Thursday, June 24, 2010

Winter Garden

Winter solstice just passed, but things in the garden are growing, albeit slowly, and not helped At All by the wretched possum that keeps nibbling off the new shoots.
Here we have lots of different leafy lettucy thing.  Pak choy, tatsoi, some Cos in the middle and a bit of rogue celery that, after playing dead for months, has suddenly decided to leap into life.  I hate celery. Hate growing it, hate eating it. Yet I grow and eat it.

News just in: First female Aussie Prime Minister!! A lot of me is going YAY because at last there's a girl in the top spot, BUT a lot of me is also going Not YAY, because nobody voted for her.  This is the third time in my lifetime that a PM has been appointed due to a leadership spill, and not democratically elected.  Hmm.

Anyway, back to the garden.  M'citrus arrived from Diggers last week.  This being two oranges (Hamelin and Blood), a lime (kaffir), a lemon (er, I forget what type, but not Eureka or Meyer, Lisbon? maybe, oh whatevs) and a Satsuma (Afoura Murcott).  Have been figuring out where to put them...
That's the Hamlin Orange next to the (recently tidied up-ish) strawberry patch.  Am hoping, in time, that it'll grow up and shade the front door.  Its a very hot spot just there, and though I know citrus likes heat, am hoping its not too hot.

The apple trees are going dormant, which is deeply exciting (well if you are me), even the Cox Orange Pippin.  Am still pretty dubious about how well they're going to fare though, am creating cool micro-climates around them, but still think that afternoon westerly sun is eventually going to spell disaster.  My self-pollinating Almond tree has not shown the remotest hint of going dormant, think it will be re-homed at Mumndad.  The Cherry (Stella, self pollinating), which I was most dubious about, is doing brilliantly though.  Some you win, some you lose.

Today is the last day of term for the Screamies, and right now I'm staring down the barrel of three weeks of 24/7 kids.  Argh.  Me-time I shall miss you.  Still it will mean that I can accidentally smear mud all over my face (was weeding and hair kept getting in the way) and not get funny looks from the other Mums at pick up time.

Note to self: Look in mirror before leaving house ALWAYS.

Sigh.

3 people love me:

Pip said...

Maybe you could try throwing some bread out for the possums to eat instead of new shoots. Actually that isn't such a good idea, they might think a lettuce sandwich might be a good idea :)
The way I understand the election process is that the leader of the party is selected by the members of the party. When there is an election, if the leader wins their electorate seat, they then become PM or remain as leader of the opposition. So in one sense they are still democratically elected.

Quixotic said...

I'm doing celery for the first time atm, seems to be behaving itself so far. Do you wrap and blanch and all that crap, or just leave it be?
Miss 3 had a pyjama day at kindy for the winter solstice, I was just doing my bit to help her fit in by dropping her off in my pj's. Honest.

Anonymous said...

Schools out here. I get to spend the next 2 months with 2 teenagers. Wanna trade?