September
2010 - Two
And
it's a Wet One!
As the
rain continues to fall, I am becoming frustrated that the ground is too wet
to continue to attach the continually thriving weeds.
As I look
out of my kitchen window, I see the ivy thriving
as it sits high in the neighbour's poplar trees.
When it achieves this height - and then flowers - I know exactly what follows.......
A forest of small ivy seedlings
springs up all over the garden.
It's bad enough trying to remove all those popping up in the open, but with
an
acre of garden to monitor, it means crawling under shrubs and trees to try
to get them out before they take hold. Often I have to resort to cutting quite
a few
branches to get easier access and avoid the skin irritation
that I get from many of the grevilleas.
This beautiful acacia grows
at the bottom of the garden right next to the little gate
through which we set out on our morning walks.
I'm pleased that in this way I can admire it each day for as long as it cares
to flower.
This little garden bed
grows outside the part of the house
which was to be the home of our mother Beatrice Ashton.
Mum was excited at the thought of nurturing a garden of Australian plants
but as she sadly died before we finished building, I now keep this bed
for plants from Mum's previous garden. This was a lovely cottage garden
with a great collection of cranesbills, hellebores, miniature cyclamen
and some spring bulbs. As this bed gets full sun in the summer
I have grown a few acacia boormanii to give some shade.
The tree on the left of
the photo (whith a dead 'something' beside it) is an exocarpos (cherry ballart)
which always seems to me rather a 'miracle' tree. You can't plant it as it
just likes to
pop up all by itself, and is partially parasitic in that it grows from the
roots of other plants and
gains part of its nutrients from the host tree - in this case a grevillea
robusta (silky oak).
When it first appeared I almost whipped it out, thinking it was a weed, but
decided to
follow my usual practice of waiting to see what it was before consigning it
to the compost heap.
This is a pretty old grevillea
with all the growth on the garden side looking pretty sick,
but the growth facing north, hanging over the fence to the right of the photo,
looks fine.
I decided to cut out all the dead wood I could see, in an effort to prolong
its life.
The resulting skeleton form is quite sculptural, and I'm hoping to get something
to
climb gently through the branches. (Well.......... that's the plan!)
I'm so glad the wattles
don't give me hayfever as they do to some poor folk.
I do love their fluffy little spheres of brightness.
The tree ferns planted
under the kitchen window to hide the ugly pipes, are doing very well.
I'm hoping to remove the shade cloth protecting them from the early morning
sun
at the end of summer, by which time I think they'll be tough enough to fend
for themselves.
The dodononea boroniafolia
has already begun to produce its
stunning seed heads which follow the insignificant flowers.
At the moment they are quite pale, but will darken to a rich burgundy in a
few weeks.
And the Hypocalymma angustifolium
still offers its pretty pink and white flowers.
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