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 Leaves and Fruits.

Eversince my aloe vera has been placed under the patio where it gets indirect sunlight, it has gone green and new pups are developing at a faster pace. This concludes why it was very light green and had burnt-like tips whilst in the green house under direct sunlight and heat. It was too much for it. With several new pups growing, I hope to be able to propagate new aloe veras in new pots : My Trixee? Pixee? (just cannot get its name right) dwarf peach is growing well since my fungicide treatment and fertilising in winter. I was even surprised to find lots of peaches growing. However, I will try to stay on the pessimistic side as the branches are so close, I reckon the peaches have not much space for developing. Fingers crossed, none have dropped yet :

Kaffir lime has got lots of new leaves growing but it looks a bit unwell :

Pomegranate (left by its previous owner but I will gladly accept it :)) has put on lots of leaves but I have no clue what I should do with them...prune? :

Apricot Moorpark finally put on leaves. I thought it was dead :

Within 2.5 weeks, the plum tree put on a whole crown of leaves. Lesser plums this year after the recent hair-cut :

Pittosporum Golden Sheens are Up!

It rained almost the whole day yesterday. I had hoped it would not today as work was scheduled at our new house. Samuel was also having a bad cold for a few days, nose running like a tap and I could not find any childminding for him while Paul and I were going to be on site. Thankfully, the weather today was gorgeous! Sunny and clear and best of all, the soil was soft to work on. And another thanksgiving point was that Samuel recovered from his bad cold almost suddenly after a nap yesterday afternoon. No more running out of tissue paper at home! The first thing the tradesmen did was to dig holes for the two conifers to be planted at both sides of the small gate. It used to be rose shrubs. These two conifers are not cheap, costly us $70 a pot : Samuel was well enough but we decided to enclose him in the car as he would probably create some minor havoc in the garden and interfered with the work. He bothered us a little but was able to spend some time 'camping' in the car and doing 'handstands' and 'somersaults' from backseat to boot :

Our 24 pots of Pittosporum Golden Sheen have arrived. One of the pots looked a little run-down but well, I shall see how it grows :

One of the tradesmen started his work pruning my flowering plum tree :

He has pruned off quite a fair bit :

Here's the final look. May not get much plums this year but pruning was necessary :

The Golden Sheens were spaced out. 24 pots, just enough! :

This is after the plants have been planted in and given some black gold which is a type of garden compost with pig manure :

Now the tradesman work on the camelia stump and removed the concrete ring. This space will have a new tree which I have not decided what it would be :

And work went on to dig a trench around the oleander stump. Wow it was seriously massive and they mentioned they had to return with some grinder/machine to dig it out. It was too much using manual strength. And I have to clear all the sawdust produced before any possible future planting can be done because oleander is poisonous :

Signs of Life

Although it is still winter, the fruit trees in the backyard are showing that they are not so dormant after all. A lot is actually going on and here are just three : One of the plum trees, which produced just a few maroonish tiny and round but sweet plums this year, is already putting forth its beautiful white-pink plum blossoms. Scent-wise is mild.

The rest of the plum trees are also putting on buds. This is another type of plum tree and I am not sure by the time I move out, if I am able to see the beautiful blooms. It would be spectacular like what I witnessed end of last year from my living room window.

The pear tree is also having its spurs I think. It is a pity I only had a bite of one of its pears this year, the rest being eaten by feathered looters.

Making Way for Pittosporum Golden Sheens

A cool morning with weather forecast for showers and possible thunderstorm but none happened. Hubby, myself, Samuel and our church-mate Robert went over to our new property to get some work done after our church service. We have ordered our 24 pots of Pittosporum Golden Sheen and we planned to plant them in two weeks' time, so we needed to make way for them.

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Work done : 1. Cleared all existing mulching and weed mats and all the roses and small bushes. 2. Chopped down the oleander shrub (which was huge) and camelia with a chain saw.

Mulching, roses, shrubs and weed mats cleared.

Oleander sawn down to stump.

I was very pleased to spot a huge arum lily flower (above) along the fence. If not for the flower, I would have pulled all the 'unknown plants' up!!! I realised that they are all arum lillies growing...one of my favourite flowers which I had used for my wedding.

Another lot of arum lily plants which I have to either remove or replant them as they are in the way of the Pittosporum Golden Sheen.

Camelia sawn down as well.

1. All the branches of the oleander stacked up at another two stretches of mulching, waiting to be slowly cleared.
   

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   Now we have to just wait for the professional we have hired to poison the stump and dig them up and of course, to dig holes and plant the pittosporum hedge. How exciting to see my hedge up! It will be a very different scenery.

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   Follow up work that we have to do soon :

   1. Raking up the fallen plum leaves. 2. Weeding the growing dandelions and lamb's tongue (as usual sprouting up everywhere) 3. Figuring out how to remove a few existing calla lillies and replant them somewhere else as they are growing on the area where the pittosporum golden sheens are to be planted. 4. Chopping and gathering useful straight stems from the oleander for use as stakes. 5. Pruning the large plum tree (paying a professional to do that).

So Much Work!

Work at new house : Vege patch D : Work with cow manure and lime. Planted and mulched 3 pots of cyclamens. Hope they will grow well in this shady spot.

Rake up fallen plum leaves.

Place leaves in make-shift netting in backyard to let them turn into leaf mould.

Succulent plants flowering beautifully.

Lavender growing new leaves.

Work completed for patch next to garage. Hope not to see weeds!

Work in rental house : Calamondins not doing well. Fruits attacked by aphids. Treated with pyrethrum.

Lemon verbena growing lots of new shoots after last trimming.

Cayenne Pepper under netting since finding out they were attacked at night.

Curry plant growing more shoots in the new house after trimming off lots of aphid-infested shoots.

Buk choy planted from pot to vege patch.

Treated oregano root ball with pyrethrum as it seems it is attacked by gnats.Repotted the oregano and wonder if it will survive the treatment.

Re-potted the aloe vera into a shallow wider planter. New pups emerging. Delicate...broke one.

Potted the Pixee dwarf peach with aged manure and premium potting mix.

Peach tree is losing all its leaves. (below)

Rake up to make leaf mould.