By Beatrice Hawkins
Gardening and dreaming up designs is always my relaxing thing to do. Sometimes it takes a long time to get these ideas implemented!
So far I have in place my old gate, and post and rusty wire “fence”. My mother’s very old wheelbarrow is parked in the open gateway. Other than putting a metal cut out of a kelpie dog by the gate that design idea is about complete. My family think I need a pet. Well, my idea is that I will have a watchdog by the gate… he will be the perfect pet… easy care, no worries about feed, water or exercising, and I will be able to go away and leave him without a worry!
I have another area that has been underway for some time that will incorporate a windmill, pond and a recirculating solar pump so it actually looks like the mill is pumping! Thanks to some help from some young friends who like building things, the mill is now in place and the garden soil to surround it has been delivered.. thank you Aldo! This is a continuing project!
Then I have another area in my house yard that I would like to establish as a succulent and cactus garden. It is not a big area and at present is Kikuyu lawn. As it is steep, it is difficult to mow and my solution is to landscape it with gravel, succulents and cactus so that I won’t have to.
It is bordered by a colourbond fence on one side and my cement driveway on the other and faces to the front of my block with a retaining wall and an existing narrow flower bed. The plan is to have a dry gravel creek bed meandering through a selection of appropriate plants. It is one of those projects that continues in my mind but as yet has not been started. It may have to wait until my son is in the area to help with some heavy lifting that will be involved!
I started to revisit my plans last week after I saw a spectacular, tall cactus covered in large, creamy white flowers in a town garden. It is exactly what I envisage as the feature plant in the area!
I had a variety of this plant in a garden near Tamworth and the flowers are truly beautiful and very attractive to bees. They come out in the evening and fade soon after the sun hits them in the morning. Even given this short flowering they are well worth growing to enjoy for that short time if you have a suitable position.
Friends have sent me photos of some other wonderful varieties as they come in all shapes, sizes and colours and there really is one for every application and position whether you need to grow it at ground level, in a pot or a hanging basket.. full sun or even partial shade.
They are easy-care plants requiring little water so are great for our area. In fact, too much water can be their downfall as it may cause root rot. They can be mixed and matched with native grasses to give a stunning and natural-looking landscape. I will definitely be looking to such things as kangaroo paw and other dry area plants. I envisage that it will flow down the slope to my existing old fence posts with their rusty wire and the flowers in front. At present, there is a row of sunflowers about to come into flower along this fence. There should be a variety of colours from almost chocolate to the traditional yellow.. I am becoming very impatient to see the effect in full flower. Sunflowers are my favourite at the moment and I have put them in assorted spots through the existing flower beds. They come in such a variety of sizes and colours now that there is one for most spots.
Driving around it is a delight to see the paddocks of beautiful eye-catching yellow flowers. Having been involved in growing large acres of these in a past life it is always a delight and nostalgic to see them.
Other plants that I would like to have in this garden are some of the many varieties of aloe. They come in so many forms and colours that I should be able to find varieties that are suited to the position.
The ground cover over gravel will be different coloured “pigface” and I have these ready in pots in other places in my garden.
Agave, in some of its many forms, is another that I would like to have. The fox tale agave that I wrote about earlier in the year would certainly add interest if I could get it to flower.
As we approach the Christmas holiday break, we can be thankful for the rain and that everything is growing so well. The lawns are certainly keeping everyone busy and the noise of lawnmowers is becoming a common sound most days as one or other of my neighbours endeavours to keep their lawns trimmed ready for Christmas visitors.
