June Flowers

This month's pictures are a mixture of before and after: the snow, that is. The chrysanthemums, sweet peas and bishop's flower are now mostly mush, but the pansies, calendula and wintersweet are still going strong. There's even a rogue petunia mixed in with the carnations that just doesn't want to finish up. The fairy blush camellias are starting to open and hyacinths are popping up. It seems early for those, but I remember they did this last year and the flowers seemed to hang around for a while, as long as slugs don't eat them that is!

I'm picking big bunches of wintersweet and putting them throughout the house. Pansies make cute little posies and last a surprisingly long time. How is your garden blooming at this time of year?

Snow and sand

Ok, well as you can see it did happen! Snow hit on Wednesday and made a big cold mess. I managed to get away before it got too heavy and drove south where eventually it cleared, the sun came out and it was a nice (but cold) winters day.

My poor garden looks quite sad now. The dahlias are soggy black stems and many shrubs and bushes have been flattened. The peppers and chillis that had remained are piles of mush, but the cauliflowers have survived and I even picked the first one of the season today.

I spent a few days spending time with family in Timaru after visiting Dunedin for a funeral. A sad time but nice to catch up with people. Caroline Bay was almost empty on a sunny afternoon, which is my favourite way to find a beach... peaceful, serene, beautiful.

Today was cold and everywhere I went (supermarket, butcher's etc) people were talking about more snow. I'm not listening though... if I don't hear it it won't happen... I'll stick my fingers in my ears... lalalala.

Indoors

When it's gloomy and grey or night outside, I light the fire and put on some fairy lights and take my coffee inside. Sometimes I watch a movie but I always like to have crochet in my hand. The summertime blanket grows slowly but that's what I've come to expect. For a change of pace I make little covers for rocks - they are pretty and quick to finish.

I've been painting a china cabinet to hold my vases and other pretties. It's all done except the leadlight doors. I got some carved bone handles to gussy up the front. (I'll dedicate a post to it as soon as it's actually finished.)

My little feijoa tree outside produced about three edible fruits. Luckily my neighbour dropped off a big bag and I used them to bake a feijoa loaf. Yum... I love this oddly tropical tasting fruit.

The wintersweet is in full bloom and the scent of it is in almost every room in my house. It makes this time of year worthwhile. (Please no snow tomorrow... it's in the forecast but I have to drive to Timaru! Let's hope that snow cloud just up and disappears)

Outdoors

June is here and winter is creeping in. The weather is changeable, frosty nights followed by gradually warming sunny days. Gale force winds blow in followed by sudden bursts of rain and ending up with rainbows.

There are still flowers in the garden. The summer beauties are gone but the winter wonders have kicked in. Winter flowers are always so delicate looking, yet they are the strongest of them all. From fragrant papery wintersweet blossom to the silk-flower allure of the camellia, winter flowers lift my spirits when not much else does.

I work a bit in the garden, in the optimal hours between 12 and 4 pm. It's funny how this changes... in summer this is probably the worst time to be outside, but in winter it's that narrow window of opportunity and you have to grab it. My winter garden jobs include digging up some more flower bed (of course), laying some weed mat in various places and planting lavender seedlings along the back fence line. I've made a small start on one of these jobs. There doesn't seem to be any need to hurry.

I miss going for walks. I was in a good habit right before daylight savings for going for a walk in the evenings. Sometimes these days I go for a walk in the weekend, but often I'm too busy gardening, or else sitting around. I do a lot of that too. Really, you just have to roll with it. Winter is a time for hibernation and I guess that's what I'm going to do.

May flowers

 There are still plenty of flowers in the garden this month. We have had one or two light frosts but nothing too serious, so there isn't much dieback yet. Still lots of seedheads and berries.

This month I tried my hand at ikebana flower arranging. I read a book which got me inspired - I love the sculptural aspect of the arrangements, and the fact that they are always seasonal and inspired by what is growing in the garden at the time. You also don't need very many stems or blooms. 

This is my attempt at a slanting moribana arrangement, using azalea branches, chrysanthemums and an unknown shrub with red berries (it was growing over the neighbour's fence).

The berries are hiding away behind the flowers - they are better viewed from above! The arrangement has been fresh for nearly two weeks now, though I may need to replace the flower heads soon.

What's blooming in your garden this month? For more inspiration, check out Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Crochet vintage stripe footstool

 This is a footstool cover I made recently. I wanted to make a sort of sampler of rows of different stitches and colours. I imagined it being a good winter evening project, with my interest being held by the changing stitches. Well, it was really fun to work, so much so that I had it finished in a week. That includes sewing in all the ends - that's how keen I was to get this baby on display!

 I worked double crochet in white around the edges and began decreasing around the corners from the 5th round. One thing I know from having made a footstool cover before is that it will stretch and eventually begin to sag, so I made it fit as tightly as possible.

