diary of a suburban gardener

insects and spiders in my garden

2012-01-31T23:00:00.000+11:00

The Arthropoda phylum includes spiders, crustaceans, centipedes, millipedes and insects. These characters all inhabit the garden, up till now barely noticed. Now I am making an effort to observe, identify and photograph these creatures. Very big learning curve ...

Diamondback Moth (Plutella xylostella)

This Diamondback Moth was on the wall of the bedroom. I thought it was just a piece of fluff until I looked closer. It is an agricultural pest, feeding on plants from Brassicaceae family (cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc) and ornamental flowers such as wallflower. I think it was looking for the kitchen to search for green vegetables, but got lost and ended up in the bedroom.

Common Garden Katydid (Caedicia simplex)

The Common Garden Katydid is found on the foliage of different plants. they eat leaves and flowers. they are usually well camouflaged, although in the case of this individual I think he would be safter on a green leaf. Males attract females by rubbing their forewings together to produce a sound.

Gum Leaf Beetle ( Paropsis sp )

I have been noticing this little beetle for some time, and thought it was a different coloured ladybird. But no, it's a Gum Leaf beetle that eats leaves and lays its eggs on leaves or leaf stem. The larvae feed on the leaves, then drop to the ground to pupate in the soil.

Lily Leaf Beetle (Lilioceris nigripes)

This small beetle feeds on lilies and cycads. I found it sitting on the leaves of the Rainbow Fern.

Blowfly ( Amenia unknown species )

This fly is a lovely metallic blue colour. It feeds on nectar. Like most species of blowflies it lays its eggs on carrion or dung. Plenty of possum poo for it to thrive in my garden.

Leaf-curling Spider ( Phonognatha sp )

Leaf-curling spiders protect themselves by hiding inside a curled leaf held together with silk. They build a web around their retreat and feed on insects caught in the web. In this case the spider will be disappointed because what has been caught in the web is possum poo.

Garden Mantis (Orthodera ministralis)

The Garden Mantis is also known as the Green Mantid. Its habitat is among garden foliage, where it catches and eats small insects. They lay eggs in a foamy egg case called an ootheca, that has a woody appearance and is attached to a leaf, stem, wall or fence. They hatch out as small versions of the adult.

Dome Web Spider ( Cyrtophora moluccensis )

This spider builds its web between the branches of low trees and shrubs. It then sits and waits for tasty insects to get caught in the web.

Christmas Beetle ( Anoplognathus pallidicollis )

These beetles are scarab beetles that are most active in the warm summer months. They feed on eucalypt leaves. They lay their eggs in the soil, and develop for about a year feeding on organic matter and plant roots. The larvae pupate in late winter emerging as adults a few weeks later.

Psyllid. also known as Jumping Plant Louse

Psyllids are sap sucking bugs. When disturbed they jump or fly away. They are very host specific, feeding on plants from one or a few related families. In my garden they seem to like lots of plants.

The Black House Spider is found on tree trunks, inside curled up leaves and around the house under the eaves, on window ledges and similar places. It eats insects such as moths, flies and beetles. The female never leaves her web unless she is forced to. When ready to mate males search for females in their webs, and pluck the web to attract her attention. This photo looks like a male visiting a female in her web.

Source of information: OzAnimals Australian wildlife website.

levels of garden

2012-01-23T17:57:00.001+11:00

I'm thinking garden thoughts ...

... thinking not so much of types of gardens as levels of garden. Dream garden (unconscious garden), garden in the mind (mental garden), blog garden (garden in cyberspace) and the 'real' physical garden that can be seen outside the windows and that needs muscle power to influence.

... thinking about how these levels of garden are inter-related but different, and how they have evolved over time. For instance, I don't know how my ongoing dream garden affects the others. What I know is that my dream garden is so big that I can't really manage it. There are parts that are totally uncontrolled / beyond control, other bits that I manage to create garden pictures in. Now that I think of it, I can only manage a bit of it because I leave most of it. It's big and shadowy - I don't dream in colour. I love this dreamscape and look forward to being there in intermittent dreams.

There is a kind of a conversation between the garden in the mind and the physical garden. For decades I would have grand ideas for re-arranging the garden, unable to decide on an acceptable structure. That is the reason that it is over 30 years old and still has so many small trees.

Lately when I walk in the garden I'm not thinking about changing things so drastically. I notice the trees slowly growing and imagine what it will look like when it's not so vertically challenged.

I think about how the garden can be a site for enchantment - attracting as many wild things as possible, and keeping human intervention to a minimum. One idea is to do more photographing of teddy bears and other toys in the garden, to illustrate their various adventures. Another is to build simple cubbies or platforms in the trees for my little grandchildren. There are three nesting boxes for wildlife and I want to provide something similar for J and S.

I have learned that, just like the physical garden, I can ignore the blog garden for a while and it will still be there when I get back. One has spam to get rid of, the other has weeds. Like weeds, some spam is worse than others. And sometimes you get unplanned precious things, like wildflowers self seeding, and wonderful cyber-friends who provide support and motivation and ideas and information and inspiration.

garden bloggers bloom day, Jan 2012

2012-01-16T12:54:00.000+11:00

Last year was the second year in a row that the local weather office recorded above average rainfall after 13 years of below average rainfall. I planned for drought, now I'm spending time just watching the garden to see how it grows in this unexpected wet. Busy, as well as not feeling exactly crash hot, when I have time and energy I mainly concentrate on liberating overgrown paths. And reading the camera manual because I am still doggedly (catmintilly?) trying to improve my photographs and am an extremely challenged and slow learner in the field of photography.

The colour's bizarre here but I must show off the yellow tomatos that seeded themselves in the garden. It would be so wonderful if they naturalized and became like wild bush tomatoes.

My War Against Agapanthus continues, and mostly now they grace the compost heap.

After a feast of pecan nuts I chucked the shells on the garden, including a few that hadn't opened. Somehow an enterprising spider managed to open one and placed the half with the nut intact, high in a lavender bush suspended by its web. The spider is living behind the nut.

I thought the pokers in the front garden were orange but this yellow one appeared. Although it's beautiful I didn't think it went with the pink and orange and blue colour scheme. So as soon as it let its guard and drooped, I dug it up and gave it to C. who is starting a new garden.

The wallflowers are still blooming, I guess because they like the rain, but also because I am learning to give less them less active care, and more passive appreciation.

Different coloured love-in-the mist with valerian and Californian poppies in the background.

Sage plants with large leaves provide contrast to green foliage and pink penstemons,

and all the while the goddess watches over the garden.

Thanks Carol from May Dreams Gardens for this meme.

the call of the wild

2012-01-05T23:20:00.000+11:00

Two writers write about wild nature. Griffiths sees wildness in special places lightly touched by people, places where shamans live, where people still exist by hunting and gathering. Everywhere else is wasteland. Marris see nature nearly everywhere - in people's gardens, in parks, farms, strips of land next to fast food places, roundabouts. Even where there's concrete, after a while green shoots creep through the cracks. It's not pristine, but it's nature, and can be thought about, and changed by us, for the better. Marris is looking at the now. Griffiths is yearning for a lost past.

Emma Marris' Rambunctious Garden: Shaping Nature in a Post - Wild World challenges core taken for granted facts about ecology. It's like changing the lens of your glasses, or blinking and suddenly seeing a picture differently. Not all exotic plants and animals become terrible invasive species. Many thrive and adapt and help to increase biodiversity. If the choice is to let a species become extinct because of climate change, or moving it to a cooler place, maybe it's worth intervening.

Rather than look at the actual species that are becoming extinct, and trying to restore them to an environment that is changing, this ecological model looks at processes. In one area there were grazers, leaf nibblers and wallowers. Then they migrated or became extinct. For practical reasons it may not be possible to reinstate the particular species that lived there, but it may be possible to send proxy species that perform the same functions - an idea called radical rewilding.

There is a paradox here. What appear to be wild places tend to be carefully managed in order to stay 'wild', whereas truly wild places, teeming with exotic species, may not be valued or even noticed. These places can be managed too, an idea called novel ecosystems.

In contrast to these practical future-oriented ideas is the seductive, powerful poetic writing of Jay Griffiths in Wild: An Elemental Journey. Griffiths travelled the world to experience the joy, fear, transcendence and beauty of wildness and wilderness. The lives of hunters and gatherers are painted as a perfect balance of nature until consumer culture catches up with them and throws them off their lands.

Griffiths feels contempt for the contemporary world: A rage against the out of town shopping centre, placed on the last little chinks of commons, the wild places on the edge of towns ... the commons up for sale - another enclosure... making the Amazon arid and the Arctic an overheated suburbia. It's not that I don't agree with this. It's just that it's presented in black and white. This all or nothing approach is fanatical and doesn't provide us with hope or strategies to deal with hard environmental issues.

Both Maris and Griffiths write about corridors. For Maris corridors are an important way of linking wild places so species can move around. She gives an example of such a corridor next to a freeway in Holland ... humans and wildlife, all busily going somewhere ... For Griffiths corridors are soul destroying: ... corridors of convention ... supermarket aisles ... pavements of nonevents, or those that took no risks... pavements that trod past semi-detached houses, semi-the-same, semi-skimmed milk semi-tasted and always lukewarm.

Maris is practical, pragmatic, tolerant, though no less passionate than Griffiths. There is no one best goal... Here, land for soulful contemplation, plus water filtration. There, land for the tiger and for ten endangered plant species. Over there, a mixed bag of refuge for island species that have winked out on their home atolls. And there, farms with wide boundaries left to go wild and highway medians covered in flowers.

It's so hard to avoid either/or or black/white thinking. I fell into this trap the other day with 3 year old J. We were in the garden, listening. I prefer the sound of birds to the sound of the rubbish truck I said. And what was his predictable reply? I prefer the sound of the rubbish truck!

Check out Montreal: Concrete Gardens for a great example of combining nature, creativity and concrete. It can be done.

nature books for children

2011-12-29T23:17:00.000+11:00

Here are two superb books with two very different approaches to helping children learn about and appreciate the natural world.

One of them is a reprint of a book first published in 1923. If you look very hard at the pictures and the pop up illustrations, this book may help you find a fairy, hiding in a tree, flower or among butterflies.

It tells you what a tree fairy looks like so you know what to look for.

It explains that fairy houses are not easy to see, so you must watch very carefully for hidden entrances.

Don't forget to keep a close eye on butterfies, because fairy wings resemble butterfly wings.

In a garden full of flowers it is likely that there are many fairies.

The other book has been meticulously researched by its Australian author. It has wonderfully detailed pictures and information about the animals, birds, spiders and insects that inhabit the teeming dramatic hidden world of leaf litter.

This book has flaps to lift that show you what is underground.

Under this flap we see a cicada nymph quietly sucking sap from a tree root. It's almost fully grown and ready to crawl out of the leaf litter.

Lots of animals are having babies now that spring has arrived.

A brown snake has just woken from hibernation. It's hungry, smells mice with its flickering tongue, slides down the burrow, catches the father mouse and swallows it whole.

Now it's summer, and insects split their pupal cases and nymph skins and change into butterflies, moths, praying mantises and lots more kinds of insects. A southern brown tree frog climbs back into the tree for safety after it was knocked to the ground by a bird looking for insects.

There's so much to see and so much to learn in the Things to Find section. Some of these Things to Find are tiny and subtle. For example, on one page can you spot a half chewed leaf and the katydid that ate it? And a fascinating fact if you don't already know it or have forgotten: Like grasshoppers katydids hear with their front legs.

So there you have it. You want science based nature? You got it. You want fairies in the garden? You got it. But why choose? Anything that helps children appreciate nature is worth looking at.

Barker, Cicely Mary (2007) How to Find Flower Fairies. Frederick Warne.
Tonkin, Rachel (2006) Leaf Litter. Angus and Robertson.

lost in the garden

2011-12-22T22:29:00.000+11:00

Once upon a time there were four bears called Mummy Bear, Daddy Bear, George and Georgina. They lived in a very small house with a very large garden.

Every morning after breakfast George and Georgina went out into the garden to play.

One day they didn't come home for lunch.

Mummy and Daddy Bear were very worried. They went into the garden to look for their children.

In the front garden they met a bird called a Guinea Fowl. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked.

I did see the Teddy Bears early today

They stayed and they played

Then they went on their way.

On the wall of the house they saw some flying ducks. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked one.

I did see the Teddy Bears early today

They stayed and they played

Then they went on their way.

In the back garden they met a man playing a clarinet. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked. But the man just kept playing his clarinet and didn't answer.

Further down the path they met a dog called Potter. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked. But Potter was watching a Monarch butterfly and didn't hear them.

Next they met some rabbits with blue eyes. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked.

We did see the Teddy Bears early today

They stayed and they played

Then they went on their way.

By this time it was starting to get dark, and Mummy and Daddy Bear were more worried than ever.

Right at the end of the garden near the compost heaps they met a kind and wise gnome. Have you seen George and Georgina? they asked. The gnome didn't answer. He just pointed to the tall Willow Myrtle tree at the bottom of the garden.

Behind the tree they found the two little bears, lost and hungry and thirsty.

So they all went home together and had some delicious food before they went to bed.

Goodnight, little bears ...

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day December 2011

2011-12-13T22:35:00.000+11:00

I appreciate Carol from May Dreams Gardens hosting this meme, but I am interpreting blooms very widely, to mean anything that's looking good and / or has photographed well.

Summer's started, and as usual, there has been a wide variety of gardening conditions: hot, cold, wet, dry and everything in between. These photos were taken on a bright sunny day, when there were shadows to contend with, a photographic challenge.

