The Great Unkillables

This is the flower of a Canna Lily. They are one of the plants that I refer to as 'The Great Unkillables', so to anyone who isnt accustomed to my slang, this is a plant that is incredibly hard to kill provided you ensure they have enough water to establish them, occasional watering and maintenance (eg, pruning the dead shoots). Admittedly they wont look very pleasant if they barely get any water or care, the edges of the leaves will burn, they wont grow much higher than your knee and will generally look terrible. If they receive general care, they can get quite tall (Ive seen some in very damp spots reach up to 2m high), flower prolifically and spread like nobodies business. When they get too thick, take to them with a shovel and dig them up to thin them out. They generally wont mind. The plant grows from rhizomes under the grounds surface. The rhizomes have several growing points, so the plant forms a large clumping habit. They come in quite an assortment of tropical colours. The flowers range from pink, red, orange, yellow and mixtures there of. The leaves can also come in a variety of colours from green to dark plum. You can also find varieties with stripey variegation on their leaves in an assortment of colours from bright red or bright yellow, that is mixed with a shade of light green or dark green. They are a plant that is extremely good at giving your garden a tropical flavour and can be extremely rewarding with very little care. Just a word of caution, they will grow quite thick and spread quickly if they are growing in very damp conditions. Also apologies for the photo quality, still saving for a new phone.

Wishing Our Lives Away.

Today is too hot, crazy hot. We mowed lawns and it was hot. So hot infact, that when the mowing was done, I went and stood under the hose for a good 20min. I was dry again within an hour. So, I figured that seeing as its too hot, I would post a photo from winter. This is from winter 2011, I think. We dont often get rains like this. The lake is filled from a river that runs down from the hills (unfortunately I dont know the name of the river), down into Sanctuary Lake, then into the lake in Minnawarra. In summer we have to fill the lake from the bores (as its a retic lake and would dry up otherwise) and stop when it is full and doesnt flow over the rocks. In winter, when there is a big deluge of rain this happens. It is impressive to see and I do miss it. Its funny, we spend most of winter wishing for summer to come along and when it gets here, we wish for the cool embrace of winter again. We are never content are we?

Well There You Go

These are the curled fronds of a tree fern in one of the main parks. I can still remember when I was studying horticulture and I discovered that Tree Ferns (Cyathea cooperi and Cyathea australis) were Australian species of the plant. I guess growing up in Western Australia, I sometimes forget that parts of the country are quite tropical. So, naturally, the plants would be very different to the scrub that grows round Perth. Surprisingly enough tree ferns grow quite well in Perth, just make sure they are in a darn good location (part/dappled shade with improved soil, NOT SAND!). The main thing you have to watch with tree ferns is they grow. Ive seen them grow up to nearly 2 stories tall next to a south facing side of a building. Admittedly it was a very old plant, but the point to note is it explains this in the plants namesake. TREE fern, ie; tree like growth. They get quite tall and the fronds can spread across up to about 2m if theyre really happy where they are. So please when planting make sure they have room to grow, coz if you have to get rid of one they are easy to chop down but removing the stump is a royal bastard of a job.

Butterfly Like Flowers

This is something I believed that everyone knew, turns out it isnt as common knowledge as I first thought. Hydranges have flowers that can change colour from pink to blue and back again. The flower is indicative of the pH in the soil. If it is pink, then the soil is slightly acidic. If the flower is blue then the soil is alkaline. If the flowers are a mix like the ones in the picture, then your dealing with an inbetween, or close to neutral. For some reason people love blue flowers, so they buy a lovely blue hydrangea, then get really stroppy when it flowers the next year and the flowers are pink. Just adjust the pH and the flowers will revert back. Another word of caution that I thought was another obvious common knowledge thing. The name Hydrangea should even give it away, they are VERY thirsty plants. Dont grow them in barren sand, in the full sun. They will burn and die very quickly. Grow them in part/dappled shade, in damp soil (so lots of organic matter) and spray occasionally with copper to discourage fungal diseases (as they are very prone to mildew). They will look a bit sick during the winter months, dont fret they just do this. Prune them back to buds at the beginning of spring and for all that is good and wholesome, MULCH THEM!

