MY THUMBS are TURNING GREEN

I never thought of myself as gardener but since retirement and moving into a new home in Trentham, the desire to improve our surroundings has become a bit of a passion. Sue of course finds it difficult to do the physical stuff but she's the expert supervisor. Having said that I do tend to rush off to the nursery to purchase plants the "I" tend to like without consultation with the "Supervisor".

We also have had some great advice from one of our neighbours, Wendy who is an avid gardener. Trentham also has a gardening group and our local nursery has been helpful with advice on the best plants for our climate. Being situated at 700m above sea level we are part of "the Cool Country" and yet we have had a few high 30 to 40 degree days. This summer we've had to keep the water up to the garden and fortunately its survived very well.

This post is to show where we are at after 14 months since moving in to the house. The hard part was shifting the left over builder's rubble, and then getting top soil in, laying gravel drive and pathways.
Then came the satisfying project of building our gardens and seeing them grow.

Recently we had an arbor built - at the base we planted climbing roses that we hope will eventually soften the structure with green, creamy white and pink.

When we first moved in, this area was a mass of builder's rubble and uneven ground.

Just outside our dining room window we've planted a cottage garden that now has got wild. It's a mass of Cosmos, Bluebells, Lavender and Iris amongst other plants that this newborn gardener has no idea of their names. BUT, gosh they all look great.

I've personally loved fern gardens and I found a spot that survives under a cover of several overhanging trees. There's tree ferns with baby tear growing around their base, smaller birds nest ferns and several ground cover plants amongst the mulched garden bed.

A grave path leads you to the fernery and I hope in time that some of the ground cover with border the path and give it a softness.

As we emerge from the fernery, the gravel path takes us to what we call, the maple walk where we have planted four maple trees and to the very left along the fence line we are planting a rosemary hedge.

At the front of the house, we've set-up a little sitting area. This area faces the house with our cypress hedge behind it. The hedge gives us total privacy. Either side of the garden seat are two potted olive trees. The elysium has gone rampant as have the petunias and some cosmos are sprouting delicate white flowers. We are very please with the way this small feature has progressed.

Currently I'm working on the laundry side of the house with the planting of more ground cover plants to grow among gravel pathways I have laid. Most probably we'll add some potted shrubs/trees to add height. This side of the house gets full morning sun so the plants should grow well with TLC.

Another future project is a combined one with my son who has been a wonderful help with the garden. He wants to add a personal vineyard of pinot noir and chardonnay which should grow well in this cool climate.

I wonder where we will be in another twelve months!

Leading you up the garden path to a purple patch

Its back - spring purple patches all over our garden. Well I call it a garden but really it's just a hotch potch of whatever survives. It seems that purple survives very well in our jungle. In the front we have lavender, wisteria and blue bells (that really are purple). Neither of us have green thumbs. 

These photos were taken on my iPhone as I left for work this morning.

A Melbourne Spring Morning

Lavender is poking out of the soil and cracks in the garden path.

Wisteria is now climbing our walls after being savagely cut back by our gardner son, Mitchy.

Why call them blue-bells if they are purple or did I get that wrong?

How about a bit of Purple Haze by the 2 Cellos

We're having a bit of a purple patch

A purple patch is a period of time when someone

 or something is successful and doing well.

Well, that's what our garden is doing at the moment - rain, sunshine, more rain and our garden is blooming. It's the best its been for years since the drought has broken. We have a Jacaranda tree that covers our back yard in an umbrella of purple blossom.

The Agapanthus are opening up to the warmth of summer and the lavender is creeping outside its normal boundaries.
It could be said that we are going through a purple patch.



The back yard invites us to what we hope will be many meals with friends on the new BBQ.

The wisteria continues to spread purple as well.

The Agapanthas guard the pathway.



The Agapanthus outside our bay window



There are other colours on our property -but maybe for another day.

Lunch in the Gardens

On Thursday this week the Boss took us to Christmas lunch in the Fitzroy Gardens. The Gardens are on the edge of the central business district of Melbourne and just behind Parliament House. I probably haven't been in the gardens since my childhood. I do remember visiting the cottage which supposedly was the home of Captain Cook's parents. That's all I remember.

I'm not sure that I appreciated gardens until we visited the gardens of Paris and the Loire. Luxembourg, and Jardin les Plants were inspiring. Fitzroy gardens is probably about the same size, but different due to being in opposite hemispheres. Although there are many English trees, there are also many indiginous trees and plants among the winding paths. The land was set aside for parklands in 1840 by Govenor La Trobe.
The head Gardener at the time was James Sinclair between 1860 and 1870. Some of his plantings survive to this day.

