December is even more crazy than usual this year, as the weather has continued to smile on us and we’ve had regular bouts of just the right amount of rain. We’re only a week away from the Summer Solstice, thus the longest day, so with the lovely mix of sunshine (some a bit too lovely to be enjoyed outside…) and moisture, all the plants are CRAZY!!!
First up the grass in the paddocks (and lawns) We made baleage at the farm down the road and got double the amount o3 bales as last year in pretty much the same paddocks. The horses are all off their faces and the cows get moved for a change of scenery rather than because they need more grass.
In the garden everything is also crazed. The repeat flowering roses, having opened so early , are already on their second flush. Some of the once flowerers are still having some flowers! It has to be the longest once flowering period I have ever known. All the perennials are also on the early side and having super-sized flowers. I’ve noticed especially amongst the penstemons, but the asters look to be following suit. The hollyhocks are well over 2m tall, waving around like madmen up in the skies. The salvias also seem very happy, extra bright and bold flowers. I noticed Iodantha, the very tall cerise winter flowering species has put on masses of new growth and started a bigger and better summer flowering!
The fruit all seems to be having a bumper year too. My first stone fruit to ripen is the early apricot, Santa Rosa, which is always ripe well before Christmas. The size of the crop varies immensely from basically none, to ridiculous quantities. This year the huge tree was simply laden and I luckily got about 30kg of the earliest ones as following that pick we had a big rain and the entire crop got brown rot instantly. The fruit were anything but perfect, and most not ripe enough to eat, but I made 3 huge batches of jam and pureed the rest.
Oops, December has slipped by, as is her want. The end of 2024 approaches and the month has passed in more wonderful growing weather. A heinous gale blew all day yesterday, which means I need to hasten to the nursery and start picking up fallen plants and watering their battered selves.
There are a few tragedies in the garden too- my unstaked hollyhocks, well over 2 m tall, all decided to lie down under the strain. Some I went out and hacked off with loppers yesterday evening as they were crushing too many wildflowers. They will come up again, and should have more intelligent sized flower stems second time around!
All the roses and indeed everything has been early this year, so the ramblers and polyanthas which usually make their big show in December were already flowering with everything else in November. Some of the ramblers have kept on starring, I thought Blushing Lucy was particularly lovely in her understated way
Christmas has been and gone, very quietly for me. No going away, or people coming involved, just taking it easier than usual amongst the farm, garden and nursery. The weather gods gave me several small watering breaks as well, which is always welcome.
Our next Open Day isn’t happening till Feb, so as I’m not going anywhere, the nursery will be available for shopping in anytime by appointment. Maybe there are people up for the holidays who couldn’t usually come? I’ve already had a couple of South Islanders drop in for orders to save on postage. A boon for me, as I stopped posting in December to avoid Christmas rush delays and have now got a fair backlog of orders waiting to be posted in January.
Well that’s probably it for 2024…it’s been a good one at my place. Roll on 2025, lets hope it brings similar bounty.