tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26340098827755242562024-03-06T04:58:42.320+11:00Gardening Under the Southern CrossThe trials and tribulations of one Aussie gardener's adaptation to the changing climate.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-69122750332672025072012-10-07T21:43:00.001+11:002012-10-07T21:43:33.386+11:00Fruit ThinningLonger days, warmer weather, gentle sunshine – what’s not to like about spring?! The occasional blasts from the Antarctic to remind us that we live near Melbourne no doubt. And the wind. Ahhhhh the wind! During my childhood the September/October gales thinned the bumper blood plum crop on the plum tree outside the kitchen window. Every year was the same and every year we would be left with a carpet of small rock hard green balls that it was my job to pick up. It was probably just as well because if they had all survived to adulthood we would have been even more inundated with plums than we already were. My mother made plum jam by the bucket load and then when we were sick and tired of plum jam she would add a tin of raspberry jam to the pot and call it plum and raspberry jam. Stewed plums were also on the menu and maybe this is the reason that I’m not that fond of plums in any way, shape or form to this day.<br />
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Which brings me to the topic of thinning fruit. As I watched the apple blossoms unfurl yesterday I thought ‘this is going to be a bumper crop’. The trouble is the tree won’t be able to carry such a heavy crop to maturity. If all the apples hang on until harvest the weight of the fruit will break branches – I know because this happened once and it ruined the shape of the tree. A huge crop will also inhibit the development of flowers for the following year resulting in the classic ‘biennial’ bearing syndrome (ahhh so that’s why that happens!). In commercial orchards thinning is undertaken by spraying the trees with chemicals that cause some of the fruits to drop. In the home orchard we need to thin by hand.<br />
Thinning is best carried out before the fruit is half its mature size. As a rule of thumb the smaller the fruit the closer together they can be. For example thin apricots and plums to about 10-15cm apart, whereas apples and pears would be thinned to 20cm apart. Apples and pears also produce their fruit in clusters so each cluster should be thinned to one or two fruits depending on how big you want your final fruit to be. If you want your Granny Smith to produce huge apples for baking whole in the oven (stuffed with raisins, sultanas and drizzled with golden syrup – yum!) then leave only one fruit per cluster. If you want to produce smaller fruits suitable for the kids’ lunchbox then thin to 2 fruits per cluster. Always remove damaged/blemished fruit first followed by the very small fruit.<br />
Thin fruit with a pair of sharp scissors or better a pair of small sharp secateurs. Aim to leave the strongest and best shaped. If you google ‘fruit thinning’ you will find multiple references including some You Tube clips. After thinning cover your fruit trees with netting because you can bet your bottom dollar that the birds will discover your carefully thinned crop is ripe long before you do!<br />
Elsewhere in the garden all the bags of manure have finally been spread, anything that needed cutting back has been cut back and plants are shooting madly everywhere. I finally got around to planting the potatoes yesterday (Pink Eye and Ruby Lou) as well as some rocket and carrots. Now is not a good time to plant rocket as it will probably rocket to seed as its name suggests; but if I keep it fed and moist I might be lucky enough to pick some leaves before it goes to seed. The current crop of rocket is in full bloom and setting lots of seed for the next crop. The snow peas are reaching for the sky, as are the broad beans. The rhubarb is begging for a feed as its new leaves emerge and I spread some pelletised chook poo on all the citrus trees last weekend. Its spring, the sap is rising and plants need to be fed!<br />
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Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-69919175672564964372012-07-09T11:26:00.002+10:002012-07-09T11:26:42.383+10:00Winter is hereIn late June in a last burst of vibrant colour in the garden I was gobsmacked at the energetic display being put on by two contrasting plants. The yellow centred purple flowers of a hybrid <span style="color: red;">tree dahlia</span> called ‘<span style="color: red;">Timothy Hammett’</span> look great next to a mass of the butter yellow copper canyon daisy <em><span style="color: red;">Tagetes lemmonii</span></em>. Both shrubs are over head height and covered with flowers. They are such reliable early winter bloomers adding a real zing to the garden and providing the bees with some last minute sustenance. Also looking good was the <span style="color: red;">pineapple sage/salvia</span> whose red blooms are much frequented by the eastern spinebills. The purple <span style="color: red;">Mexican sage</span> was also a splash of colour as was the deep blue of another <span style="color: red;">sage</span> called <span style="color: red;">‘Anthony Parker’</span>. Also looking good in a more muted fashion were the pale pink, delicate, double flowers of an <span style="color: red;">abutilon</span>. It’s taken almost a year for it to settle in and grow, but it was worth the wait! Abutilons haven’t done well in my garden during the drought – I think they appreciate and will do better with a moist soil. However this one has finally hit its straps and I counted half a dozen flowers hanging from the plant which is only 1m tall so far. Abutilons come in a wide range of colours and are an old garden favourite: certainly one of mine. However we have now had a few hard frosts and the dahlias are no more, the salvias have dropped the last of their flowers and the abutilon is flowerless. The sole splash of colour is provided by the tagetes which is still covered in blooms.<br />
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The soft-leaf buffalo lawn has had its final cut – it won’t need doing again until October. Conversely the back lawn which is composed of cool season grasses (and a lot of weeds) is just revving up for its growing season! The <span style="color: red;">pincushion hakeas (Hakea laurina) </span>are looking particularly good this year and a new cultivar called <span style="color: red;">‘Stockdale Sensation’</span> is a very pretty improvement – more pink than the usual red. The last of the autumnal tints have vanished – the reds and oranges of the <span style="color: red;">smoke bush</span>, the purple <span style="color: red;">berberis</span> and deciduous <span style="color: red;">photinia</span>, the yellow of the <span style="color: red;">forsythia</span> and the oranges and yellows of the <span style="color: red;">weeping apricot</span>. The last of the roses have finished flowering – butter yellow <span style="color: red;">‘Graham Thomas’</span>, soft pinky apricot <span style="color: red;">‘Abraham Darby’</span>, red <span style="color: red;">‘Red Pixie’ </span>and lolly pink <span style="color: red;">‘The Fairy’</span>.<br />
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Fragrance in the garden adds a welcome dimension to the outdoors and I was brought up short by a gorgeous perfume in the air the other day. It was the flowers on the <span style="color: red;">Flinders Range wattle <em>Acacia iteaphylla</em></span> that reliable autumnal bloomer. I bought mine as a ‘normal’ plant but it has turned out to be a mutation and it has taken a ground covering form rather than growing into a large shrub. The flowers still smell sweet though and cover the plant in balls of soft yellow at this time of the year.<br />
In the vegetable garden the <span style="color: red;">silver beet</span> seedlings are beginning to thrive and seedlings of <span style="color: red;">coriander</span> are popping up. I think I’ve had a failure with the <span style="color: red;">crimson flowered broad beans</span> – the seed was a couple of years old and hasn’t come up. Still it’s not too late to sow another crop – but this time I’ll use fresh seed. I must put in some <span style="color: red;">broccoli</span> seedlings and <span style="color: red;">leek</span> seedlings and sow some <span style="color: red;">onion</span> seed. So many jobs to be done and no time after work to do it because the sun is disappearing as I arrive home from work. On a brighter note it’s great to see the <span style="color: red;">daffodils</span> pushing their way through the newly moistened soil. I saw some early <span style="color: red;">jonquil</span> types flowering the other day so ours won’t be far behind. I can’t wait to see the multitude of shades of yellow, cream, white and apricot dancing on top of their slender stems in late winter.<br />
<br />Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-86258572043490816402012-05-17T17:53:00.001+10:002012-05-17T17:53:47.855+10:00Goodbye Indian SummerAnd there goes our Indian summer. Almost overnight it seems we’ve gone from air conditioners to heating. Suddenly you no longer sweat while working in the garden but need a scarf around your neck and a beanie not a sunhat on your head. Yuk! I love our Indian summer and every year mourn its departure.<br />
