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!

Special edition - Winter is for pruning out the deadwood

I didn't quite know what to call this...
Maybe "John 15; a gardener's translation" or "why Jesus would have made a great grape pruner"
but since it's that time of year anyway... let's start thinking about sharpening our tools.

My Brother in Law is a theology student and asked me to have a look at John 15, and let him know about the ins and outs of grapes, and why Jesus used them to illustrate his point, instead of olives (which were also popular at the time). Here's what I came up with:

Basically the main theme I'm picking up is pruning, it reads almost like a 'how to' of grape pruning in winter. In June or July here in the valley all the grape vines have dropped all their leaves and any old fruit that was hanging on, and the vines are quite bare. Most vineyards will send teams of pruners in to go up each row, pruning off old branches and making big piles of trimmings which are burnt (and I hear rumours that the fire from grape canes is extra hot!). The purpose of this is to remove any old unproductive branches that use up the vines' energy and water without providing much (if any) fruit. Any diseased branches are also removed to stop it spreading to other branches and killing the vine. Once this is done, the best branches are chosen (usually only 2 or sometimes 4), these are trimmed and trained along a wire, to make sure they produce the maximum number of grapes and have plenty of support. The removal of old branches also encourages new growth when the spring comes, which will be the fruiting branches for next year.
As for olives, they are not really pruned at all unless there is dead wood or disease in the branches. They usually keep their leaves all year round, and the tree just keeps on getting bigger and making its branches stronger.
I guess the main difference that stands out to me is the permanence of olive branches, compared to the temporary nature of grape branches. Both bear fruit, but grapes require maintenance to keep the vine fruitful. It seems to me that the main message is this- the vine requires healthy branches to form fruit. These branches are temporary and will be removed if they cause disease or fail to be productive.
It's interesting to note that the vine itself and its roots are much more permanent, and would live as long as an olive tree. Only the branches are constantly being removed and replaced.
A gardener's translation: Jesus is permanent and the source of life for his people. He requires us to produce good fruit, otherwise we will be cast away from him, where there is no life.


Who knew the Bible contained a grape pruning guide? I'll have to give a copy to my apprentices...

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!

April is for...living life on the edge!

Ahhhh Autumn... you cheeky devil! I thought we had plenty of time before the chill set in, but it has snuck up on me once again. As has May... I hope you'll forgive me for the late post, but April was action-packed, and so busy I almost forgot to tell you about it. This month I had to travel down to Albury (on the NSW/Vic border) for a week of uni field work, and I seem to have brought the cool air back with me.. sorry about that folks! It was worth it though, we spent a few days in the forest counting and measuring seedlings in the forest and learning about how Eucalyptus and Callitris (Cypress Pine) trees respond to fire. It was so interesting and made me think differently about the importance of fire in Australia. But also being a bit of a nerd, part of me likes visiting a new town just to see what plants grow there! Even the street plantings were different, lovely red Berberis, lots of grasses, and a stunning Angophora with little spikes on its gumnuts. (I think it was Angophora costata but will take any other suggestions?)



In any case, I came home with a gorgeous little Eucalyptus lansdowneana "Purple Patch" to plant in the yard. It's a small tree with a semi-weeping habit and purple-pink flowers, and should be stunning in a few years' time.

We have also been working on getting the side garden edged, along the driveway on the shady southern side of the house. Shade can be a bit tricky to plant, but I like the challenge. It helps me narrow down the endless list of plants I'd like to put there, for one! I have planted a few things along there since we moved, but during summer our dog Olive liked to sit there to escape the heat. There are some survivors of her demolition work, and these include a portwine Magnolia, a Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, a lovely little native Correa alba, half a Daphne and half a white Japonica Camellia. I am choosing to see these as 'half full', and not 'half empty'... there is always hope! Under these are scattered a few hydrangeas, aquilegias, hostas and hellebores. Right at the back end I have planted a Davidson's plum, a native rainforest tree with delicious fruit that I will probably have to share with the birds. All that remains is turning it into a real garden bed, by putting in some edging. We managed to get some recycled koppers logs from a friend and dug them in, screwed to a few stakes to hold them in place. A bit of mulch finished it off nicely, and now it looks much more civilised.

I will add a few more plants when I have more time to go nursery-hopping, I'm on the lookout for some japanese windflowers as they are looking so stunning at work right now. I usually can't leave a nursery empty handed, so I would rather wait until I can search out some real treasures to fill it out with.

                                 Japanese Windflowers in April bloom nearby

We also decided to put a garden edge on the outside of the pool fence, to help with mowing and keep the grass out of the garden beds inside. I had hoped to dig out the grass but it is far too happy where it is! I will have to give it a spray and come back when I have more time, to pull it out.

Meanwhile, inside Matt has been steaming off wallpaper like a madman, and stripping paint off skirting boards with a heat gun. The house looks better already, without the stained and peeling wallpaper (which a clever Aunt dated to about 1974). There have been a few surprise cracks and gaps beneath the wallpaper, but these should be easy enough to fix up and give a fresh coat of paint. It's all happening!

