A veggie garden thread
This is my little place in the Mekong, Vietnam Stu....Hence the germination and growth rate success...Most seeds I plant germinate like Mango's, custard apples and Ramutans, but I just don't have the room...
Freeride's little goat mob would be lip smakin popular in this neck of the woods....
Vietnam! Right...no wonder they're growing so well.
Get many waves there? My mate Alex has a low-key resort near Qui Nhơn and during the monsoon there are some particularly tasty waves up the highway a bit.
Gimme a steamy bowl of Pho, an icy cold can of 333 and a hazy sunset over the Mekong and I'm a happy man.
Plenty of waves Stu with a a couple of high end secret spots and yep, the typhoon season can offer some quality uncrowded waves......Russian SUP's can spoil the line up as etiquette is not their strong point..
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i/MJBmarine/20150417055353_surf_s...
I got detained by the local police for heading to this spot on my pushy.......during a typhoon, but when the tide and swell line up, this is a sand bottom point that I generally surf alone....
Saigon Lager at 35 cents a can......Knock back a few while toiling in the garden.....
Another Happy man here Zen......but miss home sometimes....
I'd break the law to surf that too.
Yeah, the new law they make up on the spot.......My wife paid the 500,000 Dong for the "no surfing during Typhoon" fine......
on the digging critters, I get a lot of echidna activity and bandicoots. But I've worked out the echidnas, while really cool to see them cruising around and enjoying the habitat I've intentionally created for them (you build it they will come...), they can do some major damage. They get fixated on a spot, in the grass or under a log or rock, and just go for it, excavating out a decent hole and tossing aside the log or rock, some with some good weight to them. So it can be frustrating, but a frustration I've come to accept as they are a part of the ecosystem I'm restoring. It has taken some good fencing effort to keep them from doing that in the veggie patch too, but got that sorted now.
and other cool wildlife. I've got some owl activity. Only seen it once one night, maybe a barn owl or masked owl?, proper big white owl face, but on four occasions now over the last 3 years I've found the back-end of a carcass - 3 times a possum and once a hare. Just the back legs and tail and some skin casing and a bit of guts left. And once it was dumped inside the fenced off vegie patch. I've read these type of remains are a tell-tale sign of an owl. I'm stoked - I've planted a heap of maccas and know that they will attract rats in the future, so the owl and pythons are going to be needed. Am looking into nest box options for the owl, to hopefully support an increased population.
FR, my sight isn't the best so only seen honey bees on it but I hope and there should be some native bees feasting
Cool post GreenJam.....
You must have a lovely bit of natural semi rural land.
I had a bit of acreage not far from Noosa and as I started to semi clear it [ tidy up] I made a pile of green waste that just grew in time......I then started to find dead possums laying around, with no obvious injuries. Thinking my trusty hound had taken up hunting.......
Time to clear my pile of green waste, I came across this big lad happily wallowing in the moist warmth.....
Don't worry, I let him go after the kids got home from school...
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i/MJBmarine/snake.jpg?width=285&h...
Green jam, your place sounds epic, echidnas running rampant!
Re the owls, Powerful Owls will gut a possum and leave the guts as they are normally full of leaf matter.
Rats aren’t the only things that love Macca’s... Black Cockatoos also enjoy a good feast, they often drop them on our place after taking them from a neighbour’s tree.
The hinterland has missed a lot of the coastal rains and is quite dry as a consequence. This morning’s soak which luckily ran for most of the day was very welcome. It’ll make a huge difference to the current crops.
Besides that it’s just nice to be surrounded by blankets of mist instead of the sun blazing down and cooking the Earth relentlessly. The humid air carries the rich scent of life.
Blueberries still going
Pomegranates coming on strong
Lychees showing nicely
Summer citrus
Young avocados gaining size
Plums .How good is stone fruit at Chrissy !
Heidi mangoes dealing with the dry better. High yield !
R2E2 following
Nam doc Mai ? I’m not sure of variety. Can someone identify ? Very keen to put it to the taste test !
If anyone can identify this it’s bonus points.
You can see how dry it’s been. The grass is looking a bit cooked. Come on La Niña !
Tropical beauty .
Beautiful shots Blowin.....
Lovely property.........
Making me homesick mate...
Gosh, lovely spot Blowy. A cornucopia of gifts from Mother Earth.
This thread is great. That sounds so nice Greenjam, an echidna and owl! And Blowin, so lush and beautiful. A macro on those water beads and flowers/fruit would look epic.
Epic contributions in this thread! Thanks for sharing :-)
Paradise Blowin.
And FR, I'm keen to document that property with a video.
how the hell do you grow stone fruit without fruit fly strike?
and boo hiss on R2E2......the vaguely mango flavoured fruit that looks amazing.
KP for the win.
but yeah looks amazing.
If I had a dollar for every night this past month I've had to go out and extricate a python from the coops.
fcukers always find a way to get in and they don't like getting interrupted.