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I’ve been trying to get into the garden and pull out a few weeds but with my return to full-time work I am finding it hard to find the time. I did spend a lovely couple of hours last weekend pottering around pulling out a few weeds; hoicking out a self-sown <em><span style="color: red;">Euryops pectinatus</span></em> that was threatening to take over; planting a few bits and pieces and generally checking everything out. The euryops is actually a tough South African survivor – you’d know it in an instant. Bright yellow daisy flowers, bright green foliage – like a marguerite daisy but with green leaves. This one appeared from out of the blue and was quite well behaved during the drought but went ballistic after the rain and tripled in size swamping everything around it. <br />
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The rain really has had an amazing affect on all gardens not just mine over the last 18 months. So many things have finally grown! It makes you realise just how much they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth during the drought! My <span style="color: red;">Chinese windmill palm</span> has doubled in size as has the <em><span style="color: red;">Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea</span></em>. My poor little struggling <span style="color: red;">pomegranate</span> has grown heaps as has <span style="color: red;"><em>Salvia</em> ‘African Skies’</span> (which comes from South America – go figure!). I decided I liked the ornamental grass <em><span style="color: red;">Miscanthus transmorrisonensis</span></em> better than the one I had and it is looking fabulous after only 12 months in the garden – lots of fluffy cream plumes waving in the breeze held well clear of the foliage unlike my <span style="color: red;"><em>Miscanthus</em> ‘Sarabande’</span>. It looks a little like a mini pampas grass – and as we don’t plant them anymore it’s a pleasing facsimile.<br />
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I bought a new variety of <span style="color: red;">tree dahlia</span> 2 years ago and it has tripled in size! <span style="color: red;"><em>Dahlia </em>‘Timothy Hammet’</span> was named by NZ breeder Keith Hammett for his late son and is a cross between two unusual tree-type dahlias. It’s supposed to be an evergreen bush all year long, but in our climate it does die back to sticks in winter and then resprouts from the base. It grew madly in spring and these long whippy growths flopped to the side. Then in late summer new upright growth came from the centre and the plant now measures 3m across by 2m in height! It is producing a plethora of bright purple blooms at the moment and looks great next to a <em><span style="color: red;">Tagetes lemonii</span></em> in full golden bloom.<br />
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After the first autumn rain the other night I ran around in the dark with a torch squashing snails and sprinkling some snail pellets on the most susceptible plants. There is nothing worse than seeing the emerging leaves of the fabulous <span style="color: red;">Haemanthus</span> unfurl with huge holes in them because one snail was hungry! It quite ruins the display for the next 7 months. The last of the autumn roses are blooming, its time to resow the sweet peas because the first batch didn’t come up and plant the remainder of the plants in my little nursery in the ground. Oh and I mustn’t forget the vegetable garden – time to plant out the <span style="color: red;">garlic</span>! And the <span style="color: red;">broad beans</span>! Mustn’t forget the broad beans otherwise there will be no broad bean and garlic oil pasta in spring.<br />
<br />Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-39735679117241484092012-03-31T22:14:00.001+11:002012-03-31T22:19:44.709+11:00AutumnI thought the time of plants dropping dead overnight had passed but it seems not. The hot temps in early January took their toll on a 10 year old <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Banksia marginata</span></em> that was about 4m tall. It looked like it was growing splendidly and then the next day it was dying. I suspect that the wet spring had rotted some of the peripheral roots and when a day with hot temperatures arrived, it was too much for the remaining root system to cope with, so it gave up the fight!<br /><br />The soft-leaf <span style="color:#ff0000;">buffalo</span> lawn <span style="color:#ff0000;">‘Palmetto’</span> has drawn lots of favourable comments from visitors. I didn’t have to start watering it until late January. Then when there is no rain I water it with pop-up sprinklers for 30 mins a week and this has kept it looking cool and green all summer. The occasional weed has been easily winkled out with a daisy weeding fork and I threw some lawn fertiliser about a week ago during a brief shower of rain. So far I am very happy with it – traffic areas do not look marked and it only needs edging every month or so from October to February. It is performing much better than cool season grasses (such as <span style="color:#ff0000;">rye, fescue, bluegrass <span style="color:#000000;">or</span> bent</span>) that need much more water to stay green.<br /><br />Have you noticed that some plants in your garden are looking a little stressed or wilting? A bit of spot watering will probably fix the problem but then it reoccurs. Are there a few plants in your garden that regularly wilt? Perhaps it might be a good idea to group these plants with similar water requirements together and then you can water that area easily without having to traipse all over the garden spot watering here and spot watering there. This is one of the 6 pearls of wisdom offered by Kevin Walsh in his little gem of a book “Waterwise Gardening”. Yes we have enjoyed over 14 months of regular rainfall where everything in the garden grew and grew. But ‘La Nina’ will move on, the climate will go back to ‘normal’ and waterwise gardening is the way of the future. Who knows when the next drought will rear its ugly head? So place plants according to their water needs – put moisture loving plants in damp places and put plants that appreciate good drainage on a raised mound or in a raised garden bed. This will be far easier to maintain in the long run than plants mixed up all over the place. For example <span style="color:#ff0000;">hydrangeas</span> and <span style="color:#ff0000;">succulents</span> do not make good bedfellows!<br /><br />Now is also a good time to cut the seedheads off the <span style="color:#ff0000;">agapanthus</span> to stop their seed ending up germinating all over the place. This is especially important for anyone who lives near the bush – which probably means most of us! And never dump agapanthus (or any other plant for that matter) in the bush. This just creates a huge headache for others – usually volunteers – who then have to remove it.<br /><br />There is not a lot of colour in the garden at the moment. White <span style="color:#ff0000;">plumbago</span>, red <span style="color:#ff0000;">cannas</span>, blue <span style="color:#ff0000;">salvias</span>, <span style="color:#ff0000;">Big Red pelargonium</span>, pink and white <span style="color:#ff0000;">gaura</span> and purple <span style="color:#ff0000;">verbena</span> are the stand-outs. But the beds are full and the contrasting foliage colour and forms holds your interest. In the vegetable garden we are living on <span style="color:#ff0000;">sweet corn, tomatoes, purple king beans, Sebago potatoes <span style="color:#000000;">and </span>cucumbers</span>. The butternut <span style="color:#ff0000;">pumpkins</span> have set a lot of fruit so I should have a lot of pumpkins to harvest in late March. Late March will be soon enough to plant some winter crops like <span style="color:#ff0000;">broccoli, leeks, onions, broad beans, peas and silverbeet</span>. The orchard has been visited by successive flocks of rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets and rosellas so there are hardly any <span style="color:#ff0000;">apples</span> left. The birds look like jewels scattered through the trees and I didn’t have the heart to shoo them away.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-37835403043933124222012-02-21T19:35:00.002+11:002012-02-21T19:39:29.799+11:00February Already!It seemed to be a slow start to summer proper this year, but the heat over the New Year period reminded us gardeners that although we have been blessed with lots of rain, the summer heat is not to be forgotten in the garden. I hope with the easing of water restrictions that you haven’t gone back to the bad old days of sprinklers left going for hours and driveways hosed down instead of using a broom! My sole concession to the increased moisture in the soil thus far, is to replant the red <span style="color:#ff0000;">cannas</span> that have been languishing in a pot for years.<br /><br />I had a lot of work to do in the garden just before Christmas. Many of the annuals that looked so good over spring were finishing and needed to be removed as they were smothering neighbouring plants. This included all the <span style="color:#ff0000;">poppies, sweet peas</span> and the <span style="color:#ff0000;">love-in-the-mist (Nigella sp.).</span> I really must thin them out next year so only a few grow to maturity as when they die they really do leave a hole in the garden bed. Weeding has been a never ending priority too in a way I have not seen for over a decade. The compost bin has been full to overflowing with prunings and weeds. I am amazed at the smokebush <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Cotinus </em>‘Grace’ </span>as it has not stopped growing since spring. It seems each day I spot another whippy growth reaching for the sky. These I have shortened as they have appeared and then several shorter growths are produced with alacrity. I am also considering giving the purple berberis a haircut as it has grown nearly 500mm all over since spring!