Roses

Our Peirre de Ronsard is flowering! It is their first year so we're excited. There's one either side of the garage doors. We know nothing about roses so it's great to get some results, even if they're not perfect.

Also in flower is the Iceberg climber, the Goldbunny climber and the Scarlet Carpet Rose.

The Cecile Brunner's not looking so good with the root stock overtaking. I liked the dark red flower on the root stock and was going to leave it there but Sandy tells me that's not a good idea. She says the root stock will take over and I won't be left with any Cecile Brunner at all. (I bet she's never tried it though!) I guess I'll prune it. What a pity I can't keep both!

Compost in disguise

Today I used my first batch of my own compost! Chris (husband) came out and saw me spreading it over the veggie patch and got all excited about it. "We made our own compost!" he exclaimed and the proceeded to ask me if it was the most satisfying thing I'd ever done. I think actually eating the produce is more satisfying but it certainly brought a sense of achievement. You can see the compost spread around one of my cucumbers in the picture on the left.

Since space is precious in our garden, I was reluctant to create a big compost patch but I need lots of compost! As a result, we've developed our own compost system to use our space as well as we can. It starts in the chook pen with everything organic added to it. This includes weeds, lawn clippings, hedge clippings, vegetable scraps, leftover dinners (but not meat or anything that looks like an egg) and of course plenty of chook poo. Here's a picture of it taken in July this year with a mountain of clover weeded from the garden. The floor of the pen is about 30cm below the level of the ground around it. (I also put a wire floor under the pen and sewed it to the walls to keep rodents out.)

The chooks do most of the turning and mixing for me as they sort through it for their choice of the veggie scraps and weeds. We still need to do some turning and I've also added a bale of pea straw because it seemed too wet and was going slimy. Soon after adding the pea straw, we moved the compost into a black bin and left it for 6 weeks to decompose further. After the 6 weeks, it's ready to use.

Here's what it looks like today. The chooks are out roaming the garden but they'll be back at night. I'll turn it and add some straw if needed this afternoon. Then I'll leave it for a week without adding any more to the pen (except chook poo which I can't stop). After that, it will be ready to move to the black bin and the cycle will continue.

Climber over the chook pen

I'm hoping this climber will cover the sides of the chook house and make it a more attractive feature of the garden. It's one of the natives Jan gave us for our wedding present. It's called Einadia Nutans. I'm not sure if it's a butterfly attractor because I can't find it on the butterfly website:

http://www.butterflygardening.net.au/index.html

Dill and Grevillia

Today I bought 2 plants at the Fullarton Park Community centre stalls. The Prostrate Grevillia is in front of the Chook house and the Dill is in front of the Blackwood tree.

Asparagus

I have a packet of asparagus seeds from the Diggers Club. Now I need to work out how and where to plant them. Here's what I've found so far:

They need a sunny spot with moderate water. In winter, the ground is bare but the shoots pop up in spring. In Autumn it goes yellow and you cut it back to the bare ground again. If you water it well and harvest often (once mature), you get a better crop. => I need a sunny spot that I don't care is bare through winter.

Gardening Australia has some info on their website (http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1669960.htm)

"An economical way to grow Asparagus is by seed, or with seedlings. If you do grow them that way then after planting leave for about two or three years for a strong root system to develop. Don't pick any of the crop, just let it grow naturally. "

"there are few pests and diseases that trouble this plant. When Asparagus is about four years old the fronds will have produced good, thick, strong roots and a good plant. They will then go yellow in autumn and that's the time to cut them back to ground level. The Asparagus bed will be bare until spring, and then spears of Asparagus will pop up all over the place."

The Heynes website (http://www.heyne.com.au/gardencentre/factsheets/factsheet.php/Asparagus.htm) suggests row spacing for the crowns. I wonder if I need to plant the seeds apart.

"The between-row spacing is 80 to 90cm (2 1/2 to 3 ft), with an in-row spacing of 38 to 46 cm (15 to 18 in)."

I also wonder if this is for an asparagus feast in a short 2 week period with enough to preserve for the rest of the year or just for eating when they're fresh.

"Ten asparagus plants should be sufficient to supply an average family, and well-cared-for plants will go on producing for at least twenty years." (also from the Heynes site)

I think I'll plant some seeds now and keep the rest for next year. It's already a long way into Spring and they suggest you plant them in "early spring" so I might be a bit late for this year.

I'm back! / CLEMATIS

I found my lost password so I'm able to enter posts on my blog again! YAY!!

Here's the tag for the Clematis I planted last year. When it died off over winter, it looked so dead I nearly pulled it out. Lucky I didn't because it flowered beautifully this spring. I found the tag today and wish I'd had it before. It tells you it's deciduous!