This is a portion of the trunk of the Grand Old Tree at the bottom of the garden, the Australian willow myrtle. Unlike the other, newer trees, this one has had the chance to age and weather characterfully. I hope to emulate it in my ageing journey.

The seedpods of the blue fescue hang over the path, marking the progress of time and growth, and as attractive as the blue grass itself.

This photo reminds me of a post impressionist painting, with dots of coloured light. This is the bed with a profusion of flowers - valerian, opium poppies, society garlic, Californian poppies, catmint.

The feiijoa tree is starting to flower, and fruit. The fruit will be shared by humans and wildlife.

Here is a tangle of leptospermums.

The pink penstemons, verbena rigida polaris and the opium poppy flower at the same time against the new bamboo fence protecting the deck and the house, from the hot western afternoon sun.

In the front garden the plumbago that frames the picture is starting to flower, so the frame gradually changes from green to blue and green.

The smoke bush with its soft, floaty seed pods, lights up the shade.

I used to grow santolina for its foliage, and when it flowered, cut the flowers off. Now I am a grownup and much more laid back gardener, I appreciate the yellow buttons.

The divine pink flowers of the opium poppies are replaced by the seed pods, just as attractive and interesting too.

Orange and pink wallflowers, among my top favourite flowers.

This buddleia Silver Anniversary, is probably the tenth shrub trialled in this corner of the front garden. I think it's finally right, and associates beautifully with another of my fave flowers, orange pokers, called Shining Sceptre.

influence of cyberfriends and new mulching method

2011-12-08T21:46:00.001+11:00

I used to like agapanthus. I preferred the softer smallerones, and I liked the ones with darker blue flowers. I knew some of them werenoxious weeds but I wasn’t sure which ones were which, so I continued to growthem. It was so easy to divide them to fill gaps, and they were totallyreliable.

Then, suddenly, a couple of weeks back, I stoppedliking them. They just looked wrong. Why the sudden shift? Iwondered. The answer is: the influenceof two of my cyberfriends. Phoebe, whose blog is called Ballynoe Cottage, gardens in my home town ofMelbourne, and Diana, of Elephant's Eye fame, gardens in South Africa.

In a recent post Phoebe indicated that shehated agapanthus. I was startled. I started to look at aggies differently. It’sthe time of the year where they’re flowering and I see them everywhere.

Round about the same time that Phoebe made her comment,Diana featured some of her native plants in her blog, including agapanthus.They looked great in her context. I’m not going to run away and join one of the Indigenous Plants Only cults. It’sjust that I’ve gone off Agapanthus. So they have to go – well, most of themanyway.

The other thing that irritated me, for a different reason,were the Canary Island wormwoods. Like aggies, they're great when you wantsomething reliable to fill a space. But they grew too big. They hid their neighboursand spoiled the flow and serenity of the overall garden picture.

I prefer temporary gaps in the garden to plants that upset the overall harmony of the design. Today was the first day in over a week that I had time to garden. Thetemperature soared to over 30°. You had to be obsessional or an idiot tomake garden changes today. I was both.

The plants wilted at me accusingly. The lovely rich soil was suddenlyexposed to hot sun, and I imagined lots of earthworms diving for cover. Hotand tired, I invented a new method of mulching. It’s called Mulching for LazyGardeners, or MLG for short. You just chuck the cuttings and uprooted plants straight onto thebare earth. I can't say it looks lovely. But it looks better than plantsthat look out of place, and it looks heaps better than bare earth soaking upthe heat. And it meant I could go inside and fall in a hot heap.

frogs, developers and cartoons

2011-11-29T23:57:00.001+11:00

Growling Grass Frog (Wikipedia)

How to get the balance right?

In Melbourne one current issue is Frogs versus Developers. On one side is an endangered frog species, supported by the conservation lobby. On the other side are developers, keen to convert green spaces into more housing for the city's growing population. The urban area sprawls and sprawls, and frogs and other wildlife find themselves in an ecosystem inhospitable for their survival.

Is a compromise possible between the frog supporters and the developers? Or is it a zero sum game? Do the developers even understand why the growling grass frog matters? Is it a conflict of basic values?

There's a lot of money at stake. The state government supports the developers. They argue that 1. the frog isn't really endangered and 2. if the present policy is rejected, it will cause land prices to rise.

The fierce lobbying and debate continue ... go, frogs.

Balance? by Julio Carrion Cueva, from Peru

Thirsty Earth, by Miguel Villalba Sanchez (Elchicotriste)
from Spain

Both of these cartoonists are part of cartoonmovement.com - a global network of political cartoonists who believe in and illustrate that ...

There is more than one truth.

slow garden tool for slow gardener

2011-11-25T09:57:00.001+11:00

I was running late. It was nearly 9am. But I hadn't once been in the garden all day. Then I noticed there were some veggie peelings in the compost bin in the kitchen...

Walking along the path to the compost heap I noticed a weed. Not just any weed, but the supremely efficient and clever oxalis with its multiple bulbs and bulblets loosely attached to the roots, just hoping you'll pull on the leaves aboveground so they can drop off and start new lives separate from their parent plant.

I didn't really have time to walk to the shed and get the tool I usually use to carefully prise the earth away so weeds can be lifted holus bolus. I looked around and saw lots of mulch consisting of partially decomposed leaves and twigs.

That was my ah-ha moment when I became a garden tool forager, no longer mindlessly dependent on the commercial garden tool industry!

I picked up a stick and used it as a digging stick, just as countless Australian Aborigines and other people in the world have done for centuries. And it worked. That particular specimen was removed successfully, with none of its smartypants bulblets left to continue the battle for survival of their species.

painted digging stick...

bought on a visit to Finke Aboriginal Community in the Northern Territory.

Finke Aboriginal Community is also known as Atapula.

one of my digging sticks

posts I won't write

2011-11-19T22:59:00.001+11:00

Since I started the blog I've been collecting information to use in posts. The collection grows but there always seems to be something more urgent and immediate to write about. And the scraps of paper and notes on my computer nag at me, demanding recognition.

In an attempt to stop their nagging, I will list some of them in this post and then dispose of them - mentally (hopefully), physically (probably) and emotionally (possibly).

1. Vertical gardens
2. The story of Elspeth Thompson, gardener and garden writer who committed suicide in 2010.
3. Roof gardens
4. The story of the garden of Alnwick Castle and the Duchess of Northumberland
5. Music inspired by gardens, e.g. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves, Debussy's Gardens in the Rain and Delius' The Walk to Paradise Garden
6. Myths about the venomousness of Australian spiders
7. Attracting Australian native birds by planting native bird attracting plants
8. Microbats in Melbourne
9. Bats and the Hendra virus
10. David Worrall and the Archive of Natural and Everyday Australian Sounds (ANEAS)
11. Endangered species
12. Breeding and eating snails (snailfarming.net)
13. Light pollution and the International Dark Sky Association
14. Using coffee grounds in the compost (groundtoground.org)
15. Edible weeds and flowers

garden bloggers bloom day november 2011

2011-11-15T18:36:00.001+11:00

Lots of rain, perfect weather for growing ...

a thryptomene bush for a stick insect to visit

penstemon 'blackbird'

verbena rigida 'polaris'

valerian

artichoke

forget me not

heliotrope

lavender stoechas

smoke bush 'Grace'

nutmeg geranium

opium poppy

kniphofia 'shining sceptre'

santolina

agapanthus

lycoris radiata

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this meme.

mushroom power

2011-11-10T20:29:00.000+11:00

We make up stories to help us understand the world around us.

We are part of nature. But if we are to keep our human identities we need to see ourselves as apart from nonhuman life. In the case of werewolves, what is supposed to be separate - animal and human nature - becomes hybridized. Animals, especially mammals, are sufficiently like us for this strange idea to be plausible. A human - plant hybrid is harder to imagine, weirder.

Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer is a highly recommended book if, like me, you like sci fi / fantasy / horror genres.

Nature grows around us, upon us and within us in the form of microbes, bacteria and funghi. In this book, funghi are depicted as scary, malevolent and sinister.

A long time ago a city was razed to the ground and its people massacred. The city of Ambergris was built over the ruins. The survivors of the original city, the Gray Caps, were driven underground. Some people believe that they are in the process of reclaiming the city, using fungal spores and fruiting bodies to control the minds of the human inhabitants and forcing them to do their will. Others deny this as weird, crazy and impossible fantasy.

Historian Duncan Shriek is driven to explore the underground territory of the Gray Caps. In the process he is changed, transformed.

' The paleness that had taken over his features had blanched away any expression, any life, in his limbs, in his movements ... Beard like the tendrils of finely threaded spores ... Clothes stained everywhere with spores, reduced to a fine, metallic dust that glittered blackly all around him... trailed tiny obsidian mushrooms, trembling off of him at every turn ... Eyes embedded with black flecks, staring at some nameless vision just beyond me ... A dark green smell brought from deep underground. A subtle interweaving of minerals and flesh and fungus... The smell of lichen and moss ...flesh penetrated by fungus ... every pore cross-pollinated, supersaturated ... the flesh alive and prickly.'

In the real world, funghi are everywhere and scientists are learning more and more about them. I have often noticed a network of fine white threads growing on the roots of plants. They are mycorrhizae. They benefit plants by taking in water and minerals from the soil and sharing these nutrients with the plants on which they grow. These mycorrhizae networks can be vast, linking vast forests of trees of different species.

A scientist called Ren Sen Zeng at South China Agricultural College believes that the mycorrhizae also enable communication between plants, calling them the 'internet of plant communities'. It's still a theory unproven outside the lab, but maybe the story of Ambergris is not as fanciful as it seems. Certainly after reading this book, getting a fungal infection will never be the same again.

This mycorrhiza includes a fungus in the genus Amanita (Wikipedia)

the fourth dimension

2011-11-04T19:41:00.002+11:00

There usually seem to be gaps in the garden - holes or spaces in the overall four dimensional picture. Some of these gaps are positive, a transitional space. Other gaps are unwanted and unattractive, although probably necessary as learning experiences. The way I tell the difference between the gaps is by feeling more than by seeing - a powerful visceral response. This feeling is what guides me: cut that back, get rid of this completely, move this there, move that here ...

It has only been 2 weeks since the open garden weekend. By the time one week had passed, I had already reclaimed the garden by making changes. In the lead up to the public opening, well meaning friends and relatives advised me to stop cutting things, stop moving things, because the garden looked so nice. And it did, but it changes rapidly and by denying the effect of time, I fell into the trap of trying to preserve something that is inherently shifting and fluid. In other words, trying to do the impossible.

So ... within the last 2 weeks, among other things, I have ...

- cut the dead wood out of the Derwentia perfoliata shrubs, and shaped them a bit,

- dug up the two Grevillea Moonlight plants near the fence where the cubby was. This left the three Grevillea shiressii plants to grow to cover the fence and in time enclose the circular paving where the seat is. I moved one of them so they were all spaced evenly,

- dug up two artichoke plants to give to H who is making a new garden,

- moved the pink flowered Alyogyne - that was near the bare fence where the cubby was - to the back near the other pink flowered Alyogyne in between the still smallish Eucalypts. When they grow together they'll form a background of grey and pink that I think humans and wildlife will appreciate,

- pulled out nearly all the self seeded crimson and white lychnis and put them in the compost. They'll be back ...

before

after

- cut the three Adenanthos plants back very hard and moved the small one so the three are ranged evenly around the spot where the path widens into a circle.

before

after

- moved 3 Dianella 'Cassa Blue' plants from where they were less needed to fill in spaces around the suddenly small Adenanthos,

I reluctantly decided to spray the Acanthus molli with glysophate but when I started, a small beetle and a spider moved from the back of a leaf and looked at me reproachfully. I stopped, and vow NEVER to use that poison again. I will cut A. mollis back, dig it up, control it as much as I can, but accept it is here to stay in the garden. And it's not all bad. It has great shaped leaves that the Romans used to decorate their Corinthian columns.

I feel and think that the overall effect of these changes are increased lightness, peace and harmony in the garden.

a visit to Healesville Sanctuary

2011-10-29T23:41:00.000+11:00

I've always been unsure about zoos. I don't like it when animals are seen as objects for entertainment. If there is a real attempt to understand the needs of wildlife in relation to their environment, then I don't mind so much. But when there are also programs to protect the environment, raise community awareness and rescue individual animals, then it is definitely worth supporting.

In the wild you can't count on spotting a Barking Owl, Platypus, Dingo, Koala, Greater Bilby, Red Kangaroo, Emu or Tasmanian Devil. In Healesville Sanctuary you will definitely see these creatures, and in as natural an environment as possible.

The Satin Bower Bird has a unique and complex courtship behaviour. In the bird pavilion I was privileged to see - and video! - a bower bird in the process of constructing a bower. The males build a structure, called a bower, and decorate it with brightly coloured found objects, mostly blue, in order to attract a mate.

The Superb Lyrebird is a ground dwelling bird that is notable for its ability to mimic natural and man-made sounds in their environment. The male has a large beautiful tail that he displays in courtship.

The Australian Wildlife Health Centre is based at the Sanctuary.

My friend S. from Scotland and I saw two orphan babies: a wallaby and a wombat. They were being raised by caring staff members, who took it in turns to take them home for night care and feeding. These animals need special lactose free milk, and staff take it in turns to take them home and feed them during the night.

what do you see?

2011-10-26T20:34:00.000+11:00

What do you see?
Well, I see a lot of different shades of green.

What do you see?
I see some trees and tall bushes, and of course they hide what is behind them.

What do you see?
I see gaps!

