Garden bloggers bloom day

Two more weeks of exams and I'll be back in blog land catching up on your gardens. I really miss the opportunity to look over what you're doing, and e-chatting with some of the friends I've made. But study calls and this is the culmination of three years of being away from my family at nights sitting in a classroom. I can't wait for it to be over, but I can't chance cocking it up either.

My present from Alison last Christmas was my raised veggie bed. Putting in some veggies and seeing them come to fruition under my amateur ministration was the impetus for me to start gardening in earnest. Ernest took umbrage at this so I decided to use the yard to fulfill my garden needs.  Some therapy later and Ernest and I are on talking terms again.

Keeping up with what is changing or evolving is made all the easier by joining Gardening bloggers bloom day thanks to May Dreams Gardens. It gives me the opportunity to take a nice monthly hard look at what is growing, what is struggling and what just needs to be moved or removed. It's a diary of what is happening on my little plot.

And now to the blooms.

This is Ptilotus. The P is sadly silent as in Ptolemy, so no spitting at inquiries from interested onlookers. I have fallen in love. When I marry it we will have children with fluffy purple moustaches.

 Petunias in hanging baskets make a lovely show.

 Marigold in the veggie bed helps keep bugs at bay.

 This one was included last month, but has rewarded me with a second spike.

 The Mad Hatter is beautiful.

 The strawberries hold promise.

 Impatiens.

 Another native. Snake vine or Hibertia Scandens.

 This is an Australian native ground-cover. That little flower is the first wave of what will be an inundation in a week or two.

 Pyrethrum daisy also in the veggie bed as a bug deterrent.

 Even the chives under the roses are starting to flower.

 I swear I bought the blue agapanthus. Maybe some spray paint would help?

 Catmint.

 Hebe Jeebie recently taken from the garden bed where it was struggling.

 The salvia has started.

 Underplanting of the Wollemi Pine.

Enjoy bloom day.

It's a little damp.

Imogen isn't fond of them, but I love a good thunderstorm, and this evening has been a doozy. It's the Gods showing that us puny humans with our war toys and our high falutin' ways could easily be eaten up and spat out at their whim. I may have to fit a snorkel to the car to get to work, but the water is starting to summer-proof the garden.

The rain also gives me a chance to wear a natty hat. I love a good hat and don't understand why the fashion  from my grandfathers day disappeared. Not just the gardening hat mind you, though I have my fair share of straw and rattan varieties, but a nice hat such as the one I recently rediscovered in the storage cupboards out the back. It's an Akubra of mine that mimics the 1950's mens standard head-wear. I like to tip it to people I bump into, and doff it when I come inside. Perhaps I need a meerschaum pipe as well.

Payback.

I'm blessed with fantastic neighbours on both sides and even those a few houses away. I like them so much I could almost overlook those few who practice the arcane art of surreptitious gnome introduction (SGI). But I think in these days of global warming, terrorism and rude people who don't wave when you let them in in traffic, some things cannot be forgotten or let ride.

SGI is an anathema, a critique on the downward spiraling values of western gardening culture, and I for one will not stand idly by and let this scourge bloom like weeds threatening the very standards that I had no idea that I stood for until a few minutes ago.

The particular neighbours that practice the dark arts of SGI have self confessed brown thumbs. I'm not sure how brown as the Fakus plasticus orchidus in the wall mounted hanging pots on their shed are always full of colour, never wilt and seem to thrive though I've never seen them tended. The rest of the garden is less full of...well, garden.

But it took me a while to work out my strategy. Then it came to me.

Their little girl, who is Imogens BFF, loves my tomato plants. She happily denudes them of fruit and asks for more. I thought she should have more. I bought a pot, some tomato suitable potting mix, a cherry tomato and a climbing frame. I planted it and left it at their front door, after explaining to their progeny that if Daddy looked after the plant, kept it in a good position, avoided pests and disease that she would have her own supply of fresh tomatoes.

She seems so excited.

Catch up

Gday,

Long time no see. How's things? Really? That's great. Me? Oh, you know. Same old same old. Imogen has croup, not pleasant for anyone concerned, Declan has a cold, and Alison and I have sleep deprivation. Life goes on.

Over the couple of years since we bought the place, we've made an honest attempt at going green. Or at least greenish. Water tanks, low power light bulbs, dry tolerant plants, a heat sink hot water system, (boy was that ever a good financial decision), fans rather than air conditioning where possible, a roof over the deck to stop the sun on the back door and plate glass windows. I even bought a small hatchback with amazing fuel economy to scoot around town in so the big family wagon doesn't need to be used so often. I'm also planning on using my impending tax return to put roof vents in to cool the house further. It seems to have worked a treat.

Here we are in November, rain coming down in buckets and we're cuddling up at night under the doona (quilt, duvet etc) as though it were still June or July.

Essentially it seems that I have single handedly stopped global warming.

You're welcome.

So to the garden. Well the corn is as high as an elephants eye, or would be if I had corn.

And and elephant by which to measure said corn would also help.

But the other edibles are doing well. The tomatoes, grown upside down in the spirit of being too lazy to tie them to supports, are beginning to fruit.

The peas are doing well.

I'm not sure whether to harvest the lettuce or turn it into a nice formal hedge.

The various herbs are thriving.

The strawberries and cucumber have come along in leaps and bounds.

 My reading list is growing. Get it? Growing! Mercy.

Declan was Christened. Alison was apparently Christened in the same frock. Alison and her mob are the Catholics, so it sort of passed me by being the heathen that I am. Declan was ready to deck anyone who called him a girl.

Today the daughter of one of our neighbour's and a couple of her schoolmates, all great kids, invited Imogen, Alison and I over. The offer was for Imogen to have some face painting done, but she only likes to do what Daddy does. The results are her on display. JB is apparently Justin Beber.