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.

Major Garden Cleanup.

Well today I can hardly move my muscles, as they have really given up after another hard week of cleaning up under the citrus trees, to begin with earlier in the week,

A mess of ferns and nasturiums

Before all overgrown and Ivy on the fence

It is not very hard, just takes a lot of time, but finally cleaned it all up and roughly dug over. I am going to plants lots of flowers, then mulch with bark or similar. Such a difference makes it all worthwhile.

After

Last bit left, has couch grass.

As for the other side on Saturday,Miss P helped me do some of it, then the eldest son who had arrived  earlier and decided to pull the lemon tree stump once it was cut back again, and taken out completely.

Notice the "overgrown stump" on the right

Looking towards the house

This tree was very well established in the ground and needed a block and tackle to get it out plus a lot of heavy yakka. I was quite worried for my son as he is just getting over the flu, and breathing quite heavily. There is no way John could have done this. 

Same view looking towards the house. Bulbs are snowdrops

The tree left is on a slant so hopefully John can rig up something to straighten it up. Plenty of fruit on it and I keep it well pruned to reaching height. Mind you I still have frozen juice from last year. Bits of the stump roots are still there so will paint with poison just to make sure they don't regrow. I don't want anyone to go through that again.

Out the front under the Frangipani Miss P and I started this area first on Saturday, and then that was when our son first arrived and helped.

Front area joining next door.

 This weed plus the horrible Elderberry that runs and has been pulled out quite a few times, has taken over again so all this was dug up including a very large Tumeric plant, beyond the Frangipani and just shy of where the dogs are buried. They stayed safe thank goodness. 

The only way to beat this Elderberry, is to paint poison on the leaves as they come up, so when Miss P arrives that is the first thing to check

Next week if time, I will dig everything over and pick out all the Tumeric left as well.

Between the Frangipani and the Protea was a giant Tumeric plant

Street to the Frangipani, where luckily 2 roses survived. Plus some bromeliads were pulled out as overgrown.

To fill this area, I have decided to invest in some shrubs like azalea, move a poinsettia from the back, maybe another daisy, geraniums, anything that just needs pruning, but will look nice all year. Really fill it with stuff so the weeds wont' have room to grow. The extra person though was such a great help, to Miss P and I, made all the difference.

Unfortunately the very old grass tree on the bank, hasn't survived so that was pulled out as well.

I also took off the Snail plant from the Archway, which will get another coat of paint to smarten it up.

All in all it has been a very busy week, and I will take several days to get over it.The worst of it is over now thank goodness, just tidying and planting for Spring to do.  Filled two green waste wheely bins though, and enough stuff to do a third for next week. I hope your winter cleanup is going just as well. 

Off to Bunnings now to see what I can find, with two $50 Gift Cards. Woo Hoo.

Till Next Time.

Happy Helpers Moving Things Along.

We have been busy this week, John finished the side garden and then went and got a trailer load of cow manure and mushroom compost mix to fill in the spaces. This side soil is clay, and various mulches we have done over the years but still not a great soil. Now with the empty spaces though, I transferred 3 roses that were in pots, and the soil in them I tip out, as no nutrients left at all.

 

  That is my aim at the moment is to get rid of the pots, that are everywhere and transplanting what ever is in them. Or transferring something from a plastic pot to the very big terracotta pots I have, to give something more room like the yellow Frangipani my niece gave me, or at least make a plant look more like a feature. Not easy as these giant pots are really heavy.

3 Roses in front.

I am thinking of planting some Babys Breath here as well plus maybe some Marigolds along the edge.

The two girls also came over to help me on Saturday. Miss P and I painted the floor boards of the Gazebo and Miss V bless her heart carted soil from the driveway trailer to the bottom of the garden I had cleaned up on Friday. Moved a white Hydrangea from the front side garden and pruned back the blue one already there. John filled the rest of it in after they left.

One last wall to pressure clean.

Only one coat of the paint in the Gazebo. It didn't go far, with the boards absorbing it after they had been pressure cleaned. Still a big difference though, and I will do another one. I also finished off painting the top boards and the posts with their 2nd. coat.

Finally we got out the false grass pieces left from the front, to experiment whether it is worth doing to stop weeds growing. John pressure cleaned the rose garden path, which does a fantastic job of weeding as well as cleaning and we put it down as best we could with the pieces. 

It looks so shiny new, where as the front has faded and blended in a bit better, nevertheless IF it works and I don't have to constantly weed the path or spray, and then if all is good, I might look at getting it done professionally. 

There was a cheap piece we found also, like chalk and cheese but I put that down as well. 

Just an experiment.

Basically it looks awful, but it is only a test on the weeds. The rubber backing is not as good either. The only other solution is to have it concreted, or getting it all dug and broken up and replacing with proper grass then getting someone in to mow it etc. One of the problems of getting old and living on a steep block. 

