Garden Blooms Post

This lovely lily is my contribution to the Garden Blooms for this month, hope everyone enjoys it.

Three more branches down

The weather has not been too great the last couple of days, also have been busy with some other committments.

Yesterday when clearing around some plants that were finished flowering I came across these little cyclamen, aren't they lovely, and developing into a nice little clump. I do love them and wish I knew where to get some of the different types. I have C. coum and used to have C. cicilium but seem to have lost it. That happens a lot in a garden like ours where we have a lot of different plants quite intensively planted.

Yesterday I emptied some pots of tulips....I grow them in pots as I seem to lose them, also I can place them to their best advantage. Was amazed at how they had multiplied in just 2 years. Both originally had 5 bulbs, and one now had 12 and the other one 21. Will put them in paper bags and keep in the refridgerator until planting time, and repot them into fresh mix. Did not get them all done, so must do that tomorrow.

Last year I repotted some rhodohypoxsis that had been in the same pot for about 5 years, and could not believe it when I counted over 80 bulbs!

Great for little gifts for people who have been very generous sharing their plants, and for the sales table at the Garden Clubs I belong to.

The tree feller in action

Another day tree-felling

Am entering some images of the tree were are felling, got another 3 or 4 large branches sawn down and disposed of , between the showers today, was very muggy out, and just enough rain to be annoying, but not enough to make any impression on the drought.

We are fortuneate here though as in this town there is a great water supply and in the almost 5 years we have lived here have never had hosing restrictions.

Picked some beans for tea, have an over supply of both climbing ones and dwarf ones, but slicing them and freezing them, they will be very welcome in the winter. Also processed tomatoes, courgettes and broccoli, altogether, will put them through the blender, and will be a good base for soup and spaghetti in the winter as well.

A busy Sunday

For some time we have been wondering what we would do about a very large tree in the shady part of our garden, and after a lot of thought we decided that we could remove it branch by branch, so today we began. It is going to be a big job as we will deal with each branch as it comes down, kindling, firewood, and the remainder we will put through the chipper, and that will be returned to the garden, so no wastage here!

We dealt with three large branches today, and already thinking what I can plant where it was.

Have some rhodies that are not in the right position, so they can be shifted, will plant some daffodils around, also some small bulb like chinodoxis and perhaps some frittilarias, already have quite a lot of english snowdrops in that area. Thought wood anenomes might do well, and some trilliums.

I notice that the greengags and the oval yellow plums are starting to ripen, not too big a crop, as only their second year, but we will get a taste.

Background to our Garden

We garden on 1200 sq metres in the South Island of New Zealand, where the climate could be likened to Mediterranean countries with warm, dry summers and cold winters. Not cold enough though to have snow lie in any great amount, but frosts of down to minus 5 degrees.

We are very lucky as we can grow many things like roses, clematis, hostas, rhododendrons, camellias, asiatic and oriental lilies, and many bulbs like daffodils, tulips, ranunculus, anenomes, crocus, hyacinth.

We garden very intensively, hence the name of the blog, "The survival of the Fittest Plants."

Because I like plants I try to fit in as many as I can, it discourages the weeds as well!

My husband has a very productive vegetable garden, and a glass house in which we grow tomatoes in the summer, and a few lettuces in the winter.

At the moment it is getting into later summer, with the roses having their second flowering for the season, and the oriental lilies flowering. Hydrangeas very colourful at this time of the year as well.

Have just begun reading gardening blogs and getting a lot of enjoyment from them, and as there seem to be few from New Zealnd thought I would start one, and try to keep a diary of the seasons.

First Post

Here I am, I have worked it out at last.