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.

Enough warm days for basil

 

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pot of tiny basil seedlings and managed to transplant them into at least 4 pots, with about five in each.  They are doing very nicely.  The basils that were planted in spring are going to seeds but are still providing me with enough leaves to flavour my cooking or to add to my tomato sandwich to take to work.  I have been picking the tops when they start to show signs of flowering but some have been left to go to seeds because I have not got around to nipping the flower heads in the bud.  I will collect the seeds for next spring planting.  Only once, in my old garden, have I seen basil self sowing.  I suppose the seeds rot when left in the ground in the cooler months.

Last week I picked a large zucchini, a couple of eggplants and plenty of tomatoes to make ratatouille.  My pepper plant from last year only produced one small fruit and is looking quite useless in the garden box so I used some green chillies instead.  I picked sweet basil and Greek basil to flavour the dish.  I still get excited when I pick the produce from my garden.  The silver beets and bok choi that survived the rampaging possum I will pick soon.  The bok choi I have to pull out before they bolt.  As for the silver beets and rainbow chard, I pick the leaves when needed.

I notice the self sown coriander plants have produced plebty of seeds.  I may pick some for use in the kitchen when they have matured and leave the rest to drop and regenerate.  At this stage the coriander plants have on them very fine fern like leaves and when I need to flavour a bowl of yoghurt to go with a curry, a few sprigs will do the job.

The invasive Robinia

 

When I took over this garden there were four robinia trees.  I have removed two of them but if I am not vigilant I could soon have a robinia forest, even under the house.  The robinia is a suckering plant and according to some gardening advice damaged roots can cause suckers to shoot.  I have found a couple of robinia suckers under the house, and from under the pile of firewood where I doubt if there has been any disturbance to the invasive root of the surviving trees.  My back neighbour also has a robinia and I suspect that specimen is feasting from beneath my compost bin.  The two robinias left (a white and pink), are on either side of the entrance to the driveway.  They are beautiful trees, even when they look a bit unkempt from being muched on at the top, by resident possums.  Robinia shoots appear in the garden beds and on the nature strips where the mowing keep them down.  I cannot use roundups unless I want to kill the mature trees as well, but they so beautiful to look at when in bloom.  The pink robinia in the front I had to chop down to make way for the apricot.  It was impossible for me to remove the deep roots so I do get suckers from that spot, which are cut down the moment they appear.  The other robinia, the golden variety, had to be moved to make way for the garden boxes.  It was a very attractive tree, with golden leaves and white pea type flowers.  A friend agreed to take it to her property and I pruned it after gathering the slightly scented flowers for the house.  I dug as deep as I could, cutting the roots,  and for a couple of weeks before it was picked up, watered it daily.  The plant survived the move but the following hot summer killed it.  See picture of the plant after the pruning, with the landscape gardeners working around it.  Perhaps it was a good thing it did not survive.  I hate to think a robinia forest taking over my friend's 20 acre property.

  

On the two mornings when watering is allowed I keep a lookout for the robinia suckers.  Their pinnate leaves are easy to detect.  I may take the advice of a TV gardening show where unwanted suckers are removed and then boiling water poured on to the spot to kill the underground roots.

The last of the peaches

 

These are the last of the peaches.  They have all been juicy.  The underripe ones were picked because the cockatoos and possums were getting to the fruits even with the netting over the tree.  I like the slight tartness of the firm fruits and a few days on the window sill did ripen the peaches.  I am so thrilled the fruits are so perfect.  The tree was suffering from leaf curl in spring even though I had sprayed the bare branches with lime sulphur.  I managed to remove all the affected leaves and the tree seemed to prosper, producing unblemished fruits.  I was half expecting to see grubs in the fruits as the blossoms were not sprayed.  I have to wait for the other fruit trees to grow and I must remember to top up the ground around them, (2 apples, an apricot, a feijoa and a fig) with compost.  The soil in my garden needs humus and compost.  I am chopping up soft branches from the pruning around the garden, to dig into the soil.  In some parts of the garden where I have been piling up with compost and manure, I am beginning to see worms when I am digging.  I think the worms are the gardener's best friends.  I know the soil is alive and well when the spade brings up a few worms.  I really must spend more time digging in manure and replenishing the pea straw mulch.  The garden is looking quite scraggly right now.  I am waiting for the silver beets and new planting of basil seedlings to take off, to give the garden a lush green look.  The possum ate up all the bok choi in one of the boxes.  The roses are looking a bit worn around the edges after a few days of intense heat.  My favourite is the dark red which turns almost velvetty black as it matures.  It starts off as a bright red bud.

  

 There are a few sunflowers left and I suspect they will be gone within a week as the cockatoos are turning into permanent resident on the fence and roof.  They have eaten up half of the crab apples so I don't know if I can make even a jar of jelly.  I do enjoy watching the different birds but I wish I could keep them off the fruits. 

Rescued from the marauding cockatoos

These sunflowers I rescued from the cockatoos.  I enjoy them in my outside garden but they will last longer in a vase.  Some I have left, covered in netting to allow the seeds to mature.  The netting should deter the screeching marauders but their beaks are strong and I only hope they are not that hungry that they will remove the netting.  The cockatoos even uprooted a sunflower plant which is not puny by any means.  One must have landed on the plant and in the process of breaking the big flower head away, pull out the shallow rooted sunflower.  I will plant more next year, or rather in October this year.  It is so pleasant to see the bright faces of the flowers.  Anyone needing cheering up should walk in a field of blooming sunflowers.  Maybe Van Gogh painted some for that very reason.
The garden is not at its best at the moment.  The tomatoes and eggplants are providing me with vegetables for the table.  The silver beet will look better in a couple of weeks, though I have been picking a leaf or two when in need.  The butternut pumpkins are growing bigger.  The roses are blooming.  And yet, with all these I Can see the patches of slow growth and unhealthy looking specimens.  One of these is the kale which shot up to glory and then suffered from caterpillars invasion.  I should have acted immediately but the large leaves are curled in and on inspection I will find tiny caterpillars all over and trying to remove them is not that simple.  Perhaps I shall pull out the kale and chop it up for compost.  I must remember to chop up some comfrey leaves to help with the composting.  Comfrey is so easy to grow, from division.  I had the tiniest of plant from my previous garden, which was languishing in a pot, but picked up very quickly when I transplanted it in the ground with plenty of compost.  They are in flower at the moment, looking quite pretty.  The self sown borage are still too young to flower but I expect to have more of those cheerful blue flowers soon, before the end of summer.  The single borage flower, (see picture), looks good floating in a jug of water, or punch or in a salad.

Borage does not like being moved.  I have put a few seedlings in a pot for a friend and I will advise her to leave them in the pot which should then be placed in a spot where she would be happy for the seeds to drop.  The bees love them and what could be nicer than listening to the humming of bees when working in the garden.  I should also say, when sitting in the garden, but it is a rare occasion when I can just sit and enjoy my planting.