Busy Saturday

It was a really busy 3 hours I had out in the garden last Saturday.  I :

• pruned my chilli padi plants.
• thinned out my pak choy and gai choy/mustard green seedlings.
• built a shade for my transplanted green globe artichoke plants & trimmed them.
• sowed sweet corn and other vege seeds.
• sowed lucerne seeds for green manure.
• did watering.
• deadheaded my daisy bushes.
• deadheaded my King Alfred daffodils. 

I told my boy that this spring I would not grow any tomatoes.  We ate the frozen ones from last season really slowly.  One reason is that the frozen tomatoes thawed really badly.  They are so mushy that I could only use them for soupy dishes.  I have spoken too soon.  I found a few tomato seedlings growing in the big fig's pot and in the pixzee peach tree's pot. That was mid-winter and they were looking really purple and frozen.  They must be from seeds from the compost bin.  And they must be tomato silvery fir since I only grew that variety.  My first instinct was to let them die in the cold since I had no intention to do tomatoes.

But then two of the seedlings caught my eye, I knew I had to keep them. They were the two strongest seedlings. They looked really healthy, though purplish out in the freezing cold. What a tragedy to let them die when they were trying to survive!!! So I prepared two pots and pulled them out and planted them. I placed a newly-bought plastic cloche on them and let them get some sun.  With a little tender loving care, they are now no longer purple and looking even better.  Okay, tomatoes for the next season...

New chives emerging from the soil. Oh I just loving seeing life spring forth from the dead ground!

Our only plum tree has the whole tree full of white blossoms this year.  I sure hope to eat more than 10 plums this summer/autumn since we really did only had 10 or so each of last two years.

Very pretty white flowers lightly perfumed.

My Tung O plant (edible chrysanthemum) survived winter unscathed.  I gave it a light prunning to open the plant up and remove the browner branches.  I use this vege for steamboat/hot pot or Japanese Miso soup.  It is nice by me but my hubby doesnt want too much of it.

This is the shade I have set up for my green globe artichoke plants.  The weather forecast a really warm end to winter and I knew that my divided artichoke plants could not make it if I do not build them a shade.  Imagine, a shade in winter! Sounds crazy! Well, they have been recently divided and replanted and kept wilting in the day, so I knew a whole week of warm sunshine would do them in. After building the shade, I also remove more whole leaves and halved some of the leaves, leaving only baby leaves behind.  I also watered them with a few rounds of seasol during the week and checked them every few days. That should make sure they really survive.  Now I am glad to have divided them in winter.  Imagine doing so in spring or summer, they would have die for sure.

A really trimmed artichoke plant, staked.

Here's the patch where I have sown sweet corn.  I used plastic fruit containers as cloche and weighed them down using decent sized white stones.

I deadheaded the King Alfred daffodils right out of my son's bedroom.  Now all they need is some good fertiliser to help them make bigger prettier flower heads for next season.

My chilli fire surived winter with the plastic protection.  Since it has now turned warmer, I removed the top plastic for it to get some sunshine.  I did that for my chilli padi plants too.

I had to thin out the pak choy and gai choi seedlings heavily in this raised vege patch because greedy me oversowed by a great deal! The remaining seedlings here are just about 1/5 or less than what I have removed! The work almost killed me.

I sowed some yellow capsicum, kang kong (water spinach), egg plant, cucumber and lady's finger seeds.

Miscellaneous Update.

I inspected my worm farm today. The lowest tray was certainly ready to harvest. Good that no many worms are living there. Those few that are are probably anti-social hehe... I harvested 1.75 buckets of compost ready to fertilise the vege patches.

I planted some bulbs of Siberia Oriental lilies where my calla lilies, daisies and rose shrub are. All except the rose are white which is what i want...same colour theme. These lilies are summer bulbs so I shall have some flowers in summer too.

The vege patch F is doing great though the vege are growing at snail pace due to the cold.

This jonquil below was not what I wanted. I had bought what I thought was daffodil bulbs from Dandenong Market but they did not turn out to be. So angry with the fellow who put a picture of a large yellow daffodil and told me they were daffodils.

The plum flowers are blooming. Looking forward to sweet plums in summer.

Snow peas are finally flowering. The winds have been really strong these few days. Hope that they wont be damaged.

This daffodil has bloomed under the plum tree out of Samuel's room. Not what I really wanted too. I thought the picture showed a yellow one? Now that I have thrown the packaging out, I cannot find out. At least it is a daffodil. Every morning, Samuel and I would peer out of his window to check if a new daffodil has opened...so far two!

Daffodil little mist! That's the yellow one below. I am having at least 8 in total and they are from last years' bulbs. Last year I had only two bloom but this year is good! Next year I hope even better. Getting greedy haha...

Pak Choy Purple and Pak Choy Green are coming to the end of their lifespan. They have flowered and I hope to collect some seeds. Amazingly, the flowers are very fragrant.

Samuel and I placed our noses so close to smell the flowers that we get yellow powdery pollen on top of our lips. :)

My beautiful candy tuft has flowered! First time! I lost one candy tuft on the left but at least this one on the right is staying alive. I may buy another pot to replace the dead one because two's better than one!

So pretty!

Spring is Almost Here.

Last night, our little family went to Bunnings to get some roundup and stuff as we are planning to poison our weeds and grass to make way for a brand new lawn which is to die for. I also came across a flowering plant with such gorgeous blue flowers. It was so irresistible that hubby gave me the go ahead to buy two pots. Even he liked them. See the two brightest blue pot of flowers? They are the senetti. I have not decided where to plant them yet. Seems tempting to plant next to the blue daisies.

Out of our main door, the pittosporum golden sheens are growing well. I am looking forward to cutting their 'hair' in spring because I am looking forward to seeing them bush up.

Out of my bedroom window this morning, I snapped a nice picture of my french lavender as the sun rises over my neighbour's roof. How wonderful to wake up to this picture right out of your window.

And just as planned, the peach tree out of my bedroom window is flowering pink! Unfortunately and yet predictably, we have few blossoms this year due to pruning before and after planting. It's okay, next year will come!

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!

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.

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 :