Coming up roses back yard part 2

A true garden diary entry, just pictures and notes! 

New garden section up the back, progress shots. 

Western side. 

Eastern side

Dwarf pears, cordon-planted winter 2015. 

'Beurre D'Anjou'. 

'Williams'

'Beurre Bosc'. Half the size of the others, obscured by Chicago Peace rose, and a penstemon I might need to move. 

Crocus rose under plums, David Austin, transplanted from front garden to back and much happier: first flowers in four years!    

Pretty Jessica, David Austin, buds been at this stage for days, will they open at all?!

Cornelia, hybrid musk, sprawling at this time. 

Blossomtime, small climber, bargain table buy. 

Long shot under the plums. 

Moulineux, under the plums, David Austin (I think, cutting grown from MIL's garden) 

Jessika, planted this winter. 

Bloomfield Dainty, hybrid musk

Paul Bocuse, I'm calling it: he's a favourite! But why are all the blooms at the back of the plant!?

Gruss an Aachen, smells sensational. 

White Wings, flowers are enormous but short lived. 

And lastly, not Red Pierre, which this rose should be, but the rootstock which is gorgeous and I'm going to let be after Red Pierre never took off (even before the rootstock took over. Is it Dr Huey? I'd have to look it up). 

Morry justifies his existence.

Remember when I bought Morry the white weeping mulberry? He was expensive, and I wasn't sure if he'd be worth the investment. Well, a year later he in no way resembles a cubby-house yet, but check out the fruit!  Granted they are not large, but the are prolific and delicious... Unlike the English mulberry I planted five years ago which grew like the clappers but had hardly any fruit, and those it had were small, dry, and totally tasteless. 

Fun for the postie

A great week for packages! I got my apples and pears already:

And my roses finally arrived, minus the Abraham Darby, which was a bit of a bugger because it was one of two that I really, really, really particularly wanted (the other being Cornelia), but it did give me a great excuse to go trawling a few of my favourite nurseries to see if I could find one (and I did, woo woo!)

Next update will be plants in the ground. 

More bargains

Home, the buzz and zip of spring, and the lure of the clearance section of the local big box hardware store tempts me to some lovely bargains. Such hope! Such promise! Two x $1.99 standard roses (down from $24.95). What variety? No idea: no tags, but for that price I'll definitely take a risk (I'm hoping for a yellow or buff, but will be content with anything except bright orange). I also found a 'Valley Red' super dwarf peach ($15 at half price). Self-pollinating, and high chill, so it may or may not do well up here, fingers crossed it loves my yard.  

Autumn crop

A twice-cropping raspberry, once over Christmas, and again in autumn; what's not to love?! 

(Unknown variety)

A restart

So I've realised how long it's been since I last updated this old blog. I can't even blame it in the new baby, since my wee boy is almost nine months old (yes!). Anyway, with a view to brevity (never a strong point of mine), I'm going to try something different, more of a 'photo or three a day 'in a garden theme. What's growing, what's flowering, what we're picking, what's inspiring, a la minute... Sort of. 

To kick us off...

Baby watermelons, quite gooseberry-like with those little spikes and stripes. 

 Love me xx

Seven things I'm proud of.

Please ignore that enormous blank space above. I don't know why it's there, and I can't seem to get rid of it. 

How has it been over a month since I last wrote? Babies: little time thieves... 

In lieu of real blog posts about individual things, here are seven things from the garden which I am proud of. Photos were taken with an iPhone in one hand, and a grumpy baby on the other arm, but in all their daggy (and dodgy) composition they make me happy. My urban backyard is becoming my very own Eden... So, without further ado or waffle, here are my currents joys:

1. My baby fruit trees are in their second year of fruit! Here is my beautiful, not-so-little Moorpark apricot, loading up with fruit due around Christmas, and a representative from my posse of six plum trees, whose fruit should ripen in mid-summer.  

2: We finally have chickens! Introducing our three Isa Brown pullets: Marilyn, Rita, and Audrey. We brought them home around a month ago and are averaging two eggs a day already. 

3: My raspberries! I ate the first two today from this very bush. All the plants I've put in are going bonkers with flowers and fruit. I have seven different cultivars now, in both the garden and in pots, and 'Sandford' here is the first to ripen. Since its not even supposed to flower until November, I am pretty impressed (unless climate change is causing this very early fruiting, in which case I am concerned). 

4a: My roses, because I adore them and everything is just starting to bloom. This pinky-orange fluorescent delight is 'Summer Song,' which I have moved to a cooler position (I hope) on the eastern side of the water tank. It hated it on our hot north-facing patio, so fingers crossed for a happier plant this summer. 

4

4b: More roses! Posing here from front to back are Munstead Wood (a burgundy newcomer to my garden), 'Golden Celebration' (yellow, obviously) and the ever-blooming, pink 'Sophy's Rose.' That last was bought on a whim 18 months ago, and had flowers right through winter until I finally steeled myself and pruned it about a month ago. The violet flowers at the left, by the way, are the Local Lovely, Ajuga australis. 

5: My 'hard to grow' natives: the bluer-than-blue Lechenaultia biloba, and black-fuzz-on-lime-green Macropedia fuliginosa (black kangaroo paw). Honestly, not really that hard to grow. Both need really good drainage (ie put them in a pot), lots of sun, plenty of water, and a quality native potting mix. And an expectation that they will probably not last particularly long is also useful. 

6: The sweet peas, because they are just so pretty. These are 'Matucana,' and doing a valiant job at attempting to cover up the shade cloth I've put all along my west-facing fence. 

7: Last but not least, my lawn! I am very proud of this lawn. It's far from perfect, golfers and cricketers would be appalled, but last autumn I piled loads of gypsum on that patch of compacted clay, spread out some brought in 'loam' (brown sand -ahem-), scattered a mix of lawn seed, watered it diligently until the winter rains were consistant, and lo and behold: it grew! And it didn't even drown in the swamp our backyard becomes in winter. It's daggy at the front, but will be paved there eventually so who cares?! And why is this last photo smaller? Well I have no idea, but never mind. 

Happy Spring, everyone xx