Christmas storm

This is what the garden looks like the day before Christmas.  The red and white roses are in fill bloom and the jacaranda, though not flower laden this year, still looks lovely.  A storm with torrential rain and hailstones left enough damage to make any gardener weep.  It happened in the afternoon on Christmas day, starting with heavy rain and lashing wind.  Then the hailstones began to pour down from the sky.  The large leaves of the rhubarb were in tatters and the delicate leaf stalks of the zucchinis and squash were easily broken.  This morning I collected a bowl of green tomatoes, ripped from the vines.

 The hailstones covered the lawn and the footpath strewn with jacaranda flowers.

The white petals of the Iceberg rose covered the ground beneath the standard form.

Nothing can be done about the vagaries of nature and all gardeners are very aware of that sad truth.

Blue and white

At the moment the garden is a picture of blue and white.  There are other colours but the white and blue predominate.  The standard iceberg roses are in full bloom and the white agapanthus too are at their best. The blue agapanthus, both dwarf and the large varieties are all over the garden.  Some people hate the sight of agapanthus because of it's reputation as a noxious weed but if the flowers are removed once they are spent, then there should not be a problem with self seeding.  I do have spare agapanthus if anyone is interested.  The jacaranda is looking magnificent but is fast losing the flowers which cover my car daily.

sweet corns and beans for Christmas

The sweet corns will definitely be ready to pick for Christmas dinner as indicated by the silk.  I planted a punnet of the sweet corn seedlings in September, with little hope of a harvest.  Of the five seedlings I planted in the garden only two survived the snails or slugs that chewed into the delicate stems.  The other five I planted in a large container and they all survived, but I can definitely say that those in the garden are looking a lot healthier.  I should have paid more attention to the container and top it with compost as corns are hungry plants.  Still, they are giving me some corns for the dinner table.
The beans too are ready to harvest.  They are so delicious eaten direct from the bush, which I am inclined to do before I begin watering in the morning.  I don't water everyday but after a hot spell I will give the garden a good soaking.  The beans I will be harvesting is the climbing variety but the bush beans which I planted a few weeks later are showing signs of bearing fruits.  I must start thinking about putting in more seeds so I can have beans right on to the onset of winter.

more flowering bulbs

Just when I thought the flowering bulbs are spent, I found a small patch of Brodiaea Queen Fabiola underneath the Manchurian pear tree.  The blue flowers brighten up the shaded area and I hope the bulbs will multiply.  I must remember to dig them up and spread them around the garden for more surprises next year.

This orange lily makes an appearance this time of the year without fail.  The previous owner of this garden had planted the lily amongst the azaleas, beneath the jacaranda tree.  In December when the azaleas are shiny with green leaves the orange lily stands above them.

artichoke

I allowed this artichoke to bloom simply because I love the colour and the fragrance of this flower.  I am careful before I put my nose close to the brilliant blue filaments to inhale the spicy perfume because there could be bees as seen in the picture.  The flowers last a few weeks.  There are a couple of small buds on the bush, if you can call it that, but the season is definitely over.  There is a smaller plant but I doubt if it would send out buds this season.  I may have to wait till the end of next winter to enjoy more artichokes in spring.

beetroot

These two beetroots have been baked and their young leaves used in a salad.  There are half a dozen plants waiting to be pulled out and I should do it soon before the tubers grow too mature.  They are so easy to grow in rich friable soil.  I bought a punnet of seedlings and that was sufficient for my needs.  I grew them in one of my vegetable boxes.  When they are all harvested I may put in lettuce seedlings which I am finding in different parts of the garden.  If you look carefully at the picture below you will see a lettuce gone to seeds and in the background some beets doing the same.

Tidiness is not in my nature.  The plants have a way of self sowing.  I pull out the excesses and chop them for mulch and for the compost bin.  I don't think I will ever produce neat rows in my garden.  I will find that too dull.

hydrangea

The hydrangea is not a fashionable flowering plant at the moment and may never be again because it is thirsty and needs looking after during the hot summer days.  They will do very well away from the heat of the afternoon sun.  The leaves burn easily and the flowers dry up but when they are at their best in spring you have a spectacular showy bush.

