Autumn change

Autumn via a Persimmon.

Gulp

This week we turned up at one of my clients and I got stuck into the vegie garden. Neevil arrived about a half hour later and we discussed a dead Tahitian lime that had slowly been dying for a couple of months. Then suddenly I noticed the pear tree lying over the roof of my clients house.

Yes I had been there for about an hour before realising that it was no longer standing. My observation powers were not turned on. Sadly this is one of my clients favourite trees so she was sad to hear about  it (she is on holiday so heard from her daughter). This particular pear had large white flowers that were followed by fruit that never developed fully but in the last few years it has been dying back a little at a time.

The pear has been in for at least 35 years (the time my client has lived here). There hasn't really been big wind or even a lot of rain this week but I expect root rot. The wood was a little mushy but I don't expect Phytophthora which has taken a number of trees in this garden as the top of the tree hadn't died off like the others. It is almost like a giant has broken it away from the roots.

Thankfully the damage was quite small 5 tiles were broken and a slightly dented gutter but it missed the windows and there was no great damage to any of the plants under the tree.

I guess it will take us a while to get used to the space that the tree consumed. I guess these are the things we have to accept when gardening that things change sometimes when we really don't want them to.

Liquidambar

So it was a really hot summer followed by the most amazing autumn. We had almost the entire autumn rain free and temps in the mid 20's. Beautiful to work in but isn't it strange how people think we have had plenty of rain so they don't need to water the garden? Trust me after one week of rain in Feb and nothing again until May makes the place dry. Training my clients is often difficult...

However that aside I wanted to talk about my liquidambar. When I was training in hort I had a teacher who suggested that provided the ground is moist and it gets very cold temperatures at night autumn trees will have amazing colour. This year my grounds went kept constantly moist and I don't think the temps have dropped that much until maybe the last few day (we are now in winter of course). This being said have a look at my liquidambar.

Ours in the one on the left 2 weeks ago

Our liquidambar has been mostly yellow in the past but this year we have been treated to a number of colours. Yellow. orange and reds.

My neighbour is already tired of picking up the leaves out of her garden so thankfully after the rain and wind this weekend she won't have to do it much longer...

What a lot of mulch :o)

A new Aussie

Well there is a new Australian our household. Mr R (born in Zimbabwe) has sat for the citizenship exam etc after 10 years he completed the citizen ceremony a few weeks back. If you haven't been to one of these ceremony they are quite sweet. There are songs and talks about what it is like to be an Australian, the pledge, gifts and finally lamingtons :o)

Mr R looking handsome as ever

They give out a plant that is endemic to the area that Mr R is holding a Dillwynia floribunda. I hoped for an Angophoria costata but it seems the plants are all shrub like. It is now planted up with some lovely native mix in a decent sized pot and watered in by the rain.

I like it's fine feathery growth

Dilly willy (as I like to call it) is a small to medium shrub that grows to 1.5m bearing yellow pea flowers in spring. I believe it is frost tolerant and doesn't mind lime which is a bit unusual for a native. It also tolerates a bit of shade which is just as well as I have a lots of trees.

The fine hair helps with water loss

I am looking forward to seeing how it grows. Yay for the new Aussie!

What happened to the pots?

So a few weeks ago I moved the blueberries from there pots to the garden. They were taking up too much space on the deck. A few of you suggested that now the deck seemed too barren...

You were right and the pots were to good to sit empty. So I took out the chilli's from the garden (which have been taking up the only bit of sun that we get at this time of year) and put them into the blueberry pots.  They can grow as big as they like now (I have some spare seeds should they die back over winter). I also cut the raspberry canes back and have a lot of space on the deck.

What do you think now?

I thought I actually got up from my chair... 

The other direction

Hope they all grow soon as the deck seems too spacious somehow

May bloom bloggers day

It is Autumn here in Sydney and the liquidambar is making sure no-one misses the fact. In fact I wondered if I would even be able to find any flowers under all those leaves.

But you are in luck as I found a heap...

Euphorbia 'Diamond frost' flowers almost all year round

Xanthostemon chrysanthus or the golden penda is flowering happily after being trapped in a pot for a few years too many

Salvia leucantha

Look my first blueberry flower :o)

My peas need a liquid feed so there are many more of these pretty flowers

Not sure how lucky I will be at getting the eggplant to form fruit this late in the season

 

One of my flowering gums is throwing a few flowers. Neither the bees or I complain

My toad lilly or Tricyrtis is almost lost in the autumn foliage

The heliotrope is doing very nicely

Hydrangea piamina is starting to fade

And a single jonquil soaking up the sun

Not a bad bunch of flowers for this time of year.

What is going on in your garden at this time of year? Why not take a look in May's garden in May...

chillis

I have been busy in the garden lately but I do seem to forget to take the camera out with me to document things.  But I listened to you re the last pot on the blueberries. Just to recap they have come out of there pots and into the garden. So far they are doing quite well.

It did leave me with more pots and lots of space on the deck, which is a shame to leave empty as there does seem to be almost more space than on the vegetable patch at this time of year. So I have decided to take the chillis out of the vegie patch and put them into pots. They do take up quite some space in the garden.

Of course I will have to show you them in the pots another day (no photo). But I have had to harvest all the chilli and prune them back hard for the big move. I decided that maybe I could stuff them like Liz and they might not be so hot. I mixed some soft cheese and herbs, seasoning then stuffed the empty chillis, threw them into the oven to cook.

They sure do have a lot of seeds for such small fruit

Results were good. Still a bit hot but worth it. Looking forward to tomorrow's lunch

Perhaps I should have made them bigger....