There are a range of stitches in here, mostly double and half double crochet. Some rows were worked in the back loops only to leave a textured line. I also did shell clusters, spike stitch and a few lacy stitches.

I have seen some vintage blankets which use this technique - it's a great stash buster, and maybe a blanket would work up quite fast. Anyway I do suggest it if you have a hankering to try out some new stitches - it's very fulfilling.

Around the garden with Mr Lui

 On autumn afternoons Lui likes nothing better than to scamper through the leaves. He ducks under branches and sharpens his claws on trees. Sometimes he takes a running leap at the tree, gets about halfway up, then realises he's not getting any further. (And so this is a good tree to feed the birds in.)

 Often I pull a piece of flax off the bottom of the flax bush and drag it round the paths of the potager. He hides in the vegetable shrubbery and pounces when it goes past him.

Do you like my new arches? They were a Warehouse bargain, which I couldn't resist and so got two. One at each end of the main axis path. The one at the far end will have beans growing on it, and I'll extend the bean fence to go on either side of it. I'm not sure about the front one yet - I'm not sure if I want something as permanent as a rose. Maybe sweet peas? Or possibly a scented climber?

 I'm very happy with these arches. They help the potager feel more enclosed. When the lavender hedge has grown and gotten bushy it will be even better.

 The fuchsia has gorgeous glossy black berries on it. I've read somewhere that these are edible but I'm not game enough to try. They are just so black and shiny and... poisonous looking.

 These berries are from the rowan tree (sorbus). One of the streets I walk along has them growing along the roadside. The street is red zoned so they'll probably be bulldozed eventually, along with many other beautiful established trees and shrubs. The funny thing is, I'd just read an article in a library magazine about how easy it is to grow sorbus from seed. So I grabbed some berries, pulped and sieved them, and sowed the seed in a punnet outside. It needs the cold from winter first, so all going well the seed will pop up next spring. Yeah right... I can't help thinking, but there is nothing lost by giving it a go.

Autumn colour

 In the late autumn sunshine, the garden is a blaze of colour. My chrysanthemum is in full bloom, and though yellow is never my favourite colour in the garden, I can't resist these perfect sugary blooms. The interesting thing is that they won't stay this colour. The buds while opening were more of an apricot shade, and the petals will gradually deepen in colour until they are a dusky mauve. It's fascinating and lovely to see.

 The lowering sun means colours are intensified. Petals are backlit and leaves are rimmed with gold. Most of the plants are filling out and blending with each other in the blowsy, cottage garden way I was hoping for, but there is a major flaw in the scheme.

 Ugly ugly orange chrysanthemums! Oh, these make me shudder every time I step out here. They were given to me as seedlings by my neighbour from his garden. He wasn't sure what colour they would be, and I imagined there would be a bit of a colour range represented. I put the seedlings in, planning to wait and see what came up, and pull the ones I didn't like.

Well... I can't stand any of them! 1) They clash with everything. 2) The colour is just awful. 3) They remind me of the dandelions I went to such trouble to spray and remove from the lawn. Oh, their days are numbered all right. 

 I can't believe the sweet peas are still going. I sowed these in spring, and they have flowered madly from December onwards. Along with the flowers they've set plenty of seed which I'll sow again next year.

I do love autumn afternoons.

Salad Days - April

It's autumn and though the tomatoes are finishing up, there's still plenty to forage up for an interesting salad. (I posted here about the tough Juliet tomato plant - it's still hanging in there!) Luckily green tomatoes continue to ripen if you bring them inside.

This pot of mixed lettuces is almost finished. I have another pot growing on in the glasshouse which will be ready to switch out soon.

Grow, my darlings, grow.

For the coldest days of winter, I have sorrel. This is one tough little plant - even frost won't knock it back. It has a delicious lemony tang which livens up any sandwich.

A yummy mixed salad of lettuces, sorrel, rocket, tomatoes and feta cheese.

This post is part of the 52 week Salad Challenge hosted at Veg Plotting. Once a month everyone posts to show how they are getting on producing salads from their garden. Here's this month's post. I missed last month's due to my internet problems but now I'm back... and I'm aiming not to miss any more!

Avenues

 Last year I was interviewed for an article in Avenues magazine, about Christchurch bloggers. The article was meant to be published around December/January, but though I peeked there was no sign of it. It wasn't in February, March or April either, so I figured they had decided not to use it after all, and got on with my life. Then last week my workmate brought a copy in for the staff room table. I was flicking through it on my lunch break and to my surprise, came face to face with myself. The article highlights five bloggers in total and all are worth checking out.

Mr Lui is SO impressed that his mum is in a magazine. (He did find the article useful for sitting on - as the muddy pawprints will attest.)

It's the May issue, and if you would like to read the article it's online here.

Welcome to everyone who's found my blog through the article - I hope you'll want to visit again.