This week, I have been a tad out of sorts, with a cold and laryngitis. So today, I appreciate the Silence of Sunday …
In other news, my computer went to heaven. Yesterday, however, my son-in-law installed a new computer for me, so I’m back online. My iPad just didn’t cut it when trying to read blogs and add comments. I will catch up with everyone this week.
And on the weather front, we had a couple of fine, mosquito-free days, which resulted in an amazing sunset in the valley. This photo is straight out of the camera.
When Karma suggested a photo hunt for her blogging friends to join in on, I immediately knew which photos I needed to search for!
Last year, as I have mentioned before, I spent a lot of time revamping several of my garden beds. The hill directly opposite the front of my house was the largest project, a garden running almost the full length of the house. Plus, it’s on a sharp slope. We had tried to make the hill manageable previously, without a great deal of success – what I didn’t realise was that our first attempt at constructing a manageable and attractive garden was in 2010!
Here’s the first photo I found during the hunt –
15th April 2010, before the first Hill Project began.
As the photo shows, the hill was steep! So anything we constructed there would be a challenge to maintain. You will notice growing on the far right of the photo is a small pine cone tree. I decided this tree would be beautiful when fully grown, and would shade the front of the house.
19th October 2020 – the tree had grown!
The next photo I found during the hunt was taken in 2020. I had even convinced husband to extend the retaining wall out in front of the pine cone tree at some stage, to accomodate the tree’s roots. The original plan had been to cover the whole hill with drought tolerent ground cover plants, which may have worked well if most of the plants hadn’t struggled to get a root-hold on the slope!
By this time, husband had lost interest in helping me with the garden. Weed mat and mesh wire to hold mulch in place simply wasn’t successful on the sharp slope. I slipped down the slope when trying to pull out weeds. Also, by this time we had brought home potted plants galore from my inlaws house when we had cleaned out their property, ready for sale. It was a trying time, putting my inlaws into aged care facilities and dealing with my father-in-law’s declining health. I think it fair to say we had both lost our gardening mojo completely.
The day my seventeen year old daughter brought home a boy “she thought she might like” – nearly nineteen years ago – little did I know what an inspiration he would be to me in the years to come! I wrote a post about him several years ago, I think I called it A Man of Ideas or some such thing, as I had discovered he has a unique knack of getting into my brain, seeing the vision I have, then improving upon my ideas. He’s wonderful! So when we spoke about a possible solution to the most challenging part of my garden and threw around a few ideas, we came up with a solution that he was prepared to help me bring to fruition …
Winter 2023 ~ the Hill Project 2.0 begins!
First, the pine cone tree had to go. Next, the retaining wall needed to travel along a straight line once the roots of the tree were removed. What was I thinking when I insisted the tree stayed? Those tree roots were gynormous!!!
Three little people, along with the dogs, enjoyed watching Daddy – to the two little ones on the right – and Uncle – to the little one on the far left – hack away at the hill, essentially restructuring the land to accomodate our vision for a new, attractive, easy care, easy to access, garden.
The dry creek bed under construction.
During times of heavy rain, the far corner of the garden washes away in a stream of water which cascades down the hill. My man of Ideas suggested we construct a dry creek bed in that corner. This area of the garden is still under construction, but I think this photo, taken around October last year, shows the basic formation of what we have in mind.
And here’s the constructed garden –
The construction and planting is complete!
The height of the lower section of the retaining wall has been raised, another small block wall has been contructed and a wooden sleeper wall at the top runs along a hedge of Sacred Bamboo, Nandina Nana. It had to be a rockery garden to compliment the natural surroundings, so my son-in-law lifted the larger bush rocks into place with the mini-excavator and left several smaller rocks for me to play around with, to create the garden I had in mind.
It was a long process, but we did it! I hope my son-in-law realises how much I appreciate his contribution to everything he helps me with around the garden. Maybe the thousand times I have said thank you may have been a clue. 😉
So there are my before shots, before-before shots, during and after shots, Karma – you did say the rules of the photo hunt are loosey-goosey – right? 😉
There’s still time to join in, so why not follow the link to Karma’s Photo Hunt!
The second part of the challenge is to take a photo, one for each season of the same place, which I will join in also! I am eager to watch my new garden plants grow and change as the seasons progress. 🙂
We share our garden every summer with these stunning birds, yet rarely see them near the house.
This week, however, a Coucal paid a visit. In great excitement, I (quietly) grabbed my camera to (hopefully) get a shot before he flew away. They can be pretty skittish birds!
When he went to fly away, I thought that was the end of the visit, but he flew to my clothesline. Meanwhile, I stood quietly taking photos as the Coucal posed this way and that.
It may have even seen me, just inside the glass door, clicking away with my camera, but clearly, it didn’t believe I was a threat. As you can see it was cautious, as he fluffed his feathers and spread his wings, probably in preparation to take flight.
When the Coucal settled and turned, I took a photo of its back view.
When he checked me out again, his feathers were unfluffed – he had apparently calmed down.
For me, this was an incredible opportunity to zoom in on this beauty. When I hear them call, it is often when rain is about. Many people call them Storm Birds, due to hearing their call when storms are about. Their call echoes… and I found a webpage where a recording of their whooping call can be heard. Click on this link and on the right side of the page, under the heading ‘Calls’ is a short recording to listen to … then imagine heat and humidity in the air, lush green growth in the garden which is the Coucal’s preferred habitat, and the sloping terrain heading down into a valley at the back of my house, which adds to the echoing quality of the call in my garden.
The Coucal’s tail feathers are quite long,
… and on its back, it has soft downy feathers.
