Good morning all,
My name is Tynan and I am quite 'green' when it comes to gardening, after reading Cicero's How to Grow Old, I've been an avid viewer of Mark and many other Homesteaders on the web. Seeing as I am finally moving into a 5 acre plot of land on the South side of Brisbane ( Camira ), I'm looking to get the ball rolling.
With this block, I have inherited a substantial pumpkin vine which appears to be tormenting the four chickens we were left, an orange tree and finally, a cactus with what appears to be red fruit. Again, I am completely new and would love some advice on the following if you don't mind.
Firstly, let's have a gander at the size of this pumpkin vine; from left to right, front to back, inside and above the coup. Sweet jesus, these poor chooks have no room ( they seem quite happy though ) In addition to the massive growth above and below, 4 large and long runners have shot out and begun fruiting; many flowers on this vine.
Now let's have a look at a fruit that I needed to harvest today, due to being a little rough whilst moving the vine.
This is an odd portion of the vine that has turned black, from what I could find, the only section to of done so.
These are some of the leaves I have trimmed due to needing access to the coup and just for a bit of a tidy up. I'm looking to remove the vine completely once all the pumpkins are harvested. I want to get this coup in perfect order and add some more chooks, and some khaki campbells when I can.
This is another vine growing over the coup that I'd like to strip out, it has berries that turn red when ripe.
Overall, the property appears to be very fertile and from what the owners have told me, anything they plant just seems to take off like a scolded ****. I'll add some photos of the orange tree and the cactus that I mentioned earlier.
Alright here we go, I have some questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated and sure to be taken on board and implemented where possible. I imagine I'm going to be told to go hard on the pruning, good for me, I bought my very first pair of shears today ( I went old school and bought the old sheep shear style ).
In regards to photo 2, the pumpkin: The white area of this pumpkin was where it had been left on the grass, is this still fine to eat? In addition to this, I've picked the pumpkin before it was ready and was wondering if it should be left to ripen on the kitchen bench, or in full sun?
The black vine in photo 3 was a bit of a shock, to me it appears to be diseased. Should I be looking to cull this portion of the vine, or is this completely normal?
Photo 4 is an example of what I pruned this morning, anything that was yellow and appeared to be diseased, mauled by insects, loose and hanging towards the ground and finally, anything that was dead. Is this good practice and are the yellow and insect damaged leaves fine to throw into my compost, or could this spread disease around the garden?
Photo 5 is an example of the other climber that seems to be holding the chooks at ransom, are the berries edible for myself or the chickens at all? Or are they poisonous and should be removed from the chickens asap?
Photos 6, 7, 8 and 9 are of the orange tree which is fruiting like mad. I've shown some images of the leaves, what appears to be blight and insect damage, should I go to the effort and cull these from the tree? Could they be used in compost, and are there any tips for the oranges at all? I'm looking to net the entire tree to ensure a nice clean, full harvest.
Finally with photo 10, this is the cactus that I mentioned; I got my hopes up thinking it may of been an odd species of dragon fruit, but I'm just not sure and could not find anything earlier this afternoon with help from Google.
Thank you in advance everyone, please don't go to a lot of effort in assisting me, a single answer to the above will be greatly appreciated. Let me know who you are and what your big interests are, mine seem to be honeybees at the moment ( very keen to build a couple of top bar beehives ). As things progress and I make some strides with the garden, I'll dump some more photos and give you all an update.
Thanks again,
Tynan
My name is Tynan and I am quite 'green' when it comes to gardening, after reading Cicero's How to Grow Old, I've been an avid viewer of Mark and many other Homesteaders on the web. Seeing as I am finally moving into a 5 acre plot of land on the South side of Brisbane ( Camira ), I'm looking to get the ball rolling.
With this block, I have inherited a substantial pumpkin vine which appears to be tormenting the four chickens we were left, an orange tree and finally, a cactus with what appears to be red fruit. Again, I am completely new and would love some advice on the following if you don't mind.
Firstly, let's have a gander at the size of this pumpkin vine; from left to right, front to back, inside and above the coup. Sweet jesus, these poor chooks have no room ( they seem quite happy though ) In addition to the massive growth above and below, 4 large and long runners have shot out and begun fruiting; many flowers on this vine.
Now let's have a look at a fruit that I needed to harvest today, due to being a little rough whilst moving the vine.
This is an odd portion of the vine that has turned black, from what I could find, the only section to of done so.
These are some of the leaves I have trimmed due to needing access to the coup and just for a bit of a tidy up. I'm looking to remove the vine completely once all the pumpkins are harvested. I want to get this coup in perfect order and add some more chooks, and some khaki campbells when I can.
This is another vine growing over the coup that I'd like to strip out, it has berries that turn red when ripe.
Overall, the property appears to be very fertile and from what the owners have told me, anything they plant just seems to take off like a scolded ****. I'll add some photos of the orange tree and the cactus that I mentioned earlier.
Alright here we go, I have some questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated and sure to be taken on board and implemented where possible. I imagine I'm going to be told to go hard on the pruning, good for me, I bought my very first pair of shears today ( I went old school and bought the old sheep shear style ).
In regards to photo 2, the pumpkin: The white area of this pumpkin was where it had been left on the grass, is this still fine to eat? In addition to this, I've picked the pumpkin before it was ready and was wondering if it should be left to ripen on the kitchen bench, or in full sun?
The black vine in photo 3 was a bit of a shock, to me it appears to be diseased. Should I be looking to cull this portion of the vine, or is this completely normal?
Photo 4 is an example of what I pruned this morning, anything that was yellow and appeared to be diseased, mauled by insects, loose and hanging towards the ground and finally, anything that was dead. Is this good practice and are the yellow and insect damaged leaves fine to throw into my compost, or could this spread disease around the garden?
Photo 5 is an example of the other climber that seems to be holding the chooks at ransom, are the berries edible for myself or the chickens at all? Or are they poisonous and should be removed from the chickens asap?
Photos 6, 7, 8 and 9 are of the orange tree which is fruiting like mad. I've shown some images of the leaves, what appears to be blight and insect damage, should I go to the effort and cull these from the tree? Could they be used in compost, and are there any tips for the oranges at all? I'm looking to net the entire tree to ensure a nice clean, full harvest.
Finally with photo 10, this is the cactus that I mentioned; I got my hopes up thinking it may of been an odd species of dragon fruit, but I'm just not sure and could not find anything earlier this afternoon with help from Google.
Thank you in advance everyone, please don't go to a lot of effort in assisting me, a single answer to the above will be greatly appreciated. Let me know who you are and what your big interests are, mine seem to be honeybees at the moment ( very keen to build a couple of top bar beehives ). As things progress and I make some strides with the garden, I'll dump some more photos and give you all an update.
Thanks again,
Tynan