garden view from my window

At the moment this is what I see from my front window.  The red rose is Mr Lincoln.  It has been flowering since October and I must remember to feed it and the others when I can free myself from the necessary chores of pruning the overgrowth that is inevitable with the rain and warmth we have been getting. 
The jacaranda is still looking beautiful even when it is dropping its blue flowers every minute.  The footpath is strewn with the flowers and they look lovely before they turn brown.  I sweep the dead flowers when I can and use them as mulch.  No point in putting them into the compost bin.
I am also seeing the agapanthus opening up, both the blue and yellow.  The agapanthus may be a noxious weed but I love to look at the flower heads dancing in the summer breeze.  I remove the seed head before they get a chance to spread.  Last year I covered some seeds from the miniature agapanthus with potting mix, in a two litre ice cream tub and now I have the tiny seedlings waiting to be planted out.  I may grow them in containers that need only be brought out for show when in flower.  The agapanthus do take up a lot of room so having the miniature variety in containers may be the way to go.

After the rain

In between the heavy downpour I went out into the garden to check for damages.  The jacaranda flowers are barely opened and they have been blown on to the footpath.  The dills are bent double, their seedheads burdened with raindrops.The coriander is too delicate to stand up to the downpour and even the rotund hydrangea bush is feeling the weight of the droplets hanging from every leaf and petal.
I don't complain about the rain.  I merely worry about the seedlings, especially of the sunflowers, which are a bit slow this year.  I suspect the low temperature is slowing down their growth.  After today's heavy downpour I hope they will survive the onslaught of snails and slugs, which are bound to be on the lookout for delicate morsels.  Last January the sunflowers were in full bloom but I am not very hopeful this time.

poppies

I harvested the poppy seeds, the red and mauve, before the pounding rain.  Many of the seeds would have fallen to the ground but I wanted to harvest some to give away.  The red poppies started blooming even before November and by Remembrance Day there was a lovely patch near the front fence, attracting passers by.  The brilliant red was a contrast to the delicate pink of the ballerina rose.

  The stems look delicate but they somehow manage to survive the wind and rain.  The mauve poppy however is a show of strength.  Even when the paper thin mauve petals have been blown away the plants look majestic with their upright pods.  The poppy seeds germinate easily but the seedlings do not like being transplanted.  If you need to move them do so when they are still little.  You can start sowing the seeds from late winter.

Mermaid

The Mermaid rose is a beautiful climbing rose too rarely seen in the home garden.  Mine came from a cutting taken when the neighbour's climber spilled over the fence on to my previous garden.  I had the rose growing in a pot for several years and when I came to this garden I planted it against the north east facing fence. It did not take long for it to shoot up.  I will quote Stirling Macoboy's description (from Macoboy's Roses). "The shining foliage is more or less evergreen, and the huge, perfect flowers are single, softly scented, and of palest yellow crowned with great bosses of amber stamens which remain in beauty after the petals fall."  When I have the cut flowers inside, I would leave them in display when the petals have dropped because I just love the look of the stamens. At this time of the year when I am driving around the suburb I look out for the Mermaid and I have seen a couple draped over the front fence.  I am vigilant in stopping my Mermaid from doing that as I would have to battle with the thorny branches when they get out of hand.  I prune the branches the moment they come up to the top of the fence.

abundance of broad beans and herbs

I am not complaining but giving away broad beans and herbs can be hard work.  (From the top, broad beans, golden marjoram, pennywort with celery, oregano and coriander in bloom, and dill).  It is so wonderful to see the fat beans.  I have been harvesting them at different stages of growth.  The young ones are delicious, simply fried in a little butter and this dish makes a substantial topping on toast for breakfast.  The fat mature pods have been picked and the beans steamed.  I was going to freeze the excess but knowing the failure of home freezing I will dry the beans instead.  I may dry enough to make a small serving of falafel!
The dill plants are flowering and I am expecting a lot of seeds which I shall save to use in my cooking.  I will allow others to self sow for more dill plants in the garden.  A salad of broad beans and dill with a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil is delicious.  Just so I do not run out of dill in the next couple of months, I am looking after baby dills I am discovering in different parts of the garden.  I am doing the same with parsley as most of the plants are going to seeds and if I don't make an effort to nurture some babies found around the garden I will end up having to buy parsley in summer.
Coriander tends not to do well in summer, bolting after sending out a few leaves.  I have enjoyed the coriander in late winter and early spring and they now overgrown and full of flowers.  I will sow a few more seeds in shady areas and make sure they are watered well.
The golden marjoram patch is wonderful to look at.  It would look good in a hanging basket but I can be quite forgetful about watering them so I have decided not to bother with the decorative hanging baskets.  The oregano are sending out flower buds and I am picking bunches to dry.  They are handy to have in the pantry for pizzas and tomato dishes.
The pennywort is sending out suckers.  This has been called athritic herb as it is supposed to bring relief to those suffering from this dreaded disease.  I like to eat it raw.  I hope my patch will grow bigger so I can begin to harvest the leaves for a Malay salad.  