<br /><br />I thought I was going to lose the white <span style="color:#ff0000;">plumbago</span> during the big wet as it didn’t grow very much; what little growth it produced had blackened and withered tips and its leaves turned yellow. However it struggled on and is currently covered in flowers although still with yellowish foliage. The dwarf white <span style="color:#ff0000;">agapanthus</span> that I have planted along the street frontage also looked like giving up the ghost before the drought broke, but the clumps have tripled in size and are currently in full bloom.<br /><br />In the vegetable garden the <span style="color:#ff0000;">sweet corn</span> that I planted in November is almost as tall as me already – I don’t think I have ever seen corn grow so fast. My <span style="color:#ff0000;">tomatoes</span> are growing well and I have harvested my <span style="color:#ff0000;">garlic</span> – both the Tasmanian type and the Russian or elephant type. I am also starting to harvest my brown <span style="color:#ff0000;">onions</span>. I am so proud of this crop as it is the first time I have ever successfully grown onions! They were sown from seed in situ which I think is a big plus and I only fed them with a phosphate based fertiliser as well as a sprinkling of lime as onions love lime. I bought 4 seedlings of Waltham Butternut <span style="color:#ff0000;">pumpkins</span> at the Woodend Farmers Market and these are beginning to grow really well, so I am hopeful of getting some pumpkins this season as I got not one last year!<br /><br />In the native Australian garden the <span style="color:#ff0000;">annual everlastings (B<em>racteantha sp.</em>)</span> that I planted as seedlings in May last year have formed large plants covered in fiery orange flowers. These close up on dull or rainy days and look quite awful but on sunny days the flowers open wide and make a great blazing show contrasting well with the purple flowers of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">brachycome</span> daisies. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">Victorian Christmas bush</span> (<em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Prostanthera lasianthos</span></em>) put on a great show too. My bush is almost 3m tall and this is the tallest of the mint bushes. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">lomatia</span> has doubled in size and is smothered in flowers. This plant was really starting to struggle towards the end of the drought and I thought I was going to lose it. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">kangaroo apples</span> (<em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Solanum sp</span></em>) are covered in purple flowers too and I have spotted the odd seedling popping up around the garden. These are short lived large shrubs or small gangly trees so it is good to see a few replacement seedlings coming on that I can easily transplant to a suitable location. I hope we have welcomed in a great year for gardening and perhaps a return to the ‘normal’ weather patterns pre the 1990’s. It has been great seeing the growth in the garden due to the drought breaking and I look forward to the future with interest.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-44520700568015553622011-11-28T11:28:00.004+11:002011-11-28T11:44:09.058+11:00Garden Opening and other things<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLouN4jfU33BVZ6e15G0bxvF-AnUm-dRI0cKVfEfXZJe1e2F7JnhL3mHO8rXxGOMC_UzlDmj45kZYR2IeljuawndMI-AWHX1_iW91oysxq6c295cX47r2xGa9pEvlyFRBKcy2MD3OH8ohS/s1600/Ixia+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679840257435285314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLouN4jfU33BVZ6e15G0bxvF-AnUm-dRI0cKVfEfXZJe1e2F7JnhL3mHO8rXxGOMC_UzlDmj45kZYR2IeljuawndMI-AWHX1_iW91oysxq6c295cX47r2xGa9pEvlyFRBKcy2MD3OH8ohS/s200/Ixia+2.jpg" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDBPr7UBf3qz6jxl9zLMkxSSIRUydWhv-PqTOLUpKvMlfaFaP-wHV2VPXs1y9t-xKwNowfg3mWGhHibAjUTIJovCKBDWo_2B1z_-XzQjpqIPK15-bymilADmkt9EtHimO1PlImliB95MZ/s1600/Ixia+1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679840252921280674" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDBPr7UBf3qz6jxl9zLMkxSSIRUydWhv-PqTOLUpKvMlfaFaP-wHV2VPXs1y9t-xKwNowfg3mWGhHibAjUTIJovCKBDWo_2B1z_-XzQjpqIPK15-bymilADmkt9EtHimO1PlImliB95MZ/s200/Ixia+1.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div>So what was the stand out plant at the garden opening that everyone wanted to talk about? Well the ‘<span style="color:#ff0000;">Cobalt Tower’ echiums</span> drew a lot of comment standing well over 3m tall. The striking fuchsia pink flower spikes of <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Beschorneria septentrionalis</span></em> also drew a lot of comment – seeing as it was at the front gate it grabbed everyone’s attention. And the carpet of pink <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Erigeron</em> 'Elsie'</span> also drew a lot of comment. But many people were curious about the turquoise flowers of <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Ixia viridiflora</span></em> (seen left) just coming out in the Fairy Garden. This South African corm produces a flower in such an unusual colour it always invites lots of comments.<br /><br /><div>The garden is so full of growth and so full of colour! Flowers everywhere, bees buzzing madly and the honeyeaters and blackbirds sounding their alarm calls when the currawong comes to prowl. It’s still such a joy to be able to dig a hole and see the soil is moist all the way down! And so much easier too. However the work is never done and after the opening I went around lightly pruning some of the excessive growth on such things as the smoke bush <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Cotinus</em> ‘Grace’</span> and pulling back the poppies from smothering the aster. <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Euphorbia characias wulfenii</span></em> needed its spent flower heads removed to let through the new growth. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">bluebells</span> have long finished and need their spent flower heads removed although it doesn’t really matter. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">sweet peas</span> are still flowering their little socks off and I pick a bunch to bring inside and perfume the house every second day.<br /><br />In the vegetable garden I have planted my tomatoes, sweet corn and basil. Seeds of pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers are popping up in my little greenhouse as well as several different types of lettuce. The rhubarb is going gangbusters as is the asparagus patch which I have just fertilised and mulched. I have also thinned the apples and fertilised the olive trees and citrus trees which are covered with flowers.<br /><br />Have you noticed how full and leafy the trees are? A year of regular rainfall has obviously encouraged trees of all kinds to put on a huge amount of growth. I particularly noticed this as I was driving up the hill from the petrol station out of a neighbouring town. The street trees seemed to be shading the road much more than before. It makes you realise just how drought stressed they must have been. I certainly noticed how vigorously the weeping elm at the railway station was growing, after thinking in years past that its end was nigh. I nominated this tree for significant tree status earlier this year but was knocked back. If we could find out who planted it that might help with a reapplication. I worry that the bitumen that has been laid right up to its trunk will not be good for its long term health.<br /><br />Do you know in Victoria that anyone can nominate a tree for significant tree status for any tree, anywhere? Just go to <a href="http://www.nattrust.com.au/">http://www.nattrust.com.au/</a> and click on Trust Register scrolling down to Tree Nomination Form. You must supply a map and photos with each nomination. You need to read the questions carefully but it’s pretty straightforward. There are ten categories including such things as horticultural value, particularly old and particularly weird etc. If you think the tree doesn’t warrant National Trust nomination, try nominating it to your local Council/Shire. This places it on the planning overlay making everyone aware of the tree and its importance.<br /><br />Another thing I have noticed is how well the <span style="color:#ff0000;">bottlebrushes</span> (<em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Callistemon sp</span></em>.) are flowering this year. This genus is such a hardy one able to cope with drought once established but then making a wonderful comeback when it rains. I have seen some amazingly vibrant colours around the town – pink, yellow and purple as well as red. Cut back hard after flowering and they will put on a heap of growth. Don’t forget now is the time to be mulching your garden. I bought a tandem trailer load (I½m) of mulch from the shire depot the other day for $31. We might actually get to enjoy our gardens over summer. It looks like we may not have much watering to do!