Rain and Storms

Finally, the rains have come and my lawn is growing! Last night, we had plenty of rain, and yesterday afternoon, we had a storm - the first of many I hope.

However, I heard that Kingaroy and Toowoomba had tornado warnings and were pelted with hail and huge destructive storms. How dreadful!

Those storms went around Logan City and most of us here in Brisbane, and all we got was some thunder and windy rain. Today and for the rest of the weekend and next week, we're supposed to get plenty of rain. So, this morning, I put out some lawn food onto my lawn for when it rains today. 

The temperatures have dropped markedly compared to yesterday - which was almost 30C - and I am just taking it easy with the garden. I've not mowed the new lawn until it gets over 5cm long... which will help it stay and grow nice and lush over Summer.

But otherwise one of my Agapanthus is pushing out a lovely flower stalk and the others have yet to get in and do that - but I'm patient, they'll catch up. The tomatoes are ripening on the black cherry tomato vine and the Sauce-Maker tomatoes are going well... but there's not many on there - only two lots of flowers came out and fruited. Well, that's okay for my first season - I'm still learning to grow them. 

Truthfully, I think I need a bigger greenhouse to grow bigger and more plants. Now, that'd be a great thing, right?

Anyway, now the rains are here, I've been leaving buckets out to collect rain for the green house so the tomatoes and herbs get a feed of Mother Nature like my garden does. 

Flourishing In Every Way!

My garden is growing so well since I jumped into it this Winter and fixed it up!

The Frangipani's are putting out new leaves - and the taller one next to the fence has begun to put out new flowers; which means new branches are coming up this year!

My Agapanthus has put out its first shoot for a flower just the other day... it's only about 3cm long, and you can barely see it, but it's there! And these ones are purple!

The greenhouse is really chugging along so well! The Sauce-Maker Tomatoes are fruiting and it's not yet its full size! How's that's for a happy plant? And the Black Cherry Tomato Vine is going great too! I've been eating the ones I've gotten off the vine lately in salads... delicious little things!

And just yesterday - after months of eying off the Tahitian Lime Trees at the Rochedale Fruit Markets - I finally caved and bought one! Yep, now this Summer, I'll be harvesting myself some great limes instead of buying them! I can't wait! 

Well, that's all for now about that garden - except I've had to reseed the lawn in the bare patches. The thing is with that is that a pigeon has begun to come by and eat all the lawn seed... that greedy little bird! Well, can't win 'em all! 

Spring Has Sprung!

Well, in the past week, things have begun to spring from the dull-looking plants in my garden. After over 3 months of renovations, back-filling and replacing of plants and pots, I've finally gotten the lawn to start growing.

Well, kinda!

Anyway, my Frangipani has pushed out its first leaves the fluorescents - and it's not yet November, when it normally does this. My Black Cherry Tomatoes have had their first lot of deliciousness... and the other 30 or so are about to ripen in the greenhouse. I also noticed the 'Sauce-Maker' tomato has put out its first little tomato and I squished my first pest on it - which I jumped into action and sprayed the plant with a washing up detergent and water mix... to keep the little buggers off! 

I was thinking of using White Oil, but on the can, it said it wasn't suitable for Tomatoes, so, I thought the detergent would be more environmentally suitable.

The Agapanthus are sitting up nice and high, ready to shoot out their flower stems - and I can't wait! they've divided again and I've got around 8 plants which have been dividing up with each other since I received the first one about 10 years ago from the neighbour over the back fence who thought it was a weed... when I was offered it, I jumped at owning one, seeing how expensive these plants are to buy new from Bunnings. And mine are purple!

The Camellia is looking wonderful too! It's really starting to grow. At first, I thought it was going to up and die on me. But when I had my Rose & Camellia Potting Mix, I knew I had to either buy one or the other... and a rose bush was going to be too fussy for me to care for, so a Camellia was it. Plus it was going to attract the bees to my garden in Summer... not a bad deal, right? 

I've yet to look around for more statues and garden ornaments to make it work in my favour of the literary garden... but I think I'll work it that way in time. First, I'll make it grow, and grow well. Then, I'll add the literary characters as time goes on.  

