Surprise surprise .. It's not over!

chrysanthemum in bloom

Just when I thought it was curtain call for the garden, the chrysanthemum produced a pleasant surprise of little blooms! With some luck, all the buds might get a chance to bloom before the frost claims the garden. With all the other plants gone dormant, it is really nice to see a splash of sunny yellow in the garden.

See the sprinkling of hail on
the base...brrr!

Still plenty of little buds
yet to bloom

 

 

Last of the flowers

Leaves have gone from the trees (on to my lawn...sweep, sweep, sweep...sigh) so it's time to turn indoors but before that, on show for the last time is the last of the flowers from the garden.

The chewed up white dahlias

The dahlias are among my favourites in garden, but it would appear that I'm not alone. Last year's plant was chewed to the ground, and it looks like this year is no different...sigh! In addition to the white dahlia, I have a yellow one this year, it seems to have faired better.

They are no fans of the cold, so this year, I will fleece them for the winter months and hopefully, they will survive.

The others that bring the last colours are the pink rose, this plant has been in the garden for a year now, it is growing too well and only have a few blooms but they are really large and vibrant!

The pink lily is another eye catching splash of colour when everything else is turning dull like the weather.

The purple allium and pink heather brings on the curtain call, alliums are late this year compared to last year and this is the second flowering for the heather, once in spring and again in late autumn.

 

 

The pink rose

Purple heather

The pink rose

The pink tiger lily

 

Sunflower

The garden is currently being given the rest that its earned so now is the time to reflect on some of plants that I didn't get a chance to showcase earlier on the year. One of them is the sunflower, this is the first time I've tried to grown them and the sprouted easily and once establishe kept reaching for the sky. I had a phot taken of myself when I was hardly 2 so I intended to capture a similar shot of my girl as she just turned 2 this year, alas all too often we forget that Mother Nature gets the last say in all to do in the garden.... Just as the sunflowers bloomed to their full size and I was ready for my photo shoot, the weather turned and we experienced high winds, on the morn the sunflowers were down and the opportunity for the photo was gone. Maybe next year.....

The raspberry canes
suffered too but they
had stopped producing by then

The downed sunflower

 

The garden this year - year 3

 

 

This is the third year that we have been here and the first plants have taken and the garden now looks lived in. Happy to report that I've lost no more than 2 or 3 plants but sadly my hibiscus has not flowered since the first year. It was to be a little piece of my homeland but alas it was not to be, all I have is a very leafy bush. I have to admit though, this year my focus has been on the vegie patch rather than on the flowering plants but the plants seemed to be happy enough with the little attention given to them. Maybe next year it will be time to re-assess the colour scheme and try to get the plants to flower in sequence and not have periods of green in the season. But it is time to say goodbye to my garden as autumm is nigh and time to ready the plants for their resting period till spring in the new year.

The first year

Year 2

Lettuce - ready, get set, munch!

 

After the battle with the slugs, the lettuce have been growing well and are now ready! Though it was quite fiddly to remove the soil from the leaves (I wonder how the commercial growers do it so well) it was fresh salad time, any time. No more leftover salad leaves sagging sadly in the fridge as I only pick what I need.

Curly Kale - time to get some fibre

We finally got some sunny days in between heavy downpours, the curly kale seemed to like the irratic weather and are now ready to be plucked. I've decided to go for the long harvesting method which means rather than taking the entire plant, I will just harvest the outer leaves and leave the plant to keep producing hence prolonging the harvest period and my supply of kale!  

The baby plants a while ago

It's raspberry harvesting time

Almost a month since my last update, the raspberries are begining to ripen, yay! As the fruits started to show some colour, it was time to stop procrastinating and put up the nets to prevent the birds from getting a free meal. I have to say it was a challenge and a half as the rasp canes were on a slope but finally it was done and the fruits are safe.

The very first one!

Injured branch from putting up the netting

The garden after the rain and foggy weather

It has been raining practically every day in the last week, some days, the fog was so thick, I couldn't see the end of garden. Today, the skies have cleared and it is time to pay a visit to the plants.First up, is the peas ...surprise, surprise....there be flowers! It was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting the plants to grow bigger before showing any signs of flowering.

Flowering pea

Next, a quick visit to the leafy vegs, there all seem to be surviving well enough. But it looks like a spot weeding may be required. Featured below is the curly Kale.

Curly kale

Then a quick stop, to check on the berries. The gooseberry bush is as bushy as ever but still no signs of any buds/flowers. Same with the blueberry bush though it was less bushy, I do wonder if I will ever get any fruit off it as it has been two years and still nothing. Then on to some goods news, the raspberry canes have been flowering for a few weeks now and some fruits are starting to form...yay!

The fruits are forming

More fruits

Last on this update are the herbs,the thyme is flowering I think I'm not suppose to allow it flower though, something about degrading the taste. The oregano has been put to good use lately and new growth is showing. The mint is also starting to turn a lovely fresh green, it seems to produce dark purplish leaves over the winter.

Ring of copper....down with the slugs!

 I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down,down,down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.