</div></div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-58685275609560410822011-10-30T20:06:00.002+11:002011-10-30T20:11:03.112+11:00Open GardenWell another opening done and dusted. About 100 on Sat - the weather was glorious despite all forecasts and I even got a little sunburnt. Then it rained all day Sun - not heavy rain - more like a continual fine mizzle (mist/drizzle). It kept everyone away and only about 30 visited. As the day wore on we added more and more layers in an effort to keep warm. Even had to put up the gazebo to protect the gatesitters! Oh well you never can predict the weather so one good day isn't bad I expect. Its just that I still have a lot of plants to sell.....Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-12536319147815142172011-10-29T09:17:00.002+11:002011-10-29T09:21:22.950+11:00Garden OpeningIts rained all night and I have taken 5 minutes to write this. We've had 16mm and there are pools of water sitting everywhere but I'm hopeful that will be all the rain for the present. The gates open in 45 minutes and we are busily doing all the last minute things necessary - including baking muffins to keep the gatesitters going!<br />Second listing on the Open Gardens website:<br /><a href="http://www.opengarden.org.au/regions/vic_calendar.html">http://www.opengarden.org.au/regions/vic_calendar.html</a><br />I have lots of plants for sale - or should I say the 12 year old is selling plants. Part proceeds to BreastWest - helping the women in the west with breast cancer.<br />The bees are buzzing the honeyeaters are darting about, there are ducks on the dam and my heart is in my mouth! Wish me luck!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-16505106084722103862011-10-22T10:27:00.001+11:002011-10-22T10:30:46.683+11:00October in the GardenIt’s amazing how much the garden grows during spring! Over winter it just sits and sits and as I walked around checking progress in the middle of August I thought it would be looking pretty bare for my opening. But of course the warm weather and welcome rain has done its stuff and the garden is bursting at the seams! Just one week until my opening as I write this and the sound of buzzing bees fills the air – they particularly like the <span style="color:#ff0000;">echiums</span> – and the wrens and honeyeaters are darting from bush to bush.<br /><br />Unfortunately a wretched rabbit has taken up residence in my garden and evidence of its appetite can be seen in the bare stalks of <span style="color:#ff0000;">love-in-a-mist</span>, the chewed <span style="color:#ff0000;">roses</span> and little scrapes at the base of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">cedar</span> hedge. For 20 years no rabbits have lived here and now suddenly there is one and I feel quite murderous towards it! I wouldn’t mind if it munched quietly on the back lawn but its targeting my plants – and the ones at the front of the garden beds to boot! It doesn’t help that daughter number 2 squeals “how cute” whenever we spy it scampering down the driveway. Now I know how Mr McGregor felt!<br /><br />This year as an experiment I have planted seedlings of the giant red <span style="color:#ff0000;">mustard</span> as an ornamental in my ‘red’ garden. I saw it once in another garden and was blown away by the enormous bronzy-red leaves. The seedlings have taken off and are obviously too hot for the slugs and snails to chomp on and each plant looks amazing and has grown half a metre high. I’ll be interested to hear what people think of it. Another experiment was to sow the seed of a bronzy-red form of an annual <span style="color:#ff0000;">millet</span>. The seedlings are tiny but all green and I don’t know whether they will change colour as they grow. Never mind its fun to watch and wait. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">soft-leaf buffalo</span> lawn has responded well to some fertiliser and the warm weather and looks fantastic.<br /><br />In the vegetable garden I have been harvesting the <span style="color:#ff0000;">kohlrabi</span>. We have eaten this curious <span style="color:#ff0000;">cabbage</span> relative both raw and cooked. Raw it has a great crunchy texture and is good for using for dips because its mild flavour does not overpower. Cooked it is acceptable – a very mild <span style="color:#ff0000;">broccoli</span> flavour that goes nicely with butter and salt. I have also been harvesting <span style="color:#ff0000;">broad beans</span> and will eat a bowlful for lunch soused in a little olive oil and crushed garlic (don’t come near me afterwards!) I planted the <span style="color:#ff0000;">potatoes</span> on the 24th of September and the wet weather since then may have caused some of the tubers to rot because I have a few spaces in my rows.<br /><br />In the Australian native section of the garden the <span style="color:#ff0000;">everlasting daisies</span> (<em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Bracteantha sp</span></em>) planted as seedlings last autumn have formed large plants and are about to flower. The seed sown pink <span style="color:#ff0000;">everlastings</span> (<em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Rhodanthe sp</span></em>) have flowered and flowered but are susceptible to drying out and the depredations of the slugs and snails. <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Alyogyne</em> ‘West Coast Gem’</span> is in full purple bloom contrasting nicely with the fluffy yellow balls of the clay <span style="color:#ff0000;">wattle</span> <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Acacia glaucoptera</span></em>. Some of my <span style="color:#ff0000;">grevilleas</span> are blooming and the <span style="color:#ff0000;">possum banksia <em>B. baueri</em></span> has produced enormous, fluffy and very cuddly looking cones that look like a family of possums clustered within the bush.<br /><br />Twelve months of rain has done wonders in the garden and already the memory of the drought is dimming although not forgotten. In this wide brown land drought is never forgotten.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-20763669364165768612011-09-23T11:40:00.003+10:002011-09-23T11:54:59.561+10:00Asparagus Pea<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5tBUyl4ujyNYad-lYIPVi6x5t2OpTw7macEVA2ftcQNpN_JXNzU_6SmoR8U7ijzGo50FBeki2TKaoiU1nv8NigClyntfng4iQUcwP96tJazKwIX6erB48SCFifIUTAeX5n4fXU3Tvnvg/s1600/Asparagus+Pea1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655366254558456546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5tBUyl4ujyNYad-lYIPVi6x5t2OpTw7macEVA2ftcQNpN_JXNzU_6SmoR8U7ijzGo50FBeki2TKaoiU1nv8NigClyntfng4iQUcwP96tJazKwIX6erB48SCFifIUTAeX5n4fXU3Tvnvg/s200/Asparagus+Pea1.jpg" /></a>Last autumn I planted the seeds of the asparagus pea <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Tetragonolobus purpureus</span></em> available from Erica Vale seeds. The seeds came up and grew slowly making little mounds of slightly furry green leaves. A few flowers appeared before winter set in and I picked half a dozen pods from about 6 plants. They stopped flowering over winter and I wondered how frost tolerant they were. They turned out to be very frost tolerant and they grew and grew and grew. Last week when I took these photos the plants had reached knee high and had spread twice that width. They were covered with their little maroon flowers and I was finally able to pick a bowl full of peas. I steamed them for a minutes and then doused them in butter and a little salt.<br /><br /><br /><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655366258325299874" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxN-tXLzzPRnMia6vADw6smV1Vs_WXPOnyihtJSAkIhwwvOUQxgosVwvRS6wYh7SJ9gWIoHPh5jEBBdnx-9nhNoF_i9gpBfCWPPcW-ob1FwtuuJ17XWsSe_f7syDEX0TB8LJILdC8FYxO/s200/Asparagus+Pea2.jpg" />Now the big question is - did they taste like asparagus?!? I don't think so. In fact they didn't taste very much of anything at all! Would I grow them again? Probably not. I would need a lot more than 6 plants to produce enough for the family and the pods are very tricky to find amongst the foliage. Also they have to be picked when only 1 inch long (Gen Y read 2.5cm) any longer and they are tough and fibrous. Quite pretty though.<br />Here is a link to a website which talks about growing them in the Carribean where they appear to grow only 6 inches tall. <br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/the_asparagus_pea/">http://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/the_asparagus_pea/</a> </div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhhOep4DfFT7weXBhE2f3SqN_AyVI05CKHKD8z58okOWCUZDSWXBO0tk-v0bdI0rMUr1tRFdR5BZZE_myp2OmFe1eUSRTppWw_8PsUAb9yi0GDBB09cLHS4K8piH1skApf9kQfXEP9Zqm/s1600/Asparagus+Pea3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 184px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655366264985408866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhhOep4DfFT7weXBhE2f3SqN_AyVI05CKHKD8z58okOWCUZDSWXBO0tk-v0bdI0rMUr1tRFdR5BZZE_myp2OmFe1eUSRTppWw_8PsUAb9yi0GDBB09cLHS4K8piH1skApf9kQfXEP9Zqm/s200/Asparagus+Pea3.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEcDx9IoWDlf8mTOYAxbPorMfRRj6K_u425xKDeGIz-5ZfmSUp8vkHvx7U3RkW6g_guBjI9TOhGbP1q4cXmgJwjYuiGQfYWzZ6tE-CA4pIclEPCejU9FX9jUyT3_10LEzePEKsGNtL6jy/s1600/Asparagus+Pea4.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655366262699464322" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEcDx9IoWDlf8mTOYAxbPorMfRRj6K_u425xKDeGIz-5ZfmSUp8vkHvx7U3RkW6g_guBjI9TOhGbP1q4cXmgJwjYuiGQfYWzZ6tE-CA4pIclEPCejU9FX9jUyT3_10LEzePEKsGNtL6jy/s200/Asparagus+Pea4.