Summer 2009/2010::Roses

Abracadabra

I am a lover of roses.
You just can't beat them.
You just plonk a stick in the ground,
give 'em a bit of water every now and again
and out they come - in glorious technicolour.
Mine don't even really get a fertilize.
A splash of Seasol if they are lucky.

                                                                                                          brass band

I ordered 10 new ones from Treloars in winter.

This one is a standard called Brass Band - I think it is my favourite.

And don't let anyone tell you, you can't transplant roses in the middle of summer.
This one, name unknown, an original rose at our Ararat house, I moved in January 2008.
It's coming along beautifully.

unknown

Autumn 2009:: Nasturtiums

If I was a flower, I think I'd be a Nasturtium.



Photo:
Vegie patch, Ararat - April, 2009

Autumn 2009:: Flowering Gum

Put this one in the ground in winter 2008.
It didn't really do much in Spring.
I thought it was a goner.
Look what it made!
3 little flowers.
Clever!



Photo: Backyard, Ararat - 10 April, 2009

Autumn 2009:: Tomatoes

All hail the first born!
Picked today.
Eaten tonight.
With kipfler potatoes (home-grown),
olive oil
and oregano.
Yum!




Photos: In the vegie patch - on the bird bath - 15 March, 2009.

Summer 2009:: Crepe Myrtle

Ta Da!
It made its very first flowers.
Clever Myrtle.


In the early morning light.
And.........
absolutely covered in buds.




Photo:
In the front yard, between the Callistemon and Camellia - 22 Feb, 2009

Summer 2009:: Potatoes

So, this year, I grew my first crop of potatoes - ever.
Who knew it was so easy?
You just chop em up and stick em in.
Simple.
And who knew they came with the added bonus of these beautiful little flowers?
(probably, lots of people knew that)



I stuck them in around October. I don't really know what the "rule" is for watering potatoes, but I watered them every couple of days which seemed to be often enough.



By January we were eating them.
I don't think I actually "harvested" them correctly, coz I pulled out all the little ones as well as the full grown ones.

They are Kipflers.
I don't think I'd grow this variety again.
They are okay - with a consistency like roasted chestnuts.

Next crop - Purple Peruvian Potatoes.




Photos: The Vegie Patch, Ararat - Dec 2008/Jan 2009

Summer 2009:: Flowering Gum

I LOVE flowering gums.
They are so showy and exuberant and **HAPPY**.
We only planted this one as a baby last summer.
Look what it did for us this summer!


Photo: Pink Flowering Gum, western side of Ararat house - 25 Jan, 2009.

Summer 2009::Succulents

Learning to love succulents.
When I was growing up, my mother poo-pooed succulents.
I think she thought they were rather gauche.
In her defence, it WAS the seventies and they probably weren't used to their best advantage.
Being an impressionable child, I took on board my mother's off-hand attitude to the poor old succulent.
However, as I grew up, developed a mind of my own, I realized mother was NOT the oracle of everything - admittedly, she does have a rather large enormous head which houses a particularly big brain - but style and asthestics is a deeply personal thing.
Anyway, as the Australian summer withered pot after pot of petunias and pansies, I started experimenting with pots of succulents to pretty things up.
And what a revelation they were.
They change colour with the seasons, they produce spires of flowers, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes and textures and best of all - they don't have to be mollycoddled.
Go the succulent!!

Photo: Dish of succulents, on the table under the peach tree, Ararat - 7 Jan, 2009.