Update week 20/week 10: the whole clan
Wow stuff happens fast at this stage. A week on and everyone is blowing my mind!
I was away for a few days on the weekend and then had to recover so everything happened a little later in the week than usual. In the last 2-3 days everyone has been topdressed with a mix of greencompost/wormcastings ammended with a little calcium rock dusts, small amounts of neem meal, kelp meal (home made - like a teaspoon/sqfoot, if that) and some ground malted barley. Deep watering has taken place including teas/drenches made with comfrey and seaweed (in the enclosure raised bed), Casuarina and seaweed (the bush pod), and plain seaweed for the potted plant. All teas include added LABs (lactobacillus). I made the comfrey tea just by long simmering some, it’s not a fermented brew. I’ve found that fermenting plant juice is not really my cup of tea. My partner makes the seaweed brew, I’m happy to add my lactoB serum to it and reap it’s benefits (and it smells better than the others). Everyone is due for the next Casuarina/seaweed/LABs foliar spray but I haven’t been able to manage it yet. Aiming for tomorrow morning.
I’m experimenting with the teas/drenches really, so hopefully I’ll notice different effects. I may not though, as the 2 spots I treated differently have quite different light & ground conditions as well so it may not teach me much. But it’s all new to me right now and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.
Here’s the greencompost/castings
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And amendments to mix into it
View media item 1503502Yum yum...
All the photos in this update have been snapped over the last 2-3 days, at different times of day (morning light, midday light, late afternoon), using my iPhone. I actually have a fancy new camera (gifted for an upcoming ‘milestone’ birthday - such a wonderful gift!
) and i’m just getting to know it so it’s not a ‘quick snap’ companion yet. Rest assured the coming weeks will feature me getting acquainted with what I can do with it.
I’ve done some more training on the GTxNL#2 (the one in the pot) and it’s shooting and flower stretching all over the place. I’m starting to get pretty excited about this one. Let’s start with her...
Golden Tiger x Northern Lights #2 (friend’s cross): week 10, 4-5days into flower
Where next...? I’ll stay with the solstice plantings and give a quick look at the espalier experiment. These have kind of turned out like little bonsai babies. Amazing they were planted at the same time as the GTxNL above (in the pot). They’re both fully into early flower now (about 2+ weeks in) and soooo cute... their my little bits of fluff!
Ice (Female Seeds): week 10, 16 or so days into flower
Golden Tiger x Northern Lights #1 (friend’s cross): week 10, 14-15days into flower
I seem to like to break things up by heading out to the bush pod before showing you the rest of the enclosure garden so follow me. Shoes on, it’s the Australian bush here folks - we’ve got all sorts of critters crawling around!
Money Bush (Heavyweight): week 20, 5-6 weeks into flower
It does get direct sun!
Some of those shots were taken using my new super high tech DIY photography accessory for reflecting light to places in the shade...
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I’ve been meaning to make one for ages - as you can see it took me hours of labour and cost an absolute bomb!
Ok - moving on, seriously, just get a look at this Professor Chaos...
Professor Chaos (Homegrown Natural Wonders/TGA Subcool): week 20, 6-7 weeks into flower
I trimmed off her lower regions yesterday - removing some tiny popcorn starters and one or to flowers in the full shade - stuff she needn’t worry about anymore and something for my weekend enjoyment
And to finish off...
CBD Critical Cure (Barney’s Farm): week 20, 6-7weeks into flower
I’m really proud of this one. Well all of them, you know, but this one in particular because I decided very early (before planting even) that I wanted the experience of having a nice big single central cola. So instead of topping I employed techniques of leaf tucking (lots of it) and leaning it back daily during its mid - late veg period. I would let it free over night and then lay it back slightly and leaf tuck in the morning. This made the lower branching go nuts and I’ve ended up with a really big plant (considering I didn’t drop the seed until 1 Nov and things were a bit stunted by delays in a tiny pot early on). So I’m obviously happy with the soil mix in that regard too - but I’m so glad I held my nerve and didn’t top it! ...
Look!
Sometimes when I’m sitting relaxing there in front of them, catching some sunrays myself, I just don’t know where to look... this is a Professor Chaos bud in the centre with a some of her sisters to the left and some CBD CC to the right.
So that’s the family - my how it’s grown!
This weeks ‘critter of the week’ inclusion departs a little bit form the norm. I’d been warned that there was a large centipede in the bucket full of green compost/castings my partner collected for me from the bottom of our pile. I wore gloves of course (and don’t fret - this is not a story about getting bitten or stung by anything!). Pretty soon the thing showed itself and it was pretty big indeed - I did say we have super crawlies here, right. It’s about 10-11cm/ 4-5” long! It was too hard to photograph so this time it’s wobbly iPhone movie (thanks to the new website software platform - can upload directly)
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Those rear ‘pointies’ can give you a nasty sting. So you might think that was my critter of the week... but wait! Shortly after, this happened. There was a first, unsuccessful attempt that I didn’t catch on camera and which sent the lizard recoiling from the sting, but second time was a winner this time. I love these lizards, we have about 5-6 of them living around the house and garden. See how safe they keep us! They eat spiders too. (Please ignore the debris - nature’s action happens where it want’s to without care for a photographic backdrop
)
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Critter of the week - dare devil lizard!
Well thanks so much for joining me again - or at all if it’s your first time here. I’ve had an absolute blast this week and hope you all enjoyed it too.
I hope all your gardens are as blessed as mine feels to me
3 ratio on the calcium sources, second time cause is run out of funds) but the mineral rock dust additions I’ve made seem to be doing the trick. So I have sone kind of hybrid of LOS and High Brix approaches going - which was kind of dictated by what I could source. In the end it probably cost me more than it would’ve to get the kit (including shipping) and I’ve only covered one grow. I fairly sure others have got the kit here but our customs is super heavy so I have concerns about the liquids etc getting picked up and confiscated. I’m definitely a DB follower and believer (zealot even
beautiful plants and pictures Amy,
Isn’t it great to see the ‘pest’ activity while also witnessing it being kep in balance by all the predators and other good stuff 
. It's great that a lot of people are discovering your great garden, which really is a thing of sunny and crittery beauty. And now I can watch your flowers grow for real and not just in the CBD thread.
