My Dream Private Garden

I am in the process of designing my dream garden - one that produces edible crops, one that have an assortment of favourite flowers for use as well as for admiring, one that I can go to whenever I need some moments of undisturbed solitude, one that my dog and children can run in and run on, one that is self-sufficient generating its own compost/fertiliser and collecting its own rainwater...I can only imagine the many things I can do in this beautiful haven. It will take a few years before my pittosporum golden sheens reach density and height for such privacy. Meanwhile, I will concentrate on planting things that I had wanted to plant and get the garden in order for a start. I simply adore the look of an edible grapevine whether it is creeping on the roof or grown in a large pot. I will do something similar soon like that in the picture : a grapevine with herbs/flowers grown at the verandah. I already have decided on the spot in my new house. In fact, there are three possible spots. For a start, the vine would be very small and it takes patient years for it to reach the looks of that picture.

I love daffodils. This picture shows clumps of them growing under trees. I am not going to have that many but certainly daffodils will be flowers that I will keep. In fact, I have already planted them some time back. See http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/08/time-for-flowers-at-our-new-house.html and http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/07/one-more-month-of-winterhows-are-some.html and http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/07/daffodils-pushing-out-of-soil.html . They are showing well for now.

Look at the hanging bunches of Wisteria! They are gorgeous. In fact the pink or purple ones take my breath away. They look like hanging bunches of grapes! Not growing them at this point as I am not sure where in my front garden can I accommodate such a big tree.

A Time for Flowers at our New House!

Actually today is my Hubby's birthday but haiz...we had to be out at the new house doing work as we could not reach a common date with the tradesmen and pittosporum supplier. Here's the tag from our Pittosporum Golden Sheen : Some daffodils have sprouted at the patch next to the garage :

This tiny stretch of fence will not have any Pittosporum Golden Sheen. It has some arum lily bush growing. We had relocated some arum lily from another part as it interfered with pittosporum planting (the one on the left was a relocation. Hope it survives replanting) :

Another clump. The middle one was original where else those two on its left and right are relocations :

I have let this rose shrub go haha...I have uprooted all other rose shrubs except this lucky one. I have pruned its long branches this morning without much knowledge. See if it will produce some beautiful blooms for me :

This is the plum blossoms from our plum tree. It is white instead of pink and smells mild :

My immediate neighbour has a camelia which is flowering. I really dont mind admiring hers because I have pulled up mine to make way for fruit trees :

A neighbour further away has a Magnolia tree. Beautiful tree with beautiful blossoms for ornamental purposes. I am not going to have one since it has only lovely flowers and is very expensive, so I will be content with admiring that nearby tree this time every year.

I sought the tradesman's help with identifying this succulent plant. He mentioned it was a Jade plant and this plant is grown for good luck and prosperity. Whatever, it is pretty and have lovely flowers and I will keep them where they are. I have three growing at the side of the house :

I cut a bunch of lavendars from the bush. Did that before pruning the bush :

The bush is growing well :

That's the same bush after pruning :

Another bush after pruning :

One More Month of Winter...How's Are Some of My Potted Ones?

Guess what? I really took a break from my garden this week since giving them charlie carp and seasol last week. Did not bother to open up the covers for my oriental radishes or buk choy. Did not bother to even inspect my plants. It was a rather nice feeling to take a break and let go sometimes. And there is a reward - they are all doing fine! No pests, no night looters. Well, everybody out there in the backyard is doing fine. The only exceptions are those on the frontyard -my lavendar bee pretty is fully infested with green aphids and my nasturtiums which have flowered so much but blown down by the strong winds as if it has a bad hair day. The planted daffodil bulbs have sprouted in the pot. Yippee! At least I can bring this pot to my new house at the end of the month.

Kaffir lime and a small pot of mint are doing fine surrounded by the plastic protection.

Chilli padis growing quite well though very slow. It should take off once spring arrives.

Puzzling to see the tips of aloe vera turning brown but new pups are emerging from the potting mix.

