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.