Autumn in South Australia 2025

Hello my little Magickal Unicorns, 

Well here it is the 15th of March and we are supposed to be in Autumn now. 

Mabon is upon us next Friday (21st - is usually when I celebrate), and nobody has told the weather that it is no longer summer. 

We have 39 degrees Celsius today, so I am sitting in my witchy room under the fan - trying desperately to keep cool. I'm not a fan of the heat. I used to be when I was younger - pre going through menopause. But now I love the cooler months (still not liking the heart of winter when it is too cold hahaha).

Spring is my ultimate favourite season - when everything starts to burst forward with life. Secondly is Autumn (if one should ever get an Autumn that is) then I guess I would have to then take Winter over Summer. 

I find the heat of Summer drains the energy out of me - most days all I can do outside is water my gardens.... and then.... collapse!!! For me, it is easier to keep warm than it is to keep cool - yes we can put the air-conditioner on, but that dries the air out and causes breathing difficulties (though it is nice at night when it is still in the high 20's and you need to sleep). 

Just a quick catch-up - So this year - 2025 - is there any signs of Autumn yet? 

Yes there are - even though most of my garden is still quite green (other than the plants that have died in the extreme heat we have had), some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow. The trees are a bit confused though as they are starting to bud!! 

We have not had any rain for 4 months now, so I lost a lot of plants even though I have watered sometimes twice a day to keep them alive. 

Some of my produce I grew this year was disappointing - small and bitter. And everything in my top garden beds just turned up toes and died there maybe something wrong with the soil up there, so I am going to do some testing and amending of soil, plus put in some green manure to grow over winter - just so those beds will be ready for Spring planting. 

My greenhouse is still WAY TOO HOT to start any seeds off yet - it's going to be late planting this year.  

On Sunday there will be another Gloomy's Garden Vlog coming out with a little tour of my garden and all its issues.... I hope you enjoy a sneak peak into my garden world. 

PLUS - hopefully, if all the stars align, I will have a witchcraft video out for you the very next weekend to do with Mabon...

My Autumn Altar 2025

Until then - I am just about to go and process my pomegranates (which we harvested a couple of weeks ago and had so many that we have fed 6 families with them), so I can make some apple & pomegranate jam.  Plus I am hoping to save some of the peels to dry them out for tea making purposes.

I hope all is well wherever you are.

Have a blessed week ahead, thanks for catching up with me today!! 

Annette )O( xxx

Witch Vlog # 3 Lughnasadh Weekend - No speaking

Just a little video about my Lughnasadh weekend - this is a non verbal video, so all you have playing is my hubby's music whilst I put little subtitles on here and there.
I hope you enjoy it...
Blessings to you all, Annette )O( xxx

It's been a hot minute (or two - hahaha)

 Greetings Beautiful people of the interwebs,

I hope you are all keeping well and life is going great guns for you!!

As the heading say's - It's been a hot minute or two since I last did a blog (Spring was the last time - it is now Autumn!!), but life has a very interesting way of prioritising your time and what you can do.

In other words - life got in the way!!!

So just a quick catch up from me 😁

I am happy to report that Paul is doing well, he is off all the drugs that he was on for 5 months and he is walking everyday and trying to get fit.  He has even roped me into doing more fitness and going for walks with him - which has really helped my stress a lot.

My work has been very stressful this last couple of months due to 2 new system integrations, which generally speaking, are not going well - even with 4 years of testing and things not going as planned, the powers that be decided to go live with it, and we have all sorts of issues arising (as we knew we would) - so the systems saga continues.

I have to keep telling myself - 3 more years to retirement, just 3 more years........

This last summer we have been doing our house up a bit too - we have new carpets in the lounge and Caetlyn's office plus new flooring in the kitchen.  We are waiting for our new lounge suite to be made and delivered - which is supposed to be late April, then we are getting the roller shutters replaced on the front of the house (as the old one ones on the front window are broken).  Then we are thinking of putting tint on the front room window, to stop the heat from coming in too much in the summer.... but that might be another year away.

I also want to take a month off of work to repaint and re-floor my office and turn it into a space that I want to work in - at the moment there is just everything everywhere, as it is our library, my office, my witchy room, my sewing room, my art room, my harvesting room and as you can imagine - it is chockers full in every part - so I want to sort it out, eliminate stuff I don't use or need anymore, paint the walls and put new carpet on the floor.  Maybe move a couple of cabinets out and make more room.

The weather is starting to get cooler now, with daylight savings ending in a few hours - we revert to winter time.  That means that I have to move my chilli plants to the patio area at the front of the house so they don't get too cold, and so I can overwinter them - they are still producing heaps of chillies, so hopefully they will still ripen once I put them out the front.

