since we are watching it – i thought a new topic

last night’s was on yankee land and i thought the virginia bloke with his grasses instead of lawn was the best. he said – (approx) – “americans aren’t really gardeners – its too hot or too cold for them to go fossicking around in the soil”
americans are so self critical that they don’t need external critics.

the californian ‘quick, instant’ $3 million movie land garden does conjure up my worst nightmares – a garden as a stage setting.

i am getting ideas for my meditation garden and a prairie of waving grasses seems very soothing to me at present.

saw it again last night.
i agree with the commentator that chinese and japanese gardens are hard for the westerner to appreciate.
i do love the taoist (pron. dal-o-ist) poetry, painting and calligraphy – but recreating chinese gardens here is a lost cause IMHO.
i tried a japanese garden one year – i had ponds, bogs, river courses and all. the japanese maple grew but the great aussie invasion of weeds destroyed any oriental look – and many of their plants and landforms are out of place here.
i gave up.
my idea of a meditation garden is now grasses blowing in the breeze – conjuring up a universe of wide open spaces and empty horizons. those weird landscapes of the yellow mountains are miles from any image in my head.

My kids have brought back photos of the Japanese gardens…they are stunning but I agree with you Pepe, they really belong in Japan and not over here… there were attempts, when the coal boom first got going back in the early 80’s, to create Jap gardens over here in Rockhampton and Blackwater, but we’re just too dry and they need lots of maintenance (e.g. raking the rocks)…

This weeks episode was on the Mediterranean.
The famous gardens Villa D’Este and the Alhambra, Hadrians villa are just awash with water piped from rivers and flowing into fountains, lakes and waterfalls in a way I find wasteful. Its difficult to apply such examples to your own home and so the smaller, simpler examples, are the ones that fire my imagination.
Elio’s vineyard is the example that proves a person can enjoy fresh food and a healthy lifestyle by gardening.
The Cordoda patios were tasteless, ugly baskets full of geraniums, but nonetheless the people had a good time celebrating what little greenery there was in their lives.
I am beginning to love the bold blues and brightly coloured, rendered walls that contrast with the garden. Being a bit of an introvert, I also appreciate the Muslin design of a bland exterior wall that hides the secret courtyard garden inside.

pepe said:

This weeks episode was on the Mediterranean.
The famous gardens Villa D’Este and the Alhambra, Hadrians villa are just awash with water piped from rivers and flowing into fountains, lakes and waterfalls in a way I find wasteful. Its difficult to apply such examples to your own home and so the smaller, simpler examples, are the ones that fire my imagination.
Elio’s vineyard is the example that proves a person can enjoy fresh food and a healthy lifestyle by gardening.
The Cordoda patios were tasteless, ugly baskets full of geraniums, but nonetheless the people had a good time celebrating what little greenery there was in their lives.
I am beginning to love the bold blues and brightly coloured, rendered walls that contrast with the garden. Being a bit of an introvert, I also appreciate the Muslin design of a bland exterior wall that hides the secret courtyard garden inside.

I particularly enjoyed this episode, it explained many gardening traditions I see as examples brought to Australia by various cultures.

Unfortunately due to the nature of things like evaporation and soil types one needs to appear wasteful with water to actually make things happen in deserts. Watering plants in desert climes which may be effectively improved by methods such as drip irrigation, does not actually reduce the water requirements of the plants. Evaporation and transpiration are not dissimilar either.

Nature provides us with many examples from which we devise methods of agriculture/horticulture as well as various ways of hydration.

If lakes are wasteful.. then why does nature provide us with them?

I enjoyed this episode too, Monty Don’s way of presenting is very good. All that water!!! They obviously don’t have a drought over there. I don’t consider it to be a waste really, they are merely redirecting it artistically and it is not lost. I was once taught that the amount of water on this planet never changes, but its form and distribution does. I feel that Nature provides floods and droughts and the balance changes constantly. That’s just my theory though.

That’s just my theory though.
—

Mine too ;)

Grasshopper said:

That’s just my theory though.
—

Mine too ;)

—-

;)

orchid40 said:

Grasshopper said:

That’s just my theory though.
—

Mine too ;)

—-

;)

going with the flow does have its merits

Grasshopper said:

That’s just my theory though.
—

Mine too ;)

if this planet’s total water volume is not consistent then we are in big trouble as it means it is bleeding out into space…

bluegreen said:

Grasshopper said:

That’s just my theory though.
—

Mine too ;)

if this planet’s total water volume is not consistent then we are in big trouble as it means it is bleeding out into space…

makes a modicum of sensibility ;)

However, if our atmospheric doona gets a hole in it.. we are on our way to Mars without a spaceship.

