My Garden Treasures Garden Blog - My Garden Treasures

Money Tree

13/7/2014

Do You have a Money Tree?

We all wish we had a money tree. How handy it would be.

You can grow your own money tree. They are very easy to grow but, alas, you cannot use their leaves to buy things.

The Money Tree is only one of the names given to this lovely plant, Crassula ovata. It is known by many other names:

Jade Plant
Friendship tree
Lucky Plant
Dollar plant

Crassula ovata, Money Plant, Jade Tree

The Chinese people use this plant in Feng Shui. Feng Shui is a system of energy that the Chinese people have worked out over thousands of years. It is beneficial to the energy of a place to have buildings facing a certain way, items in a house placed in certain positions in a room etc.

It is thought that there should be a Jade plant or Money tree at the front door of every home to make prosperity flow into a house.

The Money plant or Jade tree makes a great bonsai plant. A bonsai plant is kept to under one metre tall (3 feet). It is kept in a small flat pot to restrict its root system. It looks like a miniature plant.

I have a plant also called a Jade tree that my Mum started about 35 years ago. It has gone through dry times when it became stunted and thin, and well watered times when it looks luscious and green. You know how it is, people don't always know the correct name for their plant. It turns out the one I have is Crassula Portulacaria, also called Baby Jade or Elephant's Food or Elephant Bush. Apparently elephants liked to nibble on the tips of it. Of course it grew a lot bigger in its native Africa out in the wild.

Garden Near the Sea

6/7/2014

Flowers that grow well by the sea.

I live in a quiet seaside town that becomes a resort from mid November to April and some weekends in the off season as well. It is a beautiful part of the world with the sea from the Southern ocean just a seven minute walk away.

Our daytime temperature varies from about 6 degrees C to 14 degrees C in the winter, usually near the lower end, to 18 degrees to 42 degrees C in the summer, averaging about 30 degrees. We get very cold winds off the sea in the wintertime and it is a time to rug up. We have been having unseasonably warm weather of about 15 - 18 degrees C at the moment, as it is winter time in the southern hemisphere from June till August. Then spring comes along quickly.

Because our weather is not too cold in winter I always have a garden full of greenery with a few flowers showing themselves. At the moment we have the lovely Turk's cap with its bright red flowers. This has become a massive bush and flowers most of the time. Pretty white daisies are flowering as is a lovely hebe. This plant used to be called Veronica. Every now and then, scientists decide that a plant must now reside in another family. It's a bit like adoption. The plant is still the same old plant. Oh well.

There is also an odd geranium flowering, no pelargoniums at the moment. One lavender is showing its colour and there is a lovely strong succulent that is in full bloom. It is covered in bright white flowers.

The nasturtiums take over a large part of the garden this time of the year - winter. There are no flowers yet but their bright green round leaves are so lovely. The stem of the leaf comes out of the middle of the leaf. Our three year old granddaughter found that they looked like a top or an umbrella when she spun the leaf. The leaves are big and round, up to about fifteen cm (6inches) across. They look lovely in the morning as they hold the dew, or after a rain shower.

Insects in the Garden

18/6/2014

When I mention insects in the garden I bet you started to imagine all those creepy crawlies that you don't like.

ants
earwigs
mealybugs
wooly aphids
wasps
slaters
- harlequin beetles

Good Insects
Well, hang on a minute there. I was actually going to talk about all the good insects that can also inhabit your garden like

lacewings
hoverflies and
ladybugs

We seem to be always looking for ways to get rid of the bad bugs but just how do we get the good bugs? You just can't go out and buy a bucket load of them in the supermarket or garden centre.

Here's the secret. If you plant certain plants in your garden, they will attract the good bugs who will shoo away the bad bugs. How about that? Could it really be that easy?

Good Plants
Here's a list of these special plants. Search them out in your garden centre or mail order catalogue.
These plants will attract lacewings. Lacewings prey on aphids. Aphids attack your roses.

yarrow - Achillea millefolium
golden rod - Solidago virgaurea
chamomile - Chamaemelum nobile

These plants attract ladybugs.

yarrow - Achillea millefolium
calendula, also called pot marigolds - Calendula officinalis

These plants attract hoverflies

yarrow - Achillea millefolium
lovage - Levisticum officinale
dill - Anethum graveolens
sweet cicely - Myrrhis odoratum
fennel - Foeniculum officinale
golden rod - Solidago virgaurea
centaury - Centaurium erythraea

You can see from the lists above that your first purchase can be yarrow and golden rod. This will be a good start to attracting all these insects into your garden.

