Odd(um) Jobs, Bits & Bobs

Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator.  Be sure to check out his blog & the Twitter #SixOnSaturday hashtag for links to all the great SoSers.

It happened this week, the day I stepped outside to take Mr BigNoseDog on his old man's dawdle & realised myself under dressed for the weather.

Much as I hate to admit it, autumn's not going anywhere.

This week, it's six things that autumn brings to the garden.





1.  Colour.

The summer heat wave knocked out half my heucherella plants in the not-so-shady border.  Once moved to the truly-shady front garden, the survivors put on an impressive amount of new growth.

Now that they've begun to change colour, this one has leaves at 3 different stages, all on purple stems.


2.  Bulbs.

Most autumn bulbs are lessons in delayed gratification, but not the saffron crocus.

This tall fella looks like a choir master.


3.  Seeds.

The heliotrope've come inside, the hope being they'll live through the winter.

I'm collecting their seeds in a plastic yet classy champagne flute.  Next year, it'll be cuttings for the hydropod from this (or a newly purchased) lot.


4.  Fungi.

On the BigNoseWalk, the endless rain's brought forth a plethora of fungi in every green space.

At home, we open the compost bin &, Surprise!  There's this little guy.

And his weird looking friends.


5.  Winter climbers.

The new garden has all these great walls, & hopefully they'll soon be hosting winter climbers.  I've 2 types of winter clematis - a pair of the evergreen Winter's Beauty (not pictured) . . .

. . . & then this clematis Napaulensis (above) that gave me a scare by going dormant over the summer - apparently its hot weather party trick.

And lastly, a winter blooming honeysuckle, also named Winter Beauty.  Let the winter games begin!


6.  Romanesco.

We discovered Romanesco love this year but too late to plant a summer crop.  Two of my neighbours promised us some from their earlies, but then theirs bolted during the hot spell we had.

We've got some great looking winter Romanesco that we hope to share with said neighbours.  Not one plant has produced even a baby head yet, but I think there's still plenty of time.

And that's all she wrote.

Thanks again for stopping by.  Stay safe over Halloween.  There're many a scary crittur out there.

See you, next time.

Desired Outcomes

#SixOnSaturday is a weekly garden diary hosted by The Propagator.  Check out both the comment section in his Six & the hashtag on Twitter for links to SoSers from all over the globe.

Anemone coronaria coming up a bit early.

There are enough unseasonal happenings in the garden, it's tempting to do Six on that.

But things I've waited all summer for are finally here.

Let's have a gander at a few of them.

1.  Fresh eatins.

I'm not a cook, but there's so much fresh veg at this time of year, it's hard to keep out of the kitchen.

An easy sauce made from our own maters, garlic & basil plus last year's sweet peppers.  The flavours are so vibrant, I feel positively domestic.


2.  Snow leopard melons.

My vine produced 2 ugly fruit.  The ripe melon should be cream coloured with green stripes, so I assumed they weren't ripe.  When this one developed a soft spot near the the stem, I picked it anyway.

Don't judge a melon by its hideousness.  Both melons were ripe, & tasted much like a cantaloupe.  They're meant to be individual servings, as you can see from the below photo - that's a dessert spoon for scale.

These were grown in the pumpkin patch, the idea being they'd go up while the pumpkin vines spread out.  The melon vine did as expected, but there was little successful pollination.  As their flowers were tiny, I'd wondered if pollinators bypassed them for the large, blousey pumpkin flowers.

I hope to try them again next year away from the pumpkins to see if I get more & prettier fruit when there's less competition for resources.


3.  Languid rosemary.

Our first year together, rosemary prostratus & I, planted with heliotrope because I saw a photo of this combo somewhere.  While the heliotrope in the pot is on its way out, the ones in the background are still blooming.  What I've waited all summer for, though, is the rosemary to fall over the edge.  And it has.

Last week, another SoSer mentioned using rosemary flowers in soups & sauces.  I tasted these flowers & o, how wonderful!  They don't need soups or sauces, but are very fine on their own (says the woman who cannot cook).


4.  First cuttings.

I've potted up my first hydropod cuttings - roses & salvia amistad.  Monty Don sticks his rose cuttings in a ditch & says they're easy to propagate.  From reading other SoSers, it seems salvia are ever ready to propagate, too.

I've never had any luck with even the most cooperative cuttings, so am glad these've got roots.  Even if they don't get any further along, this, in itself is an achievement for me.


5.  Skimmia.

This little guy was a free gift with a plant order.  Potted up & placed in what turned out to be the not-so-shady border, he did poorly even under a shade sail.  You can see his damaged foliage in the photo.

I snuggled him under another shrub & now he's budding!


6.  Pumpkin butt.

I'm inexplicably fond of growing pumpkins, especially since they have no parts which I consider edible.  Although I tried white pumpkins this year, a coupla orange volunteers from last year's compost appeared & produced one pumpkin each.

