Ding ding, round one!
A good friend send to me the other day “don’t fight nature”. She was actually referring to the plant selection for the landscaping of my front garden. You see, last year we built a new house and after all our tradies had vacated, our block roughly resembled a desolate wasteland. Besides excavating, filling, digging, destroying and an unseasonable amount of rain…our gently sloping grassy meadow was turned into a boggy, rocky outcrop. And lacking any amount of landscaping vision, it’s been a challenge to say the least.
You see, I come from a long line of very good gardeners. My Nanna definitely had an affinity with nature and grew all sorts of beautiful things from cacti to exotics to fruit trees. Her daughter (my mother) must have inherited that gene because she creates wonderful little pockets of heaven in her garden. But instead of yours truly picking up the green thumb award from the family tree, my younger brother scooped the prize. He is probably the best of them all. A Greenskeeper by trade, my mum said that anything he plants will grow like crazy. He has the goods alright.
Ding ding, round two!
So far we’ve been here a little over 8 months and in that time I’ve managed to kill a tray full of pansies, a bowl of succulents, a cactus, the rose-bush is looking woeful and one of my orchids is in serious need of therapy. We did get some turf laid but as I have mentioned, my guy spent a long time installing pop up sprinklers and its the only thing looking like its going to go the distance. So understandably, you can see my hesitation in planning an entire garden that is not only a blank canvas but that will also need continuous care from that point on.
Oh did I tell you that a friend once described me as killing a desk stapler with too much love?
Ding ding, round three!
I recently read a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. It led me astray. It consumed my mind with visions of tropical gardens filled with palms and warm climate rainforest plants. It bewitched me, it tricked me. I began to think that my front garden deserved a Tree Aloe that cost $1000, that it needed palms and ferns and birds of paradise plants. Why? I have no idea. Let’s call it zero inspiration and a great photo spread on BH&G’s behalf.
But after re-consideration and a surprise plant shopping trip from my mother who showed me the error of my ways, I’ve changed my tune. I’m going for a garden that suits my environment, that doesn’t have struggle just to put on its boxing gloves. And let’s face it, that garden has already got an uphill battle with me looking after it.
My garden is still a work in progress but I’m determined to do the right thing by it. I’m not going to fight nature.
Knockout!
This is roughly what I have to work with. Stay tuned to see me transform my wasteland into a garden of tranquility. Image (c) dynamsis.edu.au
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