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Post by templeton on Jan 14, 2014 6:05:03 GMT -5
Nice, richard. Picked my first outside tom today, a Rainys Maltese -no pic, fermenting the seed. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 13, 2014 6:21:01 GMT -5
It's been wet and in the mid 40's all day today. Templeton, by black saturday are you referring to the bush fires? I was thinking that it was black september. But now that I think about it more, I think that was a terrorist group. Yep, right on the money, B Ox. Black september - munich olympics Black saturday, bushfires. Does this naming of fire events take place elsewhere? Seems our media need to put a label on catastrophe, usually with some sort of emotive term attached. We had the black friday bushfires in '39, Ash Wednesday in 1983, but the big fires I remember from the early 60's when it rained ash for days until our Melbourne back lawn was white, didn't get a handle - probably not enough deaths. I remember going across the road into the orchard to watch houses explode in the Dandenong Ranges about 10 km away - at least thats what we convinced ourselves we were seeing. Hadn't thought about that for years... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_(group)en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfiresBlack Saturday was just a rotten, stinking hot, filthy day... Sorry, too many fire stories for a chatty weather post.lighten up, Templeton
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Post by templeton on Jan 12, 2014 16:33:46 GMT -5
38=102 today, 42=108, 43=109,43, 43, 32, 36 predicted for the next week. Feels like black saturday all over again.fingers crosed for low winds and no fire bugs. But its been a cool, if dry spring and summer. I've added extra dipper tube to my garden beds this year, which is gulping through the tanks, but I've really noticed the improvement in growth from the extra water. On to town water fairly soon, I think, I can usually count on a summer thunderstorm or two to replenish my tanks, but can never rely on the timing- wrong lotto numbers this year, obviously.
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Post by templeton on Jan 10, 2014 20:41:06 GMT -5
I've had mixed success with home made vinegar. The first year was great, started with a bit of sediment from a bottle of wine vinegar in the back of the cupboard. Next year, thinking of as christmas presents, bought some cheap cleanskin varietals from our big box grog shop. Wine was cheaper to buy than bottled water that year. All the jars got infections, most got chucked just on appearance, the rest on their acetone aroma. As a point of clarification, there are twofamilies of yeast that will produce vinegar, the acetobacter group that convert alcohol to vinegar, but I've heard that there is another group that converts sugar straight to acetic acid. I think this is the balsamic method. Commercial processes trickle alcohol over wooden baffles at controlled temperatures, the good yeasts live on the wood, fed by nicely aerated wine. Full conversion in a few days. I've toyed with the idea of getting a half wine barrel, knocking together some wooden washing board type baffles, and using an aquarium pump to circulate the liquor. Probably some wood shavings in barrel with an aquarium aerator would do the same job. Or - thinking as I type - why not just use a whole aquarium, and make it a conversation piece? Fill the filter unit with wood shavings rather than polyester fiber... Now, where is a french oak tree I can snaffle a dead limb from...
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Post by templeton on Jan 10, 2014 20:13:47 GMT -5
My favorite xenophobic (and racist) gardening forums has a problem. A specifically racist and xenophobic gardening forum? Boy,(oops, I meant 'wow') thats a specialist interest group! So, no discusions of rusSian kale, black tomatoes, all the asian vegetables,asiatic lilies,hmmm, depending where you are, that might severely limit discussion... T
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Post by templeton on Jan 10, 2014 17:29:31 GMT -5
Ressurecting this thread to see if you made any progress with your cross, Tim? Senposai is my favourite green, but that variety i got in bulk (from Evergreen seeds), which Ive been growing from for the last few years seems a bit more prone to bolting than the original stuff i secured a decade ago. Mine is just flowering at the moment, as was thinking of doing some seed collection and growouts.
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Post by templeton on Jan 9, 2014 22:09:17 GMT -5
Took some Cape Gooseberries into work yesterday - greeted as a taste sensation! Cuttings have been taken for distribution. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 8, 2014 16:38:32 GMT -5
I've been shivering looking at the TV reports. I can't imagine living with that kind of cold - worst I had was camping out in the powder in the mountains of Hokkaido on a crazy skiing trip one February. We guessed it was ~ -20C. Should have built a snow cave instead of the nylon tent Been a cool, dry summer here - a bonus for my tomatoes - the powdery mildew which infests my garden breaks out after hot dry spells, so no sign so far this year. Heard a report on the radio that there are early signs of El Nino for the coming austral winter - damn! My tanks are already almost empty. Just checked the BoM site(http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/), which suggests a neutral outlook for both ENSO and the Indian Ocean Dipole, so here's hoping. Richard, how does ENSO affect NZ? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 6, 2014 0:35:51 GMT -5
Gee, T; sorry to hear about your piles; banding is recommended. Best giggle I've had all day... T
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Post by templeton on Jan 4, 2014 8:52:15 GMT -5
I've only collected from a few plants, and not had much trouble. I let the fruit over ripen, slice vertically, then use a teaspoon to scoop out the seed concentrated areas. Mush these bits up with fingers, rinse and scrub with a sieve. EWnough seeds for me to go on with. But I'm not growing fields full. Still get a few hundred seeds, tho.
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Post by templeton on Jan 4, 2014 8:41:54 GMT -5
Unlike many of you other folk my gardening is an indulgence - my failures just mean I nick off from work early to set them right. My climate is a bit like Rowans, with no snow, and only a slight slow down over winter. I'm looking forward to a bit of a slowdown over midsummer - spring crops have finished, and the deluge of harvest is yet to begin. The last week of SH summer holidays has been spent drying down spring grown pea seed, and collecting lettuce seed, and I'm just starting to do tomato crosses. I'm toying with the idea of selling seed. The last couple of days I've been documenting all my pea cross growouts in front of cricket on the TV - lucky cricket is such a slow sport! Picking apricots and berries, watering from time to time (we've got a lovely cool summer, which relieves the stress a bit).
Winter for me is only a mild slow down - autumn pea trials need to be assessed dried down and packaged, compost turned, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant melon, squash seed packets sorted, shuffled, dismissed, re-assessed, late orders from NH suppliers made, slightly later visits to the barber to set straight the torn tufts of hair when I realise there is no room for everything I've been sent, seedlings started and nursed in July, lettuces and greens and late-sown root seedcrops weeded and maintained, And reality intervenes and my cash job needs some heavy maintenance...
Minnie, do you get snow cover/freeze where you are? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 4, 2014 8:06:45 GMT -5
I've got piles, and wondering what to do with them. Had a spare bed last autumn, and in a fit of desperation, and my crazy desire to not let anything I've grown die, filled a 5 metre bed, which are now heading up. Given this (mis guided) propensity to not cull, been wondering how to pass the buggers along. ( note for NH readers - one of the quirks of Antipodean English allows references to bugger and buggery to be used in informal, but still polite use as a very mild expletive - I was in my mid 20's before i understood the literal meaning! I wonder what this says about our convict past.) T
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Post by templeton on Jan 4, 2014 2:53:48 GMT -5
I've de-bulbiled a few plants as well. Richard, who do you sell your bulbils to?
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Post by templeton on Jan 3, 2014 23:23:18 GMT -5
Supposedly sterile. Would have thought someone has had a go at crossing it back to it's wild ancestor(s) given the price of saffron and the opportunity of getting something economically valuable.
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Post by templeton on Jan 2, 2014 21:01:26 GMT -5
check the mail in a week or so, Holly.
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