Friday, September 2, 2022

Spring back

 

Early September, 2022


In Australia, it's early Spring. If you live near the Toowoomba region, you know it's Carnival of Flowers time. The annual celebration for the Garden City. This year though, Spring represents a whole new way of life for me. It's the place of regrowth, from a rather harsh prune in my personal life, last year. Come have a wander around my garden, and catch up for a spell.

My son and I are still living here. The end of next month will mark a year since our lives changed so dramatically. I've wanted to return to my blog so many times. Between not having enough spare time and still so much to process, emotionally, I had to let the blog sit fallow for a spell.

There are just seasons to sit. Not pressing into life. Instead, absorbing stillness and not feeling left behind. My garden is just waking up, after such a period over winter too.


Black Wattles (Acacia aulacocarpa)


Now the wattles are in full bloom. Truth be told, they've been blooming for about a month already. We are a little warmer than up the hill, in the Garden city. Locals call it a hill, but it's really a mountain range.

With the wattles covered in blooms though, bees have been gorging themselves - and nectar feeding birds are not even bickering over territory. There is just so much in bloom right now, they are spoiled for choice. Stark contrast to news from my Northern Hemisphere neighbours, who have experienced a drought this past growing season.

Usually, that's the story I tell in my garden. Drought is not uncommon for Australian landscapes. Yet, it has been one of the wettest seasons I have ever experienced living here. From Spring '21 to Spring '22, my garden has not lacked for rain.



I scratch my head and wonder, how things have been changing for gardens around the world. A garden reflects transition. A signal of things to come, or things that have come to an end. We're never quite sure where a region will sit, from year to year. There are predictions, but even those can change unexpectedly. For better, or worse.

My car has been sporting a lovely shade of brown wattle blooms, fallen from the tree it's parkeed under. The windscreen wipers get clogged with the fuzzy debris too. What can you do? Drive around like a country bumpkin, that doesn't know what a carport is. Like every seasonal transition, the flurry of wattle blooms will pass. But for now, I'm sporting red mud and wattle blooms as an exercise in contentment.


Green umbrellas


My grandfather - a cold-country cattle man, used to say - if you received the first rains of the season, you would receive them all. Well, the nasturtian leaves in my garden, on the first day of Spring, may be signalling things to come. I am hopeful for my garden this year.

A shout-out to those, whose gardens' may be parched and dry though. I've weathered many of those too. I kept the greenery in my heart, and made an indoors garden instead. It got me through those times I couldn't look out the window, and see anything but brown.

I especially feel for those with livestock, depending on their gardens to feed and water their animals. A necessary time to reflect on what's important. Things change as new decision are made, to adapt.


Tender new growth


This has certainly been a theme, since I started my blog. Resilence in the landscape. I've had to learn strategies to keep things alive, in a landscape that was constantly on life-support. Despite the harsh conditions sometimes, my garden limped along and even made progress. I was amazed how much life wanted to excel, regardless of the lack of provision. 

I planted a barrell of lettuce and beets recently, to remind me to remain hopeful. Because lettuce doesn't normally do well in our hot, humid conditions. It bolts to seed like no-one's business. Then it's gone. Bitter. Only good to feed the compost worms. So I don't plant it. 

My personal fallow season, had me grapling with hope through winter. I was hesitant to invest in anything that might dash my hopes again. Especially after losing so much in my personal life, so unexpectedly. But then something happens, which inevitably does after a harsh prune. Regrowth emerges. Then plants a barrell of lettuce.


 

I love a flurry of flowers, in the springtime. My favourite, purple groundcover, does well in the wet and dry. This particular clump is growing on clay and building debris, left from the original house build. The African Daisy, has a reputation for resilence - and is no exception in my garden. 

I've been deadheading flowers, every 2-3 days. It's prolific. There are at least two more clumps, growing in the garden. I love this genus so much, I had to collect more.


Blue-eyed Beauty
 

This is a new hybrid variety of the same genus. Buttery yellow petals, with a splash of purple in the middle. Plenty of buds on the way, so I hope to enjoy this new variety in the garden, for a while to come. It's quite the show stopper for me. Never fails to grab my attention. Almost like a mini sunflower.

Something esle I've introducted to my life lately - studying for a Cert III in Business Admin, since April. The legendary story goes, I was once a legal-secretary in training. After a Quest to find the ultimate Garden City though, I eventually sheathed my secretarial sword and doned the garden gloves instead. How many decades later? Don't ask. Anyway...

I've just finished my assessments for this term, with one-term left. I graduate by the end of year. 


Photinia, Red Robin


So many possibilities in store for the future. Much like the pentiful flowers of this Photinia. A very popular evergreen shrub in this region. Small native bees, love the pettite flowers. As do the European bees.

Me, on the other hand, I love coffee! Random fact. 

