Welcome 2013

Happy New Year folks. When I last blogged I wrote about how dead our garden was looking, if only I knew what was yet to come. We returned from 2 weeks holiday interstate last week to a terrible sight in our garden. Someone had been watching over our guinea pigs and watering the garden while we were away, but it was no match for the terribly hot weather we have had and the lack of rain. I cried upon returning to find my Kiwi fruit plants shriveled and crisp. Some other plants did not make it either. My carefully tended seedlings were lost. Many plants had scorched leaves. I am not sure if these plants would have lived had I have been tending to them myself. After speaking to my mother in law I now realise how bad the conditions have been and that her garden has struggled too. It was such a big shock to return from a lush green holiday to our brown and crisp backyard. We have not a single blade of green grass here at the moment.
The beetroot, carrots and onions in our raised bed were beyond saving. I removed these plants and have re seeded the bed with more beetroot and carrots. The beans were terribly burnt as were the cucumbers. Some are still doing ok so I will see how they go. The corn produced some small cobs, but the plants look tired and spent now. I will try and grow some more. Before we went away I planted our cherry tomatoes in the patio garden bed. They are doing ok and some tiny flower buds are appearing. The tomatoes in our main bed look ok too. Lots of the small soft plants in the general garden that were only just starting have all died, pansies, foxgloves etc. The gladiolus seem to be going ok though, so I will start my post with photos of something that is actually living in my garden at the moment. Two have now bloomed and their lovely flowers are shown below.

Gladiolus

Pretty apricot colour

Bulbs removed from under the rose. Will put these in a new spot this year.

Bergenias doing poorly in the dry conditions.

What used to be a Helebore. Wonder if they regenerate?

That plant I am still yet to identify looking worse for wear.

What used to be the Arum Lilies. Do they regrow from tubors?

My rose only gave me two blooms this year. I think I need a lesson in pruning

Even the hardy Salvia is struggling

Sunburnt orange leaves

Another Salvia on death's door

My poor Camellia

Rose Campions at the end of the season. I have slashed the tops off these now.
They look daggy most of the year until Spring again though.

Dried out Kiwi fruit and a Californian Lilac. Yet to see if they survive.

Badly affected Weigela. Still some life in this one though

Lots of sunburn on the Pittosporums

Barely a leaf left on the Fuschia so I trimmed it right back. Hope that was ok.

My Magnolia seems to have survived both the snails and the sun

New buds on the way

My fears over the Kangaroo Paws have been laid to rest. New shoots on the way after cutting it to the ground as recommended by Angus Stewart

The tired corn. Most plants gave me one small cob each. Will need way more water and feed next time

Now for some photos of things that are surviving the elements in my garden and some new purchases from the end of last year and the beginning of the new year.

The Borage I planted in the Strawberry gutter is blooming

A few tomatoes from our two main plants

We planted Apollo and an Italian type

Remember that pot that had a number of seedlings growing in it? It was supposed to just have an Avocado

Along with the Avocado (out of focus in the centre) it contains a Pommegranate, pansy, aquilegia, eucalypt and one mystery plant

My lettuces! Two tomatoes grew instead

My cherry tomatoes growing well in the patio bed. Not many blooms though

Unidentified herb? Is this cat mint?

Pommegranate seedlings growing from the compost. I have dozens coming up now. Think I might see if the neighbour is happy for me to plant them into a hedge on our common land.

Two new Clivias I got at 40% off. One seems to be a pastel, the other red.

Our future living Christmas tree. Wooly Bush - Adenanthos

Lastly a plant that was growing so lovely at my Mum's in NSW.
When I saw them in Bunnings for $20 I had to grab one.This pot contains both a red and white plant.
Think I might remove my useless passionfruit and plant one there.

Life amongst death

Our garden is in need of rain, badly in need. We have had so little this past month. Everything looks dry, dead or suffering. We have no grass at all. This is tough as we have seven guinea pigs to feed. Even the neighbours' garden where we go as back up is low on grass  We have taken to carrying a bucket with us when we are out driving, so if we see grass we can collect it.

Having said that, there is still life in my garden. I water the things most important or needy. Seeds still burst to life in amongst the dryness. I will share their beauty with you. How glorious is this Epacris longiflora - native fuchsia. All lined up like little jewels.

