The heat is on

With the temperature rising up close to forty degrees I had to do what I could to protect the more delicate plants like the potted hydrangeas.  I hope the shade cloth will help a little. The young basils in the planter box I had covered with an old sheet.  I was going to get more shade cloth and build a frame work for the boxes but I did not think we could see a hot summer this season with all the rain we have been getting.  Maybe I will do something about it as it looks like some hot weather will be staying with us for a few days.

This big tree fern does not come under the shade cloth roof of my fernery at the south east end of the block.  I watered it well yesterday and may have to get up before dawn tomorrow morning to water it again.  It has been doing well since recovering from the scorching heat of summer 2009. 

The smaller ferns beneath the canopy of the two big tree ferns are doing well.  I have added a couple of hare's foot ferns, and others I have no name for, to the fernery since taking over this garden.  The bird's nest in the foreground has travelled with me through two gardens and survived being dug up and replanted, each time, even after twenty four years in my previous garden.

This frond is suffering from the heat and the only thing I can do is to wet it when I can.  I was going to cover the fronds with wet sheets this morning but decided against it as the heavy sheets might break the stalks.    Sometimes I would just have to prepare myself for some losses.

Changing colours

In November and December this corner of the garden was a splash of red from the poppies and pink from the climbing Ballerina rose.  Now the agapanthus blue and white bring a different charm to this area, which I can enjoy while I sit at my computer.  Closer to the house an Iceberg standard stands so tall it adds a connecting dimension to the white agapanthus in the far corner.  I did plan for the splash of blue, transferring a few clumps of the miniature agapanthus from different parts of the garden to this one spot.  The blue and white are repeated in other parts of the garden.  I will remove the seed heads though, to prevent unnecessary spreading.

Exotic flowers

To me the Brazilian Plume flower - Justicia carnea (top picture) and the Clerodendrum bungei are two of the most exotic flowers in my garden.  The Brazilian plume flower is found in many Melbourne garden but the Clerodendrum bungei is not so common.  Given the right condition and care the plume flower may well bloom from spring till autumn.  It prefers well drained acid soil in dappled shade and protection from frost.  I like the showy spikes of pink flowers and if they are deadheaded when spent, more buds will appear.  I have seen wattle birds enjoying the nectar of the Justicia. The plant is quite happy in containers as mine proved to be in between gardens.
I came across the Clerodendrum bungei in the wild garden of my rented house over thirty years ago.  The plant sent suckers all over the place so it was quite easy for me to dig one up when I moved out.  I eventually identified the plant from a picture in a gardening book.  Only once have I seen the Clerodendrum in a nursery for sale.  It is described as an upright suckering shrub and I have seen suckers appearing through the cracks in a concrete path.  There is no danger of it taking over the garden though but it may surprise a neighbour by travelling underneath the fence.  The red purple to rosy-pink flowers appear from late summer to early autumn.  It prefers partial shade.  The clusters of small flowers look like a pom pom and are attractive to bees.

Cabbages and potatoes

I am thinking seriously about not growing cabbages and potatoes.  They take up a lot of room and the cabbages have enough pests to worry about.  They are amongst the cheaper vegetables to buy, but after eating a freshly picked cabbage (and ignoring the holes in the leaves), and enjoying some freshly dug Nicola potatoes (see picture), I may change my mind about relying on the market for these vegetables.
There are so many white cabbage butterflies in my garden and their caterpillars happily live in my cabbages and Brussel sprouts. Other than looking for the caterpillar I do not actively do anything to prevent the butterflies laying eggs on the brassicas.  I like to try out different potatoes and when buying some for the kitchen I would put aside a tuber to plant.  If I could find a small vacant plot in the garden I may put in a Nicola tuber to grow. 

Cucumbers and chillies

It is sunny today and I shall be making the most of today, to plant out seedlings and feed my vegetables with seaweed solution.  I have cucumbers growing in my vegetable box as well as in the ground.  My neighbour Kristine gave me her surplus seedlings and I was planting them all over the place, including one in a pot, which I have given to her as it was doing so well.  The freshly picked cucumbers are so sweet and I must remember to pick them as soon as they are big enough.  With the prices of fruits going up I may be eating cucumbers instead.  To support the vines I have used bamboos and branches pruned from the robinia trees.  I had to remove the thorns from the robinia brances but rather than put them aside for kindlings I thought they would be more useful being supports in the garden.  That saved me going to the hardware store for stakes.

