Time to Clean up the Garden

 We have been having some lovely weather here, cold in the morning then sunny and around then by lunchtime 20C mark give or take. Perfect for garden work. 

Flowers and Roses.

I started on the front first, 2 weeks ago,  pruning the roses, digging, weeding, fertilizing then finally some mulch. It is going to take a while, especially as I had a busy week with  the dentist twice, the chiropractor, and 2 art groups, this week. I last for about 2 to 3 hours, have lunch and then start organizing the house and getting it back to normal again, and re arranging everything as I go. My craft stuff is everywhere.

I have planted a few more winter veg. then covered them against the white moth.

Of course there is still plenty growing, beetroot,capsicum, parsley, bok choy, carrots, snow peas,cherry tomatoes, as well as all the seedlings from 2 weeks ago.

The blueberry patch now has a rhubarb transplanted from the back garden into one of the pots where a blueberry had died. I also put in various flowers around the spaces. I divided the rhubarb into 8 and another two are planted in the corner near the glass house, so 3 will be growing hopefully. The rest I sent to the Community Garden.

Blueberry and now Rhubarb Patch.

 The lemon and Mandarin trees are just about ripe, as we have had a few  2 - 7C degrees, very early in mornings, which is perfect for sweetening them. I am also still picking avocados off the tree out the back, there were 12 on it.

Mandarin

Lemon

 I am hoping to make lemon butter/curd, which I recently read freezes very well and is back to normal once it thaws. Wish I had known that when the kids were home. It only keeps 2 - 3 weeks in fridge due to the eggs. 

John has started putting together a new shed we have had for ages and never used. It is only very small. He also put together a new dresser for me. Everything seems to be in a Mecanno type set, these days.

The New Shed, maybe for fire wood or tools.

The Poinsettia as well as the Orange Agave plants are out.

 The top garden behind though is still a mess. Some of the soil has been moved. I will get on to this when the front is finished. As yet need to find a Landscape guy for the Artificial turf, and the Gazebo roof is still not done after 5 years of asking, as well as the pond and given up hope they will ever be done.

Artificial turf in the middle of all this, raised beds on sides.

My little tropical garden is doing well also.

Plus the Alexander Palms from Lord Howe Island are growing nicely. When they are big enough I will put 3 into a pot. They like to grow together.

I bought a Pink Chrysanthemum and put it where I sit for lunch if its not too cold. Eventually I will plant it out somewhere. The flowers are holding on for weeks.

The twins, our youngest grandchildren turned 10 yesterday, so I have been making them a card each, the years are certainly going fast,

  It is such a nice time of the year at the moment, and  I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather.

Till Next Time.

Rain and More Rain

 Well did it ever rain, filled all the Community Garden tanks of which one is 10,000 litres, and nearly empty, they were about to buy water, also filled all of ours and filled the pool. Such heavy rain that went all Friday night and then most of Saturday with a break now and then. Apparantly there is more to come down from the north this time. Other than local flooding where several houses had to be evacuated by Police and SES workers there wasn't much harm done, certainly the land absorbed it with no problem. As I write this the birds are chirping so they have loved this cooler weather, and at the moment not raining so I dashed out earlier, to pick some nut grass which comes out so easily after a heavy rain. 

As I knew the rain was coming decided to prune the hedges. Took 2 days to do it but they look great now. They have been in over 35 years now. 

Before

Rose still producing red roses.

 Next on the list is to clean the gazebo out. This is all the stuff that was in the old garden shed I had down the back of the vegetable garden. I was hoping Miss P would have helped yesterday but due to the rain, cancelled it. She came Dux of the school, and so very proud of her, a great way to start High School next year. School finishes Wednesday so may be able to get in a day or two before we go to Sydney. 

 The other thing I managed to do was mulch the rose and poolside  gardens. Emptied out the trailer and have some left for the hedge Rose garden, that is still producing lovely red roses. I might have to dig up a smaller rose next to it, as it is not doing well, and find another place to plant.

