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'.
Found you blog while checking out information for the Asiatic Matisse Lily 'Black Spider'. I also took advantage of Tesselaar sale and ordered the pack of 3. I'm up in warm north Queensland though so I'm pushing the boundaries a little with this plant. Hope it does well.
ReplyDeleteYour winter weather sounds very chilly to me. Our overnight temps rarely dip below 15 deg C and when they do, we complain bitterly! Love the view of your garden in your header shot. I shall be back to visit again to see how things are going down yonder.