Flowers Update

Spring has come and so did spring showers and strong winds. It still feels cold most days with a few warm days in between. Last year, I planted three lily bulbs (Lilium LA Hybrid) in the patch next to the garage. The flowers were 'so so'. I am so surprised but very pleased to see them come back this spring. At first there were two rosetting green heads appearing when I was doing work at the patch. Then there is the third one. I hope the flower quality will be better this spring/summer.

This pretty yellow daffodil under the plum tree was part of what I bought from the reject shop. Two which had opened was white and yellow which I was not a fan of. I did not realise that the pack was mixed daffodil bulbs. So far only three daffodils and lots of green leaves. Hope the daffodils under the plum tree next year will be more numerous, showy and impressive.

My 20+ tulips are growing...but slow...I am almost certain the flower quality will not be too fantastic this first season.

The numerous tiny pink flowers of the jade plants are withering, not a pretty sight now.

Annabel dwarf maguerite daisies have swarmed the whole bush.

My purple pak choy (left) and green pak choys (right) have towered more than a metre. The flowers of the purple pak choy has an amazing perfume. I am waiting for seed harvesting.

The seed pods...I did not know that pak choy seeds are packaged this way.

Look at my pretty pinkish white cyclamen flowers! What a sight out of my kitchen window. I just cant get sick of looking at them while at the kitchen sink.

Pretty butterfly-like flowers.

And the red ones too.

I took a picture of my trailing kalanchoe. This picture does not do the look favor. The bell-like red flowers with jade-green caps are very pretty. I beam with pride seeing them flower successfully through winter to spring.

How about earring designs like these? So dainty and sweet.

Windy and 43 Deg Celsius.

As the blog title says, windy and 43 deg celsius. Thank God for weather forecasts, I have done all the necessary preparations (putting up shades, watering, weeding...) before today. Besides all the light colour tablecloths, white cloths, I even borrowed hubby's white shirts! This morning I woke up not having the anxiety of a charred garden but leisurely did whatever little things I needed to do. Prayerfully, no casualty when evening arrives.

Back garden.

Front patio and front garden.

Sweet potato creepers taking over the mulching around the golden sheens.

New candidate in the garden. I decided to plant Diggers' Pioneer bean stringless (above pic) in this empty pot of mix (where my daisies used to be). A black pot over them to create a dark environment and moist potting mix saw them germinating just in four days!

Under the netting and shade, my buk choy (purple) and buk choy (regular green) are growing well. One silver beet among them as well and the bitter melon vine on the trellis.

Two more silver beets growing next to the lemon grass and under the shelther of the grevillea tree.

Once again a picture of the four peaches on my peach (pixzee). Just cannot stop snapping a picture of them. Beautiful considering it is its first season!

One eggplant supreme out in sight!!!

Nellie Kelly's hot chillies growing larger and more coming!

One bunch of tomato silvery fir ripening! Very exciting as this year, I managed to get the tomatoes to grow larger and it is really successful considering this one is potted.

I picked this first ripened and large-sized tomato two days ago in case it gets too scorched by the sun.

Also picked a large bowl of common mint yesterday morning. Time for some mint tea and omelette.

Cool weather change and some intermittent drizzle this morning. I did 2 hours of work. Applied large pots with sugarcane mulch, added water crystals to some pots which tend to dry up fast, applied more organic fertiliser to some pots and planted out my buk choys. Time to harvest the two ripened yellow capsicums for beef tonight : Purple king beans are growing on the vines :

Tomato (silvery fir) growing bigger and more by the day :

These are buk choys...normal ones from my shepherd and purple ones from Diggers :

I had some planted in Patch B (where snowpeas used to be), between the bitter melon on the left and cucumber (burpless) on the right :

They are each protected by this plastic punnet which I keep after eating supermarket vege/fruits :

A light plastic punnet will get a rock resting on it :

4 other buk choys are planted here in planters, making it a total of 8 :

The cucumber (burpless) are producing baby cucumbers but I suspect the female flowers attached to the ends of them are not even opened yet. Must continue to observe :

The vines are a pretty sight at the moment and I managed to protect them under a piece of white cloth pegged on the trellis :

Lots of male flowers :

The eggplant supreme has two large purple (my son said violet) flowers opened. Very pretty! :

It started to really pour from noon onwards and last through the evening. I love the rain!!! My son said if I kept saying that, it was going to flood.

Summer...What's Happening in the Garden?

It's my second summer doing gardening. I welcomed some good rainfall on Tuesday and it is showering a little again today. Samuel and I found a ladybird on one of the chilli padi plants. I am not sure if that is the one I rescued from Coles supermarket few weeks back. It could well be. It seems comfortable on the plant and then I realised that there were actually aphids on the underside of some leaves. Good fellow..hope you have a great feast and get rid of them!

All my five calendula plants are doing great, flowering. Also some withered flowers have already produced seeds.

The two common mint cuttings took off fantastic and are growing fatter each day.

One nasturtium seedling emerged.

One strawberry delight runner growing into a new strawberry plant after I buried it in a small pot of mix. This way, I can keep having new plants without having to buy them. More runners developing from the mother plant.

A baby cucumber emerged from the vine. Several male flowers also have bloomed. I am trying to expose the two cucumber vines to buzzing bees for pollination as they are quite obscured by the pots and netting.

Another capsicum ripening to a bright orange. The smaller ones are ripening first. The two larger capsicums will get to grow larger before ripening. Cannot wait to snap a picture of that happening soon! Meanwhile more capsicum flowers are developing.

My purple king bean plants are also producing flowers.

And a baby purple king bean too!

Strawberry delight...yum...I harvested them before the earwigs did.

All three tomato silvery fir plants are doing great and putting on fruits. I had to prune off a lot of leaves to allow better air circulation.

I hammered a nail on top of the fence and used a string to secure the trellis for the bitter melon and cucumber (burpless). In summer during heatwaves, the wind can be extremely strong.

Also mulched the cucumber vines and bitter melon vine with sugar cane mulch.

Between the bitter melon and cucumber vines, I am preparing the soil for my buk choy and silver beet. Not a lot of space but I will try to squeeze in space for some leafy vege.

Buk choy seedlings waiting to be transplanted.

Purple buk choy seedlings.