november blooms

OK so it's not November anymore but I took these snaps last week and I've been a bit slack.  The lavender in the west bed is blooming.  It's such a lovely shade of purple, the picture doesn't quite capture the shade.  For some reason I thought it blossomed a bit later, but when I checked, I posted about them blooming one year ago to the day!  I'm pretty sure they'll repeat bloom though, because I didn't clip them back until the autumn.  The gaura is still recovering from the haircut it got at planting time, but it's well on its way.

My oakleaf hydrangeas are thriving too.  Look at these flower spikes!  They're actually weighing down the branches they're so big.  I believe the flowers stay a long time, turning off-white and even pinkish before the end.  I think.

The bird bath corner is filling out well too.  The tequila blue salvia is even bigger than last year, although it is quite floppy and needs staking.  The magnolia is finally starting to sprout from where I chopped the top off last year, and the first beautiful flower has opened.  And now that the parsley's been pulled out the day lilies are actually getting a bit of sun.

I decided to take some cuttings from the salvia, it's meant to be very easy.  They're not dead yet anyway!

I'll probably put them along the fence in the east bed, we'll see how we go.  Oh and these aren't blooms, but I had a great little harvest of
rocket, parsley and radishes the other day.  The radishes obviously got
too much water all at once and two of them split.  At least they split
beautifully at the tip.

first fig and a magnolia blossom

Even though it got a good hair cut this winter my fig tree is loaded with figs, if anything it seems like more than last year.  I could tell they were almost ripe because of the unmistakable cloying sweet scent that I adore at this time of year.  A few of the early figs had already been pecked at but yesterday I was surprised to find an untouched ripe fig.  It was a bit bland in flavour but that's probably because we got 30mm of rain on Friday.  Lots of rain right before ripening tends to make big figs but waters down the flavour.  Indeed today after work I found two more fat, ripe figs, but one of them has split.

If the rain holds off a bit the others will have a better flavour when they ripen.  Not that I'm complaining about 30mm of rain!  They're talking this up as the end of the summer's real heat but I'll believe it when I see it.  But I've got to admit it's been a lot nicer this summer than last - only one or two days above 40, and rain showers every week or two.

And finally I want to leave you with this beauty.  I thought my little gem magnolia only blooms once a year but here's an autumn bloom!  It's just a shame they only seem to last a day or two at most.

bird bath and the corner garden

This little corner of the garden is really coming along.  On the left we have the catnip patch which has gone crazy.  Once it's finished flowering I'm going to cut it back ruthlessly because it's crowding out the mint (yes there's mind under there somewhere).  But in the meantime the bees love it, and so does my cat when he remembers what it is.

Next along is the little gem magnolia tree with two stella bella daylilies.  In front of the birdbath is an African purple basil - it's an ornamental basil, not tasty enough for eating but it smells lovely and it covers in blossom. There's a bit of alyssum next to it that self-seeded, it's scattered itself around the garden.

Behind the bird bath is my new "tequila blue" salvia.  The one on the left is now in full bloom and I love that the blossoms drop into the bird bath where their blue colour lingers for an extra day or two.  The one on the right got snapped off somehow unfortunately so no blooms this year.  But next year it should be even taller and bushier, I want it to shield the birthbath a bit for the more timid birds.

Here's a close up of the salvia blooms.

I reckon it's come along beautifully from this time last year!  This is December 2008: