Every year, I take a break from gardening during the winter months. The shorter days mean that I leave for work in darkness and come back by darkness. The only time I get to see the garden is from the window on the weekends. I am glad now that our garden is mature and is geeen all year round.
Come August and the plants start to get restless. The oranges are already starting to change to the right colour and the Daphne is flowering.
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| Daphne |
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| Orange |
The Jonquils are the first of the bulbs to flower. I can see them from the kitchen window, it's such a lovely sight.
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| Jonquil |
Last September, I planted Carnations. They are pretty slow to grow, but finally a bud appeared in July, followed by another soon after. They are such delicate flowers!
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| Carnation |
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| Carnation |
The vegetables I planted in March are doing ok without any love from me! The kale and spinach have been giving enough leaves every week for me to use them in our salad.
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| Kale |
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| Spinach |
The garlic is also growing well but still a long way away from harvest. There are a couple of flowers on the pea plant but the plant is starting to dry out from the base up. Unfortunately my veggie patch was infested with aphids while I was on holiday. I came back too late to save most of the peas.
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| Garlic |
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| Pea flowers |
And finally, nothing cheers me up more than the promise of new flowers and leaves! The pomegranate is my favorite in this respect. As the tree has matured, the leaves have started to arrive earlier in the month. The jasmine is also showing new buds.
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| Pomegranate |
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| Jasmine |
The surprising new entry is this cutting from Tibouchina. I pruned the plants in autumn as they were getting too leggy and used the cuttings to provide support to the peas. Now it looks like one of them has set root! This will be fun to watch.
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| Tibouchina stakes |
