Choose Life

I am still learning about this little plant. Its a Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' and I know next to nothing on it other then it has survived beyond my expectations of its imminent death and it would look epic in a cottage garden. They apparently grow up to about 75cm high (so us planting 12 in an area smaller then 1m is starting to sound like a really dumb idea) and attract a whole range of insects. In particular, butterflies love them. We planted them in part sun (sun for half a day, shade the rest), in solid clay soil and they get watered 3 times a week due to the bore. I was willing to bet they would be dead within a month and here they are, 6 months later still kicking on. Go you awesome little plant you!

Easy Rose

Quite possibly one of the easiest roses to grow and showiest too. An Iceberg. I dont mind them so much, they typically have very few thorns and put on a good show of flowers, often with little effort. When I started gardening, Icebergs were only available in white, however a few different off white colours have come on the scene in recent years. One that stands out is the burgundy iceberg. Ive only ever seen one in my gardening career, and Im sorry to say I wasnt a big fan. Just didnt like the colour personally. I think its the whole 'its just not right' scenario. I dont recommend them if you want to grow a rose for flowers to pick, but if you want something that flowers beautifully and can be a real feature, cant go past them really.

Morons

I realise that this isnt the greatest of photos, but it does give you an idea. I am itching for school to go back after this week. I feel like I am constantly defending kids and how they arent all that bad, and that they dont just cause all the problems in the park, that its the yobbos that get in the parks of a night time that cause the damage. Well, school holidays seem to prove me wrong every time. Seems to be that the destruction seems to escalate as the holidays progress and virtually stop when school returns. Which is disappointing. This appears to be the latest trend. Fire safety. Just over a week ago I had to find the management of the shopping complex near the park as overnight the fire hoses had been unwound into the park and when they realised that they couldnt turn on the hose, they cut the end off it instead. Todays efforts involve stealing fire extinguishers. Large vehicles (such as cranes, etc) needed to be left in the park over the weekend so they could be used for packing up once the public holiday was over. These vehicles are equiped with fire extinguishers and  the brainless morons decided that the fire extinguishers are for spraying your mates and every thing else in the park. We found 4 of them strewn about. These were the last two we could see. There may even be more, but chances are theyve taken them to another location. My grandad was a fire fighter, so fire safety was droned into me as a kid. To me, this is vandalism that far exceeds stupid. In my mind, this is putting peoples lives at risk.

Water Well

Bromeliads. They like water. In fact, they like it so much that they grow best when the little well in their center, is full of the stuff. I spotted this one in blossom next to the gate in Maxine's Garden, the staff garden. You can get many different types of bromeliad flowers, Ive normally seen them growing in a spike out the center of the well. This one is the only one Ive seen so far that has tiny little flowers just above the water level. I dont mind the plants, personally. My only main gripe with them is they become a perfect breeding place for mozzies, but as long as you dont grow too many, this usually doesnt become a major issue.

Anticipation

Something cool about where I work ..... FIREWORKS! I get to watch them being prepped, well for part of the day at least. It was quite boring. I can see why they explode them, much more interesting. They do a sky show in Minnawarra for Australia Day. They put up a massive stage this year too, so they must be planning a few live bands and what not. We have spent the past two weeks getting organised for it all with raking and mulching and generally running round like headless chickens. So, security is in place to guard the fireworks til tomorrow night, garden beds are primped and preened to look their prettiest, marquees and stages are up and ready .... let the count down begin :D

10 Wheelie Bins Worth

I realise its a little strange to upload pictures of piles of leaves, but this has been my job the past two days. Rake as many leaves as possible as we are just about drowning in the things. I remember when my dads wife first came out to Western Australia. She thought it was odd that the trees here are evergreen, not deciduous like back  in Canada, where she is from. One of her first questions was why the trees still had leaves in the winter, when we explained that it doesnt get cold enough here for the tree to warrant the energy in shutting down for 3 months while the cold passes, so it holds onto its leaves and grows new ones in spring. Her next question was, when do they drop their leaves, as they cant hold onto them forever. Well the time is now, summertime. So the last month or so, we have been raking like mad to remove the fire hazard they propose (a rogue cigarette butt or random pyromaniac could pose a few problems). This was half of yesterdays efforts. This job kinda ruins the kid in you, if I were 6, I would totally run though there kicking up the piles and throwing leaves in the air. As an adult, I spent 3 hours raking those piles up, I dont have the heart to throw them about, as I would have to rake them all up again. *sigh*

