5 Minutes in a corner of the garden : Part 2

Periodically I am going to show you just one small corner of the garden. I will spend 5 minutes photographing it. I am inspired to do this by Desleyjane and her “5 minute regular random” challenge…

• choose a subject or a scene
• spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
• try to not interfere with the subject, instead see it from many angles, look through something at it, change the light that’s hitting it
• have fun! (sure did!)
• tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to this post 

If you remember last visit I left you sitting on a bench in the company of a pelican. So today I will show you the next section. Follow me…

Behind the bench are 3 ponds made from old bathtubs that we found at the rubbish tip shop. Jack made artificial concrete rocks and over the years it has developed into quite a rustic area. I have to confess to still having a few pots in this area. Being protected and sunny it is also my nursery area. You can see how narrow this part of the garden is. When we moved here in 1998 this whole area was lawn. No lawn at all round the back now. The concrete slabs we made by hand and the crazy paving tiles were pilfered from a rubbish bin outside a home being renovated!!!

The ponds are covered with water-lily plants, but at the moment only one is in flower, as the nights are getting cooler the tropical blue one will be hibernating till next summer. The Sarracenia, pitcher plant, loves this spot with its feet in the water and head, catching flies, in the sun. The ponds are full of fish to eat mosquitoes larvae and keep the mosquitoes under control. They are still a scourge in summer from other areas and I always slather repellent everywhere on exposed skin before I go in the garden. You’ll spot Jack’s sculptures tucked away all over the garden.

Behind the pots is a rosemary. I will be pruning it very shortly. I used to prune it just before Anzac Day (April 25th) and give all the pruning’s to the council to give to the people parading at the dawn service. But then we started travelling so was no longer around to do that.

That long spindly plant in the left hand photo, is a dragon fruit. I love it, it is red, fleshy and juicy and the flower opens overnight for one day into a blaze of glory. Go here to see one on my Gypsy life blog, it will amaze you.

Rugged, overgrown steps lead round to the back of the pond.  Agave pups  have just been trimmed back on the left so we can get in to do a major clean up in that area. The coleus and fern and that dainty (unknown) ground cover have all just arrived with no help from me!!! And look at theBauhinia corymbosa It has been continuously flowering all year.

Along the back fence a scruffy, untidy Cocos Palm was cut down, many years ago, and just the stump left. On that stump we attached a staghorn. But the stump has gradually rotted and now it is on the point of collapse and has become an urgent job to remove it and find the staghorn a new home. The area is crammed with a profusion of bromeliads, ferns, heliconia, spider lilies, dianellas, roeo, and others I don’t know the name of, all pushing and shoving and reaching for the light. In the corner is a paw paw tree, but it is a non-fruiting male, it will have to go. Of course we could just leave it all to its own devices and let it become a jungle. Maybe I will do that!

I do like these (unknown) plants for the way they arrange themselves so tidily and artistically along the border. I have them everywhere to fill in gaps. Above them is a camellia bush, just coming into flower, and, of course, more bromeliads. This is the fence on the north side of the garden.

This wall of the house faces west and the succulants love it here. In mid summer the wall gets so hot you cannot touch it. The desert rose loves this corner and flowers continuallySo that took me 5 minutes to photograph but has taken much longer to tell you about this small area.

Next time I will take you round the corner to the very narrow, and hot, north facing border between the house and the neighbours fence.