growth

Growing in large pots along the back fence are cucumbers, chillies, watermelon, climbing beans and tomatoes. The cucumbers are producing, rats have eaten the tomato stems, the watermelons want more heat and the beans are doing nothing. The chillies are taking off since I moved them from a less sunny spot.

Above them on a trellis is a pandorea jasminoides in full pink and red-throated flower and against the house is a metal compost tumbler half-full of rich black decomposition. A rampant lemon tree fills the corner near the tiny deck by the back door.

Under the lemon are broccoli, leeks and zucchini, and two baskets of basil dangle from the branches. And against the deck battens are pots of garlic and plain chives, basil, and marjoram. The oregano, lemon grass, thyme and rosemary are planted in the garden around the corner.

Two vegie boxes house green mignonette lettuces, French beans, self-seeded cherry tomatoes, beetroot, carrots and some capsicums struggling back to life after ravaging by rats or possums. The coriander didn’t make it.

Two lime trees—the Kaffir is rollicking along—line the side fence, along with a grafted apple tree. The other apple tree is espaliered on the back fence but mostly billowing high above it. In my new vegie bed are more capsicums and broccoli, cos lettuces and onions. Basil and parsley grown from seed occupy a sunny nook near the carport.

Off the back of the carport is a new garden with small flowering natives—brachyscomes, paper daisies, a running postman (kennedia prostrata) and others whose names escape me. Another lime is in the middle of the plot and a blood-red bougainvillea and a deep pink mandevilla are twining their ways up netting tacked on the back of the carport.

In a sop to my affection for the flowering windowsills of France I have gaudy petunias cascading down the back steps and hanging in baskets on the side of the carport. A few more are planted out around the garden. The midnight violet and the smoky-blue with networks of purple veins are my favourites.

One large central space remains to be converted from turf to vegetable patch. More brick paths need laying. The sandy hydrophobic soil needs bags and bags of manure and compost. And all of it needs the daily attention I happily give it—pulling a few weeds here, pruning off dead bits, sweeping, watering and refurbishing the pots after their produce is spent.

     

Rock on.