Not much to do with a garden. Unless you like to drink your coffee in one. Or grow your own coffee in a garden. Okay, maybe it's got something to do with a garden? 


Pink Diosma
 

This is quite a remarkable shrub. It's part of the original plantings, to go in here. So has endured years of floods and years of drought. Yet look at how it's adorned. I feel like this shrub. I turned 48 in the middle of the year. Living through the same extremes - and then some. Yet look at how I'm adorned. 

Still completely equipped with everything I need. Another quest in the making. That's me. Putting on new growth and can't stop blooming.


Keeping the garden tidy


I haven't completely made this garden. Somehow though, this garden reflects me. Anyone to don the garden gloves, through good seasons and bad - understands this remarkable fete. We leave our mark, don't we? Then the garden demonstrates, we were only part of the equation. Because it kept growing through the good and bad seasons, along with us. Showing how to show up. Even after we quit.

A garden is inevitable. Just like us.

Maybe turn off the news. Put down social media. Step into a garden and see what it has to say about you. It will be nothing short of an enlightening conversation. 


What's growing on?


I want to thank those who have popped in, while I was on hiatus. To share your curiosity of my whereabouts. You were in my thoughts too. So was this space. I have garden projects to share. Small endeavours, I've been plugging away at.

I've got two weeks holidays and sure I can manage to post something.  

I hope you are enjoying your gardens, wherever they are planted in the world. What are they telling you, right now?

Cheers,

CK


10 comments:

  1. So lovely to hear from you, sounds as if you are planning your future and thriving, just like your garden. Rain brings so much hope and new life, and then blooms of all sizes and colours. We here in south east England have been having rain for a few weeks, nothing heavy, just enough to save the plants and keep the ground wet, but no floods. Autumn is early this year, the garden is shutting down, but there are always flowers each season. Life always goes on.

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    1. Hello M, it's great to see you again. I'm glad to hear the weather is more moderate, rather than extreme, your way. Life does go on, and a garden is always there to remind us. I hope to pop in, to see how you're going in your part of east England. Virtually, that is. 😉

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  2. Chris, your osteospermums are lovely. I guess you will have a wet night tonight too as I can hear light rain on the roof. Looking forward to catching up soon.

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    1. Ah yes, very wet, but the garden doesn't seem to mind. The sun came out this morning, which I really enjoyed. If you're going to the Simple Living group meet up, I'll be sure to see you there. Cheers.

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  3. Hi Chris, lovely to see you back blogging again. The garden looks beautiful. The photos and the colours are amazing, esp that wattle...it's not a species I know. Be careful of the red-veined sorrel in with the lettuces. Don't let it flower or it will seed everywhere. I grow the green oak-leaf lettuce too, but I'm happy if it seeds everywhere. So sick of the cold and the rain here though. It's spring and so far no temps above the low teens.

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    1. Hello again, Bev. Nice to see you too. The southern States take longer to warm-up in Spring, than the northern ones, but it's been particularly wet and overcast this Winter/Spring. So I can see winter being reluctant to give way to spring. I hope that changes for you soon. I'm with you - oak-leaf lettuce can stay. I will keep an eye on the sorrel. I thought it was beets? I got it at Coles, as a micro-green.

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  4. A fellow coffee lover! Something else we have in common. :)

    Thank you so much for the update. It's a joy to see your garden thriving with its promise of hope. Hope not just for itself, but for you too.

    To answer your question, what is my garden telling me? I'm learning that no matter how crazy the world seems to be, that when I'm in my garden it's possible to turn off the emotional turmoil. If I just stop focusing on thoughts and focus on what I hear, it's like a magical reset of my mind and spirit. In the garden lies my true reality.

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    1. Ah yes, coffee is the best! I love mine percolated in the French press, with frothed milk. Yours would be extra nice with goats milk. I wonder how it would froth?

      Thanks for sharing what your garden is telling you. I love how it can drown out the strange happenings (outside it) too. I was just in the garden this morning, with the rare glimpse of sunshine, and heard the fairy wrens and finches, flying in to collect nest materials. Their chirping melodies, are very soothing!

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  5. Wow Chris, your garden is looking fantastic! Such a lovely catch up blog post. I'm pleased to here things are going well for you.

    My garden is telling me that the warm weather of Spring needs to hurry up after we had a horrible hail storm go through and destroy a lot of plants. They are slowing coming back but the weather is still cold and overcast. Its been like that for most of September.

    xTania

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    1. How did I miss this? I'm sorry I didn't reply to your comment sooner, Tania. I'm glad your garden recovered from the hail. I've had that happen too. Smashed up some plastic containers I was propagating in. Very destructive. But a garden can be resilient, and grow back. Even if it takes a little bit longer for things to produce. Thanks for dropping in when you did. 😊

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