roses proudly displaying

 

The roses are blooming all over the garden at the moment.  The two proudly displaying their beauty are the Ballaerina and the Desert Glo.  The Ballerina came with me from my previous garden where it was providing me with cascades of pink blossoms through October  and November, year after year.  It was given to me as a cutting nearly thirty years ago and I have given away many cuttings since.  It is a graceful  climber with the added advantage of not having thorns.  It can easily cover a fence but do remember that its weight may not be good for the fence.  I have one growing near a fence but I will not allow it to establish itself on the fence itself.  I have learned my lesson.  If you look at the close up picture of the Ballerina you will see that the flowers appear in large clusters which make them so endearing.

The Desert Glo covers one half of the arbour over the path leading up to the house.  The colour changes from pink to apricot and in the late afternoon you can almost see the flowers glow.  The Pierre de Ronsard covers the other half of the arbour.  At the moment there are masses of buds.  I cannot wait to see them open up and when that happens I do hope there will still be some of the Desert Glo to make a perfect arch.  I shall be feeding the plants with potasium to encourage the flowering.  I shall also be looking for aphids.  I hope the lady birds I see amongst the leaves are working hard.

A little surprise and more blooming marvelous

For the past five years I have enjoyed the fragrant flowers from my pot of lily of the valley.  They will open in the last week of October and will still look good on Cup day.  I have left the corm untouched but would add compost and feed the plant seaweed solution. In late winter I did not see any sign of life from the pot.  I was going to look for new plants but imagine my surprise when I noticed new life shooting through the soil.  This picture is of  my one and only stalk of lily of the valley and it will see Cup Day.  I shall look for more corms and will plant them in the ground beneath the jacaranda.  I have to pick the pot up to enjoy the sweet fragrance and it is worth it.

The flowers are opening up everywhere.  The blue sage flowers and roses look so good together.  The poppies are braving the heavy downpour but their delicate petals seem to survive.  The mauve and red poppies look after themselves.  They self sow and I try to thin them out but I hate throwing out seedling so they are transferred to different nooks and corners of the garden.  I cannot say I have a neat and tidy garden but at the moment every inch seems to be blooming marvelous.

This dark red pelargonium is producing masses of flowers this year.  I have a few shades of red of this easy to grow favourite.  It grows so easily from cuttings.  A neighbour came to ask for some cuttings and I am only too happy to give them away.  That way I keep the bush pruned.

The joy of gardening

In spring I know why I garden, in spite of the aching joints after a day of digging and kneeling on damp ground.  Being greeted by the happy faces of colourful flowers at the entrance of my driveway and then again, more of them as I head for the steps leading to my front verandah.  At this time of the year I am surrounded by flowers.  With all the drenching rain of winter and spring, and the regular feeding, the annuals and perennials are bursting out in brilliant colours.  Their brilliance are so giddying on a sunny day with clear blue sky.  That is the time when I am happy to just sit and absorb the clours and fragrance of spring. 
This year the two year old granny smith apple tree has produced some blossoms.  I'll be happy to have a couple of mature fruits in autumn.  The tree was struggling last year so I moved it in winter and added plenty of compost to the soil.  It looks quite happy in its new position.
The two year old lemon tree is finally keeping its fruits.  In the first few months of planting the top shoots were ravaged by possums (there are a few of them haunting my garden at night).  I need to feed the tree, judging from the colour of the elaves but at least the fruits are not dropping off.

My garden beds are a mixture of flowers and vegetables.  It is impossible to see in this picture, but the patch of pea straw is protecting  chilli and capsicum seedlings.  Before too long the lavendar and roses in the background will be sending out flowers.  I am not one for neat rows and my vegetables enjoy as much showing off time as the flowers. 

