Changing Season : August 2021…

It is now 2 days into spring and what a start to the season, last night we had 25mm of glorious rain, which is 5mm more than we had for the whole of July. I rushed out to celebrate with camera in hand to catch the magic of the rain drops on the flowers and leaves.

It has been a busy month, so be warned this post will have a LOT of photos. 48 in total…

As I mentioned last month I had arranged for the tree loppers to trim the big trees. “Big Jim” and his crew arrived in the first week of August.

They were very efficient, trimming the bottom branches of the Poinciana and Silky Oak. Then they tackled the Mango tree. To reach it they went round into next doors garden and Megan (the neighbour) and I watched.

Here is the before and after.

See how much sunlight has been let in. The plants just love it.

Then they moved into the back garden. I thought this would be a difficult job as the 5 tall palms were surrounded by next doors fence, the green house, fish ponds and rain water tank. Not much room to work. “No worries” said Big Jim, and the team set to work.

What a difference it has made and also feels safer when the storms come, which come they must one day…

The stumps are all that’s left and I plan to cover them with Bromeliads.

Also round the back the raised beds of herbs, nasturtiums and vegetables are doing very well.

The following week the new houses across the road were finally finished and opened for inspection.

2 very different style houses, were previously there had only been one. So we dashed over to look around, along with most of our other neighbours. Of course we had to wear masks, sign in, and carefully keep our social distance from each other. ( As I write this Queensland has zero cases of Covid, but the neighbouring state, New South Wales is rampant and out of control with Delta and the state is in lockdown. Our borders are locked and causing much heart ache for people on the border.)  The houses are due to be auctioned on September 12. 

One of the reasons I wanted a look inside was to see what sort of view they had of our place from their upstairs windows.

As you can see we do not have a very big block, but unlike most gardens in the area, it is jam packed with plants. 

I love the garden, it is a passion, but I am going to have to rethink my work load as, after a CT scan, I have been told the back pain is “compressed fractures”, so no lifting or heavy work for a while till they heal. Fortunately we had done most of the heavy work during Winter and Autumn so now we can just do light pruning and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

The new natives I planted are now coming into their own. The Leptospermum Cardwell had a stunning display and though only a small shrub at the moment, it will grow to approximately 1.5 metres, it flowered for weeks.

The Grevilleas are such an interesting shape, quite fascinating day by day to watch them unfurl.

The bees love them. That is a very tiny native bee. Can you see his pollen sacks are bulging.

The poppies are coming to the end of their flowering period, but the larger honey bees still manage to find the few that are left.

Now I think it is time to have a cuppa. I’ve enjoyed re-living August through my blog and I thank Ju-Lyn, (touring my backyard) pop over and drool over her delicious food blog.and Brian (bushboys world) for carrying on with this monthly “changing seasons” and sharing the work load. This month it is Ju-Lyn who will be hosting it.