Too Much Information

Yesterday I got out into the yard and got more done with tall grass and weeds. Actually mostly the grass. In the front yard, there had been a patch that didn’t get mowed last time because the battery ran out. The last time we did garden work it wasn’t a priority and just continued to grow. So I started in the front and finished it for the most part. At one point I ran into the remains of a grass tree that I had forgotten was there. It never grew once we planted it and now it just falls apart. This was one of several plants given to us by a friend who is good with gardening. It’s probably about the fourth one that has failed to survive. Surprisingly, there’s a frangipani in a pot with not a whole lot of soil that is doing quite well. I do intend to add more soil one of these days though. And a gloxinia given to the Scientist when he had surgery last year had come back to life. It was doing well for ages and then it seemed to suddenly die. The pot was still in the kitchen next to our sink. Then I noticed it was growing again. It seems it’s one that dies back regularly and then comes back. I really thought it was dead though. Hurray for us being slow to get rid of dead plants? :D

After I finished our front yard, I mowed around the back patio before it gets too long again. Then I tackled lots of grass in our side yard. That’s the most neglected part of the yard and there’s still a lot of weedy, long grass to get rid of. The Scientist did do a bit of weed whacking earlier but tried to limit his time outside in hopes of avoiding the awful allergic reaction of his last experience. So I mowed a lot and then I used the weed whacker a bit and then I stopped because we needed to go to the shops before they closed. When I came in I had a bunch of bottlebrush flowers on the back of my head where I had a ponytail. The end result is there’s a much clearer space out there. Once the bottlebrush trees finish flowering I plan to prune back the trees and bushes extensively and get rid of a half-broken limb from one of the trees. Surprisingly it continued to flower and grow despite being connected by a limited bit of tree.

We’ve had a number of the typically stormy winter days already this month but the temperatures dipped considerably on the solstice to mark that the chill is part of our winter too. A tornado struck a nearby suburb a couple weeks ago, which really took us by surprise as the forecast gave no indication conditions were right for one. A Blockbuster video store lost part of its front window and a cafe across the road at some markets had a door blown off its hinges (nearly falling on a very young girl).

Then I walked outside yesterday and discovered a number of bees hanging around, trying to make the best of the budding flowers on a bottlebrush tree. That’s one of the interesting aspects of winter around here. It doesn’t really freeze here aside from an occasional slight dip below freezing. There are flowers blooming year-round and the native trees often flower in winter too. There is one tree that I only see blooming in winter here but I don’t know what it’s called. It has orange-red flowers that seem to come out later in winter and fall off in early spring. I think I took a photo of it last year so maybe I should try and identify it some time.

Busy Bee — 24 Jun 2012 Busy bee on the bottlebrush flower

Winter flowers — 4 Aug 2011 Orange-red flowers blooming in late winter.

You would think with all the lovely native, water-wise trees and plants, there would be no reason for councils to plant deciduous trees here. But that’s exactly the sort of tree that seems to be favored, even around newer buildings. In the eighteen years I’ve lived here, it’s only recently I’ve taken so much notice of the leaves changing color. It seems unnatural in our climate.

Gardening progress

Winter chill