Colours in September

When the sun shines in September the garden seems to burst into brilliant colours.  The blossoms, ranging from the delicate whites of the apricot to the blushing pinks of the peaches and nectarines must be sending the bees crazy.  The flowers I am so thrilled with are the rununculus and the tulips.  Last spring I bought a punnet of rununculus seedlings and they did well.  I stored the corms at the end of summer.  I was not too hopeful when I planted the corms in autumn as some of them looked quite scraggly.  They sprouted and I have been looking after them, placing the pots in sunny positions and feeding them seaweed fertiliser.  The colours are astonishing.  The deep red is stunning but the one I like best is the deep apricot.  Then there is the white with purple trimming.  Perhaps I shall buy more corms to plant in autumn.  In the meantime I am enjoying the new growth that are sprouting up all over the place.  I hope the two trees in the outside garden will reveal their identities when the blossoms turn to fruits.  These trees have been in pots for at least seven years and I cannot remember if they were nectarines or peaches.  They grew well last summer, suddenly shooting up after being in the garden for a year and for the first time they have sent out pink blossoms.  I do hope the fruits will set.  My flat peach tree does not have as many blossoms this spring.  I will be lucky to get half a dozen fruits.  I should have given the tree more attention after the bumper crop last year.  It is still a small tree.  Some organic dynamic lifter might be the solution.          

blue and purple

After three weeks of looking at lush tropical greens, it is wonderful to return to the blue and purple in my garden.  The deep blue bearded iris is outstanding and as I have planted them in different parts of the garden it is providing the colours to contrast the white blossoms of the Manchurian pear.  Different coloured hyacinths have opened up but this purplish mauve one looks stunning.  I have left the hardenbergia in a pot, allowing it to climb on a support.  Then there is the masses of violets.  At the moment I don't mind its invasive nature as I am seeing the cheerful flowers all over the garden. Once the flowering stops in summer I will thin out the different patches.

Harvesting the yacon tuber

I harvested the yacon tuber eventually, even though the plants (3 clumps in different parts of the garden) are nothing more than dead leaves and shrivelled up stems.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the size of the tubers.  The second picture shows the yacon in summer.  By autumn the plants were over half a metre tall and showing splendid display of leaves.  This year none of the clumps produced the sunflower like flowers.  I attributed the size of the tubers to the compost dug into the ground, before planting.
The yacon came from South America and I have yet to see the plant in nursery.  I was given some tubers many years ago, and this has been my best harvest so far.  Check out http://www.culture-wise.com for the March 2008 Ingredients page on yacon.  Even if you don't care for the tubers, (delicious steamed, baked or raw), the plant makes an attractive bush in the garden.

water chestnut

About a month ago I harvested the water chestnut.  I should have done that as soon as the leaves started to die and avoided losing some of the corms.  The pots had stayed in the water too long and some of the corms rotted away.  I managed to salvage what was left and had some to eat and other to replant.  I should have taken the pots out of the water when the leaves started to go yellow and to harvest when the leaves die.  I have planted the corms but they will remain out of the water until I see some shoots appearing.  I hope to get bigger corms in the next harvest, that is if this lot will sprout.
The water cress is doing well and I must look at dividing the big clump.  The leaves are delicious in salad or in a sandwich and if you are tired of parsley, the curled leaves of the water cress make a pretty garnish.
The garden is looking a bit bare and I have to think about spraying the peach trees to stop leaf curl but when I am ready the wind is too strong or it is raining.  I am not complaining about the rain.  I don't have to get up at six in the morning to water the garden but I am checking the pot planys as the wind do dry the soil pretty quickly.  I am watering the pot plants, (especially the ranunculus), with sea weed solution to help them along.  The vegetables too are being fed.  I have been harvesting snow peas and brocolli and of course, the rainbow chards and silver beets are doing so well.  The Chinese mustard green is sprouting all over the place so those not picked for the kitchen are thrown into the compost bin.  I always make sure I have a couple of the Chinese mustard go to seeds so I do not run out of this slightly bitter vegetable.  I bought the seeds over twenty years ago and from that packet of seeds I have passed on seedlings to other gardeners, over the years.  If you think you do not have a green thumb try growing the mustard green.

This is a very mature mustard green, much too bitter for consumption.

The dandelion flower and leaves are fine to eat but I am not sure about the oxalis.  A patch of my outside garden has been taken over by the oxalis.  I pull them out and squash the nuts or corms and hopefully I can reduce the weed in this way.  Digging up the ground only encourage more growth.  I can put up with them in the lawn but they are a nuisance in pots and amongst the vegetables. For non-gardeners the sight of the yellow flowers in the lawn must be better than no flowers at all.  Children do love the flowers so we cannot condemn the poor weed.

