On trend

Keeping up with the current trend never comes into my thinking. 

In fact I wouldn't have a clue what the latest trend even is to be honest....for anything. I'm more likely to be on trend when it's not in trend anymore!

So it came as a complete surprise when we discovered that we're already ahead of the trend here at Frogpond Farm!

Dried flowers ......." are going to pop up in interiors everywhere."

In Bertie's shed.....

.......and in the main bathroom, left there and forgotten about from a few weeks ago! 

Scandi style flowers.....a branch in a vase or a really airy flower arrangement".

We've been doing branch-y bits for a while now.

Sustainable flowers....."choosing flowers that are in season and grown locally rather than blooms that are shipped from the other side of the world".

All my farm shop flowers are picked from our garden........

Around the garden path.

The asparagus is going crazy.

The daffodils and jonquils have flowered.

The cherry blossom outside the kitchen window has been a treat.

It should be a bountiful apple season.....

Sweet peas are beginning to climb and flower....and smell divine.

Pansies in Dad's copper are still blooming their heads off.

The mystery plant has finally been identified. It started as the tiniest of seedlings and kept growing arms and spreading. It's currently 60 cms and still growing like there's no tomorrow.

It turned up in some topsoil we bought to put on the veggie beds and I let it grow because I wanted to see what it was going to become. It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.

Turns out it's a common ice plant.....the description fits to a tee.

Fruit trees are getting their covers on....fig and apricot.

Sam has been diagnosed with glandular fever but was able to help Bill with the netting at the weekend. He enjoyed the fresh air and feeling the sun on his face.

They also put some netting along the fence a while ago...to keep the rabbits out.

Bill's calling this his "silo version" for the cherry tree.

Earwigs are on the rampage again. 

Jo told me to try citrus, probably just the rind, but I have plenty of Jamesy's lemons so I've cut them up like this.

These poor echinacea plants get ravaged every year so let's see whether this might deter them.

Anything is worth a try and I've already used every other trick in the book in recent times.

Sowing up a storm.....again.

I can't help myself......I just want flowers I've never grown before ( and may be some I have, now I come to think of it).

Bill's shed has been taken over with seed raising paraphernalia.

It's very warm in there and out of the wind, ideal conditions for germination.

I've also sown some acacia melanoxolyn seeds which we hope will become our farm trees around the horse paddocks......take 2.  Our last effort with tube stock failed miserably so we're going to try again. 

We planted over 70 of them and this was the only one that survived except for three still trying to eke out an existence within  tyre surrounds and being munched on by the horses.

You are probably wondering why we would want to use them again but their qualities are well worth a second try in my opinion.

Cold hardy, wind firm, frost tolerant, excellent paddock tree and shelter belt tree, comparatively fire resistant, attracts seed eating birds and their flowers attract moths, butterflies and other insects.

Also called Sally wattle and Hickory.

The seeds needed to be soaked in boiling water overnight.

Apparently, any that floated to the top would not be viable so could be discarded. Do you think I would have thrown them out? Absolutely not. They've gone into a separate container of seed raising mix....just in case.

The girls have been to do their washing stay a couple of times. 

Helen baked a delicious dessert for us.

And they went fishing ....the fishing rods were all elsewhere so not to be put off, they made their own.

Perfect.

Leesa, Andy and her little gang came to stay too.

We loved having them to stay. 

Darling little people in the strawberry patch.

Apparently Acher's strawberries didn't make it to the collection box!

He had a birthday though. He is three now.

Amy and Helen's outdoor space is small but it hasn't stopped them from getting a little garden going. 

We celebrated Amy and Helen's birthdays at a cafe in the Botanical Gardens. It was one of our first warm days for Spring.

These two flowers have stopped me in my tracks in the past week.

This is Summer Sun leucadendron.

I adore it.

And Scilla Peruviana or Portuguese Squill (!!)

It belongs in the Asparagaceae family.

It's truly gorgeous.

 I've added some Spanish bluebells, Dutch irises and yellow ranunculas. Last year I just left it alone to do its thing, but next year I'm going to split it up in Autumn to see if I can get more. 

I noticed the yellow daisy-chain flowers all over the place too. 

We would have picked many a bunch of those to arrange in a Vegemite jar when I was little. I can also remember using our fingernails to make the slit in the stem to thread them onto each other to make a flower crown!

 Gosh, we were on trend back then and didn't even know it.

Have a lovely, flower-filled week everyone.

Gotta love this......