Changing Seasons : April 2019

Dramatic changes are taking part in the garden. An old asbestos fence has been pulled down between us and the neighbour.

Jack hard at work

Looking from the neighbours side.

This is looking from the neighbours side. We decided to take out all the plants along the fence line. 20 years of Heliconia and palm tree growth was incredibly hard to dig out. Those Heliconias are certainly invasive and probably still left tubers behind which will sprout back as soon as the weather warms up again.It is still a work in progress but I think the plants look good against this colour. The camellias are almost finished but the white blossom will show up against the dark fence. We are thinking of putting hibiscus along here. I have been given some cuttings which are being nurtured along. So watch this space.

Summer has well and truly gone. Autumn is half way through and our winter is looming on the horizon. But winter in the sub-tropics is a time of growth. So now it is time to clear all the summer annuals, prune all the trees and shrubs and prepare for the next wave of growth. Summer has been a fantastic season of rain and rampant growth, as I found out last month when I arrived back from New Zealand. (see here)

I’m almost reluctant to show you the garden as, at the moment, it is looking quite forlorn.The summer annuals have been banished to the compost bin and this bed is being prepared for the winter annuals. I’m thinking of putting pansies in here, I love their happy little faces, might pop a few poppies at the back. The native shrubs are slowly making their mark but it will be a while before they take up the whole area.Do you notice that bare trunk rearing up on the neighbours side behind the new fence? That is a bottle brush that used to fill in that whole area, it has been given a severe prune and is now letting in even more light which my new natives will love. The bird bath has gone round to the back garden and the lemon tree has been liberated from its pot to take up that space in the sun, (when it next appears!!!) Notice the lemons ripening on the tree?

More things are happening in the back garden, but it is rather like a wreckers yard at the moment so will leave that till next month to show you.

But it hasn’t been all gardening during April. Jack and I satisfied our artistic souls by attending a 5 day art course. 5 days, from 8-30am to 4-00pm, of intense creativity at a “line and wash” workshop.  Cees Sliedrecht, our charismatic and talented art tutor encouraged the 12 of us in the course to extend our abilities and produce twelve A3 works of art during the 5 days. We came home exhausted but so satisfied with the results.

Cees Sliedrecht our fun loving tutor

Being shown how

Now it’s our turn

Here are some of our art. Six of mine and six of Jacks…

 

Once again the month has flown by and I am grateful to Su Leslie for hosting this “changing seasons” monthly challenge. A great opportunity and  prod to remind me to keep a record of the ever changing seasons as they whizz by. Looking back it is interesting to see how the garden changes.