April afternoons

I did the big almond harvest recently. A grand total of 6! On the tree almonds look very much like unripe peaches. The green fruit eventually splits open to show the kernel, which in turn splits open to reveal the almond inside. Basically, when your fruit is shrivelled and mouldy looking, the nut is ready to be picked. Anyway, I was pleased with my 6, since I didn't baby them or protect them from frosts in the spring, so I think they did pretty well. I'd like to get another tree to plant this winter (they are ornamental as well) so having two trees might increase the yield.

We have been having lovely autumn afternoons. Just perfect times when it's a joy to be outside. Cold in the evenings though - I don't think the first frost is that far off.

April flowers

 Flowers and arrangements from my garden in April. It's still very much the season of the dahlia and they are flowering like mad. I am still getting the odd rose (Queen Elizabeth is now on her second flush) and the cosmos will continue bravely until the frost. I saw a flock of greenfinches alight and begin to feast upon the seeds, so it must be time to start putting out birdseed cakes again.

 I've read a couple of books about flower arranging this month and got inspired. Hopefully I'll have some reviews to share soon. My favourite arrangement turned out to be the simplest - the glass jar that I put a wire handle on and hung on the wall. It looks best with one beautiful stem in it - simple and perfect.

I also learned to make a hand-tied posy, hooray! (It's really not hard at all.) It makes all the difference when putting your bunch in a vase and stops the stems flopping everywhere.

And I've recently joined the Succulent Appreciation Society, with my little pot featuring a sedum sieboldii, dichondra silver falls (not technically a succulent but its silver foliage blended beautifully), and little rosettes which I took as cuttings from a plant already in my garden, unfortunately I don't know the name. I've never really been a fan of succulents but I needed a little pot to put in a dry place, and when I saw the pretty purple blush on the leaves of the sedum I was smitten. The pink candy floss flowers are a bonus!

I'm linking up to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

The potager in April

 It took two weekends, one of which was the long Easter weekend, to get the potager into shape. I weeded, pulled out old plants, weeded more, and planted out cabbages and broccoli and spring onions and lettuce. Small seedlings had plastic bottle cloches placed over them to help them put on a bit of weight before winter.

 Baby lavender seedlings are along the front path - I want a lovely bushy hedge next spring.

 Looking towards the glasshouse and it looks pretty tidy if I do say so myself. I'm impressed with the upright rosemary which will make a striking winter focal point - a couple of the plants already have flowers opening.

 This little pot of lettuces is still going strong. I have some more sown in the glasshouse to take over soon. Behind them, the bed is full of broccoli.

 At the back left a squadron of leeks is lined up. The big monster on the right is a zucchini which is just about at the end of its life. I achieved my goal this year of having the inner edge of the outer beds all lined with calendula, hopefully I timed it right so they will flower through winter.

 Two tomato plants which were neglected by me over summer (I was too busy being mad at the weather) have flopped everywhere but are still producing fruit. One is Juliet, which I grow every year because nothing seems to faze it, and one is Baxters Early Bush Cherry which is being smothered by Juliet, so I haven't really been able to form an opinion of it.

It's funny how a hard wooden chair is always more comfortable if it's intended for humans, than a soft mat which is intended for cats. (He's actually quite lucky the seat didn't tip up and send him flying!)

My new maple

 I've been wanting a Japanese maple in my garden for quite some time, and last weekend I finally got one! It's called Burgundy Lace (I think... I've misplaced the label already) and should stay burgundy/red through summer and change to fiery red in autumn. I'm very much looking forward to watching it change throughout the seasons. That dahlia might need to be shifted though, what a clash! The maple is in a pot for now but I'll plant it in the ground in winter, so it can bush out a bit.

 Here it is backlit by the sun. It looks so pretty coming out of the white puff of gaura, almost like smoke and flames.

Lovely autumn colours. Sometimes I wish life was just one long autumn afternoon...

Easter afternoon

 We had gorgeous weather for easter. Autumn is such a beautiful time. I worked hard in the garden planting bulbs and tidying the potager, and this afternoon I decided just to relax and enjoy the sunshine. Out I went with my blanket, book, and crochet. I saw a picture in a catalogue of a crochet necklace and thought I would see if I can recreate it. No doubt if I went online I'd find a similar pattern in a jiffy but just for a change I'm attempting to do it all by myself - well, with the aid of a couple of pattern books too. We shall see, perhaps I'll get bored before finishing, but today it was a fun project.

 I had pink refreshments to sustain me - rhubarb fizz and last week's cupcakes (which were stored in the freezer and rejuvenated in the microwave).

The aftermath

Autumn

The change of season is making itself known. The end of daylight savings last weekend brings early night and the promise of colder days to come. I comfort myself as best I can by cosying up the house with extra blankets, snuggly cushions on the couch, extra lamps, candles. I made strawberry cupcakes with the last big glut of strawberries, and lavender bags with the last of the lavender.

Autumn foliage and fungus are popping up. I'll have berries soon to add to my autumn Tiny Things display. I was amazed to come across this sea of toadstools, while visiting Jon's mum in Waimate -  they are really seasonally festive.

Our internet connection is on the blink. We are still in the throes of figuring out the problem - is it the modem, at 1 year and 50 weeks, coming to the end of its life? (The techies at our ISP seem to think so.) When I plugged in the old ADSL modem, things worked fine for a couple of days, before the connection began to drop again. Presumably the next step is for a technician to come out and check the wiring, find nothing wrong, and charge through the nose for it. Oh technology, I love you so.

