I had a great day today. I spent most of the morning inside doing chores, ran some errands around 11am, then after lunch went outside to spend the rest of the day in the beautiful sunshine.
Morning smoko...
I almost lost this geranium in summer, but after giving it a good haircut it has come back as good as ever.
The veggie patch is looking a bit daggy, but hoping to keep the ice out. Another frost due tonight.
I found one last eggplant.
Close up of amaranth flower containing tons of seeds to save. Do you know the health benefits of amaranth? Not just a pretty plant...
Under the grapefruit tree you can see all the compost bins. I am going to relocate some of these and put them under other fruit trees. At the moment I am only using the square sulo bin one and it is almost full. Looks a bit messy, so tomorrow I will be tidying up this area.
The big orange flowers are forming on the aloe.
Not sure about the name of this succulent but this is a very unusual flower.
As are the spider lilies...
Pinwheel chrysanthemum...mum gave me this one in a pot.
Bird of paradise...
In the patch I planted out more seedings/seeds and garlic. I am now addicted to growing my own garlic since it was so successful last year.
It would be nice to get a bit more rain to give these plants a boost, but it is not looking likely at this stage.
gourmet lettuce mix...
A couple beds of Kale...
There are not many quandongs on the trees this year. It was a bumper crop last year so I still have plenty in the freezer and dried. Just as well I did this, because this year for the first time since planting the trees, they are not producing much fruit. This would be because of the drought.
Then it was back inside for a cuppa and some garden planning...
While inside I finally put the saved seeds into their packets and popped them in my seed box.
I found some sweet pea seeds at the bottom of the box, so decided to plant them outside in pots. They were slightly out of date, but we will see if they germinate.
The dried basil is finally in the jar...
I had time for some more outside work, so I topped up the little barrow out the front with some aged horse poo and soil. The anemone bulbs are starting to shoot up once again this year. I had forgotten about them and planted some pieces of succulent in there. I will see if I can find somewhere else to plant these.
I gave the girls a treat today by dragging around some hay for them to destroy. And let me say they do not take long to do this!
The bougainvillea is looking nice and bright against the blue skies...
Here is another plant that I would like help with to identify. This one came up in a potted plant I picked up from somewhere. It is unusual and pretty, almost poinsettia like...Any ideas? Hoping its not a weed as I have a few volunteer plants growing around the place. It would have to be the most neglected plant ever, but still it grows...
So that was my day. Its supposed to 1C tonight and 17C tomorrow, and usually pleasant days follow overnight frosts so I look forward to getting outside with my hands in the dirt again.
I have made it through one week since posting about blogging regularly here. Thank you to all who are leaving comments, I really appreciate it. Your kind words make my day, they really do...
Have a lovely night,
xTania
g'day there!
ReplyDeleteyour gardening is going great! beautiful plantings there
the poinsettia looking plant is a noxious weed here in our area, so the locals say, though have only seen it in one or 2 gardens, i think it is rather pretty too :))
lovely post
thanx for sharing
Hi Selina, great to hear from you again.
DeleteI might google and see if I can identify that plant. I agree it is pretty and it would be a shame if it turns out to be a weed.
Thanks for your help,
xTania
Okay, so it turns out it is a weed in certain parts of Australia. It is poisonous too so will probably remove it for the safety of my grand children. It would appear it is a wild Poinsettia, such a pity because it is quite pretty.
DeletexT
What a wonderful gardener you are! I love that tubular geranium. I've never heard of it. I have the classic pink ones in hanging baskets, and I love them. I have been procrastinating on planting some strawberries and flower seeds. You have inspired me to get busy.
ReplyDeleteI am going to grow more geraniums in baskets after looking at photos on google. They can look stunning if you get them to grow right. I need to research about the flowers, I want mine to flower more. I do actually think it is because they are in too much shade.
DeletexTania
Tania your plant is called Painted Spurge. It is an environmental weed in Qld. Dont let it get away on you. I have spent the last 6 years trying to rid my garden of this plant. I dont know if I will ever get on top of it. I hate it. The sap and I dont play well together. My Granddaughter has the same reaction as I did to the sap. We both come up in hives if we come in contact with it. Not much fun. I've included a link to some info.
ReplyDeletehttps://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/painted-spurge
Thanks for the info Jane. Because is is so dry here I don't think it would be a threat, but I will get rid of it anyway. We are allowed to grow lantana here because it is controllable in dry conditions. This weed would probably the same. Not taking any chances though, I have grandchildren to think of.
ReplyDeletexTania
i'm a relatively new reader, but am very much enjoying your blog. i get to learn about another country, learn new words/slang, see plants and flowers i've never seen before, and am getting valuable info about container gardening for edibles. thank you for sharing your life and knowledge. --suz in northeast ohio/usa (i live about halfway between cleveland and pittsburgh, near the ohio river)
ReplyDeleteHello and welcome to my blog Suz, it is so nice to meet you. Thank you for reading and commenting :)
DeletexTania
It's wonderful when the temps turn down and get that little bit of rain. Everything starts to blossom again. Your garden looks positively delightful. I was never a fan of geraniums, until I discovered the scented varieties. Now I try and introduce new ones which interest me. The citronella one I have found to be the hardiest - smells great too. I have a hot pink and light pink, non-scented variety too. I just recently introduced more sprawling ground-cover varieties. They have scarlet red blooms, or purple. I tried the oak leaf variety, named so, because it's leafs are shaped like oak-leafs. It did well, until the drought last year, and died.
ReplyDeleteNormally, I try and have a few back-up propagations in the nursery, but a great deal of stuff died in my shade house too. Geraniums are so easy to propagate though, I might just try and grab a few cuttings from the city gardens, up the hill. They're a pretty hardy plant to have, for dry conditions like ours.
Wow so many varieties of geraniums, I can see I am going to have to keep a look out for some. I would think the hanging ivy one would also sprawl across the ground, so I am going to put some pieces around the place and see what happens. The do climb really well so yes this would work! I love the aroma of geranium and add leaves and flowers into my potpourri.
DeleteGeraniums are everywhere and as you say are easy to propagate, so a great idea to grow them because they are hardy.
xTania
Garden is looking very colourful, Tania.
ReplyDelete