Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Monday, 12 November 2012

Everyone's a winner babe...


Last Friday I resolved to give away some of my Holbrook poppy seeds to those who told me of the flowers they grow in their patch.  It feels like a nice act to give away some of my  seeds as one of the last Sydney garden acts.


There was a lovely selection of flowers that respondents mentioned. Very popular were sunflowers -one of my favourites too. This photo of  sunflowers is a bunch that came from my patch in January. I love the bronze tones of these ones.

Nasturtiums and violas also seemed popular. I haven't grown nasturtiums for a very long time but agree, they are so lovely.  Does anyone really pickle their buds as a substitute for capers?



This picture of violas is again from my garden.  They are always in my late winter early spring garden and self seed like crazy.

File:QueenAnnsLace.jpgSeveral people mentioned flowers I am not really familiar with, such as Queen Anne's Lace - it is very pretty and apparently  related to the carrot. The other flower I was unfamiliar with was cosmos. Here they are - also pretty -  I agree, I like the fine foliage too! I think I will try both of these pretties.

Cosmos flower

I had promised to give away three little packets, but as my seed collecting has been quite successful and as I had 4 respondents, everyone's a winner! Kate, Liz, Kirsty and Bec, send me an email with your postal address and a little pack of Holbrook poppy seeds is on its way to you! (louisehighfields@gmail.com).

Friday, 9 November 2012

Poppy seed giveaway


It's not long now till we move to our new home in the bush. As well as packing our household things, I am packing up plants - but more on that for another post.

One of the things I cant leave behind are my 'Holbrook Poppies' so I am collecting seed. My Holbrook Poppies come from seeds I found and sampled one year in late October. We were driving from Sydney to Wangarratta to go to the Jazz Festival and stopped off at  - you guessed it - Holbrook, NSW for a stretch and a coffee. In the front yard of a beautiful old and deserted  house were the seed heads of these poppies. I sampled a couple of heads, kept the seeds and sprinkled them thru my veggie patch.

The next spring the little rosettes of grey green leaves emerged  and yielded large numbers of beautiful purple-mauve papery flowers.

They self-seed each year and, each year I am rewarded with a beautiful display of flowers and pollinating bees drawn to my patch. They also fill gaps in the patch while the new spring vegetables grow. To me, spring isn't spring without these poppies.

Yesterday I went thru the patch to see if the heads were dry enough to collect for seeds - they were. Yay -  they WILL come with me.

The flowers are a little small now - they always get small towards the end of their season. Normally they are much bigger than those seen here. It's fun to watch the bees crawl inside and run around the centre of the flower pollinating as they go.



I have way enough seed to take with me and to share.
If you'd like some of my Holbrook Poppy seeds,  tell me what your favourite flowers are for the vegetable patch. Are they marigolds, sunflowers, or something else? Why do you like to have them in your veggie patch? As one who likes flowers in with my veggies, I'd love to know what you grow.

I can give three little packets away. These will go to people randomly -  a name-in-the-hat draw that I will make on Monday 12th November. There might be some restrictions with WA and Tas gardeners, I don't know -  the seed catalogues always seem to point out 'issues'.  I will do some research.

In some ways, I will be taking these poppies 'home' -  Holbrook is not that far from our new rural property.

I am looking forward to hearing about your favourite flowers for your vegetable patch!

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Spring in the patch

It's spring in the patch and here is what is happening.

Baby vegetables
I have just started to pick my first baby radishes of the season. I deliberately pick them small as this is the first thinning I do. I sow thickly and only thin when the first small round roots have formed. Then there is more room for the others.


Dipped in hummus don't you think?

Fruit on the way
The first of the tomatoes has set - this is a cherry. (Oh dear, it's a bit blurry!)


And Collette the finger lime is flowering like crazy and starting to set their tiny fruit. It will turn black soon and hopefully start to thicken. The fruit that set in March either fell off or was stolen by a curious currawong?


Flowers
I grow a lot of flowers in my vegetable patch,  I just like a little bit of colour and they do bring the bees.  Right now the violas are spectacular.


And my self sown poppies are just starting to flower.  I collected seed for these poppies many years ago now when I came a cross a deserted house with a wild garden in Tarcutta (or was it Holbrook?).We were on our way down to the Wangarratta Jazz Festival and stopped off for a rest and a coffee. The round dried heads of poppies were just beautiful and so I collected some. I didn't know what they would produce, but I love the colour of these blooms and the grey green of their foliage.


When they have dried off I collect some dried heads to take inside as a dried display and sprinkle the seeds where I want them to come up next year. They just keep coming up every year, where ever they want to regardless of my attempt to place them in certain locations. I try to make space for them each time as they are great bee magnets. The bees circle around and around inside the cup of the petals, it's funny to watch.

And my thyme is flowering, also bringing bees. They are such a delicate mauve. This bunch came inside and went into last night's meal.


The last of the snow peas
This is the third and last planting of my snow peas. There is plenty of really good fruit to come and plenty of flowers. But they will soon be finished and I will have to wait for the cooler season for them again. Heaven on a stalk.



Pests
You smell them before you see them and then when you see them you despair. Stink bugs.



I HAVE to do something about these blighters today otherwise there will be no limes. You can see them sucking the stems behind the newly set fruit.  They will be come the subject of an entire post.

And the lovely snail.


This poor lettuce was ravaged overnight! Turn your back and they slime out of their hiding spots and munch.

New life
It only took one warm day and the frogs got going!

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Flowers in the rest of the patch


 I don't normally profile my non-vegetable garden in this blog but there is not much to pick at the moment and late winter in Sydney is a lovely time for flowers.

My orchids are flowering quite well, despite the flower buds on the orchid on the verandah being nibbled by an inquisitive baby lorikeet!


Most of my garden is planted with endemic natives - plants that are representative of the local area before European arrival.  It's something I really wanted to do -  a small effort in re-vegetating the city with it's original flora.  The pay off has been incredible - plants that do well and that the local birds enjoy,visit and breed.

The arch at the entrance to the patch has a big Pandorea pandorana (Wonga wonga vine) in near full flower. 


I love their little brown stripes inside the flower.


Here are some of the other things flowering beautifully right now.

This is Ozothamnus diosmofolius.

It's an 'everlasting-type' daisy or paper daisy. The flowers are tiny and grouped in large heads together - a bit like carrot and parsley flowers in flattish domes.  The buds are quite pink.




Here is a really small wattle. It really only gets to 2 meters high.  I love its fluffy ball flowers. They are only slightly lemony yellow coloured.

It's called Acacia myrtifolia (red-stemmed wattle).  It doesn't have that overpowering wattle flower smell which is quite good.

While it's called red-stemmed wattle, only it's older stems that are reddish.





One of my favourites in the garden is the Epacris longiflora.

It's long wiry stems with short  spiky leaves contrast to its incredible long red and white flowers all held in a row along the branch.







Another favourite is the Red spider grevillia Grevillia speciosa. This is a real local  Sydney grevillia, I have never seen it anywhere else. It's not a tall plant at all and the leaves are hard and grey-green.

The birds really like visiting these plants for their nectar.


Last but not least are the native violets that have well and truly naturalised across the garden floor.

They are Viola hederacea.  This is their time of the year. In winter they die back a little and in summer there is too much sun for them in all but the most shady places. But right now is when the plants thicken up, grow furiously and start sending up their little flowers.

They grow especially well around the frog pond and I suspect the frogs like hiding under their leaves.

I could have shown you my banksias and the flowering that is about to go berserk on the Lomatia silaifolia or crinkle bush but that is enough for today.

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