Climate change has happened b4 and I am sure it will happen again—and again

Grasshopper said:

Climate change has happened b4 and I am sure it will happen again—and again

I read an article that made what I thought was a sensible comment. It is not so much that the climate is changing, as in it is changing too fast for the ecology to adjust.

bluegreen said:

Grasshopper said:

Climate change has happened b4 and I am sure it will happen again—and again

I read an article that made what I thought was a sensible comment. It is not so much that the climate is changing, as in it is changing too fast for the ecology to adjust.

The accuracy of the facts are that yes, we are at a point we cannot explain any other way.

Yes that might be true Blue—I got some pics of the Niagra falls yesterday —showed they were totally frozen in 1911—

orchid40 said:

I enjoyed this episode too, Monty Don’s way of presenting is very good. All that water!!! They obviously don’t have a drought over there. I don’t consider it to be a waste really, they are merely redirecting it artistically and it is not lost. I was once taught that the amount of water on this planet never changes, but its form and distribution does. I feel that Nature provides floods and droughts and the balance changes constantly. That’s just my theory though.

fair enuff – i love the alhambra altho’ mainly the reflecting ponds.
i don’t get a lot from the generalife (?) or the d’este walk where there is a repetition of 200 water spouts all the same. even the sound is not very soothing.
elio’s orchard with the natural waterfall in the background and nice productive shade trees is better – and a lot less work.

episode 8 south africa.
we do have a lot of south african plants in our gardens. although its a lot like australia and the proteas are a shared heritage we somehow overlook s.africa. apartheid i spose.

i loved the savanna rock garden – a good use of what the artist and sculpture had at hand.
ms oppenheimer is letting her classic garden ‘naturalise’. i found the partially hedged borders and the gradual intrusion of ‘wildness’ into a previously manicured garden to be relevant to our recent discussions on weeds.

24 hours of daylight in the arctic circle is stunning. It’s hard to believe that people can live thru’ 24 hours of darkness in winter.

The big gardens were all disappointing because i can’t relate to a garden that needs more than one gardener. Wirtz’s garden with its cloud topiaries was my favourite, altho’ in looking for ideas for my meditation garden i drew a blank. Most the gardens were either frantic in colour or cosmic in scale. It does appear that grasses are going to become more popular and i’m inclined to think that my local kangaroo and wallaby grasses have potential to be quietly soothing when planted en masse.

pepe said:

24 hours of daylight in the arctic circle is stunning. It’s hard to believe that people can live thru’ 24 hours of darkness in winter.

Wouldn’t they end up with vitamin D deficiency?

hortfurball said:

pepe said:

24 hours of daylight in the arctic circle is stunning. It’s hard to believe that people can live thru’ 24 hours of darkness in winter.

Wouldn’t they end up with vitamin D deficiency?

They’d use a special light box to keep their levels up I think.

pepe said:

24 hours of daylight in the arctic circle is stunning.

Pretty tiring too if you’re not used to it. We kept forgetting to go to bed.

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

Agreed, Pepe. It’s a shame that the series has finished. It was a garden programme with a difference.
Last night’s episode was about finding a true tropical garden, which he felt he’d failed to find as they are all in the mind of the seeker. I think many of last night’s gardens relied heavily on palms and the like and only achieved jungle. I was expecting to see lots of Frangipanis, heliconias, orchids etc. While there was a glimpse or two of them, that’s all there was.

orchid40 said:

Agreed, Pepe. It’s a shame that the series has finished. It was a garden programme with a difference.
Last night’s episode was about finding a true tropical garden, which he felt he’d failed to find as they are all in the mind of the seeker. I think many of last night’s gardens relied heavily on palms and the like and only achieved jungle. I was expecting to see lots of Frangipanis, heliconias, orchids etc. While there was a glimpse or two of them, that’s all there was.

TV is an artificial medium – would you want your garden on an international gardening programme?
the best gardens remain private – i suspect.

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

That’s kind of why I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener. I love native bush, whereas there aren’t a lot of gardens that I really like (that I’ve had the chance to see, anyway). Thank goodness at some point I did get the chance to see that gardens don’t have to be grass and a few yukkas in fancy pots.

