We skipped spring...

Blue Eyed Grass
(Sisyrinchium bellum)

... and went straight to summer! It's hot out in the garden this weekend, so Matt and I went out and did a few jobs, but didn't broil in the sun too much (reapply - reapply!)

On Saturday Matt turned the compost bin, taking out a few bucketfuls of good compost and spreading it around various plants. I did the same with the worm bin's contents, giving the Cordylines in the wine barrels at the front of the garden a hefty dose of goodness. They will either take off like rockets, or die smiling...

I noted that the lovely pink Dipogon lignosus (Australian Pea Vine) creeping around the wine barrels has been tidied up too - I think we have Dee to thank for that work, which appears to have been very carefully done. That vine is enthusiastic about covering anything within reach - great for the arch, not so great for the surrounding plants.

Back slope prep

Next Matt cut back the floppy leaves on the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) which is as usual going berserk and leaning on everything around it in a desperate bid to take over the universe.

Emily had bought another fabulous Cussonia for the garden recently, C. paniculata, and I planted that in the middle back bed after weeding out some non-performing daylilies and trimming back some lavenders and rosemary to make room. This brings our Cussonia species count to three, which I think is excellent as they are such a cool and unusual small tree.

Today we marked off and weeded the currently inaccessible back slope so that Ron from Iron Maverick could get in and create the terraces.

Hope he can start that soon: the area is treacherous, and I have a lot of nice cacti and agaves that would love to grow in that spot, where it's seriously hot and dry most of the year.

Tidy Tips in action

After that, we planted three lavanders in the lavender hedge and watered them in. The Tidy Tips (Layia platyglossa) seeds we planted way back in December 2009 are flowering now - very cute little native annual daisy. Another lovely native currently in flower in the middle back bed is the Blue Eyed Grass

(Sisyrinchium bellum) - what a charmer.

Lastly I watered the newly planted plants and fed the worms in the worm bin some fennel - hope they like that, because that's one weed I'd love to see go extinct in the garden!