Gardenamateur

LATEST ARTICLES ( 569 )

• My Friends the Bees Are in Serious Trouble, Folks

  

  It's such a gorgeous winter's day here in Sydney, sunny yet cool, the lavender is blooming and the bees are buzzing around every fragrant mauve bloom, collectin... Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Wattle It Be Now

  

  There's a couple of wattle trees outside a local school which always come into bloom a couple of weeks before ours does, and so when I saw the 'school wattle' i... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Slowing Down in Italy

  

  For a country with a great love of fast cars, it is a shame there are so many traffic jams in Italy — but then again, that statement is true of many other... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2013 MOTO

• Catching Dewdrops

  

  Whoever thinks we only grow vegetables in order to harvest and eat them is missing out on a lot of fun and pleasure. Sure, I eat the crops I grow, but in many... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Playing Chicken

  

  We're into the 700th consecutive day of rain (or so it feels, it might just be the second week) but it's wet in Sydney, folks, and this little gardener ain't... Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Scooters & Microcars: Little Gems

  

  Today is my 24th wedding anniversary, and not only am I a very lucky man to be married happily to a wonderful woman, but I am also a lucky boy to be married to ... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2013 MOTO

• Anniversaries

  

  A strange little realisation dropped from the sky a while back. I knew my blog was coming up for its fifth anniversary sometime in June this year, as I had... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2013 SELF EXPRESSION

• Little Green Woolly Head

  

  Lately, when I head out into the garden in the late afternoon to pick some mixed leafy greens for a salad,I stop at our woolly-headed chervil pot and pick a... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Pomegranate Wrangling

  

  At last some heavy rain and cold, strong winds blowing water under the door — that's more like it, Huey! It's the second day of winter here in Sydney and even... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Green Finery

  

  At last, a few days of rain, and again I'm reminded that there's a magic ingredient inside raindrops that good old tap water simply doesn't have. Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Times a' Changing

  

  Should we ever misplace all our calendars, gardeners would always have a very good idea of what day it is simply by looking at what's happening out in their... Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Spanish Beauty

  

  There's so much I love about Spain, especially its food and its people, but I have never really had Spain featuring strongly on my car-loving radar. Read more

  Posted on 19 May 2013 MOTO

• Hello Walls

  

  Until I tried bromeliads I never really had all that much success with wall pots. They're terrible things to grow plants in, as far as I'm concerned, but... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Toothy Grins

  

  I love watching plants go through the build-up to flowering. Some send up stalks plump with promising fat buds that advertise their coming delights to patrollin... Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Nine Days Later

  

  I had thought it was only a week since I planted the sprouted supermarket garlic, but I tell a little lie – that was nine days ago, not a mere week of seven. An... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Right Neighbourly

  

  A knock at the door late this morning, and the beaming, lovely smile of my neighbour Katerina shines through the gauze on the screen door. She has a plate in he... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2013 HOME

• Good News for Bees

  

  This morning's radio news had something I have been waiting to hear for along time now, and it's good news for bees. The European Union has voted to impose a... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Garlic Day

  

  I wasn't even planning to grow garlic this year, but I've just planted some garlic this morning. And it felt good. It felt like I was breaking the law, in... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• Seedy Pots

  

  When we did the makeover of our garden in early spring last year, one of the things I wanted to do was reduce the number of things growing in pots here. I had... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2013 GARDENING, HOME

• A Good Year for Frangipani

  

  Our problem child has blossomed into a talented teenager this year. Though it has been a part of our garden for several years now, our frangipani tree has... Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2013 GARDENING, HOME