You may have noticed a lack of entries recently. This is due to several factors: being very busy with the festive season, and my injured back.
I haven't been able to do anything much since Christmas Eve when I hurt my back pretty badly. So there hasn't been much to say.
But yesterday and today I have been getting out and about moving muscles that have been 'sleeping' and healing.
I was in the garden, Directing. And getting a little burnt!
So we have been cleaning up the front garden: weeding and deadheading.
Tomorrow I will be pointing out the place where holes will be dug to plant out the pots so they will survive the summer.
I will be leaving the garden in capable hands when I go overseas, but it is better to make the garden easier to look after.
The standout plants in this hot time of year are the rose bush, agapanthus and lamb's ears.
The rose is a beautiful, lightly fragranced tea rose of unknown type, but it is special to the landlord.
So I have been feeding it up and it has responded with a second flush. This is the most buds (six) it has had since we moved in.
I have placed a dwarf lavender and garlic chives around the base as insect deterrents. It seems to have done something, but we still have a lot of the white cabbage butterfly hanging around. No aphids though!
The agapanthus are also beautiful. They appear to be darker than usual (although today's photo doesn't show it). I always remove the seeds before they can get free to become weeds. If I were buying new ones, I would buy the sterile ones.
I will be moving this large clump, sometime in the future. I want to spread them more evenly along the house, because the house has a blue trim and it would accent it nicely. Soon!
The lamb's ears are also doing very well. I planted a small clump last year from a neighbour, and it has quadrupled in size. I plan to separate this clump and grow it along the base of the front fence.
The silver foliage will contrast nicely with the other ground covers I have planned.
I had plans to use the front beds for more edible plants. And these are doing quite well too.
The Jerusalem artichokes are getting taller, the golden marjoram is very healthy and tasty. And the gift of potted rosemary plants add a lovely structural element.
I'm not sure where the pots will live but they are filling a bare spot for now.
I want to add yellow chard and yellow capsicum as a contrast to the agapanthus and to complement the yellow flowers of the Jerusalem artichokes. And I will be planting plenty of onions. But more on that another day.
Guess I will try to sleep in this heat....
Good night.