Tag Archives: fruit

Chilly and wet winter!

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Well, this winter has been very wet with both rainwater tanks overflowing- that’s 210,000 litres worth of rainwater storage! We are really pleased, as this sets us up well for summer, and this is our only source of water for the house (we have a bore for the grounds). The downside of all that rain is that the gardens are waterlogged! The amount of water, along with some extended frost (we got down to minus 3, followed by a few days of minus 1/minus 2) means several of our fruit trees and garden plants have really suffered.

We lost a heap of passionfruit, with the unripe fruit dropping off from the cold, and it looks like the vines are lost too! In addition to that, the quail pens have had a regular drenching. So, as in ‘there is never nothing to do’, we have rethought that area. We plan to move the quail pens so we can roof over the top, and have planted out a new passionfruit area alongside the tank. We are hoping the tank will help reduce the risk of frost, plus bought more frost resistant plants (Panama red and Panama yellow).

Fingers crossed these passionfruit benefit from the warmth of the tank on those frosty mornings!

Despite netting both mangoes and the sapodilla to help protect them from the frost, as they were very seriously set back a couple of winters ago, the leaves have not survived the extended frost we had this year. Fingers crossed they bounce back- we did enjoy some hope grown mango last year so we are keen to nurse them along!

The guava has also really suffered! It has never done quite as well at McCarthyPark 2 as it did in the old place, which is such a shame… but again we are hopeful!

Like in ‘setbacks’, at times it feels like one step forward and two steps back… and if the trees don’t bounce back in spring/summer we need to seriously consider ripping them out and replacing them with more frost hardy trees. We would be reluctant to do so though, given we brought them to McCarthyPark 2 as already mature trees…fingers crossed!

Fruit and vegetables galore!

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It has been great to get more fruit this year, which hopefully indicates the fruit trees are now well established after the big relocation from McCarthy Park 1. Earlier this year we had mango and dragon fruit, and this month we have pomegranate and pears, both have been amazingly delicious! There really is nothing like picking and eating fruit straight from the tree!

We have also been harvesting lots of limes, pears, guava and lilly pilly, the passionfruit vines are laden, and there are 3 remaining avocados on the tree for the very first time!

The aquaponics system and pumpkin palace have also both been producing well, with plenty of cucumber, basil, tomatoes, carrots, parsnip and chillies in particular!

Of course, and the food we produce is shared amongst family and friends, as well as preserved for future enjoyment. There are jars of dairy free pesto in the freezer; green relish, sweet chilli sauce, lime chutney and kasundi in the produce room; and yet more pickled eggs in the fridge!

Delicious Dragonfruit!

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Wow! Success! We harvested 14 dragon fruit, and they were delicious! It was a bit of a waiting game to work out when to pick the first one, as we were unsure of the variety.

We eventually picked it on 12 April, 43 days from pollination, and although it was probably slightly over ripe it was amazing!

After that first one, we were more confident judging ripeness by colour, how ‘loose’ it was on the stem, and firmness which seemed to be around day 41 to 42. We enjoyed every single one!

We also enjoyed home grown mango! Unfortunately only 2 fruit made it to maturity, but they were amazing to eat! Protecting them from the frost over winter really helped the tree grow and produce fruit, so we shall certainly be doing that again this winter.

Dragon fruit update!

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So far so good with a lot of the dragon fruit! We had one flower the first night, 8 the second night, 9 the third night, and one on the fourth and final night of flowering. A total of 19 flowers!

Here you can see one flower bud that will not be viable, the the others look good!

We hand pollinated each night, using a soft paintbrush by brushing the pollen off the stamens and the petals where it had dropped to, and then brushing it into the stigma. In our enthusiasm, we went out too early the second night and the pollen hadn’t yet been released, but when we went out a couple of hours later there was plenty of pollen on the lower petals we could brush up into a container.

From early in the mornings after flowering, the flowers were covered in bees! this must have helped the pollination process too!

Now, nearly two weeks later, three unviable fruit have fallen off, but the remainder are swelling very nicely!

Berries!

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Since moving to McCarthy Park 2, we have trying to find the best place for growing berries, as we had in McCarthy Park 1……. the chickens eat them, the ducks eat them, they frazzle in Perth’s hot summers……..

In our continuing attempts to reduce the amount of lawn, bit by bit, we came up with the idea of raised grow beds near the aquaponics. This area has a few benefits- the animals can’t eat them, they get morning sun but afternoon shade, they are contained (so they don’t get out of control), and they are close to the house (and the blueberries) for easy picking!

Unfortunately it is quite late in the season so we may have to wait until next year to get any berries!

We have several potted blueberries, which fruit at different times so providing us with plenty to eat and plenty to freeze for later in the year!