The Winter Wander

It’s feels like ages since I entered the veggie patch and did some serious input out there. Planting has  been very light as I filled 3 beds with green manure crops so I could dig them in and add nutrients back into the soil. Here the tops have been chopped back,

Then they were dug into the soil. I’ll repeat digging them in in about a week or two.The only things I really have planted are snow peas, leeks and I discovered some fairly decent broccoli in among the green manure so that’s now clear. I can categorically report that CD’s do not deter birds from devouring lettuce plants.  All the literature states that you should time planting your peas so that you avoid frosts that will damage the flowers, therefore setting. This little tacker must have just made the safe zone, we’ve had a couple of ripper frosts.This little section is where all the spent veggie crops like tomatoes, corn stalks and any other ‘past it’ plants are tossed. I topped them today with all of the leaves that had been raked up between all the veggie beds and in the berry house. This will just sit now until spring and be used as the spillover planting bed. The rhubarb and Warrigal Greens are really shining and after a bit of a tidy up things feel much more in control, damp and dreary, but in control.This pic of when the back yard was just getting set up, 5 years ago. The following 2 pics are where it’s at now.

There are a couple of really pretty things performing in the garden at the moment. This little flowering gum is called Purple Patch, it is a smallish tree with a weeping habit. The tiny purple flowers appear in winter but I prefer the buds.

The Eucalyptus caesia or Silver Princess, would have to be one of my favourite plants. Every single part of this tree is special. The form, the bark, the buds, the flowers, the colour, the nuts, the fact the birds love it and the  way it gently waves in the breeze. 

Silver princess bark

Silver princess flower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The planting in the courtyard is taking shape well, I can’t believe how quickly the olives are growing. The mandarin tree is ready to be separated from its bounty one by one as the little fella just loves them.

It doesn’t appear that the second grandchild is going to be any different with his love of food, any food. The significant difference is that this one is not a neat and clean eater like his brother. He stuffs anything and everything in with gusto and gurgles with delight as its being eaten. He thoroughly enjoys spreading it far and wide and making it last, going back picking up his scattered bits. Pleasure to see!

It is a matter of getting the pressure washer out regularly, placing drop sheets where he is eating and having the brush and dustpan close by, but that’s OK.