I am happy with my various chilli varieties.  I am waiting for the long green chillies to ripen.  By my standard they will be mild but I suppose those unaccustomed to chillies will consider them hot.  The small green chillies which are growing pointing upwards will be hotter when they ripened.  They will be lovely for making sambals and just chopped up as accompaniment. I don't know what is making holes in the leaves of the small green chillies but the culprits seem to have abandoned the bush. 
I have also the seedlings from my hot chilli bush waiting to be planted out.  I am running out of space in the garden bed and garden boxes.  I may have to pull out some mature parsley bushes to make some room.  I am careful to look after parsley seedlings which are appearing all over the garden as this is the time when the mature plants go to seed and it is quite possible to run out of parsley.

Harvest

I picked this tray of vegetables before the rain.  The rain has left Queensland to inundate us with what seems like buckets of water roaring down from the sky.  I was in the Gold Coast when Toowoomba experienced what has been named an inland tsunami and on that day I did not see the sky at all.  Now I am experiencing this humid damp weather in Melbourne.  I harvested all the vegetables ready for picking.  I'd hate to see them go mouldy in the rain, especially the zucchinis which are practically sitting on the wet mulch.
The eggplant is the first of the season (in my garden) but I have enjoyed freshly picked tomatoes, zucchinis and beans since December.  The basils I have picked to make pesto.  They are doing quite well and I will keep putting in basil seedlings and hopefully I shall have the fresh herbs up till May.

The dwarf butter beans were the first to fruit but I am afraid the plants are being shadowed by the bigger tomato and eggplant bushes so I may be losing them soon.  I have been picking them since December and most time I would pick the very young beans to snack on when I am working in the garden.  The seedling of the purple bean appeared in the garden box without my help at all.  I must have dropped some mature beans in the soil from last season.  It is doing very well and I can see more flowers appearing.  As for the climbing beans, I cannot keep up with them.  However I shall plant more seeds to stagger the harvest.  Beans are amongst the easiest vegetables to grow and when you have too much they can be eaten raw or added to vegetable pickles to add interest to the table.  They are sweeter when picked young but I tend to forget about them until they are fat and tough, but they are still good for steaming or stir frying.  My vegetable plants seem to flourish on compost and cow or sheep manure. 

The zucchinis are obviously thriving.  I have to remember to pick them before they swell into gigantic marrows suitable for the Big Friendly Giant. I have two varieties growing but cannot remember their names.  The fat one will have to be pickled.  I use the thick rind for pickling with other vegetables and cook the soft centre with tomatoes and plenty of basil or oregano.
As I write this I can see the rain just pouring down.  It will be a wet and humid summer and I am sure that is not going to be good for the roses which are starting to flower again.  I won't be able to go out into the garden today so it will have to be cooking the harvest in the muggy kitchen.

Day lily and shasta daisy

These two plants must be the lazy gardener's best companions as with so little effort they will produce such a show in summer.  As its name implies, the day lily has to be enjoyed on the day it opens.  However, a flower stalk usually carries a few buds so you can be assured of at least a week long of showiness.  I brought the plants from my previous garden, temporarily housing them in pots, and planted them in the garden bed facing north west.  Nothing happened the first year.  Even the leaves looked small and insignificant.  I heaped more compost and blood and bone.  The heavy rain must have helped as well.  The plants came up looking strong and healthy and when the flower stalks appeared I was thrilled.  I love results in my garden and if a plant is not doing what it should be doing I will go looking for the reasons why it is failing.  My peas, for example, are a miserable failure.  I have harvested a few pods, eating the sweet peas in the garden and that is all I am going to get.  The plants seem to refuse to grow any bigger.  The other plants in the bed are thriving so it cannot be from poor soil.  Maybe I need to add some lime to create a more neutral soil, not too high in acid.  I don't know if I'll bother with peas.  Another failure is the brassicas.  The cabbage leaves are full of holes and the brussel sprouts are taking their time in producing a crop. 
The shasta daisy seems to flourish without much help, except for tying them up to a stake.  The mass of white flowers are a joy to look at.  They seem to sing out summer and sunshine.  Given half a chance they will spread. If you have space and little time for gardening plant the shasta daisy and you will not fail.  I will be dividing them in autumn and may put some in pots for next summer's "show" on the verandah perhaps.