Where do I start?

Spring is truly upon us now and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do first.

I did get out this week and pruned the majority of the roses in the front yard, quite hard; some of them I hadn't touched in 10 years. I'd had a bit of a snip at others as I got more interested in how to prune different types of roses over the last few years. 

I've decided I don't want any high maintenance plants in my revamped garden, So I went hard with confidence, thinking it they flush with new growth and flourish, that's great, but if they are too weak or sick and cant handle it then bye bye.

I also did a tiny tip prune ( spontaneously ) to the tea trees which are in bud. the white flowering one is a semi pleasing shape and the pretty hot pink one is on a steep lean and top heavy on a long bear trunk, not too visually appealing as a general shape. I have attempted to strike cuttings from what I pruned off these.

In the front yard there are 3 beds here with good bones. The triangle bed has an olive tree at its peak, about 15 to 20 roses, 2 of which are half dead standards, at the other end. It has some day lilies, salvias, a couple of different Correas, Dutch iris, bearded iris a smattering of bulbs and some self seeding annuals. Generally a lot of bare soil and it's over run with a pretty grass that has most attractive drooping seed heads, but I don't want that grass in that bed. I don't want all that bare soil.

The big front border has about 1/2 dozen LARGE trees including a willow and a Eucalyptus.

The Eucalyptus end has a lot of callistemon and grevillea most of which are at least 8 feet tall and form a bit of a canopy over the area, there is no understory or ground planting here. The issues are privet, honeysuckle and ivy all being dropped into the leaf litter and sprouting.

The other end is the willow tree with a large rose climbing up it, under planted with camellias and a couple of hellebores, there are two large Correas in between each end. The entire willow tree end and through the mid section is overrun with very dense blue periwinkle (vinca major). It is climbing the Correas and Camellias, the camellias are also heavily polluted with privet and cotoneaster seedlings and black berry is beginning to creep in.

All the weeds through this bed, aside from the vinca major, are deposited via bird droppings.

 The third front bed is largely shaded by the willow and has a couple of large oaks on one side. It has a smattering of roses, a few healthy grevillea shrubs, a beautiful Philotheca, a viburnum juddii a small, healthy box, a few other bits and pieces it has a lovely dark green ornamental grass spreading through it. The weeds of concern here are again privet and cotoneaster, along with general non welcome generic grasses and Blackberry!  

So how do I tackle this? Is it a deal systematically with all weeds, in all the beds kind of deal, or focus on one bed at a time? I know the Vinca major is going to be a nightmare for a long time, do I try to free up the plants first, or start at the edge where it is least bad and work my way back into the depth of it? Do I select and grow new plants as I move through or wait till all the weeds are gone? Will the vinca major ever be entirely gone?

Decisions, decisions.

Hello Again.

 Heydi Ho, here I am back after almost 10 years thinking about reviving the garden blog with a new twist on how I used to run things here.

I know the lay of the land now. A lot of what existed here does not anymore and its very weedy and unloved, but I have a fairly clear vision of where I want to take it. Its a mammoth amount of work and I'm tackling it slowly, though I do have a lot more time on my hands now with my children being somewhat self sufficient teenagers.

There is so much to do its difficult to know where to start or what to work on at any given time. My plan is to use this as more of a record of what I'm doing, fighting and growing; where and when. Also where I'm drawing inspiration from. It wont be all pretty pictures now though my photography skills have vastly improved since 2012; there's a very busy English Cocker Spaniel Puppy underfoot and 'helping' too. so you can expect to see my energetic little Eevie here and there in my images. 

Lets see how it goes 

A post with some substance :)

It's about Boysenberries :)

Earlier in the week I posted these two pics at the Down to Earth Forum.

I am feeling pretty happy with myself as last summer I was precariously reaching in between roses to pick any of a few berries being offered. 

Then a couple of months back I guess I decided to take some of the randomly placed vigorously growing canes and weave them in this trellis. it was against what I was reading in regards to how to trellis a boysenberry but I was just working with what I had which was a berry planted by someone else re rooted in various places and frankly pretty wild. I didn't really have anything to loose.

My friend Narelle asked to see more of how I had it supported so I'm just recording it all here. I had a thought this morning in regard to some Banksias that I suspect are dead, which was that I would have photographed the flowers last summer but not recorded where or on which shrub they appeared and and there is value in doing this part of the recording too, not just the images. 

Ok so here is the trellis which I took the earlier picture of from the right hand side.

This trellis screens off a section of the tanks. The berry is rooted all along the front of it and around the corner to the left. A few random plants in the grass area to the right also. The Big blue X marks the corner post and the red x marks the tank overflow pipe. this is one of the secondary or overflow tanks. I have not watered or tended these at all but to weave existing canes through the trellis and I did tie with cut pantihose in a few places. Its is over hung by a very mis-shaped Nectarine tree and interspersed with a rose or two.

Here is a more encompassing view.

I can't get between the lattice and the tank without some injury but from the open end on the right I can see the berries ripening on the back of the trellis, this is not obvious from front on. When I know where they are I can reach through the gaps to pick so I'm not loosing any !! Something to consider when thinking about space.

The following image is from around the corner to the left of the previous ones.

You can see some berries ripening on the archway to the left of this image and they are popping up amongst the roses and weeds through this section not trellised or tamed in any way, this is a section I haven't tackled at all. As is the case with a lot of this garden !

I'll be sharing some more berry thoughts during the week. Mulberries and Strawberries and maybe Blackberries :)

Pond reflection

Gum Blossoms.

So Pretty

I feel I really should know what this is but just can't recollect, we have three colours a white one and a pale-ish pink one this dark pink is the biggest and has flowered slightly later than the other two.

Boysenberries

Red Rose

There is such a lovely collection of Roses here, I don't think I even identified this as a rose prior to it flowering  its not the type of rose I am familiar with but There are a lot of these in various colours and sizes and I love them all.

Pond Flowers

Are these

What are known as Cornflowers?

They become a much darker Blue as they age.

The last of the irises. :)

Purple roses

This is one of the purple roses in our garden. This one is a standard and has a clematis climbing it and twining up through its top. The weeping red you see in the background is one of my favourite standard roses in this garden.

Bottlebrush

A native Iris?

A lone flower cluster

On a small shaded tree.

Bromeliad

Starting to flower, gorgeous contrast!

Irises

And after this there will be two more. I haven't taken a pic of the orange ones yet and there is one showing a hint of yellow yet to actually open.

with a dusty plum edge.

Palest Parchment/Peach

Hard to capture a pinkish with deep dark purple

This one is a stunner!

Beautiful Scent

Lavendar

Simply stunning with more to come :)

Some with dark tails some with pale light ones :)