Budding Roses.

Ever wanted to know how to bud a rose? Some great advice here.

I've tried before and failed spectacularly but this fills in all the gap in my knowledge.

I've got some Dr. Huey roses here that I propagated from a sucker last year so I'll give this a red hot go next Winter and Spring. 





Cheers

Stewart

My Globe Artichoke.

Roses

I received a phone call on Friday to let me know that two roses* I'd ordered a while ago had arrived and I could pick them up when I was ready.

I was keen to pick them up so I pinched my wife's car this morning (Sunday) and made a bee line for the nursery.

While I was waiting to be served I was having a good look around when I spied a very over grown punnet of Globe Artichoke.

  'Powis Castle' 

It's been in the back of my mind to grow some more Globe Artichokes.

So I bought them, the roses, a packet of seeds, some potash, a wormwood  'Powis Castle' and a punnet of lobelia.

 I had Globe Artichoke years ago but lost them in the drought when I was too crook to care for them. Before that though they grew well.

Planting

Being a perennial I gave the soil a good dose of Witch's Brew.

About twenty liters over a two meter by half a meter row.

Turned it into the soil and planted my Globe Artichoke.


Sixty centimeters apart was the recommended plant spacing on the label but seeing as it is only a single row I planted mine about forty centimeters apart.

 Mulch

  A  little on the root bound side of things but I teased the roots out a little so I hope this will take care of any root balling.

Gave them a good watering and I'll give them a good mulch of straw when I get a chance on Tuesday.

Cheers and happy gardening,

Stewart.

*The two roses I ordered were 'Cabana' and 'Remember Me'.

Wow, what a day.

Wow, what a day. It's my daughter's 21st and it's been two months since my last operation and after today's effort in the garden I'm feeling ecstatic.

It's been years now since I've been able to do a full day's work and still feel OK at the end of the day.

The morning was made up of weeding, watering and liquid fertilising everything and I mean everything. Roses, perennials, annuals, veggies. You name it it got liquid ferilised. 

I've planted a lot of flowering annuals this year to keep me happy. Annuals like petunias, poppies, snappies, pansies, violas, and primulas in the shady parts of the garden as well. All of these were liquid fertilized as well as all the veggies like the peas, silverbeet, garlic, lettuce, cabbages, strawberries, chillies (still flowering and being warm here for this time of the year I might get another small crop) and broccoli.

The afternoon was all the boring stuff like putting all the prunings through the mulcher, working over the compost heap, mowing the lawn and clearing an overgrown site for planting the Lisbon lemon I bought.

My daughter, the one turning 21, works in a coffee shop/cafe so guess what this is.

Getting rad with my ish. There's 500 little radish seeds per packet so I won't be running out any time soon.

A handy sized seed, no pun intended, I'm just poking a few into small spaces or in between  rows of other veggies, they'll be long gone and out of the way by the time the other veggies grow up

My lemonade tree lemonading.

Seriously just juice and drink, delicious

Next cab off the rank. This is the Lisbon I bought and will be planting in the area I started preparing this after noon.

Two little rhubarb leaves.

When I was harvesting some leaves last week a chunk of main stem came off as well so I bunged it into a pot full of potting mix and now it's looking like I've two more Rhubarbs to plant come spring.

Roses are red..

I was flicking through twitter this morning when I came across a tweet about the difference between own root roses and grafted roses.

I found it informative and I enjoyed the authors authority and enthusiasm so I decided to repost it here. Hope you enjoy it too.

You can follow this link to the original blog where I got the video from.

D-Day

Well D-Day has arrived.

I start my first class of my Tertiary Preparation Program on Friday at 9am.

I've currently got my head stuck in some study material they have sent me and so far so good.

As for the veggies, well they are doing very well atm, just watering weeding, and some mulching and eating.

I'd like to say that post ing from here on might become irregular but I'll see how I go. Maybe if I make good use of my time I'll be able to get some stuff up.

I know I have a little lettuce story I want to post so I'll see how I go with that one.

The rose is called Ebb Tide and now resides in my veggie garden.

The National Rose Trial Garden of Australia had this to say in 2005.

Award: Certificate of Merit
Name: Ebb Tide
Type: floribunda rose
Habit: a purple double with exposed yellow stamens that age to cerise pink
Breeder: Weeks, Chino CA, USA
Exhibitor: Swane's Nurseries, NSW


Cheers

Stewart

Ashes

Hi all,
there's nothing I like more than a good garden analogy, like, It's a hard row to hoe or tall poppy syndrome. Also it's no secret I like a good affirmation or quote, like, be yourself everyone else is taken or "Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners."-James Stewart (Jimmy Stewart).

So when you put the two together and make a song out of it, it doesn't get any better.

So it is, with great pleasure, I present to you the Roses of Success.