Snapshots - November 2016

Hi again everyone, and welcome to my November update! I'm finally back on track with my goal of updating each month at the end of the month (or a few days into the new month which is usually what happens!) I wanted to show you the main reason I went MIA for most of October/November, and that is this lawn! It had been getting on my nerves as it was pitted and uneven, and there were patches of grass that was shaggy and a different colour to the rest, plus a trench where a pipe was laid and when the trench was refilled, the soil they put back in was so bad that nothing would grow. So... I sprayed all the grass, removed the turf by hand, levelled it by hand, and reseeded it. It's so easy to type that in a sentence but nothing was easy about that project! If you plan to redo your own lawn, I strongly recommend hiring professionals who have machinery, and then rolling out Ready Lawn. But if you're on a tight budget you can do it yourself like I did... just be prepared for about 6 weeks (weekends and evenings) of nothing but digging up turf till you're ready to collapse, then breaking up and raking clods till the surface is smooth, checking it from all angles and redoing it, then sowing seeds and watching as cats and birds ravage your carefully smoothed surface and feast on the seeds.

Disclaimer, I did know this would be hard! I also knew it would be worth it and I feel very satisfied when I look out the window and see the green haze that is more vivid every day. Soon I'll have to go through and pick out all the weed seedlings (yay) and sow some more grass to fill the gaps. And we have a hot dry summer forecast (though I'll believe that when I see it) so keeping up the watering is a must.

While I worked on the lawn the rest of the spring garden grew and flourished. I also managed to plant my beans in the potager.

Peony season arrived! I have about nine peony plants and four of them flowered this year. Three plants had one flower each. Precious little darlings, aren't they? The peony above is Pink Hawaiian Sunset which is a coral coloured bloom which fades to this lovely soft peach. It lasted about 2 weeks inside and was gorgeous the whole time. I also picked a lovely bunch of Peace roses.

I finished my second pair of knitted socks and immediately cast on the next pair using my own food colouring dyed yarn. It was very exciting to see how the colours worked up! This pattern is the Vanilla Latte socks.

I did a little bit of work on my Circlepuff Square crochet blanket, not a lot I'm afraid but I did block the squares that I finished.

Now at some time during the month there was a supermoon. It was a cloudy evening and I don't see the eastern horizon from my house so I didn't see it rise, but at about 9.30 I wandered out of my house and saw a glow in the clouds. I went down the street a little way and saw it rise out of a bank of clouds. My photo isn't very impressive but it was certainly big, and very yellow! After I took the photo it continued to rise and soon disappeared into the heavy cloud cover. So yeah, that's my supermoon story.

In other news, Pod and Ini continue to be cute and love to help in the garden (especially Ini who is pictured above testing a pot for me).

I eventually got round to taking a photo of my stripey second pair of socks! They fitted well thanks to some tweaks I'd made in the pattern. I decided to try using smaller needles for my third pair, and they have improved my gauge a lot. However it means there's no point referring to these notes as I have to work it all out again with a tighter gauge! Oh well, it's not like you stop at just one pair of socks is it?

At the end of the month some Christmas crafting sneaks in... I'm crocheting a Christmas tree skirt. Nothing could go wrong with two cats and a Christmas tree, right? 

Snapshots - October 2016

 Welcome to October! This is the month when spring really kicks in. The weather was up and down which became the norm for spring - our weather in winter was much more settled! A bit of rain is always good for the garden of course and luckily the blossom trees still bloom no matter the weather. The hellebores continued to flower steadily and looked pretty next to silver-grey lambs' ears.


I made a couple more Jan Eaton squares.

 The bright colours of spring begin to show! Left is Cercis Forest Pansy and right is rhododendron Mrs GW Leak.

 And I had more tulips. These frilly ones are just amazing! Even more amazing to me was the way the petals age, becoming more beautiful and antique looking as they dry. Next year I really need to plant all the tulips.

 I tried my hand at yarn dyeing early in the month. It's so much fun and I'm quite happy with the results given that I used food colouring! And just a cheap supermarket packet at that. I really can't wait to try some different colour combinations and techniques now, and hand dyed yarn knits up into really fun socks!

 Peony season began this month! On the left is a Pink Hawaiian Sunset variety. Of my nine or so peony plants, only 4 actually flowered this season. Most of them were transplanted the winter before last, so it would seem that they are taking their time to get established.