In the greenhouse, I've got lovely little pots of herbs growing so well, and have had to replace the Sweet Basil with Greek Basil, the latter of which grows the more you pick it. It's delicious with whatever you put it with - especially tomatoes and eggs, both of which are my favourite things to eat. 
And my Desert Rose is beginning to grow more and the Geraniums are starting to flower as well, with the protection of the greenhouse - so the possums can't get their little mitts on them. 

I do love Spring. It's when the garden wakes up from that deep sleep called Winter and lives again. The best thing about Spring is that I get to see it happen slowly every day I venture out into my garden.

New Additions

I've been really happy with my little garden and it's successful face lift. But I just can't seem to leave it alone from one day to the next.

I want to do more improvements to it.

And you know, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

I've still got the pavers to put down to the fence, then, I've decided to put down some stones in front of the greenhouse door - as the grass just isn't growing there, so a stone pathway looks like the way to go with that, so I don't leave a dirt path in my way there. 

I've scored new plants and cuttings in recent days though. I visited a friend of mine not far from my place and she her and family had moved into their new place a few months ago - and I left them alone to let them settle in. Well, I arrived with a great ice coffee and food from a locally owned coffee place and we chatted. 
Then, she offered up cuttings off her succulent garden out the back! And Wow! There was so much to pick from! I came home with Fire Sticks, Bread and Butter cuttings, tiny jades, Baby Fingers... all kinds, and I love them all! I just don't have enough potting mix to put them in all the pots I have. But that's a task for next week! I also scored a staghorn - a lovely one - and it's now hanging up on the back fence along with other plants I have up there. 

I've also got the greenhouse filled with plants too! There's the two new plants I scored from Bunnings: The Sauce-Maker Tomato - which isn't the most attractive fruit around, but it makes incredible tomato sauce! And I also had to replace my Sweet Basil with Greek Basil; the difference being that the Sweet Basil dies off and the Greek Basil is a perennial; which I should have bought first off. 

Well, I got into the back yard this morning, mowed the longer lawn, got out the pitchfork and pushed holes into the patchier areas and then hosed it heavily to get it to grow thicker. Let's hope the rest of the lawn catched up with the first lot soon and looks great! Until my next post, happy gardening! 

Decent Rain

Well, after a week of resting up my foot, and some decent rain, the garden is going really well.

I bought a box of grass seed - and this stuff has blue seeds inside it. Yates put out this seed with a coating on it to deter the birds and stop them from eating it! It doesn't poison them, it just tastes bad. And I've seen the birds try to eat the seed - they spit it out, looking at the ground as though to ask 'what the hell was that?' Funny though. I wondered how many times the company go it wrong before it only tasted bad; and really, I didn't want to know.

Well, the seed it taking off, and I've mowed it the larger area which is lush and green a few times - it's just a matter of the rest of it to catch up now. 

The greenhouse is really happening.

My Oregano is gorgeous is bushy, so is the Thyme; they look wonderful and are delicious! And the Black Cherry Tomato Vine has been clipped, so it can put all its energy into ripening the fruit its got. I'm looking forward to harvesting them all - but I'm wondering if I have to buy a new plant next year, or does it refruit? I'm going to have to find out when it all happens, I guess.

Well, I'm off to make a doctor's appointment. You see, I think I'm allergic to a bamboo mahl stick a fellow artist gave me today. First off, my hands began to bleed and I didn't think much of it... after wrapping it up in paper tape, I came home and showered to stop any other further allergic reaction I may have. However I'm starting to itch all over now - not a good sign. I really hope I'm not allergic to bamboo. Anyway, happy gardening. 

Resting A Little

Well... I'm resting after breaking a toe. Yeah... sounds tiny, but those things on the ends of feets can be the most delicate of things at the best of times.

I'm so glad the lawn has grown through. I got the Green and Feed onto it and trimmed back some of the leaves in the greenhouse so the fruit of the tomatoes could ripen properly before I turned into a complete clutz and hurt myself.

The solar lights are charging up properly and they're looking great at night. I'm so pleased with them - but I'm looking forward to getting more literary-themed items in the garden, which is great! I've also thought of 'Little Red Riding Hood' (wolf) and 'Hansel & Gretel' (the gingerbread house)... I can't wait to get in and find those things around the places I would normally find them over the next year. 

