planting and harvesting

Today I started my tomatoes. Two different varieties once again: black cherry and miel du Mexique (honey of Mexico). I threw out my sun reflector shield thingy so I'll have to make a new one when the seeds sprout. I forgot to mention when I originally wrote this, I'm using the heat pad again - the kind you're meant to put under a terrarium for lizards or frogs. However I've learned that they're powerful things, so I put a folded-up plastic crate between the heat pad and the planting tray. And on sunny days (like today), I unplug the whole thing or the soil heats up to 30+ degrees!

I've also recently decided to grow some colourful beetroot. These were bought as mixed seedlings - red, golden, and striped beetroot. I've also planted a set of golden beetroot seeds but apparently they're hard to germinate so we'll see how they go.

My firecracker chilies were so laden I went through and picked every single red chili so they didn't rot on the plant!

My snow peas in the back bed are struggling, I don't think there's enough sun for them. They're only half the size of the plants in pots on the front porch. I don't think it'll be worth growing anything here over the winter.

So even though it's winter there are a few things going on.

a hint of spring

I've been really unmotivated about the garden this winter.  It's the coldest, wettest winter I can remember since moving to Australia six years ago.  It's hard to be excited about gardening in that weather.  But today was a hint of spring to come - a perfectly sunny day with a high of 18.  How could I stay inside in that weather?

The bees were busy in my rosemary bush.

A few cyclamen plants that survived the deep shade under the fig tree are putting on a lovely show.

And the geum is already starting to put out its spring flush!  I thought it would wait a lot longer.  You can also just see the daffodils springing up behind it.

The hellebore are going crazy, look at this show!

Even Thatcher was enjoying the sunshine in front of a few spring stars.

The multigraft twig is putting out heaps of new shoots, both leaves and flowers.  That's reassuring since the last set of growth in the autumn dropped its leaves and died over winter, possibly because of the cold.  I just hope we don't get a bad cold snap that knocks out this growth too!

Which just reminds us that spring is still a month away. This week will be more sunny warmth but after that is a return to the cold.

plans for the patio

This is our patio, home of the much-loved chiminea, the not-loved massive table (that we never use), and the small table we drag around to follow the sun in winter and shade in summer.  Last summer we decided the space just wasn't working - our sun umbrella wasn't big enough so we never actually sat on the patio, we always hid next to the fig tree where the chairs got covered in bird poo.  So we have some plans for a change - probably a covered pergola so we can get some nicer furniture and be protected from the summer sun.

But there were some necessary first steps involved.  The plants in front of the mosaic needed to come out.  Not only are they growing into the space quite a lot, but they'll be undercover and die anyway.  I planted some sage elsewhere and I already have another rosemary bush so I'll still have my herbs.

But the second problem are the cumquat trees.  They're very cute but they're right where the pergola legs need to go.  Plus they're so big that I have to trim them about three times per growing season to keep them to a reasonable size.  They intrude quite a lot into the space.

So I put the cumquat trees on eBay, like I did for the ficus trees, and they sold for quite a decent amount!  The best part was that the buyers did the grunt work to dig them out (with a bit of help from us).  Hopefully with a good trim they'll spring back to life quickly enough.  But now our patio is so empty!

Next steps are to decide for sure what kind of structure we want and sell the table, chairs and umbrella on eBay.

Once the whole space has been taken care of, I have three beds to fill with plants - the side in front of the yuccas and the two front bits where the cumquats used to be.  I'm thinking mixed perennials in front of the yuccas for a bit more screening.  I'm not as sure about the two front beds.  Maybe some more herbs or veggies, or maybe just seasonal annuals.  Annuals are a good short-term solution whilst I decide what to do.

I'll keep you posted as the project progresses, but hopefully we'll have a great little setup well before summer.  I can't wait!

what's going on in july?

Winter's a pretty quiet time in the garden, especially this year as I haven't grown many winter veg.  I did get my first harvest of kale the other day though - went into a lovely minestrone.  The snow peas are also starting to produce nicely but no pictures of them.

My Chilean jasmine is hanging in there in the cold.  It doesn't like it - it's dropped a fair few leaves - but it's also putting out fresh growth at the tips so I'm optimistic for the summer.

And finally, the first stirrings of spring are beginning - my fancy daffs are just starting to emerge.  They're still just tiny shoots so I circled it in the picture - not that you can see it anyway!

