Carolina Black Rose Alive!!!

How exciting! I am totally over the moon as if I have struck lottery. That was how my hubby described me. My Carolina Black Rose Grape vine is alive! I found 3-4 green buds on it. A while ago, it looked like a dried forked twig and I have sort of lost hope that it would live. I will have to fertilise it and plan the support soonest, oh as well as protection against my golden retriever Marco. The pomegranate, which I have no clue about its name, is putting on beautiful red leaves. I plan to spray it with a mixture of pyrethrum and white oil in case of white flies or scale attack as last seasons.

I have propagated two pots of Aoenium. As I am clearing up more planting areas with my lawn revamp, I may need new plants.

Planted a little pot of coriander here in Patch C after the seeds germinated.

Most of the seeds - kang kong (water spinach), chilli padi, tomato silvery fir, cucumber, bittermelon - I have planted and pots kept in this plastic container (to imitate greenhouse environment) have germinated. It has been a really cold spring start and they are growing very very slowly. I wish I have a glass or green house to speed up things.

The pot of chives has also germinated. It is doing better out in the cold.

A new pot of thyme germinating too.

I had to remove growing pups from my original aloe vera pot as they were overcrowding the pot. This two are some of the babies I have removed. I think soon I can start some plant sale?

Herbs and Vegetables Update

My 6 snow peas are towering, flowering and fruiting.

The chilli fire plant looks a bit haggard but I think it will pick up when weather warms up. I have removed the plastic around it and the fleece above it which I used in winter to protect it from cold, winds and frost.

This little rosemary bush is doing well. I propagated it from my original rosemary plant. It does not get much sun and had powdery mildew at times. Not the problem has cleared and it is taking off at its site.

I harvested some yummy greens for dinner : silver beet

Here are the mustard greens (Gai Choy) and spinach growing under net. The spinach are so slow. I think once the weather warms up, it will take off and then start produce flowers instead.

I gave this tuft of lemon grass a hair cut. It was all brown and straggly. Wondering if it will be okay. Wondering if they will grow. All five clumps of lemon grass looked really bad after the winter. Come the next winter, I will have to protect them if they survive this season.

Planted coriander in Patch C where the kaffir lime and lemon grass are.

This little clump of chives (Gu Chye) is doing well and clumping after I harvested it. I intend to buy a few more pots to plant at this spot so I can cook up a dish with squids or fried bean curd.

One strong parsley seed has found its way next to the shed where it does not get much sun but it is growing well.

Fruit Trees Update

I chopped off the top part of my brown turkey fig tree in winter as the 'trunk' was very long and filmsy. Here a green bud can be seen. I think it will make it to regenerate new life! The Flemings brown turkey fig tree has put on several new buds which should will be leaves.

The Flemings Peach (Pixzee) tree has fewer flowers this year and so expecting either fewer or no fruits.

This peach tree (which I have no name for) is doing so well after being planted here. Putting on lots of new leaves.

However, the apricot (moorpark) which suffered some miserable beginnings is dead. I scraped its trunk and it just showed brown.

When I finally pulled it up, it barely had any roots left. All have rotted away.

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.

Preliminary Work for a New Lawn

Sunday was a sunny day. We sprayed the lawn with Roundup. I wished I did not have use that and I hope the earthworms in the soil would not be affected as I had read that they would not. I had wanted to spray with a pine-derived organic herbicide called Bio-weed but they come in 15L drums, too much for this project.

This little stretch in front of our garage nex to the car porch will be worked on as soon as we can lay our hands on it. I dislike these bushes and they are getting unsightly with all the little plantlets they are producing.

I managed to divide up all the iries and have them in these pots. I intend to see how pretty they are and what shade of purple they are. Then from there I will assess their final planting spot in my garden.