What's Blooming This Week?

Drip Mudgee Iris #1 pale-mid blue

The daffodil display is done. And now the tall Bearded Irises take over.

The classic blue variety above is the first to bloom, with another twenty varieties still to come. We will blog the varieties as they come into flower over the next month or so.

Drip Mudgee Iris #2 Cobalt Blue

 Drip Mudgee Iris #3 White with pink flush

Drip Mudgee Iris #4 Pale blue

This year we will divide the clumps, which have multiplied enormously over the last few years. This will  be done as each clump blooms so we know what is what.  The divisions will be planted out in The Parterre Garden . For more on The Parterre Garden, including a list of the Irises and a plan showing where each variety is planted click here

The Cumquats are Ready for Picking.

We are nearing the end of the citrus season here at The Drip and the cumquats are now ready for picking.

We use part of the crop ourselves, producing an exceptionally intense cumquat marmalade plus a cumquat chutney and pickled cumquats. 

But with sixteen trees in The Espaliery we produce way more fruit  than we need for our own use. The remainder of the crop goes to award-winning Mudgee food producer Angela's Edibles.  For more on the Espaliery click here

Thinning the Blood Plums

The espaliered Blood Plums have set a huge crop of fruit this year.

This crop will require thinning which is best done when the fruit reach the size of a pea,  probably about a fortnight from now.  Ideally a fruiting spur such as this should carry only half a dozen fruit maximum.

By keeping crops smaller, aiming for quality over quantity, it becomes easier to manage diseases and pests including by avoiding fruit-fly problems arising from  massive amounts of fallen fruit.  Rigorous pruning and espaliering the trees allows this "micro-management" of fruit crops.  For more on The Espaliery click here

Pretecting Trees from Possum Damage

I posted a cropped version of this photo a couple of weeks ago showing the reflections in the ponds down in the Water Garden.  What I did not show was the ugly tree guards on the trees next to the ponds.  They are hideous but necessary because of the bloody possums which strip every leaf off many trees in spring.  They have killed a number of trees on the property and seem to be in ever-increasing plague proportions.  Until someone figures out a humane way of keeping their numbers under control and developing a possum fur industry or gourmet possum meat products or something we have no choice but to try keeping them out of vulnerable and valuable trees.

These tree guards, which were quickly and cheaply made from old sheets of corrugated iron, seem to be effective.  But it is not a good look, so we are working on better solutions.  The important factors seem to be

• a guard must be made of something that possums can't climb.
• a guard must reach high enough so that possums cant jump up from the ground.
• a guard must be long enough so that possums cant reach from the bottom to the top
• vulnerable trees must be isolated so that possums can't clamber through the canopy .

We are now making less obtrusive possum guards, which are only 30 cms tall, positioned approximately one metre above ground level.  We are are also exploring other materials such as clear acrylic to further reduce the visual impact.  To see more on The Water Gardens click here

Fig Tree Beetle Damage

At this time of year we always have problems with these Fig Tree Beetles,  Poneridia semipullata.  which completely denude the trees in just a few days.  The larvae and the adult beetles both cause damage and the groweth cycle of the trees is severely set back

One solution is to use a spray designed to destro lawn beetles. We prefer not to go down this road, but our tests with organic sprays such as detergent or garlic sprays are proving these to be very hit and miss, certainly not doing much to the adult beetle. This approach might prove effective on larvae,  however this year we didn't spot the larvae early enough.

The fig trees are espaliered so at this this stage it seems that the best way is to brush the beetles off into a bag and squash them.  Simple and very effective.  Being espaliered trees we should also be able to spot emerging problems and take action before these issues become a problem.  Regular attentiveness and an intimate familiarity with the seasonal cycle is essential.

What's Blooming This Week?

We tend to assume that wattle is always golden.  But there is one very significant exception and it is flowering at The Drip right now. 

A blood-red variety of the deliciously aromatic Cinnamon Wattle (Acacia leprosa) was found growing in a Victorian forest in 1995 by two bush walkers. They took cuttings to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, which manages a specialised plant conservation program, thereby saving many plants from probable extinction. The plant was subsequently released commercially as "Scarlet Blaze" with profits going to the conservation program.

The discovery is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most surprising and significant horticultural discoveries and the plant was declared Victoria's Centenary of Federation floral emblem.  We have one plant growing here in The Western Acre. For more on The Western Acre click here

A Warm Spring Salad

Our broad beans and asparagus are at their best right now.

So we decided to design a spring salad using these two classic ingredients fresh from the The Espaliery

Steam the asparagus.  There's no need to cook the broad beans if picked young and fresh, simply shell them and combine with warm diced potatoes, caramelized onion and a good quality (Mudgee) fetta cheese.  Before the potatoes cool down,  dress the salad with olive oil, salt and ground white pepper.  For more on The Espaliery click here