March is for... getting a move on

March...left, right. Left, right. The weather is cooling, but there's no time to rest! Don't be fooled by the slowing of growth, it's time for action! Any evergreen plants are best to get in the ground or transplant now before it gets cold, while the deciduous plants can wait until winter. Fertilising plants now will give you a last burst of growth, and you can give shrubs a light trim that will keep them in shape until spring. Also, if you're anything like me, the spring bulb catalogues are irresistable at the moment, and so of course my little order arrived a few weeks ago. I'm not going to promise to stop there, the Collectors' Plant Fair is on next month, after all. But as usual my Dutch blood is pumping at the photos of blousy tulips and dainty snowdrops... unfortunately they can be pretty tricky to grow where I am. I have succeeded with tulips in the past, just by popping them in the fridge for a few weeks before planting. They were fabulous! But somewhere along the line they were left behind in one of the gardens I have had the pleasure of dipping my hands into. I'm sure they are in good company- I have managed to bring with me through 6 moves some red nerines from my Mum's garden, and some purple callas and pink storm lilies I bought as a teenager. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these treasures will have been overlooked in the frantic retrieval that occurs when I move house, and I hope they live on to surprise and delight new housemates. Part of the excitement for me is their invisibility during the colder months, and the first bright hint of green spikes pushing their way through the ground to welcome the spring warmth. Sometimes I've been sensible enough to put my bulbs in pots, and so my jonquils, freesias, mini daffodils, bluebells and iris have arrived safely, and some of these I planted in the front garden to brighten it up. Those still in pots will be moveable displays when their time to shine comes along.

So, what did I order?! In the catalogues there were so many bulbs I hadn't come across before, it was quite difficult to choose! I wrote a wish list, and then a shortlist. And I was still over the budget Matt gave me... Luckily (or not... I'm choosing to be an optimist) the early birds had got the worm, and I missed out on a few of the rarer bulbs. This thankfully narrowed my list somewhat and I ended up deciding on muscari 'Mount Hood'; a lovely little grape hyacinth with dark blue at the bottom and white on top, striped squill; which are similar to bluebells if they were paler blue with white stripes, and Lachenalia mutabilis... which are so unusual that a description escapes me. This picture from the Garden Express website should help:

And now comes the fun part, deciding where to plant them. The front garden will probably be best, as it is really dedicated to flowers and designed to pretty the house up. A couple of the local girls have taken to pinching my roses though, and it would break my heart to see these babies disappear! I will probably just risk it and trust that there will be enough to go around... I do like to think that they enjoy the flowers and will hopefully be inspired to grow their own someday.












And on that note, here is an update of the rose bed at the very front of the yard, and the new bed we built along the front of the house. The roses have filled out and the little bloomers added colour in the gaps. I was lucky enough to pick my first rose bouquet for the kitchen, which I didn't expect in the first year!



















The new bed along the house and verandah was filled with shrubs with purple or white flowers, and under 2m in size. There are a couple of different gardenias, as their fragrance and elegance earned them a fair amount of space (especially under the bedroom window). We  kept the existing maybush since it fits with the colour scheme, and I love the rounded weeping shape. The hibiscus was not so lucky, although its abundant flowers had awarded it a stay of execution until now. I have been around long enough to know that a hibiscus in summer is at its peak, and that in winter it will look pretty scrappy. And the red flowers were never really my style... then recently I started noticing tibouchinas flowering in the streets and finally had a better option! So we picked up a 'Jazzie' variety that will grow to about 1.5m and have stunning purple flowers. Much better!

Tibouchina 'Jazzie'

We have also planted a jasmine to climb over the verandah rail for cover and fragrance, a 'Cherry Pie' heliotrope to attract butterflies and add a rich vanilla scent, and some natives to attract birds; a Leptospermum 'Cardwell' and a gorgeous silky Erempohila that is my baby- it is so wonderfully soft to touch. A mauve dwarf crepe myrtle filled the last gap, and we then laid a timber edge and mulched the whole bed with fine woodchips to keep the moisture in and the weeds out. It should fill out nicely over the next year.

When we first moved in I planted a little apricot tree in the middle of the front lawn, in front of the bedroom window. Because it is deciduous, it will shade the room from the hot western sun in summer and let the sun in to keep it warm in winter. And apricots fresh off the tree are truly a different experience to shop-bought, the jammy flavour and soft flesh is divine. I can't wait to see it fruit! After planting I put a few rocks around in a circle and planted the old nerines inside it, and now they are looking a treat! as Autumn flowering bulbs, they serve as a reminder and encouragement to hurry up and get the spring bulbs in the ground so they can begin to work their magic!



The giant allium, 'Prins Claus' crocus and chequered lily will just have to wait until next year, hopefully I can get them in my hot little hands before they sell out next time!

February is for... reaping what you sow

 

 

How do you make sausages and mash into a delicious and nourishing dinner? Make it with loads of love, and quickly dash out into the rain for some silverbeet, snake beans, purple king beans and spring onions. Add them to your potatoes after mashing and cook for another minute or so. I promise you it will be amazing.

