Every morning in summer we walk down to the shops to buy the paper…and we always stop to admire this view…
This garden is on the verge of the road and the footpath. It has been planted and cared for by a very generous gardener who lives in a house nearby. He and his wife bought and prepared the soil, fertilizer, and plants. They have even installed a watering system, and keep it watered all summer at their own cost.
How is that for a gardener’s generosity of spirit!
These colour co-ordinated Eastern Rosellas are up early and enjoying the morning sun.
Further along the path is a neighbouring garden spilling over with a shrub that seems to be saying…”It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and summer”.
Every morning we pass the cockatoos and galahs enjoying breakfast at this bird feeder …(a mixed blessing)
The galahs seem to understand the pecking order, and wait for their turn. Occasionally they all eat together.
And far off on the lamp post, a female cockatoo is on parenting duty….
Nearby, a young cockatoo is holding on tight to the branch …. perhaps his first flight without his mother..
Oh dear, he had a slip, but luckily his beak is strong enough to steady him.
His tail feathers look like a wedding dress!
As we walk across the playing fields, we often see the male Red Rumped Parrot and the lighter coloured female….these parrots are always feeding in the grass, and are totally unperturbed by sporting events going on around them.
By the time we walk home, it is getting hotter, but the Red Hot Pokers are still a treat to see as we walk…
This summer we have had a heatwave and dust storms ..
This makes for some beautiful sunsets across the Brindabella Mountains
When I look across at this view of the Brindabella Mountains, I think there really is no place like home..
I hope you are keeping warm or cool where ever you are in the world, and enjoying your home as much as I enjoy mine.
This grand house and parkland is tucked away on the outskirts of Bowral in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales.
The property dates back to 1821 when Governor Macquarie granted Edward Riley two parcels of land. It was originally called Bloomfield.
This Jane Austen-like driveway takes us back to the 1880s, when Samuel Hordern bought the property.
Fortunately for future generations, his son, Sir Samuel Hordern and his wife, Charlotte, were keen gardeners. They were responsible for the first of the large trees and camellias, and a park full of rare and unusual oaks.
Retford Park was bought by James Fairfax in 1964, and it was his country home until he died early in 2017.
James inherited his fortune from the Fairfax Publishing company founded by his forebears, and is a well known philanthropist and art patron.
When he died, he showed further generosity and foresight by gifting Retford Park to the National Trust for all to enjoy.
The Southern Highlands has a temperate climate, and for new settlers arriving in Australia, it was a chance to grow colourful shrubs, like camellias, rhododendrons, and azaleas…the gardens were exploding with blossoms and colours..
When James Fairfax bought the property he turned it from an agricultural property to a country house for family and friends.
Under his care, landscape designers have blended old with the new. There has been extensive re-planting of the park, with various species, notably, chestnut, gingko, nyssa and many oaks…this is my favourite part of the property.
The Cypress Lawn, includes an older Redwood, and newly planted weeping Japanese maples, and a bamboo grove…
The Redwood tree has increased in height since a huge old Monterey Cypress was cut down after extensive damage by the cockatoos during the last drought….
as I have mentioned in many posts, cockatoos are great characters but tough to live with in the country and/or on a farm….(everywhere really)
The pool pavilion was designed in 1968 by the late architect, Guilford Bell. It provides panoramic views across the paddocks.
Not very far away from this slick and modern pool is part of the original garden, and here we can see the Rolls Royce of all chicken coups… electric fences to keep out the foxes..
It was customary for large estates to keep exotic birds and animals, and these days, all that remain are some emus. They have an equally generous garden, also surrounded by electric fences…possibly to keep them in!
Emus, usually living in dry precarious bushland, probably think they have died and gone to heaven here!
Along the Emu walk are trees called Tilia cordifolia “Rubra”. Also known as Lime or Linden trees.
The older aviaries are being taken over by impressive vegetable gardens.
Near the garage was the Peony walk, unfortunately nearly the end of flowering time for these gorgeous flowers, but we managed to find a couple still blooming….Paul took an lovely shot of the pink one..
The Knot garden, closer to the house is planted with English and Japanese box and Mop-top Robinias, designed by David Wilkinson, architect and landscape gardener.
The black and white tulips were very striking..
The Knot garden takes us full circle to the front of the grand house, and this is called the Grey Garden, and is planted with white agapanthus and clipped slivery grey shrubs.
Looking down through the Grey Garden you can see the lovely parkland beyond..
