September 2006

The new garden was started.

The whole garden, looking out from the front steps.  The beds closest to the house aren't shown. 

This was an existing bed that I made a lot larger.  It previously had treated pine edging which I removed and replaced with bush rock that was buried in the bed!  There were three plants there already, which I have left.  I've added perennial spinach down the far left (the very far left is grass!), a herb against the wall that I can't remember!, then sage against the wall, then the plants that were already there against the wall.  At the front, calendula, then parsley (should have cut it back first), then thyme, then lots of lettuce, and finally tansey (to repel flies - this garden ends at our front steps).

This garden bed is the other side of the front steps.  I haven't put much into it yet because there are lots of bamboo shoots coming up in it, so I'm going to have to do some digging.  It has a sad looking tomato plant, a herb that I can't remember the name of, and quite a few borage plants.  The treated pine around the edge will have to go.  You can see stones to the side that we've brought from near the pool around the back to make the paths.  I wouldn't usually use stones for paths, but we needed to get these away from the pool as the kids were throwing them into the pool, and they will look nice.  Replaced the stones around the back with lots of nasturtiums, a couple of comfrey plants and a couple of parsley plants - all things that will spread.  You can see in the pic below a lot of grass to get rid of!

This is the saddest looking garden bed - no edging or anything, just added really quickly late one day to get the plants in.  The top section has a couple of lettuce and some perennial spinach.  The bottom has the tiny carrots from the old garden.  I don't really think the carrots will survive, but I couldn't bring myself to just throw them out.

This garden bed, like the one above, gets a lot of sun in the mornings, so the plants are struggling a bit to survive.  The bed dries out quickly.  It has lettuce, calendula, marigolds, french sorrel and a little parsley.  There is even a tiny bit of marjoram at the front.

I extended this garden out a bit from one already against the wall that has a plant already in it.  Put in some herbs and spinach from a pot of baby spinach that I stopped using as it got too big and went to seed about 2 years ago.  Seemed to start getting nice little offshoots coming up, so I decided to put it into the garden and use it for cooked spinach now.  Its wilting a bit in this pic, but has actually started to look settled in nicely.

Yet more lettuce and perennial spinach.  At least we'll have lots of leafy greens!  Again, this was an existing garden that I just extended.

The tree towards the front, that looks a bit like a stick, is actually a lemon tree that was already there.  It is flowering now.  Hoping it will be happier with a little attention.  I haven't planted much around the base of the lemon tree.  Put in a few nasturtiums and some borage near the front.  There are two different herbs near the back, in front of the flowers.  Can you see them?  I can't remember what they are.  I did find three tags from when I planted them before, so I'll list the names here in the next few days and see if anyone recognises the plants.  If you do, please let me know!  Again, pine edging that needs to be removed. 

Brought this lettuce wheelbarrow with us from the old house.

There are a few bits and pieces that I haven't got pics of here, so I'll put them in with the next entry.