That’s kind of why I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener. I love native bush, whereas there aren’t a lot of gardens that I really like (that I’ve had the chance to see, anyway). Thank goodness at some point I did get the chance to see that gardens don’t have to be grass and a few yukkas in fancy pots.
———
native bush gardens are becoming more fashionable –
i got the distinct impression that Monty thought every nation would be into adapting its indigenous plants. he found that many gardeners were into exotic hard- to- grow stuff.

pepe said:

That’s kind of why I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener. I love native bush, whereas there aren’t a lot of gardens that I really like (that I’ve had the chance to see, anyway). Thank goodness at some point I did get the chance to see that gardens don’t have to be grass and a few yukkas in fancy pots.
———
native bush gardens are becoming more fashionable –
i got the distinct impression that Monty thought every nation would be into adapting its indigenous plants. he found that many gardeners were into exotic hard- to- grow stuff.

In Australia I wonder if it’s a generational thing? e.g. the older generation with fond memories of England wanting to recreate a bit of home. Not sure whether that would translate to any other countries though.

In Australia I wonder if it’s a generational thing? e.g. the older generation with fond memories of England wanting to recreate a bit of home. Not sure whether that would translate to any other countries though.
—————
Europeans took their favourite plants to South America, North America and here. So its applies worldwide. Funny thing is Europeans are trying their hardest to grow exotics – like oranges, bannanas and a range of hot, dry South African natives.

orchid40 said:

Agreed, Pepe. It’s a shame that the series has finished. It was a garden programme with a difference.
Last night’s episode was about finding a true tropical garden, which he felt he’d failed to find as they are all in the mind of the seeker. I think many of last night’s gardens relied heavily on palms and the like and only achieved jungle. I was expecting to see lots of Frangipanis, heliconias, orchids etc. While there was a glimpse or two of them, that’s all there was.

After living in PNG for 3 years, I can see why palms are a dominant feature, yet my approach to gardening in the last 3 years steered well clear of palms. Even heliconias not looked after up in the tropics will look more like jungle then gardening…

pain master said:

orchid40 said:

Agreed, Pepe. It’s a shame that the series has finished. It was a garden programme with a difference.
Last night’s episode was about finding a true tropical garden, which he felt he’d failed to find as they are all in the mind of the seeker. I think many of last night’s gardens relied heavily on palms and the like and only achieved jungle. I was expecting to see lots of Frangipanis, heliconias, orchids etc. While there was a glimpse or two of them, that’s all there was.

After living in PNG for 3 years, I can see why palms are a dominant feature, yet my approach to gardening in the last 3 years steered well clear of palms. Even heliconias not looked after up in the tropics will look more like jungle then gardening…

There speaks the voice of tropical garden experience. I can imagine that anything not looked after in optimal growing conditions would turn into jungle.

pain master said:

After living in PNG for 3 years,

has it been 3 years? gee time flies….

bluegreen said:

pain master said:

After living in PNG for 3 years,

has it been 3 years? gee time flies….

Indeed, one week short…

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

I’m number 3, LOL! With a little bit of number 1’s hard work thrown in for good measure. I don’t begrudge the hard work though, it’s necessary and keeps me fit and strong, it’s just hard to find the time you need to dedicate to it sometimes.

hortfurball said:

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

I’m number 3, LOL! With a little bit of number 1’s hard work thrown in for good measure. I don’t begrudge the hard work though, it’s necessary and keeps me fit and strong, it’s just hard to find the time you need to dedicate to it sometimes.

pepe said:

orchid40 said:

Agreed, Pepe. It’s a shame that the series has finished. It was a garden programme with a difference.
Last night’s episode was about finding a true tropical garden, which he felt he’d failed to find as they are all in the mind of the seeker. I think many of last night’s gardens relied heavily on palms and the like and only achieved jungle. I was expecting to see lots of Frangipanis, heliconias, orchids etc. While there was a glimpse or two of them, that’s all there was.

TV is an artificial medium – would you want your garden on an international gardening programme?
the best gardens remain private – i suspect.

I’d say you’re spot on there. You might occasionally get lucky and have a really great one available as part of the open garden scheme though.

bon008 said:

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

That’s kind of why I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener. I love native bush, whereas there aren’t a lot of gardens that I really like (that I’ve had the chance to see, anyway). Thank goodness at some point I did get the chance to see that gardens don’t have to be grass and a few yukkas in fancy pots.

