HEATING UP FOR WINTER

Mid summer and the livin' is easy, for those without gardens!  There's still all those bulbs to be dug up and divided (the excess goes to streetscaping the Glenlyon village and to the Friends of Wombat Hill Gardens).  Lots of plants that bloomed in the Spring still need a good prune and parts of the garden need re-mulching to protect the plants from the heat.

Winter and spring bulbs are planted now.

There's gardens to water, although the recent rains were just heavenly.  And the veggie patch is going gang busters, with enough vegetables to feed two families.  Peas, beans, beetroot, carrots, sweetcorn, lettuces and zuchini are there for the picking.

Our local male kangaroo who hangs out in the garden has taken a liking to new peas and the tips of the sweetcorn.  And we have always told people that the kangaroos do no harm!  Drats!  Now we have to put on the electric fence each night (which makes no difference to the high flying kanga!) and place nets over the plants.

The best producing plants this year are the fruits- huge loganberries, raspberries, peaches and a great crop of nectarines and plums coming on.  Worth all the effort.

At the back of our minds is the Winter opening of our gardens in August, so preparations have already started.  We have an eye open for spots in the garden that can take a few more plants to lift the winter garden- bulbs, violets, wintersweet and forsythia, to name just a few. There's always a place for some more hellebores, too, which will be planted in late Autumn.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the fruits of our labour.