Our Garden Visitors - The Birds!!!

I am beginning to get very excited living at this new property. We realise that the wildwife that frequent this place is massive! One day we got the Australian King Parrots visiting our deck.  I was not prepared and did not have any bird feed that was suitable for them.  The next day they returned, only to be driven off by the two resident Indian mynahs living up on my aircon unit! They left behind a few green feathers.

I went straight off to the local supermarket and got sunflower seeds.  I hung the seeds on the deck for days and prepared honey water.  I was disappointed.  My older son was disappointed.  Are they not coming back anymore?

Then one fine day in October they came back!!! Two gorgeous Australian King parrots :

I really don't know much about parrots.  But these ones have a quiet demeanour.  I can now identify their calling sounds, really gentle.

Then shortly after, we had another parrot visiting.  He/She's always on its own....a beautiful lone-ranger.  I am unsure if this is an Eastern Rosella.  Gorgeous little parrot's who's rather shy. There's more reading up for me to do :

Finally success!!! I have been wanting to get the rainbow lorikeets to land in our garden.  A bunch of noisy, beautiful parrots who make their presence known easily. Two landed once few days ago and one landed yesterday but never long enough for me to take a picture.  They finally decided to visit today and have some sunflower seeds.  They have plenty of food nearby as I see that they often feed off flowers and stuff on the tall gum trees in our garden :

How exciting!!! I have several orders to make and it's a busy time but this sight just made me put down everything to watch them!

Trees Removal in our Garden

The aborists came in today to remove several trees. Initially, I was excited about removing these trees from the garden but I know they were there for a few years and to have them removed brought a bit of sadness and guilt!!! Unfortunately I did not have time to snap a few pre-cutting pictures and have two pictures of the original state here :

The aborists worked quickly and efficiently and within hours, my garden looked completely different.  Here's a picture of the agile aborist cutting down the dead gum :

In all, about 6 medium sized trees and two dead gums were removed. All the low canopy is now gone and it's wide open, leaving the tall gum trees beyond my garden :

I think I can fall in love with such a view.  Pardon me for the overly bright photos! Was trying to figure out the best camera settings to use!

Aussie Rambler, Lemongrass & Rhubarb

One day during our regular walk around the neighbourhood, my older boy spotted this beautiful Aussie rambler while I was looking at the smaller version - the pig face - growing in the same front garden.  I instantly fell in love with these flowers! They are large, about 10cm in diameter, hot pink and glorious! I knocked on my neighbour's door to ask for some cutting, brought it home, stood it in water for a day and then popped it into 50% potting mix and 50% sand.  Here's hoping it will strike.  Then I was totally elated to realise a friend, also a neighbour down the street, having tons of these growing in her garden.  She welcomed me to take as much as I wanted. One day I will!

I have failed several times growing culinary lemongrass.  First, I bought the wrong ones, 6 pots of them! And when given some authentic ones from an ex-neigbhour, and then a friend from Sydney, I managed to get them going in pots but neglected them as I was too busy with my newborn.  They died in winter.  Finally I was given some by yet another friend.  I carefully protected this little plant in winter and it did well.  I planted it into Patch Deck recently, still with plastic sheets surrounding it. It is doing well! Hooray! :

 My pot of rhubarb sprang up quickly after being invisible for a while.  Such beautiful colours! :

Spring Photos - Mulching the Front Vegetable Bed

This morning's weather was fantastic. But when afternoon began, we had wind speed up to 100km/h. It was quite scary! After we mid-morning walk, I hurried to do some work in the garden - staking the passion fruit and my grape vine so that their branches/stem wouldn't break.

Hubby and I put on our masks and starting to level the soil and  mulch the front vegetable bed. I also planted two tomato sweet grape plants.  Finally done!!! :

The grape vine is looking so good! Love the glossy fresh green leaves and the flowers that have appeared. Within a week, the bare vine is covered with lush green leaves! Such is the magic of spring! Even my wisteria has put on a full head of leaves! And the pixzee peach tree too!

Carolina Black Rose Grape Vine in its Pot.

New leaves and new flowers for Carolina Black Rose grape vine.

Parsley thriving in the lemon tree pot :

Flat leaf parsley in the lemon tree pot.

Gai choy or mustard green in the front garden Patch

Another harvest of my gai choy/mustard green.

Okay now an update on my hydrangeas.  These were dug up from my previous garden, planted into pots and now I have found a new spot for them - next to the car port.  They were stricken by powdery mildew but done well after fungicide treatment :

Black Passionfruit Planted in Patch Deck

We had a fair-weather day today! I had a few errands to run mid-morning. Hubby decided to take the boys to Petbarn to get some dog food and let the boys look at animals, while I went to IKEA, Bunnings and Spotlight to get some stuff. So we had to go in separate cars and meet up for lunch. At the drive-way, when Little S (23 months) realised that I was not going in his car, he let out a scream and started to run to me. But then he switched to saying 'Bye bye Mummy' and 'Kiss Mummy' when I gently explained to him. Gave me a hug and a kiss before he went to Hubby's car. I want to record this here because it was such a heartwarming moment for me. My sweet baby!!! He seems very sensible at this young age.

So I finally bought the Nellie Kelly's black passionfruit and it is a non-grafted. Mister S and I dug at Patch Deck and planted it there.  Mister S decided to call this passionfruit vine 'Fred'. Fingers crossed it flourishes and bear us lots of passionfruit.  We also drove stakes around the vine and protected it with plastic sheet, as I was wary of possums coming to eat it up.

Fred the Black passionfruit.

Fred the Black passionfruit planted in Patch Deck.

I have always loved bluebells after reading a book when I was a teenager. I have seen bluebells in other gardens before. But now we have them on ours. Bluebells may be a flower of the past but it does not matter to me. I think I am happy to have them in my garden.

Bluebells blooming.