Autumn/Winter Garden End of May 2012

Just got back from my veggie patch. It's is freezing out there today! I've been looking out over my patch for a few weeks but with all the rain & cold weather, today was the first time I'd been down there for a while. I trained a few pea plants up their trellis that had fallen flat on the floor & I ate my first snow pea! Yum, nothing like home grown veggies from your own plant.

Harvested some spinach to go in a salad today & some parsley to go in a bechamel sauce for a lasagna. Here are a few photos of how everything is looking now.

My parsley & spinach harvest.

Snow peas climbing slowly.

Whoever was eating the spinach seemed to have stopped, so it's growing once again. Might be too cold for spinach stealing at the moment.

Here's a nice little silver beet plant. I have no idea why this plant is green & all the other silver beet are red?? They came from the same seed packet. If you know, please let me know.

Little silver beet plants. Slow growing.

Parsley & garlic much the same.

The sugar snap peas are looking a bit sad at the bottom, but the tops are very healthy. I'm not sure if this is a problem, but they are flowering, so perhaps it's ok.

 

My Autumn/Winter patch end of May 2012. Things seem to be progressing very slowly. I wonder if it's the cold weather & winter plants grow slower than warm weather plants? If you know, please leave me a comment & let me know if I'm right.

Still haven't done anything about that poorly laid soaker hose. I blame all the rain.

My backyard is a blanket of lush, green clover at the moment & it's really very pretty.

Thanks for reading,

Bel

A New Maple, Rose & a Little Bush

Lots of new things for my balcony the last few days. My last post I repotted my sango kaku, which left me with a big beautiful red glazed pot to fill with something new.

Many posts ago I planted a dahlia in an old pot & didn't wash it. I believe I said something like "I like living on the edge" & "I'm sure it will be fine" or something like that.

Well, it wasn't fine. Not too sure if it was the unwashed pot or if it were to happen anyway, but my dahlia was ravaged by fungus or mildew or something a month or so later, so this time, I washed my old pot!

Little helper was in helping again. I used some bleach & water to wash the pot.

 

Baby girl watching from the side.

Then I gave it a good rinse with water. Little helper finished the job.

 

The next day the 3 of us paid a visit to Bunnings. Little helper fell asleep in the car on the way back, so in his bed he went & baby girl & I did some potting up together. Girl gardening time.

She was happy about it!

At Bunnings I bought a Nandina bush, some rose & terracotta potting mix, a little terracotta pot, some more pot feet & some stones. I had my Gold Bunny rose to pot up from the the other day & I received my mothers day maple.

I knew it was going to be a baby when I asked for it, as it didn't carry the price tag of my sango kaku or inaba shidare, however, I laughed when I saw how small it actually was! One day, it will be a mighty tree & I have plenty of time to watch it grow.

My new maple's full name is Acer shirasawanum 'aureum'. Here's a picture of its leaves (photo courtesy of squirrelbasket.wordpress.com). Aureum Is an upright Japanese maple.

I love the shape & how bright the leaves are. Gorgeous.

So, below is a photo of all my new purchases ready to go, plus baby helper.

Gotta watch out when they start to get mobile, they snatch your shrubs!

Onto the business of potting my plants & baby tree.

I started off by soaking my dormant rose in a bucket of water for about 20 minutes.

While the rose was soaking, I made use of an old black glazed pot I've had empty for some time & filed it with my newly purchased nandina bush.

I've been buying so many decorative flowers & trees, I decided I needed a little shrub to break it all up. I wanted a nandina fire power, which is a gorgeous shrub that has bright red leaves. They didn't have any so I bought a different variety that does have orange leaves, but not as bright as the fire power. Maybe next time I'll buy the more vibrant one.

My old black pot.

Nandina out of its pot,

and into it's new one.

 

I like it. It's a sweet litle bush & it's different to what I'm doing at the moment on my balcony.

Little shrub done, now onto my Gold Bunny rose. I filled sango kaku's old red glazed pot with rose specific potting mix & in it went. I've gone completely pebble crazy at the moment. Mainly because every time I go to Bunnings lately there are bags of stones & pebbles for $2 each. I just can't pass it up & I love the way they look. So I added some green stones as mulch to my Gold Bunny rose.

 

 

Next I potted up my tiny Japanese maple. I filled a little terracotta pot with terracotta potting mix, perlite & some slow release fertiliser. I purchased a simple, small pot to start with & when my baby tree starts to get big, I'll buy a really nice glazed pot for it to live in.

Here's my stick, I mean, tree.

Gold stones added as mulch. See, stone crazy!

I had some left over green & gold stones so I added some to my standard fuchsia & some to my standard Just Joey rose.

This is my other balcony. My standard fuchsia is first up the front, then I have thyme, parsley, my new maple, a heavily pruned fuchsia & a standard rosemary. I don't like the look of the netting around the balcony, but it makes it safe for my kids, so I leave it for now. It's not forever.

Right up front here is my dwarf peach tree.

Here's the gold stones in my standard Rose's pot on my other balcony. I can't stand the rose's awful plastic pot. I will be repotting it once I have some spare cash for a prettier pot.

Here's a couple of before photo's of this balcony before the new additions & a little rearranging.

 

Before..

And as it looks today.

 

 

It's kinda cool isn't it? I love all the stones. It gives it an Asian feel.

Hope you enjoyed my latest post.

Be well & happy,

Bel

Repotting My Japanese Maple- Sango Kaku

Yesterday, early evening, I repotted my Japanese maple, sango kaku. It's been in its pot for over a year & it's been doing really well & doubled in size. I decided to repot it into a bigger pot this autumn/winter to support its beautiful growth.

I purchased a lovely glazed pot with 3 drainage holes. I always make sure there are 3 drainage holes for my maples because they need good drainage. I bought pot feet to aid with drainage as well.

I also purchased premium potting mix, some perlite & some pretty stones to use as mulch- and for prettiness of course!

First step, remove the maple from it's small pot. Seemed easy but it actually took quite a bit of effort! It wasn't round bound as such, but it had a beautiful big root ball that I had to squeeze out of the opening.

It was pretty stuck for a while there.

Finally got it out!

Next I added some potting mix & some perlite, plus some slow release fertiliser & mixed it all together at the bottom of the pot. Perlite adds lightness to the potting mix which helps with drainage, as well as all the other little drainage improving tricks I mentioned above. It's very important to get good drainage for the tree's health.

Here I am adding the potting mix. I chose this potting mix because it's high quality & because it has water saver crystals already added to it, so I didn't have to buy them separately. It's good to have them in there so the tree doesn't dry out if your slightly slack with watering.

Adding Perlite. I'm wearing my new floral gloves!

Some slow realise fertiliser. Little helper learning.

 

I added enough potting mix to raise the tree to the right level in the pot. Little helper mixed the soil, perlite & fertiliser through evenly.

In the pot it went.

Then I filled the pot up with perlite, soil & fertiliser mix once again.

I watered the maple in well & then it got dark & cold, so on to the next morning.

Out I went to sweep up the dirt & leaves & add the pretty stones to the top of the pot

Little helper started out by adding them one by one. Too cute right?

 

Eventually, we go them all on.

 

Sango kaku in its beautiful new pot.

 

 

From little helper & I,

Have a great week,

Bel