Happy Easter - 2014 updating

Happy Easter!

Long live the Easter Bunny and all who hunt his/her Eggs!
Long time, no blog. Lots of things happened in the past few months, mostly good things... some annoying things, others just part of life. We are entering into another Autumn, and I cant believe we are almost half way through 2014. The time just flies.

The garden has suffered in the past few months, lots of water, not enough time to do the weeding, and a lot of self sown natives. Ive taken to potting up the natives, and have managed to catch some of the seeds from the new varieties. I have pink larkspur and tall blue delphiniums, Flanders poppy,and a few others on the way this year. Mexican sunflowers and cerise and pink cosmos drifts are still flowering in this mad wet Autumn weather where floods are the major hassle at present... So much water on the ground here in Christchurch, especially where the red zone houses have been removed.

Still planting - I have a good crop of Kale (Red Russian) and Broccoli (Waltham) growing this Autumn. The cuttings I have taken from the berry bushes are in position, hopefully their energies are growing sturdy roots under the ground. The separating of the rhubarb went well, and I have around six new plants to pot up for sale eventually. The lettuce we have growing to seed are an oakleaf that has red edges, but is crunchy and greeny-brown, and some of the heirloom Freckles, which is green and cos-type. It has been our stop gap while the Buttercrunch and the Austrian Greenleaf take a rest...

Strawberry (Chandler) still prolific even in Autumn!

Blue borage has spread throughout making a fine display of bees on the very limited fine days, and the calendula sprout whenever the wind takes them... I love the nasturtium that have decided to wind their way through the pea straw amongst the last of the tomato plants... Ive just taken out the grey crown pumpkins that lasted once the landlord went through with the whacker to clear the side garden. We got two plants out of 17 but they werent nearly as good as they have been, despite being hand pollinated this year.

Ive planted out my beautiful Christmas pot that my son Gee gave me.
I put the purple ruffled petunias in it, and in the middle planted a Lavender (grosso) that has just had a wee trim to keep it tidy.
It looks lovely!
The new pots I got this weekend for Easter are a green glaze that has trickles down the side... so Im thinking of some ideas to plant out in them...

This is our new baby - well, not ours. But he lives with us at the moment, and we love him!~ Brutus is almost six months old, and is about five times the size of what he was at Christmas. He is a bull mastiff X anatolian shepherd and his mother is huge! Im thinking although he has almost grown into his paws, he still has extra skin everywhere else, and he very long! Hes a very gentle, proud dog who loves cuddles and is motivated purely by FOOD. Its so nice to have somebody to walk with, even in the rain!

So thats it from me for now,
Im hoping to get back to blogging a little more regularly than once in a blue moon :)
Take care
XX