Cool Summer & Garden Update.

So far our summer 2010-2011 has been cooler than previous years. We had one day of 40 deg celsius but that's it. Other days are cool and sunny or cloudy. So some of the garden crops are growing seriously slowly such as my yardlong beans (long beans) and eggplants. I am certainly thankful for the weather because I dont ever want heat waves. The patch right out of my main door is filling up with foliage and fruits...tomatoes, corns, spagetti squashes and soon, okra (ladies' fingers).

The pumpkin vine has crept onto the lawn and I spotted a little pumpkin with its female flower. So far lots of male flowers were produced.

The one and only gorgeous lemon verbena is thriving outside my bedroom window. The only issue is it is growing out of the garden edge and soon it may sprawl onto the lawn. I want it to grow taller and bushier so I probably have to give it a prune asap.

The peach tree out of my bedroom is laden with peaches. Just waiting for them to ripen!

9 sweet corns are growing on three corn plants!!!

A male pumpkin flower.

I realised I actually have more pixzee peaches than I thought. They are so prettily pink.

Spagetti squashes are growing fast. This is one of the three.

Drooling as I typed. I pickled a big harvest of green chillies.

Here's my gorgeous grapevine Carolina Black Rose crawling both ways on the pergola.

Why gorgeous? Because it looks so from my kitchen window! I will never get sick of this beautiful picture from my kitchen. I know that trellis isnt pretty, but who cares?

Our First Harvest of Kang Kong (Water Spinach)

Yes! It is our first attempt and we are successful! Samuel got to sow kang kong seeds early spring and now he gets to harvest them. He was really excited.

Here's the basketful of kang kong. It was quite a lot and surely enough for the three of us!

And amazingly they tasted so tender and delicious! Even better than those from the market. What's better, they cost less than A$2 and are organic!

I sneaked a shot of Marco enjoying his grass after a meal of salmon fish.

The sweet corns are growing taller than Samuel.

And we got our pleasant surprise this evening. They are all having corns!!! It is so wonderful to be able to plant our own veges and I feel very glad that my son has this chance to be out in the garden surrounded and learning about plants and veges and herbs and flowers. It just reminds me of my childhood, exposed to all kinds of fruits and veges that Grandma planted. What great blessings!!!

The two spagetti squash vines are fruiting. About 6 squashes in all. I wonder how they taste like.

Update of All Sorts...

It has been another busy week. There were a few chores I had to finish for the garden - providing support for the climbing carolina black rose grape vine, weeding, netting the remaining unprovided peaches (from feathery looters), preparing ground for a new passion fruit vine, staking bean plants, pruning tomato plants, fertilising, decorating for Christmas....on and on...looks like it is not a few chores after all! Well we are still enjoying the brand new lawn and will continue to do so. Here I snapped Samuel and Marco having fun together. They were so cute!

The dietes. Arent they gorgeous? They are very common natives planted in multiple clumps for mass display. From far, they look like fluttering white butterflies because you can hardly see the green slender stems holding the flowers up.

Rather orchid-like.

I have successfully propagated a few aoeniums (wonder if the spelling is right or not) before pulling up the mother plant which look ugly. I have not decided what to do with the new plants yet.

The brown turkey fig tree right out of my dining window looks very healthy and it is having figs!!!

Here's the two pomegranate flowers. I am not diehard to eat any pomegranate from this tree which was left behind by the previous owner. It is a young handsome pomegranate tree. I just bought 3 large pomegranates for $5 and that's cheap! They are from USA. I realise these fruits are rather troublesome to eat though I heard they are very nutritious.

All my three sweet corns are flowering. Male or female I dont know. Having corns' more important haha...

My two-year-old gladioli are flowering again!!! So pretty while blooming but not so when they start to die down!

Yummy heart-shaped strawberry due to cojoining work!

And I love strawberry flowers! So delicate, so dainty, so sweet, so pretty!!!

Almost all my tomato silvery fir plants (7 in all) are flowering and fruiting. Yum Yum...

The kang kong's growing well in the new vege patch. So are the potato plants. And burdock too (hidden by potato).

Chilli fire plant fruiting crazily. I am going to harvest a big number of green chillies for pickles!

3 more beans yardlong have germinated at the site where the snow peas used to be.

