It's Been over 18 months....

Busy, Busy, Always Busy                                   20th February, 2013

Can't believe I've neglected this for over 18 months. Must have been busy... Since last writing about my garden, we've had a year of good rainfall which caused everything, including weeds, to flourish. Since then we've had several months of barely any rain, as if we are heading back to drought, and  months of temperatures not less than 37 degrees and as high as 43 for weeks in a row. Many plants have burned off badly, some have gone to God, either through too much heat or too much watering while I was trying to compensate for too much heat.
 I have learnt a bit during this time about what should have been planted somewhere else, what should never have been planted at all and what flourishes in these conditions, other than weeds. I've also learnt that lots of rain causes shallow rooting of plants, which then don't cope with little or no water because they have no long roots to reach deep moisture and they die. Some notable plants in this category are my grevilleas - only the ones I paid exhorbitant prices for because they were grafted and supposedly tougher. Also, in this area, if a plant label says "Full Sun", it means "Part Shade". Maybe I can do better next heat wave.

I have now killed off most of my potted camellias because I kept adding water on hot days without doing the "index finger in the soil" test first. I have replaced them with gardenias, because they seem to be much more tolerant of my stupidity.
Tried blueberries for the first time and managed to kill 2 out of 4 (yes, the ones in the pots), but this time because they were out in the scorching sun and got totally burnt off. The garden ones are in part shade and still going.
I've started putting hibiscus plants in pots all over the place and they seem to be striving in the heat and love water. Also, my baby bougs are loving the heat and are also happy about lots of water.
If I was going to plant out a garden purely to cope with every extreme weather condition that is thrown at it, I would fill it with Dietes grandiflora (Wild Iris)  and agapanthus. These 2 plants don't mind extreme heat or cold and flower on regardless. I'll have to keep that in mind as I get older and need a more care-free garden.
I didn't have much luck with my vege gardens last summer or winter. There didn't seem to be enough heat or bees and plenty of fruit fly. This summer, however, the zuchinnis are loving the hot sun and producing well, cucumbers are a bit slow, but were planted late and snake beans are in great profusion for the second year in a row. I wish I'd discovered these delicious creatures a long time ago. They are notoriously difficult to find among the vine stems and leaves as they camouflage well and some have grown way too big , but I've picked them and dried them, as the bean seeds can not only be used to grow more plants next year, but can also be used in soups and stews, so nothing goes to waste. Strawberries have been a dismal failure as they have been  eaten by birds and lizards as they appeared. I netted the bed to keep birds off, then found big shinglebacks and bearded dragons caught up in the netting. I've had to lift it off the ground so now they all have access.
In the past year and a half I have added a bench to the paddock to make the most of a great view across the river flats - a great place for an early morning cuppa.
I have also refurbished the western patio garden with some Crown of Thorns in pots and a Balinese head.
I have built another circular rose bed along the drive and filled it with some new and old favourites like Eyes for You, Slim Dusty, Stainless Steel, Abracadabra, Peace and Ebb Tide to name a few.
I got rid of my pond after 13 years and made it into a bog garden for a selection of saracenias. I bought half a trailer load of washed river sand and 150kg of live sphagnum moss, brought up from a nursery on the Mornington Peninsula. I cleaned out all the plants and hunks of massed and tangled roots from the pond, filled it with 75% sand and 25% moss and planted the pitcher plants. I found out later that using live sphagnum is not environmentally friendly, so I bought some compressed coconut coir and have been wetting that down and using it when needed instead. I was watering them daily with rain water from our tanks, but as we were running low and , with no rain in sight, I had to change to river water. They seem to be coping well and, despite the extreme heat, I've only had 3 plants out of 18 succumb to the heat. Apparently they only like an acidic environment and no nutrients whatsoever. Our river water has a pH of about 7.5, just on the alkaline side of neutral, so fingers crossed.

