Garden Gadgets, Possum Problem

12 December
- milk spray on grapevine
- bicarbonate spray on pak choy pods, destroy fungi-infected pak choy pods (hot water treatment)
- weeding around patch at front of house

14 December, cloudy with sunny breaks, 21 deg max
- watering the garden
- harvesting pioneer beans, tung O, strawberries, kao kee

15 December, sunny.
- milk spray grapevine, kao kee, hydrangeas

The naughty bush-tail possum nipped and ate the young shoots of my choko vine.

Here's another shoot eaten. On Monday night, my boy and I camped in our back garden and for the first time, I saw the 'burglar' jumping onto my plum tree and walking on our fence and on our shed.

I have been harvesting pioneer stringless beans for freezing as the quantity was not enough for cooking.

The bean plants, about 5 of them, are growing beans at different speeds.

My wisteria in the pot climbed up the beam in a clock-wise fashion. Not too sure if I would get any flowers.

A yummy bunch of Tung O (edible chrysantemum) for soup.

Beans and a fig (brown turkey).

Made a few cups of lemon balm tea this week. Refreshing!

A bunch of kao kee for soup too.

Steady supply of strawberries every day.

Here's a look at 3 of my wonderful gardening gadgets : Left to right - 1. Handsfree nozzle 2.Green Spray head. 3. Blue fireman nozzle. They are precious to me for watering my garden since I suffer from shoulder and neck problems, as they are handsfree and the sprays are adjustable.  Care to be taken when using them as if they are dropped, they can damage quite easily.

I bought this cheap spray unit from Bunnings for $7, the cheapest displayed. It actually works wonderfully. This morning I used it for the first time for milk-spraying my grape vine, kao kee and hydrangea. It really beats using 500ml spray bottles which really aggravates my shoulder/neck problem. It is also fantastic for large quantity of solutions.

Tulips, Wisteria (Japanese), Lavender, Arum Lily, Kalanchoe, Protea, Sanorita

The white arum lilies are so pretty, especially when cut and placed in a tall vase on their own. Samuel counted 14 in bloom. Although they are considered a weed in many parts of Australia, they are well under control in my garden and nice to have :

I am running out of space for plants as my collection increases. The Protea (Special Pink Ice) on the right seems to be surviving its winter repotting. Its leaves were looking dry and yellow for a long while until I gave it some tender loving care of trimming and watering recently. I would be quite sad to lose it since it cost me quite many bucks and produces really gorgeous cut flowers. I have been thinking of planting this Protea and the Sanorita (left) on the front nature strip. This will free up my front patio space, allow them to grow bigger being in ground, decorate my nature strip and attract beautiful native birds. However I needed to check if they attract possums to my house because that would be a no-no...

This wisteria (below) that I bought was bare like a stick but have put on so much leaves now. I had researched on this vine and found out that it is so strong that it can uproot the tree it climbs, plus the seeds are poisonous (not good for my dog). I am so attracted to its glorious purple blooms (that attract bees). I wanted to return it to the nursery but when the leaves came, my heart relented and decided to keep it. I will keep in potted to prevent any ground issue with its invasive roots or pulling my patio support down. As for the withered blooms, Hubby had already delegated me to be the one cleaning them up when it happens!

The Avon View Lavender are blooming and attracting bees again :

My very first red tulip has opened!!! It is stout and pretty. The bloom actually opens in the day and closes in the evening, so I could snap a shot of it. Notice the conifer on its right (actually behind it) and the ivy on the left (which I planted as fence cover) :This is my first yellow tulip!

This is the small area on the right of the small gate where the tulip patch is :

And this is the area on the left of the small gate where the other patch is :

My kalanchoe trailing has been blooming gorgeously but then I realised that the succulent leaves were limp. I tried to repot it and found out that the plant was already root-bound. I repotted it anyway trimming away the sides of the root ball and giving it lots of seasol. I also took cutting and hope they will root and produce new kalanchoe trailing for me :

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.