Magical March - shopping

More March magic. March is shopping time. Each year, I eagerly await the catalogue to be released. I know what I want. I've been planning for a few months now. How will it look? Where will I put it? Will it fit?

Here's my shopping list;
1 x Pomme de Neige
1 x Fenouillet Gris
1 x Esopus Spitzenburg
1 x Court Pendu Plat
1 x Calville Blanc d'Hiver
1 x Catshead
1 x Van de Man

My order will arrive in the mail sometime in June. Which gives me time to get everything ready. Can you guess I'm talking apples trees? Aren't their names just beautiful? Beats a Jonathan any day. These are lovely old French varieties, some dating back to the 1600s, some even to Roman times. My own French antique collection for the garden!

If you want some March apple magic yourself, get over here and have a browse. They have an incredible collection available. They're lovely, gorgeous folk and mail Australia wide. And the website has loads of tips for easy espaliering.
You see, despite our house being 100 years old on an acre of land, there wasn't a fruit tree on the place when we arrived. So each year I buy a few more trees so eventually, I'll be to give away baskets of fruit like this one here, that a friend delivered to me recently. And that really will be magical.

Blessed Autumn

My favourite time of year (does anyone really like February?). The valley is looking pale and dry and parched. But March is here. Hooray! Hopefully we're over the worst of the heat and can look forward to the autumn rains. And more harvesting in the garden.

Here is a funny patch. We are in the middle of landscaping this part of our garden. We want some retaining walls built when time and money allows. In the meantime, I planted things in this patch in attempt to keep the weeds down. And yes dear reader, it may look like a weedy mess, but actually, hidden amongst there, growing like crazy are pumpkins, potatoes, rocket, tomatoes and Italian parsley. There's also a huge strawberry patch and a tiny baby crab apple tree. I think it all comes together to create a beautiful delicious mess. We're looking forward to the autumn harvest.

Up the back, you can just make out the top of a tee pee. Because all the cool gardens have a tee pee don't they?

More tales from the garden.

Look at this idyllic verandah. This is the very first house we rented when we moved to southern Tasmania. It was in a small village on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. An old farmhouse on six acres with cottage gardens, creek, paddocks with grazing belties, apricot orchard and a beautiful old willow tree with obligatory tyre swing. Sadly, we only had a short time at this lovely cottage, in between old and new owners. But it did give us brown thumbed city slickers the chance to cut our teeth on looking after a big garden. I had never pruned a fruit tree in my life and got to hone my skills on on a whole orchard, whilst four months pregnant, (hope they're still alive!) and the massive cottage garden beds gave us plenty of practice in weeding. And seed saving. The garden was home to a massive amount of colourful spires of Russell Lupins. And I saved the seeds in brown paper bags and took them with me when we moved.
And here they today are in my garden, planted two years ago and at last showing their magnificent towering blooms. I sowed the seeds, watered and weeded the seedlings and built ugly wire contraptions over them so the rabbits wouldn't eat the little green leaves. Now looking gorgeous, not only am I amazed that I actually grew them, they also remind me of very special times at a very special place. Isn't that something?

A new mountain to climb

A massive load of sawdust from a local mill arrived to be used as mulch for the garden. Who knew it would provide hours of fun. It's been fun to watch the joy on their sweet little faces. Climb to to the top.

Soar through the air.

Soft landing.

Erm, just one problem. When ever I attempt to fill the wheelbarrow from the mountain, I'm met with hysterical cries of "don't wreck our mountain mama!" Oh dear...