I really did not want people, other than family and friends, to see the garden. I felt it would be an invasion of privacy. And so it was.

But, maybe paradoxically and certainly surprisingly for me, something powerful happened over the weekend. I think of it as an epiphany.

I was standing on the deck looking at the garden, and slowly scanning the space so of course what was focal changed as I moved my focus from one side to the other. What struck me as never before was the enormity of what Catmint has achieved and the extraordinary beauty of the totality.

I guess that for the ﬁrst time I saw the garden as an enormous canvas that is enormously rich and variegated. So, for the ﬁrst time I saw the garden as a highly complex art work that is for ever changing, and yet, despite the change, there is a frame. The frame is constituted by the fence and walls that separate the garden from our neighbours and the street. In addition the frame is constituted by the meandering paths that take one through and round the garden. There are parts and sections but they all coalesce to form a stunning creation.

- written by R, the man Catmint shares her life with.

open garden weekend

2011-10-24T17:28:00.000+11:00

It's over. The money's banked, signs taken down, plant labels removed. In all nearly $600 was raised for Bush Heritage Australia.

I enjoyed the weekend immensely and think a good time was had by almost all the 241 visitors. One notable exception was the man who diligently walked round and round the garden looking for the garden. When he failed to find it, he returned to the entrance table and bitterly complained that he was conned.

One of the visitors was blogger and cyberfriend Faisal, from the wonderful, aesthetically quirky blog Gardener in the Distance. Faisal stepped outside of cyberspace especially in order to visit my garden. It was great to meet him in person.

The garden performed brilliantly, responding to the special occasion and to perfect garden weather - a bit of heat followed by good rain. Dietes grandiflora metaphorically gave me the thumbs down by coming into flower today - too late for the visitors - but there were plenty of other flowers and it wasn't missed.

The group of Leptopsermums in front of the deck have never looked better and I should have known they would be a star attraction. Since I wasn't sure exactly what kind of tea trees they were, there was much debate about them. Some people thought they weren't a tea at all, but were a thryptomene. I said I thought they were tea tree flowers and thryptomene flowers were different. And I thought thryptomenes didn't grow so large. But several visitors were unconvinced.

Then I learned something very interesting. Everyone believes the person who sounds most authoritative. One visitor said it was a definitely a New Zealand Manuka and we all bowed to her authority. It was the next day that I trawled the net and discovered that Manuka is the genus name in New Zealand, as is Leptospermum here in Australia. So we still didn't know the species name.

I decided it must be L. laevigatum and labelled it as such. Now I was the one who assumed authority and no one challenged me. After the last person left, the phone rang and it was a Saturday visitor who had taken a sprig, showed it to her sister, an Australian native plant expert, who said it was without doubt L. brevipes. I'm inclined to believe her, so unless proved otherwise, that is what I shall call these graceful shrubs.

Many people wanted to know the names of plants, and mostly I could help. There is one unusual fern, however, that has been in the garden for at least 28 years, and the only other place I have seen it is in the Botanical Gardens. I don't know its name, and hadn't put in the work to identify it. It is a little clump quite tucked away, but at least 3 people noticed it and asked me what it was. If anyone knows that will be great, otherwise I will get onto it soon - when I recover my voice and my energy.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - October 2011

2011-10-14T20:04:00.001+11:00

This is a small selection from the spring happenings in the garden ... I think my passion for pinks and purples is showing ...

Australian Native Hibiscus: Alygyone heuglii

African and Seaside Daisies: Osteospermum ecklonis and Erigeron karvinskianus

Diggers Speedwell; Derwentia perfoliata

Chocolate Lily: Arthropodium strictum

Spindly Gervillia: Grevillea endlicheriana

Crab Apple: Malus ioensis

creating and filling spaces

2011-10-09T10:55:00.001+11:00

about 1985

There used to be a cubby in the garden.

Jan 2009

When it became unsafe it was dismantled.

Feb. 2009

That left a gap.

Feb. 2009

You could see the fence.

May 2009

So I started planting to soften it and cover the fence asap.

Oct. 2011

You can still see the fence.

Oct. 2011

The picture is getting better, softer...

Oct. 2009

Oct. 2011

...it just takes time.

March 2009

18 months ago I planted this snow gum - Eucalypt pauciflora.

Oct. 2011

It just took time ...

it's not fun

2011-10-05T22:55:00.000+11:00

Blogging for me is not about making money. It's supposed to be for fun.

It's not fun when photos are replaced by sinister black squares with exclamation marks in their middle and you don't understand why or how to fix it.

It's not fun losing your favourite photo of fluffy cosy possums sleeping in their nesting box because you didn't back it up.

It's not fun when different browsers do different things with your blog's photos and you dont' understand why or how to fix it. Firefox is the browser that Blogspot recommends but I find it the worst. Photos I load either are weirdly large or nonexistent. Chrome used to be more reliable but now it's got nearly as many black squares where photos used to be as the other browsers.

It's not fun when you don't know if you've been hacked or whether you're just not computer literate enough to solve the problems.

It's not fun ...

21 sleeps to go

2011-10-01T13:44:00.006+10:00

Have been busy gardening whenever I have the time. I've dug out about half the leaves and soil in front of the back fence so there's a trench to stop it rotting. That's because the garden's on a slope and I don't have anything so sophisticated and sensible as terracing. I've put the leaves in the side of the compost that's ready for the garden. When I've put the rest of the leaves there I'll spread the whole lot on the garden and then transfer the big pile to the other side so the top is on the bottom and the bottom is on top.

In other gardening tasks I think I am learning a bit of restraint, managing with some difficulty to avoid short back and sides haircuts. I'm still liberating paths and cutting back overhanging branches. Yesterday I did move a couple of smallish plants but I'm basically finished the re-arranging - probably ...

The garden's filling out, appreciating the deluges of rain we've had lately. So the gaps are still there but not so stark and awful as they were a few weeks ago.

I have decided to try to put photos of as many plants as possible in the pages on the home page of the blog. It's quite time consuming, and trying to organize them neatly is a bit like sitting on a bucking bronco. Not that I've ever done that, or ever intend to do it.

Best news of all: I didn't know if the nesting boxes were occupied. Then V. took this brilliant photo of furry cosy sleeping bodies.

this photo got lost in cyberspace - will be re-inserted when re-photographed.

Just now a Red Wattlebird stopped by to eat nectar from the Gastrolobium celsianum that has climbed up into the tea trees. I managed to photograph it through the window. The red Gastrolobium flowers are the same colour and shape as the distinctive red wattles on the bird's neck. According to Wikipedia, a wattle is a fleshy dewlap - a longitudinal flap of skin that hangs beneath the lower jaw or neck of many vertebrates. A bit like a rooster.

tiny toxic scraps in the garden

2011-09-25T23:22:00.001+10:00

You’d think stuff would be either suitable for composting ornot. We know that organic material is biodegradable, and we know thatmetal and plastic things aren’t. If only life were so simple …

I used to be pretty laid back about what I chucked in thecompost. By trial and error I would findout what’s biodegradable.

Take those shopping bags we buy thinking we’re helping theplanet by using them instead of plastic bags. After a few months I notice the wormsare ignoring them and they look the same as they used to. I realize they arenot biogradable. Same forsynthetic materials. I never knowfor sure what synthetic looks like until I observe the absence of worms and thenon-ragged pristine look.

I often find little scraps of white plastic in the compostand in the garden. Because they’re such small scraps Iassumed they were in the process of biodegrading – therefore good for thegarden.

The other day I was listening to a marine scientist talkingabout the plastic rubbish in the ocean. Her research involved getting sea birds to regurgitate the plasticdebris they had swallowed. That was good for the health of the sea birds andenabled a measurement of the damage we are doing to the environment.

What she said next was illuminating and shocking. She said that plastic does notbiodegrade in the sea. Instead it breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces.This is very dangerous to smaller sea creatures because the plastic ends up intheir bodies and it contains poisonous toxins.

The penny dropped with a clang. That was what was happeningin the compost and garden! The plastic wasn’t biodegrading, it was justbreaking up into smaller and smaller pieces!

Plain cardboard and newspaper make worms, slaters, centipedes and tiny jumpy flea-like creatureshappy, and provide a good medium for plants to grow. Unfortunately - surprise, surprise - the commercial demand for shiny advertisementstrumps the health of the environment.

I’m on a mission to pick up the tiny plastic scraps in thegarden and compost, and put them where they belong - in the non- recyclablerubbish bin.

34 sleeps to go

2011-09-20T20:27:00.001+10:00

34 sleeps to go till the open garden weekend. Despite temptation I have managed to retain my gardening integrityby doing nothing different to what I usually do.

That means that I have continued to fill gaps either withtransplants or by buying small plants.

It means that I have continued to arrange and re-arrange the garden whenever I needed to, using my Potential Future Vision.

It means that I haven’t bought large plants to achieve aninstant effect.

It means that I haven’t used annuals to plug gaps.

Last weekend I was even brave enough to have a party here tocelebrate J’s third birthday.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - September 2011

2011-09-15T21:59:00.001+10:00

Spring started soft and lovely, sap rising prolifically ... then came a cold wet period. But I didn't mind because I'd finished spreading compost and knew the worms would appreciate the moisture.

hellebores

blue bluebells and blue grape hyacinths, orange wallflowers
and in front greenish-yellow euphorbia martinii

buddleia silver anniversary

white banksia rose - look, no thorns!

camellia

correa dusky bells with forget me nots

love in the mist surrounded by forget me nots
a study in blue

Campanula poscharskyana or Serbian bellflower

Lasiopetalum macrophylum or velvet bush

Thryptomene saxicola alba

nasturtiums to add peppery taste and edible flowers to salad

blue bells

Gastrolobium melanopetalum

Philotheca myoporoides

Cistus x skanbergii

Lavatera maritima

... appreciation to Carol from May Dreams Gardens for hosting GBBD.

listen to this

2011-09-09T15:45:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I went to a concert of 20th century English music played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. One of the pieces was The Lark Ascending, by Vaughan Williams.

I found it incredibly lovely. It has been said of this work: 'By no other composer is the interdependence of man and nature more movingly expressed' (Wilfrid Mellers).

The English Pastoral movement aimed to promote and defend the landscape against the rise of industrialism. Writers who did this included Thomas Hardy, and Vaughan Williams did it with music.

The French composer Olivier Messiaen also had a passion for bird songs and incorporated them into his music.

grass or lawn? that is the question

2011-09-02T07:15:00.000+10:00

‘One thing that never goes astray in a lawn maker is a measure of insanity, but the main thing is choosing the right grass species and strain or variety.’ (The Lawn: A Social History, by Peter McInnis)

I used to have a lawn. I never really thought about it – it was just what you did. It was for providing a contrast to the garden beds, space to lie on and for children to play on. I loved the new experience of gardening but somehow never enjoyed maintaining the lawn. I had an aversion to the sound of the lawn mower. Weeding was a pleasure in the garden beds, but an impossible and never-ending task in the lawn. And there were serious lawn hazards. You had to watch out for dog poo. When you went barefoot you had to be careful not to stand on a bee.

back garden 1980s

back garden about 1987

When I went trekking in the Indian Himalayas I encountered my first alpine meadow, natural grassland maintained by snow, ice, wind, sun, grazing goats and other animals. It was soft, perfect and lovely, consisting of perennial grasses, sedges, wildflowers and low-lying shrubs. A far cry from the expensive, time consuming mono-cultural thing that is lawn.

Western Himalayan meadow (Wikipedia)

Lawn is a modern phenomenon. Until recently people didn’t have the time, energy, tools and space to make a lawn. Modern technology, lawn mowers, fertilizers, etc. both provided the opportunity and fed the desire of people to tame and control their piece of land. Grass has been seen as representing wildness, freedom and anarchism, and lawn representing stultifying tidiness and conformity.

Lawn hasn’t been all bad. It enabled the rise of the game of croquet and, more recently, golf, tennis, football and other sports. But as the climate changes we realize increasingly that lawn is not environmentally friendly. Lawn is sterile. It provides no food or shelter for wildlife. It requires lots of water. I suspect that the growing demand for fake grass is already spawning lucrative business opportunities.

In the 1970s I had a lot of lawn. Over the years, gradually, relentlessly, I dug up the lawn and extended the planting area. Today there is no grass, not even on the nature strip in the street.

naming and framing

2011-08-28T10:52:00.001+10:00

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is wonderful as far as it goes, but it focuses on individual plants and not the bigger picture. In this post I look at some groupings of plants and the picture they make together. In some cases the pictures were planned, but mostly evolved through trial and error.

These combinations wouldn't have been discovered without a willingness (oh all right - compulsion) to arrange and re-arrange the garden until it looks right. The best thing that can happen to a gardener, I think, is to receive unexpected welcome surprises in the form of self- and gardener- seeding plants that end up, almost coincidentally, making great garden pictures.

Unexpected welcome surprises are more likely to happen when gardener and garden are working together in a mutually respectful cooperative loving relationship.

1. Thryptomene saxicola 'F.C. Payne' 2. Leptospermum Petersonii 3. Adenanthos sericeus

The pink Thryptomene flowers are at eye level as you follow the path around. On the left of the path are the gnarled branches of the tea trees that were planted soon after the garden was started - and, amazingly, managed to stay in situ without being moved. Behind the seat is the soft green foliage of the Albany Woollybush.