The endemic garden is not entirely dead. I’ve designed a few at the request of the client. I suspect that the consult I’m doing this Monday coming will be for an endemic garden as the people were given my number by someone I know through the Wildflower Society.

hortfurball said:

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

I’m number 3, LOL! With a little bit of number 1’s hard work thrown in for good measure. I don’t begrudge the hard work though, it’s necessary and keeps me fit and strong, it’s just hard to find the time you need to dedicate to it sometimes.

sheesh. I hit the submit without submitting..

There are some of us who actually work to recreate the indigenous landscape. I daresay most of us would prefer to repair any degraded site but for the problems associated with the word degraded and its relevance to either availability of seed or water or necessary ingredients.

I actually prefer mucking about in the garden to anything else. I even prefer the company of plants and birds and lizards etc.. to the majority of human beings.

Two of my pet hates are ironing clothes and pruning trees.

add to that .. vast expanses of lawns

roughbarked said:

There are some of us who actually work to recreate the indigenous landscape. I daresay most of us would prefer to repair any degraded site but for the problems associated with the word degraded and its relevance to either availability of seed or water or necessary ingredients.

I actually prefer mucking about in the garden to anything else. I even prefer the company of plants and birds and lizards etc.. to the majority of human beings.

Yep, I know what you are saying. I’m pretty happy out in the garden with my dogs by my side, birds flitting around and geckos hiding in their usual spots. I was working in my dad’s garden the other day (removing a massive asparagus fern) and dad was pointing out a little skink sunbaking. I have so many skinks in my garden I didn’t think it all that noteworthy, but I’m a gecko girl. Every slab or brick I lift, I do it very carefully ‘cos you never know when there will be a little gecko underneath. Every one of them is noteworthy to me. :) I also check the birdbath daily to make sure it always has enough water in it for the honey eaters and I’ve started putting a tiny container (milk carton lid) out with a little honey water until my plants grow. I need some grevilleas. We used to get about 30 different species of birds visiting our old garden two doors up, but I need to plant more plants to make some densely planted areas before they all visit me here. I’m getting three different types of honey eaters but they only come for the water. Probably still feed and nest at my old place.

roughbarked said:

Two of my pet hates are ironing clothes and pruning trees.

add to that .. vast expanses of lawns

Yep. A lawn should be considered like a rug, big enough to sit on, kids to play on, dogs to run on, but no bigger than necessary. The first thing I always seem to do is encroach on the lawn by extending and widening garden beds. RB, you never saw pics of my old place.
Here’s a before and after showing the garden beds taking over…

hortfurball said:

roughbarked said:

Two of my pet hates are ironing clothes and pruning trees.

add to that .. vast expanses of lawns

Yep. A lawn should be considered like a rug, big enough to sit on, kids to play on, dogs to run on, but no bigger than necessary. The first thing I always seem to do is encroach on the lawn by extending and widening garden beds. RB, you never saw pics of my old place.
Here’s a before and after showing the garden beds taking over…

Hard to see in the pic but we used about 80% native plants, not all endemic because there was a great shady Queensland Box Tree in the middle of the yard so it was too shady for many of the West Aussies so we chose some Qld natives, but the climber smothering the back sheds was a WA native (Hardenbergia comptoniana), as were many of the plants on the right hand side of the pic, including the masses of purple, which was Scaevola aemula, a little beauty from the Eaneabba sandplains. Also on the right hand side… Olearia axillaris (the silvery foliaged one), a couple of species of acacias, a few grevilleas, a melaleuca ‘Little Nessie’, Kangaroo Paws, Dampieras, and around the pond towards the back Isolepis nodosa, Orthrosanthus laxus and a couple of species of Dianella.

Just for the viewing pleasure of our native bushlovers… this is a favourite place that my Dad and I go walking. It is a wildlife sanctuary and important corridor for birdlife as it links two areas of national park. It is fenced with an electrified fox/dog/cat proof fence and all foxes were eradicated many years ago. Endangered species are bred at another reserve and released here.

Welcome to Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary…

hortfurball said:

roughbarked said:

There are some of us who actually work to recreate the indigenous landscape. I daresay most of us would prefer to repair any degraded site but for the problems associated with the word degraded and its relevance to either availability of seed or water or necessary ingredients.

