Category: Garden Photos

This also deserves its own special mention. We had already arranged for this very large Casuarina to be brought down. However, it had other ideas and, somewhat impatiently, decided to cut itself down. Over three consecutive days, it dropped its largest three branches in rotation – like children falling from a merry-go-round. Fortunately they missed all the important plants, the fences and the house itself. It made the tree surgeons’ work much easier, though!

This has a special story of its own. I planted it about 30 years ago, and was told it would take about 10 years to produce a flower. I’m very patient, but thought the day would never come. Finally, in 2014, a spike appeared and grew very tall before starting to produce its beautiful large red flower. I watched it grow, in awe, and I photographed its progress. Eventually, when the flower was near its full size, I took a lovely photo of it set against a clear bright blue sky. The next morning – oh, no! – the flower had disappeared! It seems a possum had demolished it in one meal during the night. Appropriately, by the morning the skies had turned a nasty dark, forbidding grey. There were a few remnants on the ground, which the metal brolgas seemed to be inspecting curiously. These three photos depict the whole sorry story.

Stumpy the wombat is so-called because he is resting on the stump of a Eucalyptus tree that had to be felled. He does look so comfortable there, nestled in the Grevillea ‘Little thicket’ hedge! The hedge out the front had to be altered because one of the bushes died. The Callistemon was still healthy, so rather than leaving it as it was (as a half-hedge), I turned it into a round bush. There were three other Callistemons behind the hedge, so once that was removed, they have started to bush out to restore our privacy (not yet photographed) Also, the round flat part closer to the house and next to the driveway was re-designed, and new plantings of small bushes and ground covers are growing well there. The special stepping stone pathway (with native plants and animal designs, but not easily seen in the photos) was extended into that area too.