Our Sustainable Gardens

Garden News – November 2006

Almost all of our new plants are in the ground now, and all but a very few are flourishing.  If you take another walk through the gardens, looking into the plastic tree guards near the paths, you will see that a lot of the plants are flowering.

Stating from the Italian Garden, the Olive trees are flowering profusely.  I expect either we or the possums will have lots of olives next autumn!  The Italian Lavender has been flowering for many weeks and the Rosemary has grown well.  The herb beds have been filled with soil and plants – all drought tolerant herbs in keeping with our overall theme.  Nicola, our Artist in Residence, has begun work on the mosaic bird bath centrepiece.  The paths will be mulched.

Walking along the Stepping Stone Path and into the Indigenous Grassland Garden, look for the Bulbine Lilies, which are onion-like and have a central stalk topped with bright yellow, star shaped flowers.  You might also see a Podolepis flowering. Their flowers are large yellow discs.  The bushy plants with small white flowers are Westringea – coastal rosemary (not the same as culinary rosemary!).  If you look right in on some of the small plants, you will see the Native Geranium’s pink, distinctively-shaped flowers.  They and the Bulbine Lilies should self-seed readily once the garden is established.  The Plume grasses are sending up their feathery pale-green seed-heads and I have also spotted some Kangaroo grass seeds. 

Between the two new buildings, in the Reflective Shade Garden, the Casuarinas are growing quickly.  You can see the foundations for the seat, and the hollow where we will build the dry creek bed.

In the Bird Sanctuary beds, the Grevilleas are flowering strongly – they should have flowers for most of the year.  Although we have not attracted any nectar-feeders yet, I often see a pair of Welcome Swallows swooping around this area.  They almost certainly have a nest under the eaves of one of the buildings.  See if you can spot them: they have forked tails and are smaller than sparrows.  Despite the vandalism to this garden over the holidays, the plants were not damaged and they have grown well.

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