Memories

I apologise for the image quality, still hanging out to get a new phone. I got really excited when I spotted this creeper in the staff garden the other day. Its a pretty innocuous looking creeper, nothing special, lots of bright green hear shaped leaves. I didnt think anything of it til I saw it flower, ITS A DUTCHMAN'S PIPE!!!!! Oh my frickety god! I havent seen one in years! They arent a plant that you see very often, even though its quite a vigorous climber. Its namesake is obvious when you see the flower shape, it certainly is one of the more unusual shaped blossoms that Ive come across. The species means alot to me as its a plant I remember from my childhood. My stepfather grew one and would always proudly proclaim it to anyone who would listen. Embarrassing as it was at the time, it just makes me smile now.

Geek Hide And Seek

Please stop questioning my sanity, yes I am posting up a picture of a long dead tree stump. There is a story behind this stump. It use to house a little Geocache. I discovered it by accident about a year ago during the rubbish run. Geocaching is a game that I call Geek Hide and Seek, as you require technology to find the treasure. I have never done it myself, but I know a little about it. One of the relatives I stayed with while I was on holiday in the UK did this as a hobby. In its simplest version you log onto one of the geocaching websites and get a series of co-ordinates, you plug these into a gps and then try to find the cache. So its like a treasure hunt I guess. There are other versions, such as one that requires you to find clues, or locate the co-ordinates from numbers on signs, plaques, etc in the local area. Ultimately you try to find the cache and leave a little note in the logbook and sometimes swap an item for one of the treasures inside. I dont know what sort this one was, but it has since been removed (hence the reason I can now post a picture of it online). I enjoyed it because if we were having a lazy day, I could stop on the rubbish run and read the little entries in the logbook (its surprising how many overseas visitors put entries into the book) and watch the toys change in the little container. I really do miss it sometimes.

Display

Ive been working at the counsil for about 18 months now. We replace the annuals up to 4 times a year (Depending on the mood of my boss at any given time. Sometimes he wants them changed alot, sometimes we can get away with it). A trick Ive learnt when planting the annual beds. Always try to have a bright colour on hand, such as white or yellow. When you plant a mass of colours, the whites and yellows break up the colour of the bed and brighten up the display a lot. Another trick, feed the darn things! Annual beds are typically phased out of counsils and public displays now days due to their high demand for water and fertilizer. Annuals are only meant to live for a season, sometimes if you look after them, they can last longer but typically a year is a good innings for plants such as these. So because they have to grow and breed in such a short time, they need alot of water and fertilizer. Trick is not to let them dry out too much and to give them liquid fertilizer once ever 2-3 weeks. Liquid fertilizers are an easy to access source of nutrients for these plants and you would be surprised the difference makes when you feed them this. They can certainly put on such lovely displays when they are done right :)

Let It Snow

Some funny person thought it would be hilarious to decimate a beanbag in the skate park. The result, well, it looked like snow but only in strategic places where the wind cant quite catch it. It was really effective as it would swirl the beans and it really did look like snow. I make this comparison  yet I have never seen snow in my life. We had no way of sucking the stuff up (no industrial vac or a bag to attach to the blower to turn it into a sucker), I had to get the grain scoop and pick up the worst of it, then blow the rest of it away. Picking it up was a cow of a job, however blowing it away with the back pack blower is so very delightful. I do believed I giggled like a little school girl.

The Gardener Tree

A friend of mine has lent me a phone until I can get a new one. So some of the newer photos, wont be as up to standard as they have been in the past. Still trying to work out the quirks of the camera mode.

This little guy scared the absolute bejimmenies out of me today. I was raking in the skate park and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bit of branch stuck on my shoulder. I thought it was a little strange a branch getting caught there as I hadnt been leaning against anything, but brushed at it and kept raking. Then two large legs appeared infront of my face. I thought I had somehow wound up with a big spider on me and let out, quite possibly, the girliest shriek I have ever made. I also realise now, that my first instinct was to duck. Which is a little bit silly as it was on my shoulder, so it wasnt like ducking was really going to help me much. When I realised that it was a 15cm long praying mantis, I was much relieved. The only way I can think of how he wound up on me was, I was raking out a garden bed and must have disturbed him. He must have thought my leg was the base of a nice big safe tree and proceeded to climb. I couldnt feel him climb as we have to wear long pants, so he proceeded to climb until he reached what he thought was the highest and safest place in the 'tree'. The biggest challenge for me was to figure out how to get him off me without hurting him as he crawled round to the back of my shoulder blade and batting him off would not have ended well. Eventually I just lent next to a big tree (a real tree, not another gardener) and after a couple of minutes he climbed onto the bark and began a journey to the canopy. Good luck mantis. Thanks for the memories.