1. Pittosporum tenuifolium 'James Stirling' 2. Eucalyptus leucoxylon dwarf form 3. Westringia 'Wynyabbie Gem' 4. Gastrolobium celsianum 5. Hakea sericea 6. Agonis flexuosa

Pittosporum, Hakea and the tall majestic Agonis (Willow Myrtle) combine to form the background, or picture frame. Pittosporum is not native to Australia, the other two are, but I think they combine well. Two Westringia (Native Rosemary) plants form a short hedge in front of the compost area. The Gastrolobiums growing along the path grow into the Westringia and the mauve and red flowers look wonderful together. The gum tree is one of a group of three, and needs more time to get taller and more established.

1. Pittosporum tenuifolium 'James Stirling' 2. Acacia iteaphylla 3. Lomandra longifolia

This picture shows how contrasting foliage can look good even without flowers. I'm not sure which variety of Lomandra longifolia this is, but it's a large one with wide thick leaves, as opposed to the variety that is more delicate looking, with grey foliage, growing in other parts of the garden.

1. Leptospermum morrisonii 'White Opal' 2. Thryptomene 'Supernova' 3. Lomandra longifolia 4. Nigella damascena (Love in the Mist) 5. Leptospermum? 6. Eucalyptus leucoxylon dwarf form 7. Leptospermum petersonii

These are all natives except the thickly self seeded Love in the Mist underneath the shrubs. The presumed Leptespermum, of unknown variety, appeared several years ago, self seeded. I used to think it was another Thryptomene 'Supernova'. Then it grew and it became clear it had a different habit. It has tea tree-like flowers so I assume it is a Leptospermum. But I am not sure what form or variety it is.

1. Leptospermum, self seeded 2. Leptospermum petersonii 3. Wind chime 4. Correa 'Dusky Bells' 5. Violets 6. Homemade seat / shelf 7. Forget me nots, self seeded 8. Canary Islands Wormwood

This picture shows the value of incorporating non-plant materials into the picture. The paths join and widen out, providing a break from the plantings. There's usually one or two chairs here to facilitate sitting, relaxing and contemplation.

The wind chime looks attractive and its sounds are generally gentle, unless there is a very strong wind. Even so, I worry that the wildlife don't really need yet another human-made sound.

I'm not very confident at building things, but for the shelf cum seat I simply laid one railway sleeper on top of another with leftover paving stones for the top layer.

1. Cotinus 'Grace' 2. Plumbago auriculata 3. Euphorbia characis 4. Erysimum cheiri 5. Santolina chamaecyparissus

This is in the front garden. The picture changes markedly over the year. This is a winter picture. The Smoke Bush still has bare branches and the Plumbago is a green screen, with no blue flowers yet. The wallflowers are just starting their display of orange flowers. The Euphorbias - characis, rigida and martinii, come and go as they self seed and I either leave them or move them. The Santolina doesn't change and provides a year-long frame for the birth bath and the pebbled area around it.

P.S. I'm sorry the photos aren't better quality. I am still struggling with the different lenses, and how to take wider shots that are still clear.

the trouble with echiums

2011-08-19T21:28:00.000+10:00

This is the photo of my garden in the current guide to Australia's open gardens. It was taken last October.

The foreground features twin towers of flowering Echium candicans 'Heronswood Blue.' In front of the echium are masses of parsley in various stages of seeding. On the left you see a hint of pink wallflower blooms - Erysimum cheiri 'Winter Joy'.

None of these 3 plants are growing there now.

The OGA (Open Gardens Australia) coordinator requested a photo taken around the same time as the garden would be open. I dutifully complied. It was a sensible idea, presumably because visitors would have an idea what to expect. Except, in my case, that part of the garden no longer looks like that.

Instead it looks like this.

It's an example of the continually evolving nature of this kind of gardening. Here's how it happened.

Firstly the parsley grew, seeded itself and died, just as it was supposed to, leaving a gap. The gap could have been filled by new parsley plants but I left them to their own devices and they appear to have moved to another part of the garden.

Secondly - an explanation of the fate of the wallflower. That particular specimen had been thriving in that position for about a decade. During that time it flowered profusely for most of the year. By last summer its beauty was ravaged by age. It was no longer an attractive shape, and was sparse and leggy. I cut it back and it started to re-grow - but too slow, too slow ... It simply was no longer the thing of beauty that it used to be. So ... I said 'so long' and 'thank you', took some cuttings and deposited it in the compost heap to continue its presence in the garden in another form.

Third, the majestic echium shrubs finished flowering by the summer. The shrub was leggy and to my mind looked over-large and unsuited to that position. So I cut it back until it looked OK. It only looked OK when it was nearly invisible. Some perennial echium are better treated as annuals, although the echiums in the back of my garden manage to look good all the year round.

Then I had an idea. E. wildpretti is biennial and much less dense and bulky than E. candicans. I think it is a similar size to the artichoke that are growing in that area and I thought they might look fabulous together. So ... after a trip to Heronswood to buy the biennials followed by a bit of garden rearranging, I have finished that bed for the moment and am waiting to see if my idea will work out.

And that is how and why the garden changes.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - August 2011.

2011-08-15T12:04:00.000+10:00

Regret is a futile emotion. So I'll just say it and move on. I wish I had joined Garden Bloggers Bloom Day years ago. I've joined now, and this is my GBBD debut post.

From now on, thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, on the 15th of each month I will, like 183 other bloggers (yesterday's tally) post pictures of what is blooming in my garden.

First - the back garden ...

Heliotrope Cherry Pie

Penstemon Blackbird

Ipheion

Violet

Thryptomene saxicola 'F.C. Payne'

Thryptomene 'Supernova'

Winged Spyridium

Echium candicans 'Silver Pink'

Grouping of echiums and thryptomenes

Gastrolobium celsianum

Feijoa tree, leaves eaten by possums, with new buds

Westringia

Correa flowers, Blue fescue grass, forget me nots, love in the mist

Acacia cognata

Next - the front garden ...

Hellebores and Forget me nots

Helleborus orientalis

Helleborus argutifolius

A Rabbit has come to live in the garden.

impatience

2011-08-05T19:46:00.000+10:00

What, me - impatient? I gotreally impatient at the slow growth of the Grevillea ‘Moonlight’. It didn’t seem to understand my need for it to get going and cover the fence. Preferablybefore October 22^nd, when the garden will on show. I don’t thinkthere’s anything particularly attractive or interesting about a fence.

In a blog we gardeners have the power to direct the eyes ofthe viewer to whatever scene we want people to see. With actual non virtualvisitors to the garden I will not have that protective shield.

Yikes, what have I done?

Looking back at this blog, I discovered that it was inFebruary 2009 that I decided to get rid of the cubby because it was fallingapart and was getting dangerous. I suppose I also was tempted to acquire morespace for plants, otherwise it could have been rebuilt.

Two years down the track and the space where the cubby wasstill is not completely filled.

There’s definitely been progress since 2009.

My impatience seemed justified when I learned from a guru atKuranga Nursery that G. 'Moonlight' didn’t like shade, unlike G. shiressii, whichdid. So I immediately trotted home with 3 pots of G. shiressii. I’d never heard of this plant. The labeltells me it’s a rare species of grevillea with lush, lance-shaped dark greenfoliage, and greenish-blue flowers in spring and winter. Let’s hope rare doesn’t mean it’s going to be afuss pot.

I moved one G. 'Moonlight' to a sunny spot, and asked it nicelyto please grow a lot in the next 3 months. I kept the other 2 G. ‘Moonlight’ where they were but planted 2 G shiresii. close by.

I also added anew pittosporum silver sheen to add to the established hedge. It’s much smallerthan its neighbours so I also asked it politely to get a move on. And gave itsome nice compost to encourage and reward it.

It’s looking good – potentially good, when things grow higher. This last photo manages to hide the barespaces and lack of height. Grow, babies, grow …

a different kind of garden

2011-07-31T00:38:00.003+10:00

Bless, based in Berlin, does design so original it can shock people and loosen restricting preconceptions about what goes with what.

The installation called Windowgarden challenges ideas about inside and outside.

Windowgarden consists of a Perspex system that protrudes into a building. This enables everyone, even apartment dwellers with no balcony, to have a garden.

It's not just about blurring the boundary between indoors and outdoors. It's about bringing the outside in - letting plants and animals into what is generally considered a sacrosant space for humans - the exceptions being well behaved pets and pot plants.

Recently a series of Windowgardens were set up at Craft Victoria.

Windows were removed and replaced with mesh that would let the air in.

Other windows were replaced just to give a different viewpoint.

Interior garden spaces were constructed by local artists and designers and filled with plants and objects.

As well as being a clever idea, Windowgardens can be fun, quirky and creative.

antiquarian gardening books for free

2011-07-23T19:49:00.001+10:00

The beautiful old book with a dark green cover and the title, Encyclopedia of Gardening, in gold lettering, was dated 1824 and cost $340. How sad. I simply didn’t have $340 to spare at the time.

But … like many other books out of copyright, I have discovered I can download and read the full text for free. I found that particular book in Google ebookstore.

Over a million books including many old gardening books, can be read for free by going to The Online Book Page. These include early gardening books published before 1800.

In 1988 Oxford University Press published a beautiful illustrated edition of the first popular gardening book in English – The Gardener’s Labyrinth, by Thomas Hill, written in about 1588. It’s on my bookshelf. It’s not the same as owning a genuine antiquarian book but it’s a great replica, and easier to understand than the original because of Richard Mabey’s introduction and glossary.

Libraries are in the throes of furious book culling, and bookshops are closing down. People are grieving for the demise of books. They say you can’t find books serendipitously on the Web as you can browsing shelves. Given a choice I would prefer to hold a real book in my hand. But if you can’t find a book or can’t afford it, I think this is an exciting development.

So - books are available for free or at minimum cost, on the internet. The real problem is information overload – how to find the time and concentration to read all those books? How to choose, prioritize? The vast number of choices can so easily lead to a state of mind numbing daze.

winter garden update

2011-07-18T21:14:00.004+10:00

Here is one of the agapanthus plants that were divided. It's looking healthy, though not yet a thing of beauty.

Blue fescue is complemented by self seeded Love in the mist.

Tiny pink buds on the bare branches of the crab apple tree give a hint of spring flowers to come. Growing underneath and nearby, bearing winter flowers are the pink flowers of Australian natives Correa Dusty Bells and the paler pink of Thryptomene saxicola F.C. Payne. You can also see the lime green self seeded hellebore in flower.

N gave me some Canna indica from his garden, which is much more showy and tropical looking than mine. I stuck it in a corner because I couldn't think where to plant them. More than a decade later they are still there. During this rainy year they have become statuesquely tall. Impressive I think even without the red flowers.

The violets do need to be culled every so often but they always come back.

You can see why these are called fish bone fern. Weedy and common they may be, but they are welcome here.

A diamonded drop of dew carefully held in a Derwentia perfoliata leaf-cup.

Re-arranging has meant that the Alygyone shrubs were moved at least 6 times. I have placed arrows to identify them - when they grow taller I think they will look good. This is unlikely to happen before the spring garden opening, so viewers will need to exercise their imaginations.

Other plants in this unestablished, immature garden bed include perennial artichokes and biennial echiums. I think they will look wonderful together, but the full effect will not be seen for some time.

gardening and philosophy: book review

2011-07-11T06:52:00.000+10:00

When a book has 18 chapters on 18 different topics by 18 different writers, you would expect to enjoy some chapters more than others. I found the whole of this book pretty interesting and 4 chapters riveting.

If you love to think about the meaning of gardens and gardening, then this is the book for you: Gardening: Philosophy for Everyone - Cultivating Wisdom, edited by Dan O'Brien. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Gardening themes are to do with history, anthropology, ethics, sociology, aesthetics, art, ecology, philosophy, politics, botany ... our entire relationship with our environment, natural and built, dreamed and envisaged.

The chapters I found riveting are worth future posts devoted to them. I'll make do now with brief summaries.

In Escaping Eden: Plant Ethics in a Gardener's World, Matthew Hall argues that plants are living beings and should be thought of as worthy of ethical considerations. They don't exist solely for humans to use as they wish.

In Hortus Incantans: Gardening as an Art of Enchantment, Eric Macdonald writes about the notion of enchantment, a garden as a magical space, fusing nature and art. Dumbarton Oaks is this kind of garden. '... a sacred kind of haven in a disenchanted world, the sort of place where it might be possible to once again become attuned to the mystery and wonder of life.' I think this is the kind of effect that I have been trying to achieve in my garden. This approach celebrates the ever changing complexity and fundamental uncontrollable unpredictability of the garden.

Finally(??), the most fascinating and weird dimension that we and our gardens live and die in: time.

Time and Temporality in the Garden is about different kinds of time: time that measures and time that refers to an appropriate moment - to everything there is a season ... There is subjective, and shared or objective time. And cyclical time. All these kinds of time are experienced in gardens.

Gardens, Music and Time is an even more interesting read. Until I read this I mainly thought of the garden as a work of visual art like a painting, influenced by artists such as Monet. Paintings only deteriorate in time, whereas plants are always growing or dying. Focusing on the visual dimension alone ignores the processes of time, growth and change.

And then there's musical time. All growth is movement, and there is a pattern to this movement in the garden that is analogous to rhythm in music. But unlike in music, this rhythm exists in chronological time and cannot be speeded up, slowed down or erased completely.

'Gardeners use the passage of chronological time as a fundamental artistic material, but by so doing they create their own complex arrangement of temporal patterns and thereby offer us opportunities to think about the implications of time and its passage.'

