Thursday, December 29, 2005

Plants Beginning with C

ladytreemaker 's Online Photo Album - C

This is good - it's making me organise my un-named photos on my computer.

Added the C album tonight. It includes:

Camelia
Canna (red)
Cape Gooseberry
Celery
Cherry Tomato
Clivia (organge)
Coriander
Crinum (common name Spider Lily)

Enjoy the pics!

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Plants Beginning with B

A to Z Plant Photo Album

I don't have many plants that begin with B it seems.

Added to the album pics of:

Babiana
Black Pansy (gotta see it to believe it!)
Black Kangaroo Paw (I know its an anigozanthus, but many would look for this instead)



Also been adding photos to old posts regarding the entertaining area. Methinks I will have to change the side bar link for it .. perhaps a heading and the various relevant posts.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Plants Beginning with A

A to Z Plant Photo Album

Added to the photo album:

Agapanthus
Agonis Flexuosa (Pepper Tree)
Alstroemeria (Pricess Lily, Peruvian Lily)
Alyssum (Sweet William)
Anigozanthus (Kangaroo Paw - Black/Green)
Arum Lily
Avocado
Azalea
Azola (floating water plant)

New Things!

If you look over there ---------> in the sidebar under Links you'll see that I've been re-organizing some things.

I was running out of room on the server for my main web site, so I've moved a lot of the gardening stuff (ie mostly photos) from there to other places.

The A to Z pic of plants in my garden will be added to as time allows.

There will be more posts on the Entertainment Area Development, but I've run out of bandwidth to upload more pics to Flickr this month - just as well there are only 4 days until a new month starts!

I'll do a post when I update those areas, so you'll know if there's something new to look at.

My gardenias have rewarded me with four open flowers Yipee!!!!!!! I love love love the aroma.

In the meantime go have a look at the new stuff, let me know what you think.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Finally!

After about 6 years of variously nurturing, neglecting, nurturung, having given up on ..I finally have a flower coming on my water lily!!!!!!!!!!

So far it's just a bud poking it's head through the water, I have no idea how long it's going to take to open nor how long it will stay open for.

There will, of course, be pics!

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Very Pleased

Very pleased I am that I forced myself out in the weird afternoon weather and planted:
2 types of lettuce
1 type of cucumber
1 type of squash (yellow)
1 capsicum plant

All after having tilled over the soil and added blood & bone and NPK blue.

Why so pleased? Cos tonight we were blessed with rain :) Glad I didn't leave it until tomorrow.

Tomorrow is get the lawn beetle day!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Free Mulch!

I Love my Council Depot
Having been to the local fair recently I found out I can get free mulch from my council.

Today being 'day off', and the council depot only open from 8-3 on weekdays meant that today was mulch day.

So I grabbed Thunderbolt three shovels, a rake and garden gloves and off we went - have to provide own trailer and own labour.

Had backed up the trailer to the mulch pile (which was enormous) and just about to get the shovels into action when along came a friendly coundil worked in a bulldozer and filled the whole trailer in one scoop YIPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd also bought a trailer load of cheap mulch from the local landscape suppliers as they lend you a trailer .. the trailer by itself from the garage was going to cost the same as a trailer-load of mulch - so I have two trailer loads of mulch for just $30!!

I've re-mulched the entertaining area, and with the dietes in flower yet again (and the fowers are gigantic!), it looks fabulous :)

Now deciding what to do with the mulch from the council .. it's very rough (it's from when they prune the street trees), is mostly wood chips and has some rather large pieces in it, plus it looks fairly 'green'.

Am thinking of putting it under the clothesline ... but want to put down newspaper first to try discourage the weeds. Not sure how much of the area will get covered either :( hmm should have gone back for another trailer load methinks!

Anyway, happy mulching those of you in the southern hemi-sphere.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Gardenias

A few weeks ago I put fertiliser on the gardenias, camelias and azaleas.

