Tuesday 30/4 – one of the joys of gardening here in a temperate climate is the ease with which citrus grows. Of course, for anyone from the UK this is something about which to be very jealous. So let me make them a bit greener by showing the size of my lemon tree:
Well not a lot has been happening in the garden for the past few days – at least on my behalf. I am in the midst of a major house clean (and yes – that is because my parents are coming to stay in a few days).
However, one of my pea seedlings has begun to flower, after only 10 days in the ground. Here is proof:
I was also able to catch a shot of my self seeded tomatoes a few days ago, before they were potted up:
Well that has been a busy few days, especially today (Saturday)
Thursday 25/4 – ANZAC Day, I planted three rows of carrot seedlings and three rows of parsnip seedlings. I also took advantage of the public holiday to drop a box of mixed autumn/winter vegetable seedlings off at the house of a work colleague. This now leaves me with a bit of room in the coldframe, for a few hours anyway. I have thinned out the stock and cornflower seedlings in the terracotta pot on the verandah. Demolition work has also begun on my very old pergola, only really needs a stern glance for it to fall down. At the end of the day I also spotted some self seeded tomato seedings from windfallen fruit off this years tomato plants. Yippee – free plants for this summer. Lastly I managed to wangle half a dozen pomegranates from a neighbour, who has two fruit laden trees.
Saturday 27/4 – another frantically busy afternoon. I have planted three pots of flower seeds, brocoli Romanesco, Statice “Art Shades mixed” and Sweet Pea “Old Spice”. I have also planted out the single sweet pea that germinated from the first batch of seeds I planted. A quick check of the cold frame, needed to be left open as it is supposed to get to 27C today, shows that I have miniature celery seedling.
Some of the garlic has begun to poke their noses above ground, which is a good sign. On the other side of the ledger one of my onion seedlings has snuffed it, so I planted a replacement from some I had kept to one side. So far no sign of onions from the seeds I have planted. There are some small signs of life in the mixed flower seeds in my terracotta pots – Freesias, Anemones, Snapdragons, Foxgloves and Ranancullis.
I may have spotted some self seeded tomatoes in the front garden – but time will tell. I can report that some bastard slug is nibbling my dahllia plants – so I have laid some baits.
I took advantage of the warm weather today and potted up two pots of self seeded tomatoes from windfallen fruit. One of them is a red cherry tomato, but the other is a mystery. I have also panted out half of my cabbages, Primo II, in between the rows of other vegetables. There is always room in the garden for at least one more plants, isn’t there?
lastly- demolition work on the old pergolah is progressing well and I am taking the opportunity to demolish the old grape vine and chuck the leaves into my compost bin.
I also have this dianthus in flower.
There is just a splash of colour in the front garden. This includes my new dahlias
Well, all that wonderful rain did cause some damage to the garden.
It also caused a little localised flooding. I am very pleased that the head gardener was not on her pedestal this time.
Yippee, we have had one day of solid rain, and then showers on and off for the next two days. I could almost hear the garden celebrating – as it has been months since we had any rain of consequence. Despite the recent falls though, the soil is only damp down to an inch, below that it is dry and crumbly. Still, we have just finished an Adelaide summer so I am not totally .
Friday 19/4 – I planted 4 small “Hunter River Brown” onion seedlings that I had grown from seed. Most of the other onion seeds have not germinated. I staked the 5th of my broad bean plants that had surprised me by shooting out of the ground un-observed. Lastly I put some more tomato seeds, from my god-daughter’s tomato plants, on top of the fridge to dry.
Saturday 20/4 – A busy day in the garden (despite feeling shaky with the flu). I dusted my winter veg, as some of them were being decimated by little green caterpillars (bastards). I also replaced on of the Brussel sprout seedlings that had been completely eaten. I also planted 4 rows of garlic, I am following my brother in law’s mantra for planting garlic “in on ANZAC Day and out on Cup Day”. I have planted “Japanese Red (hard neck), Melbourne Market (soft neck) and Dynamite Purple (hard neck). All up there are about 35 plants in the ground. The sealed black plastic compost bin that holds kitchen scraps was too dry so it got 9 litres of water. I also watered all of the seedlings in the cold frame, my “Dixie Knight” camellia (the only survivor from 3 I bought last spring) as well as my terracotta pots in the verandah full of spring flowers.
Sunday 21/4 – I bought some more Brown Onion seedlings and have planted another 2 rows (the surplus plants are going to my god-daughter), a multi coloured chilli bush and 4 dahlias. Much to my surprise/disappointment the dahlia plants were somewhat non specific as to variety (3 Dahlia Hypnotica and 1 Dahlia Variabilus), still they are very pretty and should add a splash of colour to the front garden. On the advice of my god-daughter I have sown some coriander seeds (as coriander tends to bolt to seed here in Adelaide in the warmer months) – so I am hoping that growing it in the colder weather will result in some leaves that I can harvest.
Monday 22/4 – It has been raining in patches and blowing very hard, so hard in fact that part of my very old pergola was demolished. This is somewhat poetic justice as I have just accepted a quote to have a new one built in the spring. The third batch of tomato seeds seem to be drying out nicely, but the acid test will be the success, or otherwise, in germinating them later this year.
So, I hear you say, what does this garden of Matthew’s look like? Well dear reader(s) look below:
Here is the front garden
And here is part of the back garden (with the head gardener in the foreground)
this is the middle of the back garden
and here is the other edge.
I also have a passionfruit vine growing in a half wine barrel at the very back of the garden
Hi there, and welcome to my blog. I am an amateur gardener living in Adelaide, South Australia.
My passion is growing fruit and vegetables, with a lesser love of flowers.
Each week I will be updating this blog with an account of what’s been happening in my garden.
So some background about my garden, it is small (smaller than I really want) as I live in a terraced house. The front garden 9 is 90% flowers and herbs is 20 feet wide by 18 feet deep. The back garden is 12 feet deep by 30 feet wide.
matthewsgardenblog 