Climbing Spinach

Come in store and grab yourself some climbing spinach. This unusual spinach is a perennial making an ideal vegetable to have on standby  for when your regular spinach goe to seed.

Climbing Spinach is yummy in Stir frys, stews and salads.

Ornamental Pear Tree

 My newly planted Pyrus ussuriensis ( Manchurian Pear)

 The Tree 3 years on surrounded by perennials

Pyrus ussuriensis, or Manchurian Pear  are deciduous Trees that form a large shade canope through the warmer months. It is the perfect tree to shade a hot area and will drop its leaves in winter to let much needed light into your house and garden. I have positioned one in my garden in the far right ( pictured here) , it's a lovely specimen.  Manchurian Pears will tolerate a  hot sunny spot and they are available in many forms including the popular upright form "Capital", which are ideal for drive ways and used extensively as Street trees in the Murray Bridge area.

Image via absolutely beautiful things

My Summer Garden

 I was absolutely thrilled when I spotted my first frangipani flower this season. My two established plants didn't flower last year after a funny season with the weather.

 Succulents are easy to grow and have maximum effect in the garden with bold colours and forms. I have this dark purple one planted in Serenity's rust urns.

My Lantana plant grows like mad and needs a good trim back every so often to keep it controlled.

Tomato plants are planted in half kegs, provincial urns and any where there is room and enough sunlight.

One of the super cute pigs that I picked up at the nursery. This one was looking up at me saying "take me home" now I have three pigs.

Pretty white cottage

Box hedge, topiary and lush lawns surrounding a super cute white cottage. I die.

Image via Absolutely Beautiful Things

My experience with transplanting

Today I removed four buxus microphylla faulkner hedges  from my planter box. I have a  box hedge planted at the front of my cottage, bordering the paths and needed some more to finish the job. The box hedge in the planter box was becoming pot bound and the four plants came out together when I pulled them up. I then used a pruning saw to separate each one.

Once the box plants were separated I pruned the roots down to a more manageable size to re-plant. I used Plants Plus Groganic  ( An organic compost) to help improve the soil structure.

Once they were all planted I watered them in well with SeaGold Liquid kelp, a health tonic which distresses transplanted plants.

The Buxus Faulkner lines the pathways. This variety is particularly hardy to cold and heat and performs better then an English box. The buxus faulkner is available now in a variety of different sized pots.

Serenity Nursery Top Tip: Use a lawn fertiliser such us Neutrogs Sudden Impact for Lawns on leafy hedges like Buxus Faulkner or English box. It is organic based and high in nitrogen to help promote lots of leafy growth. It's a great product for lawns and all non-flowering plants.

Pictured here ( along the back) is my much loved Escallonia Iveyi hedge. I love it, It's an old fashioned plant but it has really dark green glossy leaves and stark white flowers through Spring and Summer. It is really hardy and will grow in full sun and coastal conditions. They can grow up to 3 meters, but at this stage I like to keep it about a meter tall. I give mine a really good drink of SeaGold Liguid kelp through prolonged summer heat waves.

Yes to Country Gardens

 I want a chook pen like this, it's a bit fancy. It looks so pretty surrounded by  roses and a cottage garden.

This is just perfect.

A driveway lined with London Plane trees, yes please.

Classic Whites

 Mum's standard rose surrounded by pink ground cover roses, agapanthus, a coprosma hedge and rock rose Cistus. A fuss free low maintenance garden..great for busy mums..

I don't think you can beat classic white Iceberg Roses, with their lush green foliage, ability to be stronger and more resilient than allot of roses. Teamed with a green box hedge white roses can look elegant and classy.

What to do with your flowering roses now:

Continue to dead head them through out the flowering months to help promote new flowers. Just cut the spent flowers back a bit more than just the bud or flower itself.

Fire star Rose

Fire star rose growing in front of Serenity Nursery's sandstone retainer wall.

Fire Star is a very special rose which was produced to remember the victims of the Victorian Black Saturday Fires. The story of fire Star is an unusual one in that most roses are produced from cuttings but this one was produced by seed. The rose is a solid peachy/ Orange fading to a raspberry as the rose ages. A must for all rose lovers and proceeds go the the CFA.



You are my Sunshine..

Our metal saying signs will make a quirky touch for a bedroom, living or kitchen wall. They are over a meter tall each so they would make statement in a row.

image via Serenity Nursery