Mouse Melons

Or cucamelons, or Mexican sour gherkins, or Melothria scabra (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melothria_scabra): cute, tasty, perfect snack size for the kidlets,really do pretty much taste like an ever so slightly sour cucumber, wish they were a bit more prolific but more plants next time. However, under no circumstances should you eat one which has fallen, overripe, from the vine: it will taste like arse. 

Chilli Day!

Almost too beautiful to pick... 

Thai chilli 'Siam' (my favourite)

Front 'Red Cap Mushroom' hot hot hot, behind is a Thai Birdseye. 

Forget, label toddlered, Anaheim? Looks totally different to the Anaheim I've grown in the past. 

Forget. Label also toddlered! Possibly Anaheim. 

Most of these beauties will be made into Pik Nam Pla (chillies in fish sauce), Pik Nam Som (chillies in vinegar), or frozen.  

Phase Pink

I blame my daughter, the pink-obsessed five year old, for putting me on to the joys of pink! 

Agastache 'Sweet Lili'

Salvia 'Sensation'

Salvia 'Angel Wings'

Salvia 'Navajo Rose'

Salvia 'Raspberry Royal'

Dianthus 'Nola'

And Anthemis tinctoria 'EC Buxton,' which is not pink, for luck! 

Eggplant 'Fairytale'

Fooling around with the eggplants; too much time on Pinterest!

Kokedama part four

Forgot to ever photograph or post this one from at least a month ago. Baby Parlour Palm (scientific binomial forgotten) from Ikea in kokedama ball, blue glass dish also Ikea (finally found a use for it!). I think the palm might actually be growing! He gets watered (soaked) about once a week. Behind is a bargain plant I found a couple of weeks ago, whose name -common or otherwise - completely escapes me, brassy pot from the Salvos. 

This pair lives in my bathroom at the moment. 

Thirty-five days without rain

Ye Olde Nature Strip - my first experiment in all-native plants (though not all indigenous) - has survived, if not thrived, on no rainwater for over a month, and no supplemental water for the entire summer. Not bad, eh?!

Then and now

Why no blogging? Not so much to talk about in the hot dregs of an Adelaide summer!

The roses are setting up to rebloom. This was Sharifa Asma (David Austin) two days ago...

And here she was today with a makeshift sun-hat for the 41c heat (that's over 100f, for the overseas readers) :)

Behind you can see the cardboard box I popped over Radio Times. I also had buckets and old plastic plant pots over individual new plants, or about-to-bloom plants, and a big sheet of shade cloth over a newly planted section of the front garden. The things we gardeners do to protect our precious plants! Let's just not talk about the water bill...