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Macedon Ranges Food Network 3

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I recently attended the Macedon Ranges Food Systems Forum. We made some great connections that I’d like to expand and improve upon.

Our Recent Facebook Posts

Our Recent Facebook Posts

leafrootfruit

🎆 Happy New Year! 🛌 I’m not overly enthus

🎆 Happy New Year!

🛌 I’m not overly enthusiastic about New Years Eve. I’d much rather sleep than stay out raging all night. I was in bed by ten, so I don’t have any spectacular NYE fireworks photos to share with you.

🌼 But I reckon these flower fireworks that are exploding in my garden are even better. Packed full of colour, they anchor my resilient garden ecosystem. The birds, bees and beneficials love them. Plus they look great. Not every plant in your garden needs to produce food!

❓ What's your favourite firework flower?

#nyefireworks #flowerfireworks #inmygarden #gardenecosystem

🎉 Happy New Year! ❓ Did you make your resolu

🎉 Happy New Year!

❓ Did you make your resolution to grow more of your own food? Keen to get planting? Here's a list of what you can grow this month.

🌞 January is a tough time for young vegetable seedlings. They need special care and attention to ensure they survive our baking hot sun, high temperatures and strong winds. That being said, it's still possible to establish a vegetable garden at this time of the year.

🥕 The Vegetable Patch from Scratch series is popular with both novice and seasoned gardeners alike. It covers everything you might want to know about growing vegetables. It might save you a bit of time and frustration by steering you away from preventable crop failures.

➡ head to my Substack to read it

#plantingguide #melbournegardens #whattogrow #vegetablepatch

🤩 Wow yesterday’s post has really resonated w

🤩 Wow yesterday’s post has really resonated with my readers:

…the post I just received has to be the best one I've read. Honest, clever, witty and so so true…

I appreciate your honesty Duncan. I found your words reassuring as a beginner gardener… This would be a great article for The Guardian or The Age.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

➡ head to my Substack to read it.

#substackwriter #LowestPricesGuaranteed #gardenadvice
@guardian @theageaustralia

The first two zucchini of the season are ready. To

The first two zucchini of the season are ready. Today my 4yo daughter Emily picked two zucchini. She sowed the seed into a pot, transplanted the seedling and now we get to enjoy the fruits of her labour. Emily is really excited at the prospect of zucchini and walnut loaf, but alas, she’ll have to wait a bit longer. These are destined for tonight’s stir fry.

Have you started harvesting summer vegetables yet?

I’ve done it! I’ve grown a Christmas tomato wi

I’ve done it! I’ve grown a Christmas tomato without using a greenhouse. A month after harvesting my first tomatoes from the greenhouse raised plants, I’ve finally picked my first tomato from the Stupice plant.

It’s a bit wonky, but it will still be tasty. The first of many to come.

The second image shows today’s harvest from my greenhouse raised plants which are beginning to ramp up.

The big difference between the greenhouse raised plants and my experimental plants was the amount of light and water each received as seedlings. I think I could have harvested tomatoes much earlier from my experimental plants if I’d lavished them with more attention and care. With the automatic irrigation, protection from the elements and exposure to full sun, the greenhouse plants are “set and forget”. For me, this makes them far easier to propagate. I’ll be sticking to the greenhouse method from now on. But it’s good to know that it is possible to raise a Christmas Tomato without using a greenhouse.

Head to the LRF website to read more about my quest to grow a Christmas Tomato without using a greenhouse.

Snake or lizard? Who wants to pull its tail to fi

Snake or lizard?

Who wants to pull its tail to find out?

There was a great article in the @@guardianaustralia newspaper this week about snakes. The author, Calla Wahlquist is a Macedon Range local and I really appreciated her method for telling the difference between a brown snake and a copperhead: "...nearly step on it. If it strikes, it’s an eastern brown. If it stays still as you jump back, it’s a copperhead." We have mostly copperheads on the property and they are indeed so docile compared to the browns.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/08/australia-snake-season-protection-how-to-prepare

I agree with the premise of the article, that there are far more snakes about this year than usual. Each day I come across several in the garden. But I don’t just think it is the warm spring behind the “snake plague”. The last few years have seen a rising abundance of frogs on our property and right across the area. Copperheads apparently eat (almost) exclusively frogs. More frogs = more snakes. Interestingly, the frog numbers seem lower this year. So I expect the snake population to drop again in another year or so.

What’s your take on it? Are you seeing more snakes than usual this year?

#snakeorlizard #macedonranges #watchyourstep #snakeseason

This is exciting. I’m often told that you can’

This is exciting. I’m often told that you can’t grow passionfruit in Kyneton, but this summer, I am one step closer.

There are dozens of flowers open on the passionfruit vine and some have already set fruit. Many more flower buds are developing and the foliage growth is explosive.
With a bit of luck, I will harvest our first homegrown passionfruit this summer. Here are a few tips if you’re wanting to grow them in a cool temperate climate like mine:

❄️ Choose a cold tolerant variety. I’ve gone with Nelly Kelly Black. It’s grafted, which means the plants sucker like crazy. However, I initially planted non-grafted ones and they died. Hopefully the abundance of fruit will offset the pain that is pulling all the suckers out.

⏰ Timing of planting is critical. I’ve found that planting in late spring allows the plants to establish before the onset of summer. The vines can grow all summer and harden off before the onset of winter. The frost still knocks them back severely, but at least they’ve put on enough foliage in the first summer of establishment to cope with frost and recover in the second spring. I initially killed quite a few plants planting at the wrong time of the year. Plant passionfruit at the same time you would normally plant tomatoes.

🌡 Select the best microclimate you can find. Mine are growing in my citrus grove against a water tank which provides thermal mass. The vines are protected by a tall

❓ Do you grow passionfruit? How is it looking this year?

