#gardeningAU

#BBB #FromTheGarden #FromTheGardenRounds #GardeningAU #GardeningDecember #Gardening

14 hours ago

PS ....

🐝 I wandered out again, and oh! There was another blue banded bee in the gaura.

#FromTheGarden #FromTheGardenRounds #GardeningAU #GardeningDecember #Gardening

14 hours ago

From the Front Garden rounds today.....

🐝 The beautiful butterfly-looking Gaura certainly bring all the bees to the yard. I love these plants.

🎀 I planted some Pink Evening Primrose once, some years ago, but it didn't like the front yard with its large surrounding trees (3 gums, 1 jacaranda, 1 other). Imagine my surprise today when I found one lone flower, with even barely a stem or leaves, open in the morning light. It is so pretty, and is in a small bed. I wonder if it will survive. It would look lovely under the Gaura.

💮 I am digging out the bulbs of the Naked Ladies as I come across them - I dug up and spread a clump of abut 100 through the yard some years ago. The clump used to flower, maybe a dozen flowers, each year. The replanted ones, planted properly, zilch flowers. They do grow leaves in Autumn/Winter, just no flowers. They've had long enough to acclimatise.

(The bulbs I dig up look perfectly healthy, so no excuse.)

#FromTheGarden #FromTheGardenRounds #GardeningAU #Gardening

It is a hot one today, 36C and already you can feel the heat in the air. The pot plants are watered, the bee water is topped up, and the veggies are watered. Lovely buddleja is flowering to bring the butterflies and bees. Tomatoes are happening, greens are prolific, and the zukes have first flowers. Very grateful for a garden and the life in it. (Except the weeds. And the next door cats-from-hell who lie (and poop) on my garden beds and chase wild life.)

It's happening again - 1 out of 3 chilli plants, (all from seeds from the same #chilli) is growing the chillis pointing up.

All the chillis in the other 2 plants are being quite respectful of gravity.

#GardeningAU

3 small chillis growing directly up, rather than hanging down like normal chillis do.

Given we have seen multiple rats in frame on the WiFi remote camera in the last few days, we pulled out the extra snap traps to try to get on top of the problem. Caught 4 last night. Still no tomatoes eaten. We're gaining on 'em. #gardeningau

@JimmyB I am guessing you live somewhere in Great Britain? If so, your different climatic conditions probably makes morning glory a pleasant plant.

Here, the weather conditions are too good for it and turn it into a zombie plant that swallows everything that is in its path. It is like the Dr Who weeping angels - every time you look away, then look at it again it has advanced several centimetres. It smothers our lemon and lime trees so we have to go on missions to free them from its entangled web. It grows so luxuriantly it makes fences sag and the sheer weight of its foliage gave us a workout today.

I would happily donate the whole lot to you for your garden if you could come here and collect it!

#gardeningAU #Melbourne

After doing our potting morning, we went to the laneway behind our place to try to tackle the awful morning glory weed. It is getting into our place from our neighbour's place. You can see the morning glory on top of the fence with pretty flowers. #Melbourne people - do NOT grow this in your place and remove it as soon as you find it. It is very invasive.

This photo shows us part-way through cleaning up the masses of morning glory in the laneway. The morning glory was also growing over rubbish on the ground. There was so much morning glory that it was creating dirt beneath and there were some very healthy worms.

The skip was already half-full when we started. We had to stop shortly after this photo was taken because we had already filled the skip with rubbish and morning glory. We will have to finish the job next weekend.
#gardeningAU

Skip in a laneway on the right. Man leaning over rubbish and morning glory weed on the ground on the left next to a wooden fence. All along the tip of the fence is the morning glory creeper with purplish flowers and dark green leaves.

It is a warm, humid day in #Melbourne today. We have our bifold doors open. Our cat is also enjoying the day.
#gardeningAU

Lots of pot plants with tall bamboo on the right hand side. The bifold door can be seen on the right folded open. A cat is sitting in the foreground looking inside towards the camera. In the background the corrugations of a roller door can be seen.

Look what the rats can't eat now that we have an electric fence.

We have video of 3 rats playing on top of the trap. Have fun guys. 👍 #gardeningau

Mary-Anne

@perkinsy I just grab one of those pots of basil from the supermarket and plant that, I find it's more snail proof than the little seedlings
#GardeningAu

After a week of rain our garden is wonderfully soggy. Next week is forecast to be dry and around 30 degrees in #Melbourne so I expect my dipladenias (one pictured) to have a growth spurt.
#GardeningAustralia #gardeningau

Several pots with plants in them. The largest plant has glossy green leaves covered in rain drops

We went to my elderly mother's place and worked hard pruning lots of plants. We filled garbage bags full of pelargonium cuttings, abutilon cuttings, divided clivia etc.
#gardeningAU

Boot of an SUV with large blue garbage bags full of plant matter.