The vietnamese mint/laksa plant is growing from glory to glory...surprisingly able to take the cold winter without any protection...it will look very pretty on my patio (minus the water feeder haha)

Plants are really very affected by strong winds. A week ago, things look bad...My common mint in this large pot is flourishing! Harvest is round the corner.

This pot which almost died in the strong winds and minor aphid attack is back strong and healthy.

After being trimmed because of aphids attack, the lemon verbena is putting on new shoots. Hope the irritating aphids will not return!!! I am not going to bring a aphid-infested plant to my new house. Have to closely supervise and treat it first.

Same goes for this curry plant.

Spring onions sown from seeds still look rather skinny.

Spring onions from bulbs...fat and growing well...this is going to be the 5th or 6th harvest.

Mosquito plant growing well despite ants making its potting mix their home. I am thinking of planting it into the ground at the new house.

This pot should win the championship! Thyme...ever so gorgeous and growing so fine.

Not so the rosemary babies...growing fine but still struggling with powdery mildew. How am I going to stop this powerful powder?!

The mother rosemary has been dumped to one corner of the garden where it can get some sunshine and rain and cold. I am just leaving it to the hands of nature to treat the powdery mildew.

The snow pea seedlings are growing great. Good to invest in mildew-resistant breeds...can grow them in plastic covers without worry of mildew.

My calamondin/calamasi...the prettiest and largest fruit on the mini tree.

My neighbour Jenny came over with a bunch of gorgeous-smelling Daphne flowers. Really strong heavenly perfume.

Daffodils Pushing Out of Soil.

Morning weather is good and I did some work in the garden before loads of chores in the house when the forecast afternoon rain comes. Four of the many daffodil bulbs have pushed through the soil at the vege patch. :)

I trimmed all the spent flowers and yellowing leaves of the nasturtiums, added fertiliser and some new potting mix to the top of the existing potting mix. The three pots (lavender bee pretty, nasturtiums, common mint) are bathing in the morning sun on the frontyard. I read that good air circulation and morning sunshine help prevent powdery mildew (which my common mint and rosemary are very susceptible to).

Yesterday, I trimmed off three large bunches of common mint from this pot (below). The bunches were all growing out of the pot and down to the ground.

I put the three pots of propagated rosemary (below) out in the open garden last night. It could be a better idea to do this than to have them under the garage shelther where they kept developing powdery mildew.

Left : Latest pot of propagated rosemary. Middle and Right : Propagated rosemary growing well but treated with fungicide (hence whitish appearance) because powdery mildew developed on their leaves.

The original pot of rosemary seems to respond well to fungicide treatment and now looks healthier than some weeks ago, putting new green shoots.

The three snow pea seedlings which I repotted on 9 July are doing well so far. They look unfazed from the repotting and root-chopping. Hope they will continue to grow well and produce crops of snow peas. :)

For the several snow pea seedlings at the vege patch, I found and bought plastic guard sleeves and used them for protection. So far so good. Several nights have gone by and they are still there, not chopped or stolen by some mysterious visitor.

The 'love birds' are coming regularly now :) thanks to my bird seeds. So pleased to see them coming for the food.

New Buk Choy, Snow Pea & Spinach Seedlings...Daffodil Bulbs.

Recently after my Tassie trip, I planted two purple buk choy seeds. They have since germinated but growing really really at snail-pace. Same goes for my chilli padi seedlings. After the 'demise' of my first set of snow pea seedlings at the vege patch, I decided to grow them in pots for the first part of their life till they are well-established to be planted at the patch. And this round, I planted Digger's seeds instead, which are resistant to mildew. I learn that snow peas pods as well as the leaves can be eaten. Markets are selling at $11 per kg, not mentioning the supermarkets, so I am really keen to grow some, especially when my family does love them. The 3 new ones germinated after ten days in the pot and the pot is usually in the mini greenhouse except during the day.

I have also sown two spinach seeds in a green planter but only one germinated.

One of the few plants left at the vege patch - mint and the avocado below.

I have worked the soil on the left side of the vege patch and added aged cow manure. Planted daffodil bulbs, watered and covered with a layer of water-saving mulch.