I actually prefer mucking about in the garden to anything else. I even prefer the company of plants and birds and lizards etc.. to the majority of human beings.

Yep, I know what you are saying. I’m pretty happy out in the garden with my dogs by my side, birds flitting around and geckos hiding in their usual spots. I was working in my dad’s garden the other day (removing a massive asparagus fern) and dad was pointing out a little skink sunbaking. I have so many skinks in my garden I didn’t think it all that noteworthy, but I’m a gecko girl. Every slab or brick I lift, I do it very carefully ‘cos you never know when there will be a little gecko underneath. Every one of them is noteworthy to me. :) I also check the birdbath daily to make sure it always has enough water in it for the honey eaters and I’ve started putting a tiny container (milk carton lid) out with a little honey water until my plants grow. I need some grevilleas. We used to get about 30 different species of birds visiting our old garden two doors up, but I need to plant more plants to make some densely planted areas before they all visit me here. I’m getting three different types of honey eaters but they only come for the water. Probably still feed and nest at my old place.

When I first arrived on this block of land.. OK it was just saffron thistle., pretty much appeared to have nothing else on the site.
The only birds I observed using it were sparrows and goldfinches, the odd greenfinch. Though birds like galahs may have utilised it or visiting birds of prey etc. at different times, I was going on which birds appeared to be using the site for food on a regular basis.. Being autumn when we actually moved in, the first predatory bird to alight on my makeshift temporary clothesline posts was a black shouldered kite.
Within the first five years I listed 105 species of native birds begin using it after I made changes.. and.. the goldfinches disapeared, the greenfinches never reappeared.
The numbers of native birds now using this site are just unbelieveble to most people’s ears. Why one twitcher said to me ..” but those numbers could only be found in wetlands”.

Nowadays, the top predator in my yard on a daily basis is the goshawk. Apart from butcherbirds, boobook owls and kookaburras, mostly the smaller birds feel safe here. To which I had to reply.. “Did you miss driving between an artificial lake and a swamp.. just a kilometre down the road?”

roughbarked said:

hortfurball said:

roughbarked said:

There are some of us who actually work to recreate the indigenous landscape. I daresay most of us would prefer to repair any degraded site but for the problems associated with the word degraded and its relevance to either availability of seed or water or necessary ingredients.

I actually prefer mucking about in the garden to anything else. I even prefer the company of plants and birds and lizards etc.. to the majority of human beings.

Yep, I know what you are saying. I’m pretty happy out in the garden with my dogs by my side, birds flitting around and geckos hiding in their usual spots. I was working in my dad’s garden the other day (removing a massive asparagus fern) and dad was pointing out a little skink sunbaking. I have so many skinks in my garden I didn’t think it all that noteworthy, but I’m a gecko girl. Every slab or brick I lift, I do it very carefully ‘cos you never know when there will be a little gecko underneath. Every one of them is noteworthy to me. :) I also check the birdbath daily to make sure it always has enough water in it for the honey eaters and I’ve started putting a tiny container (milk carton lid) out with a little honey water until my plants grow. I need some grevilleas. We used to get about 30 different species of birds visiting our old garden two doors up, but I need to plant more plants to make some densely planted areas before they all visit me here. I’m getting three different types of honey eaters but they only come for the water. Probably still feed and nest at my old place.

When I first arrived on this block of land.. OK it was just saffron thistle., pretty much appeared to have nothing else on the site.
The only birds I observed using it were sparrows and goldfinches, the odd greenfinch. Though birds like galahs may have utilised it or visiting birds of prey etc. at different times, I was going on which birds appeared to be using the site for food on a regular basis.. Being autumn when we actually moved in, the first predatory bird to alight on my makeshift temporary clothesline posts was a black shouldered kite.
Within the first five years I listed 105 species of native birds begin using it after I made changes.. and.. the goldfinches disapeared, the greenfinches never reappeared.
The numbers of native birds now using this site are just unbelieveble to most people’s ears. Why one twitcher said to me ..” but those numbers could only be found in wetlands”.