Yeah, I'm giving myself a year or so to find those items and really make my garden into what it's going to turn into. You know, it'll be a really great thing to see its bigger transformation; as we all know that when you really want something to happen, it's when you can wait for it to happen and be patient enough for the right things to show up at the right times that the garden (or whatever you're working towards) will work out well. 

I can't wait for the theme to make the garden into what it's going to become... and yes, it'll take time, but it's going to be a great waiting game for me, something I don't mind waiting for. Until my next post, happy gardening.

A Fantasy Writer's Land

Okay, you'll think I'm in the wrong blog, but I'm not. You see, I love to write books and I love to get into the garden and get my hands dirty too - and thus I thought to combine the two together!

So, while I'm kicking back and waiting out my lawn, my imagination started working overtime with my garden and how the fun part of it should look. 

Seeing it's a small garden, I thought it should be looking like a nice little garden - which looks and feels bigger than it really is. So, I'm hoping to find a wardrobe door to attach to my garden gate (I'll just screw it onto the hinged part and have enough room to lock it up, not a problem) and it'll be tall enough that nobody can see over it. That will be something fun and cool to look for; and I'll see what I can do with the colour of it - see if I can paint it a nice dark stain to make it look interesting.

Now, I've already put a duck in a cage to signify 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' and after posting the photo of it on Facebook and asking what the book of the photo is on a book site, people jumped in and knew it immediately. Some gardeners weren't too sure - or didn't want to play along. Otherwise, I'm hoping to make my garden a place where there's lovely plants and a place of fun too.
I'm also going to make a tall street signpost with fantasy lands I've read about in books all over it - pointing in the right directions - like the one they had in MASH. It ought to be fun to make that one! 

I've bought a deep white bucket with a lid - one my Dad calls a 'painting bucket' - from Bunnings for $14.00 and have put the kitchen composting scraps into it after the kitchen bin is full and the liquid from that kitchen composting bin is used like Seasol on the lawn (diluted with water in a watering can)... it's all coming together! 

I really can't wait to get in and work out the cool things for my garden. I might even get a few seagulls for 'The Birds'... or even a raven, paint the eyes red and put him somewhere around the garden - he may yet freak out the possums at night. Well, until my next post, happy gardening!

Save A Little Money

Well, it's August, and I'm up to the stage where I can kick back and wait for the grass to grow - on a very literal standpoint. This is the part of the facelift I do enjoy in a garden - and I can't wait to get myself into a bigger garden so I have more to do; honestly, I get a little bored when it's cool enough to do more, and yet I don't have anything to actually do in the garden but wait. 

I have to wait for the lawn to establish itself enough so I can install the large stepping stones. This means I have to look into working on another project while I do. 

I've been planning on constructing a street sign reminiscent of the one from MASH - you know the one which was outside of 'The Swamp' with all the city and country names on the sign post? Well, yeah, that but I want one which will have all the made-up names from the books I've read; pointing in all the right directions (yep, even Neverland will be pointing upwards to the heavens - second star to the left - in the right direction). Seeing I'm a writer, and I do love my garden, it's only right for me to have part of my imagination in this garden. 

I've already put a book-style art piece in it; and it's worked out. I'm hoping to pop in more pieces of book-style art works around the place... now I just have to find a statue of a white rabbit to put next to the sign post and it'll really start to look like something out of a book! Until my next post, happy gardening!

Little Kitchen Composting

Last night, I pulled out a small bucket from my art gear, found a lid to fit it and made started putting my food scraps inside it. On the lid, I wrote: 'Compost' so I remember to put my food scraps and tea leaves inside it... might even get in and put a hole in one side and put it inside another one and make compost juice for the garden.

Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? 

Well, I thought to post this little idea to see how it goes before I forget it. Until my next post, happy gardening.

Leveling Out

Well, it's the last month of the garden facelift and I'm so happy with what has happened in my back yard so far. 

1. The unwanted plants were pulled out and tossed - after I offered them to family and friends.

2. The shade area was sorted out; and I found plants I thought had died were still hiding out and alive! 

3. I bought a greenhouse from Bunnings and built it and started growing herbs and tomatoes again!

4. When my folks were at my place to help me out with building the greenhouse, I gave them 2 Agapanthus - as promised - and Mum loved them! 

5. I re-organised the garden so it would grow and look better; even put in a pathway to the back fence so I can get to the rain water gauge easily.

