My Weeping Japanese Maple

My most favourite thing in all my garden is my weeping Japanese maple. I've wanted one for ages & finally got one as a gift from my family for Chritsmas. It's full name is acer palmatum dissectum 'inaba shidare' & it is stunning. It is a lace leaved maple with gorgeous deep red foliage that turns a bright crimson in autumn. Oh how I love staring at it every single day.

I put it in a glossy cobalt blue pot because I love the contrast with the red leaves.

A little birdy to watch over it.

The day I bought it home & put it in its new pot, I realised it had a tiny little praying mantis on it! It's considered a good omen, so I was pretty happy with him being there.

I've only had it for 3 months so I can't wait to see it change colour now that it's autumn. Then the dormant period that I love so much. Then the spring growth, the best season of all!

Maples don't like hot winds & there have been a few over the summer which have burned the ends of its lovely leaves. It doesn't look as beautiful as usual at the moment.

 

This is one of the many things I love about deciduous trees. The leaves get ratty & it doesn't matter because they all fall off & are replaced in spring by gorgeous, glossy bright red new ones.

Thanks for reading & be well

Bel

My First Japanese Maple- Sango Kaku

I couldn't love any tree more than the Japanese maple. I have been successfully growing one grand looking Sango Kaku in a smallish pot for over a year. It has absolutely flourished. Almost doubled in size in a year. I'm very proud of this as I was sure I'd kill it! It's so beautiful & it made me nervous to own it but nope, I am doing great. It's full name is acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' syn. Senkaki

I remember researching about growing Japanese maples in pots & I'd read over & over that you shouldn't pot them in too big of a pot. Well, when I was buying a smallish pot & the lady at the nursery said "You're going to kill that tree!!!" I stayed strong & bought it anyway & so far so good.

Here's my baby maple when I first received it. It was a surprise birthday present from my son & husband, so it's extra special.

 

 

Here it is in it's first autumn. Little helper was just walking then.

 

 

And here it is dormant in winter.

I adore this time. The leaves drop off, the skies are black & grey. The maple is just a bunch of red sticks & twigs. It looks completely dead. Devoid of any signs of life. A shadow of the beautiful tree it was before....

......and then the weather begins to warm, the sun begins to shine & the first flush of spring appears & the maple starts to come to life.

 

The tiny dormant buds start to shoot out little whispers of the lush green maple leaves that are to come. Then eventually, they all burst open & it is by far my favourite time of the year. The perfect, unblemished, bright green flush of newly born maple leaves. I can NOT stop looking at it when it looks like this.

 

 

I just love the deep red of the trunk against the bright green of the new spring growth.

 

And here it is right now on the brink of another autumn. It's really grown hasn't it?

 

Will be re-potting this lovely tree once it's dormant this winter. I will blog all about it & buy a fancy new pot for it to live in too.

Next post I'll show you my most prized garden possession, my weeping Japanese maple, Inaba Shidare.

Hope you enjoyed my maple as much as I enjoy owning it.

Have a happy day!

Bel

 

A Dahlia on Death Row

I've taken up a little hobby recently. I've started going to the discount section at nurseries buying awesome, half dead plants really cheap & nursing them back to health! I'm loving it!! It's cheap & it's rewarding.

I've been wanting to buy a Dahlia after seeing the most amazing one at Cloudehill Gardens In the Dandenongs (they are the most amazing gardens!). I believe it's called Midnight Sun. Here's a photo I took of it. It's the plant with bright yellow flowers & dark purple foiliage. Such a dramatic clash of colours. I love it.

Isnt it amazing!!!??!! Here it is amongst the other plants & trees in the warm beds at Cloudehill.

So, when I saw a slightly worse for wear dahlia at the nursery half price, I bought it straight away. Mine has dark green foliage & gorgeous cream blooms with fluffy, bright yellow centres. It's such a beautiful plant & doesn't look like its on it's death bed anymore after some pruning & a big dose of seasol. It's pot is a bit average, but it's all I had at the time.

Funny, the Dahlia hadn't been in its pot for more than 3 minutes when a little bee flew straight on to my balcony, straight to the bright yellow flower centre & went to town in the soft pollen. His little face was covered in it. My son was suitably impressed with Mr Bee & once he was done collecting pollen, he was gone.

Mother nature hard at work on my humble balcony garden. Makes me smile.

Dahlia's need lots of sunlight & flower from spring through to autumn, so I'm getting the last blooms now. They like to always be moist as well so will need to keep on top of that. Not sure of its position on my balcony at the moment. Thinking about a bit of a re-arrange soon. To be continued.....

 

Until next time, stay well!

Bel

Autumn/Winter Garden Begins!

Had a great time planting my Autumn/winter garden. The ground was all turned over, fertilised & loose, ready for my new seeds & plants before I started.

First up, started with my pea seedlings. Piled up some soil at the base of my trellis & placed the seedlings out with the right amount of spacing (or there abouts) so I knew how many I could fit! Yippee, fit them all!!!