These ancient trees are drawing the visitor in…..what could be better on a warm spring day..
….than lunch under the blossoming trees near the coach house…. and cottages, in the original pastoral property
There is an overwhelming feeling of shade and peace at Retford Park, which only well cared parks and gardens can give…
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos living in Canberra have an abundance of food, and very few enemies. So there is plenty of recreational time.
…During the dreary winter days why not practice undoing knots, and a tennis net is just the thing….
Parrot experts say that the parrot family are the smartest of all bird families, they continue to learn as they grow, rather than relying on instinct.
Luckily humans leave tempting problems like street lamps and tennis nets, and almonds wedged in the roof of carports..
The Little Corella is a cousin of the cockatoo, and has become a frequent visitor to the Canberra region in recent years….judging by the amount of lamp post covers swinging in the wind.
Members of the Canberra Ornithologist Group have noticed Corellas teasing rows of Crested Pigeons perched on power lines by pushing them off balance..(obviously the Little Corella has no problem with balance)
There is something very sweet about these Crested Pigeons, who manage to keep their fine hairdos in place regardless of the weather…(or teasing going on)
In June, the beginning of winter, we usually have cold crisp days, with blue skies…
Food is still in abundance…
Then comes the grey, cold July days, and life becomes a bit tougher..
On cold winter mornings these King Parrots perch on the guttering of our cabin in the garden. There they drink the melted icy water after a frosty night.
We have a Japanese Maple growing between the cabin in the garden and our house. This year the King Parrots have come to feed on the dried seed pods…
.. giving us a perfect chance for photos as we sit in the sunroom having coffee..
The male King Parrot spends a lot of time rearranging his tail so that he can eat in comfort.
This magnificent Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo flew into my neighbour’s garden last winter, and used the Silver Birch tree as a viewing platform in the hunt for food..
(Despite their regal appearance, I read recently that their cousins the Orange-tailed Black Cockatoo in Western Australia have suffered injuries from Raven attacks.)
And now, in mid-August, there is warmth in the air, and the skies are occasionally blue again.
We saw this Magpie on our walk this morning, and he began warbling…… a very familiar and much loved Australia Magpie call.
My Scottish father used to say the bagpipes brought ”a stirring” to his heart and I think a Magpie’s warbling brings a stirring to most Australian hearts.
and back home, here is another important member of our garden bird family ….one very noisy Cockatoo!
… it is true, spring is almost here!
Paul and I are also waiting for a very special event in our lives, my daughter and her husband are soon to have a baby, our first grandchild!
With the early morning light increasing, I have been getting up early (hard to sleep in when waiting for baby) and reading and enjoying many blogs …a lovely distraction.
May you enjoy your season, and green spaces, where ever you live in the world…
On a cold June morning, we flew out of Canberra, and four hours later we landed in a very different Australian city, Cairns, in Far North Queensland.
Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, and the Daintree Forests, part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.
Despite its international airport and city status, Cairns has lost none of its original laid-back Queensland character.
Driving from the airport there are cane farms on either side of the road, and some original old Queensland houses dotted around the countryside.
We are heading just a short distance away to our favourite spot, Palm Cove…where the winter temperatures at this time of the year are around 14 degrees to 26 degrees.
…let’s just keep that a secret…
We have been visiting Palm Cove with our family for about twenty years.
When our children were young, you could take camel rides along the beach, and an old hippie had a little wooden stand where you could have a foot massage…..those were the days!
In the colder southern states of Australia, the gardens and parks have died back for the winter, so it is almost like sensory overload seeing the glorious colourful flowers and shrubs that seem to grow anywhere and everywhere…
However, Palm Cove’s signature for me, are the most incredible Paperbark Melaleuca trees.
The trunk of the tree is layered with papery bark, which is in a continuous process of peeling and replacing. In a monsoonal tropical climate like Palm Cove, this discourages parasites from getting a hold on the tree.
(It is also very hard to pass a tree and resist peeling a fine layer of bark as you go.)
Tea tree oil is distilled from the fresh leaves and twigs of the Melaleuca, and come to think of it, this is probably what the hippie used, all those years ago, for his foot massages.
These distinctive Melaleucas were here when Captain James Cook sailed his ship, the Endeavour, within three leagues of the Palm Cove foreshore on 10 June 1770….some of the species are reported to be over 400 years old.
It is said that Captain Cook tried using the oil from the leaves to make tea, as a possible way of preventing scurvy.
