Gold for Heidi, and purple for Debra!
The last of our sunflowers, self-sown from chicken feed…
The corn flowers have formed packets of pollen, which dusts the silks of neighbouring plants in a fine powder…
…a process necessary to ensure the cobs grow!
Zucchini flowers are the most amazing golden yellow…
..whereas cucumber flowers are lighter and most pastel-toned.
The last of the nasturtiums for this season, although there are a squillion seeds in the bed for next year…
. . . . .
There was a surprising amount of purple in our garden, including several eggplants…
…with beautiful pale violet flowers.
Our dwarf nectarine tree is promising a small crop of decent-sized fruit.
I made an attempt at macro photography, although my camera really isn’t up to it..
The last red cabbage, for now…
…but the next batch of seedlings are well on their way!
Our blueberry may still be in a pot, but it’s giving us a few berries to munch on every week. For some reason I always thought these were a cold climate plant, but it’s doing very well here in Sydney…
The lucerne we planted for the chooks is flowering…
…as are the hydrangeas in the front yard. This plant might be older than we are – it was already well established when we moved in twenty years ago!
Lastly, these dainty little borage flowers – also planted for the chickens. Aren’t they sweet?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wow. How far along everything is! Blueberries already. Seems almost impossible when I look out at my New England yard and see the dead grass, the brown leaves, the coming chill. Your pictures make my heart sing.
Thank you very much for the purple! I love all of the photos.
I LOVE this post!
It is snowing lightly here today- temps overnight in the 20’s- and then I come to your flourishing and verdant gardens to fill up my senses with greenery and regal golds and purples!
Thanks, Celia!
Ohhh. My cabbage was eaten up this year (of course that feels like a century ago, what with it being a chilly winter day here – at, or below freezing).
Borage flowers are delicious just don’t eat the hairy outside leaves, the bees will love them if the chickens leave any…
Here it is -3 C plus windchill – and I have almost reached a state of total torpor – the frozen wastelands have eaten poodle no 2’s ringie toy, swept away on an arctic wind into the ivy clad trees –
but home safe again and it’s time for tea and a bought lebkuchen, the squishy heart shaped ones with gingerbread with a dab of jam in the middle and zartbitter chocolate on the outside…and nurse my frozen fingertips on the sides of the moomin mug – ah pity me… the moaning Pom :)
Watch out for that sneaky borage – its secret goal is to take over your entire garden. My neighbor gave me some seeds but she didn’t tell me anything else about the plant – when I asked her how she cooked or ate it (to me, it’s nasty), she replied, “Oh, I don’t eat it, I just like the flowers.” She has now told me she is trying to get rid of it, but not successfully.
The photos of the plants are great – so bright and lively. Do you or does anyone else plant anything for dogs? My dog eats some kind of weed and I thought maybe something planted just for him would be a good idea. Any suggestions?
Thank you all, I’m especially happy that the photos brought some cheer to those of you in the cold right now. Almost all of you posted lovely photos of your gardens when we were in the midst of dreary winter, just trying to set up our fledgling beds – if it hadn’t been for your inspiration, we might not have persevered, so I’m delighted to be able to reciprocate. :)
Doc, thanks for the warning on the borage! Jo, we weren’t planning to eat it, but the chooks adore it!
Patricia, I’m sorry, I have no idea what dogs eat, but maybe Jo or Sally might have some insight?
Borage is full of GLA, no wonder chooks love it, very good for them and if they eat all the flowers it won’t self-seed, we have it popping up from time to time, but it’s quite easy to spot and pull up if it’s somewhere you don’t like; a weed is only a plant in the wrong place. Seeing the goldfinches on the old seedheads of the verbena this last week really made the point to me that a too-tidy garden doesn’t benefit everyone who uses it! I’ll send you a pic!
I don’t plant for the dogs though! They eat grass for emetic purposes and there are many things you actively don’t want a dog to eat – i.e. daffs, lily of the valley, and others, just like little kids, which can kill them. So I don’t plant for them to go and graze at all and when we developed the garden we put no bulbs in the first year when Zeb was a pup just in case he was a digger.
Celia your garden looks so good. Everything so green and lush.
I thought my blueberries were going to cough up a few berries ages ago, but they seem to have stalled and are just hanging on for dear life. My gentle coaxing to start turning blue have fallen on deaf ears…Come on little ones you can do it!
ps. your eggplants look decidedly tasty too.
I’m also cheered by the beautiful
Spring garden – or are you technically in Summer as you don’t change on the solstice ? I can’t believe how much you have growing in your garden.
Purple is my favourite colour. I only plant purple and blue flowers in the yard and I have about 6 shades of blue agagpanthus that flower about Christmas. Your garden looks lovely as always! Has the rain caused you any trouble or have you managed to avoid the worst of it?
You garden is gorgeous. It’s wonderful to know that all of that can be created in just a few months.
I can’t imagine how excited you must get harvesting all your wonderful produce.
I get excited picking a few cherry tomatoes from my little pot!
When I have a house I’ll be coming to you for all your garden set up tips and tricks!
