Intermission

Time to interrupt the garden tours for a brief update on my garden. Look, I've got flowers on my peanut! I'd only recently transplanted it into a bigger planter and I wasn't expecting any action for ages.

The planter is rubbish though. I bought it from The Warehouse and it's basically this big bag with holes cut in the top. I thought it would be good for the peanut because I don't know how big it will get and I can cut more holes if it needs to spread, but ugh I hate this planter bag. It's ugly and flops everywhere, it's impossible to move when full, and when watering the water just runs off the top of the plastic and drains away outside - this is unacceptable waste under water restrictions!

I think I might carefully remove the peanut and capsicum and put them into pots this weekend. I'll probably have to slice up the bag to get the potting mix out.

Also, would anyone like to come and shoot blackbirds in my garden? You can use a shotgun or a guided missile, I don't really care, just take the buggers out. Look at the mess they've made. This was a carefully mulched area, and they've had a field day tossing it all over the paths. You can see that they have actually gone all around the edges making sure as much mess is spread over the paths as possible. They do this anywhere that I spread mulch. Sometimes I put down bird netting, but I have to take it up once the seedlings get big.

Looks like Mr Lui is failing in his duties... I better go have a word with him.

(The second last garden tour will be up later tonight!)

Timaru Garden Tour #6

This is the garden of Jo and Corey Baxter.

Here's a cute little gazebo overlooking a waterfall. It looks so cool and sheltered tucked in behind the roses.

Metal herons bask in the sun.

The fluffy seedheads on this plant caught my eye as they swayed in the breeze. It might be pulsatilla? I'm not sure because I've never managed to keep one alive long enough for it to develop seedheads.

In this secluded courtyard, we met the boy of the house and a dog named Bonnie. Bonnie was a fat, old, lovely brown labrador. The boy showed us his favourite tree. Bonnie waddled off. As he was showing us some pruning he'd helped with, a truly awful smell drifted over. We looked over to see Bonnie, squatting with a grin on her face. "Awwwh!" cried the boy. "Bonnie dropped one!"

Fortunately she'd dropped it off the main track, and we were able to continue on.

See the little birdbath tucked away beside the conifers?

Small tree, big focal point.

This garden was also hosting Devonshire tea. There's nothing like a dainty teacup to make you feel ladylike.

The driveway was lined with rustic metal rose arches, and these Narnia-esque lamp posts. Magical!

Timaru Garden Tour #5

This is the garden of Hamish and Anne Steele.

So many peonies in promising bud! There are also lots of delphiniums and lilies, hence the wire cages. These wouldn't be too hard to make and once the plants fill out you'd hardly notice them.

At the back of the border there must be a microclimate where everything has sprung into wonderful bloom.

A shady pergola leads from one part of the garden to another.

A bold primary planting scheme catches my eye.

The delphiniums make a gorgeous window screen.

What a lovely view to look out on from your living room. I like the box hedge too... trimming it is probably a pain, but at least it hides the weeds from view (not that there were any here!)

A special attraction at this property was plants for sale. They were from a nursery, not the property owners, and I beelined in on a saxifrage just like the one I showed you in the previous garden tour. I also got a dainty little dianthus -  I didn't photograph it at the time, but I remembered seeing that in one of the previous gardens too. Do you think that planting those will make my garden look tour-worthy? I doubt it, but it made me feel better to purchase them anyway.

Timaru Garden Tour #4

These pictures are from the country garden of Margaret and John Hepburn.

This garden looks out over paddocks and hills. A seat attached to a rustic cartwheel overlooks the vista. The red flowers are London's Pride, a form of heuchera.

Tucked in next to the seat we find this. A souvenir from a really good party perhaps?

Flowers in the birdbath are a really nice touch. I'll be stealing this idea, as soon as I get a birdbath!

Normally I'm a flowers, flowers, flowers kind of girl, but I really like the different textures happening here. I've been seeing ornamental grasses a lot in the magazines I read, and now here. They do look really lovely blowing in the wind. I also love the pencil conifers.

A happy planting combination that caught my eye. Violas really brighten up any situation don't they?

I initially thought this was erigeron (Mexican daisy) which is considered a weed in NZ so you can't buy it from garden centres. But it's actually an abundant saxifrage. It looks just lovely spilling over the low terrace wall.

And of course I had to photograph the vege plot. I like the tapestry effect achieved here by planting in rows. The nice wooden edge would be useful to balance your harvest basket on.

Timaru Garden Tour #3

These pictures are from the totally charming garden of Mr and Mrs Emmerson. It's what I would call a "normal" sized section, but the space is so well used - not a square metre is wasted!

