Jostaberry flowers

Everything is going wild in the garden. Here are some flowers of the jostaberry.

The jostaberry is a cross between a blackcurrant and gooseberry. The berries are big and black,  with a lovely taste. The plant is really hardy and easy to grow. I am already looking forward to picking some berries in summer.

Thank you, Mr. Fothergill's!

This parcel arrived out of the blue! And what a lovely selection of seeds it is. Grasses, vegetables and flowers. Some of them as a seed tape.
I had experimented with Mr. Fothergill's selection last Winter and Spring. There are quite a few pictures, too. (On the computer.) As you may have noticed, they and the write-up did not make it on to the blog. Life (and work) got in the way.

I absolutely loved the Tomato cup (just add water). The germination was fantastic, and the seedlings were extremely healthy. I did transplant them on to bigger pots, as the cup is too small to grow this little tomato plant in there for the whole season. The tomatoes are very tasty!

The seed tapes with the radishes rocked! Easy to put on the ground, cover and water. Lovely radishes they were, too!

The carrots were a winner, too. So far, the seeds I have received, have done well. Good germination, then healthy plants.

Thanks again to the good folks at Mr. Fothergill's! I'll try to write a bit more about their seeds and products throughout the season. :)

A walk in the garden...

The lemon tree is looking fantastic. This is the first year we actually had a lot of lemons on this tree.

The first plum tree has started to flower. The structure for the netting is looking a bit wonky. Will have to try and straighten that out soon.

The Native Wisteria is flowering madly.

Isn't it a lovely flower?

The Nashi pear has tons of fat buds. Hopefully we'll get to eat a few pears this season.

The apricot tree has just started to flower. We won't have much fruit, though, as we missed the opportunity to prune it back.

The red currants are looking great, too. Another good harvest again, maybe?

The variegated elder tree has tons of flower buds. Can't wait to see it laden with flowers.

We are still harvesting some of the winter vegetables. Here is a purple cauliflower.

More Spring colours

The daffodils have started flowering like crazy now.

There are all kinds of varieties about.

It's a cheerful sight, isn't it?

Aren't they just gorgeous?

I like them all. :)

Yarrow

Flowering nicely in the garden. Such an easy plant to grow. Very hardy.

Takes frost and drought and neglect. What's not to like? :)

More colour in the garden

Suddenly you see lots of colour in the garden. What a joy that is!

Such a stunning camellia flower! :)

Destruction!

All was well this morning. Then we went out for a bit over 2 hours. And came back to a scene of destruction on the balcony.

Something (I suspect white cockatoos) had attacked my succulents. It (or they?) must have gone from one pot to another.

The flat-ish terracotta pot on the top rack had 3 healthy succulents in it. One landed on the rack below (behind the pots), one ended up on the ground.

The one left in the pot was hacked at. Nice bite marks, ey?

Then it went to the next pot and ripped that out (but it didn't manage to drop it on the floor) and attacked it.

That's the ground underneath the next rack.

Where most of my aloe vera (and some dragon fruit & cardamom plants) where decimated.

As you can imagine, I'm slightly* upset. I just hope the culprits don't come back for more. :(

*bit of an understatement, actually.

Jonquils...

...again. Just because they are beautiful.

Aren't they?

It's still Winter here, but it's getting slightly warmer during the day. I love this time of the year. But then, I love every season. :)

Another sign...

... that spring might actually be a possibility some time in the future?

Our hellebores are flowering. My only regret is that they are not up on a slope, so that when we look up, we could actually see the pretty side of the flowers.

They are lovely, aren't they?

A little garden tour

It's cold and wet here. Winter is in full swing, but there are signs that spring might not be that far away.

The jonquils have started flowering.

They are always such a cheerful sight at the height of winter.

Quite a few different varieties.

Winter gladiola are flowering, too.

Proteas

The proteas are starting to look rather stunning!

 Love these flowers!

They are such easy plants to grow. Very hardy and low maintenance. In fact, don't pamper them, they don't like it!

A very short break in the rain

We have been having wonderfully rainy days the last two days. A bit cold, but I don't want to complain. The rain is beautiful. The ground makes squishy noises when you walk about.

The water tanks are overflowing - they've done so for a month or more, after every rain. Here you can see the garden water tank overflowing. The sun had come out for a few minutes, so I quickly went and took a few pictures, before it started raining again.

The white camellia has been flowering for a while. The red ones have fat flower buds on them and should start soon, too.

 The proteas are starting to flower.

Chocolate Mint

The chocolate mint is flowering madly at the moment. It has beautiful flowers and attracts tons of bees.

I haven't found a good (culinary?) use for this particular mint yet. Any ideas? What do you do with it?

Carrot flowers

I always let some vegetable plants go to flower/seed. Not only are they pretty, they also attract all kinds of insects and bees, and also supply us with next year's seeds.
Isn't this carrot flower pretty?

Hydrangeas

The hydrangeas are looking spectacular at the moment.
Let's hope they won't get burnt in the next few hot days. The temperature is supposed to reach 37C by Saturday. We will just have to wait and see. (And take pictures while they are looking that great.)

Elderflowers

The elder tree is laden with flowers again.
What a gorgeous sight that is!It started flowering a few weeks ago.I never get tired of our beautiful elder tree and its flowers.

Mullein

This is a fairly new addition to my herb garden. It's a stunning plant. The leaves are a gorgeous silvery-green colour, and the long flower spike is laden with flowers, when in full bloom. Every part of it can be used for medicinal purposes, but I haven't experimented with it yet. It's also very low maintenance - always a bonus! :)

The Red Hot Pokers...

....are a-poking madly.

Mad protea bunch

This is one (ONE) stalk.
With 9 (NINE) flowers. Excuse the capital letters - but isn't this amazing?!
And incredibly beautiful.

Pigface!

You callin' me pigface?!

No, no, yes! Here it is. A flowering Pigface.