Pecans, passionfruit and pods

I am still learning about our pecan tree. It sits in the chook run and it is the most beautiful tree in our backyard. It's deciduous, madly green and lush during the summer and a slender skeleton with forking fingers during winter. For many years I didn't know what it was, and I still don't know what variety it is, but I'm happy it's there. Apparently the old varieties of pecan take 12 years to produce their first crop. We have lived here for 11 ½ years and nuts are growing for the first time.

I believe pecans are native to north America so there may be some of you who are growing them. If so, any tips you can give me will be gladly accepted. We don't have the disease pecan scab here and, from what I've read, apart from a ring barking native pest, the pecan grows without trouble here. But I wonder how we harvest the nuts. Do they fall off? We don't have a lot of them but I want to make sure I take full advantage of what is there .

A short stroll over from the pecan we're growing passionfruit vines. Both Hanno and I love passionfruit and I think we now have five vines out there in various stages of maturity. Not only are they a delicious fruit, the flowers are beautiful. This photo was taken as the flower was opening so you can see it's white tendrils and deep purple throat. Exquisite!

Another uncommon tropical plant that I've been growing here for about 10 years but am only now becoming serious about, are my vanilla orchids. I've grown them in pots until now, have had one or two orchid flowers but never any pods. It's a bit of a palaver to grow them for vanilla pods but that is what I intend doing this year. When the luffas are removed from their trellis, I'm planting a few vanilla orchids in the ground near the shade of the banana trees. The vines need to grow to a certain height and then have the top of the vine removed from the trellis to grown downwards. That triggers flowering, and eventually, pods. Then comes the hand pollinating, we have no natural pollinators of vanilla here, and then, when the pods are (hopefully) prolific and mature, they're picked and fermented. A long and tedious process to produce that sweet unique flavouring, vanilla. But I'm mad enough to do it. ; - ) I'll take some photos when I plant.

I forget who asked now, but someone wanted to know more about the bricks around our raised garden beds. I asked Hanno and this is what he told me. The brick size is 390 x 185 x 110 mm and they're a hollow brick with holes in the centre, which is good for planting small overflowing herbs because they soften the edges. Don't buy the solid type unless they're very cheap. We bought ours as seconds. I think they were a bit under a dollar each. If you buy enough for several garden beds, it will be fairly expensive but it pays off over the long term. Unlike logs, they don't decay or leech into the ground and they're easily rearranged to form different garden shapes. To lay them, set into the flat ground about two inches deep and secure them in with the soil you back fill.

I was contacted by Radio National last week. They are doing a program on frugal blogs and will be interviewing someone from slate.com and me for the program. I do that non-live interview today. Shane and Sarndra will be here too, bringing over more of their stuff to be stored here while they're in New Zealand. And when I came home from work yesterday, I noticed Hanno had placed two ripe luffas on the outside table. I'll have to check them out this morning and see if they need more drying time or if they can be skinned right away. I did the first of The Frugal Home workshops yesterday at work and it was a great success. The first two workshops have been booked out. Times are tough now and I hope to pass on some of what I know via these workshops. But now there is bread to be baked, a cake to be made and I'm sure, a hundred other things to do. It's good to be back home after two busy days at work.

ADDITION: I'll certainly let you all know when the program will be on. Apparently it will be in a couple of weeks. I believe they have podcasts too, so you might be able to download it if you miss it, or if you're in another country.