Winter in the garden

 Once again Winter is here and the garden has gone to sleep. There are buds on the Magnolia though and the bulbs are pushing their shoots through the soil in their pots. 

This winter has been very wet and when the sun does return we will have weeds galore. However while the garden is sleeping their is work to be done. Now we have the new chook shed installed and the girls have given it the seal of approval, over the next few weeks will be removing the old stump of the olive tree and shifting a couple of smaller fruit trees in its place. 

In front of them i may plant some bearded irises and  move some of the roses out of the front garden as they are no longer getting as much sun as they need.All with my gumboots on mind you because the ground is very soggy out there and our summer kikuyu grass has all but disappeared. I may do something about that too.

Winter and the garden

For me, winter in the garden is the time when changes are made and work gets done. This year after all the rain everything has grown like mad and the garden is surely growing at a rate of knots. This is only our 6th year here, and nearly all the trees in the garden were planted since we arrived. But, i must admit to being a little over enthusiastic in places. So over winter we are making a few changes.

This huge old olive tree is now gone , much as we did enjoy it it began to take over the garden and put everything in shade. Also being an olive tree it was very good at sucking all the moisture out of the soil and stopping anything from growing beneath it.  Now it is gone and we have a large space and heaps of light in the back yard. We have more large trees growing  up the back for the birds and to provide us with privacy, and will replace it with a couple of smaller more manageable fruit trees.

Graham has replace the ricketty old fence behind it with a reall wooden one which will soon be painted green like all the rest, and over the next couple of weeks the garden will undergo a small transformation. Winter is definitely a season of change in our garden. This also means we have somewhere to plant smaller plants in the back garden and even some bulbs. The only issue now is that we need to get the stump removed before it re-sproits as this isn't the first time it has been cut down. Anyway we now have a brand new fence so the chickens can run around in the top garden and we also have a brand new chook house which I will write about in a future post as that is a story all to itself.

Fruit trees and Bulbs

Its getting to that time in Melbourne when we need to start to consider fruit trees we might want to get this year, and also bulbs for Spring flowering. Its quite a while until the bare rooted trees are going to be around but if you're like me and want to have some more fruit in your garden then now's the time to do your homework.

So far in our garden we have 2 Feijoa's, a plum, 2 avocadoes (both struggling a bit) a very happy multi grafted apricot, a plum ...of some sort.!!!! and 2 apples. Oh and a very large and happy olive tree. We also have about 5 banana trees which havn't fruited yet but look wonderful up the back rustling in the wind.
Here in Melbourne we have the advantage of definite seasons...except for the rain. We can have 4 seasons in one day, so much so that split wrote a song about it which could easily be our state anthem. However I digress!

My point being that bulbs do really well in Melbourne because we have a winter which is chilly without snow, and so bulbs grow happily. Around late June/July, gardens are alive with daffodils and ranunculars and the smell of jonquils is in the air. Definitely worth considering and March is when they come on the market. Every year at our place i buy a whole lot of ranunculars and pretty much scatter them around the front garden. The colour is wonderful and its very satisfying watching them sprout from the soil.

So to all my readers up there in the cold northern hemisphere. Don't despair spring will soon be where you are, and you can enjoy the wonderful colours!