the pretty and the ugly

Took a few photos of this and that around the garden this weekend and things slowly awaken to spring.  This is in the big square raised bed (formerly goldfish pond) that holds a rapidly-growing vitex shrub.  I planted dichondra silver falls two years ago and it's spread beautifully (the light blue, small leaves).  This autumn I noticed some common violets coming up in the back corner of the bed and thought, why not?  They're a bit weedy but they love the shade and they're hardy.  So I let it grow, and got a surprise - it's a white violet!

Also in this corner of the world, the oakleaf hydrangeas are starting to wake up.  I love how they keep their burgundy leaves all winter long, only dropping when the new leaves emerge.  And the first flower heads are already starting to develop!

I've also seen the first flower heads forming on my new daffodils, I can't wait to see how they look!  And my good old clivia have put up their flower heads too (no photos yet though, there's not much to see).  Although our unseasonably warm week is over and it's back to winter temperatures, the plants are still gearing up for spring.

And so are the weeds, if they ever really stopped.  I'm sure every gardener has at least one "ugly corner", that bit they wish would go away, that bit they try not to look at.  This is my ugly corner. 

Ever since last year's flooding I've had a lot harder time keeping the weeds down; the mud and debris from all my neighbours deposited weed seeds between every pebble.  And this part of the garden, next to the compost bin, hot water and clothes line, has never been very pretty.  First I let the self-seeding alyssum go because at least it was something pretty.  But now it's gone crazy and so have all the other weeds.  I don't like letting weeds go nuts, because once they seed they never stop coming.  I really need to spend the time to rip it all up.  Maybe next week...

happy little maple, the back bed, and favourite flowers

I'm glad to announce that the sad little maple tree survived its ordeal.  As you can see the tips of the longer branches have died, although some of them have buds that haven't sprouted yet.  But I'm very proud of its tenacity, and I hope that this year is kinder to it than last year.  Hopefully I'll remember to water it more often!  In the meantime it's going to get some coffee grinds around the roots this weekend.  It loves acidic soil and the grinds should keep the surface roots cool.  I just had to learn the hard way last year, only to put a thin layer of grounds.  Anything as thick as even 1cm turns into a hard caked crust!

I thought I'd add a picture of the back bed whilst I was at it.  The pansies in the raised beds are doing OK but I don't think I'd plant them back there again.  They want more sun, the blooms are large but don't last long, and any bit of rain makes them flop over.  Compare that to the smaller violas I describe in a moment...

In the meantime the oakleaf hydrangeas are starting to wake up from winter dormancy (they're too stick-like to see in the photo but they're near those lamps in the raised beds).  I also wanted to bring the perennial statice to your attention, it's those clusters of broad dark leaves with the whispy purple flowers.  They are fabulous plants, the blooms last forever, all through the autumn.  And when the autumn flowers faded it had already put out another set of buds which bloomed with the spring.  Two long shows per year, and they're tough and drought-friendly.  A great find for any Melbourne garden.

The big bed in the middle is full of manure and waiting for this year's veggies.  I'm thinking I'll try edamame soybeans, the kind you eat freshly steamed as a snack.  It's a Japanese snack I highly recommend if you haven't tried them.

As promised, here's another look at the violas at the front door.  Now you can see why I prefer them to the pansies ... they put out so many cheerful blossoms and they've done so all winter long.  The trick is to pick off the spent flower heads every so often so they spend their energy making more flowers instead of making seeds.  Will definitely grow again next winter.

Next we have probably my all-time favourite flower, geraniums (pelargoniums).  I keep showing photos but I can't help myself.  I can't quite get over that twelve months ago these were tiny seedlings with maybe six leaves.  And now they're going nuts!  This is the cluster that's done so well I've had to prune it back already.

