I have bananas......yippee

I have had a busy, busy week.....phew....Damian and I were doing a bit out in the yard this afternoon, and I said to him, I wonder if my banana plants are doing anything yet....I looked up and I was like a little kid with excitement when I saw that beautiful purple flower, and then as I focused a bit harder, I saw all those little lady fingers behind it.  This is the first time I have had a banana tree, so these are my very first bananas produced by me ever....I would love to get the planting staggered so that we are getting bananas on a regular basis...I have to do lots more research on that to see how best to do that.

I have done some serious decluttering this week, but I will post about that tomorrow. I am really tired after a very busy weekend, so it will be an early night tonight.

The vege garden is in overdrive

The vege garden is loving Spring, and all of the rain we have been having.  My plantings from weeks ago are all growing up, and are either producing or very close to it.

This garden has the last of the snow peas growing, beetroot ready to pick, corn about 3/4 of the way there, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and grosse lisse tomatoes, golden nugget pumpkin, strawberries, chillies, parsley, chickory, lot of silverbeet, my asparagus bushes, shallots,  mint, peas and beans.

  
This garden has sweet potatoes, rhubarb, cabbage, broccoli, silverbeet, capsicums, strawberries, lettuce, english spinach, carrots and some pak choy which has gone to seed, as well as my potato tub, these will be ready in a few weeks.

With all of the rain we have been having, the weeds are coming through way faster than I can get rid of them, so I will put a thick layer of mulch over this in the next week or so, to try and get rid of most of them. The beetroot will be picked and pickled over the next couple of weeks, and I will also do a big pick of the rhubarb plant, and freeze that for future use. I have been continuously picking the silverbeet both for us and for the chooks, as I planted extra plants so I could give them plenty.  There is also plenty of lettuce which I share with the chooks, and also the pak choi, which they will get, as we didn't really find it to our taste. Everything is looking really healthy in the vege garden at the moment, so the build up of the soil I have been doing seems to be doing the job.  My lemon and lime and mandarine trees seem to be finally getting some flowers, so I am really hoping that they fruit this time around.  The lemon tree looks really healthy, but the lime and mandarin seems to struggle, so I may have to look at moving them if they don't start to pick up soon.  My fig tree has also got some lovely leaves on it now, so I am hoping to get a couple of figs for Christmas time. The mango tree is flowering, so it may get 1 or 2 of it's first fruit this season, and the mulberry tree is fruiting it's little heart out. The macadamia nut tree has done pretty well nothing since we planted it, so I am assuming it will at some point just kick into gear and actually start growing.  We also have a chocolate sapoa tree, which hasn't done much either, but it has got some new leaves....fruit trees obviously take a while to kick in it would seem.  I need to plant a few of the summer crops soon, I have some luffas, rockmelon, cucumbers and watermelons ready to sow soon, and will replant another crop of corn and carrots to keep us going, and probably some more peas and beans as well.  It makes such a difference growing the tall climbing varieties, I used to wonder why everyone elses beans used to grow so tall, while mine were flat out growing a foot high, now mine are lovely and tall and healthy looking, and I am hoping for a bumper crop of these as well as the peas. So lots happening on the food side of the gardens right now,