Africanaussie

I arrived back after more than four weeks overseas to discover that my garden had done just fine without me, thank you very much!  The peppercorn vine is full of little bunches of peppercorns.  Last year I pickled some, but might do some research on drying them instead.  I made a lovely pepper sauce to go with our pork chops last night.  The lady slipper orchid has made its way into the veggie patch, so I now have flowers and fruit intermingling. This bed required lots of weeding, and then I quickly planted some seeds to make the most of whatever growing season we still have.  Tatsoi, rocket and whatever else was left in the packets. The asian greens in the one box were pulled out to make way for bok choy.  Mizuna was my clear favourite, so I will plant that again.  For the first time ever I have been able to grow rainbow chard - isnt it pretty?  I never grow huge leaves of kale - think it is still too hot here, even in our winter. ...

I have been wandering around the garden wondering how it will look in the eyes of my visitors.  Will they gaze up in awe at the wall of hanging lady slipper orchids? Will they enjoy picking the parsely and bokchoy  in the herb spiral as the bright gerbera daisy nods them a lazy good morning?  Will they anxiously watch as each tomato starts to colour and quickly pick them before the birds do? I know we will all be reminiscing about the last time we ate garden figs together in the garden forty years ago! I will be back after my little holiday - see you in September!

I had a break last month since I was overseas visiting my brand new grandson in America.  My poor hubby was battling bandicoots and scrub hens while I was away, but I returned with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for my little veggie patch. A reader asked what bandicoots are - they are like a huge rat that burrow into the garden looking for grubs. I have been going through each bed, weeding, mulching and even planting so I hope the wet season takes its time coming this year, allowing a bit more prime veggie growing time. The first two beds were weeded and cleared immediately I returned.  Last time I posted I talked about purchasing a dwarf avocado, and on my return I found a grafted avocado at the markets.  It is flowering and has been planted in  the hole that used to be the in bucket worm farm so I imagine that soil must be pretty good.  That was a pretty good reason to get out there in the garden. I have been given conflicting advice, some say these f...

Come on in to my garden.... I have something to tell you  Sit down in the comfy chair  for a little while, and listen to the tinkling of the wind chimes - are you relaxed? Good!  Remember how I entered that garden competition, and the judges came, and they wandered down my paths, taking photos?  Yes! I won runner up! a Fifty dollar gift card ........ from a real nursery, not the big box store that I normally shop at.  Oh gosh, how exciting.... I wonder what I will buy? Thank you Cairns Regional Council!

I have a bunch of lovely flower photos and thought they might brighten someones day.  I am often in awe at how beautiful buds are before they open into their full blown glory as flowers.  Take this bud of the Desert rose, such a perfect whorl. In fact a whole bunch of perfect whorls. Then slowly one by one they open up into the most perfect trumpet shaped flowers. The ground orchids stand up firm and proud above the leaves around its base. i think the green ants are part of the fertilization process. Maybe the leaves know enough not to try and compete with the beautiful flowers. The Rex Begonia buds are flat unassuming disks but then they unfold into these pretty little beauties. All these flowers last so long once they open and add continuous colour to my tropical garden.

One of the things I always enjoy so much when I visit South Africa is the mini vegetables.  I think growing them is a very well kept secret, and have come to the conclusion that  most of the time they are just picked early.  That might be very helpful in my climate - fraught with humidity and lots of bugs.  Searching on the internet has come up with two different options - hybrid seeds bred to produce smaller varieties or growing the plants very close together and harvesting early. One thing the mini vegetables are used for is to cook in a potjie.  This is a cast iron three legged pot and it is cooked for a long time over a fire - or in reality just a few coals mounded around and some laid on the lid.  My brother cooked a marvelous chicken potjie, flavored with ginger, scallions, lemongrass and coconut milk.    Once the chicken was almost cooked a layer of mini vegetables were...

One of the first things I did after returning from three weeks away was to survey the garden.  The lychee tree is full of leaves, and most of the plants underneath it have recovered quite well from the sudden blast of sunshine. Luckily we have had a little rain to ease the way, and my darling hubby has been watering. Of course it also allowed a spate of weeds to grow up everywhere!  Among the weeks are plenty of cherry tomato plants which I have left where they volunteered. They fill in the gaps and hopefully will give us some tomatoes.  This has not been a good year for tomatoes - maybe not enough sunny days to ripen them.  We often have cloud cover and I think they like clear sunny days, or so they tell me!  It is warm though - I have not stopped swimming all through the winter, other than when I was away. The gardens seems quite happy.  In the veggie garden the kale, lettuce and carrots have come along well...

Coleus is a great plant to fill in any empty areas, I find you can just cut off a little bit, and either root it first in a little water or else just plonk into the ground and it will grow. what is not to love about that! look at the variegated colours on this leaf!  Who need flowers when you have leaves like this?

Rain, constant rain, and this is not yet the wet season - who would know! The red canna has opened up and is such a rich wonderful colour. I ripped out the vinca that had sprung up between them while I was away.  They had been crowding out the established plants so had to go.  Hopefully now the cannas will enjoy their newfound freedom.   They struggled a bit in the back and so now have a sunny spot against the fence.  I hear so many people who are in love with cannas and find them easy, but this has not been the case with me.   The old leaves always look untidy, and the flower stems are often top heavy and flop down on weak stems, so maybe with a bit more openness I will get some strong healthy plants. The ground orchid has long been a staple in my garden and propogates frequently, but I will always find room for more. I needed some this weekend  to give away, so did some subdividing.  the ones that are left will rapidly fill in the em...

I have been hankering after a lime tree forever.  For my birthday everyone chipped in and I went off to go and spend the money at the garden center in Bunnings.  Owing to the small spcae we have, it has to be a dwarf variety, and probably in a pot, although I  do prefer trees in the ground - somehow it seems a bit alien to be putting a tree into a pot.  I never get the watering right either.  Whoa there, we dont want to jepordize this before it starts!  They have dwarf meyer lemon or dwarf lime - I chose the lime as a lot of my neighbours have troubles with their lemons.  I think limes are more apt to grow without problems in this climate. So here is my new little addition- I chose one that already had buds - a sign of good things to come! Marketing gets me every time - I loved the lime green pot, the name "sublime", and even free recipes on the back of the label! Dont those limes on the label look delicious! So in my small garden I now ha...