How does your garden grow?

[Robin4]

Well we have made it! We are coming to the end of a long dry summer and we have not had 10mm (.25 of an inch) of rain for the entire year to this point!  But by some miracle we have managed to keep the garden alive, but only just. All the flowers have gone…the rose garden is just a series of sticks with the odd leaf here and there. There are just a few ‘blue collar’ plants like Geranium’s and Salvia’s hanging on, but the garden looks at its worst for the year about now. Over the next few weeks we will be into Autumn and all the trees and vines will be a mass of colour from deep red through to vivid yellow....

This is a stitched photo from our back verandah. The hosting cottage is off to the right. To the left is the outdoor eating and the barbeque and way down the back is my Man Cave! This room is my sanctuary. It is here that I have been able to get away from Ade for an hour or two, although I am now missing that....Careful what you wish for in life!

Yes, I know it's messy but it's a man cave, it's supposed to be.

So, now you can see where all this 'Bleep' comes from! 

Cheers.....Rob

[Robin4]

@Marit-Anne0

Marit, that large tree in the front of the property is called a LiquidAmbar which I believe in America is called an American Storax or Sweetgum. It is an impresive tree that grows at a phenominal rate and has been very poorly placed by whoever put it in in the past! Each year I have to prune it severely to retain access around it. If I just left it go it would spread laterally at a rate of 2-3 metres per year to take up all of our block and a good percentage on my neighbours. These trees are more suited to parks and big open spaces than domestic house blocks, but the house would loose a lot of character without it.

The central tree in the rear garden shot (which is a combination shot done using Microsoft Surface Collage which really lowers the quality unfortunately) is an Elm tree. We are trying to save it as it is currently under attack by the Netherlands Elm Bettle which unfortunately has become rife here in the Adelaide Hills. Orchardist will no longer stock Elm trees here because of the Elm Bettle infestation. We had the tree injected last year at a very substantial cost (over $850) which seems to have slowed the rate of decay and I am going to flood the soil around the base of the tree in a week or so with poison to try and kill the beetles off as they come down the tree into the root structure for winter.

There are also two Maple trees on the block as well as an apple tree (Granny Smith), a Nectarine tree and 4 different Plumb trees.

All of these trees are deciduous which guarantees me of a plentiful supply of mulch each year.

Marit, you can keep that 'little helper' of yours....they always make a beeline for the tastiest most treasured things we plant!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Meaghan22]

Amazing garden you have!

[Alexa3071]

Hello! I like your garden and pictures of your house so much. Especially, I like the beautiful plants, the piano in the house (I also love music and play a little piano, so it immediately caught my attention) and I adore the picture with old photos on the wall, it looks so majestic. A person should know the history of his family, its origins.. And it does not matter that the desktop is a little mess. But we can see that there is life there. Thank you for sharing the photos. It was very pleasant to watch them. And as for your beautiful garden. I found one excellent article (you can click here to see the link https://www.growgardener.com/5-enchanting-bell-shaped-flowers/), there are rare species of plants. Maybe you will like it, I will be glad. With best regards.