I Didnt Scream

This here is a good 2 hours work. Doesnt look it, hey? I had to clear out all the dead leaves and such from the agapanthus and, for the record, that lovely orange brick wall theyre growing next to reflects a hell of alot of heat. Wasnt the most pleasant of jobs, sweating buckets. Now to compound matters, the aggys were full of crickets (of which I have quite a healthy fear) and Redback Spiders. I would have been more blasé about the Redbacks had I not worn out the fingers in my gloves. The crickets made things interesting to say the least. While pulling a handfull of dead leaves off the bottom of a plant, a piece of hair fell across my glasses. I thought it was a little suss when it didnt move when I shook my head to get it out of my vision, then I realised this 'piece of hair' had feet! A cricket had jumped up and landed on the lens of my sunglasses. To my credit I didnt scream. I did throw down my glasses and refuse to approach the bed for a good 10min. Give it time to go away otherwise I would have screamed if he had come back.

Seeding Like Buggery

This is not a native. It is living proof that common names are deceptive. Dont always believe them, because the tag may say Native Iris, but its a native of South Africa, not Australia. The common name I use is Dietes and the plant is nigh on unkillable once its established. We dug some up and left them out of the soil for a day before planting them at one of the office buildings that is constantly suffering from neglect. They survived with minimum water and theyre growing in gravel clay soil!  A word of warning, only ever grow these plants in a house you dont care about too much, as they seed like buggery. The ones we dug up and left bare for a day, well, that was about a year or more ago and we are still having to spray the seedlings that keep popping up. They do look quite effective when in bloom though, you can get several different colours ranging from white to creamy yellow in this particular variety (Dietes bicolour).

Love and Loathe

Im *really* missing my smart phone. The picture quality of my borrowed one is not doing anything any justice. This, for the few of you who dont know, is a bougainvillea. It is named after a french explorer by the last name of Bougainville. Most gardeners I know (myself included) detest them, mostly because of the bloody thorns all along their stems. Its a fast grower and Ive been stabbed by them too many times to be able to hold any great love for them. Everything has its place though, its very hardy and notoriously hard to kill. Its also a very showey plant and the flowers come in many different colours (white, pinks, oranges, yellows and occasionally green) but the most common is the bright magenta, purpley colour. The interesting part to the flowers is the bright colour you see, is actually the bract (a modified leaf that connects to the flower), the flower its self is really that tiny little cream coloured circle in the center. Fascinating hey?

Is That It?

I always remember talking to a friend who once started work in a nursery. Ive been gardening for quite a number of years now, so I became the go to girl for plant knowledge, amongst my friends. He asked me about liriopes and when they flower. He was expecting some big, grand bloom from these little, tufty, grassy plants. When a small, purplish flower spike appeared, he was most disappointed, I still giggle at his response of "is that it?!?". I think he would have thought better if he had seen them planted en mass, not just the single little plant in a tiny pot that he bought. Liriopes are typically used as an edging plant, and we hedge trim them at work to try to keep them low as this is the 'giant variety' (it gets to about knee height). When they are in large numbers you get this effect of lots of little purple sprays of flowers and it really does look quite effective. I think they lose their charm when they are planted on their own, they just look lonely and frumpy. Being with a bunch of friends really brings out the best in them.

Angels in the Garden

This is the rose I am asked about most often at work. It is a floribunda rose called Angel Face if you ever wanted to track it down. I may have explained this before, but floribunda is type of rose, the term means that there is usually a cluster of flower heads instead of a single rose on top of a long stem. They are very showey roses and look good in vases but better on the bush. I quite like Angel Faces, they are not really in my favourite roses category, but their smell is divine. The reason, I believe, why everyone enquires about that particular rose is it looks purple. Blue seems to be the worlds favourite colour, roses are the worlds favourite flower. People have spent billions trying to create a blue rose, but unfortunately it is currently an impossibility. Speaking as a gardener, the thought of a blue rose makes me cringe, its one of those 'its just not natural' things. So when people cant get the colour they want, they go for the next best thing which is a purple hue. Funnily enough the colour of the Angel Face cultivar. Thats my reasoning anyways.

