Pictures

Photos from a windy summer day

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The last of the irises have just started blooming. This is the Japanese iris 'Electric Glow'

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A cornflower from the same bed.

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'Bright lights' silverbeet

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A completely unnatural looking marigold

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Baby chinese gooseberries.
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This time with pictures

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Baby potato leaves


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Kohlrabi seedlings

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Bush beans, wildling tomatoes, silverbeet and beetroot.


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One of my girls :)
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Shepherd's warning

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It feels like winter is finally in the offing – after weeks of beautiful clear days we’ve been having gale force winds, cold days and rain is forecast for the rest of the week.

This morning we walked around the garden and sorted out some heights and edges, have hopefully solved the problem with the chinese gooseberry pergola, and maybe even made some progress with the front lawn.

Better still we have some dates, hopefully the back garden will be done by the end of May. The front path might not quite make it as it’s weather dependant and people intensive – two-three days of complete chaos I believe.
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Late Autumn

I think that we’ve reached the end of the tomatoes — the sungold cherry tomatoes were definitely the outstanding performers and are on next year’s must have list. The paste tomatoes aren’t too bad either, but the rest hated the slow start to summer and didn’t make it to red.

Sungold F1 Tomato

The sweet peas are also winding down, with seed pods galore and only wind battered flowers left. The mulberry has already lost its leaves, perhaps because it’s exposed to the northerly and we’ve had a few over the last few weeks. I’m hoping that planting Raubritter up wind from it next year might give it some protection, but it’s been pretty happy and has lots of glossy buds waiting for spring.

Sweet Pea

The grape and persimmon are also losing their leaves — I can’t wait until the persimmon gets a little bigger, the leaves are truly gorgeous as they change and it works well next to the grape.

Persimmon leaf in autumnAutumn grape leaf

The herb and flower bed along the front of the house is still going strong, the pineapple sage is stunning (possibly because it was also delayed by the summer), and the alliums, salvia and oregano are also in full bloom, I’m enjoying the salvia more than I thought I would, the strangely curled flower stalks make a strong display and the bumble bees love it.

Pineapple sage flowersTrue Greek oregano flowersAllium flower

Anyhow, lots of late autumn tasks to do, the roses need to be tied up once I disentangle them from the sweet peas, then I should weed and mulch that bed. Although I really need to get some seeds in pots today and the daylilies need temporary homes for the next few weeks.
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