Second half of March

Everything is still growing well.  The vege garden is starting to slow down and I plan to take out the rest of the tomato plants and the zucchini plants as they have finished producing anything of value and are looking rather scrappy.  The seeds of red beet and an Asian broccoli that I planted have come up so I’m pleased about that ....I haven’t had the best success rate in the past with seeds so hopefully this is the start of a new era.

The flower that I wrote about that came up first and its leave follow later is a ‘colchicum’.  Thanks Sis for the info.  These flowers are now finished and the leaves are just starting to show through the ground. 

The leucadendrons are going well now and forming their cones.  I had trouble getting something to grow in the front of the bed but now have a succulent doing really well and looks good as it also has red and green foliage.

We have started to get a plan happening for the front garden.  During April we gave a chap with a digger coming to remove the weed/lawn and he will also do some concreting. 

leucadendrons

the Monkey pod is doing well..you can see the forming pods on the tips of the new leaf

I hope the bromiliads will flower this year

this is the before photo of the front yard

First Half of March

Sis came to visit at the start of March.  She knows heaps about gardening and so I picked her brains about all sorts of things.  The corn was really interesting – when it gets to the ‘flower’ stage it has a head of seeds.  At the same time - growing below, off the stalk, is a stem with a tassel growing up from the top.  When the seeds fall from the head they land onto the tassel and there is the start of your corn.  When the tassel goes brown and withered the corn is ready to pick.  The interesting fact that Sis told me is that each one of the threads of the tassel goes down into the stem and is connected to its own little bit that turns into a piece of corn. 

Everything is still growing really well.  The beans are slowing down (just as well because we are getting a little tired of eating them),  The tomatoes are also producing really well.  Next year I will probably not plant as many tomatoes, as they crop so well it is a struggle to keep up to them – even with giving them to neighbors etc. but they are really so tasty compared to those you buy.

I had a bit of a clean up of the top vege patch (the one with the lemon tree) and dug up my potato crop from a self sown potato.  There were a few smaller than a golf ball and some little ones....oh well they were delicious anyway.  One of the tomato plants had finished so out it came too so then there was some room for something new.  I planted some seedling red onions (onions do really well here) and some garlic chives.  They have been a favorite as they jazz up anything you cook. I also planted broccoli seeds - probably too late but they will become green manure if they fail and also some red beet.  Cross fingers as I don’t usually have much success with seeds.  The snow peas have finished producing so it will be a few months before they can go in again.  Next time I’ll put them back where I had them originally in the top bed where they had lots of lovely snow-peas rather than in the next bed they seemed to struggle and only produced half as much as before.  Win some – lose some!!!  But always win a bit of information.

The flower garden is looking good – a few roses in bloom, penstamens looking pretty and the fairies have planted lots of very pretty pansies everywhere....some in the vege garden, paths, under the steps and all really pretty ones as well as that, the lobelia has self sown all around the steps and paths.  I pull out every other self sown invader but not the pansies or lobelias.  The previous owner had planted this curious bulb which has a flower, like a tulip in shape, which comes up out of the ground first and then when the flower dies the leaves come up.  I have taken out every other bulby thing as their messiness annoys me but I like the quirkiness of this cheeky flower.  The bumble bees also love it.

Everything continues to be happy in the shade house (including me). I really love the begonias that appear  in Feb. and still going strong now in March.  I thought I had lost a couple – in fact I thought they were just pots with dirt but up came the begonias as beautiful as ever.

Yesterday was ‘grandson day’ of the week and together we picked two and a half kg of tomatoes.  This was from just two plants and there were still plenty of green ones waiting to ripen. 

My first ever corn - you can see the little threads of the tassel connected to each piece of corn

the chilli plant has started to produce

my whole potato crop was only big enough for one meal for Pop and me

the two tomato plants before we picked two and a half kg.

I'm glad Pop isn't sick of zucchini yet as they are still going strong even though the leaves are covered in mildew - too much night rain

This is the cheeky, quirky bulb that has flowers before it has leaves.  I can't remember it name but it starts with a "C" 

This is my favorite penstimen - the flowers are about waist high - so it is quite vigorous

This is one of the self sown pansies - in a pot with my azalea 'Shiraz'.  The azalea hasn't flowered yet but I love the colour of its' foliage

February 2013

A very happy tomato

Well it is always good to start with a smile.....I love this tomato he has so much personality. 

February was busy with finishing off the renovations to the house – getting carpet and other flooring down, new furniture delivered, the kitchen being finished off and best of all getting ready for a visit from Sis.  All very exciting. 

 

The vege garden was really into production mode now.  Most evening meals had at least 3 different things from the garden. 

Beans and zucchinis were given to family and friends. The new neighbors were welcomed also with a bag of beans.  I enjoyed this as the previous owners of that house had welcomed us with some veges from their garden...and so the tradition continues......

The corn is growing well – not quite ‘as high as an elephants eye’ but nearly up to my eye.  The green capsicums are also producing well

The begonias are looking beautiful and are now enjoying being able to sit in the doorway of the shade house.

We had a praying mantis visit the garden much to the delight of one of our grandsons.

There are lots of birds now visiting the garden daily for a dip in one of the two bird baths.  They are a lot of fun to watch but rather shy and so no photo as yet.

Grammy picking beans

 

the corn is filling out

the praying mantis amongst the beans

the first capsicum

some of my begonias decorating the shade house doorway

January 2013 continued

A few days after the Jan. 12^th post I was back in hospital with pneumonia and a blood clot in my lung.  In other words I was a very ‘sick little girl’.  During the week I was in hospital Pop watered the garden and kept me updated on the progress of the vegie garden.  He picked our first ripe tomato and brought me in a photo of it.  I was really thrilled.

Once home I was able to go  out and do a little bit of fussing about and Pop helped me with what I wasn’t strong enough to do.  The zucchini was the only thing that didn’t go to plan – the first zucchini was only the size of a pencil when I went into hospital was the size of a rolling pin  when I came home a week later.  Oh well – it tasted good, but I do prefer to pick them while they are still small.

By the end of January I picked our first ‘purple king’ beans, carrots, snow peas and zucchinis.

my first tomato

we had a few very yummy meals from this collection