My Skin Hates You

I present the second most uncomfortable job at work: Deadheading the Kangaroopaws. Deadheading, for those who dont know, is cutting off the dead flowers.

Kangaroopaws rely on birds to pollinate them. The flowers are basically a long tube with nectar at the base, a bird sticks his little beak in the tube to lick out the nectar and the back of his/her neck is brushed with pollen from the stamens at the entrance of the tube, pretty simple. Now, this would all be pretty pointless if there werent any nectar in the bottom of the flower, to bribe the bird with. Ants do this, they are notorious nectar thieves. They climb up the plant, drink the nectar, leaving none for the birds and do absolutely no pollinating. Pretty scummy deal for the plant, so Kangaroopaws have evolved to help stop this. They have millions of little tiny hairs covering the the flowers and the flower stems. This makes it very difficult for an ant to walk over, think of it as trying to walk over a heap of tangled soft branches that come up to about your knees. You would constantly be tripping and getting your feet stuck. Now imagine you had 6 legs and trying to do that. Its easier to find food elsewhere. So that would be a win for the plant. However as the flower ages and dies, the flowers dry out and the little hairs come loose and rub off easily. When youre a gardener and you have to cut off several hundred of these dead flowers, you end up covered in these little hairs (which is little more then dust to your eyes). Those little hairs are itchy. So itchy like you would not believe, and it gets everywhere. If I know I am deadheading Kangaroopaws at work that day, I take a change of shirt. Ive come home with rashes from scratching myself crazy from these plants sometimes. So yeah, just be mindful of the buggers when you fill your yard with them. Great for attracting birds but shower and change as soon as possible after deadheading them

A Nook

This little shed has been residing at the bunker, for nearly a year now. The reason it came to our company is simple: Fertilisers and Poisons typically dont like each other  They have a bad habit of mixing together, to make nasty chemical reactions. I discovered this once when I accidently poured Vitaplant into the Roundup bottle once. WEIRDEST SMELLING FOAM EVER! Ummm, so yeah, dont do that, but I digress. We had a safety audit and it didnt come back too positive when it was noted that fertilisers were stored in an unventilated space near assorted poisons/chemicals. So the solution was to get a shed to house the fertilisers in and a proper chemical cabinet for the poisons. The chemical cabinet they came back with redefines 'doing it right'. Its a massive cabinet, with drainage and ventilation, that is lockable and looks really swanky and professional. Good job management. When they realised they had to store the fertilisers outside the bunker, they figured they would buy us a little shed (space is pretty limited at the bunker). So after a trip to the hardware, management bought us an outdoor nook. It is that Tiny. It barely fits the fertilisers in, they are infact, stacked up to about half the height of the shed. We are too afraid to stack it any higher incase we have to get something out and it falls on us. Despite all that, I still think its rather cute. All it needs is a dinky little button nose and it would be perfect ..... I should glue a button to its door .....

An Epitaph

Sucky news today. The massive 1m long Koi Fish that lives in the lake at work, has gone to the big Koi Farm in the sky. A dog walker told us this morning, so it became my job to try to get the body out of the lake. He was bloody heavy and very cumbersome. My guess on why he passed away is that it has been too hot for him the past few weeks. The lake itself is very shallow, it would average out to being about knee deep. Waist deep if you really hunt about, and ankle deep in other places. I think he may have gotten caught in one of the more shallow areas on the last string of near 40 degree days we've had. The water heats up really quickly in those parts and it might have done some damage to him. He was a well loved fish though. I have been stopped twice today, by people wanting to know either what happened to him (they saw him floundering and gasping last night), or wondering where he is. Im sure I will be stopped many more times, the little kids loved to point him out when they could see him swimming about. He will be missed. Rest In Peace dude, after many years of swimming on your own, may you be part of a magnificent and welcoming school in the sky.