Contrasting examples of this are Zen gardens that change slowly and invite us to think about geological time, slow moving time or eternity, and a garden of deciduous trees and annuals that changes each year with the seasons and invites us to think about the fleetingness and inevitability of time's passage.

wild doings in the dark

2011-07-03T11:44:00.001+10:00

Artworks, taxidermy specimens from the Melbourne Museum - all part of a wonderful exhibition called Crepuscular*, about nocturnal wildlife in the city of Melbourne. The word Crepuscular, an adjective, has two dictionary meanings: 1. resembling twilight 2. the insects, birds and other other animals active at dawn and dusk.
We know there is terrible loss of habitat and biodiversity, but when daylight fades native and introduced animals emerge from their hiding places to forage for food in parks, laneways and gardens.

The recent drought has persuaded several Powerful Owls (Ninox strenua) to migrate to the city from their traditional home in the forest. In the city 'they discovered parklands overpopulated with game. Swooping on broad silent wings, owls effortlessly pick off and consume preoccupied possums.'

Here's how John Kean, creator of the exhibition, describes the Brushtail Possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula): 'Look up into the forks of the large trees in Carlton Gardens and you are more than likely to see a soft ball of fur curled and asleep and waiting for the moment when the sun dips over the Yarra. As the sky darkens, possums descend head first, and go in search of the remnants of commuters' lunches.'

Back in my garden ... the day before I visited the exhibition Greg cut back the Pittosoporum hedge that had grown so tall it was shading the garden and house. Who did he inadvertently disturb sleeping in a cosy nest? This cute little Ringtail Possum.

* Crepuscular, City Gallery, Melbourne Town Hall, finishes July 12.

you just can't please everyone

2011-06-26T21:53:00.000+10:00

You can please some ofthe people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all the time.

I think it was an American president who said that first,and later Bob Dylan used it. Anyway, now I’m using it, in relation to the garden (of course) and specifically in relation to how people react to mygarden.

People seem to react to my garden in 3 distinctly differentways:

1. There are those who love it. They express interest, curiosity,appreciation and pleasure. They go outside to experience it close up no matterwhat the weather is like. Theynotice things. They notice buds, spiders, flowers, birds, leaves …

2. Then there are those who just don’t noticeit. They might be in the familyroom that has big windows looking onto the garden. They might even be outside onthe deck. How can they not noticethe garden? Maybe they are preoccupied with other things. Maybe they are more attuned to theirinner worlds. Some of the peoplein the non-noticing category are passionate gardeners themselves, growing and harvestingtheir own produce. We may befellow gardeners, we may be friends, but we’re not in synch garden-wise. It's as if a garden that isn't devoted to growing food doesn't really count.

3. Some people react in a way that makes me laugh.They seem to have an idea of what a garden should look like. When my back gardendoesn’t fit with this idea, this makes them uneasy, uncomfortable. I think it feels risky to them. Maybethey see it as wild nature out of control or simply unhygienic. Sometimes they change their minds.

In an early post I wrote about a 3 year old girl who visited with her mother. She looked out at the garden and said: 'Mummy, why is the garden dirty?' The next time Gabriella visited was two years later. This time she was entranced, strolling along the paths and dreamily picking flowers for her mother.

Recently G. dropped in. He stood at the window and stared out at the garden. 'It needs a focal point'. 'It's not that sort of a garden', I explained. 'It's not so much for looking at, it's for being in.' So we wandered into the garden, and he got it. Like Gabriella he got to see it differently and now loves it.

My mother has also changed. Initially the untidiness and presence of insects made her uneasy. I explained the idea of creating natural, relaxed and informal garden pictures, and now she loves it.

Recently we needed an electrician. In between doing whatever it is that electricians do, he silently stared out the window onto the back garden. Then he looked out of the side window and noticed the group of Japanese maples next door. His relief at seeing something familiar was almost palpable. He turned his back on my garden. 'Look at those beautiful Japanese maples! Aren't you lucky to have them outside your window?'

four more trees in the RBG: part 2*

2011-06-21T21:12:00.002+10:00

5. Quercus canariensis (Algerian Oak)

The Royal Botanical Gardens have about 75 trees that have been planted by, or in memory of, prominent people.

This wonderful old oak tree was planted by William Guilfoyle at the entrance to his residence in 1873. Guilfoyle had only recently been appointed as Director of the Gardens and he planted the tree to commemorate the appointment. His former residence, known as Gardens House, is now used for functions.

6. Agathus robusta (Queensland Kauri Pine)

The majestic Kauri is a coniferous tree, a Queensland native. It belongs to the Araucariaceae family and once grew all over the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland.

They grow straight and tall - forest giants. They used to be heavily logged for their highly prized timber. Now they are protected and no longer in danger of extinction in the wild.

7. Metasequoia glyptosroboides (Dawn Redwood)

We were fortunate to see this tree in the autumn, when it was dramatically cloaked in bright orange branchlets. Now that it's winter, it will be leafless. It is a conifer, but is unusual in that it is deciduous.

This tree was growing in prehistoric times. It was known to have existed 225 million years ago through the fossil record, but until 1942 was believed to be extinct. After the discovery of a few specimens in China, seeds were collected and distributed to botanical gardens around the world. Including Melbourne.

The reason it is called Dawn Redwood is because of its age - that it existed in the dawn of history.

8. Pinus patula (Mexican Weeping Pine)

I don't usually like pine trees that much, but this one has a soft, spreading, weeping habit that is very attractive.

Like the oak tree above, this is another commemorative tree with an interesting history. In 1974 the Shah of Iran and his wife, the Shabhanu (Empress Farah), visited Melbourne where they were met with angry protests against their harsh authoritarian regime. While here the Shabhanu planted this pine tree. Four years later they were driven out of Iran and into exile.

*Click here if you want to read the first post about four trees in the Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens

earth stars

2011-06-17T08:22:00.000+10:00

Geastrum saccatum (Photo: Wikipedia)

I noticed these strange fungi a year or so ago. Lately I have been thinking a lot about them as they multiply and multiply. The other plants don't seem to mind their presence. The sage plants have rust or some fungal disease but this is only to be expected in such rainy weather as we've been experiencing lately. I don't think their disease is caused by the mystery funghi.

Now the mystery is solved. A bit of googling, and this is what I learned ...

Its name is Geastrum australe. It is an inedible species of mushroom belonging to the genus Geastrum or earthstar fungi. It can be mistaken for Geastrum saccatum or Geasturm simulans, and is found in Melbourne.

I mentioned that it has rained steadily on and off for months now. The soil is nicely damp after years of heat and drought. Other mushrooms have appeared in the garden as well. Snails have re-appeared after a long absence. Common ordinary garden snails as well as exquisite tiny snails with delicate spherical shaped shells. There is lovely soft green moss between the stones on some of the paths.

I welcome and appreciate mushrooms, snails and moss in the name of biodiversity. The weather will eventually return to heat and drought. Then the mushrooms, snails, moss and other living things that need damp, will disappear again.

And then I will miss my earth stars.

Geastrum australes (Photo: Wikipedia)

the meaning of now

2011-06-11T22:51:00.012+10:00

How do we understand where we are in time, now? Time is relative, and now is understood in relation to other times. We garden in time, and we are aware of our gardens changing over time, measured by days and weeks and the seasons of the year.

Another perspective on now is in relation to the really big picture, geological time. Geologists divide time into aeons, eras, periods and epochs lasting thousands and millions of years.

Until recently scientists regarded now as the Holocene epoch, a term derived from the Greek meaning whole and recent. The Holocene epoch is a ten thousand stable period of time between ice ages. It is characterized by warm clement weather enabling the widespread presence of flowering plants and mammals.

Today many people believe that we have moved into a new age, in which human activity is so powerful and significant that it changes the way the planet works and affects the future evolution of living species.

This new age is to be known as the Anthropocene, also derived from Greek, meaning ‘the recent age of man’. It represents a paradigm shift for the natural sciences. In the past science described a world in which people were merely observers. Now human influence can be detected in nearly all ecosystems, and it is not possible to understand the natural world in isolation from the social world.

We'd better come to terms with this. Because, like it or not, for better or worse, we are shaping our world.

Source of information: The Economist, May 28th 2011

winter garden doings

2011-06-10T19:55:00.011+10:00

It’s winter, and a cold one, but I’m still beavering away doing garden things as if it was autumn. Hopefully the plants will cooperate. If they don’t then visitors will just have to put up with less growth and more gaps when spring comes and the garden has its open weekend.

Visitor: Where's the garden?
Me: It's there, it's a work in progress, it's still in its potential phase.
Visitor: ****???????***???

I decided the front path would look better with nutmeg geranium on both sides. One side has grown into a lovely low hedge edging the path, the other had bits of geranium interspersed with vigorous erigeron. They are pretty little daisies but I am getting a bit sick of them. They seem to be everywhere. (Sorry guys, I admit it, I’m acting ungrateful to you after years and years of loyal service).

So I pulled out the erigeron and threw them on the compost. Then I took cuttings of the geranium and stuck them in the ground alongside the path. Yesterday the temperature reached only 14 degrees. But the soil is rich and moist, and they are tough little plants, so in time we’ll see if they take or not …

I’m still trying to work out where to place some tall trees and shrubs. The two Eucalyptus leucoxlyon looked a bit militaristic as a pair, so I rushed off to my fave native nursery, Kuranga, to get another one to make it an informal-looking group of three.

While I was at the nursery I bought a couple of pots of Derwentia perfoliata (Speedwell) and Gastrolobium melanopetalum (the low form with black flowers) to fill some gaps.

There’s an Alogyne heugelii shrub (native hibiscus) that is tiny because it’s been moved so many times. It’s still not in the right place. So I moved it. The contents of the garden bed it’s in are fairly invisible unless you put on your Potential Vision Spectacles. Then you can see it as I can – with tall plants at attractively varying heights. (Will it / won't it achieve this by spring???????)

As I prune and thin out, both sides of the compost heap are getting very full. Most things go into the compost: fruit and veggie peels, prunings, paper, boxes, old clothes too worn and torn for the op shop. What is definitely not composted are violets. Like erigeron, they seem to be all over the garden, especially during the present extended rainy spell.

I found a large box to store leaves. Leaves decompose much more quickly than other things in the compost. I chuck leaves anywhere I see a gap between plants. I think they look great on the garden, very soft and natural, and are good mulch. To me leaf mulch is like a warm cosy doona, compared to other mulches which are more like a (wet) blanket.

four of the trees in the RBG

2011-06-01T21:20:00.025+10:00

Growing in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne are 4 interesting trees.

Of course there are many MANY more than these! These are just some of the trees that Jan and Garry, our helpful and enthusiastic volunteer guides, pointed out on a recent walk in the Gardens.

1. Gingko biloba (Maidenhair tree)

Gingko biloba is a living fossil. It is a unique species of tree with no living relatives. It was cultivated widely in ancient times, and some specimens are claimed to be over 2,000 years old. (Not the specimen above, that one is a relative newbie).

The G. bilbao is no longer found in the wild except in a few parts of China. China claims a special relationship with this tree. Recently the Chinese ambassador presented the Australian Governor General, Ms Quentin Bryce, with the gift of a gingko seed in a perspex tube.

The leaf shape is beautiful and unique among seed plants. Reproduction is also unusual - Ginkgos are dioecious which means trees are either male or female. The female ovules get fertilized by motile sperm, as is the reproductive way with ferns, cycads, mosses and algae.

It has long been used for its memory and health enhancing properties, as well as for food. In recent times it has been used as a treatment for people with dementia.

2. Acacia laprosa 'Scarlet Blaze' (Cinnamon wattle)

Acacia leprosa 'Garden Blaze' is a rare wattle with bright red flowers. (The tree in the photo has lots of buds but isn't quite ready to show its red flowers). It was discovered as recently as in 1995 a group of bushwalkers in the Black Range State Forest north-east of Melbourne.

On a side track one of them noted a single red-flowering variant of Acacia leprosa among the usual yellow-flowering ones. One of the bushwalkers picked a flower and eventually it ended up in the National Herbarium where it was identified as a new species and given the name 'Scarlet Blaze'.

The tree was subsequently grown in the Gardens from cuttings. Because it was so attractive, as well as compact and easy to grow, it was successfully launched on the horticultural market.

And yet it could so easily have remained undiscovered!

3. Erythrina crista-galli (Cockscomb Coral tree)

Erythrina crist-gall is a slow growing deciduous tree from South America. Its special feature is its beautiful deeply furrowed bark. Its form is achieved by pollarding - a pruning technique that stimulates dense flowering. Branches are pruned annually without disturbing callusing 'knuckles' to provide a spectacular floral display in early summer.

Bark is not only for show. Bark wraps around the trunk of the tree like a suit of armour, protecting the delicate tissues inside. These tissues carry water and nutrients to all parts of the tree. That is why ringbarking a tree can kill it as it cuts into the vital living tissues. The heart of the tree is actually dead. (Bark Factsheet, ABC Gardening Australia).

4. Jubaea cilensis (Chilean Wine palm)

As its name says, Jubaea cilensis comes from South America. The sap of the palm is rich in sucrose and can be boiled down to make palm sugar or fermented to make wine. Unfortunately to do this the palm must be chopped down. Because of this it is now endangered in the wild.

This individual tree is over 107 years old. It was planted by R.L.J. Ellery, Government Astronomer in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ellery lived and worked in the Observatory, a building still situated adjacent to the Gardens. So it is not only an interesting species - this particular specimen is rooted in the history of Melbourne.