My clivias are doing well too.  I planted them in the autumn and they've all put out new growth, though only one decided to bloom this year.  But what a bloom!  This variety is meant to blossom twice a year, so maybe by the autumn all three plants will be ready to bloom at once.  And in the meantime, I think one of them has had a baby.  You can just see a little green leaf coming out of the bark in front of the parent.  I think it's a "pup", which would be great, I'd love to have a thick cluster of clivia in this bed.  Though I can't recommend them yet as they haven't survived a Melbourne summer yet...

And finally, another flower I can't yet recommend because I don't know if it'll survive the summer.  My hellebores survived a vicious aphid attack, and one of them decided it was ready to flower this year.  I'm very happy with the colour, they came from a mix so I didn't know what colour they'd be.  They go semi-dormant over the summer so I hope that means they'll survive the heat.

buds

The winter is slowly fading.  It helps that June was a full degree warmer than normal.  My plum trees are just starting to burst into bud.  I've got two that I think are fruiting plums and three that I think are just ornamentals.  They didn't set any fruit at all last year but they were very neglected and stressed by the drought.  This year I've pruned them quite a bit, cutting out a lot of dead wood, and given them a bit of a feed.  So with luck this year I'll at least find out what kind of plum they are!  There are already a lot more blossom buds this year than last.  These are blossoms from the ornamental plum, aren't they gorgeous?  Reminds me of a Japanese painting.

I've also found a flower bud coming up from one of my three clivia.  I hope they all blossom this year, but I'm excited to see at least one is coming along!  With luck they'll live up to their reputation for being low-maitenance, un-fussy plants.

And finally, these aren't buds by any means, but I just love when the alyssum is at its peak and it's a thick carpet of snowy white.

more signs of spring

My first iris reticulata bloomed today!  How stunning is this tiny beauty?  It's only a few inches tall.  I just hope the rest of them come up soon, I'd rather see a little row of irises than have them come up one at a time.  I've got some species  tulips in the same bed but I actually have no idea if they bloom at the same time or if the tulips come up later than the irises.  I just hope they all settle in and start making babies, both the irises and tulips are meant to "naturalise" easily.  That means they spread by making more bulbs until they form big clusters of blossoms.  How wonderful would that be?

These aren't really spring flowers, I just wanted to show the progress of my geraniums.  They simply have not stopped flowering since they got their first flowers last spring.  And in the winter their lovely brown "horseshoe" leaf patterns are really showing off - they fade in the summer sun.  The alyssum is going nuts too, and supposedly they self-seed so with luck I won't ever have to plant more.  All in all I'm really happy with this bed, it's right at the front of the house, it's always flowering and it takes care of itself.

Finally, here's how far the geraniums have come in the last year.  I first planted them last winter and they were no bigger than a few tiny leaves.  This is what they looked like in March after the brutal summer heat.  The three on the left had to be replaced.

By May they looked like this:

And now they're in gorgeous full form!

geraniums and alyssum

I just wanted to post some pictures of my geranium beds.  The white alyssum has come in nicely.

Here's the left-hand bed; unfortunately the alyssum under the bigger geraniums died, maybe competing for water with the geranium?

And here's the left-hand bed.  I had to replace some of the geraniums after the summer heat so the ones on the left are quite small still.

Pretty, huh?

the nursery

I've started referring to one corner of my front porch as "the nursery".  It started when Bunnings delivered somethings and left us with a little basket which I used to keep my succulent cuttings together (don't ask about the succulents, they didn't work out too well).  But now I've expanded the enterprise a bit.

I've decided that if I'm planning on planting a lot of flowers, I'll do the bit of work beforehand and try to grow them from seed first.  So here are purple punnets planted with alyssum seeds.  Alyssum is a small white flower I planted together with salvia, you can just see some to the right of the photo peeking out from the flower pot.  I wasn't a huge fan at first but I've been won over.  They're tough, they flower almost all year round, and they smell lovely.  So I'm starting a bunch of them to plant in front of my geraniums along the house, at least until the geraniums get a bit of height to them.

And since my "nursery" is at the front door next to my pot plants, I won't forget to water it!