tree dahlia and cyclamen

When I bought the tree dahlia tuber from the Kew garden club almost a year ago I had no idea of the colour and I did not really care.  The mauve tree dahlia cutting from my previous garden had managed to die in the process of moving.  I love the tree dahlia for its gigantic stature.  In autumn and late winter I see the clusters of flowers way above the fence.  It did not take long for the tuber to send up gangly stems well above the fence top.  The flowers are a pleasant surprise as they turn out to be double flowered in pristine white.  The look magnificent against the blue sky. The main problem with the tree dahlia is the easily breakable stem.  After the storm last week I found three stems down.  The flowers are beautiful in a vase but I do prefer them out there, swaying in the breeze.  When the flowers have dies down I shall prune the tree and I will be taking cuttings.  While the stems may strike quite easily, the biggest problem is keeping the shoots safe from snails.  When the shoots have achieved a safe height, the dahlia will send out five or six stems to form a clump.  It is advisable to tie the stems to a stake to avoid losing them in a storm.  In the early stages of growth it is important not to let the plant dry out.  Dividing the tubers may be a safer way of propagating.

Down at ground level and in various pots I have a collection of cyclamens.  Over the years I have been given pots of cyclamens which have managed to multiply.  I have the pots in the garden and each year the corms would send out new leaves and flowers.  In some pots I sometime find tiny baby cyclamens that have grown from seeds.  These I transfer to other pots.  To avoid having too many pots of cylamens I have planted a few of them in one big pot, ensuring a longer lasting flowering season as the different plants take turns showing off their blooms.

soaking wet

It has been raining since last night and I am not complaining.  There is no need to water the garden for at least a week, I hope.  There are spots in the garden that are not quite wet and I know this when I am digging to put in new plants.  These areas I would have to water by hand.  My violets must be loving the rain.  They are beginning to bloom and I hope to be able to pick the flowers for the house.  A small vase of violets can brighten up a gloomy, wintry day.  I have been spreading the violets in semi shady areas since late summer. Those too exposed to the sun had withered and I know not to replant the violets in those areas.  They enjoy dappled sunlight and they look brilliant when the sun's rays fall on them.  I usually have my vase of violets near a window to bring out the gem like quality in the sunshine.
Violets spread easily and can be a nuisance but they are easy to pull out to feed the compost bin.  From now till late spring they will be flowering.  Teach your children or grandchildren to pick the flowers if you find kneeling impossible.  I help the violet patch along with the occasional seaweed watering. 

My one capsicum plant and numerous chilli bushes are laden with green fruits.  I hope they will eventually ripen.  From past experience I know they will take their time ripening during these cold dull days.  I can use them green but they are at their best when fully ripened.  To enjoy chillies you need the fire in them.  They will shrivel up in the cold but will send up fresh shoots when it warms up in spring.  I wait till mid winter brfore pruning my chilli bushes and that is the time when I will pick the last of the unripe fruits.  They will go into my pickles or curries, usually looking pale, without the fire in them.

cumquat and other citrus

In spring almost two years ago I planted the spindly cumquat tree in view of the house.  I imagined the plant to be fuller, sagging with golden fruits and a pleasure to view from the house.  It is still spindly but the thin branches are sagging with golden fruits. I used to make marmalade and pickles from the cumquat in my previous garden but these fruits will remain on the tree to add colour to the garden.
My lime and lemon tree have fruit buds but I don't know if I'll be getting any fruits at all as they seem to drop off after reaching pea size.  The leaves look healthy and I wonder if there are grubs gnawing away at the tiny fruits.  I found a huge caterpillar making a big hole in one of the lime leaves.  The butterflies and moth are wonderful to look at as they flit from flower to flower but you just do not know where their eggs are and when the hungry caterpillars will be feasting on your leaves.
I don't use spray and will check the different plants that are most conducive to hosting caterpillars, such as the brocolli seedlings, which have more holes than leaves.  I have to make a habit of checking them daily to remove the pests if the plants are to survive.  The chores are never ending but when the sun shines through and a warm breeze blows gently, I can sit and watch the butterflies and bees doing their chores.

Changing colours

It is mid April and the Indian summer we are experiencing seems to slow down the autumnal process.  The colours are beginning to change, though, in the Manchurian pear tree.  It is at its best when all the leaves are in different hues of plum red and gold.  The peach tree is begining to turn yellow but the other deciduous trees are still green.  Even the rhus tree is taking its time.    It will take more cold weather before we can enjoy the autumnal colours.  It is not quite changing colours but the different chrysanthemums in my garden are blooming.  The small bush with bright yellow flowers looks brilliant even on a dull day.  The mauve and white ones look so open and friendly.

