October 2023 Garden Roundup

After such a dry winter, with the tanks at the Community Garden running out of water, the weather was still making it possible to enjoy a lovely Spring, today  like yesterday, it is pouring rain, and looks like it will be raining most of the week. The Community Garden of course are very pleased as all their tanks and containers would be full by now.  The 2nd. 10,000 litre load of water to be delivered at $250 mark was cancelled, a great relief on John's part as the first one only lasted a month. 

 

The council though ,finally installed the water connection, last Friday, so that the Garden can now have a water main and several taps around the acre to water from, once the plumber is hired. John once more has been elected President and Treasurer at last months AGM 5th year in a row. I was hoping he would  not take it on, and be home more, but as usual he is out nearly every day, reminds me of the old days when he was teaching full time. I am definitely missing the company of Einstein and Cricket these days.

I planted two Hollyhocks from my best friends seeds in Melbourne and both have put on quite a show, the flowers are just starting to drop off now, but have been very impressive. Certainly I will save these seeds. This plant is on the boundary line for all to see.

 I braved today's rain to take some pictures of the garden now. Quite a few plants are ready to pull out, the Pink Lady sweetpeas are gone, and the broccoli, celery, coriander, some alysum, and snapdragons are also ready for the compost bin.

The area I see from the verandah.

 The recent plantings are some lettuce and some french beans. I am usually the only one eating from the garden now, John likes his frozen microwave meals he can eat in front of the computer. Consequently there is usually way too much for me so I have had to freeze some.

Mizuna going to seed and a struggling Kale under the cover, White Cabbage Moth have been a problem. The lettuce is loving this rain though.

Yet another lot of french beans the 3rd try this time in a different bed.

I did plant some more beans yesterday,  the 3rd lot of seedlings, as to date they have been eaten by slugs or pulled out by birds, or so far this morning they are still intact, as I did change garden beds this time.

This end is cucumber, carrots Parsley and Basil

Two Zucchinni ,wild tomatoes and  beetroot in the middle of this bed.

The Blueberry and Rhubarb buried by Coriander and Paper Daisies plus Alyssum.

 One thing that has been amazing is the cherry tomatoes. I have picked so many and thrown out lots as I just can't keep up. I have also sent them to the Community Gardens where they sell well. Seedlings of course have been through out the garden like weeds.

Yellow Cherry

Yellow Cherry Toms are my favorite and this hangs on both sides of the fence, and more rhubarb in this bed. They grew wild but handy to have the fence to throw the long stems over.

Red cherries again both sides and overtaking a passionfruit underneath.

I moved a plant stand to the front of the verandah as it gets the morning sun and now some of  the rain and mist. It is a great spot for my cuttings and seedling trays.

Finally some nature pictures

Where I park my car this bush is on the dividing line so watch this lorikeet eating the flowers, from the car.

A baby water dragon finding its way to the verandah.

 And Finally, 

Kookaburra just resting on the fence for ages.

 

 Till Next Time.

Spring has arrived

Another month has gone and I think time is speeding up too fast. I have been busy in the garden of course, and it is looking lovely at the moment, I have managed to do some weeding and mulching. The flowers are all out, vegetables growing and well Spring is definitely here.

Side garden

Current Lettuce/Parsley, Celery bed I pick daily for lunch.

Sweet peas have been producing so much that I have been sending them to the Community garden in bunches of 20 and they have all been selling. This weekend is a big Plant Sale they hold twice a year and have sent in 6 bunches this time plus 2 of Rhubarb, 2 lots of single Kale, 4 x 6 Cherry Tomato punnets, and 4 of single Basil. Happy to say they all sold yesterday, so picked another couple of bunches of one sweet peas and they other yellow coreopsis for today.

Change of colour for sweet peas

An interesting effect has happened to 3 branches of sweet peas that now have a mottled pattern, so I have tied a ribbon to the branches so that when the seeds are formed I can grow that colour. 

I picked up a couple of plants from Bunnings this week and yet to plant them. They will go down the back. John has finished the beds and are full of good soil mixture. 

Liked the brightness of these daisies and carnations remind me of my wedding bouquet.

Kalanchoe lots of new varieties I hadn't seen when I was there last week. 

The Community garden has also finally transferred the container from our son's house and is now waiting for a crane to lift it into its proper space. This will be part office and part storage. 

A roof will be joining that tanks and the container, which allows for a seat area between the tanks. 

Tank got this far

Arial view of where it will go.

