The Crepe Myrtle ‘Sioux’ Finally Bloomed

The pink ‘Indian Summer’ Crepe Myrtle (lagerstroemia indica) ‘Sioux’ was the very first thing we planted when we moved into our forever home three years ago. Crepe Myrtles are amongst my very favourite trees, and I wanted it to be one of the first things I saw whenever I turned into the driveway.

Those Little Labels

I seem to have amassed quite a collection of the little plastic labels that come attached to new plants!

So many little labels!

Choosing Roses- A Tough Decision!

Recently I had the most wonderful dilemma- a place in my garden just begging to be planted with a row of standard roses (also known as tree roses). I just needed to decide on which beauties to plant there.

The newly created bed in December 2013, before mulching

Introducing The Planted Beds- Bed 1

Flower Carpet ‘Appleblossom’- a new addition to the garden

Following on from my last landscaping update, we planted out the garden beds in the last week of Spring (November 2013). The beds had previously been covered in white landscaping pebbles and weedmat, and the soil required some rehabilitation after the rocks were removed. We broke up the compressed soil with a pick and mixed in some lovely new organic garden soil. A few weeks ago I came across a worm while digging in the soil- a promising sign.

Merry Christmas!

Because it’s summer in Australia!

Just a short note to wish everybody a very merry Christmas! Thank you for all your visits, likes and comments on my little blog over the past 5 months.

The Pebbles Are Gone!

If I weren’t so exhausted, I’d do a little happy dance. The great pebble blight is over!

Around 6 cubic metres of pebbles were removed and given away. We then looked at the weather forecast and picked a day where rain wasn’t predicted, and ordered 4 tonnes of certified organic garden soil to be delivered. The beds needed to be turned over and topped up after 17 years of compression and suffocation by weed mat and rocks. Even after 2 months of the soil being exposed, in Spring, not a single weed had moved into the poor quality soil!

The Queen Elizabeth Rose

I have quite a few ‘favourites’ in the garden, but top of them all are roses. The first rose I ever grew was the grandiflora rose “Queen Elizabeth”, which was given to me by a dear friend to start my garden at the old house. I was quite sad to leave her behind when we moved (the rose, not the friend). Here are some pictures of the Queen Elizabeth flowers taken at the previous house:

Queen Elizabeth blooms in a vase

Blooming Bougainvilleas

I have two Bougainvilleas in pots on the back deck, and they are putting on a colourful show at the moment.

The first is Bougainvillea ‘Barbara Karst‘- a popular cultivar with vibrant, deep hot pink bracts. Barbara Karst is apparently a ‘red’ bougainvillea, but she certainly doesn’t look red.

Bougainvillea ‘Barbara Karst’

Hot Spring Weather

Today’s weather forecast – 6 weeks into Spring. Screenshot taken of the ‘Weatherzone+’ app

Well, it’s a hot one here in Sydney today. The forecast for most parts of Sydney is in the high 30’s, with 37 degrees C (that’s 99 F) and strong winds in my area . Even for Sydney, it’s an absurdly hot Spring day.

Heavenly Hydrangeas

Close-up of my hydrangea blooms

The hot weather this weekend has really limited the amount of heavy duty work I’ve been willing to do in the garden (i.e. moving the last of the pebbles). So I spent some time yesterday instead tending to a shady and cool corner of the front garden that had been on my to-do list for a while.