Looking Pretty

I apologise for the lateness of getting these photos up. Have had too many distractions of late. At any rate, these photos are from last month. We had to prep the parks for Remembrance Day. So the week leading up to it was alot of raking and pruning so the garden beds look lovely. Then management dropped a bomb on us, they wanted the parks hand mowed with the rotary mowers to pick up the leaves and make it look uniform. They didnt want to use the ride on mowers as they dont have catchers. Normally it wouldnt have phased me as they planned to do it on what was normally my RDO, however due to a shut down over christmas, I had to work my RDO day. They also decided on the day that we had to rotary mow the lawn at the Kelmscott Memorial. As you can see from the photos, the place really did look amazing and was all beautiful for the ceremony. However it wasnt the most pleasant job at the time.

Ground Work

If I had to try to single out a favourite scented flower, Gardenias would be very up there on my list. I love to pick the flowers and put them in my hair, the heat from my head intensifies the perfume and I get to have the smell linger around me all day. That was one of the things I learnt in floristry, when making a floral head piece, dont choose delicate flowers as the head produces alot of heat and delicate flowers will wilt very quickly.

Gardenias are surprisingly easy plants to grow, but they have a very bad habit of looking yellow and sick because most people dont do their prep work first. Its easy, enrich the ground with some cow manure (its slightly more acidic than sheep manure, but only slightly) or compost. They dont like to grow in dry sandy soils, so enrich it I tells ya! They yellow very easily when water stressed, so mulch the plant and apply a wetting agent if the soil is water repellent.  They dont like being in full shade (they wont flower and will grow very sparse and leggy), they dont like very hot sun. They will grow quite happily in part/dappled shade and full sun. Simple. Oh and, they also also like slightly acidic soil, same as camellias and azaleas. An easy way to kill two birds with one stone is to mulch them with pine needles. Pine trees are notoriously bad for the soil, they suck out so much moisture and acidify the soil really badly. This is why I like reading books as opposed to ereaders, kindles or whatever else theyre called, I like pine trees to die for my reading pleasures. But I digress, pine needles break down into the soil,  keep the moisture in and slightly acidify the soil as they break down. Finally a use for pine. I realise this sounds like alot of work but if you do your research right, then growing gardenias can be very rewarding. They flower profusely when happy and the smell from them is absolutely divine.

Stung

A friend of mine once told me that Ive somehow become a connoisseur of stings because I was able to tell the difference between an ant sting, a bee sting and a wasp sting.. Please dont think that I go round purposely getting stung by various insects just to have this very mild super power, I have worked in gardening long enough to have suffered the more painful side of these insects. Its kinda  hard to describe how I know the difference, its something to do with the intensity of the pain and the number of times I get stung. If Im stung once and it bloody well hurts, is almost always a bee, when that happens then I run for antihistamines. Yay for allergies. If its not as an intense but itchy pain, then Ive been done by an ant and for some reason flying ants love to fall down my top and get stuck in my bra, then it becomes a race to get the bastard out without flashing the general public. Bull Dog Ants are another story, I havent been stung by one of those in my career (touch wood) and only as a child. I can remember it hurts alot but a different type of pain to a bee sting, so Im excluding them in this story, sorry science. Wasp stings tend to be as intense with pain as bee stings, however they have the ability to keep stinging til their venom runs out. This makes it very not fun. I had a paper wasp crawl up the back of my shirt once and sting me about 7 times from the top of my trousers to about 10cm up my back (it clearly couldnt figure out how to get out of my shirt), and you could tell the difference from the first sting (the largest) to the final (it was a little larger than a pin head). 

If you ever need to get rid of a paper wasp nest, then do so on a cold morning. The colder the weather, the more sluggish the insects are. However if you have little choice but to remove it on a warm day, then distance is your friend. Either spray it from a good meter or so back from the nest, or bat it off what ever it is on with a broom handle. When the nest falls on the floor, the adults will be angry, but will leave within a day or so. Do NOT try to bat out a nest if it is in a tight spot (like under fence capping, etc) or if the nest will land anywhere near you, unless you wish to be stung of course.

