Spring...

Here in Australia we are just a few days away from Spring. Here in subtropical Brisbane, we don’t tend to have much difference between the seasons unlike the southern states. 

My garden does tend to get a bit neglected but in the last few months I’ve put a bit of effort into it. I’ve divided up bromeliads and re planted them in pots as well as directly into garden beds. Possums don’t seem to eat bromeliads or succulents so I’m extending their presence in the garden. 

DD1 gave me some dracena cuttings and I’ve potted those up too...and yes, the possums don’t seem to find them tasty either 😀. 

Some petunias have escaped being eaten by the possum gang too...

( I use the plastic forks to protect the plants when they are seedlings) 

The faithful nasturtiums that come up every year are putting on a bright display...

Some of the succulents have also flowered...

Not many veggies at the moment as DH and I will be away during September.

A self-sown pumpkin is doing nicely at the moment but will probably succumb to powdery mildew when the humid weather arrives. Or the vine and any pumpkins could be chomped on by hungry possums like my last few vines. 

Some tomatoes have come up in the compost that I put around the frangipani/ plumeria. Should take them out...but at least they are crowding out weeds perhaps! 

Months ago my cousin gave me a clump of eshallot seedlings. I planted them in a pot with a few inches of compost at the top. They’ve grown beautifully as had a whole lot of self sown plants. I did weed these plants out to start with but it looks like some more weeding is needed. 

Just 2 tomato plants which have been planted especially so far this season...

This meme is just so appropriate 🤣

Even though we Brisbanites reckon there isn’t much difference between the seasons, the king orchid that grows neglected in the back corner of the garden can always be depended on to ‘know’ exactly when Spring is looming...

Hope those drought ravaged rural areas of Australia get some rain soon 🤞🤞. 

Rehabilitation....Restoration?

A few weeks before we went away, I wrote a post about the sad state of a garden bed in the front yard. To me, it was certainly a sad state of affairs and the building development next door was totally to blame. For some reason, they had  built the 7 houses and then announced that they would have to come on to our property to dig trenches for the storm water drains...hello? In that post I wrote about how we gave them permission but that we expected the least disruption possible and any damage to our property would be repaired and gardens restored.

The temporary fence was moved yet another 35 CM or so into our property... So nearly a metre of our property is fenced off...

In this photo, the fence is resting against our house on the western side...and there was a large heap of dirt against it... This situation affected about 2/3 of our property line. The men working on this project removed my garden edging blocks so they could get the digger into next door....

They finished this work in just over a week...and this is the garden bed after that work was completed.

The shrubs near the front fence were untouched, the pentas and the large geranium were knocked about a bit but had survived. The topsoil had been taken away as had about a square metre of the end of the bed. My 'marmalade plant' (streptosolen jamasonii) was battered but there was still some of the plant remaining. My poker plant didn't survive. 

Guess who got a phone call from me? Yep! Brad the Project Manager. He promised that it would be put right and that plants would be replaced. As we were going away, he suggested that I give him a list of the plants when I returned.

The next photo shows the 'marmalade' plant before work started....

. 

This photo of the same plant was taken last spring...

So let's fast forward to last week when we arrived home...

Looking towards the front garden bed that had been wrecked...a wooden fence has been built and turf has been laid.

My dear neighbour watered the turf each day...and I have been doing that as well...just for the novelty. 

Generally we don't waste water on our lawn...it survives on rainfall...

The edging has been restored and the missing section of the garden has been replacd with new topsoil. Now is there something wrong in this next photo?

That mulch is stacked up against the fence... A no no in a termite prone area such as Brisbane. 

Talking of termites...that black box in the photo is a termite monitor box. It is a brand new one which has been paid for by the developers of next door. Their subcontractors dug up the old one and threw it away as it was no where to be seen when we came home...even digging into the mulch brought up zilch. This photo also shows how empty the garden bed is...so Brad has a list of the 3 plants I expect to be replaced. My beautiful marmalade plant was a victim; under the assumption that it may have got covered with soil, I even dug into the mulch and topsoil to see if I could find it...but no luck. 

The croton survived...and the Brunfelsia...

The geranium was fine when we left home on March 18...but it's gone now!

I  have a number of new plants that I've grown from cuttings which I could use to fill in the gaps. But I'm resisting that urge to replant straight away, and will wait for the replacements. (I so wish I had have struck some cuttings from the Marmalade bush) :-)

A bit more of this and that...

Firstly a photo of Eduardo the cat who is fully recovered from his nasty abscess and is once again 'living for mealtimes' and reminding me vociferously, if he thinks I'm a bit slow at getting his dinner in his bowl...here though, he is just reclining on the printer...

We have had a few late afternoon/evening thunderstorms here in recent weeks, and the rain has really benefited the garden.
Queenslanders who have mango trees in their backyards know that the trees don't always bear fruit in consistent quantities...some years there is abundance...other years we get poor crops. It looks like this year is a 'good year'. Here's a closeup photo of part of our 2013 crop.

