Have I told you how much I love to stand on my balcony, elbows on the railing, looking over my garden? I've never had a birds eye view of a garden before, and it's just delightful. One can see the shape of things, notice things as a whole.
This week I got some round concrete pavers to thread through the vegetable patch. Eventually I might mosaic them. In my mind the lower veggie patch (as oppsed to the raised bed section) is divided into three sections, and easier to navigate now rather than accidentally tread on leeks and beetroot. I've started digging out the huge cedar gum stump so jamie can cut it down further and we can backfill the hole with soil and I can extend the pavers into the garden a little more.
HOw gorgeous is this statice? The butterflies seem to love it. Some old school plants you just can't go past.
I emptied out one of the compost I thought might be ready for Christmas, but the warmer weather down here on the coast and in that part of the block means it was ready instead now, early October. I am a bit obsessed with it - I collect coffee grounds and seaweed and cardboard and have been adding excess garden greens and boxes of greens from the local food charity to layer between. The worms come - what a mystery that they do, from dusty sandy soil to the compost bins! Anyway, this dalek of compost was added to the beds and to a compost tea. Another will be ready soon. Worms, worms, worms!
The burgundy strawflower has fully bloomed now - and as suspected, has a yellow centre! Isn't it spectacular? We've had three kinds of butterflies land in the garden, much to Jamie's suprise, since he wasn't listening when I said I had planted for butterflies. :P
I'm not sure what they centre of this strawflower is going to do but ain't it pretty?
The kale is looking healthy, but the cucumber - dammit, half eaten by - hmmm, maybe slaters from the compost, meaning I'll have to put pots around them to prevent that happening. MAny things are going to flower, like the silverbeet and kale, and it's likely because the raised beds dry out faster.
The nigella is nearly blooming now - such a pretty leafed plant! I'm not sure if it's blue or yellow. And the sage is also doing great after a winter of looking like it wasn't planted in the right spot at all. Yay.
Sage, borage, calendula
I also can't remember which poppy I planted. It'll be a suprise when it does!
There's a few dwarf broccoli blooming - the cabbage whites can't even keep 'em back.
Haven't had a lot of luck with the sugarloaf cabbage - perhaps a combination of cabbage white assault, the beds drying out, and being overly shaded by silverbeet. I always find cabbage hit and miss to grow. I often miss picking it before the slugs attack or they flower.
Have had RIDICULOUS amounts of rainbow silverbeet (chard) - it goes in all my winter meals, pretty much! Plus to the chooks, and the neighbours, and the compost.
The olive tree is putting on tons of weight since it was mulched and composted. Mum gave me a 'lemon lights' grevillea which will have a really dark yellow flower, but the other yellow one has flowered for the first time (thanks to mulch and native feed) and I'm pretty sure it's grevillea moonlight.
The coriander is going to seed - yay. I lvoe fresh coriander seed.
I've also planted lemon balm, vietnamese mint and peppermint in pots by the chook pen in the semi shade there - they'll recive water when I top up the chook water and appreciate the cooler microclimate down there.
The tomatoes are putting on weight and one has even got a flower, which seems way to early but we are no way getting frost now so I think we might even have tomato for Christmas!
With Love,
Hi, my name is  @riverflows and I help facilitate the Hive Gardeners group here on the Hive blockchain. You can find us here. I live in a warm temperate climate near the coast in Australia. I really love growing our own food and medicinal herbs, native plants, and creating good soil for resilient plants. | |
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