Some useless information for you, the paper wasp in this photo has a cattarpillar in its mouth. This is not for the wasp, paper wasps drink nectar. Their larvae, however, require a source of protein to grow. So the wasps catch the cattarpillars, chew them up and feed them to the growing larvae. I have also heard that paper wasps are a natural predator of fruit flies, but I have had trouble researching this so I cant verify how true it is. 

I also want to apologise for the length of this blog. I dont normally like to make them this long, however my phone broke so I am currently unable to take photos at work until I save up and buy a new one. So right now Im working with stock photos that I have taken over time but havent had chance to upload. So please bear with me, trying to get as much in with limited photos :) will let you know when I can get a new phone.

Ambiance

That lovely piece of ambiance that is the fountain in the lake has a couple of small stories attached to it. First of all, they are a nuisance to fix if they are broken. However, as I am a lowly gardener this is not my problem and I get great enjoyment watching the retic boys sail out there in the little boat to fish it up and check it. Oh the amusement. So far I havent seen one fall in, so the boys definitely have their sea legs. The second little tale involves the wild life. Now fountains need a break too, its pointless to run them when there is almost nobody in the park. So the fountain is run on a timer that switches it off for the night time and turns it back on around 7-8am. On the lake there is one very determined little bird, a Coot. Coots build nests preferably on the water, so usually on a large branch or something poking out of the surface and they add to it with reeds and sticks til it reaches a suitable height. This particular coot has been working tirelessly all season (and last season) to build a nest on the fountain platform. So it keeps building ups sticks while the fountain is turned off and gets a rough nest shape, then the fountain turns on and blows half of it sky high (the other half seems to sit nicely on the corner of the platform). The amusing part is the bird continues to add sticks and such while the fountain is spraying water skyward and knocking the nest out of place. It usually gives up around 9-10am, then tries again the next morning. 10 points for determination little coot, -1 for common sense though.

Deliciously Fake

The ornamental ginger at work has come into bloom. The flowers looks so waxy and fake, but in a good way. Until I started gardening I never knew that you could get ornamental ginger. There is a whole range of plants that are available as ornamentals, so no fruit just pretty looking plant and they pretty much all start with the word Ornamental. The main ones that I can think of off the top of my head include Ornamental Ginger, Ornamental Plum and Ornamental Pear. The ginger in this photo is quite a large plant, forming large clumps of individual plants that can grow up to 2m high. If they get too dense, you can cut them back to ground level and the rhizomes will reshoot back into another mass. Its a great plant if you are going for a tropical look and when it bursts into bloom like this, how could you possibly be disappointed?

Rich blues

I love a good before and after shot. Ive been waiting a good month or more for those berries to form. The plant is a Dianella and unfortunately after you plant a couple of thousand of the buggers, you tend to lose your liking for them. They are an extremely hardy plant and are commonly used in median strips and counsel verges that arent reticulated. As you can see from the photos, they get very small, delicate flowers on these wiry stems. I think it looks rather nice, artistic even. my leading hand hates them with a passion, thinks they look messy until these lovely berries come along. I like the wiry look of them, with or without the berries. I think if the berries were a red they wouldnt be as appealing. My only fear with them is little kids thinking that the berries may be edible  I have no idea if they are/arent poisonous and we fortunately dont grow them near playgrounds. So yeah, Dianellas. Nice plant, easy to grow, berries may or may not be poisonous, spreads quick (be warned) and looks quite artistic when it flowers.

New Growth

I love it when its new growth time on the cycads. Spring you magnificent thing! Putting on displays like this, its brilliant. We have a heap of cycads at work and I have a bad habit of forgetting the name of them. Makes it interesting when I try to talk to my coworkers about them and Im trying to jog my memory, Im sure I look and sound like Im trying to get caramel off my teeth. Cycads are an australian native, for some reason this really blew my mind when I found out. They are very slow growing and extremely hardy. We have them growing in some of the unreticulated areas of the parks and they bluntly refuse to die. The one in this picture is growing in one of the staff gardens at work, its the biggest and healthiest of the several dozen that are growing. Quite magnificent really.