I have never been one to shy away from eating greens; my mum may tell you it took me years to warm to zucchini, but it's now a regular in my kitchen. And frozen peas will probably never float my boat, but the tender little ones you grow yourself are another experience altogether! I tend to find that there are many veg that can be added to almost any meal, and growing them myself means that ingredients I wouldn't have bothered to buy are there to add extra flavour and vitamins to most of the things I cook.



Mixed heirloom tomatoes, fresh from the garden

Sometimes they are even the star of the show! I love a good spinach pie and last week made one from silverbeet, leeks, basil and thyme. And the heirloom tomatoes from this summer have made many a colourful salad or cheese and tomato toastie. I had high hopes for tomatoes this year after building them trellises to climb from the old fence pieces we pulled down. And there were plenty to go around, until the heat hit us! I have cut back a few of the bushes and crossed my fingers, but have also sown some more seed a fortnight ago to see if I can extend the season a little. 'Amish paste' was the only variety that didn't skip a beat and is still loaded with fruit. I am banking on it to crop well so that I can try out my Pop's recipe for tomato sauce, I remember it being so tasty when I was young and am hoping I can do it justice.

In any case the cucumber, chilli, silverbeet and eggplant are powering on, and there is more basil than I can poke a stick at. Growing them against the fence has kept them nice and warm, and helped to find a use for the old fence panels.





As well as these beds we have planted out an old bath and a gutted out fridge and filled these with beans, spring onions, chives, chilli and sorrel, with some carrot and radish seeds coming up in one and the perennials asparagus and galangal in the other.



















One regret from this summer is that I haven't managed to grow any pumpkins, but I don't think it's quite too late and will keep my eye out at the nursery for a seedling or 2 to give it a whirl before it gets too cold. I do love a good pumpkin fritatta. Or pumpkin and pesto pasta. There are still armfuls of basil, after all...

January is for... turning over a new leaf

I have a confession to make. I've been accused of being grassist. In general I can find something to appreciate about most of creation, and plants especially, but for a long time grasses have left me cold. It's just that I find their strappy leaves predictable, the lack of colourful flowers a bit uninspiring, and most of them you can't even eat! Part of the problem is that I feel like grasses and grassy looking plants are overused in 'modern' or 'low maintenace' gardens without much thought going into the combination or design. Once my garden discrimination was pointed out, I felt the need to find some sort of common ground with grasses so that I could better appreciate their unique qualities. Over the last couple of months, a few major benefits have come to light.
1. Finch food
One main objective of our garden design is its ability to attract and feed birds. I have a couple of wonderful books to guide me; my favourite being 'Birdscaping Australian gardens' by George Adams. I've learned that different birds all eat different food, whether insects, fruit, seeds, nectar or other garden goodies. To provide for a variety of birds, I will need a variety of plants. Simple, right?

At work I have been taking more notice of where I see my favourite birds regularly visiting. The white-plumed honeyeaters and eastern spinebills seem to love chinese lanterns and salvias at this time of year, and the blue wrens, silvereyes and yellow thornbills seem to form mixed groups, hunting ferociously in dense bushes where the best little bugs hide. The red-browed finches and double-barred finches, however, feed in flocks as they carpet the ground, eating grass seeds in the open areas. I have seen a couple pass through my garden at home, stopping only for a drink in my little waterbowl. I would hate for them to feel left out of the grand plan!

2. Pool maintenance
My next project is the garden that edges the pool area, now that the fence is up. Now as much as I love being outside, cleaning the pool is really not my thing. We have a great gadget that crawls around on the bottom vacuuming everything up. He's not perfect, however, and I'd like to make his life as easy as possible by not planting things around the pool that will drop too much leaf or flower matter into it. Most grasses will be perfect for the pool area, I just need to avoid any with big fluffy seed heads.

                                          Anigozanthos 'Bush Diamond'

And so, I began shopping around for plants with just the right attributes. My first choice was a lovely kangaroo paw that has been catching my eye around the nurseries lately, called Bush Diamond. Its velvety white flower is held above the strappy leaves to bring a bit of brightness to the garden and attract nectar feeding birds.

 

                                            Anigozanthos 'Bush Pearl'

I also bought a few pots of Bush Pearl, its cool pink cousin, to add colour, and the taller black kangaroo paw for some height in the back corner. Aiming for a cool palette,  the silver-blue Festuca was a must. Small and feathery, it will be mass planted to tie the whole garden together. Lomandra 'Shara' is a native that looks a bit like a larger version of the Festuca, so I will use it to fill out and accent areas.

                                          Festuca glauca

To soften the effect of all those spiky leaves, I have made sure to plant in curves and waves, and have also added some mound-forming native plants for their lovely rounded shape. Acacia 'Limelight', Banksia 'Rollercoaster' and a lovely endangered plant called Zieria 'Carpet Star' will be dotted singly through the bed.

                                          Zieria 'Carpet Star'

                                         Banksia integrifolia 'Rollercoaster'

As per usual the month has flown by and I would have loved to include a finished photo of the bed, but January has somehow escaped me and it is not yet complete (a good gardener knows that a garden is never finished!). I will include a finished photo as soon as possible, until then I will leave the rest to your imagination...