SoS 15/1/21

Gosh, after a busy Christmas, a dry and hot week or so of the New Year and a tumultuous international affair, I’ve finally got back into my garden. We welcomed a full day of rain yesterday and showers today. 

I’ve come to the realisation that our  big garden is difficult.

It’s mostly clay and has 50-60 year old trees with roots spread right across the garden. So digging space for new plants is not hard, it’s awful! I’ve also realised as I age, that what we have now is more than enough. Of course I’d love beds and more beds but time and energy is the thing and I’ve just had months with a demanding knee so the big garden is big enough.

Anyway – here we go.

Mea culpa because I snuck in two pics here.

Agapanthus – called aggies here. Held in disrepsect by true plantsmen but loved by those who own big dry gardens that are almost impossible to dig over.

That said, those that surround our cottage are ready to be dug up (with mattocks, ditchdiggers and explosives!) and divided.

This is one small section of the long border to show how well cosmos, lobelia and petunia have broken up the mostly green theme of summer (not counting the nepeta).

I have to include this one – the scabiosa is breathtaking this year. It’s grown to a height of six feet and is covered in buds that will eventually look like this.

The veggie garden has finally picked up. After a very unusual winter of rain and then heat from November on, it literally stalled in its tracks. But somehow its turned the corner and everything is beginning to produce. We have blank spaces to plant successive carrots and greens. In the past, potatoes have filled a quarter of our veggie garden but this year, as an experiment, we grew them in potato bags. The crop wasn’t good – a minimal result. One lives and learns…

The tomatoes are doing well – a bit of yellowing here and there, but they have good sized fruit and I might just get some chutney made this year.

And finally, we’ve netted an apple, a pear, a quince and a nectarine to keep what I call the Messerschmitt parrots off the fruit. Once upon a time, our garden had 28 pear and apple trees but climate change has taken its toll and we only have five of the original trees left. We’ve planted the quince, nectarine and an apricot, but in order to change the orchard and try and create a little microclimate, have added three olives, three almonds, an oak, a silver birch, a lillypilly, a variegated pittosporum, a weeping gum, a flowering gum, and double hedge of small leafed pittosporums and olives. Time will tell if they can cope with the tough conditions. I do hope they can as we can then add their number to the hundreds of trees we planted on the farm this year.

And that’s it from me. Hop off to The Propagator and take a global tour of gardens, with thanks to Jon.

Cheers all.