What ? I love the R2E2 ! Although they do mainly end up dehydrated. There’s no complaints when you’ve got big jars of dried mango lined up one after another .
Plums don’t get bothered by the flies. The peaches are an uphill battle though. They’re going gangbusters right now but I didn’t include a photo cause if you look close they’re starting to get telltale pinholes....cnts !
What do you reckon the weird shaped one is ? I’m guessing Nam Doc Mai . It was already there when we got the place and I’d forgotten it existed till recently. Fruit looks good.
Got a little mangosteen starting to get a bit bigger too. If that works out I’m going to flood the joint with them . I love those buggers.
PS .....Walking down the beach the other week and the weekend traffic was banked up a bit for some reason. Got closer and there’s a good diamond python stretched lazily across the road and everyone was shit scared of it. I walked straight up and grabbed it then put it in the scrub . I was more interested in looking after the snake but the crowd of punters acted like I’d just wrestled a 5 metre salty with my bare hands .
“Why thank you .....thank you very much . You’ve been a great audience. “
Are your fruit trees irrigated blowin or just up to Mother Nature to provide a drink?
Blowin, I think your Variety of Mango is Xòai tượng.
Xoai is commonly found as an after-meal fruit treats in many families from North to South Vietnam. The ripen ones are blended with sweet condensed milk that can match that of Lassi in India.
Green mangoes, especially the crunchy ones, are used in the famous green mango salad and very common in the South of Vietnam......
Did you ham up the snake relocation mate?.....you know, tell everyone to stand back, shout "Crikey" and fake the epic man verse beast while out of sight in the scrub?
reappear with torn Teeo etc...
Garden of Eden there Blowin, as a kid growing up on a rural property nothing better than strolling down the paddock and munching on what ever was in season.
Great to hear about the owls Greenjam, they do get hammered from rat poison unfortunately.
Wonderful produce there Blowin with lots of hard work, well done
Mr Einstein came by for his morning visit, named cause he's such a clever mimic. 28's, kookaburra, black cockatoo, owl, etc barking dog, the whistle I used to call him with and now he calls me, something in english that sounds like hello fido.
Goofy ....was irrigated years ago . Fell into disrepair by the crew who owned before us. Now it’s by the mercy of Huey.
Megzee...cheers for the reply. I was hoping for one of those sweet SE Asian varieties. Some of the mangoes I’ve eaten in Indo / Thailand are the literally the tastiest fruit I’ve ever eaten. Xoai....I’ll google it, cheers.
Didn’t have to over work the snake capture . The onlookers made the leap of imagination all by themselves. You’d have thought I’d pulled an infant from the jaws of a spitting king cobra by the way they responded to something you or I consider standard behaviour. I was just afraid someone would kill a beautiful animal with their car out of fear or frustration.
Obviously I got some vicarious thrill out of it or I wouldn’t have mentioned it.
“ Are you not entertained ? “
Seaslug ....Lots of work. But worth it all.
Yep, Maggies are the constant companions. They rule the roost . Almost *.
There’s a great book called Penguin about a magpie who pulled a woman back from the brink. Great story. You’re lucky to have a friend in a magpie I reckon. http://www.penguinbloom.com/
* The ultimate gangsters....thug life in rainbow
.
Firk off, the seeds are mine
Bob loves his strawberries and he would love you blueberries Blowin
Freeride ....R2E2 for $2.50 each at Coles today .
Fantastic stuff everyone, love it.
G'day Freeride, how do you do your goat fencing? How did they escape?
I had three goats years ago and containing them was a problem. Some would be handy here though.
Do you milk or eat them?
Seaslug...you’re cornered mate !
Just a guest in your own place now . Worse ways to go !
You’re SW WA or Great Southern ?
Yep, for sure, great thread and contributions.....
Seaslug, you got some good lookin mates there.......
Gotta admit, most Australian birds can be cheeky little buggers but they are all Classics.....I used to have a feeder for the Rainbow Lorikeets and it was often taken over by the bouncer Sulphur crested bad boys.....
Blowin, Just to clarify mate, Xòai is Vietnamese for mango.....tượng is the variety I am sure you have on your beautiful property....Thai's have the same fruit..
Next time my minister for war, finance and culinary delights knocks up a green mango salad, I will send you the recipe......
Cheers lads
SW mate. There's about 15 in the gang although the mum's are about to introduce me to this years bubs, so could be 20 odd after that...
looks like mince or chuck steak might be a regular item on the shopping list SS....
Not for Lasagna or the barby....
Indeed megzee, they seem to sense when I've been to Coles, all waiting for me when I get home, got a spy down at the shop I recon
yeah, lovin this thread too.
Megzee - yeah, its a picturesque rural area, not far from Noosa (Mary Valley). My place is only 1 ha, but nestled among much larger properties, was subdivided back when that was allowed, not so now, so a lot of privacy with no close houses and that shouldnt change. I was never attracted to those intense subdivisions, where youve got a bit of land but all the houses seem packed in close so that its not too different from suburbia anyway. Awesome on the python - love em, got at least one big fella here that I see regularly.
