Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

 

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.’

I thought I might surprise  you with a follow up on our garden now that we have been in our new home for 10 months. It’s  amazing how fast this time has gone! Our garden has been growing for about 9 months and has now gone through a winter, a spring and a hot Perth summer and I am happy to say it has not only survived but it is flourishing.
Our experimental vertical garden is probably the most satisfying of all because I see it frequently  through the day and it is the thing that ‘all’ and I mean all our visitors comment on and admire.

It is still an experiment and I like the fact that we will be continuing  to learn about it and change and adapt plants, watering, soils etc. as it grows. One of the main changes to the vertical garden  was to plant some annuals or potted colour in about 1/3 of the pots – this has had a huge visual impact as you look out from the kitchen window to see all these beautiful  brightly coloured blooms. We planted a combination of petunias, lobelias, gazanias (South African daisy). We have also planted about 1/2 the pots with a variety of herbs such as  thyme, mint, parsley and chamomile and these are all growing well and are keeping our little kitchen well stocked with fresh herbs. We then have a mix of hanging geraniums, creepers, succulents etc.  (all on a trial basis).  I highly recommend  having a go at a green wall but do be prepared to look after it and be prepared to change your plants..

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The other huge delight in the garden has been the succulents that were planted in the front  driveway raised beds – these have thrived. They look absolutely  stunning  in flower and the birds just love them, which was something we never counted on so this a bonus :).

The plants around the pool are filling in and there is a very relaxed tropical feel to the area.

The strelitzia birds of paradise are currently flowering and look stunning with their bright orange and purple blooms. I did add some more colour to the area by under planting with crotons and begonias and these are also thriving in the shade area and look very pretty.

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The two citrus trees, which we  recently  discovered  are both limes are growing so well that we have had to prune them several times. We are continuing  to harvest limes on a daily basis -exactly what we had hoped for.

Our Viburnum  hedging is coming along in leaps and bounds and I have my fingers crossed that by next summer most of the side fence will be a beautiful  lush green hedge.

You might notice a new addition to the garden in the above photo – we have planted a Eureka lemon and so I am looking forward to the arrival of juicy home grown lemons soon.

The Crepe Myrtle specimen tree at the front entrance is really the only plant that has struggled. Unfortunately  we realised little too late that it was battling along and so it got quite stressed with the wind and very hot weather. We have given it quite a bit of tlc over the last month and I’m  relieved to see some new green growth and it has recently started flowering – the blossom is white which was a very pleasant surprise as we didn’t know what colour we had.  They are such beautiful  trees and I am really hoping ours will tolerate the harsh coastal conditions.  It has managed to get through a very hot summer and is now looking a lot healthier so keeping my fingers crossed.

We are thoroughly enjoying our garden and we spend a lot of time relaxing in this beautiful space. The local birds are frequent visitors which is something we hoping to achieve when were planning our garden. We are looking forward to watching our garden continue to grow 🙂