🐞 Are you noticing heaps of ladybirds in the ga

🐞 Are you noticing heaps of ladybirds in the garden? They seem to be everywhere in my garden and everywhere else that I visit. I'm finding them crawling on me. They're everywhere in the house, usually carried inside on freshly picked leafy greens or other produce. The kids are enjoying collecting them to study, draw and create little homes for them.

I’m observing quite a few different species about, but mostly they are Spotted Amber Ladybird (Hippodamia variegata). This species has a black head, and orange body and a white collar in between. The Spotted Amber Ladybird is not native to Australia. It’s a European ladybird that was only introduced in 2000. It has spread widely over the last 24 years and is now dominating the ecosystem, at least in my garden anyway.

I’m not particularly fussed whether it is native or not. It’s here to stay. Each ladybird larvae can eat up to 60 aphids or whitefly a day. That’s a lot of great pest control that they can offer (it’s the only form of pest control in my garden). It’s likely that the mild spring allowed large numbers of aphids and other small invertebrates to breed up, this in turn has fuelled a big spike in ladybird numbers.

Check out my free, three part series on this topic for more information about pest and predator interactions. Learn how you can enhance your garden, so you don’t need to use sprays.

📈 Part 1: Pest predator dynamics and balance
https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/garden-ecosystems-pest-predator-balance/

🐞 Part 2: Attracting beneficial insects into the garden
https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/garden-ecosystems-attracting-beneficial-insects/

🌼 Part 3: How to turn your garden into a resilient ecosystem
https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/garden-ecosystems-designing-resilient-gardens/

My to-do list this December: 🌱 It’s sucker s

My to-do list this December:

🌱 It’s sucker season. Citrus, passionfruit, fruit trees, hazelnuts and roses – I’m noticing suckers emerging from the rootstock of all of them. Keep an eye on the suckers and remove them before they take over.

🍎 Fruit thinning continues. I’ve done a first pass on my stone fruit, but I’ll keep thinning any damaged fruit, plus a few extras as they develop, with another two or three passes. I’ll be making my first thinning pass on the apples and pears this week.

🕸 I need to net the fruit trees outside of my netted enclosure. I’ve found that the first week of December is the last chance to net fruit trees. After that you can expect the cockatoos to descend with vigour.

🌽 Most of my vegetable crops are planted, but I’ll be sowing my final crop of sweet corn (my fifth successive crop) just before the red-suited man descends the chimney. There’s also a crop of snow peas to go in and perhaps a few back-up cucumbers, in case the dreaded mildew descends.

🥦 Melbourne folks and those gardening in warmer climates than mine don’t need to worry about winter crops for months yet. But this month I’ll be prepping beds for winter brassicas and will sow my first of three crops just before the end of 2024.

🌿 I expect the downpours of last week will encourage rampant germination of black nightshade and other annual summer weeds. Later in the month I’ll be busy weeding. Good airflow will be essential this summer to reduce fungal disease outbreaks. The last thing that I want is an avalanche of weeds swamping my precious vegetable seedlings.

🍓 Picking. Picking. Picking. Huge quantities of berries, handfuls of cherries, ripening tomatoes and possibly, maybe, if I’m lucky, the until now elusive apricots. Fingers crossed that the rain and humidity don’t affect them (or the cherries).

✂ I’ll be pruning my espaliered fruit trees. These need a light haircut to curb any vigorous watershoots and help establish the framework on young trees.

For more hints and tips, as well as an update on my garden, check out my FREE December newsletter (link in bio)

#plantingguide #gardenupdate #melbournegarden #kyneton

Wow, that was a lot of rain. Our tin roof was roar

Wow, that was a lot of rain. Our tin roof was roaring through the wee hours of the morning. It made it impossible to sleep. I gave up on trying and headed out into the garden to experience the downpour in all its glory.

At 7:15 this morning it finally eased and I tipped 58mm from the rain gauge. There’s water everywhere, which is incredible because we are on a slope, with very free draining sandy soil. We hardly ever have puddles. The tanks are close to full. Unfortunately some of the rain fell so hard and fast that it completely overwhelmed the catchment system and a lot of it ended up spilling over onto the ground.

We really needed that rain, after that last heatwave, the garden was looking rather crispy. This downpour has been a great reset. Although I'll be watching closely to see what fungal diseases arise from it.

My system of anti-swales worked well. The mulched has been washed out in one section, but it will only take a few barrow loads of mulch to fix it up again.

How much rain did you have in your part of the world?

If you are a pear grower, then this slimy little c

If you are a pear grower, then this slimy little critter is known as a cherry slug. If you are a cherry grower, then you’d call it a pear slug.

I get asked about managing this orchard pest all the time, mainly because it does make the trees look so incredibly unsightly. Gardeners can’t help but notice them and want to do something. But I'm not sure that they are such a big problem.

This week I'm noticing cherry/pear slug on my cherries, pears and quince trees. It seems ridiculously early for them to be about. They're not in huge numbers, and the damage is minimal thus far.

Are you finding cherry or pear slug on your fruit tree too?

Read my blog post for some ideas on what to do about them. Head to the Leaf, Root & Fruit Website to read it.

#cherryslug #gardenpest #backyardorchard #kynetongardens

🍅 Yee Ha! 🥇 The first ripe tomato of the se

🍅 Yee Ha!

🥇 The first ripe tomato of the season.

🎅 It’s from a greenhouse raised plant, not my Christmas Tomato Experiment plants. It’s also “only” a cherry tomato, not a slicer. But I’ll take it.

🐎 Broad Ripple Currant wins the race this year. My earliest ever ripe tomato grown in Kyneton.

❓ How are you tomato plants coming along?

➡ https://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/how-to-grow-a-christmas-tomato-without-a-greenhouse/

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