A pleasant Kings Birthday long weekend found us mostly in the garden. Norm trimmed and prepared the fruit trees for the winter. They were quite late losing their leaves. We now have elderberry, bay, avocado, mango, apple, pear, and a dwarf orange tree – all growing well.

The winter vegetables are slow this year following a strange Autumn. Spinach and carrots are in steady supply with some all-year-round lettuce ready to harvest every weekend.

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Norm is slowly using the creative side of his brain and coming up with some interesting ideas. This week it’s a frog hotel for the back corner garden.

A few pipes and pots from Bunnings, sand, and a few river rocks.

I dug up a small Mondo Grass and divided it into 3 pieces. As you can see below, he did quite a nice job. Next week’s project is a tadpole pond – seen partly installed to the right of our water feature.

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The Poinciana is almost bare and early bulbs are breaking the topsoil.

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An early morning hour in the front garden stimulates the imagination – and is a whole lot of fun.

A tidy up here and a touch of paint there.

If you don’t have water, create it. I tossed a few packets of lobelia seeds in for good measure.

We bought these two delightful blue mushroom solar lights today at Bunnings and added a little more creativity.

Not fully charged yet, but still looks pretty.

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I’m loving our growing edible garden. The Elderflower tea was beautiful. Next year I’ll allow the best flowering sprigs to mature into berries.

Photo by Chrissy

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Autumn is still beautiful on the mid-north coast.

Rear corner of back verandah.

From the garden.

and again from the garden.

Another view of the back corner.

Looks like there will be dozens of blooms this year.

This last photo shows the outdoor kitchen divider in front of the clothes line. Next week, I’ll reveal why.

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For a garden that’s now mostly, vegetables, herbs and fruit trees, there’s still a few bright colours to blend with the green.

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With the change of cooler weather comes the removal of almost all that remains of the Summer/Autumn crops. We have spent a busy two days in the garden planting winter seeds and seedlings. This includes – all year lettuce mix, a mixed variety of spinach, broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, leeks and onions. There’s still plenty of okra flowers growing so I left that in. There’s a corn cob or two left and a few cucumbers on their vines. They’ll be pulled out soon to make room for what we hope will be a bumper crop this year.

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Tradies came to replace our back guttering.

All our potted herbs had to be temporarily relocated.

It was a good opportunity to re-pot or top up pots with fresh soil.

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If you can find my photos of the elderberry I potted when it just 40 cm high, I would be grateful. It should be somewhere in 🦋 I’m in the Garden archives but I can’t see it. It’s photographed with my other potted herbs. So late last year we re-potted it and it’s growing beautifully.

Now it’s taller than me and covered in blooms. Very strange because it should flower in early Summer. It’s Autumn here in Australia.

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Although I love the rain and warm summer days the high temperatures on the current between days of rain is not quite the Autumn I’m use to. The Poinciana is still covered in green leaves and the water in the fish pond feels more like a hot tub.

There’s one thing that I do enjoy in this crazy weather and that is the variety of green that is seen from, and in every corner of the garden. The birds too a hanging around longer than usual and as for our vegetables, they just keep growing leaving no room to plant winter crops.

I’m left wondering what I’ll be doing in the garden once the season does change.

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The hot weather in March and recent rains has turned our verandah into a high humidity zone.

Everything is flourishing.

It’s a good time to plant something new into some pretty pots I found.

There’s never too many plants.

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Yesterday’s Pottering

….and the farm is thriving even though the nights are cooling.

My new work area is the perfect place to potter and plant Autumn and Winter crops from seeds and seedlings. Home grown vegetables and herbs all year round.

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It’s finally Autumn and it is most noticeable in the evening with the warmth of the day fading with the going down of the sun.

When the phone is useless in this beautiful light

that reflects off the colours in the garden.

but it will all fade by the time I find the camera and set it up.

Maybe another evening when I’m more prepared. For now, I’ll just relax in the peace of the garden.

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Working on the farm can be a workout when I need to keep going to the other end of the farm to grab tools or trugs etc. Today I decided to tidy a messy corner and use it as my farm work place.

I’ll be able to plant seeds into pots. When the seedlings are big enough to handle the transplanting, I’ll be able to move them easily.

A place to keep the soil bin, trugs, buckets, and farm tools.

In easy reach of the worm farm and compost barrel.

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With January being the hottest month of the year, it’s often difficult to choose the right day – a cooler day, to mulch the front garden and the garden that runs the length of the carport. Most other seasons don’t work with the front garden and after the Christmas lights a packed away for another year, it really is the best time. For us anyway. We started laying mulch this time from the rear of the drive and worked forward to the front of the house. We did this simply because we always run out of mulch for that far end of the drive when we do the front garden first. However, just as we finished along the drive it began to rain and continued most of the day. Good for the garden but not while gardening. At least it gave us a break and some time to plan how to tackle the front garden.

