Gardening and Research

Autumn is such lovely gardening weather. I have much to do.

The gardenias are getting a few yellow leaves.
I'm wondering if the flowering camellias nearby are leaching some of
their nutrients. I'll try digging in some cow manure and dynamic
lifter and see how it goes. If that fails, I'll do the quick fix and
add some Epsom salts to give them a dose of magnesium sulfate. I don't
want to do that as a first option in case it mucks up the soil
balance.

I really enjoyed pruning the hydrangeas.
The garden bed down the side of the house now looks like I'm growing a
bunch of sticks with fat green promising buds. Some beds are pink and
some are blue. I'm not sure if I have to keep adding that stuff to
change the soil's acidity each year to maintain this effect.

I'm planting bulbs this weekend for a colourful Spring display come September.
I bought daffodils (they're so cute and happy), grape hyacinths for
the scent, and a heap of colourful St Brigid anemones.

My geranium cuttings have done so well.
I couldn't believe it when one of the cuttings started flowering one
week after being planted. Poster red. Looks great. Those things are
amazing and do really well in our dry climate. Little troupers, they
are.

As are lavender.
The row of Italian seedlings are coming along well. The row of French
lavender seems to be doing better - but I'm not sure why.

A few weeks ago, we put in a some Australian natives into the front
main garden bed.
I was wondering how they'd work in contrast to the glossy leaves of
the exotic camellias and gardenias there but I think they're looking
fine. I put some ground covering and low-growing grevillea, melaleuca,
fan flowers and native daisies to help prevent weeds, and also a NSW
Christmas bush next to the letterbox.

With the new lavender hedges trying to tie things together and the
colourful bulbs I'll be putting in, there'll be plenty of contrast
between the natives and exotics. We'll see if it all works!

I'm just trying to create that English cottage garden feel with an
Australian twist and the whole thing is supposed to look rambling and
colourful - it's not formal by any means so I hope it turns out and
doesn't just look messy.

The rain during March was great for the rainwater tank (those things
are excellent!) but not so good for the roses.
The aphids went away after I sprayed them with soapy, bicarb water and
I was keeping the black spot under control, but the low growing roses
in the main rose bed seem to have got a back attack of mildew from the
heavy rain in combination with the warm weather. I attempted to treat
them using non-chemical methods and have removed most of the infected
leaves but, like any good pharmacist, I know when it's important to
use the more heavy-duty stuff - I don't want them to die!

With the news today that the impact of the drought will lead to
souring vegetable and fruit prices, I'm keen to establish a veggie
garden.
I have pots with herbs on the balcony, but I'd like more variety.
Anyone have experience in this? I have a lot of land to spare behind
the pool, unfortunately it's not as sunny as the rest of the garden
because of the large trees growing around it, so I'm wondering how
well a veggie garden will do there. I don't want to do anything too
complex - just things like rocket, parsley, chilies, zucchini,
broccoli, potatoes, carrots, onions and maybe tomatoes (which I
remember growing with my Dad as a kid).

I quite like the area next to it - it's a rockery.
Because it's down the bottom of the garden, I put in all these little
plastic fairies under the plants there. (Yes, I like to amuse myself).

There's a weeping Japanese Maple there - it has such beautiful leaves.
I've always loved the scent of Lily of the Valley and was wondering if
it would be cool enough in Sydney's climate to grow these flowers
under this tree as it's the perfect spot for a park bench and how nice
would it be to have this shady, scented area to sit?

I pulled out the pink and purple petunias which have now gone to seed
from outside the front door. I replaced them with white pansies.
All-white is a very effective look. I think I'll stick to all one
colour with this row of annuals from now on.

Anyone have any gardening tips for me?
I'm pretty new to all this, but it's heaps of fun.

The weekend ahead will be quiet. I love quite weekends.

Apart from planting bulbs and treating the roses, I have to write an
abstract for a conference that I've been asked to speak at in China in
September.
I'm looking forward to it - it'll be my first presentation as Dr Jezzy.
But there's things to sought out - like my visa, writing the actual
presentation (which will require getting myself up-to-date in research
in my PhD area) and working out how to pay for it. (They're paying for
my registration and giving me another 500 euros, but it's nowhere near
enough to cover travel and accommodation and I hate my huge mortgage -
have I told you that? Yes, I have. A million times!).

I'm also going to meet up with my PhD supervisors in a couple of weeks.

Actually, scrap that.

I mean, I'm going to meetup with my research co-authors in a couple of
weeks (hehe) to write some papers for publication.

I haven't had anything published in a while (tis getting boring to
Google myself) and haven't been in the mood to write since I submitted
the thesis last year so it's going to take a lot of effort to get this
done while working full-time. Then again, I really shouldn't complain.
Most of you guy have kids. I don't.
Theroretically, it shouldn't matter that I work full-time and every
second Saturday. I should have plenty of time for publishing papers...