6. Bought new plants to replace the old, tossed-out ones to fill in spots which now lay bare.

Yep, I did a lot of work for such a small area; and now, I've just bought some cheap potting mix for $2.95 a bag to throw on the lawn to level out my wonky lawn... how cool is that? I really do think I need another bag though. But, that's okay. I'll get that and work it out as this month progresses. Once I get the lawn growing again, the garden will look lovely, lush and green again just in time for Spring and Summer. 

I still want to put in large stepping stones in it, but that may have to wait until next year... I'm not sure yet. Until my next post, happy gardening!

Plans For August and September

Now, I'm coming to the pointy end of my Little Garden Facelift and this has worked out so well! I've recycled pots and made the garden look great! New plants are starting to flourish, the backfilled ones are looking good and then the ones which have been upgraded into other pots have begun to take on a new lease on life too.

The greenhouse is going so well too! The tomatoes are growing fast and the herbs are looking and tasting wonderful! However, the possums have tried getting into it, very unsuccessfully I must say! 

Anyway, I've got to work on the lawn as the days become longer and warmer and Spring is about to show its lovely warm face to Australia. And seeing we haven't had much rain, but it's been cold, it'll be up to me to get in and water the lawn more as the weeks go by.

First though, I'll be looking into buying some good quality lawn seed, Feed'n'Weed and lawn food as well. Before any of that goes down, I'll have to spread out some potting mix (cheap stuff) to level out the surface of my lawn first and make it look the way I want it to. This will be the first thing I'll be doing next week - buying the $2.95 potting mix to put out on the the shallow parts of my lawn and then putting out the lawn seed. 

After that, I'll get in and get some 2nd-hand pavers and pave the garden bed and a bag of white stones. The white stones will be for the front garden (to cover up the roots of the trees out there and make it look better). And then, I'll get in and put in some lawn food over the lawn seed and water that in - otherwise that'll burn the seed. 

By the beginning of September, I'll hopefully have a nice level lawn and a pretty garden to walk out into for the rest of the year... and lawn should be nice and lush and strong for the hotter days to come. Then, once it's established, I might get in and lay larger pavers into the ground leading out to the greenhouse. Those pavers will be right at ground level so that when I mow, the blades won't be grazing the paver.

It sounds like a lot of work, but all the hard work is done. This is the easy part... the touching-up part of the garden. Well, let's hope it is. Until my next post, happy gardening!

Been Busily Gardening

It's been a fortnight and the Little Garden Facelift has been chugging along really well. So far, I've installed a lovely little greenhouse to protect not only my most delicate of plants, but to get in and grow other plants too! 

Yep! I'm back into growing herbs and tomatoes again - isn't that great? I'm so pleased to be able to close it up in that afternoons and know nothing will get into it at night.

In the past two months, the large Sun-Loving Broms were removed and thrown out - and nope, not even my family wanted them, so I couldn't give them away. And then I had 2 pots which were useful to me as well. I potted up some lovely plants, repotted others into larger pots and tossed out ones which had lost their bloom and use around the place; reusing their pots for other plants which will be for the garden soon.

I bought a Camellia and a large pot for it, and recently planted that up for next Summer... it's looking great! I can't wait to see it in full bloom next Summer! And I'm planning on getting some pavers as well to put down, as I've made a pathway into the back of the yard to the fence... and because it'll get really muddy, I want to be able to make it a lovely little path through my garden. 

Last night, I pulled apart the solar light strings and pulled out the flat batteries for them and looked at what kind of batteries they were. You see, as the lights are okay, I'll just replace the batteries and get them charged up as the days become longer and the sun moves around. It'll look great again and light up my garden again for the next 6 months - and besides, the batteries only cost around $5.95 per pair. So, that's a saving for me in the longrun.

I still have a few things to get in and do for the garden. There's still a plant to put in, pots to put away and other things to clean up around the place. I want to add in some succulents for the frame next to the back door and re-do the stones in the front garden area (as they're not looking great and need refreshing) so the townhouse looks nice and clean for Summer. 
All of this will come in the next month; and by Spring, the gardens - front and back - will be all ready for the warmer month; and all I'll have to do is watch it grow and enjoy it all. Then, there's the lawn to care for too - as it hasn't gotten out of this without some damage. My yard gets no sun over Winter and so it's now a little muddy... and so I'll be getting in and working over it with some Feed'n'Weed and lawn food as well as September comes through.