Always The Bridemaid

I remember reading a gardening magazine once and one of the feature articles was on Agapanthus. The catch cry for it was 'Always the bridesmaid, never the bride' and its so very true. Aggys (as we shorten the name to) are what I call, one of the great unkillables. In other words, they are very hardy plants once established and will reward the gardener handsomely with beautiful displays of lush green foliage and bright flowers that can be blue, white or varying shades there of. However we tend to use aggys as an edging plant or a filler. They are always there to enhance something else, never the main feature (ie, the bride). As a result, I tend to feel a bit sorry for them. One day little Aggys, you will have your chance to shine in the spotlight! one day!

Someone Else's Garden

We have annual beds at work. I actually love the annual beds, they put on lovely displays and its nice to change the scenery every 4-6 months. The colour you get out of them is magnificent and as they are planted en masse, it really stands out and looks amazing. They make the parks in my eyes. We dont have alot of annual beds, so its not that bad when we have to replant them. The flowers in this picture are a trial for this year, they are called Portulaca, we wanted to have something other then petunias and vincas that we put in for every summer display. The colours in them are quite varied with pinks, reds, oranges, whites and yellows. They seem quite promising. Biggest frustration right now, they keep getting stolen. In this past month we have had over 250 annual plants stolen right out of the bed. Every morning we come in and another patch of about 20-30 plants have been taken. Its not just annuals either, 10 rose plants have been dug up and taken too. I cant begin to tell you how disheartening this is. We have no hope of catching who ever is doing this as, in the words of my boss, "its only $1000 worth of plants, the police have better things to do with their time". With an attitude like that, one wonders why they sometimes get a 'whats the point' attitude at work.

Disgruntled

Meet the friendly mudlark that inhabits the parks. I have a habit of calling them peewees, my nanna calls them butcher birds (which is WRONG! I have told her many times but shes stubborn), their correct name is a mudlark. I say this guy is friendly, in reality he just looks out for us gardeners and flies down to join us as it usually means an easy meal, as we turn the grubs out of the ground and make them easier to spot. This one is a boy. I know this as he has 'eyebrows'. Male mudlarks have a patch of white feathers above their eyes that look like eyebrows, the females dont have this trait at all. I think he looks pretty peeved in this photo as he was putting on a show for me and I wasnt paying attention. He must have a lovely lady up in a tree near to where I was working and was afraid I was after his nest, so he was acting all injured. He spread his wings, puffed himself up and spread out on the ground. He then proceeded to flop himself along the ground, trying to encourage me to chase him or at least come closer (ie, further from the nest). When I ignored him and just kept weeding, he fixed me with this look, got up and walked away. Seemed to me he was quite disgusted that I didnt acknowledge his acting skills. Drama Queen.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Right next to the parks that I work in is a large shopping complex. Its rather convenient actually, I usually walk over there during smoko or lunch to buy lunch foods for the week or pick up anything that I may have forgotten. To say that it is handy is an understatement. One flaw with this shop, it has a faulty alarm system. Its constantly sounding the alarm! At least once a week the entire complex gets evacuated, complete with lights, ringing bells, buzzers and sexy firemen, all for no good reason. There is never a fire, chemical spill, hell, not even a kitten stuck up a tree! Today when I heard the alarm go off, I didnt think anything of it and leaving the garden I was working in to get a glimpse of the firemen just wasnt worth the walk at the time. Then my leading hand comes up and informs me that there genuinely *is* a fire and the fire alarm isnt being all faulty and stuff. So we promptly leave the garden and go have a sticky beak like everyone else. Turns out somebody set fire to the industrial cardboard recycling bins under the side of the shop near Muzz Buzz. It seemed a little anticlimactic, it wasnt a particularly big fire, just very smokey. I dont know why, but I was expecting to see half the building on fire. Probably not a good thing to wish for, but there was alot of smoke, in my defence. On the plus side, I got to look at firemen. Always a win.

Go Forth And Live!

Never underestimate how determined somethings are to live! One of my missions for the day was to wash the work ute. Its amazing how quickly the inside fills with dust and dirt. I got the surprise of my life to see these little guys growing inside the car door! Yes, they are jsut weeds. I would like to point out though, they are growing in less then 1cm of dirt in the crevice of the passenger door, where the only sunlight they would receive would be when the door is opened or closed. I left them there, they are doing a good job of surviving, I certainly didnt want to get in the way of that.

