Photo of the week - Spring has sprung?

 

The weather this year has been so strange, with a mild yet dry Summer, finished off dramatically by truckloads of rain. Understandably, some of my plants are a bit confused. This is my lovely Pink Lady apple tree, which seems to have been tricked into flowering in Autumn instead of Spring. I won't ever complain about having too many flowers, but I'm slightly concerned that it won't flower in Spring now after using its flower buds, and maybe I won't get many (or even any) apples. Most fruit trees begin to form flower buds many months ahead of time, and may not do this again until next growing season. Add to this the fact that I need 2 apple trees to pollinate each other, and we find that if this tree doesn't flower again, my Granny Smith apple won't have any fruit either! Thankfully we have a Spring every year, and hopefully the weather will be more stable next time around. In the meantime I'll make sure I appreciate the flowers for what they are, not just what they could have been!

 

Photo of the week - Cottoning on

I've mentioned before that I've got quite a long drive between work and home, and also mentioned that I like to keep my eyes peeled for interesting plants, flowers and seeds along the roadside.
Over the last week I've been watching a particular corner as it gradually became covered in white fluff, and had to stop and investigate (which is no mean feat on the highway, surrounded by commuting miners).
To my delight I discovered half a dozen cotton plants (most likely Gossypium hirsutum), in all their fuzzy glory. A few branches are now in a vase in my kitchen.
Somewhere along the line a truck must have dropped seeds along the highway, producing the soft surprise I found today. Cotton is from the Hibiscus family (Malvaceae) but you might not recognise it at this point, the flower has come and gone. The seed capsule is green and firm, and splits open as it dries. This is when the cotton begins to spill out like a  luscious cloud.

I'm amazed to be reminded that my bedlinen, towels, and most of my clothing all started out life like this.

What's more beautiful than that?

 

 

 

May is for...planting magic beans

Jack and the beanstalk has always been one of my favourite stories, as I often see value in things that others find useless or boring. Plus the somewhat miraculous potential of seeds has always fascinated me! They are so small, and yet they have everything they need in that little package to become something wonderful. There is a verse in the Bible that says that having faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move mountains. That's some powerful stuff. I love to think about where a seed has come from, and what it has been through, and what it will turn into... whether it will produce offspring of its own...
It's easy to get carried away in contemplation at this time of year. The pace is slow and I spend much more time sitting somewhere cosy, or cooking and eating something comforting. Which brings me to my point, as many of the hearty winter veg (especially root vegetables and legumes) are better grown by seed, straight from my hand to the ground.

I already have some carrots and radishes coming along nicely from seed that I planted in the old bath a while ago, and at the end of April I got some beetroot, broad bean and snow pea seeds in the ground to get a head start. I cheated a bit with seedlings from the nursery to get my silverbeet and Tuscan kale started, and will probably do the same with some broccoli and maybe some red cabbage when I free up some more space.

I find it somewhat heartbreaking to pull out the tomatoes at the end of the season, as each delicious fruit is as precious as a ruby treasure to me! But it's time, and I'm already planning what I can do differently next summer. I found Amish Paste and Black Russian to be the best performing large tomatoes, while the Black Cherry and Tommy Toe were the best value for a small mouthful, pizzas or  salads. I don't think I will bother with Rebel Yellow or Green Grape, which only produced a few fruit, or the Tigerella, which produced plenty of delicious 'tigers' but had a habit of splitting along the stripes. And I will have to try a few new ones, of course! I finally managed to make Pop's tomato sauce with a mix of end of season tomatoes from home and some from the Newcastle farmers' market. I even added a couple of chillies to one batch, and the flavour didn't disappoint!

For anyone who was wondering, I did find a white windflower, and also a gorgeous white 'Shady Lady' Waratah, for the new shady side bed. A native mountain pepper, Tasmannia insipida, will spice up our cooking and take up the last large gap in the bed. Filling up the smaller foreground are some variegated impatiens and lovely little native violets, all rescued from the rubbish pile at work. The violets will grow and spread out to form the  icing on that shady cake!