Finally Some Rain

Finally we have had some good rains and the soil is moist and black and ready for planting. We have our winter veggies in and are using the last of the summer crops. Having made quince jelly and paste, I am now attempting Feijoa jelly and paste. I still have quinces in storage and have to stir myself to use them up - or give more away, but the Feijoas are more urgent as we have a bumper crop and they do not store for long.

Autumn was less colourful in our garden this year. We did not get our usual show and the leaves did not hang on for as long as usual. Now it looks very wintery outside with most of the trees quite bare - except the oaks. They seem determined to be the last to undress for winter.



Manchurian Pear



I love the colour in these pear leaves.

 

Unfortunately all too soon we had a carpet of leaves

The persimmon has beautiful leaves and lovely orange fruit.

 I found a beautiful glory vine on the side of a nearby road. Please excuse the ugly cables in the shot.

Thanks to the rain, some of the perennials are taking on a new lease of life and are putting on a brave show. I'll have to get the camera out when it stops raining - never thought I would be able to say that this Autumn.

Liz Needle

More Bali Beauty

My garden is still in the doldrums. Today I finally planted my daffodil bulbs - somewhat later than planned, but they should be OK. Mark has been busy planting garlic and a whole swag of winter veggies.

The quinces are all picked and I have made quince paste. We had to pick them early because the birds were getting at them. They are currently laid out and I am waiting for them to ripen a bit. I did make a beautiful quince upside down cake which Don is sneaking at every chance.

Now the Feijoas have snuck up on me and I picked up a bucket of fallen ones today.  I guess that means more jelly and jam.

Meanwhile I have some more Bali shots to show you. Flowers abound in Bali and many of the blooms that we struggle to grow successfully here, grow everywhere in Bali. Flowers are a very important part of Bali life and are used etensively in the daily offerings that are made to the household god.  Huge baskets of loose flowers are sold at the local produce markets and the Balinese purchase fresh flowers for their daily offerings or buy readymade offerings.

The day after we went to the market there was a big Hindu religious ceremony and everyone was buying flowers.  This woman is making  bouquets to be used in the ceremony.

And these are some of the floral arrangements on sale.

Of course many people grow their own flowers, especiall Frangipani which grow wild. I am not very conversant with tropical flowers, so I will leave you to enjoy them without my comments.

And my favourite, the Bauhinia tree.

I would be more than happy if anyone can put a name to any of these.

Liz Needle

Bali in Flower

So long since I posted on my garden blog. Have not had much enthusiasm over the last few weeks. No rain, plants suffering, garden looking tired and miserable. Autumn, usually lovely up here, has just not happened. Not cold enough for the usual display of autumn leaves and those few that have turned fall very quickly. Autumn this year is a carpet of fallen leaves.

But, I have been to Bali and had a most enjoyable 10 days there, so I thought I would share with you the greenness and the lovely gardens that I saw. I only wish I had taken more photos.

The hotels we stayed in had beautiful gardens - labour is cheap and the tropical climate allows for luxuriant growth. The first shots were taken at the Puri Santrian in Sanur. This is a large resort with many rooms and extensive grounds.

The next shots are of the De Munut hotel in Ubud. Just a small place but very picturesque.

And finally some photos of a hotel garden we looked at but did not stay in.

These are just examples and by no means are they the best gardens, just ones we happened to see.

Even more beautiful were the grounds of a temple we visited. Here there were no gardenes employed. All the labour is provided by older locals who use the temple.

More later. Right now I'm off to watch the football. Go the Crows!!!

Liz Needle

End of Daylight Savings

Well, this weekend sees the end of daylight savings and those lovely balmy evenings sitting outside watching the birds put themselves to bed. The mornings are already getting darker and waking up at 7 is becoming more and more difficult - for some reason getting up in the dark no matter what the time , is so much less inviting than waking up to a soft bright dawn light.

But, with the colder weather and shorter days comes the rain - and that is very welcome.  Good rain last week and more to come tomorrow - Thank Goodness!!  We got our Summer water bill last week and it was horrific!!  I must ring someone for a quote on installing more rainwater tanks and for cleaning out the dam and putting in a pump.

We've been working a lot in the garden this last week after the rain, tidying up, weeding, doing the garden edges and spreading bark chips. Mark has been out in the veggie garden and between Don and Mark we have had great saving in vegetables this summer.


