Followers

Friday 28 June 2013

June; Half year round up;


My garden from January to June;

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.




January




The bigger the hat, the smaller the property – Australian proverb





February


A Platypus is a duck designed by a committee 




March


Those who lose dreaming are lost – Australian Aboriginal proverb






April


A queer country, so old that as you walk on and on, there’s a feeling comes over you that you are gone back to Genesis –
Australian bushman




May



Such is life   Ned Kelly – bushranger





June



The Australian nation is a nation of blow-ins and we’ve got the lot here – bog Irish, reffos, dagos, wogs, slopes, you name it
Bill Leak – cartoonist


We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavoured to live with the land; they seemed to live off it
Tom Dystra – Aboriginal man




Out in the bush, the tarred road always ends just after the house of the local mayor – Australian observation






Believe it or not:

  • "Damn the teamsters, damn the track,
    Damn Coolgardie, there and back,
    Damn the goldfields, damn the weather,
    Damn the bloody country altogether."

     a Western Australian prospector's toast




In June  Melaleuca quinquenervia  is flowering, a tantalizing treat for birds and insects.


©Photos from my garden Ts

Saturday 1 June 2013

Juhu or Yay...it's June;

Winter has arrived in the garden;


Home is the best  place to be when the sun beckons to come out into the garden  to get the hands into the soil and put some seed in, which in time will become lettuce or flowers or even a whole tree. Titania




The splendidly blue Salvia  "Black Knight" is still flowering. It can be propagated from cuttings in spring and summer.



Roses take a new lease of life in winter. Perfumed Delight, has everything I expect from a rose. a wonderful warm  rose scent, strong pink, no fading colour. Beautiful shape of blooms and great to cut for inside. Now is the time to make cuttings, as cuttings from this rose grow well.
In the subtropics "Perfumed Delight is a sure winner in the cottage garden.


I named all my children after flowers. There's Lillie and Rose and my son, Artificial.
 Bert Williams 


“The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.” 
Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World



My garden provides fruit, like Bananas, Brazilian custard apple, Passion fruit, Mandarins and Pawpaws. This assortment of fruit makes fabulous desserts.


Yellow Brugmansia, delightful all year round. Now in the morning dew drops hang onto the petals and the cool makes them nearly pink, the flowers are huge,  frivolous, swaying like frilly petticoats.


Growing plants challenges and pleases the human spirit. Plants are a big part of our evolution. Many have forgotten this pleasing part of life. It is regarded as toil instead as an essential part of living. Titania




After a good pruning bougainvillea Pedro is back into flowering mood.


“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.

The Fruit Hunters




Delicate blush pink Camellia japonica CanCan likes to flower in the shade.


Bromeliad with hanging flowers can grow up to 1 meter long.




“A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” 
Second Nature: A Gardener's Education




My delightful fungi garden.



Camellias are tough as old boots;  Drama girl lives up to its reputation.




Kipfler Potatoes from the garden.


My trusty hens recycling all the scraps.  They have got a nice yard, with trees to sit in the shade,  to run or scratch for a few special treats.


Believe it or not:

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

 Marcus Aurelius 


©Photos from my garden/text Ts