This afternoon we went to Bunnings in Box Hill. They have a crate outside where people return their used pots. We were able to take a nice amount of free pots for our potting morning tomorrow.
#GardeningAustralia #gardeningau

5 days ago

We are planning a potting morning this weekend where members of our street gardening group and neighbours can come and pot up some cuttings. The idea is that we give the potted cuttings to people to babysit over summer so they are ready to plant out after the equinox in March.

Does anyone in inner eastern #Melbourne know where I can get free, fairly small plastic pots for the cuttings? I was thinking of going to Bunnings in Box Hill and see if they would give me some pots people have brought in to recycle.
#GardeningAustralia #gardeningau

pirotess

Quite enjoying how this cucumber grew out of the compost in the cucamelon pot and now I have some sort of cascading cucurbit chimera. #GardeningAU

A tall glazed blue pot in front of a green Colorbond fence, containing a cucamelon plant growing up a trellis and a cucumber plant spilling out of the front. Both plants are starting to flower.

SallyABL

#OutAndAbout #Rose #RoseDay #Spring #SpringDownunder #Gardening #GardeningAU #Flower #FlowerPhotography #BloomScrolling #Photography #Fotografie #Fotografia #Nature #NaturePhotography #PhotoOfTheDay #PhotoMonday

Close up lo9king into the centre of a large pink rose with fluffy petals

#gardeningau #GardeningAustralia

Opened the door for the cat this morning. She stopped, then turned away from the door.

Two minutes later she wanted to go out again. This time she was brave, but only spent a minute outdoors and came back in.

#Melbourne - we have had 6.6mm of glorious rain in the last 24 hours! The cat can suffer - I am sure the garden is enjoying it.

This morning I planted a small pot of blue salvia in our street garden. I must have looked mad out there watering the garden just after it had finished raining. However, there is a reason.

Whenever I plant out something I first big a deep hole and pour water into it. This is to ensure that the plant gets a head start by having very damp soil around the bottom of the roots of the plant. I mix the water with the soil, then put the plant on top and soil around it. Then I give it another water so the top level of soil is also damp. Then I add mulch.

In a dry country like Australia, I feel that this method gives newly planted plants a head-start and helps get them established. Despite about 2.6mm of rain in the last 24+ hours, the soil is parched after our El Nino spring. I hope all the rain forecast for the coming week actually eventuates.
#gardeningau #gardeningAus

Do electric fences work in the wet? Apparently, they do. Certainly, some voltage will be shorted to ground by the water, but the rats might already have learned that this is now not a good place to get a feed. Haven't seen any rats on the camera in several days.

Before we put up the zapper, they were visiting nightly, checking for fruit. Even checking out the peanut butter in the traps. No more.

Our baby tomatoes are untouched... so far. #gardeningau

Citizen ❎️❎️

Container vegetable garden.
I still haven't got most of my garden sorted from the move, but I am happy with where my containers are.

There is some slight leaf yellowing due to the rain over the last few days. No complaints from me about the rain... it was desperately needed as everything was bone dry!

#Gardening #GardeningAU

Silverbeet is growing in a white trough planter. The two plants towards the rear of the trough are well established. Their two smaller siblings in the front are just starting out.

Two Eggplants (aubergine) growing in a larger self watering planter. The plants each have a small fruit visible and many flowers.
There is a trough behind the pots containing parsley and other herbs.

Tomato plants growing in a trough planter. The plant closest has many fruit. The one further away has a bit of catching up to do. In the background is another pot containing an unknown variety of chilli. Note, the unknown chilli is very hot!

SallyABL

#Flowers #BloomScrolling #FlowerPhotography #Gardening #GardeningAU #Spring #SpringDownunder #Nature #Fotografie #NaturePhotography #Photography #PhotoOfTheDay #Fotografia

Calla lily

https://aus.social/@SallyABL/111442036592749882

Here is a close up view of the calla lily looking into the cone shaped centre.

The flower's rich orange colours are warm and bright.

#gardeningAU #FromTheGarden #GardenRounds #gardening #BeautyAmongstTheWeeds
#FromTheGardenRounds
@AnnonBudgie

IN MORE EXCITING GARDEN NEWS.....

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

I saw my first blue banded bee for this year. NONE last year, a lot the year before.

They are early! And I am hoping for many more.

Read about BBBs here: https://www.aussiebee.com.au/blue-banded-bee-information.html

Et voila! here come the fruits. Rats will have to brave the electric fence if they want to eat these. #gardeningau /fin

One of the seedlings cut down by the snails was caught the next morning before it wilted, dipped in rooting hormone and stuck in a punnet of potting soil. It set root and got planted at the site of the attempted murder. Suck it snail, you lose. #gardeningAU

We have planted them too densely. Figured that it's better to space them too closely and cut back foliage rather than waste space if our plants didn't develop well. Snails got a couple of our seedlings early on, so we poked in seeds in the now vacant spaces. One took really well and will make a healthy if late harvesting plant. #gardeningAU

There's not much to pruning, just pinch out the branches that grow between the mainstem and leaf stems. Long leaves should be tip pruned to prevent them from touching the ground. #gardeningau

Fort Red Sauce is going well. Plants really seem to like the soaker hose. Plants are stumpy, thick with eager leaves and flowering like mad. Rouge de Marmande is an indeterminate or vine type tomato. They need frequent trying up to their stakes and pruning of lateral shoots. #gardeningAu

#gardeningAU #FromTheGarden #GardenRounds #gardening #BeautyAmongstTheWeeds
#FromTheGardenRounds

Great news from the Garden Rounds this morning....

