Visit 20/21 September

17 mills in the gauge. The weather was cool and showery with occasional sunshine. No golf. The garden continued to be dominated by daffodils, although some were now past their best.

Wattles were in full bloom, particularly a couple of the Ovens Wattle. I noticed a few had self seeded around the dam.

I was very surprised to notice a very early flowering orange peony poppy in flower. Normally they do not flower until late October. I have many around the garden. None of the others is anywhere near flowering.

Plenty of hyacinths are doing well. One which was particularly impressive was magenta coloured.

A friend dropped in a Clematis Ruutel which I planted against the only one of the 4 verandah posts not supporting a clematis. It was a great and timely gift.

Also Sally's 4 rhubarb plants were most welcome. They were planted in the vegetable plot accompanied with a decent serving of horse manure.

I needed to consult with Bill next door after my chainsaw locked. Not only did he fix the problem but serviced it after which it cut through some fallen branches like butter. More of the Laurel tree was lopped, using the rejuvenated chainsaw.

I lifted one of the nicer gazanias, divided it into 5 plants, reinserted 2 and potted up the other for our cottage plant sale. Similarly with the smaller Golden Rods (Solidago) and and large clump of Veronica Oxford Blue.

Several wallflowers I'd grown from seed were planted out around the garden. I have no idea what colour flowers they'll bear as the packet said simply 'Cheiranthus sp.' Similarly with candytuft seedlings.

I finally got round to cutting back several Salvias, (Hot Lips and Bog Sage). They promise to again put on a great show this summer.

The northern (Daylesford) side of the garden is looking good with the red of the Flowering Quinces, and leucadendron contrasting with the yellow of the daffodils.

Visit 6th-8th September

Only a few millimeters of rain in the previous fortnight. Palyed golffor the first time for many weeks and was reasonably happy with 47 and 50 at Hepburn. This week is the best of the year for daffodils and the garden didn't disappoint. It was as good as it's ever been in spring.

All around the cottage there was plenty of colour. On the Melbourne side (above), at the back (below),

and in the front, (below)

A pair of kookaburras seem to have adopted the place as part of their territory. I managed to catch a shot of the two of them.

and the horses continue to keep the grass down while occasionally appearing to check out the garden.

This time I planted a Ruffles (pink flowering) lavender near the big tank, plus more of the corn flour seedlings. Most of my time again was spent in cutting back more of the perennials: salvias, penstemons etc. and the carpet roses.

I've been very disappointed with the load of soil I bought and which I've used to build up the soil before introducing new plants to the garden. It has really caked up, hard as a rock and many of the seedlings planted a while ago haven't advanced at all as a result. 

I took advantage of the dry weather to do some burning off, of gardening rubbish in the paddock and lopped some more of the laurel tree.