My winter photo

 

Over the years my daughter Maya has taken pictures of me in my garden, usually in the middle of winter, starting in 2009, our first winter in this house. My husband had died the previous month, so the look on my face that year was a bit not me. But over the years things have improved, on my face and in the garden.

I did not realize that the winter photo had become a tradition until I looked back and saw that I had done it most years (except for 2012).  I have never made the photos public, because in them I am wearing my worst clothes, clothes which I very often wear in the garden.

2009

2010

2011

2013

2014

2015

2016

 

Foggy Morning

A rainy Sunday in Quorn

We get so few of these as most of our rain falls in the night. But a lovely day, soft rain without a breath of wind. Perfect to sit on the outside sofa and watch the cats and local birds do their thing.

The green and gold

These yellow daisies lift the whole garden, and they lift me too.

Euryops chrysanthemoides from Africa is happy here.

And isn’t this a vibrant shade of green?  This too has helped with my May doldrums. I should probably get some fish…

Pond #2

 

 

And didn’t it rain!

The only trouble was that we missed it. We were away, so the garden still got it. Five inches of rain one night in the middle of April. More rain in one go than we’ve had for years.

I’ve always said that for us to get a good rain (=2 inches), Melbourne has to be under about a foot of water. So it wasn’t surprising that the weather that brought the five inches turned into something that killed people in NSW a few days later.

After that I was finally able to start my autumn digging, and watch a few late crocuses poke through at last.

By the brick pond

I also got some mulch from the dump and a few ‘finds’, cacti and succulents that had been thrown out, which I rescued and planted at home.

By the carport

Pond #3 with mulch after a rainy night.

Happy Easter!

There is not much happening in the garden thanks to there being almost no rain since early January, but despite the dryness this Easter Lily has popped up out of nowhere to give us a lovely surprise.

This made up for the non-appearance of my naked ladies after the rain in January, even though they flowered just about everywhere else around here.

My first Andamooka Lily!

After years of driving past Andamooka Lilies in flower, in masses between Quorn and Port Augusta, I finally have one of my own.

My own Andamooka lily.

This one I bought as a seeding at Aridlands in Port Augusta, around 2009 or 2010. I saw nothing of it until 2012, when leaves appeared for the first time. And finally, three years later, the first flower. It’s a nice touch for Leyla’s grave, as I planted Leyla here last June – that’s her saucer there (she loved milk).

Andamooka lilies on a hillside at Saltia.

The Andamooka Lily or Darling Lily (Crinum flaccidum) grows all through the Australian outback, but isn’t so common in WA. I’ve seen them around here and also around the River Murray. They come up after summer rain. When I first saw them out near Warren Gorge a few years back, I thought they were some garden plant that had escaped, but they are natives. Like jonquils they have quite a pong, but the look lovely dotted through native vegetation, and I’ve been trying to propagate them for years with no success so far. I gave Kate Llewellyn a few seeds some years ago – wonder if she’s had any luck.

I love them, and that’s why I picked them for my gravatar.

A holiday at home

Finally after six dry months we had a good rain the other week, around 60mm. We did not see the sun for over a week. All through it the children played outside, mainly on the big slide, the bottom of which fills with water, but much time was also spent on chairs on the back verandah.

On the big slide

The weather was so different to our usual intense days of blue skies and heat that it felt like we were somewhere different and exotic. Meals also were eaten outside, adding to the holiday mood.

Amaru outside for a change.

However the holiday is over. With the ground soft at last, and no watering needed for a week or two, I have been busy working on pond #2 and pond #3.

Reduce your risk of bushfire in the garden – Part 2

7 ways to reduce your bushfire risk in the garden.

Let’s face it, for anyone living in southern Australia (or any gardeners living in the various dry lands around the world), sooner or later you will have to face a fire at some point. But there are quite a few things you can do to protect your property, and because people like lists, I’ve made one!

1. Don’t plant gum trees or conifers close to the house, as lovely as houses nestled in the bush may look. These trees are potential fireballs and Eucalypts are said to burst into flame in high temperatures, ie those caused by an oncoming fire front.

2. Assess your risk. Where do you live? Is it heavily wooded, turned over to vineyards or mainly grassland? Which way do the winds come from? Make sure you get to a local bushfire information night before fire season comes, and find out what you can about your own specific conditions. Here in Quorn my winds come mainly from the southwest, with hot winds coming from the north (the scary ones) and cool ones coming from the southeast some mornings. My main risk here is grassfires caused by lightning strikes. While I shouldn’t have to face a huge fire front, my local deputy fire chief tells me that if the hills were to burn I would be at risk from spot fires caused by embers, and would need to keep an eye on the house (wood) should embers land on it, as we would be within range of ember attack.

My mother in Fairview Park, Adelaide, on the other hand, is mainly alright as the hills are to the east, except if the gully winds blow, as they did the other night. She only found out later that the local pub had been evacuated, but so far has lived to tell the tale.

One day it will be our turn

3. Plant fire retardant plants.

Trees include: Kurrajong, Carob, Peppercorn, White cedar and most deciduous trees. A friend’s father who lived through the Canberra bushfires (January 2003) said a plantation of deciduous trees at his local park saved his house.

Shrubs include: Myoporum, Oleander, Old man saltbush (which surprised me).

Ground cover plants: Gazania (as weedy as it is), Lippia, Myoporum, Agapanthus, and pigface, anything fleshy or full of water.

4. Build that wall. A stone wall is an impenetrable line of defence.

5. Plant a lawn, if you have enough water for it.

6. Choose your mulch carefully, as bark will burn. Spread lots of shale, and keep it free of weeds. Save those woody mulches for the garden beds further away from the house.

7. Keep your property tidy. Keep the grass cut, have your woodpile away from the house, and try not to store too much flammable junk under your verandahs (a note to self here). Keep the gutters free of dead leaves – do this in spring.

It would also be good to get some fire fighting equipment, which I must do, but knowing me, I’ll only get to it when the hills burn, and may find it in short supply on that day.

Reduce your risk of bushfire in the garden – Part 1

At this time of the year I often wonder what I’ve done in choosing a place with such difficult growing conditions. Then there’ll be a big fire or flood somewhere and I’ll remember the benefits.

As I write the biggest bushfire in the Adelaide Hills since Ash Wednesday 1983 is raging, only 5 km from my mother’s home in the northeast suburbs of Adelaide and even closer to our dear friends the Toholkes near Birdwood. A day these people have dreaded has arrived and I pray they are safe, and their wonderful house and garden full of order too.

Toholke garden

I had been living here at this house for five months when Black Saturday happened (7th Feb 2009 in Victoria), and that tragedy has shaped the garden more than I probably realize. Soon afterwards I researched what plants burn and what plants have fire resistant leaves and gardened accordingly.

The Wall

This little wall makes me feel safe, as it is on the north side of the house, where the hottest scariest winds come from, as they did yesterday – it was apocalyptically hot.

The yellow garden

The rather large shrubs in the yellow garden are Myoporum montanum, a nice fire retardant plant, as is Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummalaria), the grey leafed shrub to the left of it. This bed is to the West of the house, from where all our dry storms come around November.

South of the house.

The rather large expanse of shale spread around the south and southwest of the house is there for a reason – when the wind swings around after a nasty north wind, it comes violently from the southwest. The southwesterly also comes up each afternoon during summer except in a heatwave, and firefighters around here have had to deal with these winds many times as fires head towards towns and houses in the Flinders ranges after starting in the hills.

This deciduous tree and pigface may not even catch fire let alone burn.