Happy gardening

Autumn in the Garden

15/5/2014

Here in southern Australia, autumn is a beautiful time. The weather is more stable. We experience lovely days and cool crisp nights. I like deciduous trees. I have an October Maple, another maple, two silver birches, a paper birch and some fruit trees. They are all in the process of colouring and dropping their leaves. Autumn leaves carpet the back yard - love them!

I just took these photos of my garden. Hope you like them.

Usually there are a lot more flowers in the garden but it is a bit empty this year.

A Hollyhock plant is growing well at the moment. Its leaves are about 15cm (6in) across. I am looking forward to some beautiful flowers there in spring.

Frogs in the garden

26/4/2014

Little Aussie brown garden frog come for an evening visit

I was heading out the back door to lock the chickens up for the night. It was already dark.

Just as I was about to take a step off the step I noticed something on the doormat. Sitting there quite calmly was a brown frog. He sat still while I went to get my camera, waited kindly until I had taken some photos, and in a flash, quicker than a blink, he was gone. He was so quick, I did not see him go, only heard the rustle of a sound as he jumped into the plants.

Frogs in the garden
I always like to see frogs in my garden because I know that the garden is healthy when this happens. The absence of frogs is one of the first signs to let us know when the land is sick.

Froggy Restaurant
Many years ago when we lived in another house we had frogs climb up on the windows in the evening. The bottom of the windows were about 120cm (4 feet) off the ground. When the lights were on in the evening, the insects were attracted to it. The frog thought this was a free for all and enjoyed climbing up the windows and having their fill.

When we were in China we were served a plate piled high with small mountain frogs. Not for me thank you!

China frog with beautiful mosaics on his back

The Crafty Frog
I was given this lovely frog that has had mosaics lovingly applied to it. He doesn't get outside much though. I'm afraid he might hop away.

Frogs in Literature
Frogs have featured in literature for hundreds of years. We have the famous story of The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm and the Chinese story of The Frog in the Well. Aesop, who was a great Greek teller of fables from long ago told of The Scorpion and the Frog. The Wind in the Willows is another famous English story by Kenneth Grahame that has become famous with Toad and other characters living at Toad Hall. A toad is a variety of frog.

In the Australian aboriginal history, the Dreamtime story of Tiddalick The Frog is an important and famous story.

Frogs in Music
Frogs are also remembered in music.

A Frog went Walking
A frog went walking on a summers day
A hum, a hum
A frog went walking on a summers day

He met Miss Mousey on the way
A hum, a hum, a hum, a hum, a hum. etc

See if you can find some frogs today.

Gardening at Easter

23/4/2014

Enjoying a day in the garden

It was busy and yet quiet at Easter this year. Some days were very busy and others were quiet.

On the quiet days I enjoyed pottering in the garden. It is Autumn time here on the south coast of Australia and the weather has been more stable. We had a week of light rain then a week of warmer weather and sunshine, just the weather to make plants grow.

I have been working on replanting a garden bed in the front yard. This bed faces south and so it gets pretty cold with icy southerly winds for six months of the year. The other six months of the year it gets baking hot. The soil gets so hard that it is impossible to get a spade into it.

I am not one to water my front garden much so the plants MUST be very hardy. There are a couple of roses that have lasted there for years, a daisy bush - can you actually kill daisy bushes? and some red valerian. That is so hardy. It has thick roots under the ground that nourish it whatever the weather.

It is a good time to plant bulbs so that they will be ready to flower in springtime. I had bought five big, plump, round hyacinth bulbs. They looked like purple onions. I am looking forward to the deep purple colour and the magnificent perfume in the future.

To get these bulbs ready for planting, I soaked them in water and homeopathic 'Plant Strengthener' for 24 hours along with a little hydrogen peroxide. These were then drained and left to sit for a couple of days. Tiny white roots started to emerge like a corona from the bottom of the bulbs.

I took a sheet of paper towel, dampened it, and sat the bulbs on it for another couple of days while I watched the roots growing.

Plant Strengthener is available here

Self Watering Pots
On one of the quiet days over Easter, the bulbs were planted in a self watering hanging basket. I just love self watering pots. The plant always has access to as much water as it wants yet doesn't get waterlogged. Air can still get in between the bottom of the soil and the water level. Also watering can be intermittent. They are good for the forgetful gardener.

