In My Kitchen, November 2024

 What an action packed month October was! It was Mr. HRK's birthday so we dined out twice in one day, and why not? During October we included some essential kitchen maintenance and reorganising, some cooking (of course) and food blogging, gardening, talking to our son and grandchildren each week in Montpellier, France, and catching up with our daughter and lovely friends. We also played some pickleball a few times a week and I wrote up a few articles about our Mackay Indoor Pickleball Club for the local free weekly newspaper. How did we ever find time to go out to work?

In My Kitchen - April 2021

 Welcome to In My Kitchen for April, 2021. It's still school holidays here, not that this affects me much, as we're not travelling and don't have children or grandchildren in town, however shopping centres and roads are a lot busier at this time of year, and thankfully the weather is cooling down. 

Winter Gardening in Tropical Mackay

Delicate Tropical orchids are bringing some bling to our garden at present. May and June seem to be the flowering season for Cattleya orchids and this beautiful Village Chief Armani is no exception. I bought this one two years ago from a local orchid grower, MnS Orchids, and it has surprised me with three beautiful blooms. It is a show stopper.

 This is a glimpse of Gardening Mackay during a tropical Winter, it's not quite Gardening Australia, however the weather has been so mild and beautiful that we have been spending quite a lot of time outdoors. Can this really be Winter? Minimum temperatures of 7 degrees last week, and maximums of 23 degrees had us reaching for our doonas at night however the days were perfect. It has warmed up slightly now, but it is still OK to be in the garden at midday. This is very different to our summer scenario when gardening and walking are over by 9am. 

I took time to wander around the garden with my camera and thought I would share with you some of the flowers and colorful plants I discovered which are the highlights at present. Some plants are dormant in Winter, however there are always flowers to be found somewhere in our garden. Whilst the individual flowers are nice to look at in photos, gardens are more than the sum of their parts and when appreciated as a whole, the colour, form, balance and structure of the garden come together to give each garden it's identity. This is a just a glimpse of our eclectic garden. Year round colour can be a challenge in gardens, however in the Tropics it's not difficult. I hope you enjoy a wander around our garden.

Meet Little Suzie, growing wild on the Golden Penda tree as she should be doing. She is a food loving and food lover's orchid, with the full name of Lc. Little Suzie x C. Chocolate Drop. I broke up this orchid at the end of last year and tied a couple of pieces to the tree as I was in a hurry to relocate it and she has flowered already. She is healthy and happy in her natural habitat. Orchids also respond very well to being fed finely chopped banana skins, believe it or not, and used coffee grinds. What's not to love.

Every tropical garden has a hibiscus tucked away somewhere. Ours is slightly dormant at present but I though this individual flower was quite spectacular.

Hibiscus

This one is the first purple Zygocactus in flower. It is in a hanging basket framed by some Button Orchid, which is somewhat of an epiphyte.

I brought back a Medinilla sp Thailand (below) from Cairns in May 2016. The Friends of the Botanical Gardens in Cairns hold regular fund raising plant sales where plants can be purchased at very reasonable prices. This one has just started flowering and grows well in a hanging basket. I have another different species of Medinilla growing in the ground which is still to flower. My friend and gardening guru Ann, asked me to bring her back a couple of Medinillas during the 2016 Cairns visit, and that is how I discovered them.

Pure, white and simply special is the first flower of this Eurachist Lilly this Winter.

Eurachist Lilly

This deep pink flowered plant below, came as a cutting from my Mum in Rockhampton many years ago and is now a very large plant in the rainforest section of our garden. It often needs to be pruned back. I've forgotten it's name though. Can anyone help me with that?

Purple Salvia bringing beneficial insects including bees, and honeyeaters to our garden. A gift from Ann.

A holly Bougainvillea above

Red trumpets sparkling in the morning sunlight

Bromeliads

A large leafed Caladium growing next to chillies. They are scattered throughout the garden bringing Winter colour.

A Delicate Cooktown Orchid, growing on a potted Fig Tree

Succulents in a bonsai pot

This is such a resilient pink gerbera, an old variety still seen in cottage gardens. Other gerberas are taking it easy during Winter, however this one keeps flowering.

