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Another year has gone by, and while most people find New Years a time of reflection of the past year and what they want to gain in the next – I find myself doing the same thing for the garden. What worked? What was a complete disaster? What do I need to plant more of this year? What do I want to try?
As the permanent plants and trees become larger in the garden I find myself needing to adapt and change where I am able to plant vegetables to still gain success. My knowledge grows each year though, which is something to be happy about. A good way of seeing how far I have come is a look over previous photos of how the garden has grown and changed since we first moved in four years ago. So here is a look over the evolution of the garden – I recommend all gardeners do the same thing; I promise it will make you smile. Happy New Year everyone, and for those who are gardeners – I wish you a large bounty and fast-ripening tomatoes this year 🙂
From the “for sale” adds – the garden when we first moved in
Initial work
Year 1 – initial brick work
Year 1
Year 1
Year 1
Year 1
Year 2 – making my mark
Year 2
Year 2
Year 3 – Spring
Year 3
Year 3 – Summer
Year 3
Year 4 – Spring
Year 4
Year 4
The front garden – looking lush & in need of a weed…
Out the back – starting to take over…
The garden has had a real burst of life over the past couple of weeks – especially out the back which is steadily becoming quite overgrown. I’m still waiting for the flash of ripe-tomato-red to arrive in the garden, but alas nothing so far. While summer salads may be awhile off yet, the garden still provided me with a weekend lunch – zucchini fritters with a side of freshly picked beans.
Today’s pickings
I’m generally renowned for putting zucchinis into almost every meal, but zucchini fritters would have to be my favourite. So simple too – flour, eggs, 2-3 zucchinis and fetta cheese – yet an extremely tasty outcome. Really enjoyable and hopefully the first of many summer meals provided by the garden.
Still waiting for the fruit of the summer veggies to grow and ripen … but at least I’ve been able to enjoy the summer flowers while I wait, knowing they’re helping to bring in the bees…
One of the main things I had to learn about renovating was to be extremely flexible. At times I did struggle this, however overall now that we’ve finished – I think I did (reasonably) ok. A fair amount of tantrums occurred though when the garden was invaded. Over the past few years renovations have been mostly inside, however at the very end (back in September) all the weatherboards were replaced outside and the eaves etc were sanded to make the front look… well…stunning. The only problem with this was the garden underneath was trampled in the process. To be fair to my partner Chris, I was warned of this pretty much the day we moved in, so I’ve really only planted annuals and a couple of bulbs. But still – when the time came I guess I’d put it so far in the back of my mind, that it was hard to watch.
I sulked for a good childish amount of time, but then given free rein to start building up the garden again did spark me out of my mood. I thought about it for weeks, trying to work out how to form a “screen” between the two new pillars. I thought about different grasses, small shrubs and even lavender came to mind. However a walk about our local streets revealed the inspiration I needed – my favourite native correas! It seemed very me and I loved the idea instantly.
What was left – a new blank canvas to work with
I dug through some compost under both windows and planted my “Alba” correa (had been growing in a pot out the back) between the pillars. I found a couple of cheap mini “Alba” cuttings too which I planted either side – hopefully as they grow larger they’ll continue to form a screen. I divided a grass that I already had growing there and added a lot of annuals around the front to hopefully give the areas a burst of summer colour.
Initial planting (in September/October)
Under the bay window I also planted three correas – this time a “Canberra Bells” as well as a couple of my “Relexa” cuttings I’ve been growing. Again annuals were splattered around to hopefully give a burst of life.
Initial planting (September/October)
I’ve now also moved a few spring seedlings out there too – including dwarf beans, capsicums and pumpkin seedlings (a bit hopeful I think, but worth a try!). Now that it’s been a couple of months, everything has grown and the area is looking a lot better (see photos below)
Even though the garden went through a very negative patch, and a lot of my spring bulbs were nowhere to be seen this year – things are now back to positive and on the way up. Thankfully rennos are now finished, and I can go back to protecting plants just from snails – at least they’re smaller.
What the garden now looks like – photos taken this week
The garden now (photo taken this week)
My orchid has been continuing to bloom over the past couple of months & brightening my room – it always makes me smile. While I’d love to put up photos of it in full flower, sadly a couple of the flowers are starting to droop. But the flowers have been, and still are, lovely and I thought it worth a few photos before the magic is gone…
Back in autumn I pruned my callistemon (an Australian native) but what I was left with was a fair few branches that were a bit too big to compost and felt like a waste to throw out. I decided to use the branches in a pot to form a tepee and planted sweet peas all around the bottom.
The peas have only now decided they are going to flower, despite being almost summer. However when they are this pretty and delicate, I guess I shouldn’t complain that I had to wait – hopefully they will continue to flower through summer and make the most of my left over branches.
I’ve been waiting for over a year – but finally, my Black Barlow Aquilegia has started to flower. I sought out a seedling of the Black Barlow last year due to the deep rich colour and, to the best of my knowledge, isn’t around my area very much. It almost died over summer from the intense heat – however with a bit of nurture it survived and has started to bloom. I realise I change my mind every week – but this week it’s my favourite flower in the garden.
Spring has been well and truly in the air for some time now, and as a result it’s easy to find signs of spring throughout the garden. I think I had more flowers and bulbs out last year – unfortunately neglect from finishing the renovations before our permit ran out meant aphids destroyed a l lot of bulbs before I’d even realised they had moved in. But what was left remains beautiful and provides a pleasant working ground for creating the summer garden. Also included in the spring flowers is my very first apple blossom which can’t help but make me smile!
Penny's Garden: a harvest beyond my front door 