Who knew?!?

I got two pots of these for Mothers Day - and now its August and not only are they still alive but still flowering!!! Amazing in my house. Sitting on the window sill near the sink means these little lovelies actually get a drink!

Dirt under fingernails

A relaxing sunday morning, I was browsing the blogs, and I stumbled on a link - I cant remember where sorry, to this tutorial of How to make plant pots from newspaper. Alexander and I had a bit of a production, with the idea that we would raise some seeds.
Unfortunately we needed some seed raising soil - our dirt just wont cut it. We had a lovely time wandering the nursery and came home with a few succulents - and we didn't forget the soil. However, we did repurpose the pots and they are now growing a recently split up succulent - in preparation for christmas...

Now we just need to make some more to grow our seeds. Maybe we will just use the toilet rolls I have been saving for a rainy day....

A bit of gardening...

I was born with black thumbs. Not literally, but in the gardening sense. I am trying to change this but I just loose interest. We have a vegie patch which is growing well and the frangipanis which are amazing for Melbourne are all going well- but that is about it. The rest of our yard is square grass - or weeds!

Since we have been building the garden has got even less attention but I was moved to action today. Well, I had to really. I love hydrangeas. My nana's driveway used to be overflowing with the dark green bushes that were always exploding with colour. She used to have pink and blue ones growing together. I think she even had a white one. I usually kill them but now we have a nice cool area where they should thrive.

My aunt lovingly raised some cuttings for me and they have been sitting derelict on our front porch for about 2 weeks. I had tripped over a pot again on my way in - so they were going into the ground. The boys had a good play and I did some serious weeding - with a shovel!

Here are the before photos and some action shots by A. There is still a bit to do, but all 12 plants are in the soil and there is an edged garden bed in here! Still a work in progess but we are getting there....