So, there's what I've been up to over not only the past two months, but what's going to happen over the next two. Yeah, there's still some things to get into, and other maintenance to get into before Summer hits us again. Until my next post, keep gardening!

Gardening Journals

I keep a gardening journal - not only online, but also offline - to keep my actions around my garden in print. 

I know this may sound like a finicky thing to do, but if I keep up-to-date what I do with my garden, what I spend on it, how much money goes into it, which plants I buy, how much potting mix is bought and what lives and what doesn't in my garden, I have an idea what I can do with it - and also what I can't do with the garden I have. 

I started my gardening journal I have now in 2013 and it's been going on since. Once in a while, I don't write but then it's when I don't do anything to change the garden; for example this year! 

This year, I've bought a new greenhouse, plants and potting mix, moved a whole lot of plants around, gotten rid of plants I no long need/want in the garden, back-filled other plants and repotted others still which really needed it. But then, I'm looking at buying a few other plants to fill out some gaps which have been created around the garden from the tossed out plants and a lot of herbs to grow for my kitchen.

All of this has been going into my gardening journal; and this is a good thing. I've also written in the aim for my next pay packet - how many bags of potting mix I'll be needing, the big pot I'll be needing next week and another plant I want to buy for the garden... it all goes in there... as aims for my garden. It's all there for a reason and it's so when I look at it next, I know what I want for my garden is for it to flourish next Summer.

Do you keep a gardening journal? Is yours online and offline? Have you got a Facebook group or photo journal to keep yourself on track? I have all of these and the people in the group on Facebook are few, but they get inspiration from what I do in my small garden - they know I don't have a lot of money, nor a lot of space, and yet I make the most of it all. So, do you make the most of your garden and your space? Until my next post, happy gardening. 

First Month In!

It's the first month into the Little Garden Facelift and so much has been done! 

So far, I've cleaned out the Broms - all of the ones I don't want anymore - and the whole garden looks and feels so much cleaner; not to mention, I've scored some big pots to recycle! I've also cleaned out a cane I no longer need, and that left behind a nice terra-cotta pot too!

In one of the pots, I planted 4 cloves of garlic before the Winter Solstice. Which is good. I've got year to wait until that comes to harvest. I'll have to keep and eye on that! 

I then bought some bags of potting mix and started looking around for a rose for my dear friend, Hannah. I also bought 2 bags of rose potting mix - which is good for camelias too - and over the past few weeks, I've hesitated buying a rose bush because it may not grow properly in the place I'm currently living. So, I might give Camelias a try; as they're a nice plant and don't have thorns. They also attract the bees - which is good for the planet. 
I also bought a Geranium to support the Breast Cancer Foundation - and it's a hot pink one! It's jumped in and flowered in the most gorgeous way! But it's been in a bird cage to keep the possums away from it.

I have a solution for this - and another plant which was struggling with this problem too - and that was to buy myself a greenhouse! So, I did. I went out this week and bought myself a Naturallife walk-in greenhouse. It's a nice little one and it cost me only $44.90; and I have posted my day yesterday putting it together on Earth Gardeners on FB. A few people on there have advised me to save up for a better one - that this one is okay for now, but it will fall apart once the days get really hot. 

So, I know what I'm getting myself for my birthday this year! Yep, a bigger and better greenhouse! I'll be able to grow everything I want to eat in it and have it bolt together.

But for now, this one will have to do as it's what I can afford. Dad is stoked at how much my garden has jumped forward in the past year; and was amazed I offered him and Mum a couple of Agapanthus. Mum was so happy! She loves the plant and asked what colour they flower - as they flower either white, blue or purple - and when I said purple, she was so happy about that too! 

Truthfully, I can't wait to get in and grow vegetables again without the possums helping themselves... I really do miss eating my own herbs without fighting the possums for them... and getting to my tomatoes before the possums and flying foxes do. Well, until my next post, happy gardening! 

The Shade Area

Yesterday morning, I was out in the garden pulling apart the shade area to make it grow and bloom next Summer. 

I hadn't had any breakfast and had put on a load of washing; it was 8:30am and the chill was still in the air. 

