Back in the Matchbox in the city, we’ve had a bucketload of rain. (Actually we had it on the coast too. How do folk in the UK cope with days of rain? Yikes!) But in the one hour of sunshine yesterday afternoon, and between planting lots of summer annuals, I took a few pics.
(SoS is part of a blog hop called Six on Saturday for gardeners and garden lovers across the globe. The theory is that anyone can contributes pics of six gardening subjects from plants and weeds to tools, landscaping, you name it. It was begin by our MC, The Propagator, and one learns an awful lot in reading all the participating blogs.)
My gosh!
The weather today has been a reminder that spring is here and summer is just around the corner.
The air was filled with such fragrances and even after sunset we were still in short sleeves!
Gosh, snow last week, and flooding rains this week. It makes gardening difficult to say the least as spring begins to burst around us. I have plans and it seems as they’ll have to be put on hold for a while. At least the ground of the orchard will be wet enough to plant a couple more trees. We planted a 6 foot high flowering gum before the rain yesterday, and a slightly smaller bay tree. But knowing SoS was almost upon us, I dashed out before the resumption of rain today and snapped a few plants:
I’ve been a bit busy lately getting a new book ‘out there’ and dealing with the oddness of publishing something so far outside my usual genre. A pillowbook, for heaven’s sake!
And in amongst that, taking time to push on with the next in a hist.fict series – this one entitled Reliquary. Such things serve to remove one somewhat from the garden and gardening. Then again, it’s been so damned cold that one could barely pick up secateurs, let alone open them.
Here we are again! It’s astonishing to think how quickly the week goes as one day rolls seamlessly into another so that days even lose their names at this current time.
Before I start, happy birthday to SoS and congrats to Mr.Propagator for starting the whole thing three years ago. It’s been such a bonus for me, watching and learning about different shrubs and plants and meeting gardenaholics. So thank you, Jonathan!
My pics today are from earlier in the week when it was springlike and sunny. Today, on my end of the globe, it’s wet, windy and chilly with frequent little cold cells drifting across the radar and preventing any outdoors activity at all – something I don’t take kindly to.
This week on SoS, I’m offering two gardens.
The state of one is the direct result of Covid-19.
We’ve been in lockdown with borders closed for quite a while here in my state of Tasmania (Australia). If one had a shack anywhere, (a second residence on coast, rural or highlands), one could stay there for the duration of the lockdown, only venturing away for food, exercise and medical requirements.
It’s similar to the UK, I believe – Stay Safe, Stay Home.
Golly, I certainly didn’t think I’d have any plants to talk about but because of the C-Virus, and our island declaring a State of Emergency and shutting its borders, I’ve spent a lot of time in the garden, doing the autumn cutback.
It’s been wonderful, I’ve found:
It’s been such a long time since I SOS-ed.
The main reason is the ongoing drought where I live.
Deciduous trees are yellowing and losing leaves, not because autumn approaches, but because of lack of water. Our subsoil is dry for at least a metre, if not more. The above is one of two massive sixty year old willows in our garden, favourite hiding places of our grandson and our terrier.
My borders stopped flowering weeks ago and whilst we can keep the borders alive, it’s as though the plants are going into hibernation. So there’s little to photograph as even in the city, trees are beginning to shed, street verges are dry and in some cases just dirt. And gardens of the less interested are looking awful.
However, on a quick walk yesterday, I took pics of what caught my eye and gave me hope that this pervasive dry will end one day and it will rain.
Acorns in a street row of oaks. I love the trees – so shady in summer.
Down a little lane and shaded from the worst of the westerly sun, this tiny little clematis (unknown?) which I found so pretty. I wouldn’t mind a cutting, as I have a thing for clematis.
Which brings me to seedheads of Clematis Montana in my own garden.
Nasturtiums. Love the colours, love the taste of the flowerheads in a salad.
And finally, Pachystegia insignis. This plant that grows down the road from our little city-bolthole is the one that caught my eye a while ago with its leaves. It has papery white flowers and now these wonderful seedheads. It’s very hardy and I purchased three last year. All in tubs as a plantsman friend says they do best in tubs, she has found.
And that’s it from me for this week and probably for a little while because of the drought. It will soon be time to begin reading catalogues, to separate seeds and think about propagating, but without adequate water, it’s hard to divine anything beyond life-support for what one already has.
So pootle on to other wonderfully wet northern hemisphere gardens with The Propagator, folks. It’s envy on steroids!
Toodles.
Not many words in this frantic ‘before Christmas’ post.
The little Aussie Matchbox blooms amazingly when we go to the city. When we are on the coast though, it’s a constant effort to keep things fresh and exciting in the middle of the ongoing Big Dry (to which I’ll add the word – windy!).
So my six are all those I’ve shared the previous summer – only this year, they’re one year older and showing just how stunning they can be in my white garden.
The strange and ghostly white clematis with the mauve tinge and green stripes is completely unknown. I just remember I liked it in the catalogue. It’s LOVELY on the fence.
And so’s the pom-pom green one. But actually, so’s every other clematis I have – and surprise, surprise, all whites. All eleven of them!
Just for some variation closer to the ground, I do love the pulmonaria (which flowers white) and the dicentra (I have two different varieties of white flowers).
I do apologise for the lack of names but I’m away currently on the coast and my botanical list is in the city. I’m trying to pluck names from a pre-Christmas head chock full of non-essentials. In any case, I’m sure the informed amongst you know exactly what each plant is!
To see how gardens are progressing in the northern hemisphere, do click on the link and go to The Propagator’s SoS. It may prove a gentle way to spend a weekend!
