January 12 2013 One year on

January 12^th 2013 and it is exactly one year since we moved into our new home.  Looking back it was quite a year.  Eight days after moving in my Dad passed away. In June Pop was taken to hospital by ambulance with gall bladder trouble.  In July we went overseas for 6 weeks.  In August Pop’s Mum passed away .  At the end of November a knee op for me and when I was nearly recovered from that I was back into hospital with a kidney stone.  At the same time we have been renovating the house inside and out, and entertaining friends and having great times with family and friends come for holidays.  Never a dull moment.....just the way we like it.

The house is nearing completion although to look at it you probably wouldn’t believe me.  The kitchen is to be made-over next week with a new oven and cook top, new benches and kitchen sink.  The laundry will be done also.  The bathroom will take a bit of time and we are still to organise the builder, but hopefully in the next few weeks it will be done.  Our bedroom now just needs to be painted and the study also needs painting.  The guest room will be next on the list and then once the hall way is finished then the floor coverings just need to be fitted and the furniture delivered.  Anyway back out to the garden......

The vege garden has been one of my favorite areas.  It is the first time I’ve had a real vege patch and I’ve loved it.  In the garden at the moment are – climbing ‘purple king’ beans, butter beans, snowpeas, carrots, chillies, capsicums mixed and yellow, garlic chives, coriander, italian parsley, corn, lettuce, cucumbers and apple cucumbers, zucchini, a self sown potato, and 6 different types of tomatoes, as well as rosemary, thymes, basil and marjoram... oh and spring onions and picking lettuces....I think that is all.

The shade house has been a great success.  The plants really thrive in there.  During winter my begonias hid away from the cold there and now are enjoying sitting in the doorway looking decorative.  The carnivorous plants are doing well and have even flowered.  They must be doing there ‘thing’ because I haven’t seen one mozzie in the shade house.  The orchids seem to enjoy the amount of light and the protection and I enjoy going in there fussing over them all.

I’m really pleased with the way the back garden has become what I dreamed it could be.....gone are the plants that self seed and make messes and in their place are more azaleas, camellias and rhodos.  They are growing but it will take a few more years before they really reach a good height to give the garden some shade and also balance.  The topiaries have grown and are now thriving in their little spot.  The daphnes and boronias are doing well and make a wonderful fragrance that comes up into the living room when they are in bloom.  All in all it has been a lovely year in the garden.....now for next year.........

This area has done really well - a small flowered fuchsia at the back of a 'burgundy Iceberg' rose

Burgundy Iceberg

The finished backyard deck - the swing is a great place to sit and have a coffee.  It has to be tied permanently to the deck or else it is likely to go hang gliding around the bay.  Ruby is my constant shadow inside and out.

This area was empty - I planted a 'Sweet Jane" camellia, an 'Amethyst' grevillea, azaleas and penstamins.  The apricot tree has grown and has a good crop of ripening fruit

The vege garden is doing well.  A few very pretty pansies and lobellias have decided they would like to live there too.

This area has had the most changes

The toparies are all quite happy now.  I really like the self sown lobellia in amongst the steps

an iceberg lettuce

 These tomatoes have just started to ripen - we had one for tea tonight

The carrots are small but very tasty

My crop of garlic - next year I hope to learn how to plait them - I tried but with no luck - I'll have to try to find the secret

the window boxes are growing well

December

December and the vegetables are all growing and everything is looking happy.  I have had to exchange my garden gloves, painting brush for my watercolour brush and get some artwork done.  There is an exhibition in February which I want to enter and so I must get some paintings done to put up for acceptance.  At least I can still go out and look at the garden even if I can’t do much.

Well after the first two weeks I’ve recovered enough to do some light work.  I harvested my garlic and was really thrilled with the result.  I tied them up and they are in a nice spot in the shade house where the air can circulate but they won’t get wet – perfect spot according to Peter Cundell's writings.  My white onions were also ready to come up so I have them next to the garlic. 

The rest of the month is just for getting the house ready for our Daughter, Son In Law and their two children to arrive on the 23^rd for Christmas.

This year it is our turn to host the Christmas Lunch.   Our first in our new home which although is in a great upheaval with half done renovations, a geriatric oven, flooring patched up to make do until painting finished etc. etc. we are looking forward to a wonderful time.  So lovely to have both of our children and their families and the extended circle of family and friends gathered together in our new home.  A Christmas to remember.

This hydrangea was a lovely surprise - an original plant in the garden - unfortunately a few days after this Tassie experienced it's hottest day on record and this plant looked like it had been hit with a flame thrower.

The veges are growing and the birds are liking the new birdbath

A few succulents make a pretty display and the hot weather wont destroy them.

November

November has been mainly spent working on painting the inside of the house but we also got the side deck painted – so now the hanging baskets can go up.  I bought climbing geraniums in seedling punnets.  They are bright pink and also white with bright pink markings and the very dark blue cascading lobellia. 

Pop’s brother and sister visited for a week.  It was a lovely week and we were glad to be  able to put down our paint brushes for awhile.  We went on a few outings – I bought a few plants two elderberry bushes (these had lovely copper/maroon foliage and heads of white/pink little flowers) to plant on the off side of the house and also a lemon verbena and a lime verbena (both make lovely tea).  These I’ll plant in the back garden and as they are deciduous back far enough where they won’t drop their leaves on any paths and make a mess.

One of the days we were out ‘Phil the Builder’ put in the new bit of railing on the side deck so now it is next on the list for the paint brush.  I can’t wait to get rid of that hideous orange paint ‘Woodland Grey’ to the rescue!!!!  The railings we have painted with ‘Surfmist’  It looks white but is really a very pale grey so it doesn’t look too stark against the dark of the Woodland Grey.

