Winter Garden Happenings ... My Downunder Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Week 26, 2011

  Date:  June 29th, 2011

  Season:  beginning month of Winter and two months into our dry season.

Despite the fact that we are getting the occasional shower of rain, the effect of our drier weather is now becoming more visible around our place.

The rain we do receive barely touches the ground and the 'grass' (I use that term very lightly indeed!) around the yard now has huge brown patches everywhere, as is evident in this photo.

That's my collection of re-seeding pots and propagating pots basking in some sunshine. 

The wallabies are now digging down deep to get at the roots rather than simply grazing on the grass blades, or pulling down tree branches to nibble on the leaves or fruit.

We've even had some uncommon garden visitors using their fantastic long curved beaks to dig way down in search of grubs and other wrigglies.

Once you take your eyes off the busy burrowing bird, you will notice further evidence of just how well the grass cover dies off during our dry.





This bird, the Straw Necked Ibis, is not seen up here in the foothills very often, but is a more common sight down on the flats.   It has the most fabulous glossy blue-black back with a metallic purple, green and bronze sheen which is quite dazzling in the sunshine.

Now that the dry season is well underway, things slow down considerably around the place.  Well that's how it feels to me anyway.

Of course, regular readers know well that there are very, very few seasonal changes around here ... unless you count the changes wrought by a destructive wet/cyclone season.

The all-year round bloomers carry on business as usual.




There are some flowers and berries on some of the Palms around my place ...as usual.










 





The foliage plants, like the Crotons, always add splashes of colour around about, as usual.










Now to some of the unusual for this year.  Everything that is still in cyclone-recovery mode, protracted now thanks to the arrival of the dry season, is really not doing much other than marking time.  Fingers crossed they all make it through the dry and don't give up easily.  To be honest I expect that will be the case, as they are all such drought tolerant, tough plants.

Here's a great example.  This is what was once my 5-metre tall Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana', sometimes known as the Corn Plant.  It was knocked down during our cyclone season and then trimmed back to a stump less than 30 cms tall.

Despite the lack of watering or care of any sort since then, it has sprouted quite a bit of new growth.  I'm sure it will take quite a long time to reach its' former height, but I'm pleased to see it powering on.

That's my Tabebuia impetiginosa with its' rather stunted looking shape after a post-cyclone haircut.  It has usually started blooming by now, but that is unlikely this winter.  I'm finding that when I drive down the driveway after work, I do rather miss it's usual wintertime display.

I'm really, really missing the flowers on my other usual winter bloomer, Bauhinia variegata.  There is no fabulous show of these delightful white flowers this year.

As a mater of fact, there has been no added re-growth on the stump that was left in the last month or so now.  The poor thing is still just a stump with some skinny branches and leaves.





In the midst of these losses though, there is some pleasure from other sights in my garden.  There are some plants that are carrying on with their usual winter show and that brings a smile to my dial!   Out in the tiered garden bed the Euphorbia pulcherrimas are displaying their showy bracts and tiny yellowish flowers.

This is my dwarf pink Euphorbia pulcherrima.

Here's the dwarf red Euphorbia pulcherrima which, even though it was planted well before the pink, has not done as well. I had to move it when I found it was getting flooded by the torrential wet season rains in its' original spot.  It looked dead, but I cut it back, moved it to a drier spot and ... voila! ... it's back.

Lastly here's the white, which was only planted a little while ago now and is the baby of the family.  Not a bad looking little bub, either!

I got the answer to a question I asked in one of my previous garden journal entries.

Would the deciduous Plumerias, that had started sprouting new growth after the cyclone damage had been trimmed off, drop their new baby leaves for the winter?  Yes.  The broken branches are pretty leafless now.

Out in the Courtyard Garden, the potted plants carry on, as usual.

I haven't got around to trimming the little weeds that pop up in between the pavers ... as you can see ... but I have being catching up with the fertilising, re-potting and potting up of more annuals and perennials. 

It helps that I'm on holiday from school right now, so I can get to these jobs at last.

I had some luck striking cuttings of my Plectranthus, so I will be potting up those with some Brachyscome, more commonly known as Swan River Daisies.  Unfortunately I lost all my Gazanias and nearly all my Portulacas, both potted and in the ground, during the wet, so I'm starting again.  I'm also potting up some more of the gorgeous 'Dusky Hues' Salvias that I love so much, some white Ivy Pelargoniums and some citrus coloured Violas.  That will certainly fill in a lot of the empty corners out in the courtyard.

I've had to do a bit of trimming of all my Pentas plants, in the Courtyard Garden and in the Downstairs Bed.

Every single one of them had become infested with what looks like aphids ... this amateur gardener is no expert on garden pests.






So every shrub has been trimmed back and given a lovely warm soapy water wash down.   Here's the before and after shots.

But it did give me an excuse to have a few little vases of flowers inside the house for a change.

As the mornings have been a little cool of late ... yes well, when the mercury drops down below 15 deg C, we call that cool!! ... I've been making late starts! 

You will find me still inside with my cuppa at nine in the morning, but by ten I'm usually out wandering around the garden taking a peek at what is going on.  So come on with me as I stroll around this fine winter's morning.  There's a light drizzle, but nothing that would keep me from my wandering.

There were quite a few birds around today, incluidng the male Yellow-Bellied Sunbird (above) and the Forest Kingfisher (below).

I noticed a very busy little Blue-Banded Bee laden with full pollen sacs.

Sorry it's a little out of focus, but you can see those heavy sacs!

I found the first bloom on my 'Super Swiss Giant' Pansies ... hmmm, not so super giant to my eyes though!!!

I'm loving the form of these cute 'Velveteen' Snapdragons ...

... and the weird little form of the first white Osteospermum 'Ecklonis Passion Mix'.


Hmm, I'm not so sure that's where your petals are supposed to be little one!










There's some of my favourite whites to feast my eyes on ...

... and some brilliant reds to brighten the day.

There's that busy litle Blue-Banded Bee hard at work on the Begonia blooms again!  Great to see!
Now to end off this rather lengthy wandering around ...

... here's a colour combination that I've grown quite fond of.  Purple and blue ... who knew?

I'm joining MsGreenthumb Jean at Bloomin' Tuesday with my post today and I would encourage you to go on over to see what's blooming around about.