I do have some major pruning projects happening, and a complete re-do of the patio, but I'll save those for other posts.

june flowers

Along with the winter vegetables, here's an update on the winter flowers.  The snowflakes are going nuts - every winter their clumps get thicker and thicker (this is what they looked like last winter).

My species tulips are just starting to wake up too.  I start watering them again in the winter, knowing they wake up quite early.  The first growing tip has appeared!  Can you find it in this photo?

My colmnara orchid is still growing away.  They seem to rotate between putting out flowers and putting out new pseudobulbs.  I bought it last year in August just when it was blooming.  It doesn't look like it will blossom again by August, it's still working on several new pseudobulbs.  But I can't complain as it seems to be green and happy!  Maybe I'll visit the orchid show again and get another pretty orchid in bloom.

My three hellebores are blooming one at a time.  The first ones are coming in very pale this year for some reason; last year they were dark purple-black.  Maybe the next flush will come in darker?

On the other hand the second plant appears to be coming in dark.  The third one's sulking a bit but I know it will get there soon enough.

The nearby gaura has finished and is looking a bit scraggly.  After this photo I went in and trimmed them back a bit.  One of them had a bit of dead growth which I cut out, I hope that doesn't mean it's dying.

I haven't shown you the succulents in ages.  I went through a phase where I was growing quite a few, but I decided they're rather boring plants.  They grow very slowly and don't change much; I like a plant with a bit of personality.  But this little bowl of succulents has slowly filled in.  I like that in the winter the ones on the left turn red.

That's about it in the garden at the moment!  That and major pruning but that's not very interesting for the blog.

june veggies

It's been a pretty quiet winter in the garden.  I haven't planted many veggies this year but I thought I'd show a few pictures of what is growing.  As with last year I'm growing one Tuscan kale plant.  It's taken a while to get going, but it's now just big enough to start picking leaves for minestrone.  For some reason the white butterflies have left it alone this year, even though they decimated the Chinese cabbage I had growing next to it.

I'm also growing two pots of Oregon spring snowpeas.  They're also just starting to set pods.  I think they really appreciate having the teepee trellis this year.  They're bush-type peas but they still need some support.

My parsley plant has gone absolutely nuts.  Parsley's funny like that, it creeps along slowly until one day you realise you've got a triffid in the yard and there's nothing you can do about it.

My chilies are also still pottering along.  They're still ripening up, although more slowly in the cold.  It's also starting to look a bit yellow, but I'm not sure if I should fertilise it in the winter.

Finally, my twig lost all of its first flush of fruit but it's still holding onto a later flush.  I don't know if they're mandarins or tangelos though.

Unfortunately the other graft is suffering a bit of die-back on some of the new growing tips.  First the young leaves went, now they're turning brown.  I hope it doesn't continue!

1, 2, 3 simit!

OK so I've got one more post to make, inspired by my time in Turkey.  On nearly every street you could find a man selling simit, a sort of sesame bagel.  They were so good I had one almost every day!  When I got home, I did some searching and found a recipe to make them at home!  This is the recipe I used:
1 1/2 c water
1 1/4 t salt
4 c bread flour
3 t instant yeast
1 T molassas
1/4 c warm water
1 c toasted sesame seeds

I made the dough in my bread machine; otherwise knead the dough and let it rise for about an hour.  Afterward, punch down the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Divide dough into 24 pieces and roll them into 14-inch long snakes.  Twist two pieces together and press into a ring.

Here's the next step.  First preheat the oven to 280c (it needs a while to warm up).  Dissolve the molasses in the warm water.  I toasted the sesame seeds in a wok on medium-high heat - stir them constantly so they don't burn.  Next dip the rings in the molasses, then roll completely with seeds. 

Let the rings rise until they get puffy like this - 10 to 20 minutes depending on how warm the room is.  Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

They should look like this, but don't let them burn like I did!

autumn photos

I'm alive, I promise!

I was on a wonderful holiday in Turkey for two weeks; three weeks and 500 photos later, I'm only halfway through sorting them all!  So I've been neglecting both my garden and this blog.  Here's a bit of an update.