After pulling out the table and chairs from the shady area, I then picked up a nice plant I didn't know the name of and repotted it into a larger pot. It had grown pups over the last 6 months, and I knew it needed room to move. When I pulled it out of the pot, I found the roots had become rootbound; so I had come by it just in time! The pot I was putting into was twice the size and perfect for it to have room for the next year! It looks great!

The next thing I did was pull out all the broms I had let go from the past 5 years... they were just getting too much and I ended up throwing them over the garden gate and into my car port to be thrown in the bin - as it was collection day yesterday. I found my Desert Rose and repotted that dear little thing - as it didn't flower last Summer and I thought it had died. So, that's got a bigger pot to expand into.

I pulled out more broms and found some pots that I had 'lost' amongst the forest of weeds and overgrown broms and plants... and then, I came across a very grumpy Blue Tongue Lizard who was trying to hibernate. Poor little guy! He showed me how ticked off he was and bit me... and I well deserved it for interrupting his sleep and put him back where I found him. 

Once it was all done, I put the table and chairs, left the lizard alone to his sleep and hung out the laundry... with a happy note that I had gotten rid of a good lot of plants I didn't need and now have plenty of room there to add some I'd like to have in that area during the facelift. This is going really well! 

One Step Forwards - Two Steps Back

Sometimes I wish I had a credit card - but only sometimes - as I would never be able to handle the payments. Anyway, this week, I had a good lot of purchases towards the garden for the facelift it badly needs.

Yesterday, while I was out and about after doing the grocery shopping, I bought 2 bags of potting mix and a large grate for what I've decided to be as the climbing rose - Angel Face. It's hopefully going to be a purple range of rose (my favourite colour) and very pretty.

Now, I have the rose potting mix, the grate and the next thing I need it the pot - but really it just needs a big pot; which might just be one of the pots from the garden I already have. You know one of the ones which the Broms I have to get rid of live in now? Yep, one of those ought to do until I move and then I'll transfer it into another pot or better still into the ground! 

And, well, that's all I can buy for the garden - as that's all I can afford right now - until next pay, where I'll be buying just 1 bag of potting mix and a rose in a bag (which will be okay so long I keep it out of the sun and away from anything which might eat it). So, I might have to keep it inside near the door, or in the shaded area - I'm not sure yet. Otherwise, I'll have to look around at the yard this weekend and see what I can pull out of the pots and toss out.

Yep, it's going to be a busy weekend. What are you up to? Until my next post, happy gardening!

The Little Garden Facelift!

It's been a couple of years since I last did a facelift on my garden - and it's high time I did another one.

This is where I go looking through my yard and pull out all the pots and find out what the plants need - do they need repotting badly, do they need to be tossed out, do they need to back-filled? - it's on for young and old when it comes to this kind of facelift with my little garden, and so I call it The Little Garden Facelift - mainly because my garden it little and it really does need the facelift.

I'm really looking forward to this and so what I've begun to do is collect bags of potting mix... so far I've got 2 bags of Rose potting mix (for the rose I'm going to plant in the yard next month) and one bag of ordinary potting mix. I've also replaced 1 plant with a new one, repotted a plant from the shade area which was really reaching out for the light and ready to flower in the next week or so... and so that's brought me up-to-date with the little ones I'm hoping that aren't too over the top.

But the two big sun-loving Broms are going in the bin along with the cane by the fence - all of these will take over a yard if I plant them in the ground. So, they're out of my garden for good this year. This will give me 3 pots to reuse! Yay! I'm looking forward to this. 
I'm repotting a Frangipani and moving it to the back fence and moving some of the Agapanthus into the front row and seeing if I can get one of them into another pot to expand the family of them (they're purple and look just gorgeous, but last Summer, they didn't flower due to not having enough root room). So, once they're planted into new roomier pots, I'm sure they'll be better... 

Anyway, I'm hoping the garden will look and feel better once Hannah's rose is in. Hannah is a friend of mine who committed suicide and last week was her service in the UK. I'm planting a lovely rose in her memory in a lovely pot... but so far I've only got the potting mix. Over the next month, I'm hoping to get myself together to buy a nice pot for a rose I've picked out... it ought to a lovely memory for her. 