Heartbreaking Decisions

One on my pet hates is people who dont take responsibility for their pets. These little guys we found at the bunker. Somebody has dumped the mother cat in the park while she was pregnant and she has had a litter of 5 kittens. They are incredibly cute and playful. They are also rather wild and will run if you try to approach them, which makes them difficult to catch. My coworker told the rangers about them, so some traps have been set to catch them. Now, I am not a cat lover, Im a dog person through and through. Im not going to go out and tell everyone why they shouldnt own a cat, each to their own really, but if given the choice I would rather hug a puppy then a kitty. My dilemma here is when the rangers catch them, they have to put them all down, as there is no cat shelter this side of town and we can not have feral cats running round the park killing the ducklings and bandicoots. This is the reason I get very angry at irresponsible pet owners. If they had sterilised their cat or kept it (rather then dumping it in the park), we wouldnt be in this situation. The mother cat was caught on Friday, but she moved the kittens somewhere that we cant find. If we manage to find the kittens, Im toying with the idea of keeping one as the idea of killing 5 kittens really doesnt sit right with me at all. I still dont feel right only being able to save one out of 6 (including the mother cat) of them. So I guess cross your fingers that we find at least one of the kittens, as I doubt they will survive long without their mother.

My Favouite Spider

Meet my first Christmas Spider of the season. They are my favourite type of spider, I think because the colour of them remind me alot of tiny Skulltulas from The Legend Of Zelda. They are just so bright and colourful. They are called Christmas Spiders for good reason. You only really see them at this time of year, in the months leading up to Christmas and shortly afterwards. They are also really tiny. THis guy wouldnt have even been the size of a mini M&M. they dont really get much bigger then that. He also isnt actually floating in air, you can just see the strands of his little web. Phone isnt the best at making them visible.

Just Hanging

No real story with this guy. I found him hanging out, munching away happily on the vine next to the door to the bunker. I have no idea what species of caterpillar he is or what type of butterfly/moth he will turn into. I just hope he will be pretty. I dont like squishing interesting looking caterpillars, for some reason I hold the belief that interesting caterpillars mean interesting butterflies. This is not based on fact, so please dont quote me on it. I also have the believe that if you want butterflies in your life, you're going to have to share your garden with the caterpillars.

Common Misconception

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a crow. It is actually a Raven. There are no crows in the Perth metropolitan area, only ravens. And the question on everyone's lips Im sure is, what do we call them when there is a group of them. Obviously you cant call them a murder of crows, as they arent crows. I now introduce you to one of my favourite collective terms, you call them an unkindness of ravens! pretty cool huh? Love it! These are also frightfully smart birds. It has taken me ages to get a picture of one, as every time they see me with my phone in my hand, they think Im going to throw something at them so they fly away. I seriously cant believe its taken me 2 months to get a decent photo of one.

The Smell

You can smell these everywhere at present. It is a Star Jasmine, or Trachelospermum jasminoides. Its not actually a 'true' jasmine, as this particular plant is part of the milkweed family Apocynaceae, not the olive family Oleaceae (where true jasmines belong). Star Jasmines have a very strongly perfumed flower, you can scent them from a good couple of meters away at least. If the plant is particularly large, the smell can give people headaches although Ive never come across anyone who has suffered this (think my tafe lecturer might have been trying to scare us with that one). I love the plant personally, its quite hardy and very rewarding. The one in this photo is pretty much growing in yellow sand with a little bit of blood and bone and its an absolute mass of white flowers. We use them as groundcovers at work, but they are avid climbers. If you grow one be prepared to have lots of trellis room for it, because if its happy it will get bushy and thick in no time at all.

Grow This Paperbark

This is the flower of a swamp paperbark growing in one of the parks. This type of paperbark is less invasive then the broad leafed paperbark. So I personally prefer this one. The difference is quite obvious between the two. The swamp paperbark has small needle like leaves, the broad leafed paperbark has .... wait for it .... broad leaves. Well, broad in comparison to needles like leaves. Broad leaved paperbarks tend to be rather straight and upright trees, they arent the greatest shade tree. Swamp paperbarks tend to have a broader canopy (which is a mass of white bottle brush like flowers around November) so in my opinion are a nicer tree. Swamp bottlebrush are also a native to Western Australia, another feather in its little cap.

