Wow, what a busy morning in the garden

[greengarden]

I've just got back in to the house after a super busy morning in the garden.

I painted the gates, did a big clean up of some 'stuff' that needed to be sorted and taken to the tip and I put in a heap of plants and spread some mulch.

Plants that went in were 3 lemon trees, a persimmon tree, a clump of banana trees, about 50 hipaeastrum(sp) bulbs and 12 pieces of New Zealand flax.

My feet hurt and I am filthy so off for a wash I go!

[NYCorchidman]

That sounds like a lot of work for one morning!
What a healthy life you lead. good for you.

I wish I had outdoor garden to work in. I love to get down on the dirt and work with plants. and sometimes bugs. lol

[greengarden]

Sadly it's still a long way from the image in my mind but it will get there eventually. Working on a practically zero budget and getting a lot of plants from clearance racks and dumped on rubbish piles or salvaged from other peoples garden you have to be willing to be a little patient for things to flourish. Thankfully a few things I put in a while back that looked really sad are now looking great so they give me hope while I wait for other things to grow.

The lemon trees and the persimmon were bought on clearance, the banana tree came from a market stall, the hippeastrum came from a freecycle person who was throwing them out and the flax was dug from a neighbours garden when he was getting rid of it. All were looking pretty sad. The lemon trees were looking great in the pots and ready to go in the ground and the persimmon was still looking a bit burnt but new growth is coming so this time next year it will be nice.

[Leafmite]

Wow! Nice to be able to grow citrus outside. I have many outdoor fruit trees but my lemon and lime trees come inside every winter. The flowers smell fantastic! If you can grow allspice trees where you live, they are really worth having. The blooms and leaves are fantastically scented.

[greengarden]

How big do allspice trees get? I have all sorts of weird and wonderful plants in my yard and always willing to keep my eye out for aomething else worth adding :P

I have quite a few cardamon ginger plants growing around the pond and they smell amazing when you brush past them.

[Vanda lover]

Sounds like an interesting garden. What zone are you in? We're in 7b and we can grow quite a few semi tropicals including kiwis. We have a Windmill palm and a monkey puzzle. I like to experiment with tropicals. Our main problem is winter rain.

[SlipperGirl]

I want a garden

[Leafmite]

Mothorchid, if you ever start a garden and are visiting in Ohio, I have berries (and even hazelnuts) you can dig and take.
The allspice (pimenta) seems to be invasive in Hawaii. Research indicates a variety of sizes but they seem to get large unless pruned. And, you need two, a male and female. Mine is in a pot and it has wonderfully fragrant leaves but maybe it isn't the best choice if you need two for berries, then are always trying to eradicate the seedlings. Cinnamon cassia might grow where you live, also, and it just requires one tree and the leaves are just as heavenly. I have verum/zeylanicum but it is more sensitive to cold than the cassia. Jasmines should grow outside for you, too, and perhaps passiflora, pomegranate, Manikara zapota, camellia sinensis (tea), piper nigrum (pepper), and hibiscus. These are all things I need to winter indoors. Wow! I have a Meyer's lemon and I love those fragrant, year-round blooms. Yeah, this is where all my window space goes.

[greengarden]

Sorry, can't help with what zone we are in, that whole numbered zone thing is an American/Canadian thing and we don't have it over here so not sure what our equivelent would be. But we can grow some tropicals in sheltered parts of the garden. I have passionfruit. kiwi and chokoe climbing over the chicken coop, figs, hazelnuts, macadamia, pecan amd almonds. In the fruit orchard there are cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, peacharines, apples, plums and apricots. In other parts of the garden I have mulberries, blueberries, guava, icecream bean, feijoa, avocado, mango, limes and lemons.

Still on the list are some other citrus, at least a mandarin and an orange.

[Leafmite]

That is really cool! I never knew apples could produce fruit in tropical places! What a perfect garden!
Do you need to cover your blueberries to keep birds fro
getting them? We have robins who would eat them all (they get all the cherries and currents).