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><div></div></div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-91984262013800438192011-09-06T15:16:00.002+10:002011-09-06T15:23:10.900+10:00Routine JobsI remembered to prune the roses a few weeks ago and also sprayed them with some smelly lime sulphur to kill any overwintering fungal spores that cause powdery mildew. I also sprayed my <span style="color:#ff0000;">dwarf peach</span> with the lime sulphur and this will stop it getting peach leaf curl. Other routine jobs I have done include cutting the ornamental grass <span style="color:#ff0000;">miscanthus</span> off just above ground level and chopping it up roughly to add to the compost heap. I have been weeding madly leaving some of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">poppy</span> seedlings for a spring display. It is quite amazing how closely the seedling of a milk thistle resembles that of a poppy! You really have to look closely before yanking anything out. I cut back the ‘Nanho Blue’ <span style="color:#ff0000;">buddleia</span> (better late then never) and the stalks of golden rod <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Solidago</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">canadensis</span></em>. I have pulled all the old shrivelled leaves off the silver <span style="color:#ff0000;">astelia</span> which I swear has doubled in size over the last 12 months.<br /><br />This weekend I hope to go and collect a trailer-load of rotted horse poo which I will use as a surface mulch around the garden. For once I am not concerned about applying mulch too early and stopping the rain from getting through to the soil. This spring I hope the soil critters have the moisture to do their job of incorporating the horse poo into the soil. I also have to move my <span style="color:#ff0000;">rose ‘Graham Thomas’</span> because it is crowded by shrubs all around it and it struggles to get enough sun during the day. Roses really need at least 5 hours of direct sun every day or they will just elongate and succumb to every beastie and disease going.<br /><br />The vegetable garden is looking a little empty with many of winter’s crops harvested and summer’s crops have not gone in yet. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">asparagus peas</span> have grown really well and aren’t frost sensitive at all. Each plant has grown about 30cm high and twice as wide and they’re dotted with little maroon flowers. I’m hoping as the weather warms these will be pollinated by the bees and I’ll start to get peas. The pods are a bit weird looking with frilly ribs running down the outside and you pick them when they are quite small – about 3cm long but they really do taste mildly of asparagus! The <span style="color:#ff0000;">rainbow chard</span> finally came good after all my trials and tribulations in autumn but I know it will be going to seed any day so I should plant some new seedlings to replace it. I dug up the <span style="color:#ff0000;">rhubarb</span> and separated it and replanted some crowns after mixing a bag of horse poo in the soil. Rhubarb LOVES to be fed and watered – I remember my dad digging loads of manure into our rhubarb bed at home and being rewarded with lots of long red stems.<br /><br />In the Australian native plant garden the scarlet wattle <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Acacia leprosa</em> ‘Scarlet Blaze’</span> is in full bloom and the seedlings of pink <span style="color:#ff0000;">everlastings</span> that I sowed in autumn are budding up. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">pin cushion hakea</span> has finished flowering but the grass-leaved hakea <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Hakea multilineata</span></em> is covered in pink flowers. The wilga <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Geijera parviflora</em></span> and pine-leaved geebung <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Persoonia pinifolia</span></em> are still alive – haven’t killed them yet! Various correas are flowering as is the tree violet <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Hymenanthera dentata</em></span> – its fragrance wafts around the garden on warm days.<br /><br />The <span style="color:#ff0000;">soft-leaf buffalo ‘Palmetto’</span> lawn that we laid 10 months ago has come through the winter really well. It is supposed to be the best soft-leaf buffalo for holding its colour through the cooler months and while it is not an emerald green it is green enough for me. Trevor spent some time with a daisy weeder going around pulling out the few clumps of winter grass, poppies and flick weed that had come up and I plan to fertilise the lawn this weekend. Then it should be looking great for when my garden is open over the last weekend in October. This is advance warning to all you gardeners out there that you should plan to stay home that weekend as we have not just one or two gardens open here but three! See the Open Gardens Australia guidebook for details.<br /><a href="http://www.opengarden.org.au/">http://www.opengarden.org.au/</a>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-78376184361165307232011-07-24T13:30:00.005+10:002011-07-24T13:40:23.681+10:00A Garden Thug Stopped in its Tracks<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEVoyx0f9QdilLCRLTDJF3OWdGl5oKnu7JWuDNpgdpWzkxfrleq-CqnxBLUJQX05I41yxMr6NZsp69jJBiRZeMvUjKvULUzK2R3C3TB6dbqpiloYrQxUkg_GnJUIfCs_G8JaxjNtZ9o1t/s1600/Arundinacea1a.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632756730946885890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEVoyx0f9QdilLCRLTDJF3OWdGl5oKnu7JWuDNpgdpWzkxfrleq-CqnxBLUJQX05I41yxMr6NZsp69jJBiRZeMvUjKvULUzK2R3C3TB6dbqpiloYrQxUkg_GnJUIfCs_G8JaxjNtZ9o1t/s200/Arundinacea1a.jpg" /></a>I had a tough job on my hands the other day when I decided to reduce the size of a clump of gardener’s garters or reed canary grass <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Phalaris arundinacea picta</span></em>. It may be 'Feesey's Form' but I'm not sure. For the last decade (of drought) the little clump of striped cream and green leaves blushed prettily with pink has behaved itself admirably and I wondered why I was advised to treat it with caution. Well after 9 months of regular rainfall my clump had tripled in height and width and was mounting a take-over campaign of its bed. It had got into a clump of Cuban lilies <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Scilla peruviana</span></em> and was starting to pop up under the brick edging in the path. The picture is of me using a spade to lever the entire clump out – this plant spreads by rhizomes and the roots had penetrated almost 30cm deep and twice as wide. Having learned my lesson I planted a small clump into a pot and sunk this into the garden bed. I will need to lift this to divide and replant every year but this should keep it contained. I have blocked the holes in the base of the pot with fly wire but I am under no illusions as to whether this will keep the plant confined. The lip of the pot is a good 4cm above the level of the soil both inside and out. Fingers are crossed!<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_ve2bxvWWRq5iCmI5eyE2COnlPqNk_w_cFFcvILtcgSLo1bKRSg527uSm-W-w0Be10ebir3SjivpKp7rmcKjCqON8eIrc6EK4NKHsQFEGUe9mpY-Vj-fuGPGtpeFVaDKqAI6v2fgKhQh/s1600/Arundinacea2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632756735360499714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_ve2bxvWWRq5iCmI5eyE2COnlPqNk_w_cFFcvILtcgSLo1bKRSg527uSm-W-w0Be10ebir3SjivpKp7rmcKjCqON8eIrc6EK4NKHsQFEGUe9mpY-Vj-fuGPGtpeFVaDKqAI6v2fgKhQh/s200/Arundinacea2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_ve2bxvWWRq5iCmI5eyE2COnlPqNk_w_cFFcvILtcgSLo1bKRSg527uSm-W-w0Be10ebir3SjivpKp7rmcKjCqON8eIrc6EK4NKHsQFEGUe9mpY-Vj-fuGPGtpeFVaDKqAI6v2fgKhQh/s1600/Arundinacea2.jpg"></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_ve2bxvWWRq5iCmI5eyE2COnlPqNk_w_cFFcvILtcgSLo1bKRSg527uSm-W-w0Be10ebir3SjivpKp7rmcKjCqON8eIrc6EK4NKHsQFEGUe9mpY-Vj-fuGPGtpeFVaDKqAI6v2fgKhQh/s1600/Arundinacea2.jpg"></a></div></div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-37557542033213181992011-07-05T20:49:00.004+10:002011-07-05T21:09:40.951+10:00WinterWinter is actually an excellent time after all the removal of herbaceous material and pruning has taken place, to work out where the gaps are in your garden. Normally I say planting in autumn is best as the plants have over 6 months to establish before summer’s heat hits. However with the soil so moist I think for the first time in years we might actually be able to plant during spring, so start planning a trip to the nursery soon! In fact you should be at the nursery now and choosing your bare-rooted trees. I visited a local nursery the other day and was impressed with their large selection of both fruit and ornamental trees. Buying bare-rooted trees is cheaper than buying potted trees and they are a lot easier to get home!<br /><br />I was buying three <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Gleditsia</em> 'Lime Gold'</span> for the local primary school (the colour of the foliage is the same as the interior paint of the new building - this is really taking the garden inside!). When I got the trees to school, I soaked them in a bucket of water and seaweed solution for 30 minutes before planting to ensure they were thoroughly wet. I pruned off some damaged roots and planted the trees in a hole twice as wide as it was deep ie. at the same level they were before. I put in two stakes placed 30cm out from the trunk of each tree and this will help stabilise them for the first 12 months but then I will remove them. I then tipped the bucket of seaweed water onto the trees to water them in. Come the first sign of leaf burst in spring I will scatter some pelletised chook poo around and mulch the trees well.