Anniversary present Balls-Up

You would think after 34 years of marriage our communication skills to each other would be close to spot on. Not so, it took two trips to Murray Bridge to select this year’s joint  present. In one trip we bought a wooden platter with handle all carved from one piece of teak timber. The next trip on the following day was to return said wooden platter and select wooden garden feature shown below.

Purchased from Serenity Nursery located off Mannum Road Murray Bridge their range of garden accessories, furniture, sculptures, pots and plants is phenomenal.

Ever since we went to Chelsea Flower Show in 2015 I have been interested in Sculptures made from individual pieces of wood. The ones shown in the photo below were made from driftwood I believe.

Fortunately for us the manager at Serenity allowed us to return the unwanted piece as it is not normal policy. Everyone is happy now, but let’s see if we can do it in one shopping expedition next year!

Tulip Tragedy

Whilest hanging  my newly dug garlic from the roof of the enclosure under the cubby I discovered that rodents have been chewing through the plastic netting bags that I had them stored in and eating the bulbs. 

After the year before loosing every bulb to rot (my fault for not digging them up early enough) I thought that this season I had nailed it with lots of bulblets as well.

The only positive to this is the opportunity to re-elect from the luscious Lambley catalogue. $44.50 later .......

Tulipa Honeymoon

Only a bit of a let down

A glass balloon that I had hanging from the apple tree adjacent to the deck-  fell out the sky twice. The first time a circle of glass broke off where the handing cord was sited. The second time again where the cord was secured with a washer to fill the gap where the broken  piece had come away, this time a much bigger piece than could be compensated for.

I love glass so much especially the play of light shining through, therefore to just throw away this broken item just didn’t sit right with me. Solution - silicon balloon upside down onto metal stake that was a gift but missing its glass tea light candle holder. So now I have taken two incomplete items and made one garden ornament.

Now placed in the garden the trick is to position it so that the silicon is not visiable but the ballon is, even if only subtlety.

Buoy oh buoy!

This glass buoy has had pride of place in a couple of different locations at Ashwell over the years. In the very early days Rod drilled a hole in the top and had a low voltage light hooked up inside to illuminate at night. It was hung up in our Fernery which was located on the south side of the family room - where the courtyard is now.

This new location is framed and supported rather well by the golden rain tree. A cork has been reduced in size to stopper the hole and stop rain from entering.

Runner no more

After the initial onslaught of millipedes things have settled down and we are finally getting some whole (no holes) sweet tasting strawberries - some even large. 

This year I cut off the runners and it is making all the difference. Must keep at it.

All Sewn Up

I spent half a day making draw string bags with Alex for presentation and packaging for his custom gaming controllers.

We Are Robots also Design, manufacture and sell t-shirts.

I remember putting lots of effort into the one-off Design swing tags I attached to my individual designed, hand knitted jumpers that  I was producing in the 90’s.

We made 10 and there is another 5 to finish - that should keep him going for a bit. 

They worked out far better than the prototype and the metal cord stay is a nice professional touch.

Here’s one of his controllers in production - it is customised to the theme of a soon to be released nautical game. Attention to detail is Alex’s speciality.

Aggie is messing with my mind

It has been a long process of elimination over the years to get these Agapanthus sorted into the colour Design wanted. 

I thought that I was all sorted but this year but it is like two plants just decided to change places as some sort of practical joke! Maybe it was a neighbour or maybe nature. Some plants were grown from seed so it might be that I am still getting plants flowering for the first time.

I didn’t used to give a fig - or was it a Pomegranate?

The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree in the family Lythraceae that grows between 5 and 8 m (16 and 26 ft) tall.

Our Pomgranate was planted back before I really had any interest in it. It has been brought up tough on neglect and was even partly singed during garden clean up - heap burning. But this year maybe because of the good winter and spring rains it has put on considerable growth and looks extremely healthy. 

Checking out the beautiful flowers I decided it was time to give it a bit of attention so I spent so time removing some dead growth - just a few small side branches but worth the effort.

Now I look forward to fruiting season - it has my attention now.

Lucky Scapes

I was wondering what was going on with my garlic, why was it creating interesting spiraling shapes ?

So I did some google research and curtesy of Cedar Circle Farm Org I learnt the following:

Those pretty spiral stems that form above your garlic in June (December) are edible, and by removing them you’ll improve your garlic harvest!

You’ll notice in early to mid June (December) that your garlic is sending up a stalk in from the center of the plant. The stalk is thicker than the leaves, and is called the garlic scape. The scape, if left on the plant, will form a flower and then seed (you can eat those tiny seeds! using a garlic press is the best way to do that!). By cutting off the scape you are asking the plant to send all of it’s energy in to increasing the bulb size, rather than in putting energy toward flowers and seed. Since the bulb is what we eat, we recommend cutting the scape. Plus, scapes are delicious and can be used just like garlic, but they are ready a month or two before the garlic bulb. Win, win!

So now I am off to cut off my scapes.