The beauty of the Paperbark Melaleucas in Palm Cove is the seamless way the buildings, paths and people fit around the trees.
I have read that the local council regulated, many years ago, that buildings in Palm Cove could not be built higher than the Melaleucas…what a visionary decision!
Palm Cove will never be one of the many beaches lined by generic high rise buildings, all looking exactly the same.
Rainbow lorikeets, the busy noisy local parrots in this area, are regular visitors to the trees, as are honey eaters, sunbirds, fruit bats, native bees and many other species that feed on the Paperbark trees.
My apologies, I couldn’t find a Rainbow Lorikeet in Palm Cove the day of taking photos, so I had to borrow a busy Lorikeet from a trip we did to Sydney’s Centennial Park. This Lorikeet is feeding on equally striking flowers from a tree called Cape Tulip Red, originally from Africa, but also very common in the warmer parts of Australia.
The camels and hippies have gone, but, thank goodness some things stay the same, Pete’s Place, with the best fish and chips in Palm Cove.
Barramundi is a locally caught fish here, and is absolutely out of this world….may it never change. I haven’t got a photo of any of our fish and chip meals because they were eaten so fast!
….and, I need never feel too far away from home, because one of the noisiest cockatoos I’ve ever heard, is nesting just across the way from our balcony
…well, if you can’t find an almond tree in Canberra, then a Paperbark Melaleuca tree is a pretty good second…
Not even a cockatoo winging in like a Boeing 747 could ruin an evening walk on Palm Cove beach.
I hope you are enjoying your good fortune if it is summer in your part of the world, and if you are in the middle of winter, as Monty Don says, make it a restorative time.
In my next post Paul and I will go on a bird watching tour in Port Douglas…
Autumn has arrived in Australia, and here in Canberra we’ve had some lovely soaking rain and then crisp sunny days…
….the perfect combination to bring the cockatoos to our almond tree for the falling almonds, the kernels now soften by the rain.
The cockatoos are early risers, and so it is party time on our carport roof, where many of the almonds fall…
They pace about, checking on almonds, letting the rejects drop to the ground with a soft thud (just in case we are not up yet)
…..while they’re eating the almonds there is a lot of socialising, and sometimes even sharing…
Meanwhile Paul has added compost to one of our vegetable beds, ready to plant our garlic for the year.
We’ve always tried to avoid using garlic with pesticides, much of which is imported. Garlic is quite expensive to buy, and easy to grow, so we plant the garlic in early autumn …..at a time when we can leave it in the ground for 7-8 months.
Garlic likes good drainage, and some water and fertilizer occasionally, and it is the perfect low maintenance crop to have during winter and spring.
…this is our garlic harvested and drying in November last year. It is our best crop yet, and should be enough garlic to last us until the end of this year.
We have been growing garlic for three years, and every year we try out some new, organic garlic from local farmers. Last year we had a some cloves from Windellama Organics which we bought at the Farmer’s Markets in Canberra.
This year we are adding some garlic we bought from a farm near Lake Crackenback called Paddock Perfect
…we stopped off to buy some eggs on our way home from a weekend in the Snowy mountains..
This cute little stall was by the side of the highway…..you can pick your own herbs, or buy jam, eggs and garlic….
The sign says ”Please leave your payment in the honesty box provided below”
…and we did.
In a paddock nearby we could see the happy chooks.
They’ve got everything they need; shade, water, food and most importantly, space to move about. Needless to say, the eggs were delicious!
In the background there are some goats, perhaps used for goats milk or cheese.
Here is a flashback to our summer vegetable garden….this young Crimson Rosella (changing colour from green to crimson) is caught red-handed sampling our tomatoes!
And all this time we thought a passing possum was the culprit!
By late summer…these lovely Crimson Rosellas have grown into their brilliant red and blue feathers….
…and I hope you have noticed that I’m doing my best to give equal opportunity to all local birds on this blog…
Autumn is a lovely season in Canberra, and I hope you are enjoying your season, wherever you may be in the world.
If you love sunshine and roses….then a visit to the Old Parliament House Rose gardens in spring time is a must.
These photos were taken in November, during a gloriously wet spring.
In 1927 Canberra became the new capital of Australia.
The bush capital…. so beautiful today, was, in those days, a cluster of buildings on windswept limestone plains….
Just look at this old photo of a group of people trying to do some tree planting as they huddle together out in that windswept limestone plain ….
