Finally, some gardening

We've had a lot of rain in the last few weeks and the garden is getting out of control. Better than the usual December dust bowl but we spent a happy few hours this morning chopping. Well, I spent a happy morning chopping, pruning, dead-heading and trimming ... my husband planted new things. We each work to our strengths. I like to see a wheelbarrow full of no-longer-living plant material. Is this wrong?



The roses have been beautiful this year so I'm carefully dead heading them to try and encourage them to keep flowering. They tend to go into shock when the real heat arrives, but so far so good. This orange one in particular has been gorgeous. I am in charge of dead heading and tip pruning because I have a System ... and if anyone criticises it I tell them it was taught to me by My Dear Departed Mother and she grew beautiful roses but feel free to tell me how I'm doing it wrong. That tends to end the conversation.



We also have a plum crop this year! First time for a few years. The king parrots and crimson rosellas like to work their way along the tree when it flowers, eating the blossoms. So we don't usually get fruit, but this year they must have forgotten about it and we have masses of plums. However the parrots are now having a go at them (one bite, then chuck it on the ground, they are such mongrels) so we're going to try and pick as much as we can, even if they're not perfectly ripe they'll ripen off the tree.



This is what is still left to plant. Someone (not me) has a certain fondness for ordering plants on-line and may, perhaps, sometimes, when left to himself, get a bit over enthusiastic. This is mostly pig face which we have had success with - beautiful carpets of flowers and we can't seem to kill it - always a plus.