Nowadays, the top predator in my yard on a daily basis is the goshawk. Apart from butcherbirds, boobook owls and kookaburras, mostly the smaller birds feel safe here. To which I had to reply.. “Did you miss driving between an artificial lake and a swamp.. just a kilometre down the road?”

oops switch those around:
To which I had to reply.. “Did you miss driving between an artificial lake and a swamp.. just a kilometre down the road?” Nowadays, the top predator in my yard on a daily basis is the goshawk. Apart from butcherbirds, boobook owls and kookaburras, mostly the smaller birds feel safe here.

did I make a post and lose it?

Thought I said something about purana and eneabba?

hmm anyway.. yeah I’ve seen most of what one is able to see in an intensive camping trip covering the WA coast and hinterlands between Esperance and Kalbarri.
Eneabba sandplains circa 1983 :

#:0)=

thanks for sharing rb and hfb…

returning to Towntown with a new hobby of photography or as my PNG friends would say “wokim piksa”, I wondered what would capture my attention…? In my new first impression, Towntown is currently dry so the funghi are in low supply and the flowering plants have not yet grabbed my lens. But due to some really nice clear bright sunshine, the birds are out. So far I have captured and identified a little over 50 species on my bicycle travels around the ‘burbs and I am hoping to get ‘em online soon.

Favourite shot so far? Dunno… I do like a Jabiru or two when they dance in one’s backyard.

pain master said:

#:0)=

thanks for sharing rb and hfb…

returning to Towntown with a new hobby of photography or as my PNG friends would say “wokim piksa”, I wondered what would capture my attention…? In my new first impression, Towntown is currently dry so the funghi are in low supply and the flowering plants have not yet grabbed my lens. But due to some really nice clear bright sunshine, the birds are out. So far I have captured and identified a little over 50 species on my bicycle travels around the ‘burbs and I am hoping to get ‘em online soon.

Favourite shot so far? Dunno… I do like a Jabiru or two when they dance in one’s backyard.

I’ve watched Jabiru dancing near Leeton.. in NSW.. would be great to see your shots PM.. :)

Re that Eneabba shot containing Banksia hookeriana.. The compressed .jpg doesn’t really show it but the scene actually depicts B. hookeriana almost totally dominating the landscape all the way to the horizon.. and part of the post I made that was lost referred to the fact that the site in that photo was slated to be sandmined shortly after that photo was taken. I’d be interested to go and see what it looks like now.

roughbarked said:

Re that Eneabba shot containing Banksia hookeriana.. The compressed .jpg doesn’t really show it but the scene actually depicts B. hookeriana almost totally dominating the landscape all the way to the horizon.. and part of the post I made that was lost referred to the fact that the site in that photo was slated to be sandmined shortly after that photo was taken. I’d be interested to go and see what it looks like now.

in writing it has been said that farming has been more destructive to our landscape then mining has in the past, an dI have seen some reasonable attempts to restore old mining sites, so with any luck, perhaps some of the Banksias have been saved, seed collected, germinated and re-instated. However, it is hard to imagine that it could be restored to the vast monoculture shown in your picture. An impressive photo I may add, it has a lovely warmth to it.

pain master said:

roughbarked said:

Re that Eneabba shot containing Banksia hookeriana.. The compressed .jpg doesn’t really show it but the scene actually depicts B. hookeriana almost totally dominating the landscape all the way to the horizon.. and part of the post I made that was lost referred to the fact that the site in that photo was slated to be sandmined shortly after that photo was taken. I’d be interested to go and see what it looks like now.

in writing it has been said that farming has been more destructive to our landscape then mining has in the past, an dI have seen some reasonable attempts to restore old mining sites, so with any luck, perhaps some of the Banksias have been saved, seed collected, germinated and re-instated. However, it is hard to imagine that it could be restored to the vast monoculture shown in your picture. An impressive photo I may add, it has a lovely warmth to it.

Yes mining has a far smaller footprint than agribusiness and indeed rehabilitation of mining sites is at least desirous of the paperwork., whilst farmers are often using the same patch of land for far longer with far less regulation.

roughbarked said:

pain master said:

in writing it has been said that farming has been more destructive to our landscape then mining has in the past, an dI have seen some reasonable attempts to restore old mining sites, so with any luck, perhaps some of the Banksias have been saved, seed collected, germinated and re-instated. However, it is hard to imagine that it could be restored to the vast monoculture shown in your picture. An impressive photo I may add, it has a lovely warmth to it.