In 2009 it was decided that employees of the RBG with 20 or more years of service will have the opportunity to plant a tree in either the Melbourne or Cranbourne Gardens. The tree will not have a commemorative plaque like the one below, but it will provide a lasting personal link for that person and their future descendents with the landscape and its history.

landscapes of yearning

2011-05-31T16:21:00.010+10:00

The Rosenblum family applied for six exit visas so they could escape from Berlin before the Second World War. They only received three, so Jack, Sadie and baby Elizabeth travel to England, never to see Sadie’s parents or brother again. This novel is about their efforts to make a home in their new country, and the different methods they use for trying to deal with their horrendous loss, guilt and grief.

What has this to do with gardens or nature, you may well ask? The answer is - everything, because whatever the theme of the story, Natasha Solomons is first and foremost a landscape writer.

There are three levels of landscape in this novel: the landscape of the human mind, the real landscape of flora and fauna, and the supernatural landscape of spirit and imagination, expressed in ancient myths, stories and beliefs. When these landscapes achieve a harmonious balance, healing happens.

Once the Rosenblums leave the city for the country, the line between humans and the wild becomes blurred. When the weather is kind and gentle, and the garden is blooming, nature is pleasurable. But nature can also be sinister, unpredictable and dangerous.

She kept her mouth tight shut, worried that if she opened it the darkness would pour inside and choke her … There was another sound: a soft thudding and flapping. … As she fumbled with a bolt, the door burst open and a cascade of creatures flew at her, their panicked fluttering filling the air as she screamed out, terrified that they would get tangled in her hair. Looming grey shadows poured out from the cupboard and flapped across the ceiling: she could not tell if they were outsized bats or birds. There was only the thud, thud as they flew into the walls or collided with the window glass. She ran from the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

In time, Jack and Sadie got to know and feel the garden and the countryside. They started to change, started to move further along the path to acceptance.

Despite the usual quarrels with her husband, Sadie felt more peaceful than she had for many years … in the mornings she was woken by the scent of roses seeping through the open windows. The sounds of the wood pigeons in the roof no longer alarmed her…

… At the side of the house the garden reverted to scrub; the hedgerows crept forward and brambles and bright yellow gorse bushes made it impassable. The stinging nettles were five feet tall, yet butterflies landed on them effortlessly, somehow never getting stung. Sadie neither planted nor weeded; Hitler had declared the Jews weeds and plucked them out whenever he found them. She knew that a plant was only a weed if unwanted by the gardener, so she refused to move a single one, and they sprouted up wherever they wanted, between flagstones on the terrace or in a riotous mass in the unruly beds. The garden had been there for too many years for the Rosenblums to make any sudden changes.

As for Jack, he had decided to make a golf course. Creating a golf course entailed an assault on the landscape, a struggle for mastery, to smooth the land out to achieve his dream of owning the best golf course in the country. It was only after many setbacks that he came to understand the land for what it was. He stopped struggling and was able to accept, and work with, the needs and features of the ancient land.

… Something had shifted within Jack … the slow beauty of the country had crept upon him, and he wanted his course to be defined by the rise and fall of the landscape… Jack listened to the men, and learned to listen to the landscape, until it seemed to whisper the direction they should go, and the positions of the holes… he felt time as he dug and raked with his men: the soil was millenia old and held countless lives and deaths – things born or budded, died and rotted.

Surrounded by and steeped in nature, Sadie and Jack had separate supernatural experiences. Sadie saw and kept company with her dead mother and brother. Jack’s friend Curtis told him the old Dorset tales, and these gradually affected Jack and helped him to change too.

… Jack filled his lungs with fresh air and looked again at the light shimmering along the grass. The wind rippled through it like waves on an emerald sea. He felt safe under this big blue sky…

“No one tells us what to do but Jack”, murmured Curtis softly…” Jack-in-the-Green… ‘ee keeps everythin’ in balance.” He gestured to the concrete bungalows on the horizon. “E’ll flood out them houses, in time, turn ‘em back to water meadow an’ muck. Not these ten year perhaps, but ‘Ee will.”

”So, have you ever seen him, this Jack?”

Curtis chuckled. “No one ‘as seen Jack-in-the-Green. ‘Ee’s not like that – a thing or a man. ‘Ee is the trees, an' the gleam in the grass an' the damp mornin' dew an' that feelin' you gits in an evenin' when the wind’s in the ash leaves.

Jack felt a strange sensation in his belly and when he closed his eyes he imagined that he could hear the worms churning the earth beneath the grass. There was something familiar about Curtis’s words, as though he was telling a story that Jack already knew…

“So Jack must have wanted this golf course then?”

“Aye”, Curtis pulled his hat over his eyes and from beneath the brim added, “’Fer now.”

Inside their inner and their outer worlds Jack and Sadie finally find a place they can call home.

the nearly winter garden

2011-05-27T21:13:00.018+10:00

It has been quite cold and there has been lots of rain. Today, even though it is very nearly winter, I divided and replanted some Agapanthus and Valerian plants. I found some old bones that one of our long ago dead dogs, either Zoe or Corey, must have buried. I also found lots of rubble and remembered the bricks we laid over the ground many years ago so we could have a flat surface for a table and chairs. Then I remembered how one day I decided I wanted more garden and removed them all.

The branches of the Crab-apple tree are smooth and bare.

The Smoke Bushes are still showing off their autumn leaves.
There are two different varieties, Velvet Cloak and Grace.
They show different vivid colours.

I liberated some paths from leaves and overgrowing things.

There are a few flowers, including some Californian poppies that are still clinging to autumn.

But I don't need lots of flowers and colours because I love green and grey and different shaped leaves. As in - Derwentia perfoliata, Euphorbia characis and in the last photo - Agapanthus, Fishbone fern and Acanthus mollis. Watched over by a statue that radiates serenity whatever the season.

a flower sandwich

2011-05-18T22:41:00.006+10:00

These are the nests of the Osmia avosetta bee. They consist of two thin layers of petals stuck together by a layer of mud.
The Osmia avosetta bee is a rare solitary bee that is found in Iran and Turkey. The female bee builds the nest and deposits stores of nectar and pollen inside it. Then the bee lays the egg and seals the nest with mud. When the egg hatches the larva feasts on the food.

This picture was published in the Haptic Blog, the blog of Emily Fischer and Haptic Lab, as well as in Jenny Davidson's blog Light Reading. Jenny said the nests reminded her of Titania's bower.

If you didn't know bees made the nests, you might think they were made by fairies.

euphor(b)ia

2011-05-12T10:27:00.002+10:00

What's the difference between euphoria and euphorbia?

Answer - one attracts bees and also has a bee in its name.

Euphorbia, also known as spurge or gopher plant, used to be little known round here, near the bottom of the world. When drought threatened the viability of many well known horticultural favourites, growers realized that here were a number of useful, tough, drought resistant and attractive species. Soon they seemed to be everywhere - in nurseries, parks and gardens.

They generously spill their seed and spread throughout the garden. This is a good thing although sometimes it is a bit too much of a good thing.

They’re not pretty in a floral sense, but are very striking, with interesting strong structural shapes and colours that change through the seasons.

They know how to defend themselves. When you cut them they bleed a sticky white fluid. When this touches the skin it stings and causes a rash. If it gets in your eyes it’s really scary and has been known to cause temporary blindness.

These plants have a family all to their selves: Euphorbiaceae. They also have a society devoted to them. The International Euphorbia Society informs us that it is one the largest families in the world of plants, including about 300 genera and 7,500 species. And these stats do not even include the numerous forms, varieties, and undescribed species!

Currently three species grow in my garden: from top, E.rigida, E.martinii and E.characis wulfenii. They are incredibly interesting, attractive, reliable and useful design-wise. What else could you want from a garden plant?

a different kind of gardening

2011-05-06T23:54:00.004+10:00

A gentle nip and a tuck there, short back and sides here. Somewhere else a determined pulling out by the roots, leaving a not particularly attractive bald spot among the greenery. And all the time imagining the future, but never being quite sure about what will happen next season and the exact details of the garden pictures.

All this is fairly spontaneous, dictated by emotional, design or botanical needs. Gardening as process. At any given time bits of the garden are looking divine and other bits of the garden are looking potentially divine. The time frame for the potentially divine to achieve actual divinity varies from weeks to years.

The thing about gardening as process is that there is no end point. The garden evolves and changes over time. The garden and the gardener in intimate collaboration. The balance of power shifts at different times and in different situations. Sometimes the garden has more power, sometimes the gardener.

That is the kind of gardening I love, the kind of gardener I am. But this year it is different. In spring the garden will be open to the public as part of the Open Garden Scheme.

So gardening's not about process now. It's about getting ready to put on a show. To put on a show you need to Prepare, to have a Plan and a Strategy. More like a military exercise and less like a spiritual one.

I'm not really complaining. I have chosen to do this. I look forward to opening the garden. It's just that the lead up to October is a new way of thinking about the garden and doing gardening. The idea is basically to cut things back now, allowing nearly 6 months for plants to regrow and hopefully get healthy, bushy, lovely plants that associate beautifully with their neighbours.

In the meantime I'll just have to wait and see what happens...

How much of the fence will get covered in time depends on how fast the Grevilleas grow.

Will the Santolinas get bushy by October?


Will the Artichokes and Echiums grow enough to fill the gaps?

autumn leaves

2011-04-29T09:28:00.000+10:00

The leaves on the plane trees in the street turn gold before they dry out and softly, floatily, drop to the ground.

They are there for the taking - piles of leaves on the street, on nature strips and on footpaths. If we gardeners won't take them, the Council will.

So I rake up some of the leaves into a pile and put them in a large plastic bag.

I empty the bag into the compost. Now the compost heaps are piled high with dried out leaves.

Behind the compost heap is an old brick wall. The wall was here when we moved in. It was built for safety purposes, a non flammable surface behind the incinerator. During the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and even the 1980s, all gardens had incinerators to burn rubbish. Leaves were regarded as rubbish then and smoky fires were common in autumn.

How things have changed.

long time growing

2011-04-24T01:38:00.002+10:00

We moved in in 1979. Only two plants from that garden remain today, in the same position now as they were then. They are situated next to each other, between the side fence and the path that goes along the side of the house, just outside the kitchen window.

One of these loyal survivors is a Camellia shrub with a red flower, the other is Coprosma repens, aka Mirror bush or Looking glass bush. Both have survived extreme heat and drought, as well as having their roots mangled when a new fence was erected. They have been cut back, shaped and mis-shaped on numerous occasions. But they have always grown back, sturdy as ever.

Mirror Bush

Camellia

Soon after starting the garden, a loquat seed from the mature loquat tree next door penetrated in the newly turned and weeded soil at the bottom of the back garden. I let it grow there for a while, then decided I didn't want a deciduous tree there, so moved it to another position in the back garden, nearer to the house. And there it has stayed. It is a favourite night time hangout (or clingto?) for possums and I often find their poo on the stone path at the foot of the shrub. Last year they ate many of the leaves but they all grew back later.

Loquat Tree

I love crab apple trees, and one winter in the early 1980s I bought one. Before it found its home in its present position in the middle of the back garden it must have been moved at least 4 times. It was in front of my son's window for a while until I realized how large it would grow. It graced the front garden too for a while. It has grown slowly, partly on account of its nomadic status but also because of the lack of watering. But this year, the wettest by far since the beginning of the garden, it has fruited for the first time.

Crab Apple

The tree below is an Agonis flexuosa. It is an Australian native, aka Peppermint tree or Willow myrtle. It is without doubt the jewel in the crown of the garden. I think I didn't realize how large it would grow when I took it home in the back of the car. It didn't look so wonderful until it matured. Now it has nesting boxes for an owl and a possum family.

Agonis flexuosa

The trees below are an assortment of eucalypts and tea trees. I planted them when I was a complete novice gardener, and now they tower over the garden and attract and provide shelter for lots of birds.

Eucalypts and Leptospermums (Tea Trees)

I planted this Magnolia stellata at the side of the house many years ago and it's still here today.

Magnolia stellata

Finally - the olive tree in the front garden. It was planted when I made the front garden and has not moved since. It has really been getting too big lately, so a few weeks ago I tried to cut it back. Since then it looks dreadful and I realize I need help with dealing with large trees and shrubs. For my protection and theirs.

Olive Tree

catmint garden stats: origins of plant species

2011-04-18T21:25:00.003+10:00

My garden can be seen as a collection of plants. A collection that wasn't planned. It just evolved over 30 years as I experimented, worked out what I liked, what went with what, and - most importantly - what would survive.

Contrary to what I wrote a few posts ago, the garden isn't finished, it's still evolving. Since writing that post I have changed my mind, done a back flip worthy of a politician.

The total number of species in the database is 129 (today). Where do they come from? Most come from Australia - 42. Next largest group is from Europe - 32. Most of the other species are divided fairly evenly between Asia, North America, South Africa and the Mediterranean region - about 11 from each area. Finally, 3 species come from New Zealand and 3 from the Canary Islands (located off the coast of northwest Africa).

Yarrow comes from the Northern hemisphere

The climate over the whole of Australia is so varied that unless you plant purely local plants there doesn't seem to be much point in being restricted to Australian indigenous plants. Besides, I have enjoyed experimenting to see what works well here. Answer: Plants from Europe, Asia, the Mediterranean, South Africa, North America, New Zealand and the Canary Islands.

Hellebores come from Eurasia

I guess it is not surprising that so many plants originated in Europe. I grew up in an Australia that largely identified with England (the 'mother country') and Europe instead of neighbouring Asia. When I got into gardening I saw myself making a cottage garden. My garden influences were Vita Sackville West, Gertrude Jekyll, Edna Walling (who had been influenced by Gertrude Jekyll) and the paintings of Monet and his garden in Giverny. I was also influenced by William Robinson who was Irish and pioneered the paradoxical, exciting and appealing idea of a wild garden.

