
(Or how to have a Cottage Garden without really trying)
- If you are lucky enough to be free of veggie garden BIG pests like wallabies, brush turkeys, rabbits, dogs, possums etc you can integrate your food plants throughout the garden beds without fenced protection and create a lovely natural feel to your food, herb and flower garden.
- The denser the planting the less weeding you have to do.
- Regular organic feeding and mulching pays great rewards. MULCH, MULCH, MULCH!
WHAT IS IN THIS BED (starting with foreground and moving back)
- Gardenia ‘Florida’
- Dhalia, burgundy pompon (unknown name – gift)
- Cosmos, pink, self-seeded
- Oregano, golden
- Tamarillo
- Turmeric
- French tarragon, yellow
- Sorrel
- Gaura
- Parsley, flat-leaf
- Iris, blue, winter-flowering
- Yacon
- Salvia,purple perennial
- Lemon verbena


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Baby coucal (photo from web, unknown source) |
Late one afternoon I heard a racket coming from this clump of bushes then the coucal emerged followed by what I can only describe as a little, brown, fluffy Ewok – it had a baby and was nesting in this undergrowth (check out the hair-do!). I was not quick enough for a photo. Mine was a little larger than the one in this photo and had a black ‘party wig’ instead of this white one and a wonderful waddle when its scurried across the lawn behind parent. Please show this to any of your neighbours (including mine!) who let their cats roam/leave them out at night/have an inordinate amount of concern for domestic pets and seemingly none for native wildlife. Sorry, but I have just found my box of beautiful lettuce scratched up with a pile of cat poo where once were nurtured salad leaves-grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Dense shrub planting in parts of your garden will encourage the ground dwelling birds, like wrens, silvereyes and finches who, once common, are now becoming rare sightings.
- Bauhinia galpinii, orange
- Heliotrope sp.Cherry Pie
- Helichrysum tomentosum, silver
- Fine leaved grevillea, pink, local (unknown species, gift)
- Megaskepasma erythroclamys, red (try saying this without your teeth in!)
- Tibouchina granulosa
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Seed Saving – harvesting bok choy seeds |
- Broccoli
- Broad Beans
- Brussels sprouts (take eight weeks to mature before picking)
- Bok choy and other Asian greens
- Bush Basil
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chard
- Coriander
- Garlic
- Kang kung/water spinach
- Leeks (they take ten weeks from seed to planting out)
- Lettuce
- Mustard Greens
- Onions
- Parsley
- Peas
- Potato
- Rocket
- Rhubarb
- Spinach
- Strawberries (prefer a patch to themselves as they spread)
- Tomato (in sunny, north facing spot)
- Watercress
NOTE: As much as you can SAVE YOUR OWN SEEDS or SWAP with others GROWN LOCALLY
Footnote: We were with some friends in our local fabulous pizza place, Milk & Honey and got chatting to the nice young guys on the table next to us. The conversation turned to dogs. They said they had two huskies. My border collie owning friend asked if they were hard to maintain and keep groomed in our climate. Here is their reply. “Not really, we have an air-conditioned room for them and when the weather gets too hot here in January we take them to Queenstown in New Zealand for a month”
Hola amigo bloguero: tienes un blog maravilloso, lleno de buenos e interesantes datos. Quiero compartir contigo y tus lectores más información sobre la raza de perro Border Collie y un video de imagenes del Border Collie.
Espero que te guste mi espacio y dejame un comentario si te apetece
Saludos desde España