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

Melbourne Art and Garden show

This year we decided to visit the Melbourne Art and Garden show, during the Easter long weekend. It promised to be a place which showcased everything related to gardening. It was a visual treat!

Tulips

Hyacinth

We started off with the main displays of the nurseries. We did not intend on buying anything, but saw some amazing plants and arrangements.

Collection of Bromeliads

Bromeliad

Bromeliad

Sinningia Bullata

Collection of succulents

Collection of Terrariums

Terrarium

We also saw a commercial wicking bed product by Green smart. It was a plastic tub, with a false bottom which had the tubes for the wick. It was a pretty cool idea and the fact that it was pre-built was extremely tempting! But we do not need one as we have a garden, this was meant for apartment dwellers.

Concept of wicking beds

Green smart wicking bed

Next up, were the gardening landscape entries. These gardens were meant to be outdoor retreats for entertaining.

Japanese garden

Modern look

Another modern look with a sunken fire pit

Extremely modern

Cement pipes as style items

The backyard entries came next. The contestants had been given a very small backyard space to work with. The varied styles were good for ideas in our own backyard.

Entry 1

Entry 2

Entry 3

Finally, we came to the hanging baskets. There were many traditional ones with trailing plants. But I liked the fairy ones the best, with little scenes depicted on the basket.

Entry 1

Entry 2

Entry 3

Entry 4

It was a fun experience and we came back with an armload of pictures for our own garden!

Spring is here!

Nothing says spring like the first show of flowers! After almost a year of nothing new to report from the garden, spring was a welcome change.

Last autumn I decided to try my hand at some flowers. Personaly, I find it difficult to keep a spot vacant for most of the year for annuals. But a garden needs flowers. So we decided to start with the easiest way to grow them - bulbs. Bulbs are convenient, they sprout up every spring and then die back, only to multiply by next year! Bulbs have to be planted in autumn for them to flower in spring.

Flowers from the Narcissus family are my favourite, having seen them blooming in the Himalayan hill stations. They have a beautiful smell and look very cheery.

Narcisuss Jonquil

We also tried our hand at growing tulips. The bulbs were a mixed bag of colours - red, white and yellow.

Tulips

White tulip

And finally, we picked up Hyacinth, which was unknown to us. It turned out to be very beautiful! The three bulbs were different colours. The flowers grew in a cluster on the main stem and smelt heavenly.

Purple Hyacinth

Blue Hyacinth

White Hyacinth

The biggest joy of all were the 10 or so oranges from our tree! They say that you never know when an orange is ready to be plucked until you have plucked it. Which was true because the first one we plucked in August was still too sour!

Oranges ready for picking

Orange harvest