Miss V desperately wanted to help with the painting so I let the girls finish off a table that is in the Gazebo.

They do love getting their "wages", and I love having them around. The twins turned 8 this week, and our youngest grandchildren, growing up fast. Grandma though is exhausted today.

Till Next Time. 

A Cold, Cold Week

 Well have you all had fun with this blast of cold bordering on freezing this week. As of today the snow is falling in areas like Glen Innes to Guyra only 3 hours away and in Orange which hasn't seen any since 2015. Dorrigo, an hour away, was predicted to have some this weekend, but I have not heard anything. It certainly will be very, very cold there. 

The snow fields of course will be loving it so early in the year. I remember going to them for my birthday one year July 7th. and not a scrap of snow anywhere. 

King Parrots - Blue Mountains Garry P Hayes Photographer.

I happened to catch on Facebook Garry Hayes photos and loved them.  Here are some more of his photography this week in the Blue Mountains,

I remember visiting the snow areas and the above, was usually the beginning of the drive in. The excitement of seeing it for the first time in the season, and with us usually between many years.

Wouldn't this be a fabulous Blue Mountain Train ride.

 We of course have been lighting the fire, a little bit earlier now around 4. John has been cutting up old palings that the termites attacked at the Community Gardens so plenty of fire starters amongst this lot as they burn easily. 

 

The local hardwood supplier, where we got the wood for the garden beds, rang John Friday, to see if he wanted some off cuts of pallets. A truck load turned up the same day and dumped it at the Community Gardens. If they can't use it all I am sure we can. You can't be fussy where free wood comes from. 

I have taken on a love of yellow flowers since mum's funeral, so bright and cheerful.

 It is nice in the sun if the wind isn't blowing and I have been doing some weeding. I am always aware of filling the green bin every week, so usually try and put something in it. It is not often you work in a winter hat, gloves, scarf and a woolly jumper, but certainly nice to get out in the fresh air. Reminds me of our days in Henty where it would be 10 degrees C all day, and the beginning of me chopping wood and lighting fires. 

I have been embroidering a wool blanket which is great to keep warm over your knees, and doing some sock knitting for a change. Started several while traveling, so time to finish them off.

I hope you have all managed to keep warm. 

Till Next Time.

June Garden Update

 Although the mornings and evenings have been quite cold, if you can get into the sun it has been lovely, and that is what I have done this week. Weeding, thinning and mulching. I do love this time of year, when you can get actual control over plants. 

Love the look of these two at the moment an Aloe and  Poinsettia.

My little Mandarain tree super juicy picked 6 so far.

The lemon I cut back hard, still a good height and enough lemons.

Herb Garden 

Really attacked the herb garden, everything was so overgrown. I want to halve the rhubarb plant from down the back and add it here. I potted up Thyme, and Oregano for sale at the Community Gardens. Just waiting now for them to adapt to pots. Going to add some Babys Breadth (Gypsophila) seed to here as well, as I love the prettiness of this flower especially with my roses in a vase. Now is the time to do it.

Snow peas now producing, these are the short variety. Cos and Gem lettuces.

Broccoli

Broccoli are doing well, watered them really well and gave them some mulch. I am hovering on giving them a liquid fertilizer boost, maybe just seaweed mixture. I did put heaps of stuff in to the soil. Same deal with the cabbages. Both have been covered with netting and I have had no trouble with the white moths.

Cabbages

More lettuces on the the other side. Amazing how many come up in a seed sprinkle.

Garlic, sweet peas and beans in this corner.

 The above bed is full of odd things from cherry tomatoes, which I have pulled out, garlic, lettuce and I planted 3 chillies. The cherry tomatoes and great for picking daily even now as some are down the back. I much prefer them in a salad. Easy to grow and no fruit fly. John likes the big tomatoes but they are so much trouble against fruit fly, netting or bagging them depends on where I put them and they grow so high as well. I am expecting some seedlings to come up in this bed and will replant them around. Yellow and red ones.   

John has been attacking the side garden. It was a mess. He has dug up some bulbs, a Hippeastrum and my white hydrangea. The soil is not good full of roots etc, and no life. I will add some Chook manure, blood and bone and we will mulch it heavily. Thinking of taking cuttings of the Poinsetta and adding it to the corner as they can be pruned easily. I would love the yellow Frangipani, that is in a pot  to go there but the other one, a pink one, is fairly large so not a lot of spreading room .

Next door had a huge Mango and a Red Cedar cut down and mulched, and she ask for a small amount of mulch to be left, hence the pile in the photo, which is actually quite large. The now empty space has  opened up the street landscape a lot, and most likely let in a lot more light to this garden.

Finally had to  pick this gorgeous rose.

Till Next Time.