BOOTS OFF MONDAY – Time to Garden

G’day everyone,

March has almost finished, and before we know it Easter will be here. It has been a very busy month and very little time has been spent in the garden, but I have recently been enjoying the cooler weather in the garden. Here are the top 5 highlights from the past week in my garden and out on the road.

1. My giant sunflower has started to collapse over the last few days. I have allowed the flower head to naturally dry out before cutting it off. In this flower head are hundreds upon hundreds of seeds, which I am currently trying to harvest. Once I have gathered all the seeds, I will store them in paper bags until the spring. Usually I like sowing the seeds in late September.

2. My Calibrachoa Blue Chimes is still in full flower and looking fantastic! These are a great perennial ground-cover for a hot sunny position in the garden. This variety grows to a height of 30cm and spreads to a span of 70cm, almost a meter wide. They are a great option for hanging baskets to liven up a patio area, during spring and summer when they are at their flowering best.

3. My mother discovered that the Geraniums in our garden were producing seeds. I admit I have never seen the seeds produced by a Geranium so I was pleasantly surprised. We have collected some of the seeds and sown them into the garden bed to see if anything germinates over the next few weeks.

4. Last Friday I went down to visit one of my favourite nurseries with the goal to pick out a few seeds and garlic cloves to plant out later this week. However, I always walk out with (many) plants and seeds that I wasn’t planning on purchasing. In this case I walk out with almost every variety of garlic, a bunch of seeds to sow now as winter crops, and a few plants. I will share with you all that I purchased in the next ‘Hanging in the Patch’ post. The gardens are always fun to explore and the plants have grown a lot since I was last there. I have written about the Digger’s Club a few times. Here is a link:

5. Today’s morning sky was quite beautiful, so I had to run and grab my camera to take a quick snap before heading off to work.

Can you spot the second rainbow in the photo?

 By Bonnie-Marie Hibbs

©BMHPhotographyTheGardener’sNotebook2015