Walking in the Garden

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Garden Walk

 

Let's continue our walk

through the new coastal garden

  

Old dwarf date palms

form a sentry line at the lawn's edge

Phoenix Rubellini

are elegant palms

  

with beautiful notched trunks

  

but wear, 

at the base of the leaves

a nasty armour

of spines

which prick and poison

with a vengeance

I have been told

 that they were used to line Booby traps

in the Viet Nam war

  

watch your footing here

see the pink ribbon

don't trip on that buried metal stake

  

under the palms 

I have planted native Gingers

  

In my clearing 

I found this glossy graceful palm

which appears to be a cycad

remember those ancient plants 

from dinosaur days...

but a different cycad 

to the one I am familiar with

this one -

which the moths are also very familiar with

they lay their eggs in the leaf nest

and the larvae munch through the leaves

I don't like to spray

so I have left them to it...

  

the many old gardenias

that I found

gangley and metres tall

are now leafing up again

after a harsh prune

  

when I removed 

a blanketing maze of vine

from the old trees

I found a row of frangipani trees

which are deciduous here

once cleared of vine and watered

they put on a show

  

White and pink flowering varieties

coloured the gardens 

and dropped their ornamental blossoms

on the road beneath

 

the insidious vine

seemingly pretty and green

that covers my garden floor

and latches on any woody surface

to begin

its heavenward climb

  

along the road edge 

I found one of my most loved flowers

the agapanthus

so I have been filling in spaces and corners

with more pots of blue agapanthus

and lined the driveway with white ones

  

Blechnum

is a new fern to me

a native, it will grow in semi shade

to about two foot tall

 

One variety of Blechnum
has new fronds emerging in a brown tint
Unfortunately the caterpillars
love the tender new fronds
and strip them
I am hoping
they will tire of their over indulgence
soon

 

The old palms

are patterned by lichens

  

and the glorious Australian tree fern

creates a lacy shade over the rockery

The tree fern produces millions of tiny spores 

which cover my tiled deck

with a carpet of fine dust...

A small price to pay...

I can hear the water 

lapping over the edge 

of the infinity pool

which suggests to me

that it is time we took a break

and had a dip to cool off...

Happy walking...

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