The newly formed capital of Australia was a compromise….neither of the two large cities in Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, wished the other to be the capital.
Therefore Canberra, geographically between the two cities, was chosen as the site to be a new capital.
It became the responsibility of parliamentary officer Robert Broinowski to build some gardens around the Old Parliament House and bring some relief to the new buildings.
The gardens included tennis courts, and a bowling green… much needed in those days when homes and families were so far away, and travel was long and hard.
I’m sure those early politicians could not imagine how lovely the grounds of Old Parliament House look today.
The gardens, on either side of the Old Parliament House, consist of four rose gardens. Each garden was originally designed and laid out in a simple quadrant design, with roses in two quadrants.
In this post I am writing about the House of Representative Gardens, which has two gardens.
The first is the Macarthur Rose Garden which is filled with one hundred red ”Etoile de Hollande” and shot silk roses donated by the great grand daughter of John and Elizabeth Macarthur. This gift marked the major contribution by John and Elizabeth Macarthur, to the early settlement of Australia in the breeding of Merino sheep at Parramatta and Camden. Many large farms from settlement to today, have lovely gardens and include roses.
The decision was made to plant roses in all the gardens. They provided colour to the unrelenting browns and greys of the Australian landscape, they reminded politicians of homes in the Northern Hemisphere, and lastly and most importantly, they were cheap to grow and very hardy.
Fortunately Broinowski was a passionate gardener, and, even during the Depression he kept up the project of designing and planting by searching for donations far and wide.
He asked the wives of politicians to support the second garden, known appropriately as the Ladies Rose garden, and started gathering donations of one shilling and four pence per rose.
This garden has Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses which were very popular at the time, and are an absolute delight to look at on a spring day….here are just a few..
Once you start looking at these lovely roses, you are hooked, and there is no known cure!
Charles Weston had originally designed and planted Eucalyptus trees around the grounds of Parliament House, and these, and dense hedges keep the roses safe from hot dry winds.
This would not be a post about Canberra if I didn’t include some of our resident Sulphur Crested Cockatoos…….a number of them spend time around Parliament House, no doubt using the Eucalyptus trees for nesting, and the acorn trees for food.
I haven’t check with the gardeners, but I suspect the Cockatoos have a penchant for loping the stems of tender colourful plants, like roses, and may be a mixed blessing here.
….. but there is something endearingly Australian about having recalcitrant Cockatoos in residence so close to the seat of government.
Season’s greeting from the bush capital of Australia.
I began blogging about 18 months ago, to write a low key kind of diary about our garden.
Before long I realised that the blog was really about my place in the world: Canberra, the bush capital of Australia.
The word Canberrais often used to explain the workings of government….”Canberra raisedtaxes this year…”
But of course, behind the workings of Parliament there is a city of people who call Canberra home.
Since I began blogging about green spaces in Canberra, I have met many gardeners, volunteers and ordinary Canberrans who are very knowledgeable and proud of their place in the world.
The gods were smiling on this lovely part of the world when Chicagoan Walter Burley Griffin won the competition to design Canberra, and his wife Marion Mahony created the beautiful drawings of his design.
He dreamed of a city in green spaces, and that is what we have today… a city in a big bush garden.
The land around the lake is reserved for all people to enjoy..
This kangaroo was photographed five minutes away from our house, on the edge of Mt Taylor. Not long after we moved to Canberra, 30 years ago, a kangaroo from Mt Taylor hopped down our suburban road. A great introduction to life in Canberra for our family!
I’ve shared the blog with some big personalities
and some colourful ones ….
and some that are just plain cute.
I’ve had the pleasure of following many blogs, in UK, US, Canada, Italy, France and of course, Australia and New Zealand. The Northern Hemisphere seasons, especially the autumn and spring are a delight to see. As an armchair traveller, I also enjoy the breath-taking snowy winter photos….happy in the knowledge that I won’t have to go and shovel snow at any time!
Thank you very much to the all the people who have visited and followed Canberra’s Green Spaces, over the past 18 months, I appreciate every visit, and every comment.
We have also had an incredible amount of rain this year. After ten years of drought, everyone is collectively holding our breath and hoping it will continue…
Canberra is cool Temperate and Alpine Zone 8-9. In theory we have:
mild or warm summers (I would say, often very hot summers)
cold winters (heavy frosts)…Yes!
and spring is a pivotal event…Yes!
Tim Entwisle, the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, has written a book about Australia’s changing