On the right is a little posy of tulips, clematis and snowball viburnum. The clematis was looking great and covered with flowers bursting open. Then it suddenly wilted. I read about clematis wilt, which can suddenly afflict a healthy plant (usually when a young plant puts on a big growth spurt, and it grows too big for the root system to send nutrients to). The advice was to cut the plant back to the ground so it can grow back. I cut it back and there is absolutely no sign of anything growing back... boo. RIP my fancy clematis.

This month went fast as I spent the bulk of my spare time working on reseeding the back lawn. Not a fun job, or easy, or quick, but I deemed it necessary. At least I had all the spring pretties to look at!

I'll be back soon with November's update.

Snapshots from November

 Hi again - it's time to recap November in phone and Instagram photos. Greg the CAL blanket has been my constant companion, although the Tim squares above gave me a bit of trouble! I ended up switching them with another block pattern so I didn't have to make so many.

I got a lot planted in the potager at the start of the month - October was cold so I waited a couple of weeks past the usual time. Then I planted beans, tomatoes, leeks, sweet corn, chillis, zucchinis, spring onions and capsicums. The picture above shows some of my heirloom bean seeds, I just love the variety they provide. Anyway, Mother Nature had some more winter up her sleeve which she threw at us in the start of the month - there was even a frost or two! Luckily most of the beans weren't up yet and everything else was sheltered by taller plants, so there wasn't any vege garden carnage.

 At the beginning of the month I was still picking anemones. Catmint and lambs' ears also filled vases.

 Rhododendrons and roses... Mrs GW Leak (left) and Peace rose (right). Peace goes a dark pink on the outside when the weather is cold.

 In the middle of the month the long-awaited moment happened... I finally had a bloom on the Sarah Bernhardt peony! Just one bloom, mind you, and I'd been waiting four years, but at least she finally knows what to do. Moving her to full sun obviously did the trick.

And I made some more squares for Greg - these are the flowery Ian blocks.

 Cecile Brunner roses were next in the flowering schedule, and look sweet combined with aquilegia and catmint. I'm happy to report that the weather warmed right up and we've had some lovely hot days already! Hopefully this is a taste of the summer to come, as long as there is enough water to go around the garden.

 And not long after, the rose season began in earnest. In the basket above I have Peace roses (yellow), Queen Elizabeth roses (pink) and one pink Claire rose - you can see her better in the vase pic to the left. My roses are performing better than they ever have. I replanted their bed in early spring, mulched, weedmatted, and watered regularly which I haven't really bothered with before... and this is the result. It's clearly worth it!

Towards the end of the month I put Greg aside to begin some Christmas crafting. There will be more to show as the decorations go up!

 Let's end this post with some dreamy petal perfection! I just love my early summer garden.

November flowers

 Welcome to my November flowers post! Today the weather was pretty cold and gloomy - it was overcast all day, a cold wind blew and as soon as I left my house to go for a walk spits of rain began to fall. The month overall has been cold - we had our coldest morning on record earlier this month, and there was even frost! My garden didn't sustain much damage, just in a couple of random patches - one bean seedling, and a blackened patch on top of a dahlia. Most of my bean seedlings weren't through at that stage and the most tender things like tomatoes and capsicums are in the glasshouse. Some early rosebuds were a bit crispy around the petal edges but the fruit trees seem to be fine. But it was a bit of a shock to the system - frost in November, what??

Luckily there has been plenty of sunshine in the mix and the flower garden seems to be getting on with things according to its usual schedule. It's usually the end of November before all the roses are blooming, but there are some early birds in there to make me happy. Peony season is also in its beginning stages, although most of the transplants I put in a couple of months ago haven't budded... guess I'll have to patiently wait another year for those.

Anyway, there is plenty to pick and admire, like in the grid above! Clockwise from top left: Gilia birdseye; blue and white aquilegia; Cecile Brunner rose; snowball viburnum; Queen Elizabeth rose; sweet williams; white aquilegia; a frilly peony poppy; lupins; a pretty pansy taking on the hue from the surrounding Snow in Summer; pink aquilegia; Sexy Rexy rose.

 This pink rose is outside my front door and it makes me happy every time I walk past it. I don't know the variety as it was grown from a cutting, but it does very well in this sunny spot. It was the first to flower in spring and the last to flower in winter. So far it seems very healthy too with it's nice glossy leaves!

