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.