Changing Seasons : October 2018

Since coming back from Broken Hill I have had a month totally immersed in the garden. It has been perfect growing weather. In the 30 days this month there has been 12 days scattered through the month with beautiful, refreshing rain to a total of 143mm. The plants have thrived. The pots are increasing at an alarming rate and the garden is a riot of colour.

Come for a walk round with me… Notice that the pots are appearing everywhere again. But at the far end of this gravel path I have an area around the pond that is perfect for pots. Come and look….Careful not to step on the Alyssum, I love how it has self-sown, randomly, and is thriving in difficult conditions.

No room to sit on this bench it is taken up with silverbeet, bok-choy and cress. Can you see what is creeping across the pond? Yes, pumpkins. These are a couple of feral ones that came up from the compost I spread in this area when we redid it. Jack loves pumpkin plants and insisted they be allowed to roam and do their own thing. Remember last year? (see here) We pampered the pumpkins and they were a disaster… Next to the pumpkin are 2 tomatoe plants, again they have just self seeded from the compost. So I have staked them and we will see what they produce.

At the other end of the back garden, in front of “Bali Corner” another 2 tomatoes appeared in my geranium bed. So we made a trellis of canes for them to grow up and they have done so well… But, oh dear, look what I found yesterday morning on my inspection walk around…I think the birds have found them and before they are even ripe.So this is the solution, that should keep them away. Bit tricky for me to pick the ripe tomatoes though.

In the “Bali Corner” behind the tomatoes, the Hoya plant is spreading its joy every where.

Here are a few more views of the back garden before I take you round to the front garden…

A year a go Jack bought Desert Rose seeds on Ebay and he lovingly nurtured them along. I recorded their progress here and as they popped up  here.. Well look at them now, one year later… (He is so enamoured with them that he has just recently bought another batch. This time they are specialist double and triple flowered varieties… Watch this space…)This is his other success story, the Buddha Belly. Maybe you would like to have a sit down for a rest in the pond corner, I’ll bring you a cuppa, before going to look at the front garden…I’m really happy with the front garden. We made major changes. (see here) Jack chopped down the palms that had previously created a shady garden and changed it to an area filled with light. So a drastic revamp was needed. Ferns, shade plants and many of the bromeliads were relocated or given away and I started a programme of planting more native shrubs and filling the gaps with annuals and perennials.

So follow me for a look around…

 

Notice in the right hand photo the latest project? Yes now the palms have gone I am starting another vegetable garden…

The nasturtiums are still rampaging all over the front border.

Remember the paper daisies? Well they are just starting to go to seed and seem to have topped out at about 7 foot tall. Here is Jack next to them for comparison.

It has been a very busy month and the weather has been perfect for working in the garden. But it is starting to warm up. The temperature climbed into the 30’s yesterday and the forecast is for more hot days to come. Summer is almost here.

Time to sit down again. Maybe you would like a glass of wine this time, I’m going to have one, it is just 5pm as I finish this post. I hope you have enjoyed looking around the October garden. I think next month will be quite different as summer sets in

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Su Leslie of “Zimmerbitch” is hosting a monthly challenge “changing seasons” were she invites you to share the changing seasons in your part of the world, or something that means October. Pop over to see the rules of this monthly challenge.