Nut grass in the path is so hard to get rid of.

Next year to save work we either have to dig up all the pavers and lay grass then have someone to mow it, or put concrete down, although the edges will still need dealing with. Most of the time is trying to keep the nut grass down. Nothing kills it either. We have had a certain success with the pretend grass around the beds in the front as it has a rubber back and on weed mat, so that is another alternative.

I like getting out in the morning to garden, usually till 9.30am when the UV starts to become too high. Doing it every day though means at least 10 hrs or more a week, just enough to keep everything under control. 

This week I made myself a little bit of Christmas with lights and all, as pulling everything out just for us seems a waste of time. The lights are very bright.

I have had good news this week passed all the blood tests so no more now for a month. I am feeling better and slowly building my energy levels up, finally! Now that the borders are open maybe next year we can have a caravan holiday, without any time limits as I have my own injections. Something to plan anyway. 

I hope all your Christmas Plans are going well.

Till Next Time.

A New Phone and Garden Help.

How is everyone doing in lockdown now?  We heard this week in Australia that in certain circumstances, 10 people are now allowed to gather within reason. That is still keeping our distance from everyone. I am in two minds whether I am suddenly going to join the large groups of people that are now descending upon shopping centres. The predicted 2nd. wave of the virus is happening in a few countries and I see no reason for it not to here. There are now quite a few different strains floating about the world. I do need to go to the hairdresser and chiropractor at some stage so it is a case of trusting your  local practitioners.

 Friday I  received a new phone, compliments of the home surveys we do for the Neilson Company. We scan any food that comes in and then get points for each item. John organized it quite a few years ago,and it was up to over 7000 points, a new phone cost 3000. My old one has a cracked screen and would cost $150 to repair. We took the free points thank you very much. A Samsung A30, more space, narrower than old phone but longer, also better camera. I am now having fun trying to set it up, and ordered a purse wallet affair that has a magnetic back for it. I keep mine on the fridge during the day via the magnet and it sticks to the purse when shopping.

This is the one I ordered, phone sticks to magnet back inside cover.

Yesterday my 12yr. old grandaughter came over at my request to help me in the garden and with inside as well. The eldest grandaughter has recently started work so mum dropped her off and picked her up, in the normal work run.  I taught Miss P to prune 3 roses, picked limes off the tree and planted some new flower seedlings.

Now to repot in new soil and move them

Cleaning this area then moving roses to inside brick line, for better sun.

Inside I gathered every bit of jewellery I had which was a lot of old stuff from mums and mine from years ago plus current. The earring got put into a book, especially for it, and trays set up for different things like necklaces, brooches, bangles and such. Today I will finish this off

Part of the sorting with earring book.

 The result of all this though is I am now going to "hire" her for 3 hrs every 2nd.Sat. and get  garden help with some lifting and cleaning and sorting, as well as inside such as the pantry and linen press for a start two enormous jobs. In the process though I will be teaching her a lot of things from spinning to crocheting, as well as preserving, cooking and gardening. Miss P loves all that I do, so feeling pleased I can teach her as well as get some jobs done. She is very pleased to earn a small income, especially starting high school next year.

We took  15 limes off this tree, for my Daughter in law to make cordial. They are enormous.

John today has gone back to the Community Gardens, now that the restrictions are better. He is still working on the new shed, down the back, and I will take some photos of the progress next week.

Till Next Time. 

Broccoli & Sweet Potato Week

The hour a day gardening is certainly paying off. Things are starting to look a lot better. This week I planted the broccoli of which some seedlings, have finally come up. I planted them straight into the garden although still small, rather than into pots. Hopefully they will be all right. I also covered them with netting which now completes that bed, but also saves the drying out with sun and wind. The weather has been lovely.
 

Removed all the lettuce and added extra compost.

After

The Chinese cabbage Wombok is certainly doing well, after a couple of weeks.