The sweet peas are finally flowering.  Sis’s in Melbourne have been flowering for a month now.  Next year I’ll wait another month to plant mine as I think March is too early.  So April 17 might be a good day in 2013.

Well off to hospital for knee surgery...... so I’ll just be enjoying looking at the garden for a few weeks.....oh well....sigh 

the window boxes are up 

 

Sweetpeas

 

 

The deck on the river side

October

October was an eventful month. The azaleas are out and looking gorgeous.  Once the ones near the back deck are finished flowering I will cut them back as ‘Phil the Builder’ who has been knocking out a wall and making changes to the inside of the house, will be putting up some more railing on the deck.

Sis came for a week.  We put in the star pickets and wire for the climbing beans to grow on.  Seeds for small corn was planted (never to be seen or heard from again – oh well - sigh). We also planted butter beans – the blackbirds wondered why we had put them in the ground instead of just handing them to them and at times I wondered the same!!!!  Eventually they got sick of eating the seeds and I managed to get half a dozen plants growing.  I put in a row of carrots (these were a great success – came up before the beans and the birds left them alone).  I made sure to plant them very thinly as I hate having to thin a crop.  How can I decide who lives and who dies??  Last time I grew carrots they just twisted around one another so we ate cuddily carrots.  They tasted good although were very difficult to wash and impossible to peel.  Some capsicum, mixed and plain were planted and some chillies in pots.  More coriander, italian parsley and snow peas of course were added.

Sis and I also planted a ‘Jonagold’ apple in the circular bed and surrounded it with azaleas.  These were all in whites pale pinks through to bright pink so they should compliment the apple blossom really well.

Our neighbors are putting their house on the market and so it is a good time to put up some fence toppers.  Pop and a friend  got this job done in less time than it took to decide how to do it.  They put up some more lattice on the fence where I plan to espailier some more fruit trees.

While Pop and I were away we saw so many beautiful window boxes we decided that when we got back we would put some up on the deck.  This was a dual purpose – firstly they look pretty – secondly they add a bit of privacy.  So this was the next task for Pop and his friend to put some screws in to hold the planters.

I picked and cooked some of the broad beans.  Neither Pop or I like them but had been told that if you pick them young enough they are yummy – no they are not!!!!  I cut of the rest of the plants the next day.  My original purpose for planting them was for the nitrogen that their roots add to the soil and I hope the soil enjoys the broad beans more than Pop and I did.

These azaleas will be cut back so that the railings around the deck can be completed, but I'll wait until after they have finished looking so beautiful

Everything is starting to grow and look happy

The fence toppers are going up

The original vege patch

The new vege patch with the newly constructed frame for the climbing beans

and the 'Jonagold' apple tree in with azaleas around it

September - Orchids

September is ‘Orchid Show’ time in Hobart.  The Town Hall is a beautiful sight, and the fragrance is unbelievable.  I had no idea how fragrant orchids are until I went to my first show. So many blooms representing many of the types and varieties etc. etc. there are of orchids, all gathered together.  This year I headed straight to the ‘Sales Table’.  Oh boy did I have fun.  My garden buddy friend came with me so I was able to buy as many as she could carry and go back and buy as many as I could carry.......a great way to add to my collection. 

my collection is growing..in more ways than one

Speckled eggs

pale pink dendrobian

a darker pink

I have no idea what colour this orchid will have but I like the different form

September - extending the vege garden

September

Before going on our holiday I planted some broad beans along the fence where I plan to have as an extension to the vege garden.  These have grown very well during our absence.

On the 16^th September I started removing the grass (green weeds) and shape the next vege garden.  My idea was to carry on with the shape of the established garden and make a shape to enhance the look of the back yard and yet be practical for looking after the plants.

the grass has been removed from the old garden bed and now starting to clear the rest of the weeds

 

the continuation of the previous photo 

 

28th September this is the after of the first photo

30th September this is the after of the second photo

 

 

 

June

JUNE

As the weather turns cooler not a great deal is happening outside.  Pop and I will be heading overseas at the end of July for 6 weeks and so we are getting ready for that trip.  The blog for that holiday is GrammyandPoponHoliday.  The garden blog will continue in September.

inside the shade house

another carniverous plant - a monkey pod

 

 

MAY

MAY

The shade house is next on the list of things to do.....

Pop dug out the floor into two levels so that I could walk to the back without hitting my head and used the excess soil to fill the front of the area.  He then put in a back wall of lattice and then a front doorway also of lattice.

MLLF  -(my life long friend) and her hubby PLLF (Pop’s life long friend)  came for a week to see our new house for the first time.  It was a fun week.  Lots of walking and sightseeing etc. etc.

.

digging down to make some head room

area now in two levels and weed mat and bark replaced - 4 plant stands purchased

doorway and steps in place - the plants and me are both very happy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April

APRIL

The next area to be tackled was either side of the front fence on the garage side.  This had been a potato patch so the soil wasn’t too bad inside the fence line but had been let go on the other so a bit of work was necessary to make the outside look good.  Pop recycled some blocks from the front yard to make a garden border.  I planted some dwarf nandinas on the inside and azaleas on the oiutside.

The area near the laundry deck under the burgundy iceberg rose became the home for my cyclamen.  The ground stays dry enough for them to be planted and others  stayed in their pots.

inside the fence

outside the fence

then the inside - nandinas planted

then the outside - azaleas planted

the plants in the back garden continue to grow

 

the new cyclamen area below the small flowered fuschia