Distracted - I'd be stoked if it was a powerful owl, gonna get out a bit more at night and see if I can spot it again. Recently got a little motion detector camera, so am also going to set that up and see a bit more of what's going on at night-time. Re the Black Cockies eating the Maccas - I hadnt seen or heard of that before, that'd be annoying as I get a lot of them here, havent shown any interest yet though thankfully. But most trees are still in the 3-4 yr range and just starting to get some nuts. Reasonable little crop last year, and this year going ok, after some early concerns about losses from a new grub. Dipel seemed to sort them out. Less nuts overall than last year, but all looking much bigger and healthier, and no nut borer activity so far...
Ifocus - yeah, I've been very wary of the rat poison, so wont be using any of that here.
Blowin - your place looks awesome, great diversity, and very healthy looking specimens. Nice frangipanis too - I was never very keen on them (more of a staunch natives guy), but my place had a heap on it as the neighbour who subdivided was a commercial grower. He's a wealth of knowledge on them, has so many varieties. Those dark-reddish ones you showed are now a favourite of mine. I've got a burgundy coloured one that has an amazing fragrance, its a joy to wander around at dusk and whiff all the different ones.
And I think I can claim the bonus points - that mystery tree of yours looks to be Pachira aquatica. Various common names - Guinea chestnut being one, sometimes Money Tree. Reported to be edible, but some questions on toxicity in the nuts. I first learnt of it after some nuns from Africa were being hosted by the nursing home my grandparents were at, and they had smuggled in some nuts, and gave some to my grandma who grew one and planted it in her small yard. It soon became very large, with that 'elephant foot-like' trunk you might be starting to see on yours. Anyway, I then grew some off her tree, and had them in pots for many years. They are actually a pretty good indoor plant, and can be grown like a bonsai very well. So when I came here I planted one of those potted-up ones in the ground as a bit of an ode to my grandma who had recently died. It was the first tree I planted here, and it recently flowered for the first time, produced some nuts and I've potted some of them up - they just sprouted a few weeks ago, and I intend to grow a few as bonsais/indoor plants. Anyway, that's my guess on what it is...
sorry - that's Guiana Chestnut. Those nuns actually called it Monkey Chestnut
goats are electric fenced in.
but the fuckers still find a way through.
pulled about the biggest python of the season off the top of the chook shed last night.
I thought I'd give him a little taste of the electric fence, just to shock some sense into him.
it wasn't an easy wrangle but I managed to drape him over the electric fence while holding him.
I could feel the electricity running through him because I was getting shocked.
let him down and he came straight back for the chooks.
not much seems to stop a hungry python.
GreenJam - Thanks so much for getting back to me on that. I saw the fruit last year and assumed it was cacao . I went away before I got a chance to look into it. I’ve been searching the net trying to identify it since I saw that flower as it obviously wasn’t cacao.
It sounds interesting. A bit of status associated with it in Asia and they grow to 18 metres tall !
Cant wait to try them. Thanks again.
Goats - we used to ring lock with 3 barb and posts closely spaced with droppers between. The ring lock would have 1 barb along the bottom and two above. U also need flat ground (grader works well) and nothing for them to climb up (D10 works well).
*this was mine site rehab in midwest WA
Pythons - got no experience but do geese work?
geese might work.
I love geese.
Got muscovy ducks and the drake is a big powerful fcuker, I notice the pythons avoid his coop!
G'day freeride......Not sure what type of ducks we have here but they have two options..
Lay eggs or lay in the hotpot...
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i/MJBmarine/duck_eggs.jpg?width=2...
Last nights lay haul.......
nice haul megzee.
Daily gathering lately...
My wife uses them to crumb up these little fella's
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i/MJBmarine/Flog_legs.jpg?width=2...
whoa.
Tasty ?
They frogs?....Ive had them in Indo a few times quite nice, really do taste like chicken.
Not to bad actually Blowin.....
Tasty little morsels.......Almost comparable to fish rather than chicken....
I avoid the wet markets here because it's all livestock up too the point of selection and then they pluck and process right in front of you.....happily ribberting one moment, skinned and gutted the next.......
However, the fruit and vege markets........I can spend hours wandering around...
Crumbed and shallow fried flog legs with an Ice cold Saigon lager........now there is an nice afternoon on the verandah.......
I've had frog a couple of times.
It's very tasty.
Easy to prepare- just take off their jumpsuits and open-toad sandles and you're good to go.
Cooking them makes them very unhoppy though.
Is there a gardening thread? I haven't seen one but I've seen lots of posts about people's veggie growing tips. How about we help each other out?
Planted first garden in about ten years today.
Lettuce, broccoli, swedes, kale, thyme, parsley. Raised bed under straw. Peas and carrots go in tonorrow.