SoS 8/2/19

I’ve had nothing much to talk about with my gardens due to the ongoing heatwave and drought. My garden began to close up on itself, plants ceased flowering, leaf edges became singed, and in fact my plant kingdom felt like I did. Badly in need of a cool change.

We finally got one on Wednesday – not so much a ‘cool’ change as a wet one. We received 40 mls of rain on the coast and 14 in the Matchbox Garden in the city. OH and self have had five days in the city, during which time we cut back and generally tidied up. It’s amazing how that tiny microclimate has kept itself moist and cool. So much so I was prompted to open plant catalogues.

But back to our bigger and more productive garden.

I arrived back here late yesterday and I discovered the veggie garden was prolific with snap peas, zucchinis, beans, carrots, beetroot, lettuces, parsnips, eggplants, radishes, and many herbs. In the background is a netted and happily laden green gage tree. We’ve already cleaned off the cherry plums next to it. The quinces are hanging in there, the nectarines have split with the rain and most of the apples from the aged trees have fallen.

We had earlier decided to let the pak choy continue to flower as it was good for the bees, along with basil and rocket flowers.

I noticed that the sunflowers had begin to bloom – a bee bonanza.

Many cabbage white butterflies also inhabited the garden and have in fact, through the larva stage, demolished all the pak choy leaves.

I might add that the veggie garden has only managed to survive the heatwave with rather a lot of expensive water. But the food we’ve eaten has been little short of gorgeous!

But back to the catalogues. I’ve placed an order for:

White sea daffodils…

White  (because I love white) and saffron crocuses (for the threads)..

Black and white tulips…

Grape hyacinths…. A mixture of white with a whisper of the softest blues and mauves. A waft of cool colours that attract off the page in the hottest summer Australia has had.

And because I fancy I might like a shock in my white garden,  I saw this Virichic tulip and was rather taken with it. In a tub, somewhere.

And that’s my six+ for this SoS. We’re expecting more heat this month, so it’s between me, water and a mulch of lucerne hay to keep the garden happy.

Please pop over to the Propagator to get a global gardening fix. It’s such wonderful weekend reading.