 I noticed a great use of stepping stones in this garden. They've been placed to link to focal points, as well as providing access for weeding and tidying.

 Stepping stones also help to ground this wheelbarrow planter.

 A sweet little summerhouse has a harbour view from its back windows.

Facing away from the summerhouse, this narrow stretch of grass has a boat shaped central bed and sinuously curving paths. I love how there is so much movement in this small space.

 This seems to be a garden for all seasons, with rhododendrons finishing off and roses and peonies waiting to take their place.

 There is lots of whimsical garden art, but my absolute favourite is this stone cat riding a vintage tricycle. Oh, do you think Lui would like it if I got him a tricycle?

 The garden walk was in some ways a week too early, at least if you wanted to see peonies. They were in all the gardens and they were mostly still all in bud. So when I saw one in flower, I photographed it madly! This is a tree peony - not sure if they flower earlier than regular peonies or if it was just in a good spot.

 This property has three glasshouses (with a fourth looking like it was being built), two sheds and a summerhouse. They were all being put to excellent use.

 There is also a thriving vege patch. I photographed the peas as a note to self - bent metal sticks will be a lot easier next time than tying up cane teepees.

I took away a lot of lessons in focal points from this garden.

Timaru Garden Tour #2

This is the garden of Janet and Joe Young, and it is three years old.

The sunny vegetable garden overlooks strawberry cages and chicken coops.

This little arrangement caught my eye, in particular the fluffy pom pom aquilegia.

The garden has such a stunning backdrop. Mountains in the distance, a lovely pond and grazing sheep. You almost wouldn't want to let the roses get any bigger.

This flower garden is looking pretty established. I was especially taken with the drifts of snow in summer.

I sowed this as seeds this season and mine's nowhere near flowering, so I took this photo to remind myself what I have to look forward to. (A great groundcover for a hot dry area, like my front garden.)

This gazebo was a lovely spot to sit in for a few minutes and rest out of the sun. I wish I could fit one in my garden. I'd need to bring those mountains to look at too.

Timaru Garden Tour #1

Here are some pictures from the lovely established garden of Jane and Tom Coughlan.

It is wide and sweeping, with gorgeous views over lush paddocks out to the sea in one direction and mountains in the other. Plenty of established trees provide shelter and shady nooks to sit in.

This elegant fountain is almost hidden by tall spires of foxgloves and roses. I like how the plants are asserting themselves here, not taking over but definitely making a statement.

I'd enjoy weeding the vegetable garden if this was the view!

A sweet little gate complete with climbing rose. 

And a sweet rustic shed. I'm not sure what the climber is as it looks to have just finished flowering.

An avenue of white roses leads to the house.

You go away for one weekend...

...and look what happens.

 Sexy Rexy is the first of the new roses to flower. Only the one bloom, and it was almost overblown by the time I saw it, but I appreciate the effort.

I also spied one tiny bloom tucked away on Cecile Brunner. I cut this rose back hard every year (because she can take it!) so she takes a little longer to bloom than other people's.

I've been away this weekend doing garden tours for the Timaru Festival of Roses. Eight gardens were open to the public and I took pictures at each, so there will be plenty to show you over the next few days. I tell you what, my own garden looks shabby in comparison! Not to mention weedy. I got to work today with a big sprayer full of Roundup and felt slightly more on top of things. Slightly.

See you back here tomorrow for the first garden tour post!

November flowers

 I'm early with my monthly flowers post, because I thought this time I'd sync it with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. If you are curious to see what is flowering in gardens around the world, pop along to the post and take a look!

My garden is spilling over with lovely frothy blooms this month. I need to cut some back a bit, especially the borage which has turned into a big floppy monster, but the bees love it so much that I might leave it another week or two.

So far the only one of my new roses to make much of an effort is Sexy Rexy (left). This bud is very small, but at least it's there! The rose on the right is one that was already in the garden when we bought the house. I don't know the name of it, although it looks a bit like a peace rose (yellow petals edged with pink).

Outside the back door and it's a colourful clashing jungle. You'd never know this area was swamped with liquefaction for the second time just five months ago.

This is one of my favourite little groupings on my new patio. The heliotrope at the back in the blue pot smells just gorgeous. In the front three pots from left to right are pulsatilla, paper daisies and chocolate cosmos mixed with tiny violas.

And here's the pencil conifer, with a funny little petunia blooming in the front. I'm expecting to get my money's worth from the petunias again this year, they are such great little performers.

You might think this stylish beauty belongs to a clematis or other exotic climber, but actually it's my boysenberry vine. It's completely covered, so all going well there will be plenty of berries for the Christmas trifle!