Potting 'hippies' ...

Last wednesday I was fortunate to have been given the day off so I decided that it was time to divide my hippieastrums. When I sold my house in early 2004, I dug up the bulbs from the garden beds and brought them with me. I planted them in largish pots and each spring I get a lovely show of flowers.

I was thinking late last year that it these plants were really overdue for dividing up and re-potting. I read that the best time to do this is in autumn so put off the task until then. March came but I just didn't seem to get time so now that we're into April I realised that I shouldn't put it off any longer. I was amazed at how many bulbs there were in the first pot-ful that I divided up. I actually ran out of potting mixture so it will be a work in progress until I can buy some more potting soil. I'll have to wash out some more pots as well. I did plant the largest bulb in a garden bed. I did try to plant some bulbs next to the daylilies in another bed at the front...couldn't do as the ground was rock hard from all that rain so I have to get DH's help at some stage to work on that bed.

Six 'new' plants in pots and one in a garden bed...pretty good from one original bulb and I still have several more pots to divide up :-)

Any Brisbane and environs readers who would like some hippieastrum bulbs just let me know! I have lots!!!

A bit of help in the garden...

On Easter Saturday, DH and I spent the morning working in the garden. DH did a lot of tidying up of the front fence line which had become quite overgrown. I worked in the backyard clearing the weeds from a small vegie patch where I grew potatoes last year. The most prolific weed at this time of year is a creeper which has quite pretty blue flowers but it is most assuredly a pest! It belongs to the tradescantia family and is commonly called 'Wandering Jew' here in Australia and it's well known for  its ability to quickly cover an area and spread far and wide.

The major problem weed at this time of year

Then I started tackling digging over the garden bed and one patch of it had become rock hard. So I got the maddock out and dug away. Then DH came to lend a hand and he got the heavier pick and started attacking this rock hard section. Then we got out the cultivator which had been a Christmas gift given to me by my BIL and SIL.It worked a treat and we soon had the soil dug over.

Then it was time for some dolomite to help break up that clay and then I started shovelling compost out of the compost bin. The compost, plus a bag of manure then got spread on the garden bed. DH wanted to know whether I needed some help to spread some sugarcane mulch on top of all that.

But I wasn't planning to mulch until Monday because I have other helpers in my garden...and they arrived early this morning chortling happily in their inimitable way. The magpies always drop in to help if we dig over a garden bed. They pick over the soil and eat any curl grubs that may be in the soil or even in the homemade compost. They never let me down :-)