I have trimmed all my roses, fertilised and put compost on all the plants out in the front garden and got them ready for their winter hibernation.

I still have to do the back garden - and I am running out of time (always the way for me!!).

I have two tomato plants that are still producing cherry tomatoes - so I don't really want to pull them out just yet - but I might have to to make way for the brassicas - and I planted a whole bunch of seeds in the vegepods a couple of weeks ago - some of them are starting to pop through now!!

I have 4 beds to prepare (I am so behind schedule!!!) for winter crops, and the back garden to tidy up - once all the trees have lost their leaves (Granny Smith Apple, Pink Lady Apple, O'Henry Peach, Stella Cherry & Apricot) - I am going to collect the leaves for leaf mulch.  I then have to harshly prune the apple trees back, compost around their roots for winter too.

I also have to compost and mulch around the banana plantation too, as they will need a bit of warmth for the oncoming winter months.

I also have a few things in pots that I need to plant out before it gets too cold!!

See - busy, busy, busy and no time to do it in - but we will see how far we can get this year LOL.

Harvesting and preserving all the fruits and veggies has taken some time as well - I still have a tonne of pomegranates and apples to preserve - plus some beets to bottle as well. (I think I need more like a year off of work hahahaha).

Anyhow - enough of me grumbling about lack of time ⏰ - it's 11.45pm on Saturday 6th April and I really should go to bed if I am going to have a full day of "doing much needed jobs around the garden" tomorrow.

So thanks for catching up with me again, hopefully I will be able to chat more to you all soon.

Blessings to you all )O( stay safe and healthy!

Cheers,

Gloomy xxx

Mid-Winter

Hello my dear Wild-Ones,

Here in the Southern Hemisphere it is well in the middle of winter, but there is still a lot happening in the garden at this time - even though lately I have been too busy to really get out there to do much but the occasional 5 minute weed session here and there!!

The beautiful Osteospermums are blooming well and creating

a lovely bright colour in an other-wise winter garden.

The jonquils have popped up just a bit early this year,

and their scent is divine!!

(Even if Super-Hubby doesn't like the smell haha)

                                          The most vibrant Dimorphotheca ecklonis "Fire-starter".

Another Osteospermum - Black Widow - with friend!

The Greenhouse is looking full at the moment,

waiting for spring to come so they can be

planted out and spread their little roots in the soil.

My "mini" herb bed is doing well with lots of

scrummy herbs growing in there, as I try to

keep them alive over the winter.

The ones I have put in here are:

Rosemary

Parsley

Oregano

Thyme

Chives

The back garden is looking rather flooded and

leafy - even the fake critters are looking a 

wee bit forlorn!!

So what have I been up to whilst the weather has been wild and woolly? 

A few things actually - I have taken up crocheting again and made myself this lovely long jacket:

Yes - they are skulls!!

I also have made a phone case cover - my "shop bought" phone cover was starting to fall apart - so instead of buying a new one (because anyone who knows me, knows that I am a hermit and I don't like leaving the house - especially to go shopping at the best of times), I decided to crochet one instead - it turned out ok - except the next cover I try will have to have a different part around the camera because when I take photos - I get a black haze...LOL

In the theme of "Save the Bees"...

I have also been preserving a lot of our Autumn harvests making jams and pickling beets, making chilli sauce from our Habanero chillies, freezing lots of pomegranate pearls and pumpkins (and of course making pumpkin soup!!).

Pomegranate & Apple Jam                    

Beetroot from my garden!        

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                Habenero Chilli Sauce

                                            

It's also been the time for de-cluttering the house and getting rid of anything that we either haven't used in 6-12 months or things that no longer serve us or our current needs.  It had been awesome to do!! Even today Super-Hubby and I are going to clean out the pantry, so that I can organise it a wee bit better...and get rid of any old packaged food that is past it's use by date!!

And harvesting my dahlia seeds for the coming spring:

I did receive a lovely gift from an Instagram friend in New South Wales - she had chatted to me about an Elder tree in December last year, and she said that she would post a cutting to me.  Time went by and I thought nothing of it (you know, people promise things and then life happens and it goes out of their minds), but early July a parcel was delivered to me and inside was this gorgeous Elder cutting:

I have named this Elder cutting Courtney, after

my friend that sent it to me 😄

HOW BLESSED WAS I!!!

Even though it has been bitterly cold this Winter, we have still been doing quite a lot in the gardens and home - so it hasn't been a total hibernation period like most years!! (which I think, is a good thing!!).

