Happy Easter!!

A very pretty Broken Colours 4 o'clock flower, one of the prettiest I've seen from the plants, no two blossoms are the same, ranging from the normal dark pink, speckled flowers and yellow as well.

Yellow 4 o'clock flower.

Planted out the Sweet Peas, some had already started to germinate :)

Planted the rest of the flowers in the flower beds, to this bed I added Foxglove and Snapdragons. 

Then some sugar cane mulch to keep the weeds suppressed.

My Penpal sent me some flower seeds as part of my birthday present this year :) (Best present ever!) These are the seedlings, most I've never had in the garden so i'm not sure as to whether they will cope with the shade of the trees. At least I know that the Stocks will grow :). The Impatians did not germinate, so there are Poppy's, Evening scented Stock, Larkspur, Candytuft, Stock, Nigella and Clarkia.

At the back are foxglove, Larkspur and Snapdargons, Then the others are at the front as I don't know how tall they will get.

All mulched with Sugar Cane :) Pretty sure I planted them too close together, but I can always transplant them later if they get too big.

Silverbeet and Savory Cabbage seedlings...

More Silverbeet  seedlings...

Ready to be planted out...

I think there must be a family of spiders living in the bed, :( I must have kicked about 20 out (gently of course), then a big Mother spider went past, shaking a angry leg leg at me. :( Sorry spidys!....

...I've mulched now! You can move back in!!

Casey basking in the last of the sunlight, oblivious to the spiders scurrying past her.

Planted out the Savory Cabbage...

And the rest of Mrs Somerhalder's Petunias :)

Happy Gardening! And I hope everyone is having safe and happy holidays :)

Sweet Peas

It's time to plant Sweet Peas! 

I'm planting the same sweet peas this year as I did last year. Most of them i bought from this website http://lathyrus.com/   The seeds come in great condition and are individually packed and labeled

 with a picture of the blooms on the front :)

The types i'm planting are:

Winter Sunshine

Mauve

Rose

White

Navy

Light blue

This type of sweet pea flowers earlier then the other varieties.

Spencer Sweet Pea (climber)

Anniversary (Pink Picotee)

Eclipse (Mauve)

Bristol (Light Blue)

Ripples/stripes

Lilac Ripple

Olive D (Maroon stripe)

Mars (Red stripe)

Nimbus (Dark purple stripe)

Also:

Painted lady (White and Pink)

Galaxy Mixed (Mixed Colours)

I did plant some Antique types last year- They smell amazing and bloom prolifically but the stems are shorter, the blooms smaller, so not ideal for cut flowers. Perfect if you just want them in the garden though :)  

All Sweet Pea Flower Photo's are from last season

Winter Sunshine Navy

Winter Sunshine Mauve

Winter Sunshine White

Winter Sunshine Rose

Winter Sunshine Posy

Ripple/Stripe Posy

Nimbus

Mars, Nimbus

Mars

Lilac Ripple

Unique (Antique Sweet Pea)

Mars (again! I think I like this one!)

Olive D

The instructions that come with the Sweet Peas tells us to either nick the shell of the pea (avoiding the hilum) with a needle or to soak the seeds for 12-24 hours, for best germination. I choose to soak them. It's so cool to see them double in size!

A few hours after being placed in water...

The next day.

The difference between one that soaked up the water and one that did not. I just nicked the skin of the ones that didn't take up the water and put them back in to soak.

They are so pretty! I can't wait to smell them again!!

Happy Gardening! :)

Who's been dancing on the garden beds???

Oh, wait, that's right - It was me!!! ^^

I was talking with my work colleague, and I asked how long she thought it would take for the soil in the beds to settle, she replied with about 2 weeks. My face must have shown my disappointment, and we laughed as she was imitating me stomping the soil down with impatience... Then today I thought... Why not???

It went down quite a lot, about 15 cm in some places! I then topped it up with the remaining soil.

 

I then planted some Carrot seed mats I made using Annie's kitchen garden's Seed mat tutorial. She is so smart! :) This is my first time trying them, and the thing that strikes me straight away is how there is no wastage of the seeds! I love it :D

Lightly covered with seed raising mix.

I bought a mushroom kit online last week...

I bought one ages ago (from Big W, I think?), but it didn't produce very many mushrooms. Hopefully I will get heaps from this one! It says there should be mushrooms in about 2-3 weeks :) Does anyone have any good mushroom recipes?

Finally, this afternoon I pulled out the beans from near the fence. They never fully recovered from the heat waves we had this summer :( but i'm still getting plenty off the other 2 walls of beans I have. These are where i will plant some of the Sweet Peas. I think I will do a post on them next :)

Happy Gardening :)

Finally Finished!!

Finished the beds!! :D

I have a bit of soil left over that i will use to top them up when the dirt settles...

It's not much though. I've had a lazy afternoon of playing with the kitty's and taking photos, my hands are quite red and raw still :(.

A pretty white Crepe Myrtle flower in the afternoon sun.

The red Zinnia's have orange centers when i use the flash on my camera....

Casey with Floss in the background -eating grass....

A silk tree flower.

I asked Casey to help me garden after she was finished with her nap and got this response-

"Noooooooo!!! Casey is a free elf!"

Lol!! :)