Celia you can eat borage flowers – just pinch the flower out of its hairy sepal. They’re a mild cucumbery taste, quite nice but they say you eat with your eyes as much as your taste buds, and they look so gorgeous decorating a salad (especially with golden nasturtiums) There is an old saying “borage for courage”, so reputedly they have some herbal medicinal features. They do self seed really readily and I guess that would be a problem if you let them, but I haven’t found them taking over – they are annuals and quite easy to pull out or cut before seeding if they get out of hand. I love your garden photos. Those eggplants!!!
It just seemed like yesterday you planted those awesome sunflowers Celia, I know they grow quick but……!!??
Beautiful photos lady :)
Some beautiful photo’s, Celia. Like InTolerantChef, I prefer shades of blues and purples in the garden and the bees just love it! Your hydrangeas look fantastic, too – mine start out well, but the blazing sun at the height of summer usually does for them pretty early in the season. :-(
As Linda says, borage flowers can be eaten – they are often used as edible garnish.
Ah what a sight for sore eyes your garden is Celia! Our back yard is just a moonscape/quagmire (rained heavily yesterday) as we rip up the concrete, dig trenches (to pipe in all the new gutters to the new rainwater tank) and wait for paving to be done so we can live without huge clouds of dust over everything! It will be like starting from scratch here once it’s all over (the only part of the garden untouched is the veggie bed and that is sorely untouched). Maybe next year I’ll be able to share some photos back with you :)
Celia, it is always such a delight reading your posts. :-)
Hydrangeas remind me of my Nana – she had (what seemed to me at the time) the biggest beds of them in her front yard and they always looked so perfect.
:-) Mandy
I am very impressed that you managed to get some blueberries out of your little plant. Mine died without ever fruiting. I must try again. Sam loves blueberries.
Brydie, thank you – there are only a few blueberries each day, but it’s lovely nonetheless! :)
Anna, technically summer here, as of two days ago! Glad you’re enjoying the photos!
Chef, Amanda, thank you – I adore blues and purples in the garden too, although all of ours are now there by chance – we didn’t actually plant anything for the colour! Chef, the rain has been a bugger – tomatoes splitting and everything a little waterlogged. But on the upside, the watertanks are full, and we’re ready for a hot summer, should it ever arrive! You’ll laugh – every time it rains, I nag Pete to bring the chooks inside – he keeps saying all that will happen is they’ll crap everywhere! :)
Claire, don’t wait for a house, get a copy of Linda’s book and start reading – if nothing else, it might help you when you’re looking for a place to know what sort of backyard would work best! And it really has been surprisingly quick! :)
Linda, thank you for the tip re the borage flowers – we weren’t planning to eat them, but given that you, Joanna and Amanda have all commented on how delicious they are, we might have to reconsider! :)
Anna, thanks love! :)
Sarah, I’ll look forward to that – hope the renos are nearing completion for you!
Mandy, thank you – the hydrangeas are such an old fashioned flower, aren’t they?
SG, aaah, but you grew raspberries in a pot in Sydney! That’s the ultimate triumph, I think! :)
What a rainbow of goodies you have in your garden! And just randomly, are yellow ladybirds very different to red ones apart from their colour?
Beautiful colours! I love it when sunflowers self seed from the chook grain. Your eggplant flower looks a lot like one of our potato flowers, which would make sense as they belong to the same family. Our borage is flowering too..so pretty!
Do you ever change the colour of your hydrangea with acid or alkaline applications? I think it would be fun to try someday! :)
Your photos are beautiful and have me yearning for summer. I now can relate to how you must have felt during the winter when our summer photos were posted. My sunflowers are now brown and dead but the birds are having a wonderful time feeding on the seeds of the dead heads.
It’s lovely to see all these glorious colours when we are currently bogged down in grey. It can be very hard, sometimes, at this time of year to believe we can get colour back. Having said that, I actually do like winter – perfect excuse to eat lots of comfort foods :)
Lorraine, I really don’t know! Until we had a garden, I’ve never paid any attention to the ladybirds before. Maybe someone else here knows?
Chris, thank you – I’ve never tried to change the colour of the hydrangeas, I adore them in bluish purple. I’m scared if I try they might not change back! :)
Cindy, your gorgeous photos kept me inspired – it’s nice to be able to offer you a sunflower in return when you’re in the middle of winter! :)
Choc, I thought of you a couple of days ago when we harvested our slightly pathetic garlic. It never quite gets cold enough here, but we still managed to grow some! :)
Wow everything looks amazing! I have started a vegetable patch at home, so we will see how that goes, although the dog has already dug up the zucchini plants :(
the lady beetle is so cute!
Wow!! Your garden’s just amazing! Can’t wait for more garden updates. Canberra has been raining like crazy the past 2 weeks and only my tomatoes and potatoes are loving it. The rest of the plants seem quite unhappy with all the rain and cold weather…8(
Susan, thank you! Good luck with the veg patch! :)
Betty, she really was so cute. We have the an amazing array of predators at the moment – dragonflies, wasps, jumping spiders. I’m not fast enough to catch any of the others in a photo!
Soy, the rain’s been playing havoc here too – our tomatoes are being eaten a bit by bugs, but we’ve grown so many that we’re still getting some. Warm weather is on its way – we’ve been getting warmer just these last few days!