Gardening in Winter

Clear sunny days are rare nowadays. Almost always we'll wake up with "threatening" sky - dark, with symptoms of heavy rain or storm. Sometimes we can't even open the balcony door because of heavy wind. Drought has besieged Australia for years but lately, when it rains, it pours!

Thus, when we saw a glimpse of the sun last weekend, the whole family decided to finally open the door and tiptoe into our "Garden in the Sky." OK, so we don't have a backyard but I'm happy to report that Mama has green fingers. Her potted plants are alive and healthy.

I would sometimes help Mama rake the soil but she usually gets upset as she thought I was attempting to make poo in the pot. No way Jose! I prefer the proper loo...

I'm officially Mama's favourite gardening buddy...

The Sydney skyline is part of our "Garden View".

Brad's trying to decide if rose leaves are good to eat too.

Not exactly ours but this gregarious plant in the neighbour's backyard is glorious. The flowers only come around this time of the year.

The money plant is happy indoors.

Besides the ornamentals, I could lump Mama's collection of plants into three other categories: culinary herbs, cat snacks, and succulents.

In the cat snacks category, Mama has planted lemongrass (my fav), mondo grass, cat grass (she got the seeds from a petshop in Homebush) and catnip. Catnip is a type of mint. Unfortunately it didn't survive long.

We don't like this mondo grass, it's not palatable at all.

Mama's lemongrass hardly survives my constant munching...it's yummy....

I've been told to stop eating the lemongrass though...

This cat grass is Brad's favourite snack.

The ornamentals and succulents are mostly Australian natives. They seem to thrive in the harsh conditions (and Mama's forgetfulness in the watering department) and don't require much attention.

I love this colourful coleus, it has medicinal properties I heard.

Delicious looking sedum, unfortunately not cat food either.

I was told that aloe vera was the secret beauty ingredient of ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Such lovely succulents...they can grow anywhere with very little water.

Mama's favourite category - culinary herbs. What do we have in the garden now? There's a fairly large curry-leave tree, Thai basil, flat-leaved parsley, lemongrass, chili and rosemary. In the past she's grown coriander, sweet basil and lemon balm too.

The oldest surviving plant in Mama's garden - the curry leaves are handy to have around when you love curry!

Mama's praying hard her precious bird chili plant will survive this winter.

Mama thinks she has enough flat-leaved parsley for making tabouleh (Lebanese salad) now.

I love the aromatic Thai basil, Mama uses them a lot in her cooking.

The humble ginger is Mama's favourite culinary herb.

Mama's pot of mint - crush some mint leaves, a slice of lemon, plonk in a tall glass of ice water....hmmm...refreshing summer drink..

I was told that the morning sun is good for me too.

After a hard day's work in the garden, I took a break by hiding among Mama's chili plants. I forgot to take pictures of Mama's humongous cactus and palm trees. Oh well...next time maybe. At least this cat knows how to use macro lens now...purrr purrr...