Our humble variety has fruited well. The flying foxes/fruit bats will take a large share of the fruit but there will still be some for us!

 My latest geranium acquisition has lovely big flowers...I bought this plant at the recent Christmas markets I went to...

My eggplants (aubergines) are just about ready to pick.
I grew this plant in a large pot and placed it in the netted compound to try to prevent Ms Turkey from digging it up.

 Ms Turkey hasn't been seen in our garden recently...she must be trashing visiting someone else's garden :-) Because she hasn't  been scratching up my veggie garden beds, some potatoes that I had planted months ago have actually started growing...I'd given up on them!

Here's another of my geraniums which is flowering...over the last few years, I've really got to love geraniums/pelargoniums which featured a lot in my mother's garden. 

Those gaillardias haven't stopped flowering...

And I noticed the other day that my brunfelsia has  started flowering for the second time this year...must be the extra water from the storms...it has the most beautiful fragrance.

 The next photo is a bit blurry but it's my pentas shrub which is now covered in mauve flowers. It's a plant that is easy to grow but gets very stressed in hot, dry weather, so that extra rain has meant a happy plant covered in blossoms.

And lastly, the young family across the road have decorated the front of their house with some lovely Christmas lights. They look beautiful at night...

Mrs Martin's Celebrations Swap; Spring!

A little while back in a FNSI post I showed glimpses of this project. To celebrate the coming of Spring we each had to make a garden stitchery for our swap buddy. We didn't have to make this piece into anything...that's up to the recipient to decide whether it is framed, made into a cushion, runner or some other larger project. We were asked to use at least 5 different embroidery stitches.
My partner in this yearlong swap is lynne, and because Lynne has now received my parcel, I can unveil the project that I stitched.
I used a Jenny Elefantz design, called 'Do Daisies Grow in Your Garden?', which is filled with lots of cute little details, such as snails with blue shells, an orange and blue butterfly and some lady bugs.

 
I couldn't seem to find the  blue/cream large print that was recommended for the background, so I used a 'sky' print in the palest I could get. I couldn't find variegated green ric rac so decided to improvise.

I wasn't sure how wide the ric rac should be and ended up buying 2 different colour greens in 2 widths. The wider light green didn't look very effective so I used the narrow ric rac. Using a technique that my mum's friend used to use, I used herringbone stitch to sew the ric rac to the background. So I've got a sort of a variegated effect there. So the stitches that I used in the project were, backstitch, satin stitch, straight stitch, french knots, blanket stitch and herringbone!
 Then of course a few more 'bibs and bobs' went in the parcel, to celebrate Spring.
Some flower fabric...

 A pretty tea towel...

Both rolled up and tied...

And lastly a fragrant sachet which is just so spring-like!

Thank you once again to Karen for organising this swap!

Today I spent some time in our back yard with the camera...lurking near the back gate...
I was waiting for the opportunity to take a particular photo...so I took a few other photos while I waited...

Hmmm...the 'tropical' garden under the jacaranda is a bit overgrown...

The small leafed plant, a form of tradescantia, is a bit of a pest...it just takes over!  A number of years ago a friend gave me a plastic bag of it and said, 'This is a great groundcover!'. It's a pest!!!It has escaped into my neighbours' yards too. 

The sweet potatoes have really taken off since the rain from ex cyclone Oswald. The grasshoppers are enjoying the leaves too. 

The weeds are growing well since all that rain too!

 Now in the garden under the jacaranda is a statue that DH bought me one Christmas...the plants are starting to smother this sculpture...I pulled some of the plants back from it...That's funny I've never noticed those marks on the man's shoulder...looks like adhesive from a bandaid???

I had to pull the bromeliads back even more because this little darling couldn't be seen...

I love this sculpture...but I've let it get very grubby!! Must fix that up!

 Around the yard there are splashes of the prettiest blue...yep! another variety of tradescantia, which is classed as a weed!

 Here's a plant that grew from a cutting from my parents' garden...a form of plectranthus. My mum called it 'mixed herb' plant and used the leaves chopped up in stuffing and potato salad.

And this is another plant that came from my parents' garden...a fern.

But now I hear the sound I've been waiting for and rush to the back gate...

Just engine noise at the moment...

 Here it comes...

Late last week, the 'trucks started again'...driving up the back street and then 15 minutes or so later, they drive back again...all day a procession of trucks...

And that means that there is another new building site, a street away. It's going to be a big development because the trucks are taking away the dirt from the digging out for the underground carpark. So one house will be replaced by a units/townhouses' complex. We may get a few days quiet and then the cement trucks will start...I'm amazed how much cement these developments use...the trucks line up to take their turn pumping out the concrete.

Bye for now...see you next pick up! lol

Pretty soon, DH and I will be living next door to a building site. Months ago the surveyors were there and 2 weeks ago the young man presently renting the property said he had to be out by March 15. You can bet on it! I'll be taking photos of every step of the way! lol It's a shame I don't have a little grandson who could watch all the big equipment and trucks being used right next door!