Ginger #7

 Trying in a box for the first time...

Banana #6

This will be banana #6

9 Sep 2021 update: banana#5 is harvested. All that is left standing is #6

27 Sep 2021 update: Lots of other shoots trying to establish themselves, especially after cutting down banana #5. I cut back around 8 shoots every couple of days.

Straightening the banana tree

The fruit are getting bigger/heavier, tilting the tree more each day. Some rope with a thick sack to ease the pressure at the contact point...

This should prevent any further tilting. Good to keep a slight lean.

Scrap wood keeps my garden door going

We have a fence around the veggies to keep the dog out of there. The door frame is made from scrap wood. The base decomposed and is now gone back to the earth :) The rest of the frame is still hanging in there. Most of the scrap wood come from pallets and wine boxes. 

Where the old wood used to be...

Here is what the base looks like after surgery...

From the other side...

That funny shape wood is from a wine box...

The top joints were strengthened with just some nails and extra wood...

Near disaster

 I am super forgetful. Needed to fill a bucket with pond water. Placed the water pump's outlet into a bucket and forgot about it!!! Drained half the pond before I realised :(

Thank God I saw this before even more drained out. I did put into place a setup that wouldnt drain everything, just by placing the powerhead on a couple of bricks. The height would minimise the damage... the worse case scenario would be 2/3 loss of water

potato flower

 First sign of flowers from my potato

Good compost harvest

The bins are set a bit deeper into the ground. This new setup has been working well to keep out rats, squirrels, etc. 

Used an old plastic basket with big holes to sift thru the compost. The contents from the compost go into the basket a little at a time, and I give it a good shake. This is the "gold" that falls thru.

And this is the "future gold" that left behind in the basket.

This gets chucked back into the compost bin. I overhaul all 3 bins this way. The oldest bin (blue one) gives the most compost. The younger 2 wire net bins have a mixture of semi-decayed matter and fresh food scraps and plant cuttings. The semi decayed stuff goes on top of the big bits that didnt make it thru the basket sift. The newest stuff right on top.

This was the sight of the bottom of the wire net compost bins, after removing the contents...

...tons of earthworms. A beautiful and rewarding sight for any gardener. 

Sick or mineral deficient but still producing heaps of chili

This plant was putting out so many leaves, even though patchy yellow and wrinkled, that I decided to keep and see if it would produce any fruit. Now it has started to fruit, giving me the biggest success so far, with chilies hiding everywhere I look.

Chili from God

 A chili plant just sprouted between my Thai Basil. It was a bigger variety.

19July2021 update: They ripened after harvest!