Changing Seasons : September 2019

I love this time of the year in the garden. It is bursting and blooming with colour and produce. My dreams and plans to turn it from a shady tropical oasis to a native themed, cottage style garden are all coming to life. Silver beet, Zucchini and herbs jostle for space with the annuals as they make a vibrant show in the new central bed that once housed the cane palms.

The hard work of taking down the Golden Cane palms and making endless amounts of compost to build up the new beds is now paying off.

In the side garden the climbing beans are snaking their way up the cane tepee I made for them, and snapdragons, marigolds and salvia nestle in to the spaces around their feet.

We are again going to create a pumpkin patch. Last years attempt was a dismal failure. (see here) So this time we have given them plenty of space to spread and do their thing.

A circle was made in the middle of the bark chip area, (that was once lawn). The weed mat cut and rolled back to reveal that all the grass had not died. So that was dug up and hopefully, removed all the roots. Then a barrow load of compost, fertilizer and minerals dug in. And a pumpkin seedling that had been grown from seed and lovingly watched over for a month in the green house, finally installed in its new bed. That was at the beginning of the month. (Actually I have a confession, I planted 6 seeds in pots and only one came up!!!)

This morning I took another photo. It has been in for 3 weeks now and 6 more seeds planted around the outside of the bed as back ups, they have germinated and popped up too. We won’t be able to leave them all there.Jack’s Desert roses are all starting to flower and a couple of them have stunning double, deep red flowers.

Another very special native tree comes into spectacular flower during this month. The Syzygium wilsonii  or Powder Puff Lilly-Pilly.

Come round into the back garden with me. Another huge success has been the veggie gardens we created in tubs. They relish the position in full sun and being next to the hose makes it easy to keep the water up to them during this very dry month. (Only 14mm total) Spinach, peas, beans, carrots, radish, aubergine, capsicum and strawberries. The coriander is going to seed but the bees love the flowers so I am leaving it for a while.

The early Roma Tomatoes produced a bumper crop and have finished now. But the next ones are taking up where they left off. Of course we still share with the gorgeous King Parrots that now come round every day.We have our breakfast on the front deck, facing east it gets the morning sun. We are joined by our bird buddies, magpies, butcher birds, rainbow lorikeets, kookaburras and occasionally a pee wee, that turn up for their share as well.

It has also been a busy month with flower shows, garden expos, the swell sculpture festival and not to forget “plein-air painting” group I have joined.

I will end with a gallery of a few more random views around the garden.

I’m enjoying this month. Perfect weather, apart from no rain. Soon the heat and humidity will build up. I may regret planting all the annuals. But the beds are well mulched and hopefully will survive what ever Mother Nature has in store for this this next season.

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I’m so pleased Su of “Zimmerbitch” runs this “Changing Seasons” 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.