Notes on an Aussie garden at Christmas.

Unlike Christmas in the northern hemisphere, Christmas for us is the height of summer. It is the time to have our meals outside as often as possible, time for warm evenings to stretch an evening meal in to darkness, before switching on the garden lights..

The BBQ on the right near the fence –

Table ready for a group of friends on Australia Day earlier this year.

 Frangipanis with their distinct perfume is on one of my favourite flowers. We have both yellow and red flowering frangipanis.

I think the yellow has a stronger perfume.

Cumquats in flower and if the wind allows we will have enough for a batch of marmalade – nice and sour.

Down the side of the house we have a herb garden -chillies of course because I love them, try them in an omelette or mixed in scrambled eggs.

We used to have several different varieties of chillies, from very hot to a more civilised ‘hot’, but now we just have the one kind (Birds Eye I think they are called, which has nothing to do with the frozen food company). They seed themselves – one less job  . . . If the crop is too large we just freeze them whole and they last for years. Chillies are easy to grow in our climate, as are most herbs.

The palm trees are not mine –

Maureen is very keen on her herb garden – the European mint spreads so quickly we have to cut it down to keep it in check.
Parsley needs looking after due to the bugs, rosemary has to be cut back because it grows so much, lemongrass has to be chopped back in winter and it springs back (in the spring of course  . . .old jokes) , basil likes the heat and plenty of water, we also have Thai basil which has a different taste with its hint of licorice.

The Vietnamese mint needs a little looking after, which has a different taste than European mint, oregano is enclosed to keep it in check, French tarragon is nursed a little, sage is under the lime tree and ‘protected’ by the tree, and the tree at the end is a lime tree.

Limes are coming along fine, but stink buds need to be kept in check.

I used to pick the stink buds of by hand and drop them in to kero  – but I always used gloves because they give off a liquid (defense mechanism) that STINKS and the liquid dyes the hand orange / yellow and it will not come off, regardless of the amount of scrubbing and the use of soap or white spirit. It does eventually come off after a few days only because one grows new skin.

Just because it is 30 c during the day doesn’t stop it from snowing just in time for Santa. This not my house.

and if you can’t find snow perhaps sand will do . . .

A Very Happy Christmas and a safe and healthy 2017.