Sneak peek of spring

August is awesome in Melbourne, full of hope for us who are sun-deprived and heat-cravers! The days get warmer and more consistently sunny. Best of all is the activity in the garden with flowering weeds of Dandelion. These are amongst the first few to flower and are important for the bees who are coming out of hibernation.

Here are some pictures of what's happening right now.

The Virginian stock I planted last year, self-seeded and grew again. It looks awesome now!

Virginian stock

 One pea pod is developing now, lol! That would make a fine stir-fry.

Lonely pea pod

The last of the Hyacinth is flowering now.

White Hyacinth

I love the first leaves of deciduous tress. The pomegranate is showing signs of new leaves.

Pomegranate

The Daphne is spreading it's perfume in the entire garden, and looking pretty good doing it!

Daphne

Jasmine is just starting to flower.

Jasmine

As is the Magnolia. It also has a very strong scent.

Magnolia

The African daisies are really perking up their corner of the garden. On sunny days, the flowers open fully. They are as excited as us to see the sun!

Pink african daisy

Purple african daisy

Orange african daisy

The calendula have really kept the winter cheerful by flowering non-stop.

Calendula

And these are the last of my favourite flower - Jonquil.

Jonquil

Winter notes

Things are slow in winter. It's cold and wet and gets dark early. If we are lucky, the weekends are dry. This is when I step out with my camera to capture the growth!

Let us start with the Guava. We saw fruits in February this year. They stayed small and green and rock solid until last week. Out of the eight, 2 started to turn yellow, though the size remained the same. I plucked one when it started to smell a little ripe. As it turned out, I plucked it too soon.

First Guava

 Anyway, the others were starting to turn yellow too. But, to my surprise, they were also getting bigger! In one week, they showed considerable growth.

Other Guavas

Next up are the Peas. I had sown a few peas in the middle of May. These were picked from the dry ones we normally use for cooking and got no special treatment before sowing. I simply popped them in under the now well-grown Tibouchina stakes. Two weeks later, the small saplings started to appear! Yet I waited till two more weeks to get a good picture.

Growing Peas

Over the weeks they have grown taller and bushier. As of today, there are close to 10-15 white flowers. The first flower is now becoming a tiny pod. I look forward to harvesting them!

A small Pea pod

Now, I love Jonquils! Every year they cheer me up in the dead of the winter. They can be seen from the kitchen window and I am able to see them in the morning while eating breakfast. This year, when I got home one evening, I saw the first flower of the season. So excited was I, that I took a picture in the darkness.

First Jonquil of the season

A few weeks later, all the Jonquil bulbs are flowering, smelling heavenly.

Jonquils in bloom

The other two bulbs that we have are not doing too well. I did not expect much from the Tulip as they do not last long, but I think the Hyacinth is suffering because of it's location. It still flowers every year, but much smaller than the first year. And it is really difficult to access now with the growing Orange and Myoporum around it. This year I will move it to under the Maple once the foliage dies down.

Hyacinth

Speaking of Orange, they are almost ready! Normally we start picking them in end of August.

Oranges turning orange

Then only vegetables that we have been picking regularly are the leaves of Spinach and Kale. They do very well in winter and I have been careful to keep Aphids and leaf eating insects off them. Every week we get a good dose of salad leaves!

Kale

Spinach

Coming up next month are Asparagus and Daphne!

Asparagus

Daphne

Spring notes

The biggest news this spring is a lone lime in our 4-year old tree! Every year we get excited when we see the white flowers on the plant. Every year we watch in despair as they drop to the ground one-by-one. This repeats the next season. Until now, one lime, which we almost missed behind all the leaves!

Lime

In other news, Carnation was still happily flowering away. They are my favourite flowers! I planted the seeds in a pot, so they are a bit leggy trying to find the sun. But the flowers still looked pretty, even when not upright.

Carnation

Daisies are the really looked-forward to flowers. They turn up almost overnight and are such followers of the sun! We have them in three colours, so its hard to decide which colour is the best.

Orange daisies

Purple daisies

Pink daisies

Other flowers at this time are the Magnolia and the Eternal Fragrance Daphne. The Magnolia has such a strong perfume that even our next neighbour can smell it in her house! The flowering season does not last too long, only 2-3 weeks. The flowers itself are pretty delicate and the petals fall off with the wind.

Magnolia

The Eternal Fragrance Daphne lives up to its name. The first flowers bloom at this time of the year for about 3 weeks. Once they die down, the plant gives out new leaves and extends its scope. The next set of flowers will bloom in November, just in time for outdoor sitting season.

Eternal Fragrance Daphne

A little overshadowed by its neighbours, the Cherry Leaf Lilly Pilly gives out new leaves at this time. The leaves are a dark red in colour, giving the tree (or bush?) its name. The Lilly Pilly is quite small, only about 3 feet high compared to the other one that we have.

Cherry Leaf Lilly Pilly

The Hakea is quite tall now and successfully blocking our neighbour's from viewing our kitchen! In the spring, there are tiny feathery flowers all along the stem. In the tall tree, they look quite spectacular.

Hakea

And finally, a previously unknown succulent is standing quite tall! This was given to us by my parents when they visited us in April 2012. It came in two little tea cup sized terracotta pots. In the pots it got water sparingly. When we setup our succulent bed, we planted some cuttings. There it got water 2-4 times a week. Judging by the height, it obviously does well with water!

Update Jul 2016: This is Variegated Crassula sarmentosa

Variegated Crassula sarmentosa

P.S. The Jasmine is starting to make an appearance with some flowers. More later!

Jasmine

Back from a break

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.

Daphne

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.

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!

Carnation

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.

Kale

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.

Garlic

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.

Pomegranate

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.

Tibouchina stakes

Fragrance in the garden

I love fragrant flowers. To me, the fragrance completes the beauty of the flower. Having said that, I do not like Rose but love Carnations!

Anyway, we thought fragrant flowers would be perfect for planting around our outdoor seating area. I wanted a mix of flowers that would lend their fragrance all year round. Most fragrant flowers flower in spring, so I had to do a bit of research.

Daphne Odora was the most popular choice for winter flowering. It flowers in the cold winter months when everything else in the garden is feeling a bit low! However, it is a fussy plant and needs lots of care. We bought ours in 2011, but it took two winters for it to flower!

Daphne Odora

Daphne Odora in flower

There is another hybrid Daphne called Eternal Daphne which flowers in spring and spot flowers during the rest of the year. This one is bred to be more tolerant of sunshine. We picked this one to be right next to our seating area.

Eternal Daphne in flower

Magnolias are fragrant too, but deciduous. I am not a big fan of deciduous trees, so luckily we found a fragrant Magnolia that is evergreen. It was also going to provide us with some more privacy is the garden.

Magnolia

Magnolia in flower

Another typical summer fragrance is from Gardenias. They love shade and have white flowers that give out a very powerful perfume. My only grudge with it is that they look ugly when they finish blooming (usually 2-3 days for each flower). Constant deheading of dead flowers is required to keep the shrub looking clean.

Gardenia

Gardenia in bloom

Finally, we wanted a climber to cover the trellis which demarcated our sunny area of the bed from the shady area. Jasmine seemed like a very good option. It climbs well and has fragrant flowers in the summer.

Jasmine

Jasmine flower