Spring vignettes

Just some happy snaps on this Sunday from my mother-in-law's glorious garden. This garden is 3/4 of an acre, overall, and so too hard to describe or photograph in one, so I have settled for taking photos of little individual plants, groupings, or scenes instead. Enjoy!

We are looking out at the wisteria draped over the pergola as it flowers for the first time this season;


The soft scent of jasmine fills the air by the picnic table, behind the Japanese maple;


And then there's lilac, lovely blowsy lilac.


The roses are covered in a russet flush of new growth;


The azelea over by the far fence has had more flowers than leaves for months;


The orange and yellow of these sunny tulips looks especially good against the blue-violets of the bluebells;


But, to be honest, I am very fond of the drifts of bluebells all on their own;



These are MIL's favourite tulips in a velvet purple-burgundy, except they are planted in a bit of an obscure patch in the garden and are not so easy to see;


And last but not least, the white clematis over the front gate is beginning to blossom to welcome visitors who walk down that path to the house.


Have a good week, everyone xx

Feeling seedy

See? I told you I am addicated to sowing seeds; I have bought even more! I realised the other day that despite all my mad sowing, I didn't have any eggplants at all to speak of. I went out almost immediately (well, a couple of days later) and bought a punnet of Lebanese eggplant, and another of the fat 'normal' kind, the name of which escapes me, and planted them out in the garden. And I got a couple of packets of purple eggplant seeds, but, like a true addict, it wasn't enough and I needed more: Ebay beckoned.

First port of call? Yet more eggplants!

Thai 'Udumalaphet';

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

'Casper' white;

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

A funky unnamed red variety;

Source: flickr.com via Katie on Pinterest

Famous 'Listada de Grandia';

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

And while I was on a roll with the weird and wonderful?

Silver Queen, burgundy, Star of David and Clemson Spineless okra: (cool binomial name too, Abelmoschus esculentus). I don't even like okra - I think it's like eating glue - but Chef D does and I couldn't resist the mixed colours.

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

White beetroot (isn't that mutually exclusive?);

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

'Moon and Stars' Watermelon;

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

and green tomatillos (and what do they taste like? No idea!);

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

But now, a little bit of a problem: We're off overseas in a month for a month. Should I plant these now, or later? Eek! I got carried away and didn't think of that when I was madly clicking 'buy it now' the other day. I think I will hedge my bets: Just a few of each now, and more when we get home. Is it just me or is Spring running away with us already?

Dreaming in colour

I've spent the weekend dreaming about gardens, and colours, and paint... I had a little revelation recently: I love colour. Now, that probably doesn't sound all that dramatic, does it? However, I have spent well over a year thinking about our house, about modernizing our house, trying to work out how to make it a canvass for our lives, and drooling over sleek and modern photos in sleek and modern magazines, and thinking neutral, neutral, neutral, don't let things clash, it must all be seamless and stylish, etc etc.... and then, like a blast from above: Why do you want to make a house that would sit happily in a magazine? How is that reflective of the kind of life you want to lead and are working towards? Isn't that somewhat boring? Where is the spirit? So, then, the next question must be: how to introduce lots of colour without it looking too garish? Well, maybe, forget the house, the kitchen, the lounge, the bathroom, and, as always, focus on the garden instead.

I have been playing with some ideas about colour in the garden. I can't find anything on the WWW that shows what I'd like to do - an original idea? Unlikely! - I have found loads of pictures that are reflective of the kinds of colours I have fallen in love with, so on this Sunday night I'll share just a few of them with you.

Source: garden-photos-com.photoshelter.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: desiretoinspire.net via Katie on Pinterest

Source: wishflowers.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: garden-artistry.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: gildandgrace.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: beautiful-portals.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: beautiful-portals.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

Enjoy!

Gardening with toddlers.

SP and I went shopping today, and our last stop was at the Giant Hardware Store, so I could spend too much money there (again). SP had had enough of shopping by this stage and I spent most of the time we were in there picking up debris pilfered from my handbag and then dropped over the side of the shopping cart. So I rushed around, as you tend to do when out with a toddler, and along with all the other planned purchases I impulse bought a 'Panama Red' grafted passionfruit vine, figuring it could go alongside the other black passionfruit vine I'm hoping will cover the fence. Then we left and went home. SP roamed about the garden while I unloaded everything from the boot of the car, and then I went to water my new plants...


