Moving Garden

After almost eight years of developing my lovely garden we have parted ways. The landlords took one look at the garden and decided that they wanted it for themselves - no, not really. They want to do some work on the house so are moving their daughter and her friends into it.

After a few tearful moments upon hearing the news, I went to work sorting out what could be moved from the garden. I sold the garden arch and a row of buxus. Both had been gifted to me and would have been difficult to take to my future garden. I invited family over to help themselves to roses, lavender, rhubarb, raspberries and compost. Despite the removal of quite a few things the garden still looked fine.

I left all my Dahlia's there. It wasn't the right time to lift them and probably best if I start afresh with new bulbs anyway.

Fortunately I was able to collect quite a few seeds. An Autumn house move is probably ideal for the gardener. Transplanting is less traumatic on most plants at this time and it gives me a good opportunity to work on the soil and design of the next garden.

Anyway, I took regular photos over the years of my back yard and this timelapse movie is the result. Enjoy.

More Fun and Games in the Garden

Fun and games in the garden

Three legged race

Egg and Spoon race - Ladies

Egg and Spoon race - Boys

Frost damage on a Puka

We’ve had some great frosty mornings lately. Usually this doesn’t bother me and I quite like wiping a gap in the steamed up kitchen windows to see if jack has visited. Sometimes the back lawn looks like it’s had a dusting of snow overnight – very pretty. The morning chauffeur (hubby) has a different reaction to the frost. For him it means lugging bottles of water outside to throw over the iced up car.

Because the sun goes down so early in winter I usually don’t get a chance to look around the garden after work so I was horrified last week to discover my lovely Puka (Meryta sinclairii) had been struck by frost damage. The Puka was a donation to the garden from a friend about a year ago. It was root bound in a tiny pot so I transplanted it to a larger pot. It loved that improvement of living quarters and immediately started producing lush new leaves. Then I thought it would like life even better if it was in the ground. I planted it towards the back of the garden on the south side of the shed and slightly sheltered by a large old plum tree. Even though it liked its new location, even flowering, I wasn’t entirely happy with its placement and when I was offered two hydrangeas I knew that the hydrangeas had to go there instead.

So….. That is how a healthy young Puka found its way to an open lower part of the garden with no protection from frosts and getting the morning sun. It was only a matter of days after the move that it was struck by the frost. The exposed leaves lost their colour, some turning brown, and drooped horribly. I have since covered it every evening with an old mosquito net to prevent further damage and covered the soil with a good layer of mulch. Only time will tell if the Puka will fully recover. Not all leaves have been damaged and some only partly. I have researched what to do and it seems the best thing is to wait until spring (at least until the last frost) and assess the situation. Then I will cut out the severely damaged leaves and pray that new growth is still forthcoming. I blame myself. A fellow gardener had warned me that pukas were susceptible to frost but I hadn’t paid enough attention.

Christmas Garden

Christmas Eve through the back doors

I have neglected my Blog for a few months but not my garden. It is now in its prime and just in time to host a lovely sunny Christmas day with my family. The breeze was a bit strong at times so we ate indoors and retreated to the garden to moan about eating too much. The boys played cricket on one side of the garden - I tried not to screech too much as I saw them foraging around the Holly Hocks for the lost ball - while the ladies attempted to keep the hula hoop going (a present for me). The teen son retreated to the rear but could never quite escape the attention of his little cousins who rarely see him.

The hula champ

The Birds

It's a Small World

More often than not I look at the garden as a whole, sometimes even squinting at sections to view it in a different frame. Now I have found an even more amazing viewpoint. Walking around the garden with my camera set on macro I discovered the most amazing world. Just look at these incredible images - the colours, the symmetry, the complex formations. Fantastic!

a curious critter

Hibiscus

Stamen of Hollyhock

Cosmos

stamen of Bouganvilliea

Bug feasting on dried Hollyhock seeds

The impatient gardener

The best and the worst thing about gardening is the waiting game. In the Southern Hemisphere we are in the middle of summer and my garden is at it's peak. Everything is in full bloom and the birds, bees and butterflies are loving it. The tomatoes are in abundance and the lemon tree is keeping up with the Gin and Tonics.

Already though I am making mental notes for the winter work and imagining how things will look next summer. Am I the only one who does this? I have plans to move shrubs, shuffle the roses so the colours aren't so muted, expand one bed to make room for more dahlias, transplant all the self-seeded Hollyhocks to the back of a bed.... the list goes on. None of these things I can do until the growth has slowed, and even then I won't know if my decisions were right until next summer and then the cycle starts again.

It's not that I am not happy with my garden - I love it - but there is a sense of dissatisfaction which keeps me going, and that will probably never go away. I guess if I had a garden which required no thought, just a bit of maintenance, then I'd lose interest.