Thunderstruck

Hello again blogosphere! You’ll have to forgive my absence for the past few weeks but the title of this post has a double meaning. First I have spent the last month in a daze from minimal sleep and frenetic study as my first year at Plant School comes to a close. What a year it has been! I’ve had tests and specimen ids for every subject, as well as our major assignments for the year due in the last couple of weeks. Thanks heavens that’s over. Interesting how studying horticulture means spending less time in the garden.

The more exciting news is that the Spring thunderstorms arrived! We’ve had so much rain in the past two months that for the first time in seven years (!) we’ve been taken off water restrictions here in Canberra. This means we can use wash our cars, fill pools and use sprinklers again. The truly amazing thing about this rain is that its been been heavy, soaking deeply into the parched soil and packed full of atmospheric Nitrogen, a precious gift from the lightening. Its effect is truly miraculous! I could irrigate for weeks without getting the kind of response I’ve had in the few days after the recent thunderstorms. The garden has exploded in new growth and I’m seeing some plants flower that I’ve been waiting anxiously for, like my lilac and smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria).

Everyone has commented on the smoke bush – its quite uncommon in the region and possibly in Australia – I think I’ve only ever seen them overseas. It has ethereal sprays of flowers like clouds of pink smoke and it stands out unlike anything else in my garden. Better yet, it also has wonderful Autumn colour. Its a spectacular plant all round and well worth planting I feel.

Every year it surprises me how far I’ve come from when I first began this garden. See My Garden Transformation for some old photos. My aim is for our house to be hidden by foliage from the street and I think its slowly getting there.
My backyard has also had a major growth spurt that was most welcome after I planted my tomatoes too early. They struggled along for some time until it really warmed up and now they’re racing up their frame. I sent some photos to my mother recently and she commented that my back yard looked like it belonged in the 1970′s television show “The Good Life” starring Felicity Kendall. I think it’s because its a useful space and I’m growing so much of my own food in it. I’ve recently encroached on the paved area near the house with half wine barrels filled with herbs and a lemon tree we got for Christmas last year. Its very handy actually as they’re near the back door where I can access them, barefoot from the kitchen.
My peach tree is covered in peaches which this year I have been judiciously thinning to make sure they can grow to full size. Last year was a dead loss, as I ended up with around a million rock-hard, green fruits the size of pingpong balls. I quite like the idea of being likened to Felicity’s character Barbara despite the countless gardening disasters that were always occurring on that program, but then again perhaps that isn’t that so distant from my world either!