Epacris longiflora

Native fuchsia

The Nasturtiums in our raised bed are racing away. So much growth on them compared to the others planted through the rest of the garden. You can really see what a difference good compost and feeding does for a plant. These have been great at attracting the white moth to them and away from my more prized edibles.

Nasturtium

Tiny tomato buds. So delicate and so beautiful. Flourishing, growing, ready to burst open.

Tomato flowers ready to bloom

A neglected rose in a pot, left by the previous owners. Barely watered with no care, yet still producing a bloom. I need to give more attention to the roses we have here. Their blooms are lovely.

Potted rose

A wee seedling sprouted from the compost around the Orange tree. What will it be? Cucumber?

Unplanned seedling

Mystery mushrooms in a garden pot. So delicate and sweet with their blue grey folds.

Stowaways in a pot

A mystery pot mix. This pot holds an avocado seed, but a number of other random seeds are sprouting in here with no avocado seedling in sight. I can see a pommegranate, pansy, aquilegia and I think there is also a Eucalyptus in there. Can you spot the golf tee too?

Awaiting an avocado seedling

A sweet pea in flower. I planted a few and they got eaten by slugs. One survived and bloomed.

Sweet pea

A very hardy Bougainvillea in flower. This poor plant was left here in a pot when we arrived. It has been moved and scorched in the heat, uprooted from its pot and dumped near the shed, yet still it survives and blooms. They look so lovely in full bloom. I should give this one more attention too.

One lone flower

And finally my Asiatic Lillies have bloomed. I was hoping for a red one in the mixed bag, but these are the ones I got. There were two yellow ones in the mix. They fell over terribly in the planter I had them in. Next year I will try and grow some support plants around them. The children delighted in waiting for them to open. Such simple pleasures.

Striking

Pure

Happy

Pretty

Weekend work

We did some odd jobs in the garden this weekend. Hubby cleaned the leaves out of the pond and I managed to fall in it, Funniest Home Videos style. I stumbled on the edge and rocked in limbo for a moment before crashing in to the water. Our pond is about half a metre deep, so I went in up to my neck as I was horizontal by the time I splashed in. The children were quite worried about me, but I was ok, just drenched.

We also did some work to our raised bed. Hubby and his Dad built this bed from scraps we had been given. I worked hard to fill the bed with compost and good stuff and we are now starting to see some growth in there. This weekend we added the string to two of the sides and the bamboo stakes. The beans are starting to slowly climb so it felt like it was time to add some support for them. We have clumping bamboo growing in our front yard so we used that in the bed. It is great having bamboo, it is so versitile in the garden. We have tomatoes, onions, beans, cucumbers, beetroot, carrots, celery, corn, dill and nasturtiums in this bed.

Raised bed with new string supports

Bamboo stakes for extra support

View from the back

The other thing I did was to move my greenhouse to the back patio. I bought this one at Aldi. We don't really have anywhere flat enough for it to go, so it needs to sit on the paving. I had it in a sheltered spot on the East side of the house but it wasn't getting enough sun there. I am torn between it not getting warm enough in that spot, or having it here on the North side and cooking my plants. It is prone to blowing away also, hence the garbage bin and heavy pots around it.

My hot house.

My wonderful hubby brought me two of these stands home from work. They are on casters, so very easy to move. There is a third one, but it is on a non rolling base. Can't wait to grow something over these!

New stands

We also paid a visit to Aldi to buy some plants this weekend. Maybe I am mad, but we bought Kiwifruit. I have no idea where we will grow them, but we will work something out.

Male and female Kiwi fruit plants

While we were there I grabbed this Port Wine Magnolia. I am hoping the flowers will be a deep colour. The photo on the tag does not really indicate that, but you can live in hope. I think I will grow this one in a pot.

Port Wine Magnolia

Well that was our weekend in the garden. What did you get up to?

Monday Harvest!

Garlic

Finally I can join in on Monday Harvest as I have harvested something. Did it need to be harvested on Monday? I actually pulled it from the ground over the weekend, but am only posting about it now.
Garlic! I have never grown it before. I purchased some lovely organic Purple Rocambole garlic from someone who is in my milk co-op and as I got to the end of the bag and a few were shooting, I decided to pop them in the ground. I planted three in a pot and one under my Rose as I had read they are good companions. I didn't think too much about preparing the soil at the time and just watered them whenever I was watering the other plants. Recently I started to notice them yellowing and wondered what was happening. I got impatient and decided to pull the one out from under the Rose. It was tiny and non segmented. I presumed the rest would be. I left those, but the tops of them were now on the ground and looking a right mess. After watching Vasili's Garden last week I saw him mentioning that a lot of people were complaining about their garlic doing this. He mentioned too much water or not draining well. So I decided to pull them up and try again next year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these ones were larger and segmented. I cannot wait to try them. Can I use it straight away, or does it need to hang for awhile?