I Hate Plumbago

This week has not been enjoyable so far. Given that the week has just started, this does not bode well. Today we were hedge trimming the massive plumbago hedge next to the highway. On the plus side it wasnt a hot day like it was the last time we pruned it, but it did rain a bit in the morning. Now, bit of back story, I am the tallest person at he bunker. Please dont think of me as a giant, I just work with small people. So, being the tallest Im put on the pole hedgetrimmer as I can reach further while the other two did the outside of the hedge. Now even though the hedgetrimmer Im using is on the end of a big stick, I still have to stromp through the hedge to reach places of it. When the hedge is wet from all the rain, I was soaked from belly button to big toe in a couple of minutes. My socks felt like sponges. Not a particularly pleasant feeling on a cool day. In the middle of my mental grumblings about how generally unfair life is at present, I spy this little guy sitting quietly in an area I had just pruned! He made me smile. Im chalking that up as a win.

Overload

*twitch* too many annuals to plant *twitch*

We needed about 1000 annuals to plant up so the beds look all beautiful for christmas and new years .... the boss ordered about 1500. This photo was taken on day 2 of the 3 days it took to plant them all. We mostly had petunias, but there were some portulaca, dianthus and celosia to mix it up a bit. I normally quite enjoy planting the annuals, its something different in our routine jobs. This time there were just too many. We were struggling for places to plant them. I ended up planting them inbetween the older annuals up in the staff garden. *twitch* just too many annuals.

Photo Bombed!

An explanation to the top photo, I spent ages trying to get a really good photo of a willy wag tail with no success, now the buggers are photo bombing me out of spite! The bottom photo was the decent shot of the pretty rose at work. The smell of it is devine! Its a little standard rose we planted last year. To be very honest Im very surprised it didnt get stolen, we've had a heap of plants taken of late. Its nice to see that some are growing and thriving, with or without the willy wag tails.

Obvious Questions

He has no name and he is the only fish in the lake at work (excluding the minos). He is a koi and he is about a meter or so long. He could also be a she, my knowledge on the gender identification of koi is nonexistent  There have been many days where I will get people come running up to me while Im working and ask me if I was aware that there is a giant fish swimming round in the lake. If it is an adult asking me this question, in my head I question that persons sanity. I mean really, I work in the park on a daily basis, I see that lake 5 days a week. However good customer relations dictates my response, a simple nod or 'yes'. The person will then question me the length of time that the fish has been there. Well, I know that he has been there for at least 8 years, but it takes alot longer for koi to get that large. I once read that they can live for 20-30 years, perhaps longer if conditions are favorable. So my politically correct response is always 'a long time'. Yay for safe answers.

Peek A Boo

Ive always thought that preying mantis have a quizzical look about them, as though they have just been asked a curve ball question and they are thinking about their cryptic response. I also have this cartoon image of them locked in the back of my mind that says they should be wearing glasses and working as a librarian. Neither of those thoughts have much to do with my job, but it does make me smile when I do find a mantis. This guy was hanging out with me while I finished dead heading the dietes, he wasnt a massive. just that lovely inbetween size. So hes alot bigger then the ones Ive seen alot of over winter, but not massive. He probably would have been about 5cm or so and was quite content to have me take his photo. Lovely little chappie he was.

Tangled

Snake vine, Hibbertia scandens. The photo tones down the bright yellow of the flower, but it is quite a showey native creeper. It is commonly grown as a bit of a tangley shrub in places where nothing else will grow due to its hardy nature once its established. I recall one of my exboyfriends use to call this a tennis ball bush, simply because he use to have it in the house he grew up in and they would play tennis in the back yard. Every time they would hit the ball into the bush, they would have to get another ball as they could never find it again. In his words 'the darn thing eats tennis balls!'. This wouldnt surprise me as snake vines tend to grow onto themselves if they have nothing to climb on and after several years they become quite an impressive tangle.

