kathies-garden.com http://kathies-garden.com about my gardening experiences in Melbourne, Australia Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:59:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 en My Bonsai isn’t looking well :-( http://kathies-garden.com/2008/04/19/my-bonsai-isnt-looking-well/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/04/19/my-bonsai-isnt-looking-well/#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:59:38 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/04/19/my-bonsai-isnt-looking-well/ I rang my plant doctor - a friend who has a nurseryman background and who also gave me my Bonsai for my 50th the year before last.

It’s not looking well and I don’t know what’s wrong with it.  It’s not been burnt from the sun as the leaves aren’t turning brown from the top down, but are turning brown from the bottom up. It is being watered regularly but not sitting in water all day long.

It gets the morning sun but not the hot afternoon sun.  It is sheltered from most of the wind.

Anyway, guess I’ll wait and see what the ‘doc’ has to say - he did tell me over the phone he’d come and pick it up and nurse it for me for about a month, and repot it as he felt it was probaby due for that.  I hope he can nurse it back to health and tell me what I’ve been doing wrong.

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/04/19/my-bonsai-isnt-looking-well/feed/ Glorious rain! http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/27/glorious-rain/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/27/glorious-rain/#comments Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:46:03 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/27/glorious-rain/ Such a pleasure to go to sleep at night hearing the rain falling heavily on the roof above.

I woke up this morning and found our pond very full - the rain fall has helped, but so has the drainpipe we have running from our overflowing guttering around the roof as well.  The water is now right up to the line of rocks and much more rain will mean I’ll have to turn the tap we have on the pipe so the water doesn’t start overflowing the pond or going back up the pipe feeding the pond.

Maybe we really should consider putting in a rain tank.

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/27/glorious-rain/feed/ Mushies in the garden http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/15/mushies-in-the-garden/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/15/mushies-in-the-garden/#comments Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:31:43 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/15/mushies-in-the-garden/ I couldn’t resist photographing these when I saw them a couple of weeks ago in the garden - after some rare rain overnight. But I was too scared to pick them and use them in the kitchen - I don’t know the difference between ’safe’ mushrooms and unsafe ones. However, they looked so perfect I just had to photograph them and share them with you. They were in the remainder of our vege garden down the back.

This one was just peaking through the autumn litter.

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/03/15/mushies-in-the-garden/feed/ Watering Restrictions and Timing http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/17/watering-restrictions-and-timing/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/17/watering-restrictions-and-timing/#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:33:16 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/17/watering-restrictions-and-timing/ I don’t understand why in Victoria we were told we could only water in the mornings from 6am to 8am?  I have 2 days a week alloted to me - one week day and one weekend.  To me it would make sense to water in the evenings - particularly in the summer. That way the gardens would stay damp for the majority of the night, whereas during the day and under the hot summer sun, the garden dries out really quickly. Where is the sense in this?

Perhaps someone might be able to tell me the reasoning for this but it seems to me that the majority of people would be getting ready for work in the mornings, or want to lie in bed a little longer on the weekends whereas in the evening, the majority would be home organising their evening meal or doing something else and they could water their gardens then.

What do you think?

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/17/watering-restrictions-and-timing/feed/ Our lovely roses http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/03/our-lovely-roses/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/03/our-lovely-roses/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:22:52 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/03/our-lovely-roses/ Our roses seem to be coming out in phases at the moment. I walk down the street and see gardens (on the same side of the road) that have bushes constantly in bloom but ours don’t seem to do that.

One of my favourite and most prolific rose bushes in our garden is the Graham Thomas rose. Not co-incidentally that is also my husband’s name. Our daughters bought it for us 2 or 3 Christmases ago and I put it in the garden near the front gate where it gets the most sunshine. It grows crazily throwing up branches high into the air and I’m often pruning it.

It’s like one of those old-fashioned roses with a magnificent scent. I’m always torn between leaving them in the garden or picking them and having in them in the house to enjoy.

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/02/03/our-lovely-roses/feed/ Herbs in a giant teacup http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/30/he/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/30/he/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:25:43 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/30/he/ A couple of weeks on and my plants are growing well in the giant tea cup. The strawberry plant has thrown out a feeler in search of more land. I wonder what would happen if I put another planter nearby? :-)

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/30/he/feed/ Garden growing http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/27/garden-growing/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/27/garden-growing/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:37:43 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/27/garden-growing/ I’ve not been that active here for a few months. The latter half of last year got incredibly busy. I’d written and published a book and had no idea how much of my time and focus the book would take. Been exciting and interesting but meant some of my blogs lost my attention for a period of time. So I’m back!

The Australia Day weekend (long weekend for those outside of Australia) has given me opportunity to catch up with my blogging, to potter in the garden, take some new photos and just relax.  The first 3 weeks of the year are usually quiet but that hasn’t been the case this year - good for work, not good for catching up on things!

You will see from a previous post ‘Filling Our Pond With Water Restrictions’ that we’d put in a pipe to feed our pond during rainfalls. This has been an excellent thing to set up. The drought is still with us and we’ve had long periods of dryspells but when the rain comes, it comes suddenly and fast and in a short time our pond is full again! I’m sure our poor fish, if they were capable of thinking, would be wondering what on earth is going on out here in the dry world. Anyway, thought you’d like to see how effective this has been for our pond!

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/27/garden-growing/feed/ Herbs in a giant teacup http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/19/herbs-in-a-giant-teacup/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/19/herbs-in-a-giant-teacup/#comments Sat, 19 Jan 2008 11:09:08 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/19/herbs-in-a-giant-teacup/ I was at Bunnings last weekend to get some more plants for our front garden to fill up the empty spots and passed by this gorgeous giant tea cup.  I looked at it and thought ‘no, I’ll get it another time’ and went off with my shopping list. But I passed it again on the way to the cashier and thought if I didn’t get it now, there might not be anymore the next time I come. There were only a few there. I couldn’t resist it - we have a large glass outdoor table on the back patio that was looking very bare. But this giant tea cup which now has Mint, Parsley and Strawberries growing in it, looks right at home. What do you think?

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/19/herbs-in-a-giant-teacup/feed/ Report on vege garden http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/08/report-on-vege-garden/ http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/08/report-on-vege-garden/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:56:30 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/08/report-on-vege-garden/ Not a success story at all I’m afraid. Back of the garden, out of sight, out of mind. Readers will remember that it’s also by our rabbit cage but some days we wouldn’t feed them till late in the day when it was getting dark - too dark to work in the vege garden. And because of the hot weather and drought the veges have not done very well at all.

However, I’ve found another spot in our garden much closer to the back door. I have a Bonsai that was given to me for my 50th last year and I’m nursing a treefern we almost lost due to lack of water. I take our watering can out there every day after filling it from the buckets we keep permanently in our bathrooms.

So, once the weather is cooler I’ll clear out the space by our back patio and prepare it for vegetables, hopefully with more success this time.

]]> http://kathies-garden.com/2008/01/08/report-on-vege-garden/feed/ A Japanese theme http://kathies-garden.com/2007/12/03/a-japanese-theme/ http://kathies-garden.com/2007/12/03/a-japanese-theme/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:37:44 +0000 kathiemt http://kathies-garden.com/2007/12/03/a-japanese-theme/ Readers of my family blog at Thomases.org will know that Graham and I went to Japan in August/September to visit our daughter Meredith who was teaching English over there. I loved looking at the gardens - both public and home - and was delighted to see they grew many of the same plants we did. It was summer there and lots of colour everywhere!

What did I do when I came home? Chose to put in a few Japanese style plants and ornaments to add something extra to our garden.

And by our front door

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