Greetings good people of earth. Well, the equinox is upon us here in the southern hemisphere and Spring abounds. Technically it is still winter, but we really only have two seasons here in the ancient outback— Winter and Summer. Theres a small window in between where we relish in the moment of a fleeting spring and autumn and one of these moments right now is happening in my gardens.
Above is a first time flowering Grivellea, they area hardy plant native to Australia and the birds love them for their nectar. This is the first time its experienced its fertility in flowering, which is a joy to witness!
Above is a wonderful olive tree, bought online by me 2 years ago. It was spindly and tiny and I love to see the growth of this tree. It is very happy in its current location and I can’t wait for the day of seeing it flower.
Statice abounds wildly in my garden now. I first introduced it in late 2021 and instead of weeds and prickles, its this plant that has taken its place. It grows everywhere and the butterflies love it.
It’s been a busy year, for me, as I know it is for many of you also. I love hearing from you, and your lives …sharing our joy for the Gift of Life, particularly in the garden. Many of you know I have just released and published Eyes Of the Scarlet Rose 2 —the sequel to the original Eyes Of the Scarlet Rose.Its been a long time coming. Many had asked me, particularly in my local area of when I would be doing the sequel. I had been ‘ummmming and ahhhing’ over it for years. Writing a book is no joke!! It takes a lot of time and effort—and editing. Finally I felt the intuitive tug hit me in April this year and like before, the brain was flooded with words and it spilled over the paper. Im glad it’s done now. Thank you for your support. I love hearing your feedback and enjoy reading your thoughts on it.
Yellow Admiral Butterly loving the zinnia’s, one of the best performing flowers here in this dry ancient land. They have no scent, but are fantastic insect attractors/pollinators.
The spotted Jezebel, such a delight in the garden! Big beautiful and very colourful, they love the statice.
Front view of yellow Admiral.
Well, Im back into the rose propagating again. I threw some seeds in the soil that had been in the fridge for well over 3 months. I’m happy to say that I have about 20 rose seedlings, but still have no idea about the variety. We’ll see what comes of them!
The garden has certainly delivered in the produce section! I have had delicious broccoli, in fact the sweetest Ive ever eaten. I didnt even know that broccoli could be so sweet. This was the purple sprouting variety. The cauliflower was absolutely delicious also. This was sautéed with butter, salt and garlic.
The savoy cabbage was also amazing! It had actually survived a hard summer and rejuvenated for a picking. I also sautéed this.
This is Esmelle, a very young echidna and I suspect her mother is Esmee. Esmee has been seen around and she’s a very mature Echidna who often is caught snoozing in my shed. But this is the first time I have seen Esmelle. She’s very sweet and has super tough claws, loving nothing more than looking for ants to eat in my garden.
A winter crop of tomatoes!! Who would’ve thought. These are Roma’s from a tomato bush that was planted in the summer. No fruit from it in that season as it was just too hot, but the tomatoes that grew on it over the Fall, have now provided some lovely tomatoes for Winter.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I had a special guest come to stay for a week. A beautiful racing pigeon stopped by for a few days to get some much needed R’n’R and then went on her way again. Oddly, this happened around the same time last year with Emmanuel, the beautiful pink and white racing pigeon. Perhaps Emmanuel told her little pigeon friend to come and visit? I actually asked the Radiant Creator about it, and felt warm in my heart when the message received was that of “I sent them to you”….
I have been busy in the jewellery studio, making new creations, and sent this pair of opal earrings off to a lovely customer in Germany. I am currently making some similar designs in 9 carat gold and beyond.
The sweetest tasting broccoli Ive ever eaten!! It was probably the most neglected and yet, it was so unbelievable, can’t wait for the seeds to set!
So happy to see flowers of my blood red plum. I didnt have many last year, so to see so many this year is a treat. Once they set I will be out there covering them up. The garden smells so good right now.
