21 November 2020

Weekend Reading

My apologies for not posting this on Friday. I had a few things to do yesterday, and it's almost the end of the year and I'm tired. I had a good sleep last night, I'm raring to go today and apart from a few odds and ends, I have little to do this weekend. This afternoon, I'll start knitting a new set of dishcloths for myself and a friend. This is a yearly task for me and it's one I look forward to because it makes me sit, think and relax with the repetitive clicking of needles.  

I have a walk around our back garden for you today. Everything is growing well although it's hotter and more humid than I prefer. Summer is our wet season and we've been in drought since 2010. A la Nina event has been forecast, this gives us much more rain than normal, so I'm hoping the rain pours down on us, fills the dams and rivers and gets us back on our feet again. I hope all the farmers out there have been holding on, this may be what we've been waiting for.


Here is our elder tree. It flowers almost all year and we have a constant supply of elderflowers and berries. We rarely pick from the tree apart for a winter tonic of berries in winter and summer cordial from the flowers. That gives us what we want and we leave the rest for the birds who absolutely love the tree.


We grow a lot of salvias because they're beautiful and they grow well in our climate.  This one is Amistad.


This is Buddleia Joan, it can grow to 4 metres tall and it's a magnet for butterflies and small birds. Some buddleias have become environmental weeds in our eastern states so we have to be careful. I make sure I deadhead Joan frequently and my two other buddleias are smaller and sterile.




A mixture of snapdragons, cosmos, buddleia and cornflowers. I never deadhead the cosmos because they grow easily from seeds dropped from dying stems.




This is one of the sterile buddleias - Purple Haze. This is as tall as it grows.  Above this photo: Mini agapanthus Peter Pan. It looks and performs exactly like the regular agapanthus but it is much smaller and never grows larger than this.  I have two in pots on either side of this pathway because they like being root-bound and that ensures they flower all through summer and autumn.


An old sandbox full of herbs. The two-year-old parsley is flowering and about to drop seeds . We also have newly planted parsley, capsicum, chillies, sage, basil, oregano and Welsh onions. 


This is the view looking over towards the chicken coop, rainforest and creek. The trees in the background are pecan, fig and assorted rainforest species. 


Hanno repaired the bush house a couple of weeks ago with a new back wall and shelving. Here are my orchids lined up with just enough sun to help them flower. There's also mint growing in the shade and a bird of paradise plant waiting to be repotted. 

I hope you're able to read through my list; these are some of the articles I've read this week:
Thanks to everyone who emailed this week with news of buying the Down to Earth paperback, and, more importantly, how much they were enjoying it.  I have a few things to do inside this morning but I have a razor-focused intention of relaxing the rest of the weekend. I hope you can do that too.  Stay safe everyone!  

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13 comments

  1. Hey, if it makes you feel better it's still Friday in my time zone! I do love your posts, especially showing the garden.

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  2. Your garden looks beautiful, Rhonda. I do hope you get some rain. I hope we get some too as we have had only 4mm in November and the long term average is 100mm. We are expecting storms this afternoon so I've just put the chooks inside, they looked as though they might be blown away in the wind!

    Happy resting,

    Madeleine.X

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  3. I so enjoy readying your weekly posts here in Moreno Valley, California. I have to ask why there are upside down pots on sticks in your garden? Keep the good words coming and I pray your El Nino comes thru. We could use one as well.

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    1. Hi Lisa. They're there so we don't poke our eyes out if we bend over the plant, but they also look beautiful.

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  4. My copy arrived yesterday (US)! I can't wait to relax with it and a cup of tea.

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  5. Thanks for the motivation! The article on verge gardening reminded me to plant the native orange asclepias seedlings that were growing in tin cans since summer. I popped them in our roadside cottage garden that near some other butterfly friendly plants. Dee

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  6. Good morning and thankyou for my lovely stroll around the garden, all looking wonderful! Cosmos are such good value aren't they, each year they volunteer to fill the gaps and keep our little native bees happy.Also parsley, pansies and cherry tomatoes seem to appear in any gaps in our small garden. It's supposed to rain here for a couple of days so I hope it doesn't all go out to sea and miss us again! Your lawn is still green so I hope you get enough also (but not too much humid heat!) I remember when Hanno built the herb garden as a sandpit for two cute and busy toddler boys! How time flys. Have a safe and enjoyable week🙃

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  7. Some interesting links here Rhonda, thank you for sharing, I always look forward to your Weekend Reading. Hope you have had a restful weekend.
    Cheers, Keriann.

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  8. You have a beautiful garden, snapdragon are my favourite summer bedding plant. I was wondering why your flower pots have a lot of holes, drainage I am guessing but I haven't seen ones like that before.

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    1. Thank you, Betty. They are traditional orchid pots, and yes, the holes are for drainage.

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  9. so nice to see your flowers! We got our first dusting of snow and it's that awful 33ºF where you don't want to risk driving (for an old person that is)

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