Preparing for winter

Winding down summer is always a sad feeling, especially for us when we have grown up with sunshine all year round in India. The plants make up for it by giving us vegetables that last us for a while.

The newest addition to the veggie patch was the Brinjal (Eggplant/Aubergine). We harvested two really nice ones, though I had to watch out for the hidden thorns on the green part of the vegetable! There are a couple more that are developing, but not sure whether they will make it before the cold arrives.

Brinjal

The potatoes are still faithfully providing us some every year. They tend to start sprouting from a new spot in the vegetable bed every year, so I really have to watch out for them through the mulch!

Potatoes

Next up are the various chillies. I had planted three varieties last summer and had over-wintered all of them. They did well, though not as much as last year. This season will be their last in my garden.

Chillies

I also harvested the various herbs and a single bhindi (okra). Obviously the bhindi needed more heat than our so-called summer gave it.  In the picture below, clockwise from top, are mint, cinnamon basil, capsicum, chilli, jalapeno, large chilli and bhindi in the middle. The final harvests were done, summer was over.

Last summer harvest

To cheer us up, we thought of trying out our hand at some easy to grow winter veggies. Winter is a cold, damp and windy time in Melbourne, so we were not looking for something that needs a lot of care. We settled on Kale, Spinach, Garlic and Peas.

Winter veggies

While we were there, we also picked up a vertical herb planter. Our wall gets the sun in winters, so I thought this might work. We got Coriander, Parsley, Rosemary and Chives. We filled in the other spaces with Basil, Mint and Strawberry cuttings from our existing plants.

Vertical planter

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!

Progress of summer

A year ago, we started the succulent project. This was to cover an area in the back of the house which got little or no sun. The soil is very poor, with only a shallow layer of good soil above clay. Succulents have shallow roots and grow without a fuss, hence they won the lottery to be planted here!

This Christmas we decided to complete the project. Within a year the succulents had multiplied and we got many more plants for free! We started off first by removing all from the bed and dividing them in individual plants. Then we worked in a sort of a pattern to use all the ones we had.

Multiple Semperviums

Succulents in a row

As with all good garden beds, we topped this arrangement off with a natural coloured mulch. The effect was quite pleasing.

View 1

View 2

The aforementioned cacti found a spot at the end of this bed. This is the route that our dogs love to use to wander into the beds. Hopefully no more!

Cacti

We were able to harvest a cucumber this year. It took a long time for one of the zillion flowers to become something edible! I also harvested loads of mint. I am thinking about controlling it's growth though, need to be ruthless and leave only one or two stems to continue the crop.

Cucumber

Mint

And finally, here is a picture of the Russell Lupin that we bought at Christmas! In the time we have had it, I have discovered it's seed pods (after flowering) are very harmful to dogs. So the time has come to relocate it the front of the house where none of them can get to it.

Lupin