California poppy: Californa has a Mediteranean climate

Most of the plants originating in Asia came from China or Japan. Such as Japanese anemones, magnolia stellata and mondo grass. I have visited China and was entranced by the parks and gardens, and even by simple roadside plantings. I haven't been to Japan but admire the aesthetics and philosophy of Japanese gardens.

Ivy is native to Eurasia

The Mediterranean region covers parts of 3 continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. The Mediterranean climate includes parts of California, Australia, Chile, South Africa and Central Asia. Plants from these places have done well in my garden and been pretty drought resistant. Examples are Californian poppies, yarrow, ivy, honeysuckle and mint.

Honeysuckle comes from the Northern hemisphere

johnny jumps up in my garden

2011-04-08T21:39:00.001+10:00

The botanical name of this plant is Viola tricolor. This wildflower has naturalized in my garden, and just looking at it makes me feel happy. I notice its absence in autumn and winter and miss its smiley cheeky face.

Viola tricolor is a wild pansy, associated with magic, love and romance for centuries before the round-petalled, cultivated pansy became popular in England around 1810. The wild pansy is known by many names - Heartsease, Love-in-Idleness, Johnny Jump Up, Love-Lies-Bleeding, Stepmother and others. The name Pansy derives from the French pensees, meaning thoughts.

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Puck, assistant to Oberon, King of the Fairies, squeezes the juice of Love-In-Idleness into the eyes of sleeping Titania, so she will fall in love with the first creature she sees when she wakes.

a few persistent unwelcome plants in my garden

2011-04-02T23:13:00.000+11:00

I don't know if I would call them weeds. They certainly don't feature on official lists of plants most feared and hated. Other plants have lived in my garden for a while, and have accepted that they are no longer wanted, allowing themselves to be dug up and go to compost or other people's gardens. But these plants keep returning. What is it with them? They just don't get the message: Go away! Digging them up doesn't work. Glysophate weedspray doesn't deter them. So I just keep them in check the best I can, in a kind of uneasy truce.

There was a time when wisteria covered the deck. For a few weeks a year it was divine. Lovely perfume wafting, long purple flowers hanging down. But if I wasn't vigilant it would grow into the roof and start lifting the tiles. I was an inexperienced gardener and found it scary. Then the deck started to rot and needed to be replaced so it was a chance to get rid of it and replace it with something more benign and useful - a grape vine. I cut the wisteria right back and painted it with the poison. That would have been maybe 10 years ago, and it's still coming back. Minus the flowers. I can't dig it up. Sometimes I poison it, sometimes I prune it back. More and more often lately I just leave it. I have to accept the wisteria will still be in the garden when I have left it.

Wisteria climbing on the deck

The acanthus story is similar. In front of the kiwi vine-covered screen acanthus thrived in the shade of the large tree next door. But the kiwifruit didn't do well without being watered and in time the screen was removed. Garden change happened. In many respects the changes were planned and managed. Except the acanthus rebelled. They are joined deep underground so digging them up doesn't work. The chemical solution is only short term. I do love them - in moderation - so I might abandon the power struggle and aim for influence instead of control.

Acanthus keeps returning

It was a special birthday, 20 years ago, and M. gave me a bridal veil creeper in a pot. I kept it in the pot for years and loved its delicate dark green foliage and small white flowers. Then it escaped into the garden. It's easy to pull up but you never get it all, and it too will outlive me in the garden.

Bridal Veil Creeper creeping and lurking in the undergrowth

Then there's ivy. It's lovely, reminds me of old houses in England. I knew it was rampant, so only grew it in a pot - where it stayed. Over time the couple next door grew old and died. Their house was sold, pulled down and a modern swish-er house built. My neighbours decided to grow a kind of ivy on their side of the fence. Which they are entitled to do but surprise, surprise ... the ivy doesn't stay on the other side of the fence. So now I continually pull out little ivy seedlings. If I stop doing this I will have a garden of ivy. Could be nice, but it's not really what I have in mind.

Ivy on the fence

The last unwanted plant is infuriatingly cunning and clever. I don't know what it's called and hope someone can identify it for me. Its leaves and habit look exactly like a forget me not except that it never flowers. It's only when I have pulled it out that I know for sure which one it is because the roots are different. Forget me not roots are long and thin and not clingy, unlike this mystery plant, which has many strong wiry fine roots.

Forget Me Nots with possible imitators nearby

good news story: an orchid saved from extinction

2011-03-25T12:41:00.000+11:00

This post is a Good News Story. After the horrendous and ongoingly terrible events in Japan, I think we desperately need stories like this to help maintain a sense of hope and optimism for the future.

Bush Heritage Australia is a non profit organization that protects Australia's native flora and fauna and their habitats. It does this by buying suitable land, then managing it and restoring it to natural bushland.

The Nardoo Hills Reserves in Victoria was acquired by Bush Heritage between 2004 and 2007. Volunteers controlled the rabbit population, poisoned huge stands of wheel cactus, a noxious weed, and got rid of grazing sheep and cattle. This meant that native plants, animals, birds and insects once again had a habitat in which to thrive.

In 2009 excited visitors saw the return of the Robust greenhood orchid. This orchid, on the critically endangered list, was last seen in 1941!

Bush Heritage's field officer, Jeroen Van Veen said: "This is what we work for. After years and years of slogging away and restoring natural bushland, these are the kinds of things that keep you going."

The robust greenhood orchid. Photo: Jeroen Van Veen.

progress report

2011-03-18T23:57:00.000+11:00

This post is a review - looking back at what I have achieved with the garden and blog, and thinking about future plans.

The difficult, confronting thing is ... I think the garden is finished! In 1979 I started with a fields of weeds and rubbish and a boring neat front garden and now in 2011 I have completed the creative task of transforming both spaces into gardens I love to be in.

I always said the garden would never be finished. I wasn't ready for it to be finished. I couldn't imagine what finished would look like. And there are still spaces I need to fill and bits I want to change.

But I think it might now be seen as an established garden. If this is true then from now on I suppose my task will be different - just maintenance, or tinkering at the edges. No more radical clearing of spaces and starting again.

Basically the garden has evolved into a finished garden and I have evolved into a fairly confident gardener, with normal (for me) occasional flashes of anxiety and self doubt.

This growing confidence enabled me to accept the opportunity to have the garden (and me) featured on the ABC's Gardening Australia TV show last year.

I accepted an offer to be included in a book called Gardens of the World that will be published in July this year. It describes garden blogs and I am sure many other blotanical members will also be in it.

This year the garden will be part of the Open Garden Scheme for the first time, open to the public for one weekend in October. I thought of doing this last year and the year before, but wasn't ready. I'm nervous about it, but going to do it anyway.

And the blog?

I started the blog in January 2008 to track the progress and changes of the garden. I always saw the blog as having a parallel existence to the garden. Continually evolving. If the garden is basically finished maybe the blog will have to evolve into something else.

In the next phase of the blog I plan to write more about the plants in the garden. I will also write about some of the nature and gardening books I have read and collected over the years. I have already set up additional pages on the blog's home page about these things.

When I started no one read the blog, and it really was just a diary. Then I discovered blotanical, and since then, have made wonderful cyberfriends, too many to mention. You know who you are!

In the beginning many of us agonized about what were the protocols of this strange new kind of relationship. But that seems long ago - you guys have taught me so much and been so warm and supportive ... I really appreciate you being part of my life.

ten terrible weeds in my garden

2011-03-10T14:25:00.007+11:00

The Australian government website Weed Identification and Information makes it easy to identify weeds. On this Most Unwanted list I found 10 plants that grew in my garden. Most of these came as no surprise, but a few of them had been welcomed into the garden because I was not aware that I was harbouring dangerous bio-threats to the nation's ecological security.

The weeds I didn't know were weeds mostly became problems in the wider ecosystem when they escaped from their garden settings. These garden escapees were described in an important 2005 report called Jumping the Garden Fence. It is about the invasive plants that are for sale in Australian nurseries and helped to raise awareness of this problem.

Here are the Terrible Ten:

African lovegrass

1. African lovegrass, or Eragrostia curvula is one of the reasons I gradually replaced the grass in my garden with beds and stone paths. Weeding the lawn became boring and ineffective. The feathery seed heads just kept coming. They still appear in the garden beds, but not in such alarmingly high numbers. It is a South African native, originally imported as a pasture grass and now has naturalized all over Australia. I'm sure it was present when we moved in in 1979, when the back garden was just a field of weeds and rubbish such as rolls of barbed wire.

Blue periwinkle

2. Blue periwinkle, or Vinca major was growing in my neighbour's garden when we first moved in. I loved the beautiful bright blue flowers, and when it grew under the fence I welcomed it. Soon after this a gardening friend warned me that it was a terrible weed and once it got established, would take over. I took the advice and carefully dug it up and disposed of it whenever I saw it. I still see it sometimes but not often. Interestingly, its name comes from the Latin word for 'conquer' because of its aggressive ferocity. A garden escapee, it now invades bushland and waterways, smothering native plants. It is native to the Mediterranean region.

Cane needlegrass

3. Cane needlegrass, or Nassella hyalina, like African lovegrass, was present in my garden when it was a field of weeds. Of course, by clearing, disturbing and enriching the soil, I was inadvertently encouraging it to naturalize in the garden. And it did. Without the grass to lurk in it became more visible and more or less containable. But even among officially classified weeds this one is really bad, one of 28 weeds on the National Environment Alert List. Cane Needlegrass, native to South America, so far is only present around Melbourne. But it is spreading, by virtue of its sticky seedheads which attach themselves to clothing and animals, and the fact that it is drought proof and forms dense vegetation that threatens biodiversity.

Coastal tea tree

4. Coastal tea tree, or Leptospermum laevigatum was a surprise to see on the list. From the beginning I was attracted to groups of tea trees. I love the way their trunks bend and twist, their ridged bark and their lovely flowers. I was unaware of differences between varieties. There used to be a wonderful pioneering nursery called Austraflora, specializing in collecting, propagating and publicizing native plants as garden specimens. I know I bought L. laevigatum there about 25 years ago because I have the label. There are several types of tea trees naturalized in my garden. Some keep seeding themselves which used to please me. But now I realize those must be a noxious weed I suppose I had better stop accepting the uninvited seedlings. Especially in my nature strip on the street where three specimens recently appeared. This example shows that not all weeds are immigrants from abroad since this shrub is a native of coastal areas of Victoria and other states. In fact, I now realize why I love them so much. They are associated in my mind with idyllic childhood beach holidays.


Common sowthistle

5. Common sowthistle, or Sonchu oleraceus, is a supremely adaptive survivor. Native to Europe and Asia, it is widespread and common here and in many other places. I certainly see it everywhere the ground has been disturbed. Described officially as an invasive weed, this is definitely a weed with positive attributes. The leaves are as tasty and nutritious as spinach, and the plant has been used medicinally for a wide variety of purposes, including stimulating menstrual flow, altering liver function and helping with diarrohea, warts, inflammation and fever. It crops up regularly in my garden but isn't really a problem.

Japanese honeysuckle

6. Japanese honeysuckle or Lonicera japonica - another surprise to see it classified as an invasive weed.! I planted it for its divine scent and attractive flowers to climb on the front fence. That would have been in the 1980s, and there was no problem then in sourcing it from nurseries. This is a common garden plant, one of many that have jumped the garden fence and invaded wider ecosystems. Japanese honeysuckle is highly prized in Chinese medicine.

Kikuyu grass, image from Wikipedia

7. Kikuyu grass, or Pennistum clandestinum, is an irritant to me, but a serious problem in the wider environment because it grows fast and aggressively, smothering other plants. It comes from Africa originally, and is readily available for sale because of its tough drought resistant properties. I used to grow it when I had lawn. Since then I rarely see it in the garden. But I continually pull out the runners which cross over the line separating my sandy nature strip from my neighbours' grassy one. I tried to persuade them to give up grass for sand, but it didn't work! Kikuyu is also identified as a garden escapee. It grows from the smallest pieces of rhizome.

Looking glass bush

8. Looking glass bush, or Coprosma repens, was growing at the side of the house in 1979 when we moved in. It wasn't anything special but I appreciated it for its reliable green display. On two occasions the fence was replaced and it was cut down. It seemed to be indestructible because it always came back. I still regularly find unwanted baby looking glass bushes in the garden and long ago learned not to put the seeds in the compost. A native of New Zealand, this is also named as a garden escapee in the Jumping the Garden Fence report.

Oxalis soursob. Image from Dave's Garden

9. Oxalis comes as lots of different species. They can be identified by their heart shaped leaves and lots of little bulblets. You need to be aware these cannot be pulled out like other weeds. They have to be carefully dug up. Otherwise the little bulblets will drop off, re-seed and you find you have helped them to spread and get even more established in your garden. Soursob, or Oxalis pes-caprae species is of particular concern in the state of Victoria. It is widespread and invades a broad spectrum of environments - roadsides, forests, grasslands and gardens. Soursob is one the reasons I decided to give uip the lawn. I don't think my dog Potter has ever forgiven me for this decision but it has enabled me to control the spread of this especially persistent weed.

Perennial ragweed

10. Perennial ragweed, or Ambrosia psilostachya, has only recently appeared in my life. There must have been seeds in the load of sand bought for the nature strip for the transition from grassy to sandy. I have learned that it is best not to get growing mediums from elsewhere if it can be avoided because often you get new weeds or insect pests that way. I always try to get by without chemicals, even relatively benign glysophate. But I soon realizedthe ragweed was relishing being dug up and I was only assisting it to thrive. So I started spraying it. It tried to outmaneovre me by growing among wanted plants. This tactic didn't work with me because I am prepared to sacrifice some of the lovely spreading everlastings to achieve the greater good of eliminating this highly successful weed that sets masses of seeds and has long creeping roots as well. It's native to America. There is no upside to this plant. Its prolific pollen causes flu like symptoms, contact with skin can cause allergies, and stock wisely avoid eating it.