The second orange pumpkin is still green & only about 6 inches long, but has the cutest hiney.

God bless the wind damage.

That's my Six for the week.  Here's hoping your autumn brings you many desired outcomes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Making Changes

Six on Saturday is a weekly garden diary hosted by The Propagator.  For links to garden updates from all over the world, check his comment section & the Twitter hashtag #SixOnSaturday.

Summer is definitely over.  For the first time in 4 years, I'll have a 2nd year in the same garden.  Time to look at what did & didn't work, then plan for changes.

Before we start, this    =>  =>  =>  =>  => 
isn't a photo to show off our untidy lawn nor even the not-so-shady border after it's been raided of plants.

Someone besides myself has learned a thing or two living here.  Can you spot her?

No?  Well, let's do this thang & come back to that later.



1.  Getting rid of plants.

This week I've been lifting plants that either hadn't been separated by previous tenants, had multiplied outrageously over the summer, or simply didn't work for me.

I really hate killing healthy plants, so enter Freecycle, stage left.


2.  Phlomis.

Gardeners from Freecycle (or further afield) have their own surplus plants &, more often than not, come bearing gifts.  The woman who brought this clump of phlomis (between the 2 covered angelica who've not been off the S&S menu all summer) even picked out the spot where she thought it would look best.

I've also been given hardy geranium, cyclamen, wild garlic & red hot pokers.  The buddleia, I kindly declined.


3.  Fuchsia hedge.

Next to the phlomis is a pink & white fuchsia hedge that had a coupla elder saplings growing in the middle of it.  After digging the saplings out, I stuck verbena bonariensis in their place, the idea being the verbena is enough of a thug to compete with the fuchsia.  Tune in next summer to see what happens.

I deepened the bed in front of the hedge, then added achillea The Pearl & various bulbs.  All work has been thoroughly inspected by Mr BigNoseDog.

Not sure it passes muster with himself.


4.  Anemone seed heads.

Perpendicular to the hedge border, the anemone are still blooming, but the seed heads are coming along nicely.

If you look in the window, you can see a DoodleGhost doing her best to keep an eye on me.  (Her nose is just above the sprig of seed heads & her eye to the left of the middle flower.)  Mr Big Nose Dog pootles around the front garden while I work, but Mlle DoodleFace cannot be trusted off lead in any area without a 6' fence, bless her.


5.  Replanting baskets.

These were indoor linen baskets for a dozen or so years, used by various felines as cat scratchers.  This year, I down-cycled them into herb planters for near the kitchen door where Mizzy BunnyButt still makes use of them.

Turns out we didn't much use the herbs & edible flowers planted there, so I've put in the oregano Amethyst Falls (below left) & the New Zealand fuchsia (below right), while leaving behind a few edible dianthus.

The mater was a volunteer & has 2 not-quite-ripe fruit on it.  Nature'll soon take her course with that one.


6.  Tulips.

With all the recent moves, putting in bulbs wasn't overly practical, but that didn't stop me from daydreaming about Sarah Raven tulips.  This year, I finally am able to plant some in boxes that'll hang off one section of wall.

I'm not sure why they haven't come up, yet.  It's been 3 days.

And that's my Six.

The answer to my initial question lurks behind the square planter on the footpath.

Mizzy BunnyButt, worst bird hunter ever, has decided that hiding from the birds might be a better tactic than crouching in the grass.

It hasn't improved her hunting skills, much to my relief, but she has her dreams.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flecks of Colour

Six on Saturday is a weekly diary by gardeners all over the world & hosted by The Propagator.  Be sure to drop by his blog & also visit Twitter for links to everyone.

No nights below 9C, but cooler temps all around, less daylight, changing colours . . . autumn is definitely here, yet amazingly, many plants are still putting on a show.

So before we look at them, does anyone know what this is?      =>  =>  =>  =>
It's seen on the BigNoseWalk, not in my garden & thus not one of my Six.  We don't break the rules in this blog.


Onward to glory.



1.  Dianthus.

These were seeds in the edible flower kit.  I wore their colours in the valiant but mostly futile war against the S&S brigade.  Then the hot, dry spell gave us a reprieve & the dianthus bloomed . . . o, they bloomed.

When this guy's stem popped up all of a coupla inches, I assumed it was a self seeder for next year.  But it did this.

Another SoSer told me she plants hers with her onions (I think she said), & has no S&S problem.  I don't grow onions, but think I'll intersperse mine with the garlic.


2.  Hellebore seeds.

The hellebore that's been blooming for a few weeks, now has seed heads as well as flowers.

Structural masterpiece, there.


3.  Snapdragon.

This snapdragon popped up in a pot earlier this year.  Neither drought nor rain have kept it from blooming.

Great bit of colour in a corner that appreciates it.


4.  Auricular.

The aricula have just gotten started.  Their centres look like bits of candy.

