This weekend's gardening achievements

This isn't going to sound like much when written in a list, but I can assure you that I am aching all over from the effort I put in today.

Starting with yesterday, it was overcast with strong cool winds, but it had been bearable earlier in the day to get me outdoors long enough to re-pot my babaco tree. 

I first got it in autumn 2015 from Diggers Club, as a foot or so tall 'tree' in a pot. As it was clearly a young cutting, and knowing it would eventually grow to 2-2.5m tall, I immediately potted it up into a 30cm pot. I figure the pot was probably a bit large for its size at the time, but I reasoned that there should be enough space for it to grow once winter passed and that I probably had about two years before it would need potting up.

My guestimate at the time was wrong. I was excited when it finally grew leaves, which were small at first but then grew to decent size. I didn't really think much about much taller the tree had grown until the end of summer when I realised it was somewhere in the region of 1.2-1.5m tall. It's quite fast growing for a tree!

So back to yesterday, I upgraded it from a 30cm pot to a 50cm pot. Again, probably slightly too big,  but I felt the babaco tree was owed the extra space after staying alive and thriving through a nasty summer. I applied sugar cane mulch around the top (making sure to leave the usual 5cm distance from the trunk) and then watered with seaweed solution to help reduce transplant shock and give it a good start in its new home.

Having heard that today was due for better weather and pleased to find sunshine outside when I got up earlier than usual for a Sunday, I decided to make a start on the weeding of areas that I intend to cover with bark mulch so that I can start to relocate my collection of potted plants currently occupying my alfresco.

I forgot to take before photos, but here's what the two main sections I was working on looked like part way through the process.

It took quite a while to get rid of all the weed roots and then mattock up the toughest ones that had refused my persistent tugging.

After which I sprinkled gypsum claybreaker on the muddy clay, and covered it all with cardboard held down by bricks until I'm ready to buy the aforementioned mulch.

Here's how the first one looks at the end of the day.

I still need to prepare the other section with gypsum and cardboard, but I ran out of daylight and energy to do anymore.

Today's gardening achievements

My motivation for getting out into the cold winds today was two new rhubarb crowns that I bought yesterday.

They're now safely potted and watered, so fingers crossed they grow well.

This brings my current total number of rhubarb plants to eight. I have two plants each of:

• Victoria
• Red Dragon
• Ever Red

I also have just one plant each of:

• Wandin Red (crown from a dividing of my nanna's Wandin Red rhubarb)
• Giant Victorious

Call me crazy, but I still have a couple more rhubarb varieties that I'd like to get. Annoyingly, they're proving difficult to find this year. 

I remember last year there were a dozen rhubarb types on offer between the various nurseries that I like visiting. One nursery manager explained that it varies from year to year depending on what they're able to order in from their suppliers. this year, it has obviously been difficult to get last year's wide variety in.

I also did a lot of weeding in preparation for when I plan to put pine bark mulch down in the non-garden bed areas so that I can walk on the pine bark instead of clay mud. Unfortunately I forgot to take 'before' photos, so you'll just have to take my word that despite appearances, there were a lot more weeds in this section before I started! (I pulled the biggest ones out first)

Lessons in preserving

Prior to today, the only way I knew how to safely preserve garden produce was to freeze it. I knew other methods existed, but I didn't know enough to be sure that I wouldn't poison myself.

This morning, I attended the 'Mouth-watering sweet and savoury preserves' workshop at Bulleen Art and Garden, taught by Maria Ciavarella from My Green Garden. I can highly recommend it to anyone who is hesitant about preserving.

I learnt so much about safe preserving: freezing, drying, bottling, hot water bath method, pickling, the different methods for sterilising jars/bottles and lids, and heaps more.

We also put three preserving methods into practice within the class. We made bottled pears, mixed berry jam, and a Middle Eastern inspired pickled vegetables. I was thrilled to come away with a small bottle of each, and to have tasted some of Maria's other preserves (the pear and vanilla jam in particular was to die for!).

I got a lot of value out of just that three hour class. I feel a lot more confident about safe preserving now. I can't wait to have enough garden produce to start preserving my own homegrown fruit and vegetables!

Weekend's Achievements

I was pleased to finally re-pot my newest fruit trees (bought last month) into large pots:

• Dwarf O'Henry peach
• Dwarf Mariposa plum
• Dwarf Narrabeen plum
• Dwarf Self-pollinating Almond

It wasn't easy to apply mulch with the winds blowing, but it was necessary as we were due for yet more rain. I want the potting mix to remain friable rather than being beaten down by the rain in a hard surface. 

I pruned all the new fruit trees and the apple trees since they had finally lost their leaves.

I have lots to do to prepare for mulch paths, but decided it was too cold and miserable to go outside any more than I had.