Spring is on the way...

I get a nice feeling of accomplishment after spending a day in the veggie garden... I was blessed with a child free day and I enjoyed my time refreshing my veggie garden for Spring.

I dug, hoed, turned, planted, and mulched. I love the smell of the sugar cane mulch and it looks great.... I planted seedlings of beetroot, beans, spring onions, yellow zucchini, beef steak tomatoes, chilli bushes, mixed lettuce and rocket lettuce. 

My lemon tree also got some TLC, as if she doesn't get enough already... A nice trim, removed any scaled lemons or gangly looking branches and a good hit of white oil all over.

Refreshed and satisfied after a day of sun and soil :-) 

Our mulberry tree feels like it is already Spring time. It started getting leaves in the middle of July, and now it is already full of mulberries ready to ripen up... I expect a RIPPER supply this year. Sadly, we made the mistake of hacking the tree back after our first summer: this is clearly a no-no as last year we were lucky to even get a bowl of mulberries. 

 A word of warning though, if we get this ripper supply that I talk about, this will not be the last time you hear about my mulberry tree, expect plenty of recipes....

The Lemon Tree

We have lived in our home for almost 2 years now. When we first moved in we had this beautiful big lemon tree ~ full of fruit... the visions of yummy lemon slice and homemade lemonade were on the horizon. Although much to my dismay it was full of gall wasp*, so the whole thing had to be cut down and burnt. Every single juicy lemon was burnt or with much fun (to my husband and son) 'pegged' into the damn.

Well a year and a half on and we are finally full of lemons and thriving once again. I have taken care to prune the tree regularily and remove any lemons with scale, lots of spraying and the result has been some very BIG juicy sweet lemons. It is so nice being able to give out produce from your own garden: lemons anyone?

*Citrus Gall Wasp: Lumpy growths on young leaf stems, leaf mid-ribs and fruit stalks of citrus trees are caused by a pest called the citrus gall wasp (Bruchophagus fellis). All citrus trees are attacked, but grapefruit and rough lemons are the most susceptible.