I love these Japanese windflowers. They thrive in the moister areas of the garden. This single pink pops up all through the front garden

And the first double deep pink one has come out. These were beautiful last year and I am hoping for another good showing soon.

 Around the garden there are late summer flowers still on show with a flush of roses getting ready for April. We have 3 new garden areas ready for new plantings and are just waiting for some more rain before we get on with that work.


This little area where we put up the new bird bath is starting to look quite pretty and by next spring should look even better when the irises and all the salvias are in flower.

See how neat my lawn edges are. Behind this bed there will be a new bed of Australian natives to form a hedge between the road and the garden.

More tidy edges and newly mown lawns.

Such a simple, pretty flower.

Liz Needle



Visitors

We spend a lot of evenings sitting in the front garden watching the birds finding their evening feed and choosing the right tree for their night's rest. The rainbow lorikeets love the flowering gum for a feed, then roost in the willows. The galahs and sulphur crests prefer the pines, while the rosellas join the lorikeets in the willows. The magpies also like the pines, but as far away from the parrots as they can.

We also see the Little Wattle birds, New Holland Honeyeaters and the  Eastern Spinebills sipping nectar from the Eucalypt flowers, the salvias and fuchsias. The red browed finches, blue wrens, fantails and the grass wrens love the sprinkler and spent a lot of time in the bird bath before bed, while the blackbirds scratch around in the garden mulch for grubs and insects.

We have a large flock of yellow tailed cockatoos that sweep in every evening to spend time in the pines, while on the dam we see black duck, mountain duck and the occasional ibis. A veritable bird rec centre.

Yesterday evening I was thrilled to be able tocatch these honey eaters bathing in the birdbath just outside the kitchen window. There is a little goldfinch there too. At one time there were 6 honey eaters in the bath, but those photos were not good enough to put up on the blog.

They look so cute when they're wet and fluffy.

Liz Needle

Rain at Last!!

Rain at last.  This summer has been so hot and dry that I have despaired of the garden It all looks so tired and dried up. We have been watering, but ithas been  impossible to keep enough water up to the garden and despite extensive mulching, we are losing plants each day.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the sky grew grey and cloudy and finally we had some rain. Not a lot - probably only 3mm, but enough to revitalise the lawn and freshen up the shrubs. Unfortunately there has been no respite from the heat and the weather is now hot and muggy. I can imagine all the weeds rubbing their hands together in glee, thinking of the growing they are going to be able to do!!

In the evenings, we are able to get out and do a bit of weeding and tidying up. I have been busy with a pair of secateurs, a bottle of weed poison and a paint brush, cutting off rampant blackberry shoots and painting the cuts with the poison. It works a treat, but I always finish up more than a little scratched.

Meanwhile Mark has re-landscaped an area in the front garden which had been demolished by a falling willow tree. Now we are waiting for more substantial rains so we can replant the area.

He has widened a narrow path so the lawn mower can go from the top level to the bottom

Old sleepers have been pullud out and an old path filled in

The old path has  been covered with mulch ready for new trees.

The old bank has been re-terraced and new retaining walls built.

And the results of all Mark's hard labour?

A much more attractive area of the garden. Thanks Mark.

Liz Needle

Flowering Gums

Its been a while since I posted on this blog, but thanks to the long hot summer, not a lot positive has happened in the garden.

We haven't had any rain since November except for one fall in January. Tonight we have had an electrical storm with a little rain, but so far barely enough to register on any rain gauge. We have had to water reluctantly because water is so expensive, but I cannot just let my precious garden disintegrate before my eyes.

I have no doubt we will get a hefty water bill and a rap over the knuckles from the little men who sit in the big buildings and decide how much they are going to charge us to keep this dry land green.

We have one lovely flowering Eucalypt in our garden but there are a lot around and most of these photos are from street plantings in this area. Our tree had an off year this year, so the photos are mainly close ups of small patches on the tree.



This is the colour of our tree - a rich flame orange. This variety is the original one. I think the other colours have been bred by horticulturalists. As you can see these flowers are far fuller than the ones below.- - and check out the bees!!



This one is a paler pink colour and the one below is a deeper red. There are also very pale pink - somewhat wishy washy to my mind and a creamy white which I don't like much either.



Aren't these flowers exquisite?



I must try and find a photo of our tree when it is in full flower - absolutely stunning and greatly loved by the lorikeets when it is in flower.

Liz Needle