Preparing the Soil
The soil was also especially prepared. I used the following:

potting mix
vermiculite
perlite
blood and bone
water saving granules
epsom salts

This was mixed up and the bulbs were layered into it. They were well watered and left to sit in a sheltered spot for a few days. They will find their new hanging space when they start popping out of the soil.

Encouraging Young Gardeners
One of the youngest members of our family, a little two year old, checks out some pots of bulbs each week when she comes to visit. She is so excited to see how they have grown each week. It's a great way to instil a love of gardening into the next generation.

Plant Strengthener is available here

Cécile Brunner, The Sweetheart Rose

19/3/2014

Here is a lovely rose growing in my garden.
It is flowering prolifically at the moment and I couldn't resist taking a video of it.

The Cécile Brunner rose is named after the lady who bred it 100 years ago.
It was so pretty and perfumed that it was also called The Sweetheart Rose.

It was a favourite in the gardens of our Grandmother's times.

More details below the video.

Enjoy

Height
The original rose grows about 1 metre (3ft) tall.
Mine is a tall variety growing 3-4 metres tall (9-12ft).

Flowering Time
The original rose flowers for a month in springtime.
The tall variety has many flushes of flowers throughout the year.

Varieties
Bush rose growing 1 metre tall - 3ft
Climbing variety
Tall variety growing 3-4 metres tall - 9-12ft

Climbing Roses and Good Neighbors

21/2/2014

Beautiful golden climbing rose

We are lucky to enjoy this lovely golden climbing rose. It belongs to our neighbor and overlooks our courtyard. It gives us hundreds of roses most of the year round.

Our lovely neighbor keeps the rose in trim and when he prunes on his side he comes and prunes on our side of the fence as well. What more could we ask for.

Even after this golden climbing rose has been trimmed it has a show of beautiful, deep red leaves as the new growth comes along. These are also spectacular.

He also has a lovely red rose that does not come through the lattice. Funny, that.

Garden Blossoms

30/1/2014

There is always something flowering in the garden. Throughout the hot summer weather with days reaching into the mid 40 degrees in temperature, only the hardiest flowers bloom.

Roses, yellow Evening Primrose and purple Lavender still bloom. Some orange Watsonia has been flowering but its leaves were hit in the 46 degree heat. Pelargoniums will always flower. There are lots of colours of these.

My Peace Lily has been moved out to a new covered courtyard and is settling in well. It has more elegant, white flowers than it has ever had. I think it likes the increased light.

My Begonia has had a severe trim and been moved outside in the courtyard also. It has responded with lots of pale orange waxy flowers.

Enjoy these flowers from my garden.

Pictured are Peach tree blossom, Wallflower, Kiss-me-quick - an old fashioned, self seeding flower and Senecio, White rose, Lobelia, Alogoyne - an Australian hibiscus, and yellow rose.

Next there comes a daisy, wattle, climbing rose and hot pink cyclamen.

Slugs and Snails in the Garden

4/12/2013

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Slugs and snails

And puppy-dogs' tails,

That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spiceAnd everything nice,

That's what little girls are made of.

(with thanks to Wikipedia)

Ruby, an Australian terrier

Leopard slug

Slugs and snails have been plentiful in my gardens over the years. The slug pictured above is called a Leopard slug because of the markings on its body and head. I first saw these slugs when they would visit the area where my little dog was fed each night. Ruby was a black and tan Australian Terrier.

These slugs lived under and around Ruby's kennel in the garden.

Dear, difficult little Ruby is no longer with us but we still have her kennel. It was put to use recently as a little coop for some chickens and their mother. They stayed warm and cosy in there.

However, one evening when I was feeding the chicks I saw one of these slugs again. Oh, so you are still around, I thought.

After the chicks moved out to a new and larger home, I turned the kennel over and found some Leopard slugs living under it.

Late last night, about 11.30pm, I was on my way to bed and decided to check on the chicks as it was drizzling rain. As I went outside with my little LED torch, there were three leopard slugs heading for the new chicken shed, charging across the damp grass.

These slugs were about 8-10cm long (3-4in). They can reach up to 20cm (8in) in length.

So today the kennel was removed further down the yard. It was turned on its side and the last I saw, our two fluffy silkie hens were eyeing off all the spiders, snails and slugs on its base.

When I went down the yard to put the hens away this evening, all the creatures were gone from the kennel.

Author

I love growing flowers in my garden and sometimes make Flower Essences from them. They have great healing properties. Chickens adorn my backyard and give me much pleasure too.

My garden is free range like my chickens, there is no order here. All plants get along happily together.

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