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:

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.

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.

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!