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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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