This lovely bush is common sage, planted in my herb garden. It's formed a large round ball which is covered with these fragrant mauve flowers, just lovely to brush against. In fact it's so big that it's probably time to divide it up, I'm sure I can find some other spots in the garden that could use a show stopper like this.

That's it for my November garden. The weather may be less than average but the flowers are floriferous so all is good! I'm joining in again with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

Golden hour garden

Hi again! This post has been a while coming, but I really wanted to show you some photos of my garden before all the spring glory fades. I'm starting with a picture from the back garden in the evening - you've seen this before, but perhaps not during the golden hour, when the light from the sinking sun glows behind the claret leaves of the maple?

Actually, I really wanted to show you these pictures from my front garden. This has been my pet project since late winter. I've been working on it a while, but the time has never been right to take photos - it hasn't grown in enough, it's not in flower, the beds need weeding, the grass needs mowing, it will look better next week. Oh well, enough of that, it looks as good as it's going to right now, and plenty of things are in flower, so let's have a look shall we?

About a year ago I started work on this little corner garden. I removed a lot of shrubbery, cut back some trees, and planted lavender around the edges. I also added this birdhouse. Ever since then, I've been imagining a clematis growing up the birdhouse. I have grown clematis before - a vigorous montana which took over a fence before I chopped it out. I'm hoping this hybrid one will be more well behaved. I'd like it to stay right where it is, but it will probably disappear up into the tree top... that's if it doesn't decide it hates its position, and die! Anyway, we will see... and perhaps we will take a cutting too, just to be safe.

Another big job for me early this spring was these round planters. I'd bought the two flowering cherries last autumn in a sale, but when they woke up for spring I knew I had to get them in! I wanted round planters as a feature and had originally planned to make brick ones, but after a while I realised that was going to be right out of my skill level, and if I wanted something to put the trees in before they flowered I had to come up with a plan B. So I used some wooden garden edging, and painted it this reddish pink... which to my mind is not that dissimilar to a brick colour, but a lot more 'me' :)

The trees looked stunning when they flowered. I can't wait for them to grow and bush out more, to form my own little miniature cherry blossom avenue. I'm sorry they aren't flowering in the photo above, but isn't the rhododendron in the background amazing? I identified her recently as Mrs GW Leak. I'm not sure who she's named after, but she is very beautiful with her freckled pink cheeks. 

Here's my little birdhouse corner again. At the foot of the birdhouse is a new (very small) azalea plant. I had one there which never flowered, so out it went! The new one is called Southern Aurora and is supposed to flower all summer.

Here's a close up of the new clematis. His name is William Keay. Again, I wonder who he's named after...? But he is very striking with a dark bar down the middle of each (huge) petal and a fluffy centre.

On the right, we have the pom pom flowers of the snowball viburnum. I bought this from the clearance bin last year, and was quite pleased to find self sown aquilegias also in the pot. I was hoping for a mix of colours and at first was quite disappointed that they were all white. However, when the snowballs opened up I found I had some white balls and some white stars all intermingling, and now I think it couldn't have worked better if I had planned it!

I have more to show you as the front garden has been my ongoing project for the past few months, but that's a post for another day. I'll leave you today with this last picture of Mrs G, glowing like a young maiden in the golden hour sunshine. 

Snapshots - October 2015

Welcome to my little round up from October. Let's start this month's edition with a cute cat in a basket surrounded by lush green grass! This about sums up the mood at the start of the month - we are all excited to get outside and see what's growing. Grab a basket, sit in the sun for a bit and enjoy! When I was allowed to have the basket back I took my scissors and picked some spring beauties for my vases. Not the freesias though, as they were not quite ready - nearly though, and looking amazingly sculptural!

 I did have anemones and pansies to pick. Anemones are such great value, as they keep producing flowers as long as you keep picking them! They also look extremely pretty in flat lays.

 It wasn't too long before my new cherry blossom trees flowered for me. It was an agony of suspense as I waited for the carmine red buds to burst open. Would they be the pink frilly tissue paper blossoms of my dreams? Happily, yes they were. I spent as much time as possible hanging around their general vicinity, sitting in the grass crocheting while petals rained down.

 Here are some more beautiful spring pickings! Anemones, catmint and lamb's ears for the vase. And the first rose of the season to bloom in my garden! It's a lovely sunset pink climber outside my front door.

 Those freesias I mentioned popped open soon enough. I've already described them in previous posts so I won't go on too much, but they are wonderful cut flowers. Oh and here we have a picture of my crochet puff stitch circles, which have languished a bit this month while I have worked on other projects. I still love them and I had to get them out and take a picture. Looking forward to getting back to work on them, some time soon I hope!

