Starkrimson Cherries!

Its the second year in the ground for our Starkrimson cherry and its produced about 10 incredibly sweet cherries. About half of them split because of the rain which is a property of cherries that I had to learn through personal experience. Looks like next year not only will I need a net I'll need to build a roof for them as well!
Here's a news article about the effect of rain on Victoria's cherries this year.

Netting them only took 15 minutes but it was 15 minutes well spent. Conveniently all of the fruit trees ripen at different times so you can just move the net around.

Amazingly sweet Starkrimson cherry which was picked, photographed and eaten in the space of thirty seconds.

Here's what they looked like a couple of weeks ago just before I netted them. This is the point where the birds start getting interested.


We're definitely going to pay a visit to these guys in a couple of weeks.
http://www.ellisfieldfarm.com.au/index.php

Spring roses

Its the second year in the ground for these roses and they are showing much more vigour than last year. Black spot is still a big problem for all my roses and Trifourine seems to do bugger all. I've recieved an expert opinion today that a copper based fungicide might be more effective.

Rendering the chimney

Spring is by no means only for gardening, drinking coffee and sleeping all day. Its also a time for domicile beautification in the form of rendering. Spring is that ideal combination of sunny but not too hot and unemployed to make rendering possible. Unlike the rest of the house, the chimney bricks were in good shape with no cleaning or re-pointing required. The issue with the chimney is more of an access issue requiring the hiring of a scaffold to get myself up to its level. It was also a mad dash of seven days to go from an offensive middle finger of cream brick in the sky to a Mediterranean beacon with two coats of render and three of paint. It rained ceaselessly for at least three of those days.

Action shots including an up-short.