I hope your Winter (or Summer - depending on which hemisphere you are in), is going well.

Until next time Wild-Ones, may you seek the beauty in nature everyday!!

Blessings to you all,

GLOOMY's Garden

And remember to save the Bees!!

An Autumnal update..

 Greeting Earthly Folks,

I hope I find you all well on this lovely Autumnal day.

Yes - it's Autumn here in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia - Winter is looming and I have SO many things I need to do in the garden before the cooler weather hits.  So much so that I have made a list of things to do, which stems over 3 pages long - just so I can keep track and get things moving.

It's a busy time of the year sowing seeds for Winter veggies, making sure all the fruit trees are pruned and composted around the trunks, overwintering chillies and other cold affected plants.  Making sure everything has good drainage etc.

BUSY - BUSY - BUSY!!!

Our achievements so far in this Summer/Autumn transition have been wonderful - Super-Hubby bought me a portable greenhouse (in other words not a glass house, but one that can be moved).. Mind you - Super-Hubby made sure that it was secured to the concrete by drilling little brackets to hold it down - this baby ain't going anywhere until we want it to!!

GLOOMY'S GREENHOUSE

In this greenhouse I have all my seeds that I have sown - Celery, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Snow Peas, Carrots & Onions (so far) - I have a few more items to get started in the next couple of weeks - I would love to grow some Cavolo nero kale (it's the straight kind not the curly one - which I find easier to clean), I would also like to grow brussel sprouts, and I have to plant more perpetual spinach (we go through a lot of that).

BABY CABBAGES

    Things are starting to pop up quite nicely now I have a greenhouse and I am                           looking forward to seeing how much food I can grow this year in my tiny back garden.

    I am hoping to get a couple more raised beds as well, so that I can use them specifically for food growth.

    We have also purchased a gazebo to go in the corner of our yard where we have our table and chair setting - so that we can utilise that area in winter too.

    This will arrive later next week (as it was a special order), then Super-Hubby and the team (Caetlyn & myself) will be building it - so that should be interesting!!

    Luckily, the pieces are all cut and prepared - we just have to put the jig-saw puzzle together (we are not builders, but we figured - we managed a greenhouse with dodgy instructions, we can handle this!!). 

In the garden - we have harvested all the Peaches off of our O'Henry Peach tree - what an abundance we got this year, which was really a blessing as we didn't think that the fruit would survive after the wild and woolly weather we have had the last few months of Spring/Summer.  But none the less, we managed to harvest around 60 beautiful peaches.  I froze a lot of them, made peach jam and we ate a lot of them too - I still have some left in the little fridge outside, which I have to either freeze or make something with (probably more jam!!).

Our apple trees were a bit of a disaster this year - they got coddling moth again and even though I took precautions, most of the apples had to be thrown away or left to the birds.  I did manage to get one basket full of really small apples off the red delicious tree - none of them were red - or delicious.  I still have to do something with those too - though I am not sure what at this stage - probably either dehydrate apple slices or blanch and freeze them.

We have pumpkins growing still - it was a bit weird this year as everyone was thinking they wouldn't get any due to the weird weather we have had - then all of a sudden they had flowers everywhere - and now pumpkins are growing when they should be dying back.  Same with the Zucchinis.

Tomatoes this year were a bit of a flop too - the only ones that really took off were the small bite-sized volunteer ones - I only got a few of the bigger ones (Red & Black variety) which were delicious, but not enough of them.  I didn't get enough to make any sauce this year.  

Capsicums have been the same - only have around 6 fruit this year - last year they kept going all through winter - but I don't like my chances this year.

Chillies are the same - even though I still have to harvest some of the yellow habanero.  There are about 20 of them still on the plant - but not enough to make any chilli sauce with.  So I am going to dehydrate them and make some killer chilli powder and flakes to use in the next 9 months.

I have yellow dwarf beans flowering at the moment - so hoping for some beans there...plus beetroot, turnips and lots of flowers - dahlias, petunias, zinnias, poppies, kalanchoe, portulaca, calendula, marigolds, osteospermums, hibiscus, dietes grandiflora (African Lily) - they are all looking most spectacular and attracting the bees and other pollinating insects.

The only herbs I have left are Peppermint, Mint, Sage, Rosemary, Yarrow and Basil - the Basil is flowering and attracting a load of bees - so I am leaving that for them... my herb garden was hit hard by the weather - so hopefully in Spring I will have a nice place to grow some more medicinal herbs.

The Pomegranates are nearly ready to be harvested - in my garden they are usually ready between late March and mid April - last year I harvested them on 25th April - so we will see this year.

