Laying Stone Paving

I've finally got on to finishing the Harmony Garden paving. I've spread out a few bags of river pebbles around the bigger pavers. And planted some creeping thyme in some of the gaps. I've also made some cuttings from the thyme so I'll have more plants to fill some of the other gaps, I'm thinking about 20-30 plants. Thyme is supposed to be a sure fire cutting plant, so we shall see.

And along the front of the Harmony Garden I've planted the rest of the hebe hedge, with pratia as a creepy inbetween.

How to pot up plants

Here is everything you need to pot up seedlings. Although the squares of chocolate are missing in action. I decided to pot on all those cuttings I made at the end of autumn, which might have been a bit early as some of them hadn't put on much growth, and when I dug them up they had only tiny roots. But too late now.

I have rosemary, which is growing well, pineapple sage, coprosma, azaleas not doing so well, grisilena.

I also potted up the half of the hebe hedge that hasn't got planted yet. They are growing so fast, and were quite root bound and thirsty.

Quite a busy day by the time I finished it all.

Winter Growth

Look how my hebe hedge is growing! And it is the middle of winter too. Another month till spring, when it should start to really get away. Might actually have a half decent hedge by the end of summer.

Winter Flowering Hebes

A couple of my newly planted hebes are starting to flower in winter. Hebes all seem to flower at different times, so it is a bit of a lottery as to which type you get. Winter flowering will be good for any bees that are still out and about, give them something to snack on.

The hebe hedge

It's winter! Things are supposed to stop growing! But everything seems to be shooting along. These little hebe plants, which are to become my hebe hedge creating my safe enclosure around my Harmony garden, are just powering up. I'm not about to get the hedge clippers out yet, or even make some cuttings from them, but they must have doubled in size since I planted them.

Mail Order NZ native plants

You can buy anything online these days! This is my first time buying plants, but it worked out really well. So I ordered 35 plants, 23 hebes all the same - Wiri Image, which is a purple flower and medium size, so about 1m high I think. And 12 pratia angulata, which is a NZ native ground cover, with little white flowers. And 35 seems a magic number because you can have 5x7 fitting neatly in a box.

The hebes are going to make a low hedge around the back and front of the Harmony Garden, and the pratia are in between. If they don't spread very fast I'll have a go at propagating them, which is by division. Or so the book says, we shall see.

I've put them quite close, but it looks miles apart because they are little plants. Its always a balance, how far apart to plant when they are new, and how to allow for the end size. And I always seem to err on the 'jam them in close to each other' end of the spectrum. Still, a hedge is meant to be close, right?