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Calothamnus quadrifidus grey: texture and toughness
I thought I had already dedicated a blog post to this steadfast native shrub but have just realised it has featured a few times but hasn’t been praised individually yet. Very strange as this is a staple in many of my screening plantings or used as a feature shrub, especially as it will quite happily…
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Native plants in the Melbourne City Streetscape
This post is all about praising the plant selection used in the ‘Grey to Green’ project in the City of Melbourne. Much of the plant palate features native species, and on a recent tour I was so impressed with the combinations and utilisation of these species that I felt the need to share some photos…
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Portfolio: Gardening in Wind
This is my sisters garden on ‘Windy Hill’ as we like to call it, it gets so windy here the rubbish bins get blown down the street, gates are blown off their hinges and plants find it tough! Her front garden bears the brunt of the Westerlies and southerlies and used to be bare lawn…
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Portfolio: Bundeena Tree House
This an amazing house which spills over a sandstone outcrop and is placed underneath a giant fig tree. It is sheltered by a stand of Casuarinas and hidden from the street by its rapidly growing native garden. The garden has been in for a couple of years and benefitted greatly from our recent wet Summer.…
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Level 2 Water Restriction friendly plants: Calothamnus quadrifidus
Yesterday NSW moved into level 2 water restrictions, it has been a long time coming, with bushfires still burning up and down the east coast and dam levels at an all time low. The hardest hit are out west where they have been buying in drinking water for most of the year, smoke and dust…
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Tugarah Gunya’marri: Cold and Windy
During the Tugarah Gunya’marri the days are getting noticeably longer, but the weather is still cold. Then with the blooming of the Marrai’uo (Acacia floribunda) comes the cold, southwesterly winds; the children become cranky and the adults become bad-tempered. It is not a good time of year for anyone. Frances Bodkin ‘D’harawal: Climate and Natural…
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The Granite and Woodlands Discovery Trail
On my recent WA wildflower expedition I had a longing to get as far east as possible, to the desert areas to see the wildflowers. This is no mean feat when you have two young children for whom sitting in a car for more than 4 hours is a waste of a day. However, armed…
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Truly Wind Tolerant Natives
It has been pretty windy at my place in the last month or so, actually it has been extremely windy, I have been away a fair bit and keep coming back to a very wind stressed garden. I live on the coast, my garden isn’t front line coastal but lately it has been feeling that…
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Portfolio: Bundeena Re-visited
We really, really love our garden and are so happy to spend time in it… When I walked up to the front gate of this garden last week I must admit I was quite moved, moved by how settled the plants looked, moved by the quick growth and the way the garden is beginning…
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Winter Reds
I have been away a little bit lately, well more away from my garden than anywhere else. So I haven’t been noticing all the details, just madly rushing about planting, watering and spending more time in other peoples gardens than my own. So when I returned home on the weekend I was greeted by the…