Front fence revamp #2

So, the long awaited update! I get there eventually...

When last I posted, I was busy pulling up daggy lamb's ears and some Lomandras I was never happy with, and replacing them with a group of small, native ground covering plants (lots of daisies, plus a few ring-ins). I'm happy to report that most of my new flower patch is doing quite well. We have had a bit of a break in the hot weather recently with milder days and even a little bit of rain and the garden is loving it (as am I). A special mention here to my Helichrysum rutidolepis ('pale everlasting daisy'). It's a local species and classified as Threatened, and apparently it likes it in my front yard - with it's dripper irrigation and thick layer of pea straw mulch - because the few plants I put in have rocketed along, tripling in size in three weeks. Woohoo! Now, if only the rest of the plants would do the same thing...

Photo #1: Long shot of the front yard. The 'gap' at the front is actually a transplanted Poa lab and Scaevola 'mauve clusters,' which are still considering whether or not they are going to join the party.

Photo #2: Helichrysum rutidolepis going gangbusters.

Front fence revamp.

Those lamb's ears? They're doing nothing for me, so out they come, starting today. They're going to be replaced with an all-native flower border (so I'm calling it).

There are a number of little native plants right up again our fence already, including:

Brachyscome multifida var. diliata
B. 'Break O Day'
B. 'Pacific Sun'
Dampiera rosmanifolia
D. dysantha
Laurentia 'blue stars' (annual)
Chrysocephalum apiculatum prostrate form
Ajuga australis
Helichrysum scorpiodes
Wahlenbergia stricta
Billarderia cymosa (climber) and
Clematis microphylla (climber)

Today I'm planting a couple more Brachyscomes, Dampiera diversifolia, Halgania cyanea, Wahlenbergia communis and Helichrysum rutidolepis.

I will add a few more updated photos at the end (as well as a spelling and grammar check, which I can't do on my phone!)

Happy New Year, love Moorpark

My baby has borne its first fruit! My Moorpark Apricot was the first tree I planted in this house, in autumn of 2010. We have been waiting for nearly three years for fruit, and she did not disappoint us! We have been eating apricots since Christmas and have just picked the rest after the birds found them (I am feeling a bit too broke after the orgy of Christmas spending to invest in a good bird net). I never weighed or counted the fruit properly but we are drying about 40 apricots in the sun; I have another 80 or so (about 3kg) for jam; we have eaten uncountable numbers straight off the tree, and so have the birds. Pretty impressive!

Speaking of babies, our second child will be landing earth-side around the end of June :)

Long time, no blog

Oops. Far too long between posts, I am sorry! I haven't forgotten my little gardening blog, but things have been a bit mad around here recently. Not least of which, my D was diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism. Turns out his exhaustion was not solely due to overwork as I had thought, but had a real chemical/hormonal cause. He's probably had it for years. The solution was to locate the dodgy parathyroid gland (most people have four and they are usually behind the thyroid gland) and then remove the bugger. He's got the all clear now and is just left with a rather dramatic scar across his throat.
Anyway, we are getting back to normal programming now, so I'll leave you with a gratuitous photo of my boy and babe in the middle - literally - of our latest gardening construction project, which I'm calling 'Wall 2.' It's a rather imposing retaining wall we are plodding along building so that there is no longer a risk of stepping out of the laundry door and falling down a meter drop into the driveway. This wall will become an enclosed sort-of teardrop shape, and then this gardener will be putting loads of plants into it. Of course!

Handfuls of joy

Finally: I've cracked it! I have enough strawberry plants to be able to pick - and eat - an entire handful of strawberries in one go! Completely fabulous and delicious, but don't ask me what variety they are because I have so many different ones now that I've forgotten what is planted where. Many of the backyard strawberries suffered in today's 33+ degree Celsius heat - they are always the first plants to swoon dramatically the moment it gets to 25c - but the plants out the front have been in the longest, are the best mulched and must be the best established because they look just fine. Woohoo!

'Peas, peas!'

That's what our SP says, 'peas, peas!' These are Greenfeast and Telephone varieties: Y.U.M. SP and I have been picking them whenever we wander past the vines, and eating them on the spot. Poor Old D isn't getting much of a look in on the peas. Oh well, he does know they're there!

Buckets of broccoli

I have no idea why my broccoli is doing so well as it never has before. The variety is Magic Dwarf, and eight individual plants has been enough to keep this little family of three in broccoli for over two months now. In fact, with a fridge crisper full and another bucket collected today, we're starting to get a little sick of eating it; Broccoli soup, broccoli salad, broccoli quiche... Broccoli pudding next? Fortunately -or not - I think we'll be back to buying it soon as our crop is starting to shoot and the season is ending. This means that summer is on its way and soon I will be muttering about gluts of tomatoes :)