 Outside in the garden, it's rhododendron time! Sometimes rhodies seem like a bit of a hassle for something that only flowers for a few weeks, but what a stunning few weeks they are! This gorgeous pale pink variety surprises me every year with how pretty it is. I always forget how the buds start off deep pink and fade as the flowers open to a soft blush.

 One of the projects I worked on this month was a hat! I made this for a gift but like it so much I'll have to make one for myself. It's by Mango Tree Crafts and you can find the pattern here. And here are some anemones on my deck... they just keep on going.

I am just love love loving all the blossom in the garden this month. Here is my Baujade apple tree looking gorgeous underplanted with lambs' ears. 

My main crochet project this month is still the Greg Mystery CAL. I've gotten a bit behind (mainly due to one of the squares and I not getting along!) so I've substituted it with another and am getting caught up. I'm a little bored with the oatmeal colour I chose, and I'm hoping I'll be able to add another colour when it comes to the edging. But that's still a little way off.

Springtime in the garden

 Hello again! I've been enjoying the spring in my garden and I thought I'd pop in and share some photos with you. The weather has been  very changeable... which is typical for spring after all... but there were some sunny periods amongst it. There is nothing like a sunny morning or afternoon spent in the garden, and even though it doesn't always make for the most perfect photos I've still tried to capture it here. There are blossoms galore - appleblossom in the photo above - and the petals fall in a rain of confetti to gently dot lawns and shrubs. Shrubs are softly mounded with new green growth and bud-tipped stems.

 I mentioned my Cercis Forest Pansy in my last post. Here is another shot better showing the underskirt of violets. The orange azalea behind the fence is stealing the thunder a bit! I really should rip that azalea out but when I look at it's gnarled, mossy branches I haven't the heart. At least it only flowers for a couple of weeks.

 This is another azalea against the garage wall. I don't know the variety but it's so lovely! I forget how pretty it is, and every year it takes me by surprise. The buds start off bright pink, but fade into cream as the flower opens. So pretty.

 I enjoy the borrowed view that I get over the top of the fence here. It's fun watching all the trees burst into leaf and blossom along with the ones in my garden. Here is my maple Burgundy Lace, along with two Garden Prince almond trees.

 This part of the garden is filling out well. The lupins at the back are putting on a good show, and soon dahlias will be pushing through and there will be a whole host of flowers.

 This is probably the last of the anemones. They have done really well this spring, much better than the ranunculus I must say.

This is a strip of snow in summer lining one of the beds.  There are a few ranuculus peeking over the top. They only seem to do a couple of flowers per plant and don't repeat flower, so I'm wondering if it's even worth the bother of growing them after all... they don't resemble florist ones at all! No doubt I will keep them going though, as there is always that hope that next time will be better... that elusive next time...

Tomorrow it's the weekend and I need to get stuck into the potager. I did a bit last weekend but there are plenty more things to plant, including my tomatoes which need to be settled into the glasshouse. Always plenty of work to do, so stay tuned for the next update...

Styling the Seasons - October 2015

 October is here! Sometimes it seems I spend all year waiting for October, when the air is warm, the evenings are bright, the garden is fresh and I have so many ideas and the energy to complete them! I've styled my vintage china cabinet fairly simply (by my standards) to reflect the start of this new season of easy living and happy garden times.

 Now is the time for potting out seedlings. I love terracotta pots, raw wood and natural twine. The more weathered, the better! This funny little mouse planter was a recent secondhand shop find. I'm guessing it was a planter anyway, it seemed the natural use for it to me!

 These freesias are just gorgeous. They have that lovely incense smell, and the colour is amazingly intense. They last a good week in the vase.

 Handmade seed packets are a great way to store seeds from the garden.

 It's always nice to put a fresh doily out, this one seemed especially springlike!

This is the first flush of blooms from my new Prunus Accolade. I only cut the branch because it was tangled with another one, but one day they'll be big enough that I can cut a few more branches for display! (Side note, the flowers only lasted a couple of days before wilting. Still worth it, I think!)

Now it's time for me to grab my hat and those secateurs and head outside. If you need me I'll be in the garden...

Styling the Seasons is a monthly styling challenge hosted by Katy at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots. Find out more by searching the hashtag#stylingtheseasons on social media.