Now 4 of the 8 gardenias have heaps of yellow leaves :( Why only the four? I've used that fertiliser on them before and used the same one on all the plants - so why only those four? I don't get it.

Dietes are flowering again! I'm really liking these plants, flowers about every two weeks.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

5 Weeks Into Spring...

Pepper Trees - noticed from the upstairs window today that one of them is covered in flowers!!!!!!!!!!

Chinese Tallow and Liquidambar are both 'in leaf'. Liquidambar is also in 'seed' so have many seedy thingys littering up the place - it's almost as bad as when it looses its' leaves but worse - cos when these seed thingys get wet they stain the paving and stone path :(

Peach - is in flower, but only on one branch, obviously got the pruning wrong last year.

Hippiastrum - now there are three flowers on the ones in the pot and two in the ground!

Frangipani - hasn't put on any leaves for the season as yet, wonder how many flowers I'll get this year.

Azaleas - one brave plant has put on some new flowers, after I thought they'd all finished doing their thing!

Lawn - the fertiliser spreader mustn't do so well on the 'down run' of the lawn, I have not-so-wonderful stripes of less-than-green lawn. Maybe next time I'll do both accross and up/down and end up with a chequerboard lawn!

Saturday, October 08, 2005

How to Kill the Weeds?

It's an absolute corker of a Spring day today!!

I have to work out how to get rid of the weeds in the vege patch.

The problem is the bird netting that I put on the ground to stop the cats from using the patch as their toilet - it stops me from being able to dig/pull/scratch out the weeds that have now grown.

I think I'll try spraying them, but will have to block off the vege plants to do so, otherwise they'll cark it too.

Or maybe I'll just take the netting off as the plants are now established, meaning that the cat digging will not be the problem it was at the start.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Missed Some Things..

Azaleas - all flowered reasonably well except one plant,didn't have even one.

Dietes - are in about their fifth blooms, they're great! Seed heads have formed so I'll be eagerly awating to harvest them.

Was a Good Girl today and made fruit fly bait for the nectarine tree and also took off a bucketful of immature fruit.

Camelia - finished, was happy with the flowers.

Gardenias - are looking slightly pale, so I've fertilised them. No sign of buds :(

Cape Gooseberry - cut off the older canes a few weeks ago, there was already lots of fresh new canes and they continue to grow weel; they already have flowers and fruit.

Hippeastrum - I have two flowers! Didn't expect any this year due to having disturbed and pulled babies off the bulbs.

It's forecast to rain for the rest of my holiday week so I probably wont get any more gardening in.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Biiiig Day in The Garden

I have lavished such attention on my lawn today that I'm sure it will die of fright.

Involving about 5 hours of work on the front lawn I:
* aerated it by hand, with a garden fork (I do not have a small lawn, and fully expect my arms to drop off when I get out of bed tomorrow morning)
* pulled out the worst of the flat weeds - there were lots of them
* raked up said flat weeds
* mowed the lawn
* fertilised
* turned on the sprinlers to find one not working, about an hour later and much swearing and cursing (well not really, I'm not the swearing type) they were all working
* watered the lawn for 20 minutes.

Now if the silly thing doesn't grow well after that then I'm about to give up!!

In other garden news:
Mango - is starting to flower. Gave it some NPK Blue in honour of the flowers.

Peach - is flowering, but seems to be only on a spike growing from the base of the tree. I'm not sure whether it's below the graft or above ... will wait and see what eventuates.

Nectarine - is in fruit .. may spend some time tomorrow taking off some of the fruit and maybe make a fruit fly trap.

Hyacinths - tallest flowers I've ever had on them. Not as many flowers on the spikes as I thought there would be though.

Freesias - flowered and finished.

Vege patch - seems to be doing fine, however weeds are starting to grown and with the bird netting (to stop the cats digging) makes it impossible to weed . The Pak Choi seeds have sprouted but no sign of any corn.