The flower itself is at an awkward angle, requiring geriatric gymnastics in order to photo it, resulting in grave disappointment at not getting a clear image for my effort.


5.  Lorapetalum.

This is our first year together & I had no idea it would give a second hurrah, but apparently that's par for the course with this shrub, giving both a spring & autumn flush.

And not a frugal blooming.  It throws its entire self into the job.

Isn't that a great looking plant?


6.  Best rose.

We inherited 5 mature rose bushes with the new place.  They're all great producers with wonderful scents, still knocking their socks off.

This one's my favourite & inspired the hydropod purchase cuz there should be more of these beauties on this earth.

And that's my Six.

Once again, thanks so much for stopping by.  You can't imagine how much I appreciate it.  So much in fact, that I leave you with an image of an enormous puff ball next to my foot for comparison, also seen on the BigNoseWalk so most assuredly not one of my Six.

No rules broken in the writing of this blog.

Updates & Reveals

A shout out to The Propagator who hosts Six On Saturday, a weekly gardening diary.  To snoop into gardens from all over the world, be sure to drop by the comment section of Mr. P's blog & check out the hashtag on Twitter.

We've had the longed for rain this week.  While great for the plants, the weather kept me inside with easy access to happenings in both my original & adoptive countries.

Definitely the worst social media week I've experienced.  Time to reap some welcomed health benefits from the garden.

This time of year, it's mostly running the straight stretch to winter, but there were some surprises.

So let's do this thang.



1.  Bessera Elegans update.

These lovelies must've heard me whining last week, because they've opened.

Drawing on long ago primary school science lessons, I'll hazard to say the white middle of these blooms produces 6 scarlet stamens w/grey-greeny dollops of pollen on them & a dark purple pistil in the middle - the latter being a bit more visible in the photo below.

The blossoms are supposed to be long lived, so hopefully will all be open at same time.

Last week, Hey Jude asked how I got mine to bud & I had to admit they were stuck in pots because I didn't have time to figure out where I wanted them to go.

I've since learned they're half hardy, so will stay in their pots & spend the winter in the shed.  Might have to get them something more exciting than coir pots for next year.


2.  Hydropod update.

Last week, I filled the new hydropod with cuttings.  Within 2-3 days, a coupla rose cuttings had roots appear above the foam collars, even though there were what looked like growth nobs below the foam.

A consultation with Mr P elicited advice that I move the roots to below the collar, which I did, meaning only a little bit of cutting showed above the foam.  The roots on this particular cutting have grown since last week & about a third of the others have started their roots, so reserved happiness, at the moment. 

As a side note, the hydropod is set up in our TV room.  The pump is quite noisy & the system acts as a sort of air conditioner, cooling the room.  Because it's filled with water, it's not convenient to move, so I'd advise against stationing yours in any of the main rooms - you'll have to live with it where it is for a while.


3.  Pumpkin update.

Every year, I worry about keeping pumpkins until Halloween.  A few weeks ago, I eavesdropped on a thread started by Nicky Kyle about curing pumpkins & squash.  That info probably saved my 2 smaller pumpkins that are now curing indoors (next to the flowering gaura).

There're 3 more outside yet, one which is only wee & probably doesn't have time to grow enough before frost.

The vine is still healthy, so he's getting his chance to become a teeny green jack-o-lantern.


4.  Cyclamen reveal.

I've not featured my cyclamen before, though they've been belting it out in the not-so-shady bed for the last few weeks.  Up 'til now, there've only been flowers, but this week, leaves.

My first year for this particular type cyclamen (whose corms are enormous!) & they've absolutely delighted me.


5.  Romanesque reveal.

My winter crop of Romanesque is escaping its netting.

Earlier in the summer, I'd been quite smug, watching the cabbage whites beat against this netting.  Then I found their caterpillars climbing through the netting holes & wondered if cabbage whites lay eggs on neighbouring plants in hopes the caterpillar will find the brassicas.

While I haven't found any more caterpillars under the netting recently, this little guy is chancing his arm leaf.


6.  Snow leopard melon reveal.

First year for snow leopard melon & it grew guns ablazing, up the fence & trellis, across the much fatter pumpkin vines, into the tomato planters.   It produced tons of flowers that swelled up at the base, ready, willing & able.  None of them seemed to get pollinated & the little swellings fell off.  Maybe the tiny melon flowers couldn't compete against the huge pumpkin flowers for pollinators.

Once the pumpkin vines began to die back, though, I saw this greygreen thing hanging on the back trellis. 

There's another melon on the ground at the foot of the trellis, but this particular one worried me, lest its weight compress the vine.

Break out the pumpkin hammock again.

I have no idea if these 2 guys're gonna have time to get ripe, but their appearance is exciting!  I'll try them again next year, but in a planter where there's no competition from the big guys.

So there's my Six done for the week. 

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.  Now I'm off to see what's been happening in your garden.

And that's all she wrote.