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I took some photos to show you what is flowering and fruiting now, and also the beginnings of a new flower bed prepared by my dad.
The tree in the photo above is Cassia corymbosa "John Ball" which is commonly known as the buttercup tree. Its flowers are a lovely buttercup yellow. The tree is unusual in that it folds its leaves up at night and when the weather is very dry.
Our buttercup tree has been flowering all Autumn and should carry on flowering throughout Winter. Last year there weren't many flowers on the tree, so dad gave it a good pruning and feeding which resulted in the production of more lovely flowers.
Each flower lasts a few days then drops its petals like confetti all over the place. It looks like it has been snowing!
The lavender has put on a lot of new growth since it was pruned back. There are lots of perfumed flowers for the bees to enjoy.
I need to discover how to revive the red hibiscus. It hasn't got many leaves and has only got one flower so far. I suppose it is better than last year when it was only twigs!
The new flower bed in progress.
This corner of the garden looks like it was a dumping ground for concrete rubble, large stones and sand. Dad took out all the rubble and stones and removed the quince tree which the arborist told us had died. Then we bought bags of compost to dig in.
After watering the tree well, pruning it and giving it a feed, we managed to get a couple of bowls full of fruit.
I am having a lovely relaxing Easter holiday this year. On Good Friday we celebrated with hot cross buns after dinner. They were yummy.
Then on Easter Sunday, mum, dad and I went to my sister's for the afternoon. She made a delicious Easter meal of succulent roast lamb cooked with red capsicums and aubergines. This was served with crispy roast vegetables (kumara and potatoes) and green vegetables (runner beans and sprouting broccoli).
I took nibbles to start the meal with, which included; hummus and toasted pita bread triangles, hot smoked salmon crostini, olives and cream cheese stuffed pepperdews.
My brother brought a cheese board and crackers, and my sister's friends made a Limoncello trifle and a raspberry-filled Bakewell cake.
Today I spent a lot of my time in the garden dead-heading hebes, then pruning back the osteospermums. They had become leggy and had lots of new leaves at the base of the stems. I also watered the yellow cherry-guava tree which is full of fruit. I have harvested a few kilos so far and there is plenty of new fruit starting to ripen.
The blueberries have finished fruiting now that it is Autumn. I really enjoyed picking the blueberries to go with my breakfast of yoghurt and granola every day. And I also made blueberry muffins.
Last week dad and I went to the garden centre and bought lots of plants for inside the house and for the garden.
For the house we got a purple-blue double African violet, and a burgundy coloured single one. Miniature cyclamens, white, pink and red. Plus a red gerbera. For outdoors we bought a yellow abutilon (Chinese lantern) bush.
We also have two different penstemons to plant, geraniums, canna lilies, fuchsias, a red and a yellow carpet rose and red monarda (bee balm).
Then there are the Spring bulbs to plant; anemones, ranunculi, bluebells and freesias.
Dad is gradually preparing flower beds. It is hard work to dig because the soil is very dry and rock hard. Some areas are black clay and others grey, sandy and gravelly. There are no worms to be seen. We will need to add a lot of compost.
The arborist that trimmed our trees and hedges, said he would give us mulch and deliver it to us for free if we like. We need to figure out where he can dump the mulch load and where we can store it while it ages.
We didn't have much luck with our peach, apple and pear harvest. A lot of the fruit started rotting on the trees. We managed to pick some slightly ripe apples and pears before this happened though. The arborist said that the trees are old, neglected and diseased. The quince tree is on its last legs and needs to be removed.
The apricot tree didn't flower at all. And the black Doris plum tree, which had masses of blossom in Spring, didn't set any fruit. But it did look wonderful!
There are not many fruit forming on the feijoa tree. Dad has fed and watered it, but ideally the tree should have been planted in a sunny spot. We have plenty of figs though and I managed to pick the grand total of ten raspberries!
It was too dry for the boysenberries this year. We didn't know if we had enough water to spare in our tanks as it is our first year of living here. But we have worked out that we should have enough water for the garden next year.
Gardening in a new place is a steep learning curve for us :o)
I hope that you are having a wonderful time this Easter.
Hugs, Rose xxx
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