Sunday 29 July 2012

Violets and Potatoes

Winter in Melbourne has been very cold, wet and grey and I know why people go travelling north.
However, if there is no Winter, there is no Spring and my husband says we need the rain for the flowers (the same one who makes money trees). I wandered out into the backyard last week when we had a nice sunny period and made some discoveries.  The violets under the plum tree are blooming away and I picked a bunch and took them inside.  Violets remind me of my grandmother and when my sister got married, we carried posies of violets which inhindsight were amazing.

The colour purple


I noticed that most of the peas and snow peas are up; I will fill in the holes when we get some sun.  The coriander and the self - sown dill are starting to move and the broad beans are doing well.  We are lucky with the dill as it grows wild.  I usually have a huge crop of self sown parsley too but it seems to be having a holiday this year; maybe it will appear when it warms up a little.  The cumquat tree is on strike as I have not had a crop for the last two seasons probably because I fed it; never again.  However the big suprise was the self sown potatoes.  We must have left a few potatoes in the round last year and they sprouted so I left them be. The frost damaged the plants so we dug them up and got quite a few Nicolas (my favourite potato) and some Royal Blue ones.  What a winter feast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More purple.



8 comments:

Mary said...

Glennis, all that positive thought about winter. I much prefer winter to summer. Apparently Melbourne is one of the few places in the world that has most of its rain in winter (probably it is Victoria, rather than Melbourne and we do get a lot of rain in spring too). It has been so long since we had decent rain it is still surprising.

Michelle said...

I love winter too! And those potatoes look YUMMY ;)

Glennis said...

Hi Mary
I prefer a bit of warmth. I know the rain is necessary, but i wish it would stop for a few days. Last year all the rain we had ruined my garlic which I didn't mention in my winter ramblings.

Glennis said...

Thanks Michelle
I love home grown spuds and will plant 2 crops soon; Nicholas and King Edwards. They will be ready about Christmas. Bought the wool for my tapestry today. Things are starting to happen.

Anonymous said...

Good to here the King Edwards will be ready by christmas. Should go well with lunch.

Glennis said...

Thanks for the comment anon. Hadn't thought about King Edwards for Christmas lunch; what a good idea.

Misha said...

When I was young in England, the violets came first and then the bluebells and crocuses. The violets had a very gentle and unique scent. Sometimes the friesias here remind me a little of those flowers.

Am settling back in after our northern trip - was remiss in communication - it was a very good break (with weaving - and your frame was very useful to do samples on - thank you) - warm, ahh, warm. And we are all brown and healthy (tho brown is frowned on these days!)
happy gardening - and weaving.

Glennis said...

Welcome back Misha to the cold;
however signs of Spring are about. I have a multitude of violets under the plum tree and about the same number of fresias in the front garden. I have just caught up with my "small" tapestry assigments and on Thursday hope to start my large tapestry. Glad the frame was of use.