Friday 16 January 2009

In the garden again

It's January in the garden again. This means blue skies and cool nights for at least another month. This is our spring. The weather is beyond gorgeous and the plants are the very first to respond. The orchids have also begun to come into bloom with the dendrobiums throwing several spikes at once.


I will soon be moving house. Not permanently but just for a while to complete renovations on my photogenic but very derelict house. Bolan and I will continue to work on the garden while the renovations are taking place so that I don't come back to a jungle in a year's time.
The thing with living in the northern range is the jungle in on my doorstep. If I turn my back for a second, it will run me over with sheer greenery. The heliconia below is a welcome shot of red in the banks of green.

The petreas are coming in as well and I have planted two jacarandas behind this bed of petreas. The jacarandas are yet to bloom but I am waiting to see how the two shades of lavender/indigo complement each other. As children we called petrea the helicopter plant as the dried petals dry up and float to the ground like little spiralling helicopters.



I will be blogging more regularly in the coming weeks as I am coming out of a very dry spell. I will also be moving to a large (even larger than my own) garden with the greatest trees. There is a sapodilla, a mango, a cedar and a few others. The new garden is virgin territory so it will be fun setting up new beds and working out the new floor plan of a different gardening space.