Oh. Crap. For a hopeful second I thought my new passionfruit had just been yanked out of the pot, but no, it was snapped in half as well and below the graft too. Thank you, SP. We owned that plant intact for approximately 40 minutes, which I think might be a new record for a plant death in our garden.
But, hope springs eternal (it must, when you are a parent, and when you are a gardener too; I think we are inherently optimistic people) and as we were about to rush off to a dinner date I shoved the stems and roots back in the pot and I'll have another look at it tomorrow to see if I can try my hand at grafting and rescue it. Maybe? Possibly? Or see if it will send out shoots from the top section of the graft? Gah, I don't know!


Here's a photo of the culprit as she contemplates destroying my baby beans or pulling out a bok choy instead...


What are the keys to gardening with toddlers? Only that you need patience, tolerance, a sense of humour, and to try not to get too upset when plants are pulled out, or sat on, or trodden on. It's all terribly interesting when you are 18 months old after all, even when you have the attention span of a mayfly.

Hello...

Hello, my name is Katie and I am an addict. I can't seem to stop myself from sowing seeds,
I think just one more tray, just one more set of tomatoes. But I have filled up the entire picnic table now, and I've run out of spare containers, so I might be forced to stop by circumstance. What do you think? Is it a problem? Chef D told me that he and MIL are laughing at me when they get up in the morning and find half a dozen more pots on the kitchen counter. They're laughing! At my obsession!



Actually, I think I could squeeze in one or two more trays on the bottom right side...

Poor Poss!

FIL has been busily removing the old wall cladding on our little cottage, and the stuff under the eaves too, and look what he found when he took out the piece from the corner of our bedroom!


Actually, I must confess I didn't take that photo. I found it on the Internet over here, at a gallery by Ákos Lumnitzer. My own photo, frantically taken by my phone which I happened to have in my pocket, is of a blurred furry possum bottom with white-tipped tail retreating into the distance along the fence. It's a cute bottom, though.

So as I was saying, FIL was taking off the cladding/ceiling stuff from the eaves, and as he pulled down a big piece he found a little ringtail possum, and the remains of it's grassy drey, sitting petrified in the middle of the board. It had frozen on the spot - as you would, if your house suddenly dropped out into daylight beneath you - so he was able to carry it down the ladder and take the whole lot over to the shrubbery, where the creature sprang back into life. He (or she) paused for a few moments to take stock - while I snapped my picture - probably thinking 'WTF just happened?' and then trundled away into the neighbour's yard (he picked the yard with all the bushes and trees, so a good one I think). But now I'm left thinking poor bugger, where is he going to go now? and that train of thought takes me to thinking about possum boxes, and where could I put one or two since we have no trees (yet) and if I put a box under the eaves would that tempt him back into the roof? - which we don't want since possums wear boots at night and go dancing - but maybe I could put one under the eaves of the shed which has no ceiling for a possum to build a nest in ... and so on. I really think that humans should be making spaces for wildlife to live in, since we've taken so much of it away already.

Catch up

Has it really been a week since I last posted? Is it because I've been pottering out in the Spring garden? Alas, no! It's been a non-stop kind of week with a family wedding and all the running about that comes with that, then lots more work than usual at the nursery, and tomorrow off to the Royal Show to look at chickens (bok bok bokurk!). I haven't been able to do any planting at all, but I have, of course, managed to buy a number of plants which I have waiting patiently to be put in the ground or pots.I have a heap of baby natives, and some roses, and all those seeds I planted are coming along nicely (except for the ones the bloody currawongs pecked at; if it's not the toddler destroying my plants, it's birds!) But I'll show you all that later in the week.

So even though I've not been about to be in the garden, my mind has been very much on it. I've only just discovered Pinterest (yes, slow, I know!) and since I can't put up a blog post without pictures, I'll share a few of my new gardening favourites with you.

Current garden obsessions include:
Trellis and arbours;

(from Ewa in the Garden)


(from Apartment Therepy)


(from Apartment Therepy)


(from Three Pixie Lane)


Colour in the garden;

(from No End to Gardens)


and planted walls and stairs.

(from sunset.com)


(from HGTV)

(no link, sorry! Pinned from a pin from a pin with no reference, but isn't it nice?!)

I'd like to try some of these ideas soon. I think I need to find myself a willow tree to pinch branches from...