My tomatoes do not believe in a calendar

We have done our annual pruning of our lime tree and picked a lot of lemons and limes from our trees. Hubble has squeezed so many lemons over the last couple of days. There are still more lemons and limes (some pictured below) to be squeezed.

We have a litre of lemon juice in the fridge and are gradually freezing it in ice cube trays to tide us over winter.

We did a heavy prune of our lime tree. It was tilting over with the weight of branches and fruit. Now we have a lot more light in our small backyard which will be great over winter. The tree is upright now! Last year we gave our lemon tree a heavy prune for the same reason - it was in danger of falling because it was weighed down on one side with branches and fruit. The previous owners had only pruned the trees along the fence which caused the trees to become unbalanced over the years.

Today's gardening involved some chemistry.

I did a cheap and nasty acidity test to check the soil where I wanted to plant the berries is acidic.

Looks like it is.

The acidity test is on the left, alkalinity on the right.

I used this method: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-test-soil-acidity-alkalinity-without-a-test-kit-1388584#toc-soil-ph-test-with-baking-soda-and-vinegar

We are at the time of year where our backyard only gets 2 hours of sunshine a day. Not great for plants. All my sprouting seeds died before these cold mornings.

We have a very small east facing backyard. Our house is 2 storeys so that blocks sun from the west. The low angle of the sun and high fences produce lots of shade in the mornings.
#GardeningAU #Melbourne

Hey plantologists of the Fediverse, what is this tree? I love the flowers on it, wondering how big it grows because it might be suitable for my front garden. Seen in Melbourne western suburbs. PictureThis says it’s a Punk Tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) but that’s not right because the flowers are completely different.

EDIT: Now identified as Hakea laurina, thanks all! Enjoy the bees! #florespondence #GardeningAU #BloomScrolling

Australian companies and farmers experiment with using crushed basalt on farms instead of fertilisers - with promising results.

I wonder if I could find some crushed basalt for my depleted soil in inner- suburban Melbourne?
#GardeningAU #Melbourne #agriculture #SoilCarbon #fertilizer

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-17/basalt-rock-fertiliser-carbon-trials-queensland/105299634

My tomatoes refuse to recognise seasons.

A gorgeous warm day after yesterday’s lows. I am sitting on the deck and can smell spring flowers in Autumn. The climate is topsy turvy Here are my sweetpeas going crazy #GardeningAu #climateChange

The last of the blood plums. I'm not sure exactly how much plum I have to deal with, because my scales max out at 5kg.

The herbs and vegetables that give me the most food in winter

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-02/the-winter-herbs-vegetables-plants-that-give-me-the-most-food/105212660

The garden looks terrible right now, full of dying vines and barely standing seedlings.

But I'm still harvesting the last bits of summer fruit, which is great. Chillies, capsicums, and tla couple of figs that the birds and bats missed.

An embarrassment of plums, part one.

Worst grapes ever!

Some of the doomsday prepping I undertook in 2020 appears to have come good: here's our first harvest of olives. I would have liked to leave them on the tree longer, but the king parrots had other ideas.

Banksia ericifolia dwarf form flowers. Birds love 'em, lots of nectar #gardeningau ##bloomscrolling

When life gives you chillies, make #fermented chilli powder.

Another week; another kilogram of chillis.

Picked my first handful of chillis (jalapenos, Anaheim & unspecified "hot" varieties), and had a bunch of tomatillos and tomatoes just sitting around. I've decided to make a spicy seasoning powder, and this 1.8kg of produce is just the beginning.