I still have bulbs to plant in the front garden for a little bit of a colour POP in Spring plus lots of tidying up, pruning, weeding, mowing, and just general maintenance on garden beds to be done.

But all in good time (and hopefully by the time winter hits!!)

In the meantime - please enjoy these photos from my garden....

                                                                    PUMPKINS

      DAHLIA (POM-POM)

                                             

                                                  TOMATO HARVEST

APPLES

INSIDE MY GREENHOUSE

THE AREA BEING RENOVATED NEXT!!!

PEACHES

Until next time - have a wonderful week ahead!!

      Cheers,

      AJ xxx

 

Spring time in the 'burbs

Greetings everyone,

I hope you are having a lovely weekend this 23rd of October...

Today I had a couple of plans - recording vocals for Hubby in the studio and planting out my cucumbers and tomatoes - all of which have been dashed due to heavy rain.

So I have been walking around aimlessly in the house doing little jobs (changing sheets, washing, prepping dinner) and now I am at a loss of what to do.

What better time to do another post here in Gloomy's Garden and possibly show you what is going on in our little patch of paradise.

We live in a suburban home which is on approx 900m2 of land - we have a normal 3 bedroom home, which we have made into our sanctuary of peace away from the maddening world.

The gardens have only really come into fruition during the Covid times and now is a flourishing area of flowers, veggies, herbs and fruit trees - I love going into the garden when I am having a hard time at work (systems slow, things not going right) - it's lovely just to grab a coffee/tea and just go out into the garden to listen to the birds, bees, hover flies and other insects doing their thing.  It is very calming.

So it's still spring - October is usually the time that I plant out my summer veggies as that is when the frosty overnight temperatures are passed (we have our own eco-system in our garden - which is like no one elses), I have noticed over the years when our garden is the most productive and when is the wrong time to plant things in the ground, so I stick to that and not when all the gardening pages tell you to plant.

It's part of being in touch with nature, reading the seasons, listening to the plants themselves and noting the weather patterns.  There is a lot to learn in gardening and I don't think one will ever stop learning.

I do have a few things that we are currently harvesting in the garden:

Broad Beans

    Broad beans have been very prolific for the 4 plants that I put in.  I am generally using them to of course get the beans so I can make falafel for Super-Hubby, but also as a green manure crop.

Once they have finished I will just chop and drop them onto other beds so that they will leach their goodness into the soil...    

Turnips and Beetroot

Next up were some really small turnips, which didn't really grow very well indeed - but the greens were yummy!  And even the beets didn't come to a big size either - but what I did have I pickled for my own use as I am the only one that will eat these... I planted both of these in the wicking vegepods - and they just didn't do well - so next time I plant them, I am going to try them inground to see if they fare better.

Carrots

    And here is a pic of my carrots - I haven't got the knack of growing them straight yet - I adjusted the soil to include sand so they didn't find it so hard to grow through the soil, but I still got some with legs and curly bits - still, they tasted fabulous!!

 Snow peas have been wonderful this year too - we have had many handfuls of these beauties!!

                

Snow peas    

I need to plant some more of them so we have a continual supply (that was one of my other jobs to do today - but ah well, another day will do!!)

This is the first time that snow peas have grown in my garden - I tried in other years and they just turned up toes and died...

Maybe I have the timing right now - plus the soil composition as well..

Cabbages and Cos Lettuce

I also harvested all the cabbages and cos lettuce because something was getting into the bed and munching of them - even though I had a cover over them - I might have to come up with a better system next time I plant them (same with my brassicas which were eaten by rats last year).

    

Potatoes

I even managed to grow some potatoes - they are very little, but this was just one plant that voluntarily popped up in the garden (in a place where I didn't even put any potatoes - which is odd), but still - food is food and I am grateful for it.

Capsicum & Long Red Pepper

    Capsicums and long red peppers miraculously grew all winter long and I have been harvesting quite a bit from them.  Now they are dying off (when they should be coming to life), so I will have to plant some more.

Also in the garden we have loads and loads of flowers, which has encouraged loads and loads of insects!!

But that is a post for another day, as this post is probably getting a wee bit too long!!

Have a wonderful week ahead - it's getting close to Samhain for the Northern Hemisphere folks and Beltane for us Southern Hemisphere folks - also Halloween is in just over a week too!!

Time for a witchy soup...

    Season's blessings to you all....

    Cheers for now,

    Gloomy xxx

    

Gloomy :)

Please note: all photos in this blog are subject to copyright © by Gloomy's Garden 2022, and may not be used without prior permission.