Yes mining has a far smaller footprint than agribusiness and indeed rehabilitation of mining sites is at least desirous of the paperwork., whilst farmers are often using the same patch of land for far longer with far less regulation.

but we are heading off topic…

back to the program, I missed every episode bar the first and last and my first impression was “What a fantastic idea for a show” when my final impression was “What a fantastic junket”. I think he lost the way. The first episode showed a man starting a journey in a dry arid zone where he had discovered an amazing garden worth sharing with others, but finished with him trying to find a garden in the SE Asian tropics where it might be worth noting that the equatorial region of the world has 80% of the world’s trees, and therefore it is always a struggle not to allow a garden to escape into a jungle and yet this chap who has had us believe that he visited 80 gardens around the globe carrying his little brown satchel (obvious a tardis-like accoutrement) and suffering a foot massage whilst travelling on a train.

From only watching the first and last, it appeared 2 different programs. One was about gardening and the other was lifted from Discovery Travel and Living. I enjoyed his grass-roots boat trip down the “canal” in Thailand and felt he should have continued along this path, but he had a Royal garden to inspect and of course his massage, it had been a long journey and he was completely shagged from all the travel.

I’m back on his little brown bag which the contents contained a little teeny tiny camera (to do justice to all the world’s best gardens?), tomorrows shirt and a spare pair of jocks to wear whilst the pair he was currently in were being washed in the sink and hung out to dry.

I need one of those bags.

Now if I were to host a travel show, it would be on a bike and I would ride to gorgeous locations, take some pretty pictures and share alike…

Par example, this ‘ere is the Ross Dam in Towntown, FNQ. It has been recently renovated since the time I last saw it and was looking pretty as, as I rode along his earthern bank. _{cue panorama}

hortfurball said:

bon008 said:

pepe said:

Monty Don set out to resolve the question ‘what is a garden?’.
In this last episode he tried to find a tropical garden paradise and found only corporate and tourism versions of it. The burmese woman said they didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too wet. On an earlier programme, an American landscaper had said that Americans didn’t do a lot of gardening because it was either too hot or too cold.

I loved the programme but the unfortunate conclusions (IMHO) are -

1. For most people a garden is either a place of hard work or a community space for carrying out leisure activities.
2. The most famous gardens are stage settings for the display of wealth and power.
3. The gardens of the poor and middle classes are obsessions of individuals.
4. Preserving indigenous flora is not a top priority for most locals (anywhere in the world) because they are at war with their environment and seek to control it (mostly by living indoors). The work of preserving indigenous landscapes is largely left to botanic parks.

Not the outcome I would have expected from a gardening programme; but an honest result.

That’s kind of why I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener. I love native bush, whereas there aren’t a lot of gardens that I really like (that I’ve had the chance to see, anyway). Thank goodness at some point I did get the chance to see that gardens don’t have to be grass and a few yukkas in fancy pots.

The endemic garden is not entirely dead. I’ve designed a few at the request of the client. I suspect that the consult I’m doing this Monday coming will be for an endemic garden as the people were given my number by someone I know through the Wildflower Society.

I think people in Australia are more conscious of preserving indigenous flora as we still have some distinct native flora due to our physical isolation. In the UK and Europe it is hard to define what is endemic as the cultures are so old and unbounded physically. You would be hard pressed to find an untouched indigenous landscape. Much of what they have is common across the borders with little need to isolate and preserve. Or so I believe.

when my final impression was “What a fantastic junket”. I think he lost the way.
——————-
chuckle and chuckle again for the dr who satchel reference PM. i enjoy the armchair travel. there’s another programme on, before the news, about ‘adventures in architecture’. so far it has been about religion, archaeology, social history and a dozen other subjects with architecture forming the backdrop. this guy can’t lose his way because the programme’s topic was wrong in the first place. still – he goes to places off road that you and i could not get to – and that alone makes terrific viewing.

you guys (hfb and rb) are commendable for your native plant/ bird efforts. you’re the ones the programme needed to find and question – but tv programmes are superficial.
great pics all round – many thanks.

roughbarked said:

Two of my pet hates are ironing clothes and pruning trees.

add to that .. vast expanses of lawns

I don’t iron unless forced to.

roughbarked said:

did I make a post and lose it?

