geum

After thinking it over for what feels like forever, I finally got plants for the lavender bed.  It ended up being a spur-of-the-moment decision: I saw a little plant called geum "pink frills" at a nursery, liked them, and brought them home.  They have nice bright foliage and peachy-pink nodding flower heads.  I think they'll be a little tender to the hot sun but I'm hoping we'll continue to have a wet summer to help establish them in their new home.  I've dug in a good-sized bucket of compost around each one to help out, the soil otherwise was pure sand that had been under weed mat which meant it was very barren.

Here's the "before" brainstorming sketch for comparison.

Geum is meant to repeat-flower all the way to autumn.  I like the colour contrast with the lavender - both the flowers and the lime-green foliage.  And although you can't tell now, I'm hoping the tall gaura behind them will be another nice compliment with pale pinky-white flowers on long stems.

Here's a close up of the flowers.  Sweet, aren't they?

I just hope they like their new home!

Speaking of the rain, I probably should mention it's been raining A LOT.  We've had the wettest spring in years, which is a mixed blessing.  It's been warm, tropical rain from up north which is unusual for Melbourne.  At first the farmers were happy but now it's rained so much they can't even harvest their crops.  And in the garden, it's meant I've been bolder with planting new things in the summer which is usually a bad idea.  But I've also had some fungal problems - rust has removed almost every leaf from my geraniums so I've been using lime sulfur to save the new leaves coming in. Ah, the joys of unpredictable Melbourne weather!