This weekend I'll be out in the garden, tidying up, pruning, planting the last of the bulbs. Reading magazines and pining for my internet fix. See you all soon, hopefully!

On my reading table - Jane Packer's Flower Course

 This weekend my dahlias were finally blooming profusely enough that I was able to pick a big bunch of them and stuff a vase really full. I've been wanting to do that all summer. Another thing I'd been wanting to do was learn how to arrange flowers 'properly', ie so that they stay where I put them in the vase and don't flop all over the place.

 Jane Packer's Flower Course covers the basics in flower arranging, with step by step photographic tutorials of techniques including a flat bouquet and a classic hand tied bouquet.

 It also has plenty of eye candy in the form of beautiful photos, showing different examples of the techniques.

It's definitely on the 'floristy' side of flower arranging, with a chapter devoted to wedding bouquets and buttonholes. But the pretty pictures were enough to inspire me, and if I can actually master the hand tied bouquet, I'll be in business!

I'm linking up to HolleyGarden's monthly book review post - click here for other garden books to read!

March flowers

Yesterday I showed you what was blooming at the flower show, and here is what has been blooming in my home and garden this month. (Well except for the stone bench one... that is a sneaky pic from the Botanic Gardens.)

I'm linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Pictures from the Ellerslie Flower Show

 Here are some photos from my visit to the Ellerslie Flower Show last weekend.  I'm afraid I haven't in most cases noted the name of the garden or the designer, so I'll just have to give you my humble opinions.

This garden was the People's Choice award winner, with lily pads, lush purple velvet and a firepit in the centre.

 This garden was inside one of the marquees. I was very taken with the rustic wooden sleepers, and the 'fireplace' design - cool! I also enjoyed the plant combinations - spiky with fluffy, dark with light, flower with foliage, etc.

 This was one of my favourite combos - echinacea with feathery grass and cosmos. The purple and lime green work well together.

This was called El Templo de Bloom, and had an Indiana Jones feel to it. A waterfall, tropical plants and skulls on posts!

 Obviously the earthquake was a recurring theme. This rock garden is made from rubble.

And this garden used upside-down road cones as planters.

Other trends I noticed were white gaura - on every second garden it seemed. 

Also Japanese maples were all over the place.

 Lots of hard landscaping - although that's the case at every garden show I think! This deck had some alternate squares filled with tiny plants, which reminded me of the pothole gardening idea.

 I like the herbs and shade lovers tucked under this bench.

And how clever is this birdcage planter! Me wanty.

 This is a clever design for a small courtyard. The compost bins are under the decking! The garden also featured vege plants that had flowered and/or gone to seed - it was interesting to see 'past their best' vege plants used in a garden design.

There were lots of sculptures dotted about the place. This grassy meadow was filled with metal poppies and irises.

 A metal heron peeks out from grasses.

A monarch butterfly enjoys the show.

On the whole it was a good day out, but I didn't really feel that there were enough flowers in the display gardens. So I was thrilled to look out the window on the way home and spot this cute little cottage and garden. It was like it was put there just for me! I nearly pocketed it to take home, but I contented myself with just taking photos. And if any garden designers are reading this, this is what I want to see at the show next year: white picket fence, weatherboard walls and flowers, flowers, flowers.

Feeling autumn

 After the chilly and disappointing summer we just endured, most people were hoping that autumn would be golden and glorious and Indian. No such luck! This weekend we were treated to a cold and stormy taste of things to come. Normally when there is a significant weather event the newsreaders like to give it a name; "winter chill", "polar blast" and so on. This one was a Weather Bomb. The bomb mainly exploded on the north island where roofs, trees and trampolines were flung around all over the place. Here in Chch we had gale force winds, horizontal rain, and a bloody cold Saturday. Since our chimney is halfway through being removed (thanks for your quick response, EQC) we were unable to light the fire and spent the day huddled in the kitchen with the fan heater. 

Sunday was warmer, but there is no denying it... summer is gone (if it was ever really here) and it's time to switch back into cool weather mode. For me this means as much light as possible in the form of candles, lamps and decorative lights, and as much warmth as possible from the pellet fire, blankets, hot water bottles and heaters (I'm pondering an oil heater for the kitchen which I hope will provide a nice constant warmth in the background - does anyone have experience running one of these?)

I also felt the urge to put up my Tiny Things Display Shelf again. This is momentous because it fell down in the earthquake and a lot of things got smashed, so I put it in a cupboard and put the display things in a box and really just didn't want to look at them for a while. But recently I felt that the time was right to get them out and have some pretty things to look at. So this is Tiny Things - the Autumn Edition.

I reattached the shelf to the wall and used Blu-tack in the bottom corners to hold it steady. I arranged all the bits and then carefully put little blobs of Blu-tack under each of them as well, so they are as safe as they can be.

 Green berries, acorn caps, printers letters, a tiny egg made from malachite, an ornate photo holder, a little house, a handcarved printing block, a bottle stopper, shells, dried seedheads.

 Tiny autumn flowers, a Tamsin Cooper embroidered brooch, a glass inkwell, eucalyptus nuts, a metal kina shell.

A glass inkwell, a feather from my walk last weekend, more eucalyptus nuts, a vintage perfume bottle, funny spiky seedheads, fuzzy acorn hats, and in the top right corner, a bird skull.