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.