Spring is Almost Here.

Last night, our little family went to Bunnings to get some roundup and stuff as we are planning to poison our weeds and grass to make way for a brand new lawn which is to die for. I also came across a flowering plant with such gorgeous blue flowers. It was so irresistible that hubby gave me the go ahead to buy two pots. Even he liked them. See the two brightest blue pot of flowers? They are the senetti. I have not decided where to plant them yet. Seems tempting to plant next to the blue daisies.

Out of our main door, the pittosporum golden sheens are growing well. I am looking forward to cutting their 'hair' in spring because I am looking forward to seeing them bush up.

Out of my bedroom window this morning, I snapped a nice picture of my french lavender as the sun rises over my neighbour's roof. How wonderful to wake up to this picture right out of your window.

And just as planned, the peach tree out of my bedroom window is flowering pink! Unfortunately and yet predictably, we have few blossoms this year due to pruning before and after planting. It's okay, next year will come!

An Ugly Sight...Dreaming of a New Lawn...And Some Encouragement.

Every time I passed by a beautiful well-manicured lawn, I would be filled with envy and parked on the path dreaming. My front and back lawns are far from perfect, they are an eyesore. Bald areas with weeds of various kinds growing despite my husband's spraying weedkiller. And worse, the spraying killed the existing grass and produced the bald brown patches. I am working on doing a new lawn but am very doubtful it can be done this season. Is it really worth the money? How much is it going to cost? Can we really do it on our own? Many questions to be answered.

The back lawn - with bald patches and my pots. Dead area where traffic is high and low sun exposure causing bald slimy patch.

Front lawn also with bald patches and various weeds.

Side of Front lawn with more bald patches, uneven ground and weeds.

Well, at least there is some comfort out in the windy rainy morning. Some of my snow pea vines are flowering.

A good number of tulips have shooted from the ground near where the conifers and side gate are.

The straight green leaves near the green strings are the daffodils planted in 09. I have counted about 7 flower heads. Last spring, I only had 2 flowers. So encouraging to see more this year. And so encouraging to see that I may not be very far away from having my dream garden (see http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-dream-private-garden.html )

Well, the arum lily is considered a weed here (at least the white ones) but I reckon they are very beautiful. I have a handful harvested and put in a vase. Such a pretty sight!

Winter Can be Beautiful...

Here's two pictures I have taken of glorious daffodils blooming in Mansfield near Mt Buller. They are probably King Alfred daffodils. These are by far the most beautiful ones I have seen. The ones I have in my garden are Little Mist and are smaller. (see http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-dream-private-garden.html to see more pics of daffodils) Daffodils just take my breath away. Recently I taught my son William Wordsworth's poem on Daffodils. I told him I had learnt that poem when I was a teenager and even though I had never seen one before until I live here in Australia, the poem just illustrated how beautiful they must be and daffodils just got etched in my memory since then : Winter. It feels cold and gloomy much of the time. And windy too. But when we look around really carefully, we will notice that winter can be beautiful. Bare trees can look really pretty without their leaves. I thought it's artistic too! And winter is the time of recuperation, rejuvenation and quiet growth. Without winter, there wont be spring and flowering. Winter feels just like the 7th day when God rested after all the creating. And when I looked at my garden, there are the gorgeous flowers blooming in the midst of winter. How wonderful! A gorgeous perfect calendula flower with dew on its petals. I have no word to describe the beautiful blue on these marguerite daisies. They are small and many but the close-up shot of them is really pretty. When I used this picture as my desktop picture, even my husband who is not exactly a keen gardener commented that they looked gorgeous!

Flowering Plants Growing

My gorgeous jadeplants have put on their tiny pink flowers. In fact, lots of neighbourns have these plants and they are all in bloom. Very nice! One calla lily flower is starting to un-twirl. Better get a nice picture before it opens completely.

I bought two packs of tulip bulbs from Bunnings and planted them around my two conifers. Samuel helped me with the planting and watering :

The three cyclamens are growing well at this spot under the pomegranate tree. The one in the middle has produced some white flowers but they are quite small.

These daffodils which I have bought from Dandenong Market have appeared from under the mulching. Their shoots look a little different from those I have bought in Tasmania. They are supposed to produce yellow heads, I do hope so because I only like the large yellow ones.

This pot of daffodils is doing great eversince I took it out from the garage. I predicted there was still life after the previous bath (which did not yield a single flower)and I was right. I hope for this season, I would see some flowers. I told myself that I will not fertilise the pot in any way this time. The bulbs were bought during our 09 trip to Tassie.

Over here, gorgeous daffodils at the patch next to the garage that died down last summer are coming up again, with even more shoots and I will expect more flowers this time. They are of the same type as those in the pot.

One of my candy tuft plants at the patch next to the garage has died leaving the one as shown above. A small part of it has also died and I pulled it out easily. Since its planting in early 08, it has put on a single flower. Disappointing.

My trailing kalanchoe in its pot has put on loads of buds. I thought it would be difficult to get it to flower from some reading up that I have done, but it has done so on its own. This beautiful plant has been the subject of moth caterpillars from spring to autumn and I had resorted to netting it. It has been resilient and sprang back with flower buds as mid-winter approaches.

Cold Winter...Deciduous Trees Out of Our Rooms.

French lavender flowering outside my window.

New peach tree outside my bedroom window.

See that bare patch on the ground? That was where the oleander used to be. Since it was gotten rid of, the patch stays bare. I am not sure if I can plant a persimmon tree in its place. I need to probably dig that area to see how the soil feels like.

The view out of my son's bedroom. The plum tree lays bare against the cloudy afternoon sky. Near the fence, you can see one big clump of lemongrass, in fact, three clumps, growing well. Next to the lemongrass are the snow pea vines protected by plastic tree shields.

My brown turkey fig #1 has also gone bare. I am contemplating seriously to shorten the tall thin trunk by cutting it off.

There are already new buds on the two branches.

More daffodils are sprouting from the potting mix from last year's pot.

Just an updated picture of my oriental radish doing really well at Patch A. I have recently sowed another three seeds but they have not germinated at all, probably due to the cold.