Autumn Garden in Orange

Orange is looking stunning at the moment with the trees changing colour, bright blue skies and lush green gardens.

Our new Bay Tree for the courtyard

Autumn is my most favourite time of year with the warm sunny days accompanied by cooler nights,   glasses of red wine, hearty soups and wood fires.

My geranium cutting in a pot for instant colour

The lemon tree is fully laden - will be a bumper crop this year

I've been trying to get the garden a little bit more tidy in preparation for winter as the sunny days have also produced an abundance of weeds, everywhere - including through all the weed matting I lovingly put down!

I've been busy applying chicken manure all over the place, which Dog A L'Orange then eats and giving all the beds a good water.

Pretty yellow flowers

This weekend the mulching starts in earnest and I've got a whole heap of spring bulbs I want to try and plant in the front garden.

Another dash of instant colour in the front garden

The veggie patch is still producing lots of tomatoes, zucchini, rhubarb and spinach but we've also planted red onions and beetroot for the winter.

A rather fancy looking dog proof fence from Mr L'Orange

I also forgot to tell you we have 3 pumpkins growing with hopefully more on the way as there are plenty of flowers.

Spot the pumpkins and raspberries!

The pretty front boarder beside the driveway all from cuttings

Wet & Wild Weather in Orange

We had some seriously wild weather over the last week with lashing rain, strong winds and everything else nasty the elements could throw at us. The garden at least has had a really good water, which has been long overdue with the heat of the last few months. According to other locals I have spoken with, Orange has not seen temperatures like this spring/summer for the last 10 years. 

Sadly I have to report the deaths of many plants and trees over the last 6 months, despite my best efforts to keep everything alive. I have been watering furiously (unassisted by Mr L'Orange please note), however many of the plants just can't cope with the extreme dry we have faced.

The casualty list reads as follows:

Rose bush
Japanese Maple (this was a wedding gift)
Wisteria
Olive Tree
Petunias (during the hail storm a month ago)
Pink Cordylite (we suspect the dog has assisted in wreaking this one)
All the tube stock ground cover I planted in spring
Fuchsia plant
Daphne

So cute and well behaved as a little puppy

Dog A L'Orange has also managed to do his fare share of destruction and has eaten my Ponsietta another two Olive Trees, numerous Agapanthas and a Passionfruit plant.

The hole where the olive tree once was...

...remains of the chewed up olive tree

Tell tale dirty nose on Dog A L'Orange

All in all this has been a pretty expensive and sad period, especially given all the hard work in planting and caring for the plants over the last 18 months.

Trying to protect our remaining assets

Have decided there is little point in buying anything new whilst Dog A L'Orange is in destructive mode, I'm happy to take cuttings though and get them going in the front garden our of reach of Bailey!

Dog A L'Orange - 9 Weeks

If our puppy was a child he would be hitting the 'terrible twos' at the moment, as he has suddenly become very naughty. He has mastered how to climb up the inside of his puppy pen (in the style of Spiderman) and then escape over the top which has lead to fun and games when we try putting him to bed at night.

In the pen, for now.

He has also started biting and chewing pretty much everything in sight, he has no real interest in any of his doggy toys and much prefers shoes, pegs, clothing, brooms and plants. Bailey's amazing sense of smell coupled with his huge appetite has led him to find a large bag of sealed dog food, rip it open and then eat half the contents. Mr L'Orange and I then got the pleasure of enjoying two hours of totally energised, out of control puppy who had eaten 10 dinner's worth of food in one go!

Last night was a major turning point, as Dog A L'Orange pushed our patience one paw too far. The puppy decided to do a poo in the house, on our carefully stored away rug. This was despite having just been out in the garden and being pretty much house trained.  

Mr L'Orange quickly told the puppy off and placed him outside as punishment, however Bailey seemed to think it was some big game and was still wagging his tail and trying to ram his way back through the door into the house, much to the anger of Mr L'O. So the rolled up newspaper came out a good deal more 'firm chastisement' which resulted in the puppy looking down, tail between legs and then running under the bbq cover to hide.

Cute looks - naughty behaviour

This dog is clearly not use to us being firm as he didn't want to come out from the bbq cover over an hour later! We did both feel sorry for wee Bailey but he did need to learn a lesson and hopefully one telling off will have been enough. 

Puppy classes start on Monday so it will be a good opportunity to get him socialising with other dogs and hopefully sorting out some of his naughty puppy behavioural issues!

Happily biting a stick

The new Orange arrival...

You can’t live in the country and not have a dog, so Mr L’Orange and I would now like to introduce our

newest family member, Dog A L’Orange!

Our 8 week old English Pointer, also know as Bailey seems to be settling in well to his new home and to my relief has not destroyed too much of the garden….yet! However I don’t want to leave anything to chance and I am going to erect some temporary fencing around the herb garden, veggie patch and garden beds just to be on the safe side.

The new puppy is very alert and pretty obedient (as much as you can be for a puppy!), he enjoys meeting new people and loves his food. At the moment, Dog A L’Orange is sleeping in a pen in the house until he has all his injections and can move to a nice comfy kennel in the garden (Mr L’Orange is sorting this out – expect some humorous posts in the near future).

The puppy has a habit of curling into anyone’s feet when he wants to go to sleep and is very cute. So far he whines a lot when left by himself anywhere in the house or garden, but we are hoping he will grow out of this very quickly as it is quite annoying.

You can expect to see lots more of Dog A L’Orange in upcoming posts on the Life A L’Orange Blog. Don’t
forget Orange Wine Week starts today and then there is heaps of good stuff on for the next 10 days if you are at a loose end. The full Orange Wine Week programme can be downloaded here.