches for another layer for a fellow gardener who’s wanted a white flowering crabapple for a while, so I decided to give away my first successful layer.

It’s sad to see my baby tree go, but I’m sure it will be a good home!

Crabapple

My first Feijoa flower

It flowered for the first time after approximately 5 years. Very pretty flower so that I was distracted by its beauty and forgot to taste test the petals…

It was the only bloom on the tree, so that’s a lost opportunity… also, since there’s only one single flower, I doubt there would be any fruit. If it indeed forms a fruit, I would be then sure that this is a self-fertile tree!

There’s a feijoa blog with very good growing information on it https://feijoafeijoa.wordpress.com/growing-feijoas/ Makes me want to buy another tree to ensure I get some fruits!!

Blondie Strawberries

Two strawberry posts in a row! Never seem to get enough strawberries nowadays with my son loving to eat PYO (Pick-Your-Own) strawberries!

I wanted to get these white strawberries since it was advertised in Pohlmans nursery’s 2015 autumn winter catalogue, it was said to have a slight pineapple flavour.

They were $2 a pot in the factory outlet section of their nursery on their spring open day, so I grabbed a couple. They’re a little pot bound and advanced in those small square pots, so I think that’s why they’re in the factory outlet area.

The good thing about them being advanced is they were already in flower, and so fruited very soon. I can tell you that they do indeed have a slight pineapple flavour, albeit a bit on the small side. I suspect they may be alpine strawberries, or a hybrid of it ~

The down side to it, is that it needs a bit of experience to tell whether a strawberry is ripe or not. I think I have left a few of them over ripe. Wonder how long the plant would last ~

Strawberry Blondie