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

Summer progress

We are well and truly into summer now. All the plants suddenly start growing at a ferocious pace!

The vegetable patch is not much to talk about. The Lettuce saplings have started to give us leaves. I hope to harvest many before it becomes too hot.

Lettuce

I mentioned in a previous post about using Tibouchina pruning as stakes for Peas. The Peas did not survive, but just look at how well the Tibouchina has settled in! Their flowers will look lovely in the vegetable patch.

Tibouchina

I caught a glimpse of a Broccoli on one day. The next morning the plant was destroyed.

Broccoli

The Virginian stock are looking lovely! I now know what a field of flowers looks like. I see lots of bees hovering, so hopefully that is great news for the fruit flowers.

Virginian Stock

Speaking of which, the Pomegranate had a million flowers this spring. Some even dropped their petals and went on to pretend that they would become fruits. But, day by day, I see them falling. We will be lucky to get even one this season.

Pomegranate

However, the Guava is showing potential with eight buds. The tree is still quite short, only 4 feet tall. Fingers crossed!

Guava

Last year, the Kalanchoe flowered quite beautifully. This year too, the flame red flowers look so fantastic!

Kalanchoe

A few plants to look forward to are the herbs in the vertical planter. The Basil is well settled now and the leaves should be ready to be plucked soon. We have already started to harvest the Chives, Rosemary and Mint.

Basil

Chives

Lastly, I am so excited with the flower developing on the Cactus!

Cactus

How does your garden grow?

Time for a status report of the garden this spring.

Is there a prettier sight than lots and lots of flowers in bloom? The Jasmine has been doing it well the past few years, they look lovely!

Jasmine

The African Daisies, in conjunction with the various fruit trees are a nice sight from the kitchen window.

Oranges, Daisies, Pomegranate, Lime and Hakea

Last year, I planted Calendula in September. They did not flower at all, but did survive the winter. This October, the first sunny flower showed up. It was pale yellow, I did expect it to be more orange-y. But I read that the soil in which grows decides the tone of the yellow-ness.

Calendula

The new flowers this year are from the Pigface succulent. Last year, it almost died, till we replanted it in a better spot. This year, the buds turned into flowers pretty quickly. Each flower lasts about 3-4 weeks. Interestingly, the 'White' Pigface, also had a lone pink flower! I could not figure out how, as the entire plant had only one root. But anyway, I am not complaining.

Pigface

There are not many vegetables to talk of this spring. The Kale and Spinach are still doing well, worth 10-15 leaves per week. However, the Garlic did not develop into bulbs. The peas also did not survive due to the aphid attack. I had sowed some Lettuce seeds that I had collected last year, they are germinating now.

Lettuce saplings

We had planted Daikon Radish, but only got knobby ones. They tasted nice, but I probably left them in too long.

Daikon Radish

We are not planning to sow any new vegetables this year. To utilise the empty areas of the bed, I sowed seeds of Carnation, Calendula and Virginian Stock. The plants have just started to come up.

Virginian Stock saplings

Summer notes

Sadly, this was not to be a hot summer. We have had cool days, followed by really cold ones. Where is the summer, I ask you?

Setting all that aside, the plants are still providing cheer by flowering. The prettiest flowers are from the Kangaroo Paw. They literally look like pink kangaroo paws that open up to reveal a yellow interior. This is what attracts the birds (or so I read, cannot verify as all birds are driven away by the two doggies)

Kangaroo Paw

We have a native ground cover on the edges of the beds. Since our beds are raised, they form very pretty evergreen cascades. They have tiny star shaped flowers in the spring and summer. We have two colours of the ground cover - bright green and mauve. The flowers are white and in abundance in summer, which attract a lot of bees.

Myoporum Parvifolium

Myoporum Parvifolium

Our other flowers were also doing well. The Tibouchina flowers literally throughout the year, except from January to April. They are a bright purple coloured flower with delicate petals. These fall off after three days, but the tree has enough to keep the cheer alive.

Tibouchina

The African daisies also love the sun and keep flowering. This time I decided to prune the plant a bit as it was taking over everything around it. The plant sent out shoots really quickly and did not sulk at all :) From the cast-offs, I made a bouquet for the house. The flowers last us for over a week.

Purple African daisy

Out of the two Dahlias that we had bought a couple of months ago, the yellow one decided to first settle in and then produce flowers. Whereas, the red one continued flowering and only grew more leaves after it stopped. The flowers are really very good looking.

Dahlia

And finally, the Virginian stock was nicely flowering as well. They are really small and could have benefited with some more seeds in each pot. I have seeds left over for the next season.

Virginian stock

After writing this entry, I realised that most of the flowers that do flower for long in our garden are purple in colour! The Lupins and Hebe flowers are also purple! While I do have orange and pink versions of the African diasies, they do not do as well as the deeper purple. The winter bulbs and dahlias are different colours but last only for a short time. Hence, the next time I plan a garden with permanent features, I will pick more colours.

Too much purple!