Finding homes for plants

Realising that I need to start clearing my alfresco of plants so that I can someday fulfil the goal of being able to actually just sit and admire my garden, I decided to plant some of the potted plants even if it's not in their intended final spot in the garden. 
(Truth is I bought plants because I liked them and had no ideas where I was going to put them anyway.)

Also, while I had my phone out in the garden , I couldn't help photographing the promise of fruit, the vibrant greens and beautiful flowers. 





Not much left

I finished topping my east-side garden bed. It was a bit tricky getting around the broad beans which are still producing. Can't wait to have the energy to start planting in this!

There's not much left to the pile of soil, which means I've almost finished moving 6 cubic metres of soil using just a pair of 26L flexi-tubs.

Feeling pretty proud of this. :)

Gardening after work to create mindfulness

Determined not to let the new front garden beds remain empty for long, (and to save some of my rather potbound plants, I got four of my lavenders planted. My aim is to have almost matching rows of lavenders alongside the driveway. 

As you can see, none of the lavenders are the same variety, so the leaves and flowers are all a bit different which is how I prefer it. There's little repetition of the exact same plant if I can help it.

Also planted/transplanted are two echinacea plants and a green-haired calendula. I'm hopeful that the plants will recover their shock and provide some flowers along that front section of the little quarter circle. I've mulched that little section of the garden, in particular hoping that the nasturtiums conveniently hiding half the rubble pile won't be able to self-seed and take over the intended plants.

And just because I was out the front, here's what the other side of the driveway currently looks like (yeah, I know there's some weeds I need to deal with):

Evening wander around the garden

Woolly bush tree potted up

Duck egg blue ixia almost in flower

Potatoes planted 

Fruit on trees netted

Soil topped up on existing garden bed ready for tomato plants

The first berry garden is looking vibrant

Lettuces and spinach are clearly feeling warmer than I am because they're trying to go to seed

Blueberries protected from any marauders

Front garden bed finished... well, mostly

With a mattock and determination, I got the last section of the lower front garden bed weeded, and began the usual sprinkling gypsum and laying cardboard down. 



It was funny yet exasperating that I ran out of gypsum with just a tiny patch to go. A quick run to the Big Green Shed and I was able to finish it off.

Ta-da!

Putting sunshine to good use

It was a pretty busy weekend for me, full of board games with friends and cooking with my older sister and mum. I did manage to find time to get a decent amount done in the garden too.

I potted up my recently purchased tomato plants, some strawberry plants that I bought a while back, the osteospermum (African daisy) seedling that I've promised to give to my mother, and my baby bay tree that my mum helped me trim to encourage bushiness. 

(Yes, my alfresco is full of empty pots and potted plants - I promise it will be clean enough to walk through again eventually!) 

I also potted up my poor midyim berry shrub that I bought six months ago and didn't get around to repotting out of its small original pot. I gave it a good sized pot to spread its roots around, which required some intensive untangling and teasing before I settled it in its new home. 

Bay tree and midyim berry at the front

I transferred my apple mint into a small trough planter, and already it looks nicer than when it was in the tall slim pot which had been my only available pot when first potting it up two years ago.

My mother gave me three young irises from her garden, so they got put in a pot as well.

I planted out four of my favourite osteospermums in the recently established garden bed along the back fence. I also planted my marionberry and silvanberry plants into that garden bed. After seeing how well the osteospermums in the other berry garden bed did, I'm hoping these ones will replicate that success with an abundance of colourful flowers next year.

And of course, I made progress on my front yard...

Only half the bottom garden bed left to go!

Front garden bed progress

I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to get done before the predicted rain hit, but it turns out the answer was 'quite a bit'.

Once I got a rhythm going, it was quick work to make significant progress. I got the rest of the top front garden bed finished, including bricking the top little quarter circle garden off and adding soil to finish it off.

After a quick afternoon break, I got started on the bottom section of the front yard. Mother nature, however, decided she'd held off the rain long enough. It came in spits at first, but I took the hint and packed up just in time before the proper rain hit. So I don't have a good photo of the bottom garden bed being started as I had to take photos from the shelter of my front porch.

Day 2 of soil shovelling

It's impossible to plan for the weather, but in hindsight I could have checked the weather forecast for Sunday before I made my plans last night.

Strong winds meant applying mulch was completely out of the question. Sadly, this also ruled out gypsum, even once I could buy some more.

There was little else I could do except finish filling the other back garden bed with soil. 

I did do a quick trip down to the Big Green Shed for another bag of gypsum. I sometimes wonder if I should be supervised when I go there, because I came home with three lavender plants and seven marked-down tomato plants. 

There was nothing wrong with the tomato plants, except that they were quite big considering the little pots. I figure a potting up before putting in the greenhouse until the weather isn't quite so horrible would be fine. Four of those tomatoes are for my mum and sister. My tomato seeds just didn't seem to want to germinate this year, so though I'll keep trying, having three tomato plants to start me off is better than no tomatoes at all.

Yippee! Time to finish some garden beds!

As you're no doubt aware, I was very excited to have my vegie mix soil delivered this morning.

I had a class in the morning, so I only had half an hour to begin transferring soil before I had to leave, but as soon as I got home in the early afternoon, I was straight away back at it. I opted to start the top front garden bed, figuring it would be less work to move soil just a couple of metres away. Unfortunately I ran out of gypsum, so I was only able to complete about a half of it.

Nevermind. Back to filling the waiting garden beds in the back yard. I managed to do all of one garden bed and start the other before deciding I didn't have enough energy to complete the second one in the same day.

By the time I needed to go inside for the evening, I was pretty satisfied with my achievements.

It was too dark after dinner to do anything more outside, so I made plans to finish the second back garden bed before spreading sugar cane mulch on them both tomorrow.