I'm so sorry I haven't been here as much as I'd like to - Now it's really Winter and boy, it's cold today!
Cats looking for places to nest.
- You woke me up!
This is Jink's carrier, which lives under the coffee table next to the computer
- They're not spoiled, no way!
Dinah's usual place, summer or winter - my bed!
- Guarding my bed, big of her, isn't it? I get nipped for stroking her when she's asleep on her $70 St.Albans Mohair lap rug!
The wooden steps across the patio, while roastingly hot in summer, are wonderfully warm now. Buster likes the heat but not the sun in his eyes, his eyes aren't too good and easily get irritated. However, he invariably has the wrong end in the sun! Dinah doesn't trust him and won't stay there if he gets too close.
- The wood is warm, but no sun in his eyes.
I finally got the beds on the street frontage weeded. I was nearly going to use tweezers! Tiny tufts of wintergrass all over them, plus others that had seed leaves very like the ones of the violets I was trying to encourage. I also found that the Crystal Palace Lobelia had reseeded itself and the leaves were nearly invisible! For every tuft of winter grass I pulled out, I had half a dozen violet or Lobelia to replant!
- Garden in 2010, chocka with violet seedlings and Lobelia
I have bought seeds of fill-in annuals that will usually reseed themselves and have been saving egg cartons to plant them. Alyssum, a good one, I hope. More Lobelia, Impatiens for the shady areas, mixed Verbena, Candytuft and Baby Blue Eyes. I have had Snow-in-Summer in the ground for a couple of years now, but it doesn't like the humidity and starts to look straggly very quickly as well, I am always too chicken to cut them back and spray! But not this year, I have put too much effort in to let it get away from me this time. I think I already said all this somewhere else!
- The front garden after we had to cut the middle out, it would catch the rain and flood.
- Front view of the cutout, with the garden overflowing with everything.
The Freesia leaves are well up, I had to thin them out as well and gave a load away. They will all end up pale yellow as the white ones I bought, years ago, had a couple of yellow in them and now I have hardly any white left! I will get some more white - some day!
"White Ensign" rose is coming good after the transplant (2 buds!), as is the Fairy Statice, but slowly. A lot of brown leaves on FS but also many green, so I think she will survive. Its the second time I have dug her up; really, all you can do it Cut It Back! I need to engrave that on my forehead!
The old French Lavender in the other bed has been cut back again, as one branch must have had some sort of borer and just died suddenly. The rest of it is thriving. The seedling in the previous bed needs some of the foliage cut away up from the base as it keeps yellowing. I am not watering it, now, it's all the rain!
Strong little buggers, it takes a lot to kill them. No other Lavender survives on the coast, here.
I had the long stemmed one with the Dog-bane scented leaves called "Sidonie" which is so pretty and airy, but the humidity kills it eventually. (Why does no-one ever mention that "Sidonie" stinks?) I keep buying it, for the little black and white striped native bees - they sleep on it! One by one they make themselves comfy until yet another one wants to get on the same stalk and a lot of shuffling and mumbling goes on, so funny! I really need to plant it near the brick base of the front wall of the house as it retains the heat at night and the bees seem to look for that.
- Getting Ready for bed
- Where I had some of the Sidonie, a few years ago, you can see the foliage going off. Also Snow-in-Summer underneath on the left and Shasta daisy shoots coming up on the right.
I'll get some pics up a bit later, I need to organise them. All done. The photos of the garden are over a range of about 5 years.
Gabi
Last edited by
Gabi on 5 Jun '13 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
