Gardening Australia

Here in Carlton my main concern at the moment is all the dry weather.

Jobs for this month are moving the orchids into a shadier area and putting all the succulents on the balcony .

The manzano chillies already have flowers. This is their third year, I pruned them a bit in late winter and they have put out lots of lovely new growth. 🐱

My zucchini seedlings are growing bigger and stronger. Some got eaten so there’s fewer now - but that’s possibly a good thing as I didn’t have as many pots as plants.

I also sowed some more Paris Market carrots and spinach for baby spinach. I won’t get much because the window boxes are tiny. But I have the seeds and it’s something to do.

The sunflowers I planted don’t seem to be doing much. As far as I can see one has sprouted.

The annual battle with spring weeds has commenced. Pulling out in garden beds and spraying in paved areas. I feel terrible about the spraying but it’s the most effective. Pulling out between pavers often leaves the roots and regrowth. If I ever move house, I’m gonna make sure that any hard surfaces are concrete and not paving.

I have way underestimated the amount of potting mix I need. The pots are only 30cm in diameter I think but they’re huge. Almost took half a 25L bag each to fill two. Does that sound right??

I’ve got two of the largest seedlings planted out and that’s almost all the physical energy and soil I have for today.

The holes at the bottom were so large I lined the pots with pieces of the tough brown paper from Coles bags. I didn’t have any newspaper which I was meant to use and the closest shop didn’t either so I hope it drains well enough through the little holes I stabbed with a biro.

I also don’t think I planted the zucchini plants deep enough, and am scared that the pots could be too large for them at this stage so the water in the lower half doesn’t get used and the soil goes rotten…

But who knows. They’re tough. Maybe they’ll grow fast and be fine. I didn’t expect almost all to sprout and survive the snails.

I might have to abandon some of the smaller plants to be taken by other people.

CrI have a "what should I do?" question. I've had this happen:

I'm not sure how it happened, whether the plant got too heavy and fell over or a possum or visiting dog jumped on it, but it's kind of fallen over without breaking. As you can tell from the second picture, it's trunk is about as thick as my wrist. Should I attempt to rite it? Should I just chop the fallen over bits off? Should I replace it with a younger bit of itself? I don't even know what it is, but what should I do with it?

The leaves of my zucchini have tiny bugs on them and the interbutts tells me it’s whiteflies.

Guess I’m about to be mixing a soapy water solution and painting paper strips yellow to make sticky traps with Vaseline and dish soap.

Edit: ok apparently soapy water is harmful to plants

The zucchini seedlings are going great but the oldest leaves (the initial baby leaves) are turning yellow. I don’t know if I’m underwatering, overwatering, under/over fertilising…

They’re still in the paper cups so dry out quickly and I just water every couple of days/a few times a week to top them up. The brown drops are the second lot of diluted Powerfeed I just gave. The first was maybe 2 weeks ago, not sure.

(I know a lot don’t like to be transplanted but I don’t use snail bait, so keep them more portable to more easily cover them at night while vulnerable. I have large pots for when they get bigger.)