wedding garden AFTER

Well, only 10 days to go and the garden has burst into bloom, just maybe a little early... i am a bit worried it has peaked to soon :( but we shall see. I'm sure SOMETHING will be flowering on the 21st; now i am in maintanence mode. And i have become obsessed with long range weather forecasts. I have no problem with rain but i hate hate HATE wind (fingers toes and everything in between crossed)...

It was a long weekend and i got so much gardening done it was geat! The spring has been so warm this far everything is booming and boosting - including the weeds, thus much weeding was done ans still remains. I found this cosmo in one of my planters, the petals are completely tubular. Is this phenomenal or merely strange? It certainly spun me out. Son had a friend to stay and i got a good taste of what it would be like to have three kids, interesting...s

The fennel flan i made was a hit!! We had to eat it picnic style in the living room as my table is smothered in wedding craft - to be blogged at a later date...

Sunrise thru my boy's eyes

'Twas an early start this morning; below the sunrise you can see the concrete block wall in our back yard that i am to paint before te wedding. Yep, put it on the list along with 'finish bridesmaids dresses' and 'order oysters' etc...

5 things

I saw a great game on Oh Mishka (see blogs i follow) that i wanted to participate in, it went like this:

Grab your camera.Take pictures of 2 things in the room you're in right now.Put them on your blog and say why you chose those 2 items to photograph.Then comment here with the link to your blog post so we can all see each others' photos!

BUT i have never been able to follow the rules, and i can at least see my garden from the room im in right now... so here's 5 flowers in my garden i'm loving right now:

The last isn'y strictly a flower, but this heuchera is called "Southern Comfort" and therefore close to my heart *sigh*

Please note that the anenomes are not included, they are just starting to flower and ARE NOT my favourites, as their stems are too short and stumpy to do anything with. Oh trial and error, i am being tested...

Beautiful day

I gardened my ass off today. It was completely gorgeous. I planted two new trees and many many seedlings, weeded some, potted up some itty bitty seedlings... i planted out alot of pansies i got the other day, they are no good for bouquets but i want to get my front garden bed ready for the wedding which is in *gasp* four months. It is really easy to find pansies in my

wedding colours - purple and orange. Check out these jokers:

I have another mystery daffodil! And its not even the same as the other. It's just a lone, sweet smelling, glorious little bloom...
Sean found a good sized carrot in the vege patch, sadly not purple. Ishy munched on it to the very stump! I really loved today...

Indian summer?

It is a phenomenally beautiful day, it is a crime to be inside on the computer, but sean has taken the kids out and i just wanted to post a quick blog before they get back! I have some compost to spread, it hasn't rotted down as well as i had hoped. Apparently there is a real art to making compost which i have yet to delve into passionately, my style is just chuck it all in there and hope it magically transforms into nourishing crumbly goodness for my garden beds...

And check out all my seedlings a-sprouting! My gorgeous sean built this little hidey away around the side of the garage which is a total sun-trap, and my babies love it! The only downside is i think my neighbours may get to eavesdrop on all the secrets and wisdom that i reveal as i chat away to my lovelies...

Petit gardens

Aside from my larger flower bed and the two raised beds in the back, i have many little sneaky spots filled up with any type of pot, box or container i can find. Apparently bulbs do quite well in pots, as do herbs (for scented foilage) and sunflowers. And of course i have had raging success with marigolds (which are not actually for the market bouquets but for my wedding) so if everything else blooms as successfully i will be making mucho grande posies...

Lovely anenomes

Birthday gardening

Well i have finished planting all my new birthday plants, there are poppies poppies poppies of all kinds EVERYWHERE and i cant wait until spring when i get to see it all come to fruition and all these flowers in bloom. I am very much looking foward to not looking upon all the dirt and sand, the seedlings should all fill out and fill the beds nicely. I have packed everything fairly close together, now i just have to stay on top of the weeds.

We also planted the dwarf apple tree that my mum bought for me and Ishta for our birthdays, apparently has extra cancer fighting properties. I got Ishy's placenta out of deep freeze where it's been for almost a year and planted it underneath. I have been wanting an apple tree since i read about apple woods magical properties, so now i have magic wood and Ishta is forever joined to the earth...

