It is that time of year again. Or it is for those who don't have a 'Christmas shelf' where gifts can gather through the year, not counting the books which must be pre-read before given (it is poor etiquette in our family to give a book you haven't read, unless it involves cricket) or the pots of cuttings that have been growing to gift size since winter.
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For those who are time poor and friend and relative rich, here are your problems solved.
Step 1. Line the back seat and boot of your car with newspaper. N.B. If you do not perform this step you will be sorry.
Step 2. Drive to the garden centre.
Step 3. Buy a hanging baskets of flowers for everyone you know who likes flowers; a dwarf fruit tree and a pot to put it in for those who prefer a cabbage or at least a ripe mulberry to a rose; or vast pots for ferns suitable for the bathroom for everyone, unless you are forced into unwanted, reciprocal gift-giving, in which case buy a small $2.50 cactus.
Shopping done.
On the other hand, if you're planning a letter to Santa, you might consider adding some of these:
A red finger lime: Any finger lime is a delicious finger lime, with bright tasting globules that burst lime into your mouth. Red ones have all that as well as vivid colour. I would like one. Or six. Please.
Grafted finger lime: These are more expensive, but you can be sure of what you are getting, which is not the case with finger lime seedlings. We have five seedlings now, and only one bears reliably. So far, at any rate, I may be unjustly defaming the others that will spring into fruit any day now. But if you can afford it, buy grafted.
A red finger lime: This is the fruit tree for those in arid or tropical areas. The fruit is said to be loved by cassowaries, makes excellent jam or chutney and, apparently, has even been made into a beer (although, come to think of it, what fruit hasn't?). I love the seeds – crush them and rub the non-greasy oil on your skin, faintly fragrant and deliciously moisturising.
A mobile chook run: Not for me, thank you, but an excellent gift for anyone who'd like to re-stock the suburbs with chooks. Make sure you buy one with a wire floor, to stop predators nosing it up and eating the livestock.
Any plant that grows in shade: This is the way to a gardener's heart. We have planted out our gardens, but there are always those dry, bare, shady spots that could do with colour or fruit.
Try a tamarillo (grows to 2m and will be cut by heavy frost), lillipillies, cape gooseberry (grows to half a metre, has tasteless vaguely sweet fruit but its charm lies in its green lanterns that turns transparent when the fruit inside ripens from green to orange. Much loved by kids and birds.
Dappled-shade loving flowers include hydrangeas, at their most vivid just now, pots of busy Lizzies or a walking stick palm, which not only has its characteristic stick stem but bright red berries loved by birds, and liliums which, with luck, you may also find blooming spectacularly now. They love humus rich moist soil (sigh … don't we all?), their feet in the shade and head in the sun, which is not as impossible as you first think.
Traditionalists might go for a potted pear tree, with or without a partridge, but do remember they need a pollinator and a lot of space, or a bird bath to entice the turtle doves and the calling birds and refresh the lords a-leaping and ladies a-dancing.
If you have bought the mobile chook run, you might do worse than 'three French hens' – faverolles, medium-sized, grey or fawn or salmon speckled hens that have fluffy feet and sing to you, the most contented, musical warble as they scavenge in the shrubbery.
As for five golden rings, you could try five golden wattles instead, but do remember that wattles grow fast, die after 15 years or so and can shed pollen on the washing. They will also need planting, which is not to be foisted on friends in the hot and holiday season.
Just like shopping. Avoid the malls, headed to the greenery, buy lavishly, then head home to something cool, refreshing and utterly delicious – and possibly home grown.
This week I am:
- Drinking cool, refreshing and utterly delicious home-grown and made lemon cordial.
- Still picking mulberries, which are still tasteless even though it's been a rain-free, sunny week.
- Watching the first of the red Christmas gladioli bloom.
- Hoping the tiny cherry tomatoes ripen for Christmas so the kids can have the fun of plucking (and eating) them.
- Making a note to pick the avocados in time for them to ripen for the horde to eat over the holidays.
- Discovering that the reason my cucumber vines haven't clambered up the wire is because they are, in fact, zucchini and fruiting at that. One does seem to be a cucumber but it's not doing anything, much.