Avocado - flowering.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Pruning Leucospernum

I pruned the leucospernum last year with trepidation .. would it survive?

It did indeed survive and put on new growth where I had pruned it. I was very cautious and only took one years' growth off. It is about to flower at the moment, not as prolifically as before, but flowering nonetheless.

When this flowering season has ended I intend to prune it again, though this time it will be a harder prune - fingers crossed it survives again. The bush really needs to be considerably smaller, it's gotten out of hand and encroaches on the parking bay in the driveway.

The trick seems (probably not a trick for well-seasoned gardeners, but it is for us novices!), as I guess it is with some plants, to prune only to a stem that still has leaves on it. If there are no leaves then it wont start growing from the pruning point. I think I'll have about two years growth in most places that I can take off - in other places it might be three.

Before Pruning:


Sunday, August 28, 2005

I love City Farmers!

A common cry throughout Australia for the last few years I guess.

Having planted the vege patch last week with rain forecast for Wednesday night the rain never really happened, so I watered it Saturday morning - of course it rained Saturday night and today! Ah well, it's all still alive and growing and that's all that really matters.

Snail pellets were definately a good idea and I gave them some Dynamic Lifter type fertiliser today (hopefully to be watered in tonight by more rain).

BUT my vege patch has a problem - of the feline kind. 5 cats live at the abode behind mine (I'm on a corner) and two days after planting the patch they had started using it as their latrine :(. So on Friday night I dropped by City Farmes to get something to deter them.

Picked out a powder that is mixed in a watering can, was $12-something. Then the man at the counter suggested an alternative - bird netting. At $3.00 a metre and 4 metres wide, I only really needed one metre ... you just lay it on the ground, cut out holes for your plants and hey presto, el-cheapo solution less offensive than a chemical solution! Supposedly when the cats now start to scratch on the ground they will feel the netting and not keep digging.

Is yet to be seen if it actually works as I only put it down today - and with the rain I'm not sure how much the cats will be around the next few days... but we will see.

It impresses the heck out of me when a person who works for the store suggests something that is going to mean me spending a lot LESS in their shop than I was otherwise going to .. mind you I am pretty much a regular and known by name by many of the staff in there, so maybe that has something to do with it, either way I was impressed.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Spring is Coming Down Under!

10 days to go until it's Spring, and we had a great taste today of what is to come.

Inspired by the great weather I've had a busy day; I'm sure I'll be paying for it with aches and pains tomorrow!

I dug over three garden beds and planted:
*celery seedlings - I don't think I've ever tried to grow this before, will have to start buying milk in cartons for the blanching process.
*cherry tomatoes (seedlings)- always have good success with these.
*roma tomatoes (seedlings) - tried them for the first time a few years ago and were more successful than standard type tomatoes, so here's hoping.
*sweet corn (seed) - have never had a lot of success with these, usually end up with small stunted ears, but I had some seeds in the shed so thought I may as well put them in.
*pak choi (seed) - have done alright with these in the past from seedlings, don't know how they will go from seed.
*lettuce (seedlings) - don't usually have much success with these either, but I'm persisting!

Thought about putting in some vine type vege/fruit as well - watermelon, squash, cucumber and zucchini, but didn't. Think I want to put them in an area by themselves where they wont get top watered, so will have to do some retic before I plant them. Am going to put these on the opposite side of the paving to the entertaining area garden ... where they might one day be a pond, but wont be for a long time yet, so I can play with the area for now with temporary plants like veges.

Speaking of retic I'll have to give it a whirl sometime soon and see how muny sprinklers need cleaning/replacing.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Garden Update ...

Camelia - second lot of flowers out, still more to come.

Azaleas - Charity (lightest pink, behind the big tree) flowering well, Snowflake flowering too but not as well.

Dietes iriodes - some have set seed!! They will definately be harvested and sown.

Gardenias - no flowers nor sighting of buds :(

Clivia - mamma certainly flowered. The flower stalk is short but it's a great flash or orange in the garden.

