The last week of Autumn in my garden

 

It is the end of Autumn here in New Zealand. The weather has been glorious for the past few days, so I have been out in the garden with my camera. 

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.

The white camellia bushes in front of the house are in full bloom. 

Each flower lasts a few days then drops its petals like confetti all over the place. It looks like it has been snowing!

Some of the roses are still flowering, but I expect not for much longer as the weather is getting cooler.

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.

Some magnolia flowers are opening. This is an unusual tree to me because it flowers all year round, just a few flowers at a time.

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.

The yellow abutillon bush is in place with supporting stakes. Its branches are very thin and brittle. Here's hoping that it can stand up to the windy Winter weather ahead.

I love the lantern-shaped flowers so much that we decided to buy more abutillon plants. One red and one orange.

The grevillia ground cover has been flowering for a few weeks now. It is a strange plant with very small flowers. It keeps getting covered over with falling Autumn leaves.

Foxglove and aqueligia plants have seeded themselves in the garden. I can't wait to see what colours the flowers will be.

We managed to harvest some delicious feijoas from our tree this year. 

After watering the tree well, pruning it and giving it a feed, we managed to get a couple of bowls full of fruit. 

The yellow cherry guava tree still has lots of fruit on it. The fruit has stopped ripening now that the weather is cooler. The blackbirds are happily eating what is left, which I don't mind. I harvested plenty this year.

And lastly here is a photo of our silverbeet (chard) that is growing in the veggie patch. We also have perpetual spinach and flat leaf parsley growing in the patch, but they aren't very photogenic at the moment 😁

I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the season in your part of the world. I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to catch up on what has been happening.

Hugs, Rose x

My vegetable garden is coming along well

The first radishes are being picked and they are really delicious. These are French Breakfast radishes which are mild and juicy, not hot like other radishes can be. I like to eat them with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Yummy!

The Flanders poppies are taking over, much to my delight. We are planting vegetables around them under Otto's close supervision. 

In some places you could easily think that this is a flower bed with a few vegetables dotted around lol.

 

The courgettes are flowering too and there are a few baby courgettes, but for some reason they are rotting. I don't know what is going wrong. Maybe the weather has been too wet for them, or the flowers haven't been pollinated well enough? I will just have to wait it out and keep my fingers crossed. The plants themselves are looking really healthy.

The tomatoes are growing well. Dad started them off from seed and kept them under cloches until they were big enough to plant outside. Since taking this photo the tomatoes now have flowers on.                                                                                                                                    

I like the white daisy-like feverfew flowers growing beside the veggie garden fence. They are attracting plenty of beneficial insects to the garden.

The potatoes are now ready for harvesting. Their leaves are turning brown now. At first I thought there was something wrong with them, but dad dug a few up and we have lovely baby new potatoes 😊 Now we need to decide what to plant after the potatoes have been dug up.

The leeks are being harvested a few at a time and I am making leek and potato soup, chicken leek and ham pie and leek and bacon quiche with them. I suppose I could use the leeks in other recipes instead of onions...hmm that is an idea. 

Do you have any other ideas on recipes that use leeks?

The cavalo nero kale is flowering nicely. I am keeping them for seed to grow later as I love kale chips made with olive oil, garlic and salt roasted in the oven.

Dad turned over the compost heap and used some of the mature compost on the veggie patch to return nutrients back to the soil. 

The nasturtiums grew here, by themselves, not far from the vegetable garden. It is a good place for them because they attract pests away from the vegetables and also bring beneficial insects to the garden.

It is now evening and the heat of the day is passing. It has been very humid today. Otto is lying near the open window loving it. 

This morning Otto's friend Ginger brought a live mouse and presented it to Otto by dropping it at his feet. Luckily this happened outside. I have never heard of a cat giving food/playthings to other cats that they aren't related to lol.

Now it is time to water the veggie garden, it's getting dry and some of the seedlings aren't big enough to survive untended with this heat.

See you again soon. Have a great week.

Hugs, Rose x