Gorgeous apple blossom on tap! Never had so much blossom in my life! The poor apple was on its last legs last summer, until I replanted it. So much happier now.
This apricot was gift from my parents last year. They had told me within the five years of its birth, there has never been blossom on this tree. It had been grown from seed and they were under the assumption that it would be a non-flowering apricot tree. Well, I was very blissfully. happy to see you that for the first time ever, this apricot tree has given her blossom in my garden, I can't wait to try the fruit!
El Noor Gardens was very perfumed in July and August, as the stock flowers bloomed in force, and the smell throughout the gardens were stifling. I can't wait to collect the seeds, because I have only ever had purple stock, but now I have pinks, creams, and fuchsia. It has always a been a winner, and insects love it.
The apple tree is a three grafted fruit tree, so that means it has three different varieties of apple on it. This is one of those sections of the tree in full bloom, I've never seen so much bloom as I mentioned above, so I am excited to see if I actually get apples this season!
I have got some gorgeous, very dedicated, Willy wagtail parents, that are feverishly anticipating the arrival of their babies in the nest. This began by my watching them, really harassing my resident Crow and resident magpie Maghdala, and I couldn't understand why. I knew there would be a reason, and eventually I had found that reason was a dear little nest that they had made full of eggs. So any time I see Magdala and Crow around the nest area, as much as I love them, I shoo them away because I didn't realise that they actually are clandestine egg thieves.
After all the effort, making my hot house tomato world, I am happy to report that I have tomatoes that are almost ready for picking. This has been a labour of love right from the beginning. Lots of learning and lots of watching and maintaining greenhouse flora. I have all different types of varieties of tomatoes, and I hope with the warmer weather I will be having much more on the bushes. Tomato bushes all started from seed, and originally I had a full non-permeating cover of plastic over the top. This proved way too hot as we move from winter into spring, and so I shifted it back and replaced it with shade cloth.
These beets have also been wonderful producers in my garden. They have been grown from seed planted in May and they have done extremely well, perfect for pickling them which I have done already. I have already re-planted more beets in the garden and I'm looking forward to seeing their production in the next couple of months.
Some of the tomatoes that are almost ready for picking. I have noticed with some of the varieties there has been some type of curly leaf issue going on, and I'm not sure what it actually is. It could be from heat damage as the greenhouse was at one point nonporous, but I'm not actually sure. If anyone has any ideas, let me know in the comments!
I have also been busy striking rosemary bushes and mulberry as you can see in the picture, Mulberry is one of the easiest types of fruit trees to strike, and so is rosemary, I will be planting these out very soon.
Beautiful shades of stock in my garden, ladybugs love stock!!
This Date palm almost died last year, so I'm very pleased to see that it has recovered well in the back garden. Moving to a new location and trying to work out what is working in the garden and what is not is an ongoing process! And believe me, I have had my fair share of learning and making mistakes. But this is part of the journey and I'm glad to see that this date palm has made a full recovery.
Mulberries are such a fantastic producer in this part of the world. This mulberry tree has doubled in size since the last season, so I'm excited to see what happens this season. It is already laden with beautiful, sweet little mulberries. I just have to keep them away from beardy, my resident bearded dragon...
My smelliest fruit tree in the garden right now, is this orange! The smell is washed into my house all the way in from the garden, and it's the most beautiful intoxicating aroma ever! Orange blossom is truly divine!
The garden, finally slowly waking up from the winter, it won't be long when all the fruit trees will have leaves on them, I look forward to that.
Kale has also been a wonderful producer this year, and I was so impressed with it, that I have allowed it to go to seed so I can collect the seed for next season.
Creating a garden and building one, it takes years of effort, but I'm finally glad to see some results coming through now. Once fruit trees are established, it makes all the difference, it's always the first few years that are the most delicate stage of the growing process, but certainly worth the effort!
Growing a garden gives me peace and a joy that is unmatched with anything else
With love,
Andulairah x
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