Like Cats

Its everlasting season again. We seed them back in May with the first lot of rains, it just takes a few months for them to grow to the right height and bloom. These ones have been out since early July and look amazing! Everlastings are a type of daisy, so they also have the daisy habit of closing up their petals of a night time. These flowers have also evolved to close up when they get wet too, its like theyre cats and they hate water. The petals are very dry and water repellent, so they are very effective at keeping their center dry. I never knew this about everlastings before this season. I was working near the garden bed when a shower of rain came through, then all the blossoms began closing. It was fascinating. Please dont think that they snap shut like a mouse trap, theyre awesome flowers but not quite that awesome. They take a little while to close up, and even then dont close as tightly as they do overnight. Still pretty cool though.

Sopping

The parks are soaked at present due to the months worth of rain we've had. In the past month we have managed to bog the ute twice in the lawn areas of the parks. Its that wet. One thing I do admit, it is nice doing the rubbish run on a sunny morning after the rain. The plants look rather pretty covered in the droplets of water. This particular specimen is the flower buds of a Dianella. We have a heap of these plants at work, they are honestly very hardy plants and will survive in most situations (just be mindful that they form a pretty thick clump and spread quite easily if theyre happy). It does get a bit frustrating walking through them at the skate park while looking for rubbish. Wet trousers arent particularly comfortable. Despite all this, Im still loving the rain.

Lavender

Aromatherapy is a topic I have always wanted to learn more about, I just havent found the right combination of time and money to do a course on the topic. I do know a few little bits a pieces Ive picked up here and there, two main things I know are that the scent of peppermint is good for when you wish to study and retain more information, and Lavender is good for when you need sleep as it helps to relax you. I love the smell of lavender and generally enjoy pruning the many lavender hedges we have at work. We mainly grow french lavender (you can tell by the large wings on top of the flower, spanish lavender doesnt have the large petals on top) and its getting to be a few years old now, so we have to watch it doesnt start going woody. The plant is one of those delightful "Grandma's Garden" plants, it is relatively easy to grow (full sun, mulch, average water requirements) and very rewarding with its blossoms. One of my favourite things to do, is brush against a lavender bush on a warm day and just enjoy the scent. Nice.

Pets For Life

I know this is quite a lovely looking duck, one would almost want one for a pet. Unfortunately people do have them as pets and when they decide that they cant keep little ducky anymore, they dump the poor bird in the park. This is not cool! They do not belong in a park, they are a domestic bird. Ive seen some domestic ducks die within a month of being released into a park. They have no idea how to survive, find food, etc. The other problem is when people see that one domestic duck is living in a park, then they think that giving it a friend will help it. So you end up with people dumping more ducks in the park. These ducks do not fly. They struggle to forage for food. Then when mating season comes round, any drakes dumped cause all sorts of problems to the wild female ducks, and its almost always the drakes that get dumped in the parks. So please, be a responsible pet owner. Pets are for life, they are a responsibility that shouldnt just be dropped beside the nearest lake because it no longer suits you or your situation. If you do have to rehome a pet, then please go through the proper channels to do so, because leaving your pet behind in a park is definitely not the answer.

Dub Step

A friend of mine who works at Office and Training on the Go (OTOTgo) gets excited when ever she sees a random piece of old technology. Somebodies cassette tape fell out the car, gotten run over and there were reels of tape everywhere. I can remember when I was a kid and this was a common thing, now all I see are banged up CDs. Seeing this last weekend kind of made me do a double take. Especially the fact that it has the title "Sick As Dub Step". So it is a recent tape, not quite the relic from the past I had imagined. Still makes me smile that somewhere out there, people still have tape decks in their cars and hopefully on their home stereos. I almost want to re-spool it and listen to whats on it, and I dont even like Dub Step!

So Funny

These guys are notoriously hard to get a decent photo of. They take off every time you get the picture to focus. This is a Kookaburra, largest bird in the Kingfisher Family. Their iconic laughter is actually a territorial call, warning other Kookaburras that this land is taken. Kookaburras are also a pest in this region of Australia, as they are an Eastern States bird. They were introduced into the South West of Western Australia in the 1890s and they have established themselves quite well. They live off a variety of large insects and small lizzards but arent that fussy. Kookaburras have adapted quite well to living alongside humans. They will happily steal any meat from picnics and BBQs. Key word is steal, please dont feed them, they are a pest. It still amuses me that when they do steal a sausage or something like that, they still bash it against a tree branch to kill the cooked meat.

Evolution FTW

Its kangaroo paw season again. These are some of the first ones out in the parks and it brightens my morning to see them along the rubbish run. I love kangaroo paws as they are very rewarding plants, putting on displays of unusual flowers that last a surprisingly long time. The major drawback to the flowers are the massive amounts of tiny little hairs they are covered in. When you go to prune off the spent flowers, you get covered in them and wind up itching for hours. As much as I hate the fur on the flowers, it serves a pretty important function for the plant. Ants! Ants are notorious little buggers in the horticultural world. They make gardeners lives hell by spreading troublesome insects like scale and aphids (they secrete a sweet substance the ants love to eat). They make plants lives hell as they are notorious nectar thieves. Reproduction is the most energy draining part of a plants life, so creating nectar to entice a bird to pollinate a flower is another drain on its energy store. If an ant crawls in and drinks the nectar before the bird, then the flower doesnt get pollinated. Kangaroo Paws evolved the little hairs to help prevent this. Have you ever had an ant crawl along your arm and see it struggle to walk due to the hairs growing out of your skin? The hairs on the kangaroo paw flower does the same thing. It makes it difficult for the ant to get to the nectar reservoir, so the ant goes in search of easier flowers to rob. Which means the the is a greater chance of the flower being pollinated. Win for the flower!