Thought I said something about purana and eneabba?

hmm anyway.. yeah I’ve seen most of what one is able to see in an intensive camping trip covering the WA coast and hinterlands between Esperance and Kalbarri.
Eneabba sandplains circa 1983 :

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Bubba Louie said:

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

roughbarked said:

Bubba Louie said:

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

That’s on my wishlist for next year :)

i enjoy the armchair travel. there’s another programme on, before the news, about ‘adventures in architecture’. so far it has been about religion, archaeology, social history and a dozen other subjects with architecture forming the backdrop. this guy can’t lose his way because the programme’s topic was wrong in the first place. still – he goes to places off road that you and i could not get to – and that alone makes terrific viewing.

Agreed, Pepe, but the presenter makes me want to scream. Seems to me he’s trying to emulate David Attenborough’s style of speech and falls way short of it. It spoils the programme for me :(

roughbarked said:

Bubba Louie said:

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

I’ve wanted to for ages. It’s definately top of my list.

orchid40 said:

roughbarked said:

Bubba Louie said:

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

That’s on my wishlist for next year :)

I want to take the Indian Pacific but the prices are a bit steep apparently. :(

Bubba Louie said:

orchid40 said:

roughbarked said:

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

That’s on my wishlist for next year :)

I want to take the Indian Pacific but the prices are a bit steep apparently. :(

I’m hoping to go with the company I went to NZ with. We have a reunion at the end of the month and I’ll see if the Western Aus Wildflower trip is available then.

pepe said:

there’s another programme on, before the news, about ‘adventures in architecture’. so far it has been about religion, archaeology, social history and a dozen other subjects with architecture forming the backdrop. this guy can’t lose his way because the programme’s topic was wrong in the first place. still – he goes to places off road that you and i could not get to – and that alone makes terrific viewing.

I caught this guy last night, and after an impressive start talking about the Town Hall in San Fransisco being built on individual shock absorbers, he then went to talk about the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan… now I had no idea what the program was about and I assumed it was about Architecture and how we can overcome the environment to build something longstanding, but I couldn’t work out his angle regarding the Jam Minaret… There was nothing spectacular about its design that kept it upright.

I have since worked out that it was an episode about withstanding disasters and the Minaret has done a figjam effort of that.

And I thought some of the security arrangements I had in PNG were tight.

roughbarked said:

oops switch those around:
To which I had to reply.. “Did you miss driving between an artificial lake and a swamp.. just a kilometre down the road?” Nowadays, the top predator in my yard on a daily basis is the goshawk. Apart from butcherbirds, boobook owls and kookaburras, mostly the smaller birds feel safe here.

I knew what you meant. :)

roughbarked said:

did I make a post and lose it?

Thought I said something about purana and eneabba?

Seems that way. Cool pic BTW, love those banksias.

roughbarked said:

pain master said:

#:0)=

thanks for sharing rb and hfb…

returning to Towntown with a new hobby of photography or as my PNG friends would say “wokim piksa”, I wondered what would capture my attention…? In my new first impression, Towntown is currently dry so the funghi are in low supply and the flowering plants have not yet grabbed my lens. But due to some really nice clear bright sunshine, the birds are out. So far I have captured and identified a little over 50 species on my bicycle travels around the ‘burbs and I am hoping to get ‘em online soon.

Favourite shot so far? Dunno… I do like a Jabiru or two when they dance in one’s backyard.

I’ve watched Jabiru dancing near Leeton.. in NSW.. would be great to see your shots PM.. :)

Re that Eneabba shot containing Banksia hookeriana.. The compressed .jpg doesn’t really show it but the scene actually depicts B. hookeriana almost totally dominating the landscape all the way to the horizon.. and part of the post I made that was lost referred to the fact that the site in that photo was slated to be sandmined shortly after that photo was taken. I’d be interested to go and see what it looks like now.

Oh what a crying shame. B. hookeriana is one of my favourite banksias. I hope they revegetated the site as it should be.

pain master said:

Now if I were to host a travel show, it would be on a bike and I would ride to gorgeous locations, take some pretty pictures and share alike…

Par example, this ‘ere is the Ross Dam in Towntown, FNQ. It has been recently renovated since the time I last saw it and was looking pretty as, as I rode along his earthern bank. _{cue panorama}

WOW!!!

Jaw-droppingly beautiful

roughbarked said:

Bubba Louie said:

I’ve never been to WA. :(

Don’t you think it is about time you paid a visit during the wildflower season?

You will never regret it.

I’ll second that.

hortfurball said:

WOW!!!

Jaw-droppingly beautiful

thank you very much :)