It's here! - Spring 2012

My garden is showing signs that it's Spring.

Only little ones.

It seems that Mother nature may have got a bit confused.

She jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago.

Outside it all fresh and beautiful and we are holed up inside nursing sore throats, temperatures and runny noses.

The doctor told my husband yesterday that he had the flu.

We had an Fundraiser to go to tonight.

Hubby was doing the Auction and MC work.

Luckily they have found a friend who is excellent at this sort of gig too and can step in.

It's a major disappointment that we can't go.

Hubby has the man flu.

Even Nanny is sick in the Nursing home with it.

I have what seems a bad cold, sore throat and sore ears.

My gold crown came off chewing a eucalyptus drop last night, whoops!

Hhhmn. No more hard cough lollies.

Back to drug therapy.

Better still- Back to the garden.

This flowering plum is always the first one to show off.

The cockies had a bit of a chew on it during the week, you can see the branches on the ground.

The lavender was only teeny weeny last year.

Now it is quite the size

They are all different sizes in the bed, mainly due to the fact that the dogs squash them, laying on that sunny bed. I have a set of wire protectors over the bed until they get up a bit.

I also planted some silver bell bushes between them last week.

I am going to prune a bit off this plant. 

The trick is not to take it back to the woody part of the stem.

But keep in the green bit.

I hate that lavender doesn't seem to be long lived.

It gets some sort of mould or fungus.

And I'm so very careful not to water it in the evening.

But it is so glorious.

The wisteria has the buds all fattening up and looking to burst.

There is a hint of purple in the buds.

The roses have really come away since I pruned them last weekend, just before I flushed my phone!

I've bought lots of fertiliser to spread around them.

I am super impressed with these white vinca under the snow pears that went in last year.

I thought that they were a bit useless but they're now showing all sorts of spreading and new shoots.

And the Banksia rose hedge on my front fence is always a pure delight.

I think that it might be about 12 foot high with the bottom 3 feet being supported by the fence.

It is absolutely stunning when it is in full bloom.

It's started.

In fact, it started a few weeks ago.

I hope it holds for a few more weeks.

The fruit trees have been at it too.

The Mulberries sprung a few weeks ago and I was frightened of a frost wiping them out, but they seem to have done ok.

Last week I bought about 10 fruit trees.

I have missed them since my husband bulldozed the orchard a couple of years ago.

So I have done quite the strange thing.

I generally don't like to see fruit trees in the formal part of gardens.

I have always thought they should be reserved for backyards.

But I have taken a leap and put 3 apricot, 2 peacharines and a nectarine tree in my rose garden, which is the second garden bed that you see when you arrive at my house. It's right next to the visitor car park.

Last year I put all sorts of other plants in the rose garden as it was a bit boring.

Not many of them survived.

The iris, society garlic and hippeastrums are all good.

Hhhmn a bit of a bulby theme there!

The butterfly bushes didn't do well, but there are seedlings of them coming up.

Peacharine.

Nectarine and figs in the background waiting to go in the ground.

The Eureka lemons are all flowering again.

They still have all their lemons on them.

I love that a Eureka is a big tree and will give you fruit ALL year round.

The most perfect one to have in the yard. 

As long as I can keep the cockies off them.

You can see the baby lemons growing before the flower petals have even fallen off.

 Out the front, the Purple honeysuckle has sprouted lots of new growth.

Thank goodness!

I thought that  it may have been a waste of money, but I hope it goes feral as I want it to spread all over that hard to fill spot.

Honeysuckle with a complimentary bit of blowaway grass.



The Snow Pears are doing really well too.

They were quite the expensive risk to take to put up our driveway.

There are 8 of them and they have all survived year one.

 

They'll be beautiful in a couple of years when they're a bit fuller in the head/canopy.

My potted Geraniums have gone a bit berserk too.

The Scarlet ashes have popped out their little flowers too.

In between the snow pears are the fragrant Viburnum.

They were brand new and didn't flower for us last year and I can't wait to smell their fragrance. 

And here is my haul to get in the ground today and tomorrow.

Pink and cream spreading gazanias, white Marguerite daisies, erigeron, herbs and spreading white petunias.

Markets on Sunday and I am buying up more plants.

That is if our flus cease there debilitation and we can get there!

What is going on in your garden?