Hot summer

Dear Readers

In Australia at the moment it is hot. VERY hot! The grapevine which grows all around the back covered area of the house is growing crazily. Every few days I have to go out there with scissors and cut a way out into the garden, making a green doorway. There are bunches of grapes forming, too. They will be juicy red table grapes, and will be ready to pick in mid-Autumn.

Sometimes, when the leaves are newly forming on the grapevine, I make dolmades. How delicious! I feel very lucky to be able to grow such an amazing plant where I live.

This image I painted depicts just a tiny section of the grapevine, with all its twists and turns.

PS Happy New Year to you all and thanks for checking out my blog! You can also find me on Instagram: @alisaperks  

Grape Leaves. Gouache image by Alisa Perks.

Protecting peaches from fruit fly: More ideas

Dear Readers

Here are some further tips to add to my previous post about making organza bags against fruit fly attack on the peach tree:

I've started to use nylon bridal netting for these bags now, instead of organza. Netting is much cheaper than organza and does the same job. It's that coarse netting, not the fine tulle used for bridal veils.

The netting I've used for my latest bags only cost $2.99 per metre. The netting comes in a range of colours, and I think this is important, as it looks festive and pretty having coloured bags all over the peach tree. They look good and serve the brilliant purpose of protecting developing peaches against Queensland Fruit Fly! They also safely keep birds and flying foxes away from the fruit, as the netting is too fine for them to get tangled in it.

Below are instructions for you to make your own anti fruit fly bags:



Image: How to make your own fruit fly exclusion bags out of nylon netting.

Nylon netting doesn't fray, so there's no need to finish off raw edges or hem around the opening of the bag. These fruit fly bags take only minutes to make. Tie them onto the branch with a strip of old t-shirt fabric or some other scrap of stretch fabric.

Happy food-growing! Talk soon.
 


PS. I have made fruit fly bottle traps to protect uncovered peaches, but I'll let you know if they worked or not in a later post. They contain yummy Vegemite.

Growing food: Peach tree fruit fly control

Dear Readers

This post is about the art of food growing, because artists need to grow some food to survive!

The Queensland Fruit Fly ruins whole harvests of peaches if it is allowed to attack the fruit.

For the last two growing seasons, I have enclosed the best fruiting branches of the peach tree with fabric bags. This has meant 100% success with the fruit, with the peaches being completely protected from fruit fly attack.



Image: Fabric bags on my peach tree protecting against Queensland Fruit Fly attack

I made the bags from inexpensive polyester organza from Lincraft fabric store. The bags are fitted over the branch when the peaches are still quite small, then they are tied firmly around the branch to create a seal. You can choose colourful fabrics to brighten up the garden if you wish!

For fruit that is outside these bags, I use splashbaits (it looks like Vegemite!), which gives seems to give about 70% protection against fruit fly attack.

There will be many delicious peaches to pick this coming January and I look forward to it!

 

 

 "Get out of my orchard, let my peaches be."  -William Harris, "Hot Time Blues", 1928