My Bendigo Beauty peaches are in leaf and so are my THREE Goliath black currants.

Next year I reckon currant and gooseberry:

• Syrups and cordial

• Country wine

• Melomel

• Jams

• Fruit pies/flans

etc


From:

• Five black currant bushes

• Two red currant bushes

• One white currant bush

• One cape gooseberry bush

Kilos and kilos of fruit, I will be in preserving heaven! Oh hell yeah! They will be planted where a drive goes along the house at present, like 4m from the house. That drive will be relocated to run about 1m from the house. The currants will get good sun and a framework will allow me to cover them to protect from frost and then from birds. On the far side of the currants the vege patch will begin. The slope will need to be graded away so raised beds can be run E-W.

Start measuring and marking that with stakes today. Couple of days and the weeds in the backyard will be slashed then a small grader will demolish some old structures and make sure the surface is even, sloping but no hollows and killocks. In the resulting mudpatch I will measure and mark out the positions of the trees and the grader will return with a 30cm auger. He will drill holes in the marked spots that I will square and the trees will start getting planted, the quinces in one protected spot, a patch of lawn bordered on three sides by the house and two sheds and the french pears will get planted in the easternmost drive. Sounds silly but this is a blind drive so not really used as one, gets lots of direct sun morning to about 2pm, reflected light and the house protects the area from frost—I checked this during one “good” frost!

All goes to show that I am 5500Km from Antarctica weatherwise.