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.

using the bird bath

I don't see birds in the birdbath too often, let alone when I have the camera in hand, so I was glad to get this snap of a very wet blackbird today.

Oh and as you can just see, the tequlia blue salvia is already starting to flower.  It should keep flowering right through to autumn, I love this plant!

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:

flowers flowers everywhere

I don't usually take photos of flowers, I'm not very good at it and I don't have that many.  But I took a few snaps about the place and thought I'd share them.

Here's one of my vinca, I just love the pink-eyed kind.

Cumquat blossoms are actually quite beautiful from close up, and they smell divine too.

Liriope is a common bedding grass you see a lot of around Melbourne because they're so tough.  But you don't often think about their flowers, which can be quite cute.

I just bought these two miniature day lilies today - stella bella.  Each flower only blooms for a day, but they put out more flowers all through the spring, summer, and autumn and they're tough as boots.  Even though it's autumn one of them has two stalks going strong and the other has two stalks that haven't even blossomed yet!

And finally, here is Percival who is instructing me in the proper method of taking photos of my salvia.

getting busy ... with flowers

I realized when I got back to Melbourne how much my garden keeps me grounded.  I feel unsettled if I don't know what the weather is going to be, if I don't know how my plants are doing, if I don't know what's starting to ripen.  So the first day back from two weeks overseas and I was getting busy.

I'd decided not long before the trip that I wanted to plant more flowers in the garden.  Veggies and fruit are still my first priority, but flowers not only add pizazz but attract all-important pollinators.

My first project which I'd decided on before I left was a row of vinca along the front path.  As you can see here (first photo), there aren't any flowers at all, and for this project I was focusing on the bed next to the garage.

I decided on vinca because it looks almost exactly like impatiens.  I adore impatiens, and they just bloom and bloom from the end of summer through much of winter.  But they love their water, and I just couldn't bring myself to plant them.  But vinca, on the other hand, is much hardier and shouldn't need much water at all.  You're meant to plant them in the hot sun but I've heard they don't mind shade so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It ended up being quite a workout, and it felt good to get the exercise (though my muscles are killing me today!).  I had to dig into the rock-hard, chalk-dry clay along the front of that bed, then try to soften the soil by adding some home-made compost.  They got a good deep watering with seasol then the return of the mulch.

Now instead of a plain path, it looks like this!  And with any luck they'll keep blooming for months yet.  This is now the first thing you see when you walk up.  A nice welcoming sight if I do say so myself.

But I wasn't finished yet, I continued my rampage of flowers. 

I so loved having poinsettias outside the front door during Christmas, I decided I'd plant feature pots of flowers year-round, changing them up every few months.  For the autumn I chose salvia (blue) and alyssum (white).  My next project, when I get around to it, will be to find matching plant stands so they're a little bit off the ground.  By the way, no sooner had I planted them when a bee buzzed up to the salvia!  It flew away before I could snap a picture but it made me happy to see it.  I also saw a bee the next day in one of the pumpkin flowers - the first time I've seen one back there.  Might just be coincidence, but again I took it as a good sign.

Finally, the garden centre I frequent had some geraniums that were outgrowing their tiny punnets so they marked them down to $3 for three of them.  As you can see here, my geraniums on one side have been suffering in the heat as they get the brunt of the afternoon sun.

So I replaced the three tiniest, most struggling plants with these seedlings to give them a bit more of a head-start.  I'm hoping the whole row takes off over the winter and will be much stronger in next summer's heat.

I was exhausted after all this, but in a good way, and mightily proud of myself!  By the way I've also ordered some spring bulbs (miniature iris, species tulips, and snowdrops) which should arrive in a few weeks, as well as planting out a bunch of spring stars my mother-in-law gave me.  Flowers, flower everywhere!