There has been quite a few new members this year, and all seem to want a garden bed to hire so John has been building  beds in a new area for this. There has been a lot of public events, and this has come to the notice of everyone. The garden is always looking neat and tidy and a credit to the workers there. 

 On the other hand we are waiting for a landscape gardener to come, he is so busy we had to make a booking, to give us a quote for the artificial grass out back plus maybe the gazebo roof, and pool renovation, fingers crossed for that. John has more or less finished.

There is now three smaller beds at sitting height filled with cow manure/mushroom compost., currently covered to keep the bush turkeys from scraping it all up. A couple piles of dirt have been left in case it is used for the base. Whether the paving will go I am not sure yet.

I will probably plant bush beans and maybe a cucumber vine and brightly coloured flowers so I can see easily from the verandah. There are still 3 long flower pots behind the RHS middle bed. The Pottery flower pots I will arrange somewhere together I think, and  also paint the fence again, most likely the grey. Maybe also a couple of hanging baskets off them as well. 

 

 One last look at the front garden.

 

New roses I have picked for this week.

 

Till Next Time .

Big Front Garden Upgrades & Planting Roses.

Part one is the work  I have been doing on the front garden, and originally many, many years ago we added "the farm fence". This came from John's family farm in Casino as I like this rustic look.

Then we added vegetable beds, which were made from old roofing and lasted quite a few years till we upgraded the whole front again and turned it into the picture below, with garden beds cut into the lawn as well.

Eventually these gardens were all raised and neatened up to look like this.

Taken in 2019

 

The fences, now as I get older though, have been difficult for me to negotiate getting behind them, being not as fit anymore. One long one, was broken in half, so in the end I asked John to remove them except for the board in which the Elkhorn fern was attached to, so that was made shorter.

This is all that is left now of the fence.

The corner itself  I am still working on, and thinking of adding tall flowers like cosmos, although I have added a marguerite daisy bush.

Still working on this corner, I  did cut all the roses back,  the peace climbing rose is struggling and may come out.

 So I have ended up with way more space with no fence and planted another 5 roses, lol what else. 2 different yellow, a Peace non climbing, 2 shaded ones red to light but both different.

The very end of this section I cut back and dug out old stuff. The roses that looked like they were dying have now come good with a severe prune one red and the other Blue Moon. I am now planning to plant heaps of annuals on this entire side, which are growing in pots and will soon be ready to plant out, depends on the overnight cold. Maybe in a week of two.

I have a lavender to plant in front of the roses RHS once I dig the ground up.

Overall  view to date.

 Joining the end of the final roses is my new Blueberry and strawberry farm. This had all the herbs in it, which have now been moved to pots. I transplanted a blueberry from the back and bought 3 new ones that actually grow in this area. The old one has blueberries on it. All in pots with special acid mixture they like. Can net this area against birds and lizards who also love blueberries.

This will be mulched which the strawberries get bigger hiding the pots.

 Finally the last bed next to the blueberries.

This is the final corner, and plants are growing well.

This is not the only area I have been working on, although it has been very cold in the mornings, I usually start later in the day, its a case of do a little, but do it often. We have been busy though, as I want to finish hopefully by mid August.

 Red Nasturium.

Till Next Time.

At Last Arborists Lops Trees

 We had a call this week that the arborist had a "gap" and could come and do the trees. 8am they rolled up several cars a huge truck and a chipper. I don't know what the neighbors thought and John did a quick check next door, to make sure she wasn't going anywhere as her driveway was blocked.

The first one to do was the olive, it has grown huge, and hanging over the driveway.

There were two teams one for the back and the other the front. The olive  was all lopped by an extended chainsaw, which was interesting, being so high. In the beginning of that the 2nd. team organized themselves and went around to the back Tibouchina.

 

The back tree  was a little more awkward due to the space limit. The dead wood on the tree we kept, so that was put on the next level. 

 The greenery carted up to the front via the right hand side which is where we keep all the firewood and old pots. Unfortunately some ceramic pots got broken, through lack of attention by the youngest fellow.

This is quite high up, and he is strapped in. 

I had covered my best plants with the milk crates, mostly on the left of the photo,  but all the "boys" worked from the right, where the roses are, at least they avoided them, but the seedlings might not all survive, between the branches and some big feet.The roof of the gazebo is next, if we can find someone, to replace it with metal to match the house.

We didn't keep any mulch because of the Olive, and everything was cleaned up with the blower, and it all took 90 mins.

Poor old Olive tree, I think it should have been a bit lower, but John thinks he can still cover it. I am not too worried I don't like Olives, but the pigeons do. 🫒 

 

 

Till Next Time