Friday 30 June 2017

Garden update - June 2017

Today is one of my infrequent garden updates.  As regular readers will know we only have a small courtyard garden.  For years it has been quite a grey area that is pepped up with some plants.  Recently I put down some astro turf which, together with the mural we painted in January has brought a lot of colour to the garden.  Happy days.  Let's have a wander.

My favourite part of the garden are my lemon and lime trees.  Above is a picture of the trees in January.

The trees were starting to fruit at the same time as the top leaves started to curl.  My mum diagnosed it as citrus leaf miner.  Apparently it is an insect that burrows or mines into the leaf and leaves little tracks.  Like in the above photo.  I have had a trap hanging off the lime tree and been spraying occasionally with eco oil.  It is better but still not quite gone.

How much the citrus leaf minor affected the fruit from the trees, I cannot tell.  We still got quite a bit of fruit in May/June.  But it was really odd that the lemon tree only fruited on side and the lime tree fruited on the other side.

I planted some broccoli in March.  It seemed fine.  Until I saw little bite holes in it.  Which grew and grew...

...until the plants were mostly sticks.  The leaves had all by disappeared.

My mum said it was the white butterflies and to make little butterflies of plastic bags tied to stalks of wire so they scare off the real butterflies.  It is on my to do list.  Meanwhile the netting on the broccoli has helped keep the little blighters away.

The broccoli leaves are looking better.  There is hope.

Above is my rosemary plant.  It has always been quite robust.  Lately it has been rather straggly.  But it's hanging in there.

The lavender took a beating in the summer heat and still isn't quite recovered.  This photo is from April with Shadow checking out the steps we made for Zinc.

I am far happier about my camelias.  Last year we did not get any flowers.  Sad face.  I think it got too neglected while we were in Scotland.  This year we were delighted by all the flowers.

Sylvia enjoyed looking at the buds and predicting which would flower next.

At this time of year my succulents do very well.  They are probably my most neglected plants.  Makes me think I need more succulents in my garden.  The aloe vera to the left is also thriving.

Out the front our roses seem to be just about at the end of their flowering.  They have had a bit of a bashing this year with black spot and aphids.  I've been giving them some eco oil spray too.  hopefully they will rebound.  My mum says they are not too bad.  I am now comparing them with other local roses when out walking.

The photo of the rose is of one of the last.  The rose bushes are more like the ones above.  Quite sparse.

Finally the flowers out the front that were grown from a cutting have thrived for years.  This winter however they have been reduced to a few sticks after our gas meters were replaced in the part of the garden and the flowers were dug up and replanted.  Given that they grew so easily the first time, hopefully this part of the garden will thrive again.

To check out more garden photos - go to the How Does My Garden Grow post.

12 comments:

  1. Looking wonderful!!! LOVE the colourful fences too!

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    1. Thanks Lisa - the fence makes me happy every time I am in the backyard

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  2. Your garden looks like it is going very well! Meanwhile our balcony is pretty much all aloe vera at this point because we can't keep anything else alive :(

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - I saw a garden somewhere (probably online) with lots of little succulents in cute pots and thought that looks like something I could do because they are so easy!

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  3. Your garden is wonderful and I'd love to if I could spend time in it. I love how you have livened it up with the turf and the painted fencing. I am having problems with cabbage butterfly too, laying eggs and destroying my brassica. I have netting over the plants, but they still get in. I hope your rosemary recovers, perhaps its screaming to be up-potted?! or fresh soil. I went to take some pictures this evening of the garden, its lovely - but a little windy - price of living in the valleys.

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    1. Thanks Shaheen - I think I still have a few little nibbles on the broccoli so probably need to get up some butterflies like my mum said. Thanks for the advice on repotting the rosemary - it is probably about 10 years old so maybe that would help. It seems we have the problem of either too much light in summer or too little in winter for taking photos outside! So I feel your pain for taking photos, though windiness is not a problem here!

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  4. Your garden is looking good. I only grow a geranium and some herbs.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - Herbs are on and off for me. I am pleased my parsley is doing ok - that has been a challenge for me but some herbs seem quite hardy like the thyme and rosemary.

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  5. Lovely! I love the pots your lemon &lime trees are in and the step feature. I only recently got into balcony gardening and have a handful of test herbs hanging on for dear life! The harsh Darwin sun makes them quite fussy for water

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    1. Thanks Vegetarian Dreams - it must be a challenge to grow plants in Darwin - goodluck with the testers - the steps and the pots make me happy in my garden.

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  6. Thanks for the update on your garden, I have a lemon and lime in pots as well and they are doing very well. They are in half wine barrels and I wonder what will happen when they become overcrowded, it has been about 4 years. I am also well overdue for a garden post.

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  7. What a lovely garden. I am so jealous of your citrus trees. It looks like you are doing such a lovely job, but such a shame when the pesky insect world invades and destroys stuff. It's the same everywhere..... xx

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