After a surprise game of ten pin bowling, we alighted from our bus on the city side of the gardens and walked the paths to where, we did not know at the time. I lagged behind the others as I took in the sight of the Spanish style Conservatory built in 1929. Inside was a floral display of hanging baskets, and water plants.

Inside and around the Conseratory.

Cook's cottage was the next building we  viewed as we walked under the tall trees that flanked the winding pathway. It was dismantled stone by stone then transported to Melbourne and rebuilt in 1934.
The Yorkshire cottage was originally built in 1755. Cook never actually lived in the home.


From Wikipedia
"In 1933 the owner of the cottage decided to sell it with a condition of sale that the building remain in England. She was persuaded to change "England" to "the Empire", and accepted an Australian bid of £800, by Russell Grimwade as opposed to the highest local offer of £300.
The cottage was deconstructed brick by brick and packed into 253 cases and 40 barrels, for shipping onboard the Port Dunedin from Hull. Cuttings from ivy that adorned the house were also taken and planted when the house was re-erected in Melbourne. Grimwade, a notable businessman and philanthropist, donated the house to the people of Victoria for the centenary anniversary of the settlement of Melbourne in October 1934."

Although known as Cook's cottage, he never actually lived here. His parents did.

James Sinclair, the head Gardener's home still stands within the gardens and I stopped to admire the architecture while my hungry work collegues were about 100 metres further on.

James Sinclair's cottage, and he did live here............

As I hurried to catch up, I missed seeing the children's favourite, the Fairies tree. Sculptured by Ola Cohn, it links elves, fairies and goblins with Australian animals.

Before reaching the venue of our Christmas lunch, I passed the miniature Tudor village. Although a little tacky in my mind, the sentiment behind the miniature village certainly wasn't. It was donated to Melbourne by the people of Lambeth, England in 1948 in appreciation of food pacels sent to them from Australia during World War II.

The miniature Tudor Village presented to Melbourne by the people of Lambeth, England.

I wish I could have continued to explore the gardens further but both my stomach and my collegues were beckoning me to lunch. Maybe I'll return for a more relaxed walk another time.

The Pavilion Cafe during the 1950s prior to being destroyed by fire. A more modern building is where we enjoyed lunch.

If you would like to explore more of the gardens, follow the link below.
http://www.fitzroygardens.com/

Apologies for the average quality of the photographs - I carry a small Canon camera in my pocket for ocassions such as this day. The weather was overcast and light rain fell most of the afternoon.

The Color of Purple - Whoopi

THE COLOR OF PURPLE - WHOOPI

Great movie, great color, great actor.

Our property is pouting purple everywhere at the moment.

This photo doesn't do justice to our Jacaranda tree. I'll take another pic in a week or two when it leaves a carpet of purple blossom on the grass. You can lay on the ground and look up through the gnarly limbs and let the filtered light touch your face. Preferably with a beer in your hand...

Our Jacaranda tree in the back yard is just starting to blossom, a little late compared to neighbouring Jacarandas. Nothing unusual about that, she's just a late bloomer. Over next few weeks it will be full of blossom and as the blossom falls to the ground our green lawn becomes a carpet of purple.

In the front garden, the Agapanthus are opening and showing off their purple bits as well. Although considered a bit of a weed in the bay area, I love them when they flower. Unfortunately the snails love them in winter when they do look like weeds.

I just love these guys - Agapanthus reinvent themselves from a green weed to a splash purple every summer.

In support of the Agapanthus, our lavender which seems to self seed at random has tips of purple to complement the overhanging wisteria.

The Wisteria is about to attack the Lavender - Its a jungle out there...

The wisteria gets cut back many times during spring and summer. Being outside our bedroom window, I fear it might whisk us away in our sleep one night if I didn't keep it under control.

Our Wisteria is like a python wrapping itself around the columns of the veranda and any other plants that get in its way - beware the Wisteria....

It seems to enjoy hugging itself around the front veranda columns and taking over more than its allocated space.

And just quietly minding its own business at ground level, the Elysium moves through the spaces between the brick driveway. Mostly white, some purple, well lilac is appearing this year.

Shhhhh! The Elysium is sneaking down the driveway....

I noticed this all this morning when all the purples were enjoying the sunshine. That is until mid-afternoon when a storm came and went within no more that thirty minutes.

You know what they say about Melbourne weather. If you don't like it, wait for an hour - it will change.

Today reminded me of some days last June in the Loire when after a humid day the storm clouds would roll in, accompanied with claps of thunder.