<br /><br />Some plants may have their growing tips burnt in a frost during winter and it’s important that you do not cut off these blackened leaves. They will protect the rest of the plant over winter and cutting them off just encourages the plant to put on more growth which will also get burnt. My <span style="color:#ff0000;">box</span> hedging is turning bronze – this is normal – it will go green again in spring. My ornamental deciduous grasses are turning brown (<span style="color:#ff0000;">miscanthus</span>, red <span style="color:#ff0000;">pennisetum</span> etc) this is normal, and I will cut them back very soon. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">tree dahlia</span> has flowered its last and soon I can cut the stem down, cut it into foot lengths and plant in large pots which will hopefully shoot in spring.<br /><br />I am leaving pruning my few roses until the end of the month. Here is my rough guide to pruning <span style="color:#ff0000;">roses</span>. Sharpen your secateurs and loppers. Cut off half to two-thirds of the bush. Then cut off anything dead. Then cut off anything thinner than a pencil. I’m not going to talk about slanting cuts or vase shapes or cutting back to a bud. All these things are good but seem to scare someone who has never pruned a rose before. You won’t kill them; in fact they will love you for it. When you see the leaves begin to shoot in spring scatter a handful of pelletised chook manure around the bush and water in.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-66915931683179485142011-06-03T17:05:00.003+10:002011-06-03T17:25:29.660+10:00Tree Dahlia<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbVwjgPt_xEUGApwFgwur7CD-QyWA2seV_cwSsbk04qwPPCMOpge7fHlyZkgtjE4z8WT2VMvWPgkktJqxlUPSI06veMo858wYZDuquypnjtBJFSNe9WlpO3YYz17XJNBdLwwAjuj_iOYX/s1600/Tree+Dahlia+copy.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613886401715326194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbVwjgPt_xEUGApwFgwur7CD-QyWA2seV_cwSsbk04qwPPCMOpge7fHlyZkgtjE4z8WT2VMvWPgkktJqxlUPSI06veMo858wYZDuquypnjtBJFSNe9WlpO3YYz17XJNBdLwwAjuj_iOYX/s200/Tree+Dahlia+copy.jpg" /></a> This was my tree dahlia <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Dahlia imperialis</span></em> three days ago. I had to wait for a sunny morning to get a good photo with a nice blue sky for the background. Of course blue skies mean frosts and a day later we had the first frost of the season. The leaves up to a height of about 2m are blackened but the flowers appear to have been spared. I remember a huge clump of these growing at the back of the 'new' rose garden at Burnley Horticultural College when I was a student there in the early 1980's. Protected from frosts by neighbouring clumps of bamboo and giant trees they were never frosted. Each pale lilac flower is the size of my hand and luckily for us short people, the flowers hang down so we get a good view looking up at them. There is also a white form which I once saw lining a path outside Cabrini Hospital in town. They looked fantastic! <br /><div>If you plant this then make sure it is where you want it to be forever. I once dug up the tubers to move them - the clump filled the wheelbarrow - and it was only a five year old plant!</div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-74226634222521321162011-05-29T11:28:00.002+10:002011-05-29T11:32:20.180+10:00Late AutumnThe garden feels like it is slowly beginning to settle itself down for the months of cold ahead. I checked the cobs of the late crop of sweet corn today and as I suspected fertilisation had not taken place and the cobs are empty. I think January is the latest you could plant corn here and expect a bountiful harvest. This lot went in about early March at my daugter's insistence – much too late. Brown onions I sowed last week are coming up as are the garlic corms. I am starting to harvest my broccoli and rainbow chard. The broad beans are a foot high and the capsicums were still green and growing so I pruned off most of the leaves covering the fruit and now they are beginning to turn red. In one section of the vegetable garden I sowed a green crop and it seems to be coming along ok. This will be dug into the soil in spring just as it is about to flower.<br /><br />In the front garden I have cut back most of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">gauras</span>. I could leave these to flower for another month or so but I really need their bulk out of the way so I can get in there to plant and shift things around. I never set out to shift plants but suddenly as I stand there I realise that something is too close to something else and one of them just has to be moved. Cutting back a pink gaura revealed a huge swathe of <span style="color:#ff0000;">love-in-the-mist</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;">nigella</span>) seedlings which promptly all fell over when denied their support. I love this pretty blue annual – it was one of the first flowers I ever planted as a child and it just keeps on coming up year after year. I have also put in some <span style="color:#ff0000;">snapdragon</span> seedlings – another childhood favourite as well as some <span style="color:#ff0000;">polyanthus</span> and <span style="color:#ff0000;">pansies</span>. Growing annuals over winter is stress free as you don’t need to be constantly watering them. Other annuals coming up include <span style="color:#ff0000;">Flanders poppies</span>, <span style="color:#ff0000;">Chinese forget-me-nots</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;">cynoglossum</span>, much bluer than English forget-me-nots) and some <span style="color:#ff0000;">violas</span>. Some perennials that self seed and could be problematic (if I left them all) include the <span style="color:#ff0000;">pink evening primrose</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;">oenothera</span> sp), <span style="color:#ff0000;">kiss-me-quick</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;">centranthus</span>) and gaura.<br /><br />Time soon to sharpen the secateurs and think about pruning the roses. I’ll also have to prune the <span style="color:#ff0000;">smoke bush</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Cotinus</em> 'Grace'</span>) when it has shed all its leaves. The leaves are just starting to turn now making it one of the very last shrubs to light up the garden in a blaze of orange. It has grown so much over the last 8 months with all the rain. It’s almost doubled in size. Another plant that has doubled in size is the <span style="color:#ff0000;">tree dahlia</span>. I have a species and a hybrid growing and both have just begun to flower. The species is pale lilac and three metres tall and the hybrid (Timothy Hammet) is a metre tall and is purple. I hope I get a few more flowers before a hard frost reduces them to mush.<br /><br />Lastly I was thrilled to discover a new plant in my blue and yellow garden the other day. Many years ago I had a <span style="color:#ff0000;">tweedia</span> (<span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Oxypetalum caeruleum</em></span>) growing in the garden but it succumbed to the drought. One little seedling has appeared and I am looking forward to its baby blue flowers next summer – it’s such an old fashioned cutie!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-20243461769281110262011-05-09T16:04:00.007+10:002011-05-09T16:32:52.242+10:00Pineapple Sage<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv27OjiHp-ViAxNKGV-su_Nc4qOTsMfycaS5gZYeqKghGnOZJMLW-0k1_wLi-MVzET2mFe1FvMd5koHgf89JBXnZQZ7m9TCJx5S5mpU9mFizSwIyB9T1Y2cgQaNKvWMErnrwkBy8-LOTzo/s1600/Pineapple+sage.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604593471064601890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv27OjiHp-ViAxNKGV-su_Nc4qOTsMfycaS5gZYeqKghGnOZJMLW-0k1_wLi-MVzET2mFe1FvMd5koHgf89JBXnZQZ7m9TCJx5S5mpU9mFizSwIyB9T1Y2cgQaNKvWMErnrwkBy8-LOTzo/s200/Pineapple+sage.jpg" /></a> This pic (with the ultra fashionable gardener wearing her <a href="http://www.greenhip.com.au/">GreenHip</a> trousers) was taken just a few weeks ago and shows my pineapple sage <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Salvia elegans</span></em> also known as <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Salvia rutilans</span></em> in my red garden. Last year it grew waist height as it has every year I have grown it and both the New Holland honeyeater and eastern spinebill love its flowers and are either constantly flitting about the bush or hanging upside down to feed. This year with all the rain we had it has grown to prodigious heights soaring over my head and being smothered in blooms.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEistVpyeqE_1lLl8KXFZdUpijfLGBNaVmix-EIJwi_wT8zFwL0A-drdCPasqDr-_ZTZNHSH7YU4JfVTP1wBmyaMOGRLqlGaUKXaLPzWkmMkU7pvKXxVyGr4q5gdYjAKFTOczoSqhtIMsK_M/s1600/Pineapple+sage+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 176px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604596694816466610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEistVpyeqE_1lLl8KXFZdUpijfLGBNaVmix-EIJwi_wT8zFwL0A-drdCPasqDr-_ZTZNHSH7YU4JfVTP1wBmyaMOGRLqlGaUKXaLPzWkmMkU7pvKXxVyGr4q5gdYjAKFTOczoSqhtIMsK_M/s200/Pineapple+sage+2.jpg" /></a>However this plant (from the same division and only 3m away) which spent most of spring and into summer with wet feet is not nearly so tall. I thought it was going to die it looked so sick but eventually it got going and is now also in full bloom albeit on shorter stems.<br /><br /><br /><br />Pineapple sage gets knocked around quite a lot during the winter frosts here but bounces back in spring. The smell of the crushed foliage is unmistakably that of pineapple and is reputed to be good for adding to a bowl of punch (does anyone make punch anymore?!)