Hanging on the hook with the lemon balm

Potterings from weeks past

This is a post I started writing a good week or more ago. I wasn't going to post it as so much has changed since these photos were taken, but I am wanting to document the growth in the garden so I will put it here.
First up, I have been using my compost. I am going to write a long post on compost soon, as I just adore the stuff, but for now here is some pics of it at work in the garden. This is the patch of mixed plants in front of our patio. On this particular side the weeds have been taking over and the grass gets in there also. I removed as much as I could and have spread my compost into the top of the soil. I have since added a layer of sugar cane mulch and the plants have grown a lot.

Some coriander, nasturtiums, lambs ear and rose campion

Remains of freesias, parsley, some foxglove and pansies starting

You can see the compost isn't totally broken down, but it will continue to do so

Remember my lavender cuttings? I trimmed them back and they have just taken off. These two photos show how quick they are growing. Probably only a week between the shots. I am thinking I might cut those flower stems down to encourage more to grow. They are very long and are drooping over on the fresh grow. A few even snapped off.

Lavender starting to grow

Flower heads really shooting away now

Something I am adoring in my garden is this Cape Mallow. Please correct me if that is not its name, but the Google pics seemed to match the plant. Our one is growing all bent over. I would dearly love to trim it back but am afraid I might kill it. I have collected seeds from it and I am attempting to strike them. If they take, maybe I can think about cutting this one. It would make a charming hedge I think. Not that I have anywhere for a hedge to grow.

Cape Mallow?

The climbing roses have started to bloom. We have two that are planted near the Banksia Rose. This bloom is hanging down under the canopy. Unfortunately where it is positioned above the house means we don't get to enjoy its flowers. I did get brave last week though, and climbed into our loft for the first time ever. It was lovely to see the roses from up there.

Climbing Rose

One of the last Freesias to bloom and it's a purple one. I really like this colour. I planted these bulbs and unfortunately I put them in amongst the daffodils and they got crowded out. Will have to move them.

Freesia

The Clivias have finished blooming and this one has reproduced. I was so excited to find this fledgling plant growing at the side of the parent plant. Looking forward to more blooms in a few years time.

Clivia

Still yet to identify this one, but it is gearing up to bloom. It didn't bloom the entire time it was potted, but I knew it was supposed to flower. The flowers are a pretty blue colour.

Can you name this plant for me?

Finally I have another gifted plant. This Rhododendron was an anniversary gift from my hubby. 8 years this year. I was a b it shocked at the choice when I first received it as I thought they grew very large, but the tag says otherwise. Now to find a spot for it.

Anniversary gift

Things that go slime in the night

WARNING.
This post mentions the killing of snails and slugs. Do not read if this is not your cup of tea.

I have always loved snails. They are such sweet looking little creatures. The babies are adorable. I have never worried too much about them or slugs, but I have also never been really serious about my gardening either. I am now stuck in a quandary. We have a lot of them here. A lot of slugs too and they are doing a lot of damage. I have started to become quite ruthless in my eradication of them.
A hunt them at night with a torch. The array of slugs we have here is amazing. All different colours and sizes. Some so large I mistook one for a snake at first glance. I do not want to use baits here so I have taken to hand picking them off. I squash the slugs without a second thought, but I have trouble killing the snails. I have taken to tossing them into the vacant block next door. I don't know what this does to be honest. They probably make their way back or maybe the fall kills them or only maims them. My sister mentioned collecting them and freezing them, I think hubby would have issue with me having them in the freezer. Would drowning them in water be an acceptable method?
My other concern is that maybe killing them is somehow unbalancing my ecosystem here. Could that happen? I have noticed them feeding on things like fallen rose petals etc. If only they stuck to those instead of feeding on my brand new seedlings or strawberries! There jut seems to be so many here. I have collected 100 at a time. They do extensive damage to my Hippeastrums and Aloe Vera. Is there a way to live in harmony with these little beasts?