All of this will take part in July/August - yes, the coldest part of our year - so my garden will hopefully recover fully by the time the seasons warm up again; and I fix up the lawn from the Logan City Council invading my yard again to stuff around with the sewage drains again. Last year, that camera they used killed off a huge amount of lawn and the guys didn't put down any tarpaulin to protect my garden; assuming I didn't care, but I did. 

Well, that's all to report about my garden and what's going to be happening this year. Until next time, happy gardening. 

Cooler Weather Afoot!

At long last, the cooler weather is here! And this means I'm able to get off my very lazy butt and work the garden.

Well, okay, in the past few weeks, I've had day surgery done at the Wesley Hospital here in Brisbane, and I'm still recovering from the knock-out stuff they gave me, but that's no excuse for me to be lazy in the garden - even with the smallest things.

But it's May, which means, I must start my collection of bags of potting mix... yes, it's a weird old thing for me to do around my place, but it's something I do. On the first week of May, I begin buying bags of potting mix so that by around mid-July, I get myself working hard in my garden to repot my garden.

While I'm buying potting mix, I'm also going to be saving up for really big pots... only around 4 or so, to pot up some Broms and a few other plants around the garden. In all honesty, I really can't wait until I move out of this townhouse complex and into a proper home where the soil is so much better. You see, the soil where I am is only good for lawn; and not much else - it's red clay and builders rubble... how disgusting is that? So, I've got a gorgeous lawn and the inability to grow anything else. 

So, it's a container garden for me right now... and if I get myself into the larger containers, I'll be able to use the biggest buggers for the herbs or bonsais in my next place - to make my place look and feel wonderful. And believe me, I won't be moving from my next place for a very long time... I'll make sure of that - yep, it's going to be a forever home.

I also bought 2 plants for my terrariums - as a few of the plants in the two I have have either died or are beginning to look a little lanky. So, I thought to strike while the iron is hot and replace - or add - to those lovely glass containers. 

Well, despite that, I have been busily working in the garden - readying it for Winter. On Tuesday, I pulled a few pots away from the border of pipe and brick and raked out the long grass and weeds and it looks so much better! I then repotted a Frangipani because it was rootbound and then spotted that my second Brom was with pup - another one! - and so I'll have my 4th one to pot up and 2 to toss out! Wow, that's going to be a lot of work to get done; and I hope I don't get all sliced up while doing it as it's a sun-loving Brom; both of them. 

So, that's what I've been up to over the last month... what about you? Have you preparing for the cooler months here in Australia? Or if you're in another country, what are you up to? Until my next post, happy gardening. 

Flooding Rains

Out west, it's been raining so much, it's flooding all the previously dusty towns; and this means all that water will be coming towards the coast and filling our dams.

This is a good thing - and can be a bad thing as well. It's a good thing because it'll make our red centre turn green. It's a bad thing because there'll be a flood.

I have noticed, though, that our storm season has been late and so the garden has flowered late as well. My Moch Orange shrubs didn't go through their first bloom until late February and my pink-flowering Frangipani didn't put out any flowers this year. But I kind of expected the latter because I backfilled the pot last year.

The Lilly-Pillys have turned that lovely pink they normally do every Summer when they have new growth; just before their leaves turn that gorgeous light green then their lovely dark green and then, they put out their fruit of bright pink berries.

My lawn has grown so much since the rains have returned that it feels as though I'm constantly mowing it and pulling out weeds from every corner. But that's a good thing that the lawn is green, and the plants are growing so much! So, how is your place going? Until my next post, happy gardening.

Not A Typical Summer

Just when I think it's going to pour rain, and the garden's going to get a good soaking, the clouds dry up and take off to another part of the country and flood there instead.

Yep, it's been a weird old time for us here in Queensland; and this is one reason why I haven't really been on here to tell you guys much.

Not much has been happening in the garden.

Some of the Frangipannis are growing nicely that I planted into pots - and they'll need new pots come Winter. 

My Ficus needs a new pot - already - and that'll come this Winter too; as the plant hasn't grown as much as I had hoped.

And then, I'll be upgrading another Large Leaf Jade into another pot - or backfilling it soon as well. This means I'll have to save a bit of money for this until Winter. 

Otherwise, the lawn isn't growing as well as it did last year, and the only good thing is that I don't have any bindis... at least that's a good thing about that. Well, until my next post, happy gardening.