35 mills in the gauge since last visit. Rainfall has been most regular this year. Again I was lucky with the weather, cool, becoming sunny in the afternoon, freezing overnight, the temp. -2C at 7.45am according to a neighbour who dropped in on his morning walk. I had to wait until 9am to get out into the garden.
The winter garden again looked as good as I've seen it at this time of the year. Many more daffodils in flower, the blue winter iris still flourishing and the wallflowers continuing to stand out everywhere. Outstanding also was the large red hot poker against the back fence (see photo) and there are 5 or 6 other smaller ones around the garden ready to flower. Flanders poppy seedlings are beginning to appear in earnest but no peony poppies, unfortunately. I hope I haven't lost the beautiful white, and pink and white ones, which were a feature last year.
I took advantage of a Tesselaar's sale to buy 2 Foxtail lilies (Bungei and Romance) and planted them on the south side, one near the hedge, the other further west. I hope they do as well as some I saw in England 2 years ago where they are a real feature in the best gardens. Also from the sale, 3 Oriental Lilies (Rialto), and 3 Asiatic Matisse Lilies (Black Spider), plus a small Kniphofia (Traffic Lights) were inserted in various spots. More cornflower seeds were sown, plus some seedling wallflowers, propagated in my little hot houses.
Another rhubarb was lifted, divided and planted down the back, nourished with a bucketful of horse manure. 2 more roses were massacred and several cuttings again planted in the vegetable plot.
I was rather ruthless in chopping back the pink rock rose which was starting to take over down the back. This revealed quite a few daffodils which would have struggled to do their best, plus a watsonia and a red penstemon. I replanted a root of the rock rose in the front, north side, to give some more colour there
over the summer. More campanula and watsonias were lifted for potting up for our sales later in the year.
Armed with my chainsaw, sporting a new blade, I lopped several acacias in the paddock plus another section of the laurel. My aim is to rid the paddock of the laurel before I die, which means living until at least 91. Only one golfball was found this time.
A diary of gardening activity at my Musk Vale cottage, near Daylesford, Victoria, altitude 700 metres, cold winters, warm summers. Annual rainfall about 35 inches (875 mill). The cottage is a 'weekender'.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Friday, 15 July 2011
Visit 14/15 July
50 mills in the gauge since last visit. Cloudy when I arrived and cold but the sun appeared in the early afternoon and perfect winter conditions prevailed. Cold but sunny next morning. I was lucky with the weather.
Everything looked pretty good for this time of the year. Many daffodils had appeared in bloom (the wonderful Magnifiques), the hellebores had really come on and the wallflowers provided their usual winter colour. The blue winter iris continues to look very healthy in several locations, as did the orange kniphofias (unspectacular) and the more interesting red and yellow one. I was a little concerned that the Medlars tree seemed to have stalled in its progress so I relocated it from the south to north side of the house, a much more sunny spot. I planted a Hawthorn daylily (yellow and brown) and a maroon aster . The rhubarbs need rejuvenating after several years in the same spots so I dug one up and transferred it to near the shed after loading the soil up with a bucket of horse manure. I'll do the same with more rhubarb over coming visits. The last of the Flanders poppy seeds were sown in a new strip on the Daylesford side. Yellow (I think) kniphofias were lifted and divided. One was replanted, the others will be potted up and made available for sale. The same with the pink watsonias and another campanula. It was terrific to see that some of the poppy and cornflower seeds sown a month ago had appeared. The cornflower ones will be particularly interesting as Genevieve sent them from England.
I started on the rose pruning, a terrible job, with the beautifully scented red rose on the north side. The cuttings I stuck in the vegetable plot. Some might strike, which would make the pruning more worthwhile. The blue and white penstemon was chopped right back, almost to the ground and I potted up several cuttings.
I've decided to attack the spreading laurel in the paddock as it is getting out of hand and would be hiding at least 20 golf balls which it seems to attract like a magnet. Each visit I now devote 30 minutes on hacking part of it back. A byproduct is the wood which hopefully will be warming the house after drying out. At a conservative guess, I reckon there would be 10 tonne overall.
Everything looked pretty good for this time of the year. Many daffodils had appeared in bloom (the wonderful Magnifiques), the hellebores had really come on and the wallflowers provided their usual winter colour. The blue winter iris continues to look very healthy in several locations, as did the orange kniphofias (unspectacular) and the more interesting red and yellow one. I was a little concerned that the Medlars tree seemed to have stalled in its progress so I relocated it from the south to north side of the house, a much more sunny spot. I planted a Hawthorn daylily (yellow and brown) and a maroon aster . The rhubarbs need rejuvenating after several years in the same spots so I dug one up and transferred it to near the shed after loading the soil up with a bucket of horse manure. I'll do the same with more rhubarb over coming visits. The last of the Flanders poppy seeds were sown in a new strip on the Daylesford side. Yellow (I think) kniphofias were lifted and divided. One was replanted, the others will be potted up and made available for sale. The same with the pink watsonias and another campanula. It was terrific to see that some of the poppy and cornflower seeds sown a month ago had appeared. The cornflower ones will be particularly interesting as Genevieve sent them from England.
I started on the rose pruning, a terrible job, with the beautifully scented red rose on the north side. The cuttings I stuck in the vegetable plot. Some might strike, which would make the pruning more worthwhile. The blue and white penstemon was chopped right back, almost to the ground and I potted up several cuttings.
I've decided to attack the spreading laurel in the paddock as it is getting out of hand and would be hiding at least 20 golf balls which it seems to attract like a magnet. Each visit I now devote 30 minutes on hacking part of it back. A byproduct is the wood which hopefully will be warming the house after drying out. At a conservative guess, I reckon there would be 10 tonne overall.
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