Hitch Hiker

Please note this photos was taken from as close a distance as I was comfortable, which was a good 2m or so away from the jerry can. Now, if you have read previous blogs, I have a crazy and ridiculous fear of grasshoppers, crickets, locusts and anything along those lines. I am perfectly fine with jumping spiders, frogs and kangaroos. I list those 3 specifically, because they are the most common creatures people ask if I am also afraid of, when I tell them the reason for my fear is that crickets jump. So today became interesting when this little monster decided to hitch a ride back to the depot with us. I filled the jerry cans while my leading hand went to empty the ute. After I filled the jerrys, he made himself apparent (which is fortunate, as if he had shown himself before then they would still be empty, or on fire). So I calmly took myself to the other side of the petrol bowsers and waited for the ute to return. My leading hand looked at me funny when I wouldnt go near the jerry cans, then started laughing hysterically when she spotted the little monster, which had moved up to the handle by then and Ive spent the better part of the afternoon hearing about how much of a wuss I am. As I didnt have to move the little beast or be attacked by it, Im perfectly fine with my wuss status.

Berries. True or False

These are the beginnings of Pomegranates. In about a month or so they should be ready to pick and eat. So, here is some information that will blow your little noodle, botanically speaking, Pomegranates are a type of berry, and yet strawberries are not botanically a berry. I say botanically, as there is a different definition for a berry when you are speaking culinarily.

The simple definition of a botanical berry is a fleshy fruit that is formed from a single ovary. So a beautiful example of this would be grapes and tomatos. Please dont confuse them with pomes (seeds are separated from the ovary buy the core, such as apples, pears, etc) and drupes (seed is separated from the ovary by a hard stoney layer, such as cherries, peaches, etc). There are alot of subcategories for berries, so I will just stick with the very true definition, which means that it must be made from a superior ovary (The petals are at the base of the ovary, not near the top) and no thick skin or rind.

Culinarily speaking, a berry is simply a small, sweet, juicy fruit. So you have your typical blueberries, strawberries, mulberries, etc, etc.

So to break down what everything thinks is a berry into botanic speak:
Strawberry: Not Berry. The pink fleshy part is actually the receptacle, so this makes it something called an accessory fruit.
Blueberry: Berry, although not a true berry (at the risk of sounding cliche, it is also known as a false berry) as it is formed by an inferior ovary (the petals are located at the top of the ovary). This would also make Pomegranites a type of False Berry.
Mulberry: Not Berry. It is technically a multiple fruit, as in it is formed by many tiny flowers growing in a cluster.
Raspberry: Not Berry. The fruit is formed by merging several different ovaries into a single fruit. A true berry only contains one ovary.

Ive found this a fascinating subject to research and expand my knowledge on. I have also discovered that, the more you research it, the more complicated it becomes. If I have made things worse for you, give me a shout and I shall try to clear up some of the confusion :)

Why?

Im sure I have complained many times about this and every time it happens, my frustration seems never ending. Vandalism, really, I mean come on the general public. Stuff is put out there for all to enjoy, not just for the select few to destroy. We've had quite a bit of damage over the festive/New Year season. In the lead up to Carols By Candle light, one of the spring based seesaws was snapped off in the middle of the spring. How does one just snap a 1 inch thick spring?!? Yet snapped it was and now the children dont have a seesaw til further notice. There have been countless broken bottles and trashed plants. The damage in the photo really gets me though. The rainbow pillars you see in the shot were installed around Remembrance Day in November last year. They are made of glass and contain information on various wars. They were put in the park, near the War Memorial, as a tribute to the fallen men and women of various conflicts, and to be quite honest, with the the vandalism the way it is at present, Im surprised they lasted this long. The pillar on the end has been damaged and has had to be pulled down so it can be repaired (hence the danger tape surrounding it). People have looked at these pillars and instead of admiring them, decided that they present a challenge of 'How high can I climb?'. So of a night time the drunkards and the mischievous climb the pillars and jump down again. This results in the bolts loosening at the base and the glass panels slipping out of their slots. Dangerous for all involved if they fell, so they had to be pulled down and the bases repaired and goodness knows how long that will take. It can make your job very disheartening sometimes.