Nature strip with weeds as well as desirable plants

it's autumn

2011-03-07T05:33:00.001+11:00

It's the start of autumn. The star magnolia has large red seed pods just like last year. Unlike last year though, there is no flock of crows cawing excitedly in their deep baritones as they messily eat and spread the seeds. In fact there are very few birds compared to last year.

Once or twice I have seen wattle birds sucking nectar from the tea tree flowers. There been no sightings of the parrots that last year feasted off the flowers high in the tall eucalypts. I have heard they are around in neighbouring suburbs. Probably they changed feeding grounds because other suburbs have not been quite as ruthlessly efficient in destroying the old gardens and replacing them with paving and a few 'low maintenance' shrubs.

I have seen and heard a few chirpy little striated thornbills moving within the relative safety of the shrubbery. I regularly see and hear the melodious tones of the butcher bird. But nothing like in last year's numbers. The same with the blackbirds. There are hardly any to be seen. I hoped they would return to last year's nest on the deck but they didn't.

These native birds have been replaced by the aggressive Myena birds. I really dislike them. Last year they were nowhere to be seen. Now they have taken to strutting around as if they own the garden, threatening and attacking other birds that deign to stray into their territory. As if that wasn't bad enough, a large ginger coloured cat has appeared. Potter and I chase it away each time we see it.

Apart from the lack of bird life the garden is thriving on my inability to give it the usual attention. My broken hand is still immobilized by a brace, and is likely to be unusable for another month or two. With only one hand I can pull out weeds, spray the nature strip with Zero, do light prunings and sweep the paths. I am getting used to doing without a hand. Typing with one hand is getting a bit faster and a bit more accurate and I have even started using caps again!

Acacia branches were shading the small grevilleas that I want to grow tall to cover the bare fence where the tree house used to be. Cutting them back was an impossible job for a one handed gardener, so yesterday dear M. climbed a ladder and did the job for me. Now it looks very bare but hopefully the gap will be filled soon.

thinking about the weeds in my garden

2011-02-27T12:38:00.010+11:00

back to this endlessly fascinating subject ... using richard mabey's definition of a weed being a plant in the wrong place. this definition allows for subjectivity - i decide which plants in my garden are weeds!

there are also official lists of weeds in a particular region, lists compiled by experts in botany and ecology. these listings take a broad view of the threats posed by weeds to biodiversity, and the economic and social impacts of their spread. enter weeds australia - a national government portal for identifying and reporting weeds in any region of australia.

i can now think about the weeds in my garden as members of 4 distinct categories:
1. plants that i don't want in my garden.
2. plants that i don't want but are so persistent they're here to stay.
3. plants that are officially designated as weeds that i don't want in my garden.
4. plants that are officially designated as weeds that i don't mind growing in my garden - and didn't know till now that they were considered dangerous weeds!

... this is a think in progress.

reading about weeds

2011-02-20T18:34:00.014+11:00

Richard Mabey is my favourite kind of nature writer because he explores the interconnectedness between things.

His latest book - Weeds: How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilization and Changed the Way We think About Nature looks at our relationship with weeds. Since weeds spring up in cleared disturbed soil it is us humans who have provided the perfect environment for them.

Weeds are at best a nuisance, at worst a terrible threat to our food and security. But the problem doesn't lie within the weeds themselves. It is the context that counts. Mabey defines a weed as simply 'a plant in the wrong place'. We gardeners decide what we want in our gardens, and sometimes plants that were docile and restrained in their original home go amok in their new one. Then they often escape the garden boundaries and become naturalized in the wider ecosystem.

Mabey doesn't idealize weeds but accepts that they will always be with us so we had better think of ways of living together. They have always had their uses as food or medicine. Now they may be helping us by re-greening soil that has been polluted and depleted.

Having read this book it is now incredible that I spent hours identifying and listing the plants in my garden, totally ignoring the weeds. As if they would go away if I ignored them! As if they weren't at least, if not more interesting than the Chosen Ones!

garden update in words not pictures

2011-02-17T08:02:00.007+11:00

1. after a night of heavy rain i was thrilled to smell the strong sweet perfume of the newly opened ginger flower. the sight of its delicate pale lemon flowers and orange stamens is pleasing but the perfume is bliss inducing. for me i think perfume is an even more evocative and powerful stimulus than seeing - i wonder if this is true universally?

2. the possum nesting box is empty but there are many signs of their nocturnal activities. there is poo on the stone path near the loquat and feijoa shrubs which have now completely recovered from last year's leaf munching. i have heard the distinctive harsh cries of possum in the front lately and it is noticeable that they have eaten most of the young leaves at the top of the cotinus. they are welcome to them. the leaves will start to shrivel up and fall off soon anyway. when this happens i hope they have a backup plan.

3. yesterday i had a satisfying conversation with my 2 year old grandson about the peculiar capacity of succulent plant leaves to hold water. we had a fun time picking the leaves and squashing them to see and feel the water. the pot containing mixed succulents has a raggedy look now but it was worth it.

4. the Euphorbia (i can do caps if i have to but it is not easy with one hand) rigida that looked as if it was dying has a tiny bud emerging on the ground next to it so there was healthy developing going on after all under the surface.

5. i'm hoping to see similar signs of growth on some transplanted rainbow ferns to let me know they have accepted their new home but so far they look stunned and exactly the same as when they were planted several weeks ago. are they sulking? will they survive? only time will tell ...

6. one of the echiums had grown too large so a couple of weeks ago i radically trimmed it back. it looked very unattractive but i knew this was only temporary and already new buds are sprouting on its bare branches.

through the looking glass

2011-02-14T15:53:00.010+11:00

my friend L is an artist. by this i mean that she paints great pictures but even more importantly she carries ideas and feelings about beauty, colour and form in the natural world deep inside her and they inform what she does and how she sees things and how she lives.

L recently painted the wall at the bottom of her garden. the technique she used is called trompe d'oeil. edith hope wrote about this recently. it means literally deception for the eye, or optical illusion.

a lovely garden has been transformed into a magical space. like alice, we can glimpse the world on the other side of the glass. and also like alice we probably need to be in a dream state to enter that intriguing tantalizing otherworld.

extreme personal event

2011-02-13T07:43:00.006+11:00

last post about extreme weather. this post about extreme personal event. a careless trip in the street that led to a nasty dislocation fracture of hand and nearly a week in hospital.

my relationship with nature was reduced to the view from my window bed. at my request the curtains were never closed. i imagined my camera on its tripod recording the changes, from day to sunset then night to sunrise, from white fluffy clouds in blue sky to darkened sky and heavy scudding rain.

the camera was imagined not realized so the pictures are in my head and only communicable indirectly through the medium of words. words that need to be chosen then typed and moused with one hand.

i will recover. it's no tragedy. i will dispense with caps in the meantime.

i'm smelling the roses with one hand now ...

disaster outside my backyard

2011-02-02T19:02:00.009+11:00

In four hours time the most destructive cyclone ever will hit Northern Queensland coastal communities. Winds of more than 300 kms are expected, and tidal surges the height of a two storey building.
Even communities hundreds of kilometres inland are at risk of flooding.

Several hours ago I wrote the previous post. I was satisfied when I finished it, published it and felt happy that a short while later there were three validating responses.

Then I listened to the news and was shocked at the triviality of my post. Whilst I was involved in narcissistic perceptions of my garden, people at the other end of Australia were being evacuated from their homes to prepare for the onslaught of the biggest cyclone ever to hit Australia in living memory.

While I was pondering the effects of a bit of heat on my garden, others miles away were extremely fearful about the destruction
expected along the North Queensland coast. And not just about damage to property. It may even entail loss of life. Certainly it will entail the disruption of normal life for a long time to come.

At times like this I am aware of my garden as both aesthetic object and refuge. The danger is that I get so wrapped up in what is happening in my own backyard that I can shut out what is happening elsewhere.

Maybe there are both benefits and problems in suburban spaces. Suburbia can too easily become a protective shell, and I as much as anybody else can get lost in that.

I don't usually write two posts on the same day but today is no ordinary day.

summer update

2011-02-02T13:40:00.012+11:00

So far it has been an unusual summer with lots of rain and mild weather. Now we're having an over 40 degree spell and there is a little wilting going on. The plants have become a bit spoiled, they're going to have to toughen up again.

Summer is not the prettiest season for the garden, meaning that there aren't as many flowers as in the other seasons. But I think I almost love it best with lots of cool soothing shades of green and grey, and a wide but harmonious variety of leaf and plant shapes.

The Dietes grandiflora is looking good - it needs to be captured with a camera, the blooms don't last long. Similarly, the Agapanthus 'streamline'. I love these fairly common flowers, but what is important to me is the context, the plants surrounding them. What matters is the whole picture, not one single element.

garden as literary device

2011-01-28T22:47:00.015+11:00

The Rottweiler, by Ruth Rendell was a great holiday read. I'm not that keen on who-done-its, but in this crime novel the formula is different. You find out who the murderer is quite early in the book, and follow his dastardly actions trying to avoid being caught.

The story is set in London, and reflects a precise sense of place. The relevance to this blog is Rendell's use of garden descriptions as a literary device - to amplify the suspense, to reflect the feelings of the characters, or simply to mark a transition in the development of the plot.

A rundown garden is portrayed as a possible sinister hiding place for a dead body. Weeds can be regarded as symbolically representing the triumph of the dangerously wild and uncontrollable in relation to civilized society.

At the rear ... was a small garden... The walls which enclosed it were so thickly hung with ivy that no brickwork could be seen, while the area in the middle was mostly covered with large concrete slabs between which weeds were starting to sprout. But just inside the walls were narrow borders of earth scattered with bricks and pebbles and broken shards of pottery, where scrubby bushes struggled and the the withered stalks of golden rod and Michaelmas daisies and fireweed still lingered.

Other gardens are shrouded in mystery, hidden spaces.

Sixth Avenue was a long street of houses in long terraces. It was in most cases impossible to see what the back of these houses were like. Still, where a terrace ended and another began the spaces between the last house in one row and the first in the next afforded him a glimpse of grass, bushes, part of a shed.

These gardens contrast dramatically with Rendell's description of a lovely neat garden. In this garden all is gentle and benign, no life and death struggles here ... on the surface at least, because after all this is a thriller ...

The clocks had gone forward and it would be an hour before the sun set. Its late afternoon warmth, golden and benign, was bringing into flower his tulips in their green-painted tubs and his yellow jonquils. One of the little bay trees was in golden blossom, for the first since he had bought it. On the table stood a blue and white pottery jar filled with pink and yellow and lilac freesias, beautiful things with a delectable perfume.

And near the end of the book when the murderer's end is near ...

The first flower of the season had opened on his climbing rose. He couldn't remember its name. Its colour was an indifferent pale-pink but its scent, as promised in the cataloque, was exquisite, like ripe oranges and jasmine with a touch of nutmeg. He brought his face down to the flower, his nose to the heart of it... it would be the last rose he was ever to smell, the last rose of his summer.

Ruth Rendell is a creative, skilled and prolific writer of crime novels. Judging from the garden descriptions interspersed throughout the story, I think she must be a gardener as well.

plants get names at last

2011-01-27T08:32:00.006+11:00

I vaguely knew the names of most of the plants in my garden, but mainly saw them as particular sizes and colours for filling the latest gap.

Now I have (more or less) completed my database. I have listed 265 plants, their botanical names, common names, family, location in the garden and what part of the world they came from.

I have published these as pages on the blog's home page. As well as the lists, I use a page to describe part of the process of doing the project and what I needed to learn and understand about the classification of plants.

It's a new year, and maybe a new and more scientific phase in my evolution as a gardener?

trouble in paradise

2011-01-20T15:23:00.033+11:00

On Ulva Island (Te Wharawhara in Maori) you (almost) experience the world as it was 85 million years ago.

Ulva Island is a tiny island (3.5 kms or just over 2 miles in length) - home to a large number of birds, invertebrates and plants endangered elsewhere in New Zealand.

The island is a ten minute ferry ride from Stewart Island (Rakiura in Maori). Stewart Island is a one hour ferry ride from the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island. It's separated from the southern continent of Antarctica only by an expanse of sea and ice. The climate is cool temperate.

Ulva Island has been described as a primeval paradise, rich in biodiversity, and it is. However, (as you would expect), there is trouble in paradise.

New Zealand separated from the supercontinent of Gondwanaland before the evolution of mammals. Hence there are no mammals native to New Zealand. The Maoris arrived from Polynesia 700 years ago and later came the Europeans. With the Europeans came cats, rats, possums, ferrets and stoats. The native birds didn't have a chance against these introduced predators and rapidly diminished in numbers. In addition there was widespread destruction of their habitat as trees were felled.

Gradually there grew a new consciousness about the importance of environmental conservation. In 1899 an impressively progressive New Zealand government reserved most of Stewart and Ulva Islands to preserve 'native game and flora'.

Of all the introduced predators rats were the worst, eating almost anything - seeds, seedlings, eggs, chicks and fruit. There used to be thousands of rats on Ulva Island, but by 1997 it was believed that there were no more rats, due to a longterm vigorous and intensive eradication program.

Unfortunately the rats have returned. Another determined onslaught is needed and has begun.