Wettest winter in 50 years...

3 April 2018

...and cold, with it.

Well, that's officially a real winter, isn't it? J-M and the locals should be happy - they've been muttering darkly about the absence of real winter weather in recent years, which - they reckon - ruins the harvest in later months.

I guess they might know what they're talking about - they, or their forebears, have been growing things on this land for generations.

So, while we enjoyed the last sultry days of a protracted Sydney summer, La Fromagerie struggled through, dreaming of the benevolence of spring while fastidiously scraping mud from her boots.

John's photos are testament to the growth, and it is gratifying to see.

Since the latest batch of photos always brings on an attack of acute-on-chronic homesickness, I pore over every detail and, of course, want to see things that are inevitably and frustratingly just out of frame. I want to know how every last plant is doing - are there signs of life, buds, flowers, even? Or has the severity of winter cut an unforgiving swathe through all those tender parts?

Have the pink, white and cerise laurier roses (oleanders) grown; do they screen René's pink house a little more? Is the new white Buddleia OK? And what about the two new roses, alongside the dépendance? Has the glycine taken the hint and started to climb the oak frame of the porche?

And then there's my insect hotel - has it survived the punishing buffets of the winter wind?

The Photinia is looking good...

In the photo below, you can see that John has pruned back the hazelnut within an inch, or more accurately 150cm of its life. It's now dwarfed by the wild pear tree. Rumour has it that the vine has been pruned by J-M since the photo was taken ;)

For those of you with nothing better to do than indulge in a bit of armchair gardening, check out the reasonably perky rose and rather bedraggled hortensia in the foreground, and spot the glycine bud creeping around from behind the oak post...and the pink blossoms on the peach tree to the left.

Raymond's house is still à vendre and does not improve with the keeping, if I may say so....The gaura looks a bit winter weary, but the Buddleias and laurier roses are OK. Can't quite make out the dwarf rhododendron in the right foreground...
A $10 meat tray to the first person who notices the insect hotel. It's gratifying to see that it's still vertical, though possibly guest free. 

A random photo of the wild flowers - specifically, cowslip

The bâche is still lying where we left it, weighed down with stones and iron wheel rims. Hopefully, it has suppressed the growth of grass and weeds, so that preparing the herb garden will be easier this summer.

Les taupes s'amusent ;)

As for G, his main focus is 'his' prunier, a rather puny sapling when he planted it in September...

To all you fashionistas out there, I solemnly declare that the offending footwear remains in the garden at all times.  

...and there it is, on the left, valiantly holding its own. Hmm, not sure that it has grown at all, but hey, it's alive!

Next instalment - changes to the dépendance!