Johnny Cash

I made a ring of copper around my lettuces to try to save them from the slugs and snails. But opposed to the song, I hope the slugs remain outside the ring, rather than in! It's been a few days now, and the leaves seem to stay intact with no new holes in them. Hopefully this means my lettuces are safe and the pests don't turn their attention to the sprouts next to the lettuces.



Snail caught climbing into the rosemary pot

Lettuce anyone?

This is is how the lettuce story goes, I started the lettuces from seeds. But because the seeds were so tiny and lightweight I probably lost 70% of them due to rain and wind. Although they were meant to be mixed salad leaves, I'm guessing only the ones from heavier seeds remained which turned out to be only one variety. There were also two rows of them but as soon as I lifted the cloche, the row on the outside dissappeared overnight... slug attack! At least they did serve some purpose and protected the inner row which is now about big enough to be picked as baby salad leaves.

Peas please

This is the pea story, after about 3 weeks of being sown directly onto the plot, tiny shoots finally peeked out. Since then, they have been making great headway, growing well week after week. With the fluctuating temperatures we have been getting, I decided to keep the cloches on despite some really scorching days. This evening, during my checks, I had to remove the cloches as the plants have reached the top and were starting to bend. Once the cloches were removed, I also put in the stakes for the plants to hold on to as they (hopefully) start to stretch out and lengthened more.

Taken on the 1st of May ... the excitement begins

A week later

A few weeks ago...

Where have you been...French beans?

After one night outside in the cloche, still standing tall

After my first unsuccessful attempt to sow french beans directly on the ground which turned out to be a no-show from the beans, I decided to start again, this time with indoor sowing with the last of my seeds. On cue, they sprouted and happily grew their second set of leaves on the windowsill of my toilet! So, it's time for them to live in their permanent home outside. With some cursory hardening which consisted of putting them outside in the shade for an hour which ended up as them being left forgotten in the direct sun for the entire day, they were considered ready to go out! It's been 4 days, they seem to be happy enough in their new home so its slug duty till they are better established for now.

Hardening outsdie with peas for company

From grass to gravel in a day

Our side lawn has been given a makeover, after 2 years, the grass has lost the battle to moss and poor draining soil. So I had to give in and get rid of the grass but I still didnt want something that was not green, or gave the impression of 'green-ness'. So from rock garden to zen garden to 'get the job done with least cost', we ended up with gravel, rocks (courtesy of our house developer, dug up from the back garden), and a few hebes. With a team of 2 and a half and the surprising coorperation of the weather, we got it all done working from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening.

Once the winning shot of the new mow-free side lawn ( I guess we can't call it lawn anymore) was taken, I realised that I forgot to take the before shot. I had to dig out an old photo, see below, just imagine the grass looking less green and more yellow. 



Before ... taken almost 2 years ago

New mow-free look!

Muscari Carpet

I had a load of muscari bulbs which I planted in two separate locations, both locations are known to be 'hostile' towards anything that I try to plant. The bulbs in area at the bottom of my garden failed to sprout except for a few straggly bits which were promptly chomped by slugs/insects. The area at the top of the veggie plot however is proving to be muscari friendly...hooray! finally something that will grow in this area! 



Up close and personal

Rhubarb ..babab babab

The rhubarb is back with a vengence, how I love plants like these, didnt even have to codle it through winter. It was hard though last year to fight the temptation to pick the stems as it was just the first year. This year though, we've already had 2 samplings for desserts, the excuse for picking early was that the large leaves were encroaching in to my lines of onions so they had to go and once picked where else but into the tummy they go!

The veggie plan







My little gems .... nice and cosy indoors



 

This year, potatoes are off the list, though I've grown them for 2 years with some success, I find that I would prefer to get some leafy greens in the ground this time round. So, we have (or are going to have) Kale, Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli and Leeks. Not wanting to clog the window sills in the house, I put them in the shed, hoping there will be enough warmth, alas, there wasn't, so into the house they go and no longer than 5 days have passed, I see the little shoots peeking out of the compost. 





Three weeks ago ...

Raspberry canes ... the new arrivals!

The canes down in the bottom right corner where nothing seems to grow...touch wood!

My neighbour's mom is an avid gardener and she had promised to swipe some raspberry canes for me when she next visited her mom out in Ballater. So one stormy evening (it had to be) there was a buzz on the door and lo and behold, my neighbour was armed with a bunch of canes. Brilliant! so despite the pouring rain, I plonked them into the bottom right corner of the garden. A few weeks later, I'm glad to report that they have taken root and seems to be doing well. So, now the only thing left is to be vigilant and keep pesky birds away and we might just enjoy some homegrown jam and fruit tarts!

One of the cane decided to grow horizontally...there has to be one!!

Here comes the Tulips

The tulips have arrived, due to the abnormally hot week we had, the tulips sprouted in record time. These are the ones under my climbing rose, I thought they were deep red in colour but turns out they were yellow! haha!

Photo above was taken yesterday, this morning the weather turned and below is what happened! I hope the plants will survive the sudden chill.