Holiday tommorrow!

Tommorrow we go away for a long awaited holiday! I spent most of last weekend putting things right in the garden - making sure everything gets a good long drink before I go. The neighbour has been asked to water if we don't get any rain. Surely we will start to get rain soon....
The tomatoes are really almost at the end, but I cant bear to finally pull them up until we get home. Then I will put them onto the makeshift compost pile where I will grow tomatoes next year. . Maybe try some green tomato chutney, with the few remaining tomatoes that never quite ripen. Slowly we will transition to plants that like the hot humid summer, but right now it is just hot and dry! Transition time is always a little untidy in the garden.
Yesterday evening I went out and discovered that the sunbirds were happily flitting about the passionfruit - oh gosh, I am so glad they like passionfruit flowers. That means we will have lots of these cheery little birds. Of course as soon as I got the camera out they disappeared! With continuous flowering I am sure to be able to get some photos soon - you have to be fast though, as they flit from one flower to another! Like a flower love fest!
My rosebush has also been going crazy and this morning there were four buds open. My hibiscus bud has been slowly opening - I hope I get to see which one is flowering before we go. I cut slips from two of my neighbours plants - don't know which one I prefer, but they seem to have both taken well. One is a brilliant orange and red flower and the other is a pale pink delicate looking one. I do love it when I plant a slip and it grows!

in flower sept

I love to share a bunch of flowers out of my garden with friends - I took this bunch to our friends who live in the rainforest!

I know it is late in the month to do this, but here are a few photos from my garden in September. I was working in the garden yesterday afternoon and heard masses of birds overhead. Looking up I saw hundreds (yes literally hundreds) of lorikeets in the tree above me. This tree has huge arching red flowers stems, and there must be something there attracting the lorikeets. They have been hanging around all weekend - what a joy to look up and see that! They are so beautiful! I imagine they might come into the garden when our lychees are ripe, and then I might not be quite so happy about them.
in the meantime I will leave you with some photos....
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/vemvaan/InFlowerSept#

Passionate about passionfruit

In December I transplanted a little volunteer passion fruit vine that I brought over from the last place we stayed in. It is right alongside the fence and surrounded by stones, as there is a 2 foot edging of stone all along the side of the property. I worried that it might be forgotten, but it does get watered occasionally. Well, I didn't have to worry as the other side of the fence is the neighbours chicken coop....called a chook pen here in Australia! Obviously those roots go deeply and mine up all the good stuff, because the vine has now travelled about 15feet along the fence in each direction and at least that far up the neighbour's happy plant! The plant only really survives about 3 years here, so it is recommended to plant another plant to take over after about two years. I guess I have found the right spot to plant it, and I think I am going to plant a row of comfrey right in front of it - going to get all that chook manure into my garden without having to deal with the chooks! (Well, they do wake us up early in the morning with their clucking, but at least there is no rooster!)

There have been a few fruit forming, but I have somehow missed the flowering, yesterday when I wandered through the garden I saw plenty of flowers. They are really the most beautiful flowers, as you can see.

The fruit too is amazing - much bigger than I have ever seen before, as you can see from the next photo. The way to harvest is to just walk around and pick up the fallen fruit, so it doesn't matter that the vine has grown so high.

these are a few flowering herbs - Thai and regular basil and some dill. The basil is growing around a volunteer cherry tomato plant - supposedly very good companion plants.
I have been getting the coffee grounds from a local coffee shop for the past few weeks. I am just sprinkling it around the garden - it adds nitrogen (and a lovely smell! ) Hubby says it smells much better than some of the other stuff I spread around! I took the owner a bunch of fresh herbs to say thanks and he seemed very pleased. I do love to share the bounty!

One of the best ways to enjoy passion fruit is to scoop out a ripe papaya and fill the centre with passion fruit. my papaya are taking their time ripening, but I am looking forward to that treat in the not too distant future!

Afternoon tea in the garden!

The back paving area is finally finished and we have already had a birthday party there for our grandson - two years old! That was on Thursday night and then on Saturday afternoon I had three girlfriends over for afternoon tea.

They had all been here before, but only at night inside for our houseblessing, and it was so gratifying to see their faces drop when they walked outside - wow this is really lovely!

I had set the table with the tablecloth that my mother handpainted with flowers and butterflies. I had five little vases filled with flowers from the garden, and even the napkin rings had a spot to insert a flower. It looked lovely! Very inviting!

For eats I baked a pound cake, a date loaf, then scones with jam and cream (I put the cream on after this photo was taken) then for savouries I made crackers with cheese and my homemade tomato chili jam, and of course cucumber sandwiches!

The birds were singing and chattering and the wagtail even came and had his daily bath in the birdbath. Butterflies were fluttering around, and there was even a gentle breeze to cool us down.

I do love the fact that everyone seems so comfortable and relaxed in my garden - they arrived at 2.30 and left at 6pm

What a lovely afternoon - I hope to have very many more afternoons like that!