John Savage wrote
Rod Speed writes

Stawberrys too.

Have you noticed how strawberries have maximum
flavour if they have not recently been wet?

No I havent.

i.e., pick and just brush off any soil before eating, rather than washing.

I dont wash them at all. I dont spray with anything, so havent need to wash them.

And after wet weather, wait a day or two if possible, before picking.

OK, I'll try that, thanks.

I dont see many of either. Quite a few pewees and another
backbird sized bird with speckled feathers and nothing
special beak color wise, dunno what this one is.

starling

Yeah, looks like it, tho I dont recall the yellow beak, maybe I didnt notice it when
I was deciding whether to wring its neck with the couple that got into the bird net.

The sparrows that get in are smart enough to get out again
by themselves when you show up, the starlings arent.

Yeah, noticed Woolys was flogging bags of 'beetroot shred' as 'aussie lettuce'

I've never heard of that.

Yeah, I hadnt noticed it before either. Dont normally buy
exotic lettuce tho tho I am happy to grow them myself.

Maybe the native warrigal greens, but I haven't tried.

Oops. Just read that warrigal greens *must* be cooked
before eating, to remove their oxalic acid and another nasty.

OK, I'll pass on that, I never cook lettuce greens at all.

The pototoes are really bounding out of the ground, looks like
I will end up with a hell of a glut because I basically planted
half of the sprouted tubers I had instead of chucking them out.
The latest lot had green shoots in 5 days and the first lot
are quite decent plants now, 15 days from planting.

Yes, potatoes are like that, and are an excellent crop for a new garden bed.

Yeah, noticed Pete Cundal said that and thats the reason I didnt
worry about the glut, I can always chuck what I cant give away etc.

Keep an eye on them, for if you didn't plant sufficiently deep
the tops of some spuds will show through and grow green.

Yeah, noticed that with just one small tuber.

If you see this, mound up the soil and cover with mulch. You can
spread plenty of straw and mulch over the whole bed, in any case.

Yeah, got plenty of that from the kikuyu that died off when I
didnt bother to water the backyard thru two droughts in a row.

There is no need to wait until all the plants have matured and
died down, you can start scratching around under the plants
and collect small spuds as soon as they reach suitable size.

Yeah, been doing that for a couple of weeks now with the original plants, waited
for a month after the flowers had gone and they're very eatable size now.

With butter and salt and pepper you will be
amazed at the flavour of home-grown potatoes.

Yeah, thats how I eat most of them, microwave with the skin on and butter just before eating.

So long as the soil drains well,

Yeah, its excellent draining. I get standing water at the end
of the watering with one of those Fiskars Aquapore hoses
and thats gone within 15 mins of so of turning the hose off.

you should have no problems. The only pest I've had is a plague of ladybirds;
they eat the green off the leaves and leave them looking like lace.

Havent had any pest at all. Pete says you can get potato moth
into the tubers if you leave them too long, but none of my potato
plants have died off yet so its much too early for that to happen yet.

But I'd caution against killing any ladybird on sight, as those with
a certain number of spots are good guys, Wait until you see
them congregating on ruined leaves before you squash them.

OK, havent had any pests at all yet apart from the birds with a new garden.

Have found a could of snails and I just chucked them over the fence.

If you plant sprouted spuds in early spring,

Thats what I did with the first ones.

you can get two crops during summer. Cover with a heap of loose straw
to protect from late frosts, but even if the emerging shoots do get frosted
new ones will soon emerge, so it's not all that much of a setback.

OK, thanks for that. I eat most of the potatoes in winter,
only once or twice a week in summer, most days in winter.

The latest lettuces are doing pretty well now, but its been a lot cooler
too so its not clear if its that or the shade cloth and extra watering.
We're bound to get another burst of over 40 this summer so time will tell.

The earlier planted lollo rossas have shown a bit more activity with the
cooler weather, but still arent big enough to eat any leaves of them yet.

Havent planted any more icebergs yet, plan to wait a bit longer with them.

Havent tried the seeds under plastic and masonite yet, waiting till the end
of Feb when it should cool off a bit with no real prospect of over 40C anymore.