A Rainbow Connection

In the words of Kermit the Frog, "Why are there so many songs about rainbows and whats on the other side?". I wonder where the obsession of getting to the other side of the rainbow came from? Do you think the Wizard of Oz started it? or perhaps it was the Irish and their Leprechauns. Either way, about the only thing I know for certain is that light needs to be at a 42 degree angle for it to produce a Rainbow. Funnily enough, 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question (life, the universe, everything!) in Douglas Adams' book The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. However nobody knows what the Ultimate Question is. So I guess it loops back to Kermit the Frog's question, why are there so many songs about rainbows? Unanswerable questions.

Speedy

You know, it amazes me the difference a little fertilizer makes. Bulbs are heavy feeders. They have a relatively short period of time to create as much food as possible to produce flowers, seeds and then store enough food in its bulb to do this all over again next year. Flowering and seed production use up an extraordinary amount of energy, so by giving your bulbs a dose of slow release just before blossoming will make a huge difference. We did this to the tulips last week and with all the rain, we now have a mass of colour in places. It is an unfortunate fact of life that Tulips have a very short flowering period. Barely a few weeks some of them. So to get the most out of your bulbs, its best to plant them in a large groups of different colours. This way the slower growing tulips come into bloom when the fast growing Tulips have almost finished, thus extending the life of the display.

Rewarding

Geraldton Wax (Chamelaucium uncinatum) is one of my favourite native plants. It is extremely well suited to Western Australia, as it is endemic to this region of the world. So it thrives in our sandy soils and Mediterranean Climate. It gets beautiful waxy myrtle like flowers from July to about October. The flowers last exceedingly well in a vase and as such this is a very popular flower in the Floristry Industry. I love using just the buds in flower displays that I make, as it looks like a small berry and makes a display interesting without taking away from the main feature flower. The flowers come in shades of whites, pinks and dark pinks. If you wish to grow one, they benefit from a decent prune once or twice a year, remove approximately half of the new growth. People have a very bad habit of planting this bush in a place that is too small and dark for it. It loves full sun and is a large open shrub that can get up to 2-3m, so plan ahead peoples as they dont take well to having their roots disturbed, unless theyre very young.

Spikey

This plant is known as a Crown of Thorns, botanic name of Euphorbia milii (if anyone one is wondering, any botanical names that end with a double 'i' are pronounced "ee-eye". So in this case it would be "mill-ee-eye"). It is a type of succulent with flowers that range from reds, pinks, greens and yellows. This is the most vicious plant we grow at work, in my opinion anyway. As Im am the one with gloves on my hip all the time, its usually me who is equipped to weed them, and I still get scratched to pieces. However its not just the thorns that make it vicious, it contains a sticky, white sap which is poisonous. So always wash your hands thoroughly when handling this plant.

Funny story though. I used to work at a retirement village many years ago and some of the old ladies use to grow this in pots. May, one of the ladies, told me about her little Crown of Thorns she had growing out the front of her villa. She explained it was a plant famous in Christianity as it was the same plant that was used to make the Crown of Thorns around Christ's head during his crucifixion. Im not really a religious person, but it was interesting to hear her story. She then asked me "A nice young girl like you, do you go to church?"
"No. My family isnt very religious. I remember going once when I was young and my steps sister had some ceremony. She wore a white dress with the other girls and had to stand up the front. I cant remember what is was called. I think she went to be Condemned"
May burst out laughing and replied "No dear, you get Confirmed in Church, not condemned".
Oops.

Prickle Bush

This is the flower of a Dryandra, or Parrot Bush and is a member of the Protea Family. Its specias name is Banksia sessilis, when the genus Dryandra was amalgamated into the Banksia genus in 2007. The small honey eating birds and native bees absolutely love this plant! Its ideal for them as the prickles on the leaves make it harder for them to be caught by predators and they produce large ammounts of nectar. Parrot Bush are what is known as a coloniser plant. Essentially that means they are a plant that is a fast grower, that is quick to mature and spread. So when an area is cleared, they are usually the first plant to grow from seed and quickly populate the area. This helps to create a better environment for larger species to grow, such as the Jarrah Trees that are also found in Dryandra's natural distribution, of the South Eastern Hills Areas of Perth. It is a plant that struggles in tropical regions and high humidity. It prefers the dry weather of Perth, and if your willing to put up with the prickly foliage, they are a rewarding addition to your garden. Just dont be too heavy handed with the fertiliser or manures. Mulch yes, fertilisers a definate no.

Some Where Else

Every so often, us bunker crew gets sent somewhere else. Today we were working up in the hills on a little pond by a Community Center, that had been a bit neglected. Its nice to have a change of scenery once in a while, especially when it comes with a view. Our main job was to trim and tidy the shrubs around the edge of the large, drained, concrete pond. We kept bumping into the wile life. The place was crawling with the smallest Frogs I have ever had the delight to meet. They were also very camera shy, took a few goes to get one to stay still enough for a photo. I think its a little Rattling Froglet. They are one of the few species that call through the day, and their call sounds like a metallic rattling noise. They also dont grow any larger then about 2.5cm in length. Wee little things. Then there were the fresh water crayfish (as the fisheries classify them). I think this one is a Gilgie. The claws arent thick and chunky enough for it to be a yabby (which are a pest in WA, they are native to NSW and SA and were introduced about 100 years ago in farm dams) or a Koonac. I dont think its a marron, but I am struggling to tell due to the ammount of muck the poor little guy is covered in.