 I throw a wet sheet over the bush when there is a hot north wind coming.  That seems to help.  They are so easy to grow from cuttings.  The colourings, blue or pink, depend on the presence or absence of aluminium or as some have said, on the ph of the soil.  I am happy to see a bush with healthy flowers, no matter what the colour.

garlic

I dug up these garlics yesterday as the leaves were yellowing.  They were planted in March.  I will be putting aside the best bit from each bulb to replant in autumn and the rest I shall enjoy in the kitchen.  Garlic is so easy to grow and if you do not have a garden a container will do.  You would need good soil with plenty of compost.  I was told if you plant them amongst your flowering plants they will keep the nasty insects away.  I plant them so I don't have to buy the cheap, bleached and tasteless bulbs that the shop passed off as garlic.

roses

These are just a few of the roses from the garden.  They are doing well.  I pick some for the house sometimes but like to see them out in the garden amongst the lush greenery.

The top of the arbor is not quite covered as it was last summer.  The possums were feasting on the shoots up top.   The ballerina rose (bottom picture) however, did not attract the possums so they are doing well.

 The standard iceberg is doing well and so is the creamy yellow rose in front of the porch.  They are north facing and loving the sunshine.

A selection of roses from the garden.  They will be due for their feed soon.  The rain is washing away the aphids but they look bedraggled after a downpour.

new flowers

I am enjoying seeing the flowers blooming right now.  The white ixias (with a slight tinge of green have replaced the creamy ixias and they stand in tall spikes alongside the baby blue bearded iris.  Here's a close up picture.

The roses are showing their beauty and a pity that they suffer so much when the rain descends.  The rain has been downpours rather than showers and the roses have little defence.  I enjoy them when they are in bud, waiting to unfurl.  From early September the roses have opened up in different parts of the garden, sometimes pushing their way through the leaves of spent flowering bulbs.  My garden is over planted as this picture will show you.  The pink (Lorraine Lee) and yellow roses are amongst the earliest to appear. I may have to clear the lower planting -hydrangeas and parsley, to give the roses room to breathe.

changing

The heavy rain of the last few days have changed the look of the garden.  The cream and yellow ixias have lost most of their petals and looking quite bedraggle now.  The rain is wonderful for the garden but not so kind to the flowers.  The lavender survived the bad weather but the azaleas did not fare so well so I have pruned the bushes, taking what was left of the blooms indoor.  They look beautiful in a vase and last a while.  The jasmine is on the way out as well but in the early morning I can get a hint of the fragrance when I step outside in search for the morning paper.  Very soon the greenish ixias will open and change the look of the garden once again.  In the meantime I have to let nature takes its course and allow the various flowers fade away.

wild life

Ladybirds and cockatoos are not the only wild life in my garden.  I won't mention the possums but they do leave their calling cards in some parts of the garden and sometimes on the car.  At the moment the lizards are hiding and there are many places for them to seek shelter from this inclement weather we have been getting.  When it is warm and sunny though, I see them scuttling along when they hear me come.  I have seen little ones and the big blue tongue variety.  When the sun comes out the birds will return.  I wonder if the crows have finished building their nests.  I have been watching one a couple of weeks ago, breaking off a long twig from the jacaranda tree and flying off with it in its beak.  The twig itself is as long as the bird but it managed somehow.  The magpies like to stand on the edge of the garden box, looking for worms, I suppose.  I was digging the soil to plant seedlings (pepper, chillies, tomatoes and eggplants) this afternoon and I found enough worms to satisfy any number of magpies.  They (magpies) are too fast for me to photograph.

morning pickings

While watering the garden I was noting what was good for picking that would be a change from parsley and silverbeet.  It seemed I have been harvesting the rampant parsley and chards, the white and colourful ones, to keep up with their prolific growth.  I am not complaining and pleased to say that there are friends willing to accept my offerings.

The flowers in the house needed changing and I was quite hungry after two hours of watering.  There were enough violets, blue and pink, to fill up a small vase and the nasturtiums, together with bluebells and jasmin make an impressive arrangement.  I love having jasmin in the house for the sweet fragrance.  The wild freesias and bluebells too give off a perfume, albeit slight.
Beneath the vigorous turnip greens I saw a hint of purplish pink.  I have yet to decide whether to have the turnip raw or cooked in a vegetable soup.  There are plenty of yacons and Jerusalem artichokes to add to the soup if that's the way to go.  The broadbeans (some of them) are the size of my thumb and would be good cooked whole in butter with a few leaves of sage for flavouring.  The snowpeas I could eat raw and that is what I have been doing as they are as good as eating a sweet fruit.  This morning pickings would provide me a couple of meals today.

