Saturday, September 29, 2012

This and That

This hebe seems to have been knocked around a bit by the cold.


The photinia's spring habits are almost autumn-like.


This dianella has been disappointing but seems to be doing better.


This flax has settled in much better.


The orange pigface, moved yet again, has a few flowers.


The little eucalypt is flowering.


The pittosporum is getting ready to flower too.


And the Chinese Pistachio.


I love the colour of the new leaves on the berberis.


And we've been to the garden centre!


Friday, September 21, 2012

A Few More Blooms

My hardenbergia is blooming.


And I found another geum blooming too.




Saturday, September 15, 2012

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

The winter that seemed so long is very suddenly over. For the past two years I have waited anxiously for the warmer weather so that I could do some rather overdue work on the house, and we've had soggy springs followed by non-summers, so this year I simply intended to try to do something whenever I had the opportunity. Winter went by with little progress and today is warm and sunny and what am I doing? Trying to catch up with some washing because of the dirty water. This is the second new house in a new housing estate we have lived in. We never had problems the first time and we didn't have problems here for the first few years. Then the dirty water started, usually just a faint tinge but on a few occasions I had white towels come out of the washing machine a lovely beige/ecru/champagne colour. All we ever got by way of explanation was it must be building work in the area, run the outside hose for a while until it clears. Sometimes it didn't clear for days! In recent times the problem seemed to be over but dirty water twice in the past month, yes, dirty enough to ruin another towel, has brought back memories. I feel old. I understand now why old people talk about the good old days. I remember when things were reliable, when things worked properly... 

But getting back to the topic of the title, here it is, the middle of September already. The local flower festival starts today, what a beautiful day for it, and what am I doing? Trying to catch up with some washing. Oh yes, I mentioned that already didn't I. Yesterday, not even realising it was almost Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, I went out into the garden to take some photos. 

Buds everywhere, the pistachio, the birch, the maples, the berberis, the weigela. 



And to my surprise I found some flowers. Not the usual predictable ones either.

One little bloom lurking on the abutilon in the shady corner. It doesn't look like the sort of plant that would grow in Canberra, it was just an impulse buy in the hardware store garden centre and I wasn't too sure about it.


One little bloom lurking on the geum. Poor little much-transplanted thing, I hope that means I've found the right spot for it this time.


And this was really exciting, the first flower on one of the hellebores I bought a few years ago!


And now I'll be taking a look at what's blooming in other gardens on MayDreams Gardens.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Happy Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

I hope things are improving for those of you struggling with the challenges of summer, heat and drought and threat of bushfires.

There's nothing much in my midwinter garden except the usual random hebe flower.


So here is what's blooming at our local botanic gardens.
To see more of what's blooming around the world please visit Seepferd's Garten.

Monday, July 9, 2012

More Winter

We have just had our coldest stretch of winter mornings in 47 years, eight consecutive mornings below -2.3℃  with an average of  -4.9℃ (that's below 28℉ with an average of 23℉). Today's maximum was 14℃ but with the wind chill factor it felt like 10℃ (59℉  50℉). The poor little ajugas are not enjoying their first winter.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Winter

Last night's temp was -6℃ apparent temp -8℃ (21℉ apparent 17℉) and today it reached 11℃ apparent temp 7℃ (52℉ apparent 44℉).


Thinking of everyone affected by the heatwave in the US, especially those without power.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Winter Chores

We've all had colds over the past week but Hubby is feeling better so he headed out to pick up those pesky seed pods from my previous post. When I realised he had decided to have a go at some major tree pruning as well I grabbed the camera and a warm jumper and went out quickly to do an update.

With the tree branches bare, it's easier to notice intriguing things like this cocoon.


I wonder what hatched out of it?


The diosma has a surprising number of flowers for an out of peak season flowering.


The first pruning task was a crepe myrtle.
Here's how it looked at the end of April.


Hubby took off the very low branch on the right.


Then he tackled the front branch of the Chinese pistachio. This is something I thought should have been done when the tree was much younger, but it wasn't until an arborist commented on the potential problems of the two branches forking in that way that he saw the need to do something about it. I think this is the largest branch we've ever removed from a tree.


Job done.


Then I went to see how my marigolds are doing and found my path blocked by this.


I couldn't get closer to have a good look at them but they are definitely showing signs of being affected by the sub-zero temperatures now.


Speaking of the weather, these are our recent temperatures.

Night before last

-3℃ apparent temp -6℃
26℉ apparent temp 21℉

Yesterday

14℃ apparent temp 10℃
57℉ apparent temp 50℉

Last night

-1℃ apparent temp -3℃
30℉ apparent temp 26℉

Today

9℃ apparent temp 8℃
48℉ apparent temp 46℉