Who else likes gardening?

[ecomama]

Hi everyone

I hope you're staying well today.

Who else likes gardening? I would love to connect with people here who are happy to share their gardening adventures.

For me I know that gardening helped heal my soul during tough times. I hope it will again.
Then with other things going on, it became a jungle.
I'm part way into rediscovering it again and doing A LOT of hard yakka atm, when I am motivated.

I have new dreams and ideas to put into the many bare places, as I remove thickets of lantana etc. This will all be on a tight budget and I'm ok with that.

I want to create a peaceful place where I can be.
I would like to grow food again (tell 'er she's dreamin' atm lol).
I would like to re-establish my worm farms and compost heaps.
Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year in the garden.

I'm 'alone' in my gardening journey and would love to share and hear about other's gardening antics. Hopefully we can troubleshoot any issues in our gardens and talk about any healing we're feeling too. There's a lot of knowledge we can share. I hope this thread can brighten your day!

Love Ecomama

Please

[Matchy69]

I have finished picking my corn and have been picking heaps of tomatoes and picked my first eggplant and started picking my golden nugget pumpkins and my watermelon fruit are about half grown and have heaps on them.My grapes are just about ready to harvest to.

Happt gardening,

Mark.

[Lillylane]

Hi all,

Has anyone grown mangoes?
We have an old mango tree in our yard and it’s developing some fruit. Last year we picked some and even after storing them inside to ripen further, they never became sweet enough to eat. A neighbour once told me that they are ‘no good for eating’ as in, not a good variety for eating. I’m not sure what that means exactly. Maybe it was grown for other purposes (eg pickling)?

[Matchy69]

Hi Lillylane I have grown many varieties of mangoes over the years.Where I live at the moment I haven't got any growing as it gets to cold in winter here.I just wondering water variety you might have growing, are the fruit stringy and green? And what shape are the fruit?If the fruit you find arnt real nice to eat a good option is to make mango chutney out of them or mango jam which is really easy to make.Plenty of things you can do with mangoes.

Mark.

[Lillylane]

Hi Mark,

Yes last year the mangoes were are a bit stringy and a bit sour. They were mainly green and yellow in colour. Smaller than the ones we normally see at the shops. And they didn’t go as orange/pink-coloured when ripening.

I’d like to have a go making jam or chutney with them though. It would be good to use them in some way as there are quite a few appearing on the tree. I think the possums got most of them last year.

[Matchy69]

Hi Lillylane I think you have growing is a common mango by the sounds of it.They make excelent jam and chutney as I have used them for that and the jam is delicious.

Their is over 500 varieies of mangoes grown around the world.I use to grow about 20 different ones including a couple of rare ones.

Mark.

[ecomama]

Lillylane said:

Hi all,

Has anyone grown mangoes?
We have an old mango tree in our yard and it’s developing some fruit. Last year we picked some and even after storing them inside to ripen further, they never became sweet enough to eat. A neighbour once told me that they are ‘no good for eating’ as in, not a good variety for eating. I’m not sure what that means exactly. Maybe it was grown for other purposes (eg pickling)?

Hi Lillylane

Maybe it was an "accidental" mango tree like mine. It just started growing in my garden and I thought it was an different type of tree, from our neighbours, that grows very large so I potted it.

Do the wildlife eat your mangoes?

I'm not sure how much room you have but I did read that having 2 mango trees near each other increases the cross pollination and therefore the yield. It could be beneficial choosing another one and using the pickling / jam mango as a cross pollinator?

EMxxxx

[Jstar49]

Hello all you wonderful people,

I am feeling so .....relieved and set free! today as I have handed in my last assessment and so hopefully, bar resubmits, I am finished! And now I can let loose and drink wine tonite because I don't have to worry about getting stuff done! Have had to be super disciplined which isn't my forte, and hence haven't been here for much chat.

Wow, Em, it sure sounds like you have had a lot of practice putting boundaries in place. I'm so sorry. I guess that's why you sound like such a strong amazing person. It kinda sux, but as they say, it takes a lot of pressure to make a diamond 💕

I laughed when I read about love as a verb, vs a "faint emotion every now and then" Ahh lol. There certainly is a difference hey! And yes, that's kinda where I'm at too, keeping my active love for my little family, and others in my life who reciprocate, or else just need it for a period of time. After all, gotta keep the love circling around!

Mark- I'm really curious now about what your crisper looks like (uknow the drawer at the bottom of the fridge) ....... mine is full of the recycled bread bags I wash out and let dry and then store my vegies in. Its a bit messy but it works. I'm really not sure how I'd go if I didn't use plastic...I don't like plastic tho either so I'd love to do it differently if I can....I also use some tupperware vegie storage containers. They're good because they have a ridged bottom so any moisture doesn't sit on the skin of the fruit/veg.

Sounds like the rats left you some corn- I'm so glad! You lucky thing growing watermelons and eggplant. I really love babaganoush. The way some people make it is amazing!

re mangos- lillylane we have a huge mango in our yard- must be 100 yrs old by some accounts. We're told that it's a 1 in a 7yr cycle for mangos here, so we don't expect much fruit every year. When it does fruit well tho it's lovely. Our friend likes to get the mangos when green and makes a mauritian chilli thing- soooo yum! Sounds like your mangos would be perfect for that. I love making mango chutney too- delish with curries or bland foods. Well, I love eating it, but it's not too hard to make.

What's everyone looking forward to eating over Christmas? I'm making shortbread and fruit cake and a gingerbread house. I shall have to add some savoury food to that list ........Hmmm 🤔

Cheers everyone!

Love

J*

[Lillylane]

You’ve all inspired me to put ‘make mango chutney’ on my list - thank you 🙂

Glad I’m reading these posts AFTER dinner by the way. I’d be so hungry otherwise!

Yes our mango tree is a very lovely tree. Probably the feature of our backyard really. It creates a little microclimate and shades other plants from the afternoon sun. I like the plum-red blush of colour it gets with new foliage. It used to be half smothered by a spiny duranta (which we removed to get a fence put in) but it’s now doing a lot better. I had no idea there are so many varieties Mark! Do you have a favourite one?

Hi EM, Yeah the wildlife like to eat the mangoes. Last year we gave up picking them for ourselves and left them to it. Bit of a mess to clean up but that’s ok. This year I’m motivated to pick more for us.

Oh my goodness Jstar I can only imagine what a 100-year-old mango tree looks like! How awesome! Ours didn’t fruit in our first couple of years here, but fruited last year, and has heaps developing now. It’s good to hear you feel relieved about completing your studies. Hope you get to kick back and have a well-earned rest!

I’m feeling relieved that my twins are so excited to start prep next year and have loved visiting their teacher and class in preparation.

L.

[Matchy69]

Hi Lillylane thats great we have inspired you with your mangoes.The interesting thing with mangoes they are mainly pollnated by flys ants and native bees.Dont worry if you see a lot ants on your tree when in flower as they are pollinating it.

My favourite varieties include Nam Doc Mai, Florigon and Bullocks Heart which my mum had grown in the backyard.My grandfather had a mango orchard back in the 1970s and use to help in that.Their are trees there that I grew from seed still growing there 40 years later.The farm when he bought it in 1950 was originally a citrus orchard and he turned it into a small crop farm and later started a mango orchard.The owners of it now have turned it into an exotic fruit orchard and left the mango trees we planted there.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

[Matchy69]

I am hearing the beautiful sound of water running into my rainwater tanks with some good steady rain coming down here.