We started early to avoid the heat of the day and the rain that threatened to change our plans yet again. Overcast but not to hot, not to cold. The rain held off long enough to complete the whole front garden. We even had time to go to Bunnings for a few extra shrubs to fill empty spaces along the white picket fence. I also rehoused the new gnomes we bought on a clearance pallet just after Christmas. I’m quite pleased how it all looks now.

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After a chilly start to Summer the farm is looking green and healthy again. We have a variety of lettuce, small yellow tomatoes, two varieties of cucumber, spinach, blueberries, dwarf beans, capsicum, and the last of the spring onions. This summer I have planted chives, sage and thyme among the vegetables. The rest of the herbs are thriving in the outdoor kitchen area. (Not included here) and I have forgotten the two strawberry pots again that are still producing after three years. I’ll try and remember them for Down on the Farm #10.

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Our Avocado Tree has a small avo on it. I doubt it will be edible since the tree is maybe only 3 years old.

We planted a pear and apple tree today.

Top left is the Avocado tree. Top right is the Pear tree. Below is the Apple tree.

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Even after everyone in the avenue received a share in this morning’s harvest we still have more greens and herbs than we can eat. 🙂 Locals, beware you could be increasing your greens intake very soon. 🙂

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Sorry, this is blurred. I took the photo from inside the back door with my phone. We put up the Lorikeet box just a few days ago. This pair actually put their head inside but were more interested in eating. We’re hoping a second visit will happen soon but not perhaps one of the many other Lorikeet pairs who visit the garden will find this new house to be so tempting they’ll move in.

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It’s great to see the sunshine and feel the warmth of Spring mornings again.

Nice enough to choose where to have breakfast.

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Herbs or Strawberries Anyone?

My garden makes me smile every day. Today I pruned the herbs and planted some basil seedlings. I can’t get enough basil but basil didn’t like the extra cold winter we had this year. I’m hoping to harvest basil again real soon. The strawberries are so nice and juicy this year. This is just one pot of two.

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Past and Present photos

Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I’m just thankful of what can happen in a just a few years. Spring is finally here albeit it’s been a bit wet but sunny days have been just that. It looks like we’ll be eating a lot of spinach, lettuce, spring onions, cucumber, broad beans, corn and yellow cherry tomatoes for the rest of the year. There’s garlic and brown onions shooting, the avocado tree, strawberries and blueberries are is bursting with flowers. The neighbours will love them too.

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Last night Norm relocated my big screen PC to the dining room table where I am able to maneuver around better in the wheelchair. This morning I looked up from the screen to see between the verandah railings and palm leaves, ….

the bulbs I had planted in previous seasons were blooming. I promptly sent Norm around the garden with the camera to see what else I missed. I’ll look through the photos later today after church.

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I upgraded the wheelchair and I have more flexibility and freedom.

It’s so good to be in the garden. No changes needed to the driveway or kitchen-diner.

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I was finally able to visit the front garden. While Norm weeded and dead headed I took a few photos of the late winter flowering lavender, Azalias and Gazanias. Even the Bougainvillea climbing the wall is bursting with colour. A few extra cottage garden plants need to be planted when Spring arrives.

The tub of pansies and zinnia potted daisies needed to be relocated temporarily for the ramp.

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From this wheelchair, I can’t see two of our three vegetable plots so I sent Norm out with the camera again. I think sometime in the future we will need to have a wider pathway along the front of the above ground plots. We’re not getting any younger and we’ll want to be able to have access to all the garden for years to come.

WOW What a surprise. There’s an abundance of crops out there. Way to much for us. The broad beans are covered in flowers and the corn is doing well too.

I sent Norm back to do a harvest of mostly snap peas, silver-beet, perennial spinach, butter-crunch lettuce, scarole Lettuce, little gem lettuce, red sails and the loose-leaf lettuce. Everything is yummy.

The avocado tree and two blueberry bushes are also in flower. This will be the first season both blueberry bushes to fruit at the same time. We have two pots of strawberries; one flowering. The other isn’t getting enough sun yet but it’s healthy. (neither shown in photos) As for the avocado – we’ll have to just wait and see. I think it’s just three years old and fruit usually appears on an avocado in five years.

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We knew about this before we bought our home back in December 2019. It’s finally happening. The noise can be annoying but at least there’s no workers or machinery on the weekends and before 7.30am and after 5pm in the evenings during the week… and when it’s raining.