lemons

Three years ago I planted this lemon tree, close enough to the fence with the intention of training the branches along the two rows of wires already fixed to the fence posts.  I have yet to find time to do this job so the lemon is growing bushy rather than espaliered.  It has produced some lovely looking lemons which shall remain on the bush until they are needed.  So far the possums have ignored the bush and I hope they will be distracted by other greener crops.  They have been grazing on the tops of the roses and a couple of parsley bushes but have ignored some other vegetables such as the snow peas and broad beans.  I can afford to spare the parsley as they are all over the place and I let them grow wherever the seeds landed.  That is a good supply of vitamin C and iron and I do not get tired of tabouleh and for that salad the lemons come in handy.

colourful freesias

The everyday commonplace freesias are making their presence felt by their sweet perfume, when you are kneeling close to a patch.  There must be millions of self sown freesias in paddocks and garden beds.  They are a hardy lot.  I am not sure if the cultivars are as strong or if they will carry their created characteristics into the next generation.  Last autumn I planted a mixed collection of freesia bulbs, not knowing what to expect.  I have been pleasantly surprised.  The colours are vibrant and the size noticeable.  There is even a double.  I hope they will come back next year looking just as good.  I will of course, lift the bulbs when the leaves die down and label and store them.  I must learn to be methodical with storing my bulbs and seeds or I will not know what I have.  Some bulbs, like the ixias, I leave in the ground and they do multiply. At the moment my wild ixias (they are wild because they seem to be able to spread themselves unchecked), are everywhere.  They are creamy with a bit of yellow, and they look marvelous when the sun shines on them. (see picture below)  Today however, it is back to wet and grey weather which I am not complaining about as the ground is starting to dry out because we have had very little rain in August.  We'll have cold days but the warmth should spring back and warm up the soil and by then I will be ready to buy eggplant and tomato seedlings.  I will buy one grafted tomato and I have picked the spot to plant it in.

 

blossoms

This time of the year we see pink and white blossoms of the stone fruits.  No exception in my garden as the peaches, nectarine and the lone apricot are all showing off their delicate flowers, attracting bees and providing a gentle buzzing sound outside.  From the house I am enjoying the view of fresh looking blossoms.  The pink of the small flat peach is just about finished but the big peach tree close to the front verandah is still full of flowers.  Last year I had to prune the tree hard as it suffered from curled leaves.  I don't know if the spraying I did in winter would prevent a recurrence.  I hope my apricot tree will give me a few more fruits and from the strength of the white blossoms I hope to enjoy a few sweet apricot in summer. 

daffodils

The daffodils started flowering about a month ago, a stalk here and another in a different part of the garden.  Today I saw at least five golden blooms in a patch where I have planted daffodils and freesias. They look beautiful beneath the bare ginko tree and surrounding them are the freesias with flower buds ready to open.  I saw a hint of red. I am looking forward to them opening soon.

Helebores and wallflowers

The helebores, also known as the Christmas rose in the Northen hemisphere are doing quite well beneath the jacarandah tree.  Helebores flower in winter and though I am interested in getting the different varieties available, I will wait until I have time to tidy up the space underneath the tree.  The helebores are competing with the azaleas and until I can make a bit more space it will be wasteful to get more helebores with no space to plant them in.  It is tempting though when I see the different colours at the nursery.
The wallflowers are doing very well.  The flowers usually last till the end of summer.  I would have to remember to prune before the seed pods form.  Wallflowers can also be propagated by taking a cutting.  The one in my garden came from a bunch of flowers from a friend's garden.  She visited with the flowers about three years ago and when the flowers dropped I stuck the stems in a pot and now I have them in a couple of spots in the garden.  They are cheerful to look at especially when you get one of those drab wintry days.

Spring day

Spring is here today and I am fortunate to be able to spend just about the whole day gardening.  I took time to admire the flowers which seem especially bright in the sunshine.  The different patches of violets seem to glow and the purple iris looks quite regal.  I saw my first rununculus bud.  The anemones are still going strong.  Even the red chillies seem to shine in the sunlight.  I still have chillies on various bushes and I pick them when needed. I sowed red and mauve poppy seeds.  Poppy seedlings are already appearing in the garden and I plan to stagger the sowing so I can have a longer poppy season.  I have to remember to sow more bok choi and radish as I have been harvesting them.  At the moment I can live quite well on the vegetables from the garden.  I dug up a bucket of potatoes this morning and that should do for the next couple of weeks.