Impatience and Hydrangeas

I cheated. I bought the worlds biggest hydrangea bush on the weekend. 

I've been watering and caring for my little mail order seedlings all autumn and they've barely grown. And my two transplants from last year are not doing so great either. So when I spotted this gigantic beauty in the nursery at Capalaba Produce where I was meant to be fetching chicken feed - I gave in to all notions of being patient and just bit the bullet and bought it.

And I knew exactly where to put it - this ratty looking garden bed gets morning sun and afternoon shade which suits hydrangeas perfectly.

Mr Tchotchke loves lending a hand in the garden

Wa - lah! Who doesn't love a before and after shot? I topped up the bed with lots of organic sugarcane mulch to help it retain moisture.

It's so fluffy! I'm sorely tempted to lop off a few blooms to bring inside. I think I'll give it a few days to settle in.

At first I felt a bit guilty for giving in to temptation and not sticking it out with my seedlings - plus it was the single most expensive plant I've ever purchased. But I figured it could be an early Christmas pressie to myself - and it was just as much as a few bunches of flowers and would provide me with far more enjoyment. Let's hope I can keep it alive until next year!

Summer already?

We're still a few weeks early - but it feels like summer is already here.

What's new in the garden? We've finally got some passionfruit growing.

We planted the vine almost two years ago and its sustained a few possum attacks but it just kept bouncing back. I love the passionfruit flowers - they're so crazy looking.

I've had a runty little hydrangea on this transplant.

And corn! That's a first too.

And our cauliflower is staring to do something. I think its trying to make a cauliflower. But who really knows. Its been in the patch since the beginning of winter not doing terribly much but I've left it there because it looks pretty impressive.

I always thought it was a winter vegetable - but it seems these summer days is getting it hot under the collar.

I'll Take Your Hydrangeas, Madonna

I've written here before about my love of hydrangeas, and I'm an old school Madonna tragic - so of course I was distraught to discover the below video.

Although this video that Madge herself posted yesterday in response kinda makes up for having such terrible taste in flowers.

The Garden

I'd given up hope on this hydrangea plant in the backyard - but look at the shoots that its sending up out of the dead base.

This flower took me by surprise too - before we went overseas last year I'd scattered some seeds and was kind of dismayed when none of them had sprung up on our return. Little did I know that this little gem would pop up four months later.

I started this corn from seed back in January - it's been pretty slow progress since then - I don't think that patch of soil is the greatest. The last dregs of the cucumber vine are in the background.

Ditto with the below pumpkin (right hand side).

Don't you love how our grape vine lives in its own little prison cell? This is for possum protection (though to be honest they've gotten through it in the past).