Oriental poppies, shirley poppies, iceland poppies, and our new Monty's Surprise apple tree in the foreground

My birthday

I am trying not to feel old. I resolve to make the next 10 years the best of my life so far. I will have a fantastic party next year and celebrate the hell out of my 30th. BUT for today i will garden... yesterday i got some more poppies, ranunculus, and some cool new Niche seeds, jade sunflowers which are the most beautiful shade of white/green. I LOVE Niche seeds, i cant wait to harvest the rainbow carrots we planted months ago, which will hopefully look like this:

Mystery daffodil

There is a mystery daffodil in my garden. It definately wasn't there last year, so have there been garden fairies tip-toeing through in the night? I cant wait til all my spring bulbs start flowering but this one is somewhat of an enigma...

Winter tree

It is impossible to capture with my quite sad camera, but we decorated the peppercorn tree today and it is a magical wonder and joy, makes my my heart operatic...

We made the decorations a couple of days ago. They are painted shells, walnut shells and seed pods. And theres some pretty beads we found lying around too.

New Seeds

Oh Palmers, how i love to throw my money at thee... i had such good intentions, but $67 later i have ANOTHER huge tray of icelandic poppies, three of ranunculus, and some VERY exciting new seeds! Yay yay yay i have SO been wanting to try some lisianthus, apparently very good sellers but very tricky to grow well... oh well worth a shot. Feeling more than slightly guilty but also overly orgasmic right now, bloomaholic mwah? I will make it up to Sean, partly when my flower stall makes MILLIONS and partly tonight when i lavish him with some of the friskiness this mini spending-spree has rubbed up.
We had a most lovely afternoon today, twas Sonny's idea to pick some oranges and make juice. Actually we have mandarins and tangelos so the juice was "refreshing" to say the least but with the amount of mucous flowing around here at the moment i'd say the vitamin C shot was most timely.

So gorgeous.

Misty day, blue borage

It is so warm today i dont even have a jersey on. It rained all day yesterday and last night and is just very misty today - i can hear my garden sighing in delight. The blue borage has its first flower and Sonny is so excited! He claims anything with blue flowers as his own, and i am hoping to entice him into eating salad this spring by scattering this precious blue stars through the lettuce leaves. Apparently they taste like cucumber, i am yet to find out for myself.

We have been keeping our fire cranking, so nice for stories and finger games. I found a cool book called "Heaven on Earth" which i strive to create for my family especially its young children, this book contains many secrets and whispers to spur me on in my efforts, no matter how jaded i become by the enormity of the task. It also helps to have glimpses such as this of how it could indeed be possible...

Parva plants

I did a silly thing this morning, i got out the Parva Plants catalogue to see if the had scabiosa and what kinds, just out of curiosity what mine might end up looking like when the have grown-up. Now i am pining for all the beautiful plants i will not be buying anytime soon... The thing is, it is not really the time to be planting anything new, our ground is oft frozen solid in these frosty mornings and hail is still hanging around the outskirts, i feel it. Such was the state of my garden last month...

That is not snow, it doesnt actually snow here believe it or not, that is hail. There was so much that some adventurous types gleefully set about snowboarding in the streets, as they were temporarily unfit for driving on. Some of my plants survived, more than i would have expected, it was quite kind and gentle, a smothering sort of hail. Sonny thought it was great but did not appreciate how unusual the sheer volume of it was, i think he will always remember it though. This is a cold bastardish winter even in its infancy. Maybe by spring the finances will have swung, would love some plants for my birthday in July.

What i am grateful for today *my lovely boy is so cheerful in the face of it all. Does he genuinely remain blissfully aware of all adversity? I hope so.

*Ishta is so spunky. We must endeavor to preserve her spunk.

*Sean is a gorgeous man. I must endeavor to enhance his gorgeousness. Focus is required.

*Despite the season, the lovely sunny aspect of our casa, and the hope and faith that spiring will be here soon and we'll be back out in the garden... with the flowers.