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.

New Lemon Eureka.

I planted about 20 daffodil bulbs under the mulching around the plum tree. Hoping to see beautiful yellow blooms out of Samuel's room in spring/summer 2011.

We bought a new Lemon Eureka from Dandenong Market. I hope it will take off.

Here's the peach tree from my friend Andy. I planted it right outside our bedroom window. I look forward to seeing glorious pink flowers out of my room in spring!

The last harvest of sweet potatoes. How wonderful!

Beautiful Pictures.

Here are some pictures which I have got from gardening books. I just find these pictures awesome. They give me great ideas about growing fruit trees in pots. I hope one day my garden will be the beauty in the neighbourhood! This is a picture of a herb garden. Imagine a garden full of aromatic herbs, both edible and pleasing to the eyes and nose. This pot of nasturtiums is so spectacular, trailing down the height of the pot.

I always love the sight of a citrus tree in a terracotta pot, so pretty and so edible!

This terracotta pot of daffodils and hyacinth takes my breath away!

A grape vine growing in a pot and bearing bunches of grapes...how irresistible is that?

Another citrus in a terracotta pot. Gorgeous!

Another grape vine in a pot with herbs spilling over.

My Poor Grape Vine!

My third? fourth? harvest of sweet potatoes. I was almost to tears when I found out my dog, Marco, has 'chopped' off my grape vine (carolina black rose)! It was growing so well! I was angry with my dog for a whole day! I hope by trimming off the rough ends, it will survive and resprout. It was an extremely 'hard prune'. Fellow blogger Scarecrow and another gardener on the forum gave me some hope that it could survive. I have since fenced it with chicken wire and mulched it with bark chips.

The pot of daffodils which did not flower last season finally resprouted! I left the whole pot in the garage, covered with a plastic bag eversince the leaves died down completely. A few mornings ago, I took the pot out and yippee! A daffodil shoot...looks like the complete dying down really regenerated new bulbs as books stated.

I bought and planted some daffodil bulbs under the plum tree (right outside Samuel's bedroom). The ground has turned soft enough to dig eversince we mulched the plum tree canopy heavily.

This tuft of iris was given in a pot by Fina, a life group friend. I have planted it in front of the blue and white daisies at the patch next to the garage.

Preparing For Winter.

Finally, more work done to prepare for winter. Had a fulfilling early afteroon neatening things up too. I put some pots which contain plants that are able to stand the cold. The peach (pixzee), two fig (brown turkey) and two pak choys. I also redid the netting over my fig tree against birds.

On this side, I have those pots that contain cold-sensitive plants - chilli padi, sweet potato cuttings, thai basil, hot chilli, capsicum, calamondin comquat. I had driven tall stakes into the ground and wrap plastic around. Needed to buy fleece fabric to cover over them.

Here's how it looks like from the front. I have to buy more plastic to cover this side too.

My Patches A & B. The cucumber (burpless) vines have been cleared. I may still have two bitter melons to harvest if they survive any frost. I have used newspaper to wrap around the melons but not sure if it will work. Can't wait to rip the purple king bean plants and bitter melon vine off.

Patch C's still having the Nellie Kelly strawberry plants, kaffir lim, eggplant supreme and lemon grass. One more eggplant growing.

All of my beautiful propagated strawberry delight are in the greenhouse (wo the housing but with netting).

The trellis from the cucumber vines have been moved to support new growths of the passionfruit panama gold.

I pulled up this thai basil from a friend's place (as he has relocated) and replanted it here in Patch F. Not too sure if it will survive but so far so good after four days in the soil.

Strawberry Delight, Fig (Brown Turkey), Chilli Padi, Sweet Potato

Still enjoying new strawberries in the making.....

I finally harvested one edible fig(brown turkey). Some bird has actually pecked a hole in it. I had wanted to harvest it yesterday but put it off thinking it could be riper and more succulent today (with a thought that a bird might find its way first). Yes, it was not very big but quite nice :

The last four of my bitter melons have succumbed to frost bites on a very cold Sunday morning and I had to pluck and throw them out :

A handful of chilli padis :

Another harvest of sweet potatoes for dessert with ginger :

Lemon grass - Cymbopogon citratus

I have a total of 5 tufts of lemongrass growing in my garden. So far they are doing very well. They grow to become this big tuft of grass-looking bush. They are certainly better than grass because they can be eaten. I have not harvested any yet as the stems are still thin. I surely cannot imagine how they will look like when their stems become as thick as those in the markets. This is the first tuft (at Patch C) and their stems are getting thicker : And this is the second tuft in Patch E :

And three tufts side by side on the front garden :

I hope they can survive the winter as this is my first time having them since spring. Yesterday morning I had to pluck all four of my last bitter melons and throw them out as they were frost-bitten. I did not expect the frost in autumn. Will have to protect delicate tropical fruits the next season.