Welcome! I am a stay at home mum of two gorgeous boys, proud owner of an online handmade store and an avid gardener. This blog records most of my gardening journey over a few properties. We have recently moved to a new permanent property and it's time to start gardening again! I enjoy time-out in my home garden looking at and photographing birds, insects and plants. It is also a haven for my sons and golden retriever. May you enjoy your visits here. :)
The second sun king sunflower has opened...much prettier one :
My life group mate Li gave me two of this squash...taste yummy and looks like varigated zuchini :
Another life group mate Chloe gave me a bunch of homegrown peaches...they are really nice even though they are not fully ripe yet. Homegrown always beats supermarket stuff. That green silvery fir tomato was picked off the plant by Marco...a bit sad cos we cannot eat it at all and it is quite big :
Same goes for the continental parsely :
I bought a malnourished-looking chilli fire from bunnings (since it was only $3) and hope that by putting it in the ground (front garden) and fertilising it, it will take off from here :
I am protecting it with a tree shield from my dog and pests :
My sun king sunflowers are growing strongly but the first flower that opened does not look too glorious :
Three pots of lemon grass planted next to the sunflowers are transplanting well. I have added rooster manure and mulched with sugarcane :
Bird rescue. Marco my dog found a baby bird in our front garden. Not really knowing what to do, I got it into a carton. Boy...his parents came and made a lot of noise looking for their baby.
I have no idea where the nest was and decided to take it to RSPCA. They said since it was not native, it would have to be put down. However, the nice guy also told me that this baby has already left its nest and its parents would be feeding it on the ground till it could fly. Cool lesson learnt. I decided to bring it back and return it where I found it, so that its parents can find it again and do their thing. This little bird got me really busy :
We went to Heronswood Garden again. Beautiful weather. Here's two pretty pictures, one overlooking the beautiful tranquil sea :
And an abundance of grapes :
By far this calendula flower is the largest bloom and it is produced by one of the calendulas at the patch next to the garage. Great stuff!
One Lilium LA Hybrid flower has opened. Was not as white or spectacular as I had imagined.
I found and bought four sweet potato creepers from bunnings. I thought it is a wonderful idea to grow them on the mulched areas where my golden sheen hedge is. My original intention was to either leave the areas mulched with red gum bark chips or grow some succulent crawlers to control weeds but having sweet potato creepers to do that would be even better. They can weed control when they spread out and they can be eaten too. The only concern would be winter as sweet potato cannot withstand cold. I will have to protect them when the time comes if they survive summer and autumn.
Lemon verbena which I transplanted into the lavender area outside my bedroom window is doing well. It is really a good idea to minimise root disturbance and plant the whole rootball + potting mix in. The plant did not show a single sign of transplant shock.
My sunflower Sun king...5 of them...do not look very fantastic this season. I think the soil here is not very good and I have to improve it after this. I have added more composted rooster manure and watered them with charlie carp today and hopefully they can grow bigger. At least they survived because in the beginning, they did not even look like they were going to make it.
I worked on this mulched area behind our bedroom wall. I removed all four existing shrubs which did not look fantastic nor were useful. The area has a lot of pebbles. I am beginning to understand that the pebbles were added by the landscapist to curb potentially extensive/invasive root growth since the plants were so close to the house. Strange that the lavender area has not a single pebble. Since this area is pebbly and does not get lots sunshine, I contemplate planting aloe vera here.
Two holes around the dripline of the plum tree area were further deepened and I put in a soft drink bottle tube (cut at both ends) each for watering/fertilising purpose.
Fig (brown turkey with its beautiful leaves).
Sown some mixed basil seeds and passionfruit seeds.
Planting two tomato (silvery fir) in the front garden.
My trailing kalanchoe is under attack! Could be due to stress of no watering. I had to manually squash caterpillars wrapped up in its leaves. Also found similar caterpillars wrapped up in young leaves of strawberry plant, common mints and pomegranate. I have to be extra alert.
Sown some cayenne pepper seeds again. Last year's batch germinated but stunted.
The bitter melon germinated!
Potted on my precious pot of capsicum. A larger pot and hopefully the fruits will develop large.
Potted on my tomato (silvery fir).
My kaffir lime plant is still dropping leaves. The new fruits also dropped off. There are a few bunches of new flowers. Suddenly the young leaves look to me like they are lacking some kind of deficiency - light green leaf background with dark green veins especially on all the young leaves. I checked it up. It was quite confusing at first but I decided that it is iron deficiency. Time to go Bunnings!
The french lavender bush is blooming. Really gorgeous.
The sunflower seeds which I have harvested last season have sprouted :
Here is one of the first sunflower Sun King seeds which I have sown, growing slowly but steadily :
My big pot of vietnamese mint has yielded lots of sprigs for friends but sadly I found that a lot of tiny caterpillars have actually attacked it. I had to remove all affected leaves. Perhaps failing to water it on time and wilting on a few occasions have caused stress and invited pests :
This is one of the fatter caterpillars which I have spotted...really luminous green. I put several of the coiled up leaves (meaning existence of caterpillars) in a jar and shall see what they become :
Some yellow capsicum seeds have finally germinated. I recognized the seedlings as soon as they emerged :
Several strawberries emerged :
This native (I believed...left by previous owner) is having cute candyfloss flowers. Interesting to look at out of my kitchen window :
Eggplant Supreme is growing slowly. I have remove the tree shield around it and mulched the area. The holes on the leaves are most likely caused by European earwigs :
I have prepared a simple trap of vege oil and water and overnight it drowned a few earwigs. They are indeed the culprits :
My Peach (Pixzee) are growing well for now and I have to remove those leaves affected by leaf curl. Give me at least two full size peaches this season please! :
The coriander I bought from Ikea is growing fine. Harvested a little for a dish :
A pot of lemongrass given by my fellow gardener friend Nancy is planted at Patch E where the parsley and coriander are :
I removed more grass from around my Eureka Lemon and applied mulch :
This is a protea (Special Pink Ice). I like the beautiful flowers so I bought it for $17 bucks! Burnt a hole in my pocket :
Yet another hole in my pocket. Senorita...I saw very similar plants in Tasmania and really hope to have both of them...saw them in Bunnings and bought them. :P :
The rose bush which I spared has put on many many buds. Almost flowering. Wonder if the roses will be an achievement :
Once the flower withers, the pea grows :
My mosquito plant is flowering! I could have seen its flowers much earlier if some of the branches did not break in that strong winter wind :
This flower here is so far not identified yet. I suspect it to be some canna lily. Very orchid-like :
2.5 weeks ago, the lavender were still in leaves. 2.5 weeks have passed and I came back to glorious blooms. Even the bees are visiting these blooms. We watched in safety behind our living room window :
The three cyclamens have grown a lot compared to when I just bought them :
The pot of gorgeous nasturtiums continues to grow and bloom which is really eye-catching :
The pot it is in is only 20cm but the nasturtiums have long since spilled over and toppled that I had to put the whole pot into a 30cm one for support.
The sunflower (Sun king) have sprouted in two clusters. Strange that the other two clusters did not :