Chrysanthemums are so easy to grow.  I bought a few pots over a year ago and planted them in the garden, where they thrived with the help of compost and sheep manure.  When they finished flowering I pruned them back quite hard and took cuttings which had given me a few more plants.  Chrysanthemum flowers are sold in May for Mother's Day.  If you are interested in collecting the different colours, that is the time to buy a few pots and transfer them into the garden bed when the flowers have withered.  They need full sun or they will go scraggly.  Apparently chrysanthemums that have been treated to remain as a dwarf variety will also go scraggly when transferred into the garden.  The solution is to pinch the plant back about three times in spring and summer so it will stay compact.  I will be looking out for different shapes and colours of the chrysanthemums soon to add to my collection.

planting bulbs

This picture of the ornithogalaum arabicum was taken a few years ago.  I left the bulb in the pot year after year, adding fresh compost and blood and bone when the shoots make an appearance.  I did not trust taking the bulb out of the pot for fear of losing it.  Last year however I planted the bulb in the ground and the white flowers with the black centre were magnificent.  I hope the plant will come back this year.  It is not an easy bulb to come by but if I had looked hard enough I am sure I would have found some.
A few weeks ago I planted more bulbs in a newly created garden bed.  I planted a mixture of daffodils, bluebells, nerines, hyacinths and tulips and snowflakes.  After planting the new bulbs (birthday present from my sons), I checked out pots that had bulbs growing in them last year as well as a box containing bulbs I had taken out of the ground.  One pot with the label saffron crocus was showing green tips through the dry soil.  The pot had been left, forgotten, under the jacaranda tree after the first searing summer heat desiccated the crocus leaves.  The crocus bulbs were planted last autumn without a single flower showing.  I was disappointed and when the leaves dried up I decided to forget about growing my own supply of saffron.  This same pot of saffron crocus has given me one mauve flower and you can imagine my excitement.  The other crocus plants are not showing any sign of flowering.  I have picked the three precious stigmas from the crocus flower.  I don't think I can do very much with my miniscule supply of saffron but I live in hope of planting more early next autumn.  The ixia and sparaxis are sending up strong leaves.  It seems strange to see the new growths from the bulbs when the temperature is still rising to over 20 degrees centigrade everyday.  I hope these warm days will not prevent the tulips from flowering.  I did not place the bulbs in the fridge as I should have done.  If the weather is going to remain mild, we may have to give up growing certain bulbs, like the tulips, that need a good cold spell in its growth cycle.

Harvest

 

I have picked two butternut pumpkins and a canteloupe.  I was hoping the canteloupe would grow bigger in the heat we have been having but found it detached from the stalk, yesterday.  The skin touching the ground was rotting.  It had a sweet ripe smell, however so I sliced away at the rotten bit and found the rest of the fruit fine for eating.  It was juicy and sweet.  The vine had come up from the compost I had piled on a butternut seedling.  Out of that pile of compost sprouted a few tomato plants as well and I pulled most of them out, leaving behind three strong ones.  They have been supplying me with sun ripened tomatoes as they compete for space in between the pumpkin and the canteloupe.  I suppose it is all about nutrients, water and position.  The patch gets the full blast of the mid and afternoon sun  As this is on my outside garden watering it twice weekly is not the easiest job.  I have to stand on a step ladder propped against the fence and spray the garden patch for about half an hour.  It's not the best way of watering and some plants need extra watering from the rain water tank.  When I installed a barrel to collect rain water from the car porch it occured to me that digging a channel underneath the fence would help with the watering.  The channel was dug alongside the pumpkin patch.  Being on a slope helps.  When the barrel is full I would turn on the tap for the water to run along the channel and down the slope.  It did not take long before the pumpkin vine sprouted fruits which seemed to grow inches before my eyes.  There is still time for the rest of the crop to ripen.  The vine is still sending out shoots which I pick and stir fry or cook gently in coconut cream, with some sliced onions for flavouring.  I am not short of green leafy vegetables as the rainbow chard and the ordinary silver beets are doing well.  The bok choi that survived the possums need to be picked soon.  The purple beans have rejuvenated after the heat of early February and the potash I applied around the plants must be working as I am harvesting a second crop.  I prefer to pick the beans when they are still tender.  The forgotten ones I leave on the vine until the pods grow fat and eventually dried up by the sun.  The seeds go into soups.  The eggplants look too pretty to be picked but they are at their best while still young and tender.  The harvesting will continue over the coming weeks but in the meantime I am preparing garden beds for the broad beans and snow peas.  Some carrot seeds have been sown.  They are of the little finger variety and supposed to be ready for harvest in 60 days.  That will give some vegetables for the early winter weeks.