Earlier last year we also needed to get 7 huge ironbarks cut down, as they were under the powerlines and slowly dying from previous trimmings by Country Energy. They provided us with enough logs for our open fire for many years to come, as well as a gigantic pile of wood chip mulch to last me into my 80's or 90's I think. So now on to 2013....

Whoops!

Just realised it has been nearly 6 months since I last raved on about the garden. Time does get away. After the big January dry we have been getting small amounts of rain fairly regularly - enough to keep things from drying out too much. I did plant some snake bean seeds rather late in the season and managed to get a couple of meals worth before the cold set in. I will definitely be planting more next season so we have a plentiful supply. In fact I was in Sydney for the long weekend and discovered a nursery that sold snake bean seeds, so I just had to buy another packet.
The Roma tomatoes have been absolutely amazing. Fruit fly got a hold in February and I should have pulled them out then and killed off the flies, but I didn't get around to it. Since the fruit fly succumbed to the cold, the 4 plants have bloomed and fruited a dozen times over. I must have picked at least 10 kg of tomatoes and despite the recent -3 frost, I came home yesterday to find even more partially ripe ones to be picked. This would have to be the last lot, surely - it's mid June!!!
My sugar snap pea seeds have finally emerged from the ground, but I think my English spinach seeds have been moused, judging by the little tunnels dug through the patch. I discovered, in an old gardening book, that you can grow seeds in a plastic garbage bin, which I hadn't thought of. By keeping the lid on until the seeds had sprouted, it would not only prevent tunnelling mice, but also keep the seeds warmer for sprouting. Think I will give it a go.
The flowering parts of the garden aren't doing too much at the moment. The daylilies have been frosted off, hopefully to re-sprout in spring. The roses are blooming their last blooms. They have had great colour this autumn with no bugs to eat them and no hot sun to burn them. The camellias are just coming into bud. I can't wait to see the beautiful maroon flowers of my Grape Soda and the pink and white ruffles of the Volunteer. The tibouchina is in full bloom despite the frosts, as it is in a sheltered part of the pool yard. I just bought a grafted Qualup Bells for an exhorbitant price hoping it will grow well here away from humidity. It will be a challenge, so I may try it in a pot first. Hellebores are re-shooting after being cut back. I just love the muted colour of their nodding flower heads. One of my Gymea Lilies produced it's first flower spike this year. It hasn't bloomed yet, but I'm waiting as patiently as I can. The other four are still spikeless. I think It may be that I put a stone down the throat of the one about to flower. Apparently that induces flowering. So far so good.
The Autumn colour has been excellent this year. The Japanese Maple has put on it's usual brilliant red display, the Golden Chain Tree was a brilliant yellow, the Manchurian Pear was a wonderful deep red, but the best display again came from my Smoke Bush, Cotinus something. Really brilliant shades of orange, yellow and purple, and the spring flowers of huge purple feathers are also stunning. Can't wait.

Dry, dry, dry....

I know, I know, I complained about the bucketfuls of rain in December. Well, someone heard me and now it's payback time. 9mm of rain for the whole of January so far, and, combined with temperatures in the high 30's and low 40's, things, meaning garden beds and lawn, are drying out rapidly to the brown and crunchy stage. Paddock trees, mentioned in the last post, are needing bucketfuls of water every day or so. I thought I would make the most of the rain and plant 4 advanced and expensive Manchurian pear trees in our driveway as they were the best option for surviving heavy clay soil prone to bogging and drying out to rock solid, plus hot north westerly winds, once established...this being the main point. I am now barrowing 20litre containers down to them each day. Our driveway being 600 metres long, this is no mean feat and great for muscle development.

There have been a large number of caterpillars around this month as you can see by the many plants with holes chewed in their leaves, or leaves missing altogether. The one advantage of this, of course, is the incredible number of huge black and white butterflies with large orange spots on their wings. I chased one around my garden paths for quite a while the other day until I managed to get a reasonable photograph. I will include it in the post.

