Changing Seasons : January 2021

I generally look on January and February as hibernation months from the garden as the temperatures usually rise into the mid 30’s and humidity rises to uncomfortable levels. So it’s just a wander around in the early morning, doing a few maintenance tasks, then back indoors to escape the heat of the day. As a bonus, last month, I had downsized the pot department and through January we had a beautiful month weatherwise with 131mm of rain spread evenly across 21 of the 31 days this month, so very little watering was needed. This was due to the El Nina weather pattern, that they tell us is dominating Australia this year, the temperatures have only been in the mid to high 20’s and the humidity has been bearable.

The flowers love the rain and it brings out all the glowing colours.

But the birds are not so happy with continuous rain and shelter on the deck to try and keep dry.

So this month all projects are put on hold and I will just wander round  and show you the garden from a few different view points.

I love sitting on the bench and watching the play of colours as the sun highlights everything. It is mainly leaves, grasses and bromiliads, but geraniums , on the left, and the Vincas, on the right give a bold splash of red. In the bottom right photo the brilliant white is the everlasting frangipani, grown from a cutting from a friend. Plumeria pudica is a very fast growing evergreen frangipani, common names include Hammer leaf frangipani and Everlasting Love. It flowers for a long period, does not get the terrible rust disease the common Frangipani gets, and, being evergreen, does not drop it’s leaves.

Now we have meandered around the front garden, maybe spent a little time sitting on one of the seats to admire the vistas, or maybe pulled a weed or two, or snipped back the occasional rampant growth, it is time to look at the back garden.

Buddha presides over the lily ponds.

All the veggies have been put on hold till April, but easy care herbs fill the veggie raised gardens.

January seems to have flown by and, thankfully, here in Australia life is getting back to normal.

I am now into the third year of keeping a monthly “changing seasons” record with the prompting and support of Su (zimmerbitch). It encourages me to gather my thoughts every month and be able to look back over the 3 years I have been keeping this virtual, monthly diary.