The photos above were taken while standing on a step ladder on the verandah. Below are the scenes we see at floor level and at the bottom of the steps that descend into the garden. Hopefully the new houses won’t appear above the fence. We’ll just have to wait.

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It’s been a lot easier to sneak up on these adorable birds. They don’t seem to mind the camera either. This pair is one of four pairs that come in for a feed throughout the day. They all have their own colour tones and preferred times to eat. An interesting lot.

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A little bit of sunshine brings life back to the garden plots, blueberry shrubs (potted between plots) and the avocado tree. The blueberry shrubs were covered with netting after these photos were taken. This week we have harvested carrots, spring onions, perennial spinach, snow peas, leeks and herbs (herbs not in photos) but just enough for ourselves. Once Spring is here, we’ll be feeding the neighbours again. 🙂

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Another sunny afternoon enticed us outside to watch the birds.

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In addition to yesterday’s post, Midday Shadows our front garden, home to our friendly gnomes, is soaked in sunshine every day in winter – except on cloudy and rainy days of course.

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According to Google, June 21st 2022 is the shortest day of the year for Australia.

Over the next two weeks, we may just spy the shadows beginning to creep back the other way back to greet the Spring.

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Winter crops of carrots, spring onions, leeks, spinach and brown onions. Not much growing this year with lower temperatures overnight. We have also planted an avocado tree in a large pot. It will be interesting how it does. A pear tree is under consideration too. 🙂

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Two of our parlour palms brought with us on our move in December 2019 and at less than two foot high, have grown ridiculously on our back verandah where I had created a little tropical atmosphere of sorts. Here’s the photo of one. Both are about same size.

If you have been following my I’m in the Garden category on Riverside Peace you will know that the garden space is minimal. But we did it. Or, at least I pointed and directed and Norm did it. 🙂

With the two big potted palms relocated we then reorganised the verandah plants before enjoying a bottle of 2017 Sangiovese. Two neighbours also joined us with their wine glasses filled with their favourite whites.

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It’s a much wetter May this year making the garden soggy and keeping us out of the garden.

Photos by Norm.

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All this fuss over one apple.

Well, I can’t complain that we don’t have birds come to our garden. Two years ago I would never have thought it was possible.

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There wasn’t much room to land but they kept coming.

Focusing got more difficult no matter how many photos were taken.

Norm almost missed the confusion of take-offs.

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My dear neighbour and friend across the road kindly let me have her fairies, toadstools and gnomes that have been out grown by the grandchildren. “The Pond” has been overwhelmed by more fairies, little gnomes and fairy houses. One fairy has now become the centre piece of the birdbath which has inspired me to set aside a quiet day to sit and imagine before placing everything in different places. We have a young blue tongue lizard that roams my garden, and the neighbours, that bumps the poor little fairies into the pond. Some might say I’m a little crazy with my gnomes garden out the front, and now The Fairy Pond, but no one has yet disliked it. I think if I ever do get dementia, I’ll be happy in my garden. 🙂

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Click on photo to view complete.

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Seriously though, we have not witnessed so many birds in our garden since we began creating it in January 2020. We were so engrossed in the birds flocking to the top of the water tank that we didn’t notice the usual three or four on and in the blue bird feeder on the back fence until they flew off leaving the the bird feeder bouncing and shaking. There is one photo that was way to blurred for here that showed at least six birds in on and around the owl bird feeder. Like it was stacks on.

Click on each photo to view entire photo.

These photos were just the ones Norm manage to take on my mobile phone. I’ll check the photos on the Canon EOS 650D while we are on a week’s holiday, starting tomorrow, up the coast. I was busy trying to keep the tablet focused, and without falling off the back steps, so our 9 year-old granddaughter could see them via messenger video call we had been on for ten minutes when the birds came down. She was calling from a very wet and soggy Sydney where her family, like thousands of other families, are still cut off by flooding rivers. Bridges have been under water now for ten days. She’ll be back at school on Monday. Not sure about anyone getting to work on the other side of the river though.

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Spinach seedlings replanted to replace the spinach I planted 2 years ago – originally in polystyrene banana boxes. It’s seems a life time ago now. I’m hoping these will also yield multiple times throughout the next year or two. The seedlings I grew from seed. You may be able to see more seedlings sprouting in the 3rd photo below in a 2nd grey rectangular pot.

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Kangaroo Lane has made progress. Plants are thriving and the grass is green.

Finally the high temperatures of the past two weeks of 35 plus (Celcius) have dropped to a much more pleasant mid 20s. This evening, a gentle rain cools hot surfaces.

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Click on Photos to see complete pictures.

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Click on photos to see total pictures.

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Click on photos to see the complete pictures.

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