Coral Bells 'Firefly' - Still flowering and growing next to the Gardenia.


Self seeding Sweet Peas. They are beautiful once again, though are very much coming to their end now. 
Despite the kids pushing tractors, cars and even the odd bike through this garden bed, the Lavender lives on and with only a few broken branches, it has come back well and abundantly flowering. They are defiantly winners for toughness. A few purple Crocus bulbs also pushed through.

I am so glad I planted out the pots with a variety of blooms as it really is nice to see all the colour as you look out the back door. Here are the pretty Violas.

Blooms from the Lemon Tree.


 I love these Roses. I just wish I knew what they are called. 

 More happy Gerbera's by the front door as well as that purple Sunseeker Gazania. How beautiful is the Slim Dusty Rose bush just behind them. 

Kangaroo Paw. I took a tiny clump from out the front and placed it in this pot. It grew and grew over the following months and it has put on a great show of flowers this Spring. The best is the flowers last for ages.  

Im not a big fan of this Rose bush by the front door, but when it comes to Spring again I always end up loving it all over again. 

 Pretty Dianthus. I have these all over the place. They are easy to split and replant and do not require much maintaining and are great for borders. 

 Another pretty Gerbera. 

 Sweet Williams given to me from Margot. These have spread a fair bit and have beautiful bright pink flowers. I have also discovered white and pink ones.

2. You will need a bag of this magic potion pictured below; a simple tomato growing mix that you can purchase from your local Mitre 10 or Bunnings store.  It contains a wetting agent and all the nutrients that a tomato seedling requires to grow.



4. Fill the hole with water and gently scrape over some of the dirt back into the hole.
These last two steps I was totally unaware of or knew about, so I was mightily impressed with it all as you could imagine.


5. Take your seedlings out of the tray or pot and be very, very careful with them. Norm told me I had to look after these plants better than I do my own kids. He really does love his tomatoes. He he!!

See where Norm's finger is pointing at the lowest set of leaves below? When you plant the seedling, it  is this first set of leaves that needs to be buried just under the surface of the soil.
These leaves will eventually become roots and help the plant to grow and also provide more anchorage and stability for the plant. Norm tells me that the Mortgage Lifters are going to be over two meters tall so this will obviously be very handy by the end of summer.



6. Another learning curve on this tomato growing caper is all the protection for the seedlings that is required to protect them from the heat of the sun and also the wind.
Norm was kind enough to loan me this wind break that he had made from some offcuts and shade cloth. Genius!...and I thought I was awesome with the chicken wire fencing.


The Sweet Peas will also give the seedlings a bit of shade as they are starting out, and heck, they beautify the patch as well don't you think? Stunning!

We also pegged a shade sail over the top of the entire garden bed to also provide more shade from the harsh and very hot sun, particularly for the coming days ahead.
Its not pretty, but it'll do and I have a few weeks up my sleeve to look at and plan some sort of structure to cater for two meter high, giant tomato plants. Any ideas people?


7. Lucky number seven is to water your babies. A fine mist preferably at least over the next week as they take. Ill be watering them first thing every morning.

The garden is having a party right about now and its all going OFF!!

Three years of pottering away is definitely paying dividends here at the moment. Of course if you walked pass you probably wouldn't think that much of it, but I am as proud as punch. I just looked back over the last years post from around this time and its pretty much the same which is rather amusing. Just posting the same old stuff here. ha ha!! Its good to compare though isn't it?

The last few days has seen me pulling out Clover, Couch Grass and the odd thistle or two.

I have been Seasol-ing like its no bodies business and the front yard stinks because the garden beds are full of Blood and Bone. So hardcore in fact that I even have to close the windows because of the stench that sometimes wafts inside in the afternoon breeze.

Beside this though, it really is the best time to be a gardener. There is so much going on and as always there are lots of little surprises just popping up all over the place.

I only have one tiny section of the front garden bed left to weed and tidy up and then its just looking on and enjoying it all for a couple more weeks before the de-heading of the blooms begins.

The weather is also humming things along. We are experiencing what Id say is a Spring time heatwave this week. We have had a good run of 20+ degree days and its even climbing up to the low 30's this Grand Final Weekend. Very out of the ordinary but I am not complaining as watering the garden at the end of the day is one of my favourite things to do. The bees are loving it too. 

Here is what is in flower in my garden right now.



Freesias: I had purple, red and white come up from the bulbs that I planted this year. They smell so good. Im not sure what happened to last years.




I can't remember what colours are where since I split them earlier in the year, so the last few Iris's that are about to open up are sure keeping up the suspense. They really are my show stoppers. The white ones in the middle are from the Iris's a friend gave me earlier in the year and which I planted with the kids. We had a 50% strike rate on the flowering. On the right, Im not sure where I got that one from but it sure is pretty.