Summer - Tigridium

These lovely things were in a pot and suddenly there they were flowering - I'd completely forgotten them. There was a golden yellow, too. I bought them from a mail order place in the winter, stuck them in the pot and forgot all about them. Each flower lasts only a day - I want lots!

In early Spring

This is a belated post - I had it all ready then didn't post it. 

It’s been 9 months since I posted. First there was the Great Building Project, which gave lovely results, but blocked the garden all summer. And then it was winter…

Now I’m really busy campaigning, but at the moment trying to get over a cold. Frustrating to be stuck – but I have even done my tax return.

And just discovered that the two Hippeastrum aglaiae I bought from Gardenza last year, have survived the winter! They are winter dormant, and were so tiny last year…. David warned they had to have just the right place…. But they have not only survived but grown!   They should look like the ones on the website one day. So, maybe this is the right place – light volcanic soil, but I have topped it with coffee and compost and that’s where the bulbs are – and exceedingly well drained. The bed gets early morning sun, and not a lot of that in winter.

Next to these is the H. papilo, in the same conditions. They are not winter dormant, and this one bulb has split into five! I’m hoping it will flower, but even if not, it’s obviously pretty happy.

Best sunflower ever!

My garden feels a little unrewarding because building's going on - but I'll have a garage and roofed deck at the end of the mess, and the horrid structures in the garden will finally go. In the meantime there are building materials everywhere, and the kikuyu is creeping back through the lawn...


So this is a small view, with the mess edited out - and the wonderful sunflower! I planted seeds from so many packets I don't know which it is - but i have certainly never had such a beauty ever before. The main flower is resolutely facing the wall - all of these are the secondary ones, with masses more to come.

There are a few Cupani sweet peas on the trellis - I had masses of seeds saved but they're a bit old and hard to germinate, and they don't seem to be for sale any more. I hope I can get a few from these.

Beset by bunnies!

The big white one is a California Giant, and his name is Baba Ganouch. He belongs to the Singhs next door, and has got out - maybe because the other one, who lives over the road, seems to have moved in! Neighbours are all talking - we've all delivered him home but he never stays. What to do with an urban bunny hangin' out?

Vege garden looking great

Raised beds certainly have it for looking charming! Even if I spill black earth out onto the white paths. The effect of the touch of colour and the veges looks like something out of a magazine.

A lot of the plants are to attract "beneficials" (desirable insects) to the garden : phacelia, feverfew, nigella, echinacia. They are flourishing madly and need to be elsewhere... The space isn't huge, and it needs to be all in use for veges -

I won't post a photo of the garden beds I have just filled up with compost - it was a huge job but they look fairly unexciting until they have more in them. Camellias and Michaelia but small, and not too much else yet. I am so impatient for this garden to feel like a real garden, but it's getting there - the vege garden does!

A pretend garden

... but I hope it will become a real one in a while. I put some compost and fertilizer on top of the lawn, and only dug the lawn at all when I planted some of the plants through my little garden layer. There is pretty much enough planted to fill the space, and the pots are to create the illusion. Sort of.

Ann & I went on a mission on Saturday and collected my new Hebes that I am going to use instead of the box - Green Gem - that I had planted already for my garden edge/hedge. For some reason I got them from Shed 16 in Drury, which is a bit of a way but a really nice place to go, and has all of the Camellia Haven camellias. They are H. Pinguifolia Sutherlandii and look a little bit rounder leafed than the ones I had. I'm going to keep them in groups - the difference I hope won't be too noticeable. We also went to Joy Plants in Bombay where Terry Hatch gave really generously of his time - and Ann bought her hedge plants. What a lovely garden day - we even went to Eden Garden, before we left town.

Other gardens (2)

and Janet's in Toronto