Lioriope Mascari - the ones in the ground looked very sad, dead ends on the blades but most had a bunch of new growth coming from the middle so I gave them all a fairly severe hair cut. Some have put out babies.

Sweet Pea - as well as the red and white flowers I got the palest mauve, a deep purple and a deep red too. Am pleased with how they went, might do that again next year (tepee in a pot).

Babiana in pots growing vigorously but no sign of flowers, may need to fertilise differently.

Potatoes in tyres harvested - a goodly crop this time.

Beans - all pulled out of the ground, they never recovered from whatever hit them.

Still finding bindii in the lawn, not so bad since getting out there gets me out of the house and into the beautiful warm sun.

Nectarine is heavily in blossom, will have to be better at pulling fruit off this year so another branch doesn't break off. Wasn't sure how it would go this year considering the heavy prune I gave it.

Leucospernum - putting on some flowers. Again, wasn't sure whether it would as I pruned it last year. As the pruning didn't kill it I'll do it again, further back this time, once the flowers have finished.

King Protea - don't like it's shape at all, will try to take cuttings and see if I can grow a new one.

Pruned the mini standard roses, think I need to put them into the sun.

Might have to go to Waldecks and finally spend my gift voucher tomorrow!

Monday, July 25, 2005

Long Time No Post...

The first camelia flower opened today. The plant has had buds ever since I bought it (back in January I think). They (the buds) went quite brownish on the outside and I thought they were going to die, but today I am rewarded with a flower, and the others will surely open now too.

The dietes iriodies are on their second lot of flowers :) ... so two lots of white flowers at the moment.

The gardenias are looking a little pale (the leaves), but so was someone elses I saw yesterday so perhaps it's just the time of year. I think it's a little early to be fertilising them just yet.

Some of the azaleas have a few buds. The plants in the sun are looking a little stunted and pale, the ones in the shade have lovely dark green leaves.

The mamma clivia seems to be about to have a flower, it has made two more babies since I planted it in the ground. It's first baby seems to be doing ok, but too small for flowering yet I think.

The hydrangeas are covered over by philodendron leaves so I can't get a good look at them except to be able to see they are still alive.

The liriope seed I bought from Queensland finally, after many months and almost giving up hope, broke ground and there are about 11 plants - not bad for $10.00 instead of $8 per plant at the nursery. They are growing very slowly.

The dietes seeds given to me by the lady across the road have germinated well, but are also growing slwly, again I think it's just because of the time of year.

Pruned the roses last weekend.

Gardenias in the front garden, and native violet doing well.

Sweet peas grew well and are currently flowering - red and white flowers so far.

Something bad happened to the beans, they were growing well but now most of the leaves are brown and dying - maybe overspray from the glyphosate I used on the weeds in that area.

Yellow day lilly up the back divided, and babies in pots flowering.

White irises from out the front divided and growing well in pots. Plan to sell these and the day lillies at the Salvos carpark meet one day.

No idea what has come up in the pot in which I thought I planted the native frangipani seed given by the lady across the road; she says it doesn't look like native franigipani.

Jonquils almost finished, didn't get any daffodils, but maybe they are just later.

Plenty of hyacinths coming up under the avocado tree.

Poppies coming up everywhere.

Finally a sucessful planting of mixed flower seeds in the very front garden (aka the problem spot with weird soil). Cosmos flowering there, lots of other plants have come up there but no idea what they are and can't remember what was in the packet - but there are many plants, ie not just weeds.

Bindii growing in the lawn.

Rocket in the rear herb garden growing slowly but looks ok.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

The Front Porch Garden

When I had the dingo I had Tony dig up the front porch garden as well. It was congested with roots from the tree and I couldn't dig in it by hand.

Annuals I had put in there never made it, I guess they couldn't compete with the roots.

Today I planted my aspelnum (birds nest fern) in there, as well as divided up some of the existing gerberas and planted the extras along the front.