<br /><br />This salvia comes from Mexico and is one of the last salvias to bloom before winter. It is vying with <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Salvia </em>'Anthony Parker'</span> (a vigorous blue flowering sage) for attention although <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Salvia</em> 'Hot Lips' <span style="color:#000000;">(red and white flowers)</span> </span>is still going strong too.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-75935110481204920152011-04-19T09:38:00.004+10:002011-04-19T09:48:55.344+10:00Haemanthus<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAIzOUFp9qySvGA1ipuUHa9eN0SxCr7hLSdEHH2_2tuut8mY-yMn5Th6Qk9vwXgLwmEY-Wn14nrWNdWbBkOpbtQjZnEPhyGImLjywEGZepCd_N7QQ1xsvFA0H9U-nIR034oPHSs1tvqu4/s1600/Haemanthus2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597074297329825970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAIzOUFp9qySvGA1ipuUHa9eN0SxCr7hLSdEHH2_2tuut8mY-yMn5Th6Qk9vwXgLwmEY-Wn14nrWNdWbBkOpbtQjZnEPhyGImLjywEGZepCd_N7QQ1xsvFA0H9U-nIR034oPHSs1tvqu4/s200/Haemanthus2.jpg" /></a> <br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgseSWvRhdPPQoYbwjrb0lBLgvGvMCWlgbs65dXz5CtzeFxIQ4U01RNRUDpoR3IOfJQNoSPPkQEXnCUuChs5b28HRZxPYSSP5oqhnBWyoTr99oJzWpmf55rW46Ooaw6wUz08Ot-wQPLgHkc/s1600/Haemanthus1+copy.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597074293627014434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgseSWvRhdPPQoYbwjrb0lBLgvGvMCWlgbs65dXz5CtzeFxIQ4U01RNRUDpoR3IOfJQNoSPPkQEXnCUuChs5b28HRZxPYSSP5oqhnBWyoTr99oJzWpmf55rW46Ooaw6wUz08Ot-wQPLgHkc/s200/Haemanthus1+copy.jpg" /></a> <br /><div>I planted one small pot of the South African bulb <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Haemanthus coccineus</span></em> many years ago and it has quietly grown and multiplied: flowering every year in April. A nearby <span style="color:#ff0000;">Lophomyrtus</span> had grown so much it was threatening to smother it completely so I thought I had better dig it up and move it somewhere more open. What a surprise I received when I dug the clump! My one bulb had multiplied into several - the largest being bigger than a grapefruit! The flower is a great talking point in the garden as they emerge before the leaves and look a little odd appearing through the bare earth. Commonly known as the shaving brush lily or blood lily or ox tongue lily the long (to 40cm or so) tongue-like leaves emerge after the flowers have died. It is important to keep some snail bait out for slugs and snails at all times once the leaves have emerged, otherwise you will spend the entire season looking at holey leaves as I have learned. This year thanks to all the rain we have received the flowers were as big as I have ever seen them - each one the size of a tennis ball. I have replanted the clump in a more open area and hope that this disturbance will not set them back too much.</div><br /><div></div></div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-46614290344785279432011-03-23T21:02:00.003+11:002011-03-23T21:12:06.798+11:00Curse the Rabbits!Even though I thought I had taken all the dead plants to be mulched I found a dead grevillea on the weekend. Don’t think that because I am a 'qualified' gardener that no plants die in my garden – they die allright!! And I make mistakes all the time. I try to learn from my mistakes but am not always successful. For instance I have planted three punnets of rainbow chard over the last month. Something was eating them and I couldn’t work out what it was. I sprinkled snail pellets – the damage continued. I set up an earwig trap – it remained empty (google sga earwig trap). I covered the seedlings with bird net – no improvement. Finally I sprayed them with Yates Success (caterpillar killer) and my fingers are crossed. I HAVE NEVER HAD PROBLEMS WITH CHARD BEFORE! What on earth was going on!?! Was it too wet, too dry? Maybe it’s a bit too early. I don’t usually plant any seedlings in Feb/March because it’s usually too hot. But with the mild weather and frequent rain I thought I’d be ok. But then last night I saw a rabbit - maybe he was the culprit! I've never had rabbits in the garden before. I feel a bit like Mr McGregor!<br /><br />The BATH pulled out the big yellow hedge in the secret garden last weekend. It was <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Coprosma</em> ‘Beaton’s Gold’</span> and originally planted as a divider between the yellow/blue area and the pastel area. But as the ‘bookends’ of the hedge had gone (the cyprus hedge at one end and the <span style="color:#ff0000;">paulownia</span> at the other); it looked a little odd. Not to mention the fact that the BATH hated trimming it because “you plant everything too close to it!” Its removal has opened up a large area for new plants – which are gradually accumulating in my little nursery area.<br /><br />Now is a good time to fertilise your lawn. I know lawns have been a pain this year and have required cutting long after we normally stop (Christmas). But strengthening them with a dose of lawn food now will help them to cope with whatever Mother Nature throws at them over autumn and winter. I am aimed to get to that job last weekend: after everyone had been to inspect my vegetable garden for the Local Food Fair. But a migraine intervened. Also its important to always water fertiliser in – whether its lawns, fruit trees, pot plants, vegetables etc… so I may now wait for some rain. I am finding it a challenge to stay on top of the weeds. As soon as I finish one bed its like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I have to go straight back to the beginning! Still it’s been good for the compost heap. I wish I had mulched in November – not to lock moisture in for once but to suppress weeds! Another job that never got done because it was always raining!<br /><br />Did you ‘Put a Plant on Your Desk’ as urged by the nursery and garden industry on March the 2nd? Apparently 5000 indoor plants were given away that day in Fed Square Melbourne to lots of happy office workers. It’s been fun watching the posts on Facebook from delighted people as they ‘dress up’ their indoor plant. Check them out at ‘Improve Your Plant/Life Balance’. My indoor plants continue to do well – thriving on neglect for 18 months now. Really they need so little attention and yet do so well. And they're absorbing all the VOCs in my house. Indoor plants are generally killed through kindness – too much water! There is this little thing on the end of your hand called a finger that is a great indicator of whether the soil is wet or dry. Use it before watering!!!<br /><br />So for the next month I will be planting (hopefully), fertilising (probably), weeding (most definitely) and picking the last of the cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, lettuces and parsnips. And anxiously watching the asparagus peas begin to produce their maroon flowers and set fruit. What’s an asparagus pea I hear you say? Look it up!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-9781910209033784242011-03-07T10:47:00.003+11:002011-03-07T11:11:31.064+11:00RecoveryIts been really interesting watching the garden recover from the record breaking rains over the last 6 months (wettest summer on record apparently).<br />1. Initially most plants responded to the extra moisture by growing really well - and being spring helped this process too.<br />2. Then the odd plant or two began to turn up its toes. Mostly anything Mediterranean.<br />3. Then we had some really hot days and lots of plants died. Excess soil moisture had rotted roots earlier on and the hot day stressed the plant so much so it seemed to die overnight.<br />4. Then I noticed that many plants that grew well early on had stopped growing altogether. This was particularly noticeable with my <span style="color:#ff0000;">weeping apricot</span> and white <span style="color:#ff0000;">plumbago</span>.<br /><br />The weeping wands of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">weeping apricot</span> are usually brushing the ground by now and yet this year they are still about 60cm away. The white <span style="color:#ff0000;">plumbago</span> would normally be throttling visitors as they walked down the path by now but it is only half its usual size. It is flowering prolifically as usual but the leaves are turning yellow already. Its in what was a really wet spot so I am surprised it is still alive. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">aptenia</span> groundcover that grew like topsy last summer has been a bit slower this year. <span style="color:#ff0000;">Erigeron 'Elsie'</span> has also been stopped in its tracks and hasn't grown much since it flowered in spring. The <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Eunonymus alatus</span></em> that has only been in for a couple of years showed promise early on but then grew very little. And <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Crataegus tanacetifolia</span></em> didn't do much at all but has set a lot of fruit which the rosellas haven't discovered (yet!).<br /><br />All in all as we gardeners have to remind ourselves occasionally - gardening is a learning experience and every plant death means a fresh opportunity. So on the weekend I went to the AOGS Plant Fair held just up the road. I'll tell you next time what I bought!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-89073942780110887852011-02-09T14:01:00.002+11:002011-02-09T14:06:12.735+11:00After the FloodsSome good advice here from our mates at Yates.