Bird Visitors.

It's been interesting staying at this rental property over this one year. I have observed various visitors in our backyard and it is just such treasurable moments watching them. This really really fat spotted neck pigeon was the fattest I have ever seen. I am not sure if he is the one of the two which frequent my garden but he surely looked very comfortable around here.

Today I even have crows visiting. They are collecting Marco's fur from the grass to build their nest. It is amazing what materials they use to build their house!

Marco posing for my camera after I let him out to roam. The spotted neck pigeon was not at all intimidated by him.

Dwarf Peach is Flowering

I have not gone out into the garden for a few days. It has been windy. Today I had to water the pots to ensure they are not drying out. Even the oregano which likes it dry is wilting in the mini greenhouse. My pixee peach's blossoms are open. Sweet-smelling pink flowers. I gave it a water of charlie carp solution. It is also bearing green leaves.

My lone spinach is growing quite nicely. Too little to harvest haha...

I was surprised to see two daffodil buds. Maybe I may have a chance to see its flowers since I still have a week before moving.

The Plum and Peach Trees are Flowering.

The peach tree which bore yummy peaches for us is already flowering. However, I do not see many flowers this year compared to last year. Maybe this peach tree is one of those that produces once every two years. Pretty peach blossoms. Fortunately I am able to enjoy the beautiful view out of our living room window for the second time before moving out one week later. Most of the plum trees on this property are flowering. Beautiful plum blossoms.

Progress in the Garden.

Pot of pretty nasturtiums still flowering. Makes a really pretty entrance statement every time I come home. Lavender bee pretty is also making flowers after the aphids were gotten rid of by intensive pyrethrum treatment. Fortunately my lavender leaves were not burnt by the sprays.

Wise for me to leave the rosemarys out in the open where it got sun, rain and wind. The powdery mildew is well under control.

Daffodils at vege patch will be abandoned by me at the end of the month when I move.

Chilli padis growing well and took a long time to reach this stage.

Oriental radishes growing steadily and too will be abandoned at the end of this month.

Pixee peach is producing flower buds.

Kaffir lime is finally producing new leaves. Purple ones??

Potted capsicum producing new leaves too. Spring, come soon!

Another Pot of Mint, Ivy and Re-potting Cayenne Pepper

It is a gloomy day with light patchy rains. I took a closer look at my cayenne pepper to find the potting mix infested with thousands of ants. I wonder if they are responsible for the horrible state that my cayenne pepper is in. So I re-potted the cayenne pepper with premium potting mix and cow manure and seasol. Hope it helps to re-establish itself before I plant it into the ground in my new backyard. The neglected pot of ivy has produced new light green leaves though after quite a long time. It should grow much better being in the ground. I am thinking of propagating this ivy for planting at a shady stretch in my new garden : I potted on my small pot of common mint as it is already congesting its 10cm pot and wilts quite often. Looks like I am getting lots of mint nowadays and I am seemingly obsessed with it hahaha, four pots in all excluding the two lots growing on the vege patch :

The pot after potting on in a 30cm pot.

Pot of mint (before potting on) congesting its 10 cm pot and often wilts (above) and same pot originating from 3 cuttings (below) I am fighting occasional powdery mildew attacks on these mints (also my rosemary) but if the air-flow around the pots is good, the situation should be under control. The only thing I had better improve is the garden hygiene I am practising. I rarely isolate any problematic plants nowadays and simply pinch off affected leaves. That may send a lot of invisible mildew spores scattering all over the garden. However, it is really not easy since I cannot seem to find proper locations for plant isolation.

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.

Some Side-tracking...My Garden Visitors

Few weeks ago, I talked about two garden visitors who came regularly since I started to feed them bird seeds. Few days back, only one of them came back and his/her partner did not. I got a bit curious as to what had happened. I was telling my son that perhaps the mummy bird has laid eggs and is hatching her eggs while her partner comes for meals. And perhaps they even take turns to come back for meals but we just could not figure out which bird is which. The other half (above) coming for meals on his/her own for a few days.

Finally we spotted both of them again together yesterday. It was nice to see them both. :)

Golden Sheens

I did not sleep well last night. The winds were horrendously beating the bushes and trees outside my window and the rains fell intermittently. I was seriously thinking about my Pittosporum golden sheens. These two days' winds reached 55km/h and I wondered if any golden sheen had already been snapped into twos. I wondered if we had chosen a bad time to plant them.

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When Samuel was at kinder, my friend Pascale and I visited the golden sheens. Thank God they were still standing in place but several had slanted sideways. I quickly took out the stakes and garden twine I had just bought and tied the golden sheens into place. Hopefully this will help with standing against the strong winds till they pass today.

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I had planned to water the golden sheens with my collected rainwater and seasol today but with the rain, I wont need to.

Speedy Winds

The wind speeds today can reach 60km/h and I prayed that none of my new golden sheens would be snapped down. Yesterday morning I discovered that my mosquito plant/citronella geranium had been snapped into two. It has a woody stem and is growing rather tall for its light pot. The previous day it was blown over as well. It was already budding to flower soon. Sigh, I snipped off the broken part and hope it will regrow again :

I trimmed off my thyme as I noticed that they seemed to be budding as well :

The cayenne pepper still doesnt look so good even after feeding of charlie carp or seasol or time-release fertiliser :

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 :