I know it's not really the time of year to be moving plants/putting plants in, but I have to do things when I feel motivated to. If they don't survive it's just tough.

I'm sure the asplenum will do ok there, it's the only one I really wouldn't want to lose.

Still have more room in that garden, haven't decided what else to put in there yet. Mostly cos I can't afford to go buy more plants.

Have been thinking of maybe putting the gardenias that I renovated in there, not 100% sure how they would go in there though, it may be too shady for them (gets late afternoon sun).

Also today planted the wedding bush (riconocarpis tubulata) in the side garden. Hopefully it will grow enough to keep getting some sun when winter comes and that garden bed is in total shade.

It's a hard area to plant - total shade in winter and full sun in summer.

The Front Porch Garden

Friday, January 21, 2005

Plants Settling In

The plants haven't done too badly. We had a 40 degree day on Monday.

The gardenias have all dropped leaves, which I expected as I hadn't been looking after them particularly well since the dingo day.

The azaleas seem quite happy.

Oh, I forgot something else I planted on Sunday - put in my clivia, one between the gardenias and the camelia, and the baby it had made near the tree trunk.

The dietes, phormiums and cordylines are doing well, haven't looked back. The camelia, clivias and hydrangeas also seem pretty happy where they are.

The ferns I transplanted to behind the tree haven't looked back either, not even one dead frond!

Have been very tempted to buy an el-cheapo bench seat from WA Salvage (think I saw them there for $50.00), but I really can't go spending money I don't have at the moment, so have been very strong and resisted the urge.

Other thing that stops me from buying an el cheapo bench is that it will continually get wet (from the sprinkler at the moment) and I'm sure it will disintegrate very quickly in those conditions. So it will look tatty and yuk in no time, so I'd rather not waste the money.

Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a nice teak one that can take the conditions.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Phew! More Plants, Retic and the Seating Area

On Friday night the kids and Pas came over and thought I'd done well. Pas and I discussed the seating area a bit.

I decided to put the stones down anyway. It looks great! Put them around the jarrah rounds and up at the sitting area, and a little way into where I had moved the ferns to (behind the tree).

It looks so good, I'm glad I bit the bullet and did it. Didn't compact the ground at all - just layed the stones (about 3") over the top.

Then decided I really needed to get other plants still in pots into the ground so I planted:

  • More gardenias (between the bore pump and the driveway)

  • Fish bone ferns behind them - under the leaves of the monsteras)

  • More dietes in front of the gardenias


  • Phormiums (phormia?) and cordylines along the fence (towards the tap from the gardenias planted the other day)
  • Dietes in front of the phormiums and cordylines




I also put in some retic, as the sprinkler wont reach all the extra plants I put in.

Also mulched the newly planted areas.

Wow! This has made a big difference. It looks pretty good.

Haven't planted or mulched right to the edge of the paving for two reasons:

  • I don't have the plants yet (liriope muscari)
  • Think I need to redo the concrete at the edge of the paving as the dingo made it break and some pavers have moved.


I can now happily return to work tomorrow feeling that progress has been made. It's been over a year since the paving was done, and I was getting tired of looking at that dirty old Perth grey sand from the kitchen.

It looks *much* better now, even though still incomplete:










Saturday, January 15, 2005

Progress - Plants!

I bit the bullet after being so disheartened yesterday and decided to go ahead and put some plants in.

Partly because I will be back at work as of Monday, and the plants (in pots) aren't doing well where they are at the moment. I forget to water them every now and then, and that will only increase once I return to work.

Also because I didn't want the holidays to be gone and not much having happened over there.

I ripped out the edging I'd put in, and decided I'd leave that decision and what to do with the seat area later.



Then I raised the jarrah 'rounds' as I realised having them level with the ground is not a good idea no matter what the path is made of (mulch, stones whatever).