I happen to take a picture of these two calendula seedlings exploding out of their seed hulls. Very nice.

Views of My Garden

Most people would escape out of a cluttered house or an unsightly garden. I probably belong to that catergory. Not anymore! I began to understand the meaning of a green sanctuary because I now own one. Such a marvellous thing to be able to escape to the great outdoors right at my door-step. And I am feeling that wonderful sense of achievement (especially when neighbours passing by yelled out positive comments about my garden) every morning when I awake and look out of every window in the house. Out of every window, there would be a beautiful scenery awaiting me. This view is out of my back door leading to the back garden. Blue hydrangeas which I have recently planted are blooming their heads off and greeting me at the door. Probably due to the soil pH, they came up pink. I have added quite a lot of lime and they are staying pink with some blue tinge. I really dont mind the pink. They are sweet! I still have pots lying here or there before I finalise where they will end up. This lawn is soley reserved for my pooch Marco.

That's the right end of the back garden. Pardon all the containers around for collecting rain. Besides the green shed are the grevillea and pomegranate trees. The former is a nice tree to have because it attracts honey eaters and occasionally parrots (not sure what breed). I love looking at them picking at the flowers from my kitchen window. The pomegranate is having two flowers for the first time I moved in! The Carolina black rose grape vine is on the right side of the picture.

Here's the view from my kitchen window. I am getting more and more excited seeing my grape vine climbing up and across the beams... The view will just get more and more spectacular! This year I wont be having grape harvest because of the overly harsh pruning my dog gave to this vine last autumn. Hopefully next year will be a big harvest.

This the the view out of our dining area. The potted brown turkey fig tree is doing so well in the pot I wonder what magic I have added into the mix. It provides such an awesome display of foliage as we sit having our dinner. Besides the fig tree, flowering dietes (hopefully spelling's correct) grow here. They produce beautiful orchid-like flowers (which I will post in another entry). There is still a fair bit of room for me to put shade-loving potted plants in this area.

Now, for the front garden. View from my front door. Tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, sweet corn, eggplant, artichoke, yardlong beans, sunflowers are growing in this vegetable strip. The soil is very fertile and they are all growing well.

View from my study room where my patio furniture are directly out of its windows.

View from my study room showing the young wisteria, french lavender and my peach tree. In the background is the new lush lawn.

View from my bedroom. Such a beautiful sight and I love peeking out every morning.

View from my bedroom showing the small side gate and the conifers.

The lemon verbena is growing gloriously right outside my bedroom window and between the lavender bushes. I had thought it died as it looked like a dead twig in late winter. After giving it a chance by pruning it, it showed signs of life by budding and now...let the picture speaks for itself...

Left view from my bedroom window...

View from my son's bedroom window where we see most part of the lawn. We have finally mulched the bare areas under the shady trees with graded uncomposted pine bark. There are daffodil and jonquil bulbs around the plum tree but I am planning to plan some winter roses to dress up the area...Also germinating under the plum tree some nasturtiums...

Left view from my son's window. Possibly planting some autum flowering yellow crocus under the olive tree on the left.

Old and New Flowers.

My two hydrangeas are blooming. They do much better under shade but the spots I have planted them in can get quite a bit of sun and they wilt and burn very easily. I have to water them a lot and put a protective white cloth over them.

Well, the blooms did not turn out blue when the they opened. I think my soil is acidic. And I really dont mind enjoying the pink blooms too. They are pretty too. I have added some garden lime to increase the pH and hopefully soon I can enjoy blue blooms too.

As usual, my beautiful french lavender never fails to make me smile. The aroma is so wonderful and watching the happy bees flying to their flowers has this soothing effect upon me.

This is one of the two Sethi Baby blue I have bought and I have them planted at the patch next to the garage. The flowers are extremely pretty in real life :

My son and my little neighbour were enjoying a fun time playing with bubbles in the midst of the lavender Avon View and white daisies :

Fewh! My Protea Pink Ice survived and is currently putting on new leaves and tiny flower buds. I am very relieved indeed. I really find the flowers very pretty and have spent quite a sum acquiring this native tree :

And this lovely Jasmine which I have planted in the back garden next to the green fence. I will let it cover up this fence and the aroma in mid-day can make me stand on the spot and just enjoy......