A Touch Of History

Commonly known as a Tea Tree, this is a type of Leptospermum. They are all in bloom at present and look beautiful. The colours range from white to pink to red. We do have a couple that are a bright candy pink colour, but most are this pale pink shade. This is not the type of tea tree that they make the tea tree oil out of, that is a more tree like species and I dont think I have ever come across one in my gardening career. I do know how its common name came about. The meaning is quite literal, and the leaves are steeped in boiling water and consumed like tea. I have never tried this myself but will get round to it one day. The quirkyness in the tale is that brewing the leaves to make a tea was discovered on Captain Cook's voyage to Australia, and the man encouraged his crew to drink the tea tree beverage in a bid to ward off scurvy. Whether this worked or not, Im not entirely certain, but Im sure after months at sea it would have been a welcome change from grog and water rations.

Definitely Not A Weed

We were pulling up the annuals today and preping the beds ready for the advanced seedling punnets of petunias to go in, so they will be ready and beautiful for Christmas. My coworker was pulling the odd weeds from around the roses while the other two of us were getting the bigger plants out when suddenly he jumped and yelped. He went to grab what he thought was a weed to discover it was cold, slimy and not happy about being grabbed. It was this little guy, isnt he cute? Im pretty sure this is a little Motorbike Frog, and after some quick research it turns out they turn green with gold mottling after sun basking, but can be a darker brown in cooler conditions. I didnt know they could change colour, learn something new everyday. I put him round the corner far away from our demolition.

Midweek Pick-Me-Up

I dont have much of a story to tell about this lovely little fello. I was deadheading the Dietes in the garden beds around the lake when he showed up out of the blue (if you pardon the pun). Im not used to seeing dragonflies keeping their wings back against their body when they arent flying, although I typically encounter the larger species of dragonflies. This little guy wouldnt have been much longer then about 3cm. I also find that this type of dragonfly tends to be alot more timid then the bigger ones too, they will take off in a heartbeat if they think youre getting too close. He hung around long enough for me to take a photo and when I put my phone away, he had disappeared. Certainly brightened my day up and has helped to shake this bad mood Ive been in for the past few days. Such a lovely little chappie.

Spring In All Its Glory

If you have ever worked as a gardener in a retirement village, you very quickly pick up on the old school names for some plant species. So I know this bush as a Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, where as everyone else I work with calls it a Brunfelsia. The old fashioned name comes from that fact that the flower changes colour as it ages ie; yesterday it was purple, today its mauve, tomorrow it will be white. It doesnt work exactly on that timeline, most of those flowers are more then 3 days old and it takes a few days for them to fade to a noticeably lighter shade. They grow best in full sun, as you can see in the picture the part of the bush that is covered in the most flowers is the part that cops the most sunlight. They are very hardy however and will grow in part sun and dappled shade. I would like to note that Brusfelsia's have a bad habit of looking very bare and uglyish during the winter. Most of their leaves fall off and they just look sick. Its all worth it in the spring though, when they turn into a massive display of purple prettyness!

Ninja Fluff

The baby coots have hatched and are looking adorable! Well, fluffy to say the very least. I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, understandably the parents dont want me too near their babies. They hatched out about a fortnight ago and the little balls of fluff are growing quickly. These two photos are taken about a week apart, the top one is the most recent. Unfortunately they seem to have lost 2 of their babies as they started out with 7 and only seem to have 5 now. The father coot is extremely protective of his young brood, he chases away or attacks any other bird that is near to where his babies are swimming. I have never seen the babies leave the lake, which is probably a good thing as the ravens are renown for turning baby chicks of any species into a quick meal. Overall, Id have to say that coots are amongst the better parents that Ive observed water bird species. On average most of their offspring survive, both parents help raise the chicks and they are very protective of them. Its uplifting to watch the chicks grow and survive childhood because so often I have to watch the harsh reality of 'thats nature'.

Whirring Trees

Today's mission, remove the suckers from the base of the trees around the park. Some of them the suckers were so thick that it was beginning to resemble some strange form of small shrub. Then I got the shock of my life when I began cutting away the suckers to have the base of the tree start whirring at me. Trees dont normally make whirring noises of any description so I knew something had to be in there, but couldnt figure out what. Then as I moved a clump of leaves it whirred at me, Got Ya! Now the thing about cicadas is they are so bloody hard to see. They are darn good at camouflage, I almost didnt see this little guy. Then when I finally spotted him and tried to move him somewhere safer he didnt want to leave. Im cool with that, cicadas arent crickets! They can hang about me all they like and I dont mind the singing cicadas. They are a sound of summer to me and all the fun times and adventures associated with summer. Whats not to love.