While I was at it added in some rocket seedlings and also Chinese Celery. I like the soft leaves of the celery to add to soups and salads, but you have to keep on top of both these plants to keep the new growth young. I use old dog beds to cover up until they settle in to growing mode. Instead of planting a clump, like I usually do, divided each individual plant up, so that should be interesting seeing I had at least 8 plants of each. There is always the worm farm to feed with green leaf though.

The sweet potato grows at the back of my ornamental fence, and has certainly taken over. The actual potatoes aren't that big but I got a small basketfull while cleaning up most of it. Really I was just scraping  the growth off the top and off other plants, as I will let some of it regenerate to increase the size of the tubers.

 

This is the amount of greenery I got from it.

Amongst it all was the lovely purple/white chrysanthemums.

Looks a little bare now.
 

Sweet potato hiding under all of it.

Will leave a little growth to enlarge more tubers.

Some are small but will be ok to cook with.

Just near this area is the pumpkin vine on the trellis, so cut back a lot of the leaves so they ripen a bit quicker.

Finally also started to prune some of the roses. There are three right in the corner so got stuck in to them also. Our wheely bin is certainly stuffed full now.

Before

These are climbing ones.

I would love to plant some more flowers, but it will be a case of whether I want to go into Bunnings or not. Maybe get out some current marigold seeds and plant everywhere for a change, rather than just one garden.

 I had some sad news this week, my cousins wife A was killed in a quad bike accident. They have an alpaca farm in Heathcote Victoria, for over 20 years at least, so I find that hard to take, as it is something she would have done every day. My cousin R had a heart attack at the scene and was air lifted to hospital but has now recovered. The online funeral was yesterday, so I am glad I was able to "attend" even if a bit odd, I certainly couldn't have gone to Victoria for it, in normal circumstances, so have to say this online thing is a good solution, and perhaps should be more of it. It certainly helped me find peace with it all. The accident came up on my facebook link to my cousin, even though both of us are pretty quiet on there, but I wouldn't have known either, without it. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in May, and has all been a nasty shock to the family.

It is John's birthday Tuesday but don't think much will be happening for it. Hope everyone's week went well.

Till Next Time.

Autumn Time for Pruning

What a mess my garden is. This week it rained on and off every day. Today though it is hot and sticky, and I am tired after spending all weekend scrapping at the Guide Hall.

I have managed though to prune trees and weed some of the garden between showers. Not that I found time to actually put it all somewhere.

The apple trees were first, I think now they should come down altogether as with the weather warming up even tropical apples are struggling. I might feed them more than usual this year and see what happens.

Size of the apple Trees

Pruned as far as I could

The pond is really hard to sort out. Means actually getting in and doing it. I haven't got the strength so waiting on John to do so. We have the waders for the job for 3 years now, but he can never find the time.

Very thick growth

Need help!

The Mulberry tree is supposed to be a miniature one but it is the fastest grower of all. Love Mulberry Jam, of all the tress I would keep this one.

Mulberry Tree before pruning

After pruning



The lemon and Lime trees had got very leggy so cut them back as well while I was at it. Certainly opens everything up with all this pruning.

Lemon Tree

Lemon and Lime Trees

The Madagascar bean had taken over so much fence and also escaping into next door. I have plenty of beans to last the winter so gave it a good cut. It will grow back quite quickly so not worried how it looks.



Madagascar Bean

Lots of bean growth left on the ground as at this point heavy showers. Still need to pick it up.



Bean growth

John covered the tomatoes for me with some netting as I didn't want any fruit fly attacking them. They have put on some marvellous growth with all the rain. It is still quite warm for them to grow well.

Next to Lemon Trees in Round Beds

Apollo Tomatoes

Of course all the flowers under the apples have come out. Japanese windflowers.

Very Pretty

Still a lot of work to go. The plum tree needs pruning also and of course John is still working on the front. Not enough hours in the day lately. Hope your week has been better


Till next time.