Ground orchids need to grow in full sun which isn't a problem in our garden and they make a beautiful colorful border. The pink and white ones are also pretty and available now from most nurseries. We had a small yellow tomato bush growing as a weed through this front garden when I took the photo. We pulled it out though, as it was taking over and climbing up into the mandarin tree.
And it's back to my garden.

Until next time, happy gardening. Thanks everyone for visiting my blog. I would love to hear from you in the Comments box  if you have time.

Pauline

Ginger cake with Lemon Icing and Delicate Blue Bromeliad Flowers, and So the Day Goes

It is an amazing phenomena how a fairly ordinary Bromeliad plant on a tree, can suddenly transform into a bird attracting and beautiful specimen by producing these delicate blue and pink flowers. Yesterday morning during a garden meander I noticed these flowers, but I wasn't fast enough to grab the camera and snap the sun bird which was burrowed into the blue flower lapping up the nectar.

Our Fraser Island Creeper flowers to celebrate Australia's inaugural National Gardening Week

This week is Australia's inaugural National Gardening Week from the 8th-14th October, 2017, and to celebrate it in my part of the world, I would like to share with you  a few photos of the first waxy pink, bell shaped flowers from our beautiful  Fraser Island Creeper, "Tecomanthe hillii".  We transplanted the plant from a pot last year to a strong trellis at the back of our property which faces North and now has a dedicated sprinkler system and it is flourishing. Location and water are everything. It is a native and quite rare plant, endemic to Fraser Island situated off the Queensland Coast, which is the largest sand Island in the world and World Heritage listed. Amazingly rainforest grows in the sand on Fraser Island and so does this spectacular woody climbing vine, which flowers along the length of the vine. The flowers are pollinated by native bees, insects and honey eaters and seem resistant to pets and diseases. It is also very suited to climbing up a well established tree. We are so thrilled that it has decided to flower, and each morning we visit it to check for more blooms.

National Gardening Week was launched at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show this year, to highlight the associated environmental, social and health benefits of gardening, and the improved mental and physical well being that gardening brings. Is it a coincidence then that it coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week as well? What a wonderful synergy that these two events can bring to a lot of people.



Most people who are avid gardeners will tell you that despite the physical benefits, they feel so much more relaxed and at peace with the world when they step out into their gardens and start gardening. I know that I do.

So that we can continue to enjoy our garden, and so that it doesn't become a burden, Neil and I are starting to be mindful this Summer of the need for low maintenance plants, water wise plants, plants that attract the birds and beneficial insects, and less vegetables which require a lot of attention. However I still need to have lots of herbs growing in Summer, as these are quite easy to maintain and with all the cooking I do they save a lot of money by being easily accessible from our garden. I also gain a lot of pleasure from flowers in the garden and they are also essential for attracting the bees so that they can pollinate our Passionfruit vine and other herbs and vegetables.

My tropical orchids are a nice interest and will still survive if left to their own devices for a while, as long as they are watered in the hot months, however I try to give them lots of TLC. An automatic sprinkler system is essential in that regard. I try to fertilise them every two weeks throughout the Summer months.

Just a couple of my orchids flowering out on our patio.

Dendrobium Farmerii Thrysiflorum "Colette"

Lots of the very old-fashioned Lilly bulb are planted throughout our garden so the flowers just explode at this time of year. They don't last long, so I enjoy them whilst we can.




This is Blue Salvia which the Sunbirds hang from daily whilst drinking in the rich nectar. I have just pruned the bush back and because it is such a strong plant, gifted to me by a very generous former neighbour, I have taken cuttings and  potted them hoping that some of them will strike. We fertilised it after pruning it, and already it is shooting.

Last but not least, this is the flower of the spring onion, or eschallot. I allow it to flower as it attracts the native bees which are so important for pollination in the garden. I hope that one day they will decide to build  a hive nearby.




This is a slightly shorter post as I am finishing here because our WiFi and Internet are off and on at the moment pending the imminent installation of the NBN. I really hope it all goes smoothly as we are all so dependent on WiFi these days and if it works at a faster speed as promised that will be wonderful.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone,

Happy gardening,

Pauline