I decided it was now time to mulch garden beds that I put off in December, so that has been the main task this month. My mulch pile is decreasing rapidly. Time to cut down and chip some more pine trees. Luckily two have developed a severe and dangerous lean and one of those has already lost its top section which plummeted to the ground in a big wind, so time for the tree service man to come and quote again.

My husband welded a new garden arch for me out of some old metal frames he had stashed away. The beautiful pink climbing rose had to be cut right back and untangled from the mass of broken, rusted old arch pieces and the new arch inserted in its place. He did a good job for an amateur and my rose has now sprouted wildly again ready to climb up and over and flower again next spring.

Zucchinis, cucumbers, beetroot, silverbeet, loads of still-green Roma tomatoes and some delicious fruit-fly-free (try saying that 3 times fast) Pixie peaches are emanating from the vege garden as we speak. Still waiting on the capsicum and pumpkins. Speaking of veges, I bought some snake beans for Christmas lunch, having not seen these delicious greens since my childhood. They don't seem to sell them around here in the fruit shops, but I found an online supplier of seeds to grow them, so I have ordered 40 seeds, just in case some fail to thrive. Looking forward to their arrival in the post.

Time to go out and water again before the heat sets in.

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain....and more rain!!!

72mm for December and it's only day 3. I know, I know...we've had 10 years of drought and we really needed a good soaking. Well, we've had it. At our house, in our rain gauge, we have recorded 1080 mm rain since Christmas Eve 2009. Not sure if my garden can take anymore without root rot setting in.

I decided to plant out in the paddock 4 native frangipani that I bought thinking I would have to remember to water them through summer. A few days later I had to go and dig a trench so the water could drain away from them before they drowned. I also started mulching with the pine wood chip from the 3 large dead white cypress we had cut down earlier in the year, but decided I need to let the garden beds drain first before I try to stop any evaporation from the surface.

One of our English oak trees dropped a stack of acorns again this year which have sprouted well in the lawn, so once again, hating to waste a free plant or two, I dug up and potted 20 oak tree seedlings, most of which have survived the transplant shock and are loving the rain. Probably similar to an English summer. They will go out into the paddocks along the boundary fences next winter while dormant just like many did this winter. Some didn't make it but those that did are already outgrowing their green bags. It would be nice to live long enough to see them as full grown trees. They have amazing drought tolerance, once established.

I can see that blackspot is going to be a major problem on roses this summer with the rain and abnormal humidity. I usually just trim off the affected leaves, but I have a feeling that may mean the entire plant this year. I may have to resort to spraying with a fungicide.
Talking of spraying, I was wanting to spray my Econaturalure around for fruit fly protection before the little devils get a foothold, but alas, you have to respray after rain, and that would mean ever day at the moment. At over $50 a litre, it is a very expensive option. Let's just hope they all drown!

On a happier note, I will add some more Spring garden photos.

What's Bugging Me

The garden has been really beautiful, in fact so nice that visitors don't even notice the large number of weeds that have and are still invading garden beds. I have been trying to fertilise, wettasoil, deadhead, weed vege patches as well as the mundane mowing and house cleaning, but I don't seem to be keeping up. I guess 14 large garden beds, as well as weedy gravel paths, is a bit overwhelming. To top it off, my roses were really beautiful until the horrible little brown and orange leaf beetles invaded and have eaten holes in all my pale coloured roses. For some reason they are not keen on the darker reds. I wrote to Burke's Backyard website to ask what they were and was told to spray with Mavrik. However, with all the forecast rain, I haven't done it yet.
On a happier note, my Echium Pride of Madiera has done itself proud. It self seeded from about two seasons ago and is towering over the bed.
The pink old fashioned weeping rose looks lovely over the entry to the "pygmy path", so named by my husband because you have to be 18 inches tall to get through. It will have to be cut back severely when it finishes blooming as the arch it has been growing on for 10 years has totally collapsed and needs to be replaced. I have been promised a new strongly welded steel one. Here's hoping.
The veges are off and running. Silverbeet and lettuces are in profusion and I have two cauliflowers and baby carrots. The zucchini plants and tomatoes and capsicum are starting to be ready to plant out.
Time for a beer in the summerhouse.

