I'll come back when the bulbs are flowering

bulb-surrounded naked fruit trees

As my previous posts indicate, I've been dancing round the other hemisphere for a couple of months. There's nothing like 2 summers!  My lovely sister house sat for me, and not only looked after the garden, but planted half the current garden.  At Easter, I blogged about digging up the massive patch of bulbs, which I then stashed away to replant a couple of month later. Of course, I didn't get around to it, but Clo did it while I was away. House Elf to the rescue!

from the paved area (spot my lovely new mandarin and magnolia trees)

daffs are a sproutin'

My family trekked down to Tassie for Easter, and I put them to work (picture me with whip).  Collectively, we built this whole landscaped side area, and I transferred the rhubarb from the square up the back, to act as decorative (but delicious) border plants around the scallops.  They're starting to sprout back, as you can see from the photos.  I should give a giant shout out to my dad, who did more grunt work than the rest of us combined. He's a star.

Pip's helping to garden by devouring a bone twice her size.

Clo bought this little guy today. He's meant to be scary.

 Below you can see House Elf's (oh sorry, Clo's) amazing vegie garden effort:

beetroot

fennel

pea

 

 

 

 My Japanese plum has broken through and is the first of my budding deciduous trees for the season:

for the living room

A walk around the vegie garden

I haven't posted any pictures lately, and yet I've had so much growing.  Here's an overall view:

top tier: pumpkins, leeks, spring onions

second tier: globe artichoke, fennel, tigerella tomatoes, bok choi, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, rocket, lebanese cucumbers, lettuce, mesculin

third tier: multiple types of tomatoes including Roma, cherry, Grower's Delight, Digger's [something], Lenah Valley market unidentified; basil, dying passionfruit, unidentified curcubit.

fourth tier: failed cauliflowers, dwarf beans, white beans.

 From another angle.  You can see the rhubarb in the top right corner.

Crazy pumpkin plant, stretching over two garden beds.  I had to build a 'bridge' between the two beds:

My lone artichoke. I thought I'd try one and see if it survived before trying more.  It's growing like a fiend, so I think I'll get another:

A few young fennel plants. Only four survived the snail feast:

The only cauliflower (out of 10 plants!) that has actually produced a flower: 

Rocket:

My two faithful cucumber plants.  They look a bit scungy now, but they're still growing and producing about four cucumbers a week between them:

Beans.  Also looking a wee bit scungy but they've got a second wind and are producing slowly:

tomatoes

 

My cute tigerellas (so stripey!). Still waiting for them to go beyond the green faze...

Rhubarb

Unidentified Curcubit:

Young broccoli seedlings, with my trial dog-proof snail poison box based on a suggestion by Hobart Kitchen Gardens.  I've never used snail bait because I don't like the idea of poisoning the soil or my dog, however I've lost so many seedlings to the damn creatures that I was willing to compromise

Bok Choi and Spinach plants:

Herbs including flat and curly leaf parsley, rosemary, basil (my better basil is cuddling with the tomatoes), coriander, chives, spring onions, dill, oregano, lemongrass thyme, and mint. Oh, and a scungy orchid:

Last but not least, my cute little fig tree who has more fruit than leaves. I know I should be taking the fruit off to encourage it to grow, but I feel mean because it's trying so hard!