<br /><a href="http://www.yates.com.au/feature/after-the-floods-repairing-your-garden/">http://www.yates.com.au/feature/after-the-floods-repairing-your-garden/</a><br />I am about to bring the tandem trailer to the driveway and start filling it with all the dead plants in my garden. It seems I've lost more plants in the past few months than I ever did over the 14 years of drought. Its probably not quite true but it sure feels like it. Oh well, at least it will leave me with quite a few holes to fill.....<br />On a different note, the soft-leaf buffalo lawn we laid in October looks sensational! Its so green and lush and with each downpour of rain it puts on heaps of growth. Its hard to mow though - its so spongy that you really need your muscles to push the lawnmower along. I have to eat my weetbix before mowing the lawn!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-33540032259776384352011-02-01T20:42:00.006+11:002011-02-06T09:41:41.666+11:00Weeping Apricot in Summer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffhk24VEvfQ4oGUPrUe_vguVXEkEqvXd3WwSgIojJri_XFdpfnPSSznVEaZeBGYFUFjbs7ot_If6DR26E3-OWIel5Rkxcfx_bSzhwQ7l_J3oVjtjQZ78Id95fgnpPs4O16bHZJNtZwqzc/s1600/Apricot+Jan+1a.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568657449398638786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffhk24VEvfQ4oGUPrUe_vguVXEkEqvXd3WwSgIojJri_XFdpfnPSSznVEaZeBGYFUFjbs7ot_If6DR26E3-OWIel5Rkxcfx_bSzhwQ7l_J3oVjtjQZ78Id95fgnpPs4O16bHZJNtZwqzc/s200/Apricot+Jan+1a.jpg" /></a><br /><div>In response to a request I am posting a pic of my <span style="color:#ff0000;">weeping apricot</span> <em>Prunus mume</em> so you can see what it looks like in mid summer. In the pic you can see that the weeping 'wands' are about half way earthwards. They will hit the ground (some, not all) in another month or two. All our rain has not affected the tree which has reacted by putting on a lot of growth this season. Mind you its in a pretty good position where it receives all the run-off from the driveway so it has done well ever since we planted it nearly 19 years ago. I prune it hard every year in late winter so it has remained a compact weeping tree. If left unpruned it would tend to spread sidewards and eventually it would obstruct the paths on all three sides of its triangular bed. There is a specimen in a garden near here that although only 2m high is about 4-5m wide.</div><br /><div>As I have said before, this is a very hardy deciduous tree that does not succumb to pear and cherry slug like many weeping cherries. It flowers with pale pink blossoms from June to September that stay on the tree for weeks, good green dense foliage through spring and summer and autumn foliage of yellow and orange. Sometimes a small number of bitter apricots are produced but they are useful only for pickling apparently.</div><div></div><div>The plant beneath the apricot is Erigeron 'Elsie'. It flowered profusely in spring but then did not take kindly to the excessive amounts of rain and is looking rather ill at the moment. However it is coming good and I expect it to make a full recovery.</div><br /><div></div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-85770206986821316242011-01-14T21:43:00.003+11:002011-01-14T21:51:58.977+11:00Yes more rainWe did have a break from the rain - for about 20 days over Christmas and New Year which brought the final total for 2010 to about 1000mm! Thats about three times the average for over the last decade. Have I mentioned this before? I think I may have.<br />Anyway it started raining again on Tuesday and since then we have had 182mm. The creek is a raging torrent and has slammed a huge tree up against the bridge. The little carpark besides the doctor's surgery that has for many years had a sign at its entrance warning that the carpark may flood - did so last night. We had no power for 16 hours because a tree brought down the powerlines just up the road. Yes its flooding in Queensland but its also flooding here.<br />The garden looks splendiferous - the lawn so green it hurts your eyes. The chook run is a swimming pool and the vegetable garden is an island in an even bigger swimming pool. On a different matter something hungry has paid a visit to our apple trees. The ground is littered with gnawed apples! Well known author Jackie French maintains that birds only eat the ripest choicest fruit and as our apples are nowhere near ripe these were either very stupid birds or very hungry birds or maybe not even birds at all......Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-25539777084115269892010-12-04T16:24:00.003+11:002010-12-04T16:49:13.987+11:00Ok Send-er-down-Hughie we've had sufficient!183mm in October and 200mm in November, 10mm so far this month with more thunderstorms brewing as I write. "Rain from the east, three days at least." I heard on the radio the other day and this axiom has proved to be correct. I've never seen rain like this in all my born days. The ground is absolutely saturated and gutters are ruuning after the briefest shower. The local reservoir has gone from about 18% full in September to 41% in 2 months. Lake Eppalock has gone from empty to overflowing in a similar time frame.<br />I took a walk around the garden to count the mounting cost. The following plants are dying - <span style="color:#ff0000;">rosemary</span>, various salvias and some <span style="color:#ff0000;">succulents</span>. Looking stressed are a <span style="color:#ff0000;">South African lobelia,</span> more <span style="color:#ff0000;">salvias</span>, a <span style="color:#ff0000;">foxglove</span>, <span style="color:#ff0000;">petunias</span>, <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Penstemon barbarae, Teucrium betonicum</span></em>, the spurge olive <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Cneorum tricoccon</span></em> and the giant fennel <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Ferula communis</span></em>. All have either dropped leaves or are drooping or turning yellow. And (mostly) all are fabulous drought tolerant plants that hate having wet feet. If it doesn't dry out soon I fear for these plants.Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-64311173506054024232010-11-27T21:20:00.003+11:002010-11-27T21:27:38.150+11:00More rain, more rain, more rainWe're up to about 100mm for November and its pouring as I write. The drains on either side of the street are torrents once again and the crossovers for the driveways have been washed/scoured out for the fifth time in the last two months. In fact they were reinstated this morning by the council and have been washed out again this evening! We have never seen rain like this - either here on anywhere else we have lived. Its extraordinary.<br />The dam is still overflowing, the frogs have gone hoarse with all their croaking and the shed has been flooded again. The vegetable garden paths are lap pools and the chook yard is full of little ponds. The roses that were looking so bountiful are now hanging their heads in sorrow. The towers of sweet peas have all but collapsed and the petals have been blasted off the poppies. But I refuse to be dismayed by all this rain. We've had a drought for over a decade! I told my kids it would take weeks if not months of rain to break the drought and the chooks have come home to roost!Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2634009882775524256.post-87148480211764646412010-11-16T18:14:00.003+11:002010-11-16T18:26:19.427+11:00Garden Visitors60mm on Saturday meant it was very wet under foot for the 40 garden visitors yesterday. They didn't seem to mind however and overlooked the shaggy lawns that were too wet to mow. The rain has meant the new lawn has bedded in well and is beginning to put on new growth which is very promising. After a frantic day weeding on Sunday (after the rain finally stooped) I was reasonably happy with how it all looked. Yes there were weeds but they weren't too obvious.<br />All the rain we have had has meant prolific blooming for most plants. <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Echium</em> 'Cobalt Tower'</span> has produced enormous spikes almost 3m tall as has the giant fennel <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Ferula communis</span></em>. It looks like my NZ flax <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Phormium tenax</span></em> possibly the cultivar 'Goliath' is going to produce about a dozen flower spikes - its only ever produced one or two before. The <span style="color:#ff0000;">sweet peas</span> I planted back in April are starting to produce heaps of sweetly scented flowers in all sorts of colours including bi-colours. I planted the seed at the base of conical tomato trainers and they are already reaching beyond them (about 1.5m high). The <span style="color:#ff0000;">Flanders poppies</span> are a blaze of heat in my red garden next to <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Cotinus</em> 'Grace'</span> which is covered in its smoky blooms. The purple fountain grass <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Pennisetum advense rubrum</span></em> has not recovered from its autumnal prune. What is it with this wretched plant - talk about behaving like a prima donna! This is the fourth time I have tried this spectacular grass but I can't seem to keep it for any longer than 12 months! If I don't prune it dies, if I do prune it dies! On the other hand my <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Miscanthus</em> 'Sarabande'</span> just goes on and on and on.....Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02670413566904543580noreply@blogger.com0