I was not about to let the opportunity of this Coucal’s visit pass me by without zooming in on every detail. Look at that fine, white-flecked detail in his feathers.
And when he turned again, I took the opportunity to capture a closeup of his face.
When he scratched, I took a photo …
… then with one last look my way, he flew to the ground and disappeared from sight. ❤
I have a busy couple of days ahead now. My mother-in-law turns 91 today and we have all the family visiting for a barbeque tomorrow. I have salads to prepare, etc., but I will return on Sunday to catch up with everyone.
So, what happened fourteen years ago today? I posted my first entry on this blog. So today is my blogaversary.
David Austin ‘Emily Brontë’ rose.
Over the years I have added posts on several topics, but the posts I enjoy adding these days mostly involve my garden, be it what I am doing – or have been doing – in my garden, or the results of my time spent there. Over the years I had forgotten what subject I wrote about for my first post, but hey, it was about the mango tree in my garden – gardening again. 🙂 So it could be assumed that nothing in my world has changed much in fourteen years.
David Austin ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ rose.
Actually, there have been many changes. My four children – none of whom are into gardening, I might add … (where did I go wrong?) – are now grown, married and have homes of their own, And my family has grown, I am now Nana to five gorgeous little people who have stolen my heart. The eldest has even shown interest in helping me in the garden, so perhaps the next generation is more suspectable to my (constant) training! 😉
We lost my father-in-law early last year, who I mentioned in my first post. 😦
Since I began blogging I have completed a degree, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English. Along the way, I also completed a Diploma of Family History and a Diploma of Sustainable Living. University study is now officially out of my system – unless it involves learning about gardening, of course.
When I look back on the posts I added during the last fourteen years, there are gaps, some for long periods, when I have been otherwise occupied with “life” and haven’t added any posts. I always return though.
David Austin ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ rose.
During my most recent absence from blogging, I have been devoting nearly every day to my garden and my family (along with a few hours each day working in our family business, but that’s too boring to blog about!).
And my love of photography has been constant. Yesterday afternoon I took closeup shots of three gorgeous roses in full bloom in my garden. I am rather excited about sharing these photos! They are three of my special favourites … hmm, maybe every rose I grow is my favourite! The Souvenir de la Malmaison and Gertrude Jekyll are more established than the Emily Brontë though, which is a new addition just a few months ago. It was a rose I just had to have, as Brontë is the name of one of my gardening companions. ❤
Brontë, helping me in the garden just before nightfall this week. ❤
Thank you to all of my blogging friends for constantly returning to visit me here after my many absences. And thank you for inviting me into your worlds too! I find it quite incredible how invested I have become in the lives of other bloggers, people whom I have never met, yet it means so much to me to know you can be there with just a click of my computer mouse for a brief chat. ❤
From the archives. Butcher bird in the Tibouchina tree. February 2021.
For Day 5 of A Week of Flowers, hosted by Cathy at Words and Herbs, I am sharing photos of some native Australian plants growing in my garden, along with two other plants which, although not natives, blend perfectly with their dainty features.
Most Australian natives are drought-tolerant plants, they have to be to survive our often harsh climate conditions. We are fortunate in our subtropical zone to have a high annual rainfall compared to other areas of the country; however, all plants suffer during drought. Low water requirements do not mean no water is required!
The Brachyscome Mauve Bliss, pictured above, is a pretty little native groundcover. I recently renovated a very large sloping garden at the front of my house, situated in full sun for most of the day. The five flowering plants featured today are all growing happily in that particular garden, even thriving in the plus-thirty degree temperature we had recently, for four days in a row. I will plant more Brachyscomes now I have discovered how easily they grow. Next time, I will buy some of the pink and white varieties.
Leptospermum Ballerina
I often order plants online from a nursery located a couple of hours north of here, which is also in a subtropical zone. The company specialises in tube stock plants, so usually, when first planted, I have tiny plants that can easily disappear into the background of mulch. When I first planted my tiny native Leptospermum Ballerina I could hardly see it until right up close. Yesterday afternoon, I took a few photos of the garden when the sun had almost set and the day had cooled. As I was heading to the seaside daisy, which is the next photo, I noticed my Leptospermum has a flower now! So this dainty little pink ballerina definitely had to be included today.
Erigeron – seaside daisy
The description of Erigeron seaside daisy is that it spreads easily, has a weeping habit, and is a great groundcover for hot positions – perfect! The mass planting I did in October is already beginning to spread across the garden, which is now covered in tiny white native daisies.
Seaside daisies, with another new Australian native addition to the garden. ❤
This morning, I had my first sighting of one of this year’s baby magpies. When I took my camera out to grab a quick photo, I startled baby Maggs, who retreated into the seaside daisies. Two Australian natives together – it doesn’t get any better than that. 🙂
Cuphea ‘Honeybells’
Although native to South America, the Cuphea is similar to the Australian Correa in both appearance and climate requirements. I found this beauty at a local plant nursery, and it hasn’t stopped flowering since it arrived in October. Apparently, frost can end the flowering season, but we rarely, if ever, have frosts. That will keep bees happy all year round. 🙂
Diascia ‘Flirtation Pink’
The slope of the renovated garden, in some areas, has been formed into a rockery, where this ‘Flirtation Pink’ Diascia, a South African native plant, with its cute little pink flowers, seems to be happily growing. It hasn’t missed a beat with flowering since being planted in October. I have read that Diascias only need extra water during hot, dry spells, so the amount of rain we have had recently seems to agree with this new addition to my garden.
Thank you for hosting A Week of Flowers, Cathy. I took over a hundred photos around the garden yesterday afternoon, which is far less strenuous than gardening in hot, humid, summer conditions. 🙂
In My World 