Changing Seasons : May 2019

It is now 10 days into winter and the weather has changed dramatically from the halcyon days of Autumn. The snow has arrived early down south and the ski season has started. But the southern winds are whistling up to us bringing cold (to us Queenslanders) 16deg temperatures, dropping to record lows of 5deg at night. Time to put extra blankets on the bed and rug up in winter clothes.

May has been a busy month of projects in the garden. The major one was deciding to put up a kit-set greenhouse. But first the site had to be cleared.

The ugly, old, Hill’s Hoist clothes line is banished. The small palm tree is dug out, with difficulty, and the area is levelled.

Following the minimal instructions and with a bit of head scratching and “discussion” the green house is finally ready for use.I buy the $2.99, 6 cell seedlings and plant them on into bigger punnets and now have a cosy, safe place to keep them till they are ready to plant out. I have primula, polyanthus, straw daisies, cineraria, phlox and also cucumber and a tomatoe.

The next project was to set up a veggie plot. These tubs are an ideal size, but when I put some seedlings in I found this area was not getting enough sun. So they were moved further down.In front of the fish ponds is perfect the sun is here from 8am till 3-30pm.

4 weeks later broad beans, spinach, radish and coriander are racing away.This dwarf tomatoe plant has been coddled along in the green house from a 15 centimetre seedling. Each morning I carry it out to the sunniest spot in the front garden (where the bird bath used to be). Now 4 weeks later it is ready to go into it’s permanent position.

In the front garden the snowflake bush  (Euphorbia leucocephala) is in full flower. The closest we ever get to “snow”.

The other sign of winter is the frangipani tree has dropped all its leaves.May was also major pruning month and because it has been an excellent growing season that was a big job to prune, then mulch up all the cuttings, we now have a huge pile of mulched up cuttings hidden at the back of the border against the new fence, slowly decomposing to beautiful compost.Last month I cleared out the front borders of the summer annuals in preparation for planting the spring annuals.

I have planted pansies, but look at the great crop of white, plastic forks that have sprouted up! Actually they are a cat deterrent method I found on the internet, and it works. Stops them digging up the freshly prepared dirt for their toilet….The pansies are taking over the bed and soon I will remove the forks.

Only a few things flowering at this time of the year.

But the reliable Pentas flower all year and the Crucifixion Orchids have just burst into bloom.

Now to go out and finish preparing the beds for the spring annuals and get them into the ground and look forward to having a colourful display in the next few months.

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I am so late with my monthly “changing seasons” update this month. Gosh a third of June already gone. I’m so pleased Su of “Zimmerbitch” runs this challenge as it prompts me to try and keep a record of each month. I can go back to last year and see what was happening 12 months ago.