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