June is for...trying to keep warm

Since we moved into the house last spring, we've had an issue with the hot water system. It's an electric instantaneous heater that sits under our sink in the kitchen, and heats water 'on demand'. Unfortunately ours is quite temperamental and would heat the water to whatever temperature it deemed appropriate (cool, warm, or scalding hot) and cut out at some point during your shower (often at the least convenient time, like when your hair is full of shampoo). Over summer it wasn't a big priority, as a cool shower is often a great way to end a hot day of gardening. But as the days have been getting cooler we have been saving our pennies, and we now have a lovely new gas hot water system installed by Matt's uncle Grahme. I can't express to you the joy of having a reliably hot shower in winter, and it's a luxury I will never again take for granted! In times when the water went cold in the shower I told myself that we were lucky to even have running water, and it has helped me to be more grateful for everything we have. Our little house is nothing fancy, but it is getting better all the time and it's so satisfying to see the improvement. I now have a month off uni before finishing my final semester and becoming a 'real' horticulturist, so hopefully we will make lots of progress over the coming weeks. I have also learned that painting walls is a great way to keep warm on a cold night, killing two birds with one stone!
 

 





















The garden beds around the pool have finally been finished off, with a grafted standard Casuarina glauca 'Cousin it' which looks like something out of a Dr Suess story, a few more kangaroo paws and lomandra 'Shara'. Some sandstone stepping stones lead out onto the lawn, and our 3 waterlily bowls make use of an odd triangle of concrete that looked tricky to remove.







We had to remove the Acacia 'Limelight' that didn't survive the summer, but found a gorgeous Melaleuca thymifolia to replace it. It's a groundcover form called 'Little Beauty' and has the sweetest little purple flowers!

 

 Along the shorter side of the fence there is a simple row of rosemary, as I love to use it in the kitchen and my 2 little plants just can't keep up with the demand. Bees and other insects love blue, so the little blue flowers should encourage more pollinators and some beneficial predators to hang around. As an added bonus, I managed to grow all the rosemary from cuttings, so this section of the garden was FREE! Rosemary, lavender and the rest of the mint family grow really well from cuttings, so it's really worth the little bit of effort for the satisfaction of making your own little plants. For these, I just cut off a piece about 15cm long, stripped off two thirds of the foliage and buried them in potting mix at least halfway up. This helps to keep them steady and maximises the amount of stem that can form roots. Water them in well and then keep them damp (but not wet) until you can feel some resistance if you pull them gently. If you just happen to have some cutting hormone (in the form of powder, gel or liquid) these will help to improve your success rate, but aren't absolutely necessary. I've heard of people dipping their cuttings in organic honey and then cinnamon powder to encourage roots to form, but haven't tried it myself. Sounds like a good experiment!