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....

Blueberries are in the Ground

So I have been thinking about the lack of space on my deck because my blueberries had gotten quite large in the pots. One I know has been in it's pot for at least 5 years. I wondered if putting them into the ground was a bad idea as I am on quite sandy soil but I figured if I feed up my soil enough for vege to grow perhaps the blueberries would work.

Here was the site I thought might work

Anyway I have added peat moss, cow, worm food, compost. Took out the ordinary plants that were there and left it for a few weeks.

they are in with extra acidic food and mulch

Looking down from above

Hopefully they will grow so well they might hide the wire fence??

And now once I move my pots I will almost be able to dance on the deck....

who dunnit?

Here is my best flowering gum (Corymbia ficifolia) back in January. She sure is pretty huh? The flowers attract bees and birds alike. The flowers last about 2 weeks and are followed by gorgeous big gumnuts.

This morning after Diba's walk this is what I found!

The main part of the tree has been severed

Yeap it is broken. The best shaped gum out of the three is reduced to a third of its former self. I had to saw the main trunk as it was too thick after a good 3 years of growth.

The 3 gums along our front

I am not so sure it was an animal although I found feathers on the broken part...

Lorikeet or perhaps possum?

I suspect human foul play at it was a sizeable stem. It is just so frustrating at it was the main growing stem so now it will end up looking more like a mallee than a tree. I will have to consider getting a replacement, sigh.

The last of summer....

Well I thought I was lucky to get a second flush of tomatoes but I think it has really come to an end.

But they were delicious in the homemade pasta, homegrown pesto and spinach, by V.Gave me time to water in the new babies that seem to be taking and age to grow, not that i would be impatient at all....