Next up, made a hole for each seedling, in they went & patted them in!

Then on to planting my sugar snap peas. I have never grown these before so pretty excited! I adore them so I'm hoping they do well. I'm growing these from seed.

I made a long mound of dirt again & hammered in 2 stakes left over from my tomatoes last season & will make another trellis some day soon for my peas to climb up!

Made some little holes with my fingers & my little helper put the pea seeds in to their little holes.

We then filled the little holes with soil together & lightly patted them in (little helper, not so lightly)

Next up- garlic! First time growing this too. I purchased some bulbs from bunnings & broke one apart in to individual cloves & pushed them into the ground, point up! But before this, little helper tried to push the entire garlic bulb into the dirt!

Love the little concentration tongue out.

So eventually, cloves in & ready for our next veg, silver beet. I have always loved silver beet. My Nonna would boil it then fry it with potatoes, olive oil & garlic. I always loved eating it this way growing up & still request it to this day. Looking forward to giving her my silver beet this year to cook up for us!

Started the silver beet from seed. Made little holes, popped them in & patted them down.

Below are the uncovered silver beet seeds. Never realised they were so big! The packet suggested planting a few in a bunch so I imagine I'll be thinning them out once they sprout. We'll see! The fun is finding out along the way.

Finally little helper planted his own little nasturtium plant all by himself. I made a small mound for him next to the silver beet, made a small hole & let him do the rest! He did a great job :)

Here's a few photos of our finished work today

That's it for now. Next time I get out in the patch I'll be sowing leek & spring onion seeds & perhaps a few other things. See how I go.

Until next time readers, enjoy your day!

Bel

 

Goodbye Spring/Summer 2011/12

Last week I pulled out all my ragged Spring/Summer plants to make way for my Autumn/Winter garden! Here are a couple of before photos. As you can see, looking pretty ordinary! The cute little one in the knitted hat is my 2.5 year old son.

I let my bean plants die as I thought I had a wasp nest in amongst the leaves! Turns out a couple were just hanging around the beans, but no nest thank goodness.

First things first. I pulled out all old plants & weeds. Decided to leave my parsley in for longer as it is so lush & green & doing really well. I got the seeds from my Nonna, which feels a bit spesh too :) Got my little helper to soften up the ground for me so I could turn it all over easily.

 

Got my shovel out & got to turning! Turned over around 30cm's of soil all around the patch, sprinkled some dynamic lifter pellets & mixed that all through the soil.

Here's a photo of my freshly turned & fertilised veggie patch all ready for some new Autumn/winter crops! I leave the front area of my patch alone as I have a big problem with rain gushing from the roof of my house & destroying any plants at the very front of the garden. It's really annoying & I'm hoping my husband & father in law can sort this out for me this year as its such a waste of area! I could plant 4 or more veggies in that area!

 

Next post I'll be planting my new Autumn/Winter crops & I'll share a few pics of my new dahlia plant & a little extra something I added to my absolutely, amazingly, gorgeous Japanese maple, Inaba Shidare

Til next time readers, stay well

Bel

Gardens Gone By

So, to get my blog off & running, thought I'd post a few pics of my first Summer garden (from 2010/11) & my second Spring/Summer garden 2011/12. The whole Autumn/Winter period 2011, my patch consisted of weeds. I was pregnant & very sick with all day & night sickness PLUS chasing a toddler around, so the garden was just a lump of dirt for a period there, but with a bit of pulling this out & raking that, it was reborn!

Below are a few photos of my first ever veggie patch. Summer 2010/11

Humble beginnings Summer 2010. Here I had planted dwarf beans, zuchini, eggplant, cucumber, a bunch of herbs, beetroot & carrots.

Looking fresh & full by March 2011. Harvested some nice beans, zuchini & cucumbers. Carrots were a big fail, as were the herbs! Got huge eggplant plants but no eggplants! & beets were small & bitter. So, half success & half failure. I was super happy considering it was my first veggie patch ever!

Grew some gorgeous dwarf sunflowers by end of summer 2011

Then along came Spring/Summer that just passed, 2011/12. Started off great, was my first time growing tomatoes, had big, gorgeous tomatoes everywhere, I was SO HAPPY! Then a huge hail storm hit & ruined my whole garden :( The beans recovered but everything else suffered too much. It was a bit sad but you've just gotta move right along in this gardening game & take failure in your stride!

Here's a photo of the initial planting. I grew climbing beans, zucchini, parsley & giant sunflowers from seed. Planted 16 tomato varieties from seedlings. Got a bit tomato excited hehe

Me in the garden with my baby daughter. Things were looking beautiful before the storm.

Some of my beautiful tomatoes & a cute little nasturtium

My climbing beans. I was so happy with how much they grew from seed! Success!

Two seasons come & gone. Me & my family ate many lovely veggies & a few were better thrown over the fence!

Have an awesome day!

Bel