bare bones in winter
Jul. 9th, 2019 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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It's pretty much the height of winter here in Sydney, Australia - yes, the solstice has come and gone, but this is the hardest, coldest part of the year for us.
I climbed up a ladder to take a pic of my backyard - south-east corner of the block where the north-east aspect is best, but we have a McMansion that shades us from the north-east through the height of winter so...

I'm happier with the greens growing in the winter yard this year. It makes everything a lot less bare!
In the bottom left hand corner (next to the clay pot) are grass (haha), broad beans, a herbal flower whose name I've forgotten, and the pinky-purple glimpses are the last of a few amaranth plants I tossed down. Hopefully there'll be more of those next year and they'll become a regular.
Brick-edge garden is broadbeans, peas, kale, radish, bok choy, silverbeet, and mustard. There were purple caulis in there, but I think the slugs have eaten the shootlings. :( This bed should be in full-growth by now, but I only planted them in May so they're still seedlings.
Clockwise of the brick-edge garden are three spiky-leafed plants: globe artichokes. Just in front of the blue bucket is a couple of brussel sprouts (you can only see one, the other is a purplish colour).
There's a marigold to the left of the raised bed (brown metal), and the big lighter green plant with the huge leaves (behind the skeleton of the cherry tree) is a 'fruit salad sage' which smells gorgeous when I brush past it!
The raised bed is growing garlic and onions in the centre, radishes on the left, carrots up the back, leeks down the side, and beetroot in the front. It needs to be planted earlier - maybe February - to be ready now. Again, only planted in May.
There's garlic in the far bathtub, azolla and water lily in the near bathtub (the pond) and agapanthus between them. I don't know if the agapanthus will flower, but I figured that stuff will grow anywhere, in shade or sun or poor soil, and I didn't have anything to go between the bathtubs and the trees. The silvery-green-grey leafy things at the left end of the pond bath are...some perennial that I've forgotten the name of, the clump of green at the upper right end of the pond bath is a clump of parsley.
The round-leafed plants on the near side of the bathtub pond are nasturtiums, and there's an alpine strawberry growing in a pot there, too.
The green shooty things are oats for green mulch, and there's peas scattered among them, too, for legumes.
Next year, I really have to start my winter planting (cabbages, caulis, broccoli, silverbeet, asian greens, lettuces) in February so that there's green leafy things for eating in the middle of winter.
What are your summer gardens looking like in the northern hemisphere?
I climbed up a ladder to take a pic of my backyard - south-east corner of the block where the north-east aspect is best, but we have a McMansion that shades us from the north-east through the height of winter so...

I'm happier with the greens growing in the winter yard this year. It makes everything a lot less bare!
In the bottom left hand corner (next to the clay pot) are grass (haha), broad beans, a herbal flower whose name I've forgotten, and the pinky-purple glimpses are the last of a few amaranth plants I tossed down. Hopefully there'll be more of those next year and they'll become a regular.
Brick-edge garden is broadbeans, peas, kale, radish, bok choy, silverbeet, and mustard. There were purple caulis in there, but I think the slugs have eaten the shootlings. :( This bed should be in full-growth by now, but I only planted them in May so they're still seedlings.
Clockwise of the brick-edge garden are three spiky-leafed plants: globe artichokes. Just in front of the blue bucket is a couple of brussel sprouts (you can only see one, the other is a purplish colour).
There's a marigold to the left of the raised bed (brown metal), and the big lighter green plant with the huge leaves (behind the skeleton of the cherry tree) is a 'fruit salad sage' which smells gorgeous when I brush past it!
The raised bed is growing garlic and onions in the centre, radishes on the left, carrots up the back, leeks down the side, and beetroot in the front. It needs to be planted earlier - maybe February - to be ready now. Again, only planted in May.
There's garlic in the far bathtub, azolla and water lily in the near bathtub (the pond) and agapanthus between them. I don't know if the agapanthus will flower, but I figured that stuff will grow anywhere, in shade or sun or poor soil, and I didn't have anything to go between the bathtubs and the trees. The silvery-green-grey leafy things at the left end of the pond bath are...some perennial that I've forgotten the name of, the clump of green at the upper right end of the pond bath is a clump of parsley.
The round-leafed plants on the near side of the bathtub pond are nasturtiums, and there's an alpine strawberry growing in a pot there, too.
The green shooty things are oats for green mulch, and there's peas scattered among them, too, for legumes.
Next year, I really have to start my winter planting (cabbages, caulis, broccoli, silverbeet, asian greens, lettuces) in February so that there's green leafy things for eating in the middle of winter.
What are your summer gardens looking like in the northern hemisphere?
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 06:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:50 pm (UTC)Cheers,
Pat
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 11:51 pm (UTC)TBH, I feel like I'm at least two months behind on growing everything...
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 11:54 pm (UTC)I need to increase the number of flowers in my garden - both for beauty and for pollinators. I've focused on edibles for the last few years, but I'm thinking a broader focus on flowers for pollinators would be wise, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-11 04:00 pm (UTC)Cheers,
Pat
garden check in from New Orleans
Date: 2019-07-11 07:59 pm (UTC)Everything else is in the back in pots. The wildflowers are doing well. I had one pot survive the winter and that's constantly blooming. The newer things got ravaged by squirrels so I'm seeing what survived. I've admitted that the petunias are dead. I think it got too hot too fast for them. Everything else is doing okay but not great. The 100+ F temperatures haven't been doing anything any favors. My rosebush is deliriously happy and putting out new growth and flowers constantly. So far the caterpillars haven't found it this year.
Re: garden check in from New Orleans
Date: 2019-07-20 06:36 am (UTC)Re: garden check in from New Orleans
Date: 2019-07-20 04:59 pm (UTC)