🌿 Purslane has arrived! It is extremely early for it to pop its head up - it can be as late as late December. It is such a healthy, self-sowing plant - it will be a daily inclusion from now on.

🍓 I picked the first strawberry for the season today! The first of many 🤞

🥗 Self-seeding plants are the way to go. Today I picked (amongst other things) purslane, nasturtium leaf, oak leaf (red and green varieties), common amaranth, red amaranth leaves, rocket, flat leaf parsley - all self sown. A self-sown salad is on the menu for today.

🌿 Curry leaves picked and washed, now drying (to avoid explosive contact with oil) for Curry Leaf Semolina today or tomorrow.

☘️ Weeds are taking over some of the veg beds. Common amaranth too, it is such a self-seeder. There will be quite a bit of weeding on the weekend.

SallyABL

#Flowers #BloomScrolling #FlowerPhotography #Gardening #GardeningAU #Spring #SpringDownunder #Nature #Fotografie #NaturePhotography #Photography #PhotoOfTheDay #Fotografia

Small, bright, burnt orange lily just blooming. It is surroundrd by large green leaves that have white spots.

#gardeningAU #GardeningAustralia

This afternoon I created another planter out of old wire baskets that I was given by the scrap metal recycling place nearby. I lined it with coir, upended a bag and a half of potting soil, then planted some tomato seedlings. The seedlings are Lycopersicon esculentum or 'Trussty' tomatoes. I haven't grown this variety before.

I have placed it in our small inner urban #Melbourne backyard in front of 2 other planters I created a few months ago in which I am growing sugar snap peas.

White rectangular wire basket lined with brown, coir and 3 tomato plants planted. It is in front of two other wire basket planters which have sugar snap peas growing in them as well as the leaves of bulbs dying down for the summer.

#gardeningAU #GardeningAustralia

Australian gardeners need to avoid purchasing seeds, tubers, bulbs and plants online from overseas providers. A couple of gardeners did this a few.years ago and in doing so introduced an invasive weed in Australia. The local council thought they had destroyed it all but it has popped up again - possibly via birds eating the fruit of the weed:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-18/invasive-plume-poppy-weed-efforts-spread-biosecurity-officers/103103342

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/15/white-how-to-handle-australias-plague-of-cabbage-chomping-moths

3 weeks ago

Gardeners in south-east Australia should watch out for cabbage butterflies [edited] say ecologists who believe that numbers of the imported pest have exploded due to an unusually warm winter and favourable Spring conditions.

There are ways to deal with them that do not involve chemicals.

#GardeningAU #Melbourne

3 weeks ago

The big Xanthorrhoea in the front garden has bifurcated and sent up TWO flower spikes this season. Florets are forming and dripping with syrupy nectar. Red wattlebirds and bees are competing for a taste. #gardeningAu #bloomscrolling

@Natalie Bougainvillea is the curse of our small inner-urban backyard. We tried to train it but it always wanted to be massive so we cut the large trunk (been planted years ago) and dealt with the branches by cutting them up small, putting them in empty bags of potting soil mix and week by week putting them in our wheelie bin.

We have spent hours dealing with the thing. We have now given the stump some blackberry poison. It will take me a few years before I am convinced we have actually killed it.

And removing it revealed the damage to the fence it was causing. Fortunately it is fairly superficial damage but it could have ended up breaking the fence.

Sorry, for the long message. Just has to vent my feelings about #Bougainvillea planted in the wrong places!

#gardeningAU

My sugar snap peas are growing well in the planters I made out of discarded wire baskets. One thing I have learned is that to get enough peas cropping at the same time to accompany a meal, I need to plant a lot more.

I planted the ones on the left four weeks ahead of the ones on the right. I recorded when I planted them but can't remember where.

#gardeningAU

White, rectangular wire baskets lined with coir. Pea plants are growing out of them and climbing up bamboo stakes.

The Streets of Melbourne

#urbanflora #flora #gardening #garden #melbourne #MostLiveable #aesthetichedonist #bloomscrolling #flowersofmastodon #gardeningAU #gardening #narrm #victoria #Australia #downunder #makesmehappy

A shallow creek running through the deep bush, in #Blackwood #Victoria #Australia on this fine Spring day.

Ferns and #gumtrees adorned this space for hundreds of square kilometres… thriving in their natural habitat.

Earlier, #kookaburras were heard ringing out amongst the tree tops.

Blue Wrens flitted throughout the trees.

And no other person was around, for miles.

This is kinda Heaven on Earth!

Sound up!!

The Streets of Melbourne