This Month In The Garden - April - Indian Summer

The Blue Mountains has sort of been experiencing an Indian summer this autumn.  Technically it's probably been too wet but the combination of warm weather and high rain fall has seen some extraordinary things happening in my garden.

I have a potted echinacea purpurea by the front door which had a second flush of blooms late last month.  I honestly didn't think the buds would mature but I was wrong. 

Echinacea is also known as the coneflower because the seed head left after the 'petals' drop looks like a cone.

The 'cone' then continues to grow taller and taller.

What an amazing example of the Fabinacci spiral!

The pink petals of this echinacea are not true petals but bracts.  The many flowers grow from each of the spikes (eventually seeds) growing in the cone.  Sometimes a spectacular display happens when each of the spikes flower simultaneously.  This hasn't happened this year but if you look closely at the third picture from the top you will see three tiny, yellow, flowers growing to the top right of the cone.

My most favourite characteristic of this plant is the wonderful perfume produced by these tiniest of flowers.  I honestly believe the perfume rivals that of a rose.

Echinacea is commonly used medicinally to treat the common cold and boost the immune system.

Even though I've had this one plant for around six years I have not used it for making a tea simply because I felt the plant was not mature enough to cope with being harvested.

  Soon, it will die right back leaving only the seed head which is a favourite of florists to use in their floral displays.

Once the new shoots appear in spring I plan to split up the roots to start off some new plants.

I have under-planted the echinacea with runuculus so that over winter the pot continues to produce flowers.

Echinacea is a culinary delight to some of our wildlife and for this reason I have chosen to grow it in a large pot which I place close to the front door.  The possums and wallabies dare not venture this close to our house and so the plant survives long enough to produce flowers.  On a warm day, the perfume is glorious and can be appreciated every time we use the front door.

In the garden it works as a bee attractant too so if you are fortunate enough to not have to worry about what might eat this versatile plant...consider growing some in the vegetable and herb garden to help pollination.

This Month In The Garden - April.

We have had a most unusual weather pattern this past summer and now into autumn. We are into our second autumn month and I have seen not one gold coloured leaf as yet.

On April 4 Springwood received 76 mm of rain.  In one hour on the same day 10.4 mm of rain fell.  I have had to rescue some of my potted plants from the extreme amounts of rain.  One of these potted plants is an orchid that I have managed to grow from a cutting given to me by a local orchid enthusiasts and professional grower, Alan, who I met by chance at a garage sale.  He was generous and happy enough to take Mr HP and I for an impromptu tour of his nursery in Glenbrook one Saturday afternoon last June or July.  He offered me two cuttings he found on one of his work tables which I gratefully accepted and then gingerly planted into two small glazed terracotta pots when we arrived home.  

I have only every grown dendrobium or Sydney rock orchids so I was a little dubious about the success I would have with these.  For the first six to seven months they resided in the loft studio above our garage bathed in filtered light from a west facing window. I watered them rarely, almost forgetting their existence. I didn't hold much hope for them but after a few months some new growth appeared and then as the weather became warmer and our youngest moved back home, they began impinging on his space, so I moved the pots outdoors and hoped that they would continue to thrive.

Which they did.

On Easter Sunday one little flower bloomed and today I was thrilled to find all the flowers blooming happily, bopping their little heads in unison each time someone walked by the table on which I have now placed them in an attempt to control  the amount of water they receive.

Although I'm not 100% sure...I think they are Cirrhopetalum ornatissimum.

It's been love at first sight!  I wonder what surprise the other little pot will have to offer soon? 

Where There's Snakes

There's kookaburras.

We had six of them spread out in our garden today ... luckily I could not see what the whole flock was looking at!

Autumn Already

Summer is almost over, here in the southern hemisphere, and I'm beginning to already feel autumn in the air.

My favourite season is most definitely autumn.  This February has indeed been the season of mists because of the many days of rain so far.

None the less, we've had the odd sun shower and much humidity and the gardens are seeming to thrive on this unlikely mixture of weather.

Yesterday afternoon, Little Miss Seven danced in an afternoon rain shower while visiting her uncle at his new house and picked an exotic assortment of flowers. 

She left them at our house last night and this morning I couldn't bear to throw them out so arranged an outdoor bowl of flowers. 

 

But now I'm facing a dilemma; I love to have decorative bowls around the garden, filled with water.

This one catches drips from the garden tap on our front verandah. I know water attracts snakes to the garden but I haven't worried too much about this as in our fifteen years living here we have seen maybe one or two. I've figured that the benefits of having water for other wildlife outweigh the risks.  That is, until today...when I spotted the largest, sleekest, blackest, red belly black snake in my entire life(and believe me, I've seen a few) in my front garden. Now I have to rethink this practise - at least until the weather cools. 

Let It Go...

I have to let go of the guilt, the guilt of living in a full figure, the guilt of having a sweet tooth!
I love sweet, I hate bitter. Everyday is a struggle to not eat sweet.
It comes to a point, after days and days of not eating sweet I splurge on sweet.
So, quite by accident I found an impressive blog called frugalfeeding.  I was searching for a meal makeover using leftover veal and found this and it lead me to this.  I figured I don't need to feel too guilty about eating sweet when there's like a total of 50g of added sugar in the whole recipe. (I skipped the sugar-sprinkle-while-warm).  The currants add their own level of sweetness.  
I turned these into a gluten free treat by substituting the plain flour with gluten free flour (Orgran Brand) with no problems at all.  They were sooo easy to make. 

I'm enjoying these right now with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Let It Go

De-cluttering is proceeding slowly but regularly in our house.  Yesterday, in typical east coast high humidity weather, I took refuge in the cooler underfloor regions of our house and cleared a few spots in Mr HP's Man Cave.  Wow - what a jungle of electrical cords, power tools, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and so-much-more exists beneath our floor boards!  

I found this interesting little gadget: 

As you can see from the docket (which was safely stored inside the storage box), 

we purchased this item on 09-09-90 for $50.50 from our local mower store (still running strong I might add).

It connects to a 12V car battery (usually the one in your car) and sharpens the blades of your chain saw.

Mr HP couldn't remember the last time he used it so it was added to our 'to-sell' pile.

Our local on-line "Garage Sale" page showed a lot of interest and it was sold last night to one of my very regular buyers who is now also a friend.

 We will receive a grand sum of $5.50 for it.

Charging The Batteries

Mr HP, our Daughter and Grand Daughter and myself managed to get away for a few days to refresh our batteries before the school year is in full swing again.

It's been a tough start to 2015 and I've been feeling very tired.  It was a great few days of relaxing, walking, eating, and simply having fun. 

It's so hard to believe that our Grand Daughter is now in her third year in school.

Her favourite pastime is reading...a girl after my own heart!  We travelled everywhere with a small library of books!

Her preferred book at the moment is The Big, Big, Big Book of Tashi and it creates quite an impression tucked under the arm of a seven year old, let me tell you. Since it's a collection of Tashi's tales, Little Miss Seven allows herself little breaks between stories to read other books.  As you do.