This autumn has been a real stunner in Melbourne, after a wet summer and a cold snap.  Unfortunately I missed the best of it, by the time I got back a lot of trees were just past their prime.  I missed my crepe myrtle's show entirely and after all the effort, missed the best weeks of my white anemones!  But my little maple put on a real show this year, it's the first autumn it's really shown off.

The time last year I was still referring to the poor thing as the "sad little maple" and it looked like this!

Big improvement, isn't it?  The oakleaf hydrangea is also looking very handsome, I reckon there's more red in the mix this year:

Compared to last year (the leaves did lose their green eventually but didn't gain the reddish hue):

I also had a little surprise come out of my giant elephant ear colocasia.  I've seen the flowers on my Amazon Queen colocasia before, but never seen them do this!  I'm not sure if it was just that the species type was more mature than my Amazon Queen or what, but it made a cheerful bright seed pod that looks a bit like an exploding triffid corn cob.

Finally, a quick snap of my lovely little colmanara hybrid orchid.  I took the advice of the grower I bought it from last year; when it finished flowering I put it outside on the porch.  It's grown several new pseudobulbs over the winter, and doesn't seem to mind the cold or the added sunlight from the low winter sun.  It's getting a few black spots that I hope are not mold!  No sign of new flower spikes though.  I wonder if I'll go to the orchid show again this year, and if I'll take home another orchid from this hybrid family.  The whole family seems to have drop-dead gorgeous flowers, and it seems to be pretty easy to care for.  But the real test will be whether I can get it to flower again!

That's all for now.  It's definitely winter now which in the garden is a time for reluctant maintenance in the cold. I've only got a few winter veg to look after this year so it's mostly a matter of raking up the rest of the leaves and getting through some major winter pruning tasks.  So you might not hear much from me for a little while, but I'm still here!

anemones at last

I decided a while back that one of my planned additions to the garden were white anemones (also called Japanese windflowers).  They're just so graceful and charming in the autumn garden after the heat of the summer has passed.  But I didn't realise just how hard that would be to achieve! 

Garden shops tend to sell plants like this when they're in flower so they're more appealing.  So as I saw the anemones flowering in my neighbours' gardens I starting asking about anemones in my local garden shop.  It took them a few weeks before they got them in ... and they were pink.  I've got nothing against pink flowers in general but to me, pink anemones just don't have the magic of the simple, clean white ones.  So I looked around at other garden shops.  Pink.  I checked back at the local.  Still pink.  Bunnings?  Pink.  I had a chat at my local and found out that they'd called every one of their suppliers, and only one had white anemones and they weren't yet big enough to sell!

So with atypical patience I asked them to put down my name and waited for my anemones to grow in some distant nursery somewhere.  Every weekend for about a month I'd stop by, just to check if they were in yet.  At last, just before Easter I got a message on my phone that started with "now don't fall out of your chair, but..."

At last they'd arrived!  As soon as I could I stopped by and sure enough, there were the little baby anemones.  And also some big, beautiful two-year-olds covered with perfect white flowers.  Now usually I'm patient enough to buy the small plant and wait a year for flowers, but not this time.  I'd waited long enough.  They weren't cheap, but they were mine!

Here's the "before" picture of where they went, in the back western bed. 

And here's the after - one on each side of the vitex bed (it's hard to see the one farther from the camera).  I took out a few more tufts of the liriope; it's a tough little plant and a good contrast but boring and worth sacrificing for these beauties.  Next year they'll grow even higher, their flower heads dancing in the breeze.

I'm really starting to be happy with this corner of the garden.  The vitex is growing incredibly quickly and the hydrangeas are powering along slowly but steadily.  The Japanese maple is doing so much better in its new home and the brunnera "jack frost" (just to the side of the nearer anemone) is happy too.  I'm amazed at how big the elephant ear colocasia has grown in that back corner, so it's obvious that the two small ones at the corner of the square bed are going to have to move soon.  And I've let some wild violets take seed behind the vitex to give the dichondra "silver falls" some competition.  The marigolds and ageratum will die down over the winter but they're still going strong for now.

Now I couldn't just let you go with only that distant view of the anemones, could I?  I've been playing with my new smartphone recently and having a ball with a camera program I downloaded that lets you set all kinds of old-fashioned filters on your photos.  So here's a whimsical photo of the anemones to finish on.  I hope it captures for you the beauty that attracted me to these simple, pure, white anemones.