The Start of Summer - So They Say

Here we are at the start of summer, so they say, but it certainly doesn't feel summery.

We've barely been reaching 20 degrees C most days and the sun is not showing itself very often.  This morning, on the radio, they advised that Bathurst received 240mm of rain during the month of November.  Not only was that the most rain received for a November, it was the most rain ever received in one month since records started to be kept, back in the 1850s!  How crazy is the weather, when just two years ago we were in the grips of the worst drought on record and the country was starting to burn out of control.

Having such a wet month played havoc with a few of our plans, but we were still able to go ahead with others.

Our garden is going well.  Things are slow to ripen, given the cooler weather, but all the rain has made for great growth.  Poor Mick has to mow the lawn whenever there is a dry opportunity.  The weeds are loving it too, but fortunately, the garden we now have is relatively easy to keep weed free, unlike our previous one.

Back in August, we planted our snow peas and I made a rustic frame from raspberry canes.

Look at it now!  We've never had snow peas grow as rampantly before.  I don't know if it is just the weather, or if they like to be planted where there was an egg plant growing the previous year.  It was slow to start bearing snow peas, but now we have to pick nearly every day.

We also have normal peas.  We didn't plant a great many and they haven't done well.  Not many seemed to germinate and then it was a constant battle with the snails.  However, the few plants that have survived are producing well.  Just enough for a little taste in a few meals.  It works well having both types of peas on the plate.

We had one little strawberry plant in our back garden a few years ago, that we don't even know where it came from.  Last year it grew lots and we had loads of strawberries, even freezing heaps.

It has now spread to this!  We are happy to let them go, at this stage.  We are having to net to try to keep the birds out.  We are picking about a chinese takeaway container full each day, so are already having to start freezing them.

This is just one day's haul.

Our rhubarb plants are loving this weather and producing lots of stalks.  I've stewed up a couple of pots of rhubarb and strawberries.

Our raspberry hedge is growing nicely, so we expect lots of berries again in autumn.  Earlier this year, we purchased what we were told was two boysenberries at a little plant market.  Now that they are growing, we noticed that one is actually another raspberry.  However, it appears to be an early fruiting variety, so not such a dead loss, as it would initially seem.

When we lived out of town, we had raspberries, boysenberries and red currants come ripe in time for Christmas.

I have give various plants to one of my work colleagues, who enjoys gardening.  She surprised me recently with a lovely, healthy red currant she had struck from a cutting off hers.  It has now been planted in the garden and hopefully we will have our old favourite berry combination for Christmas 2022.

I must say, our little vege plot is looking quite good.  We didn't have tomatoes by December, but we should definitely have a little few by Christmas, if the weather would just warm up a bit.

See that big urn in front of the arch.....

Here's a better shot.  

Well, we went to a few garage sales a couple of weeks ago and this urn was on sale for the princely sum of $5.  Mick ummed and aaahed, but I said to buy it, as the price was a steal  I had no idea what we would do with it, but it would go somewhere in the garden, to create a bit of height.

Mick decided that it would work well there, so off he went to buy a large paver to sit it on.  It now has a lavender planted in it and some campanula planted to drape down the sides.  All plants just moved from other parts of the garden.  It worked out rather well.

So what else has been happening in the garden?

We planted two dwarf plum trees in winter 2020 and they both did nothing.  We were not happy campers.  The local nursery wasn't very helpful either.  They told us they don't sell bare rooted trees any more, so we weren't able to get replacements this last winter.  They said they would have some available in December.  Mick has been constantly following up, to no avail.  On the weekend he called again and they said their fruit trees are out now.  We went down, and they didn't even have any plum trees.  Customer service has been non existent.

We then went to another local nursery, not expecting them to have any at this time of year, but to our delight they did.  We now have two new dwarf plum trees planted.  The nurseryman was very helpful.  We know where we will be returning to in the future.  Fingers crossed, we actually will get some plums in the next few years.  We have missed having a tree.

The irises have now finished blooming.

Our standard Peace rose was very slow to start flowering, but is looking lovely now.  I had pruned it back very hard this year and was worried that it may have been a bit too hard, but evidently not.

The oriental poppies we planted last year in error, are blooming beautifully this year.  The flowers have all been rather short lived, due to the constant wet weather.

This oyster plant has amazed us.  During the drought summer of 2019-2020 it died back to absolutely nothing.  We were sure we had lost it.  Just look at it now!  We have several others in the garden, but this is by far the most healthy.

Our bottle brushes have all been blooming well.  The two out the front are past their best, while this one, and another in a peach colour, are still going strong.  The birds love them.  We  have a family of blue wrens, dad, mum and three babies that flit in among all the shrubs.  The silver eyes seem to turn up too, each year once the bottle brushes and grevilleas start to flower.

Finally, our indigo plant that has remained in a pot is starting to flower beautifully.  It gets better each year.  It will now continue to flower like this until the frosts come.  We planted a couple of other pieces in the garden when we moved here and they are doing well, too.  Such a hardy, but delicate looking plant.  I've never been able to determine if this is the actual plant used in dying, and if so, which part of the plant is used.  I've only been able to read about the actual dying process.

So that's where things are up to in the garden.  I still have loads more to share, so will be back again over the next few days.