Spring 2010

This must be the coolest Spring that we have experienced in Dubbo in the 15 years we have been here. We have had half a dozen days of over 20 degrees and the rest have been 15 to 18. It means that flowers are developing slowly and will probably retain their colour for longer.
My roses are in bud but only a very few blooms so far. The natives have been brilliant and the new beds I planted last Spring have filled out with a huge assortment of well established plants - grevilleas, isopogons, Geraldton wax, eremophilas, hardenbergias, even a leptospermum in pale pink - as well as loads of lovely ONION WEED!

I decided to buy a thermostatically controlled heat pad for faster sprouting vege seeds. It worked well, probably too well, as I set it up in late August with seeds (in punnets) of zucchini, capsicum, Roma tomato and Lebanese cucumber, thinking I would get a head start. I placed it in the laundry and within 5 days all seeds had sprouted. I kept a clear lid on it and went away for a week. When we came home the seedlings had outgrown themselves and had lengthened considerably to the point where the stems were thin and weak. I had to start again and as we were going away again I set them up in the greenhouse without heat and they have since sprouted into normal seedlings ready for the vege patch, once I weed it. I'm sure the heat pad will be useful when I am home to keep an eye on seedling growth.

A new plant to my garden this year has been the Kniphofias - Red and Yellow pokers have sprung up from bulbs I purchased from Garden Express. I love them and even my non-gardening husband commented on how nice they are, so I think I will buy more next season.

Lavenders are brilliant at the moment. I find the Ruffles varieties eg. Blueberry, Mulberry, Strawberry, Peachberry, etc, particularly good out here once established.

My pool yard garden is in dire straits at the moment. The pavers are very mossy after so much rain and the weeds have come up through the pavers so the whole area looks, and is neglected. I think it will be my next priority before the weather (and the pool) warms up enough to swim and use the area. I have 2 Brugmansias (Angel's Trumpets) in there and they were heavily frosted this winter after two nights of -4 degrees. The Tibouchinas survived, surprisingly, and the Chinese Lanterns are in bloom. Time to go and do other jobs so maybe tomorrow can be a gardening day.

RAIN
It is raining and will be for the next few days, so it's time to come out of the garden and write about it instead. All my new roses arrived and I did find a spot for each of them. Time will tell how crowded they become. I have spent the last week weeding, mulching and mowing. My gravel paths were loaded with weeds, since we have had a lot more rain this year than in previous years. It was difficult to distinguish bulbs from grass in my bottom driveway garden, so that had to be cleared before the flowers come. I pruned the plumbago, which has become huge, but is covering the septic, so that's OK. My Geraldton Wax plant died after about 4 years. Not sure how long they live, but it sure wasn't impressed with all our summer rain. I replaced it with a weeping Callistemon.
I still have loads more garden beds to weed, tidy and mulch before the heat arrives. Luckily, or maybe not, we lost 3 large Cypress pine trees and had them cut down and mulched a few months ago, and as well as the large Melaleuca tree which suffered the same fate last year, they have given me 2 huge piles of mulch which is breaking down nicedly. I also got to buy 3 replacement trees - always a plus - and I chose Lilly pillys, Acmena smithii.
I now need to start pruning my roses. It takes quite a while to prune 150 bushes and time is running short.
The navel oranges have been huge and sweet this year and have so far provided us with 2 months worth of juice, about 10 litres. However, because I pruned 2 of the trees to allow more light and air to get in, the yield has not been as high this year. We will probably run out of Navels before the Valencias are ready to squeeze.
Speaking of citrus, I bought 4 concrete 45cm pots at a pre-garage sale for $7 each - bargain. I decided to put a small citrus tree in each. Now I have a Meyer lemon, a Lemonade, a Blood Orange and a Mandarin as well as the Tangelo, Tahitian lime, Dwarf Lotsa Lemons and 2 Kaffir Limes that I already had. If they get too big I can always plant them out.