I planted:
  • Camelia - in the back corner
  • Azaleas - along from the camelia
  • Gardenias - along the fence
  • Azaleas - in front of the gardenias
  • Dietes - in front of the azaleas
  • Fish bone ferns - little baby ones, next to the tree trunk
  • Hydrangeas - same section as the fish bone ferns, near the tree trunk
Also decided that the reticulation can just go over the top of the ground. I can always submerse it later if I really need to. That meant I could also lay mulch where I'd put plants - which I did.









Am feeling very content with what I've done. I've feel I have had some productive time in the holidays (as well as enjoyed some very slothful time - see main blog).

It looked a whole lot better than it had done at the beginning of the day.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Slow Progress

I feel as though I spent a long time out there yesterday, but the amount of progress belies that fact.

Grrr to tree stumps, grrrr to hidden underground remains of long gone and unknown fences.

I got about 3/4 of the edging in and managed to place the 4 jarrah stepping stones - though they're not placed as I'd really like them thanks to the above.

The section for the swing chair looks dreadful, even after the dingo day it looks way too uneven (on a slope) to work more on. Don't know whether to just go ahead and do it anyway or what :( arrgghhh. I don't want to do retaining, which is what I would have to do if I had the energy to level it by hand. I'll probably come across tree roots that would stop me from being able to do that anyway.

As a result of yesterday I'm feeling very disheartened about it. Not happy with the edging, not happy/unusable seat area. Can't put the plants in until that is sorted though, so I have to think of something.

Maybe use the old roof tiles for retaining? Across the front of the seat area, and not worry about edging it (though I've already put it in, but not happy with it).

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Entertaining Area Progress Report

Dingo day has been and gone and proclaimed a sucess.

DingoNJD2
DingoNJD

The area is a lot flatter, including where the path and bench seat are to go. They are next on the hit list as I figure it is best to do hard structures first.

Today I layed out the hose in the approximation of what I want:








Purchased half a trailer load of quartz stone (white-ish colour), half a trailer load of cheap mulch. Unloading by myself was hard work. Was mamazed how well I backed the trailer up the drive. Also bought garden edging (for around the edge of the path)

Have decided to use the jarrah 'rounds' up under the clothesline as stepping 'stones' for the path.

Enquired about a hand compactor but they don't have them and the motorised ones are too big for what I need. The Hire guy suggested tying two bricks to a pole and using that. I have two pavers so I think I'll use them. Good Friend suggested water for compaction also.

Took some 'before' photos. After shovelling the quartz off the trailer today, and having done arm exercises with weights the night before I'm wondering whether I'll have sufficient energy to actually do anything tomorrow.

But I need to get this done, this is the last week of my leave and I would really like to get those plants int he ground before I go back to work.

Oh sugar, need to buy another small length of PVC pipe to lay under the path for the later-to-be-installed retic. Bugga. Hmm maybe since I'm not doing the road-base thing anymore I wont need to.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Tomorrow is the First Day

Tomorrow is Dingo Day.

I've hired a dingo so I can make the area more level, then I can finally start putting plants in the ground, think about doing the path myself and putting in some retic. I'm rather excited.

Moved the fish bone ferns today. Put them over behind the monsteras. I don't see any point putting camelias back there cos no one will ever see them, so I filled it up with the displaced fish bone ferns instead.

Where they were (they'd grown pretty well):


Where they were moved to:


Half way point:


Ferns all gone (to make way for shady seat area):


And finally - in their new home:



Having put the lawn clippings on/in the ground where the ferns were initially planted actually seems to have improved the soil .. this is one year later though!

Have an adult coming tomorrow to supervise, just in case there is a nasty accident with the Dingo, since I've never used one before.

Hope to also level the area where the pond/planter will go, and if I have time (it's booked for 4 hours) I'll also use it to dig the front porch garden bed, which I can't dig in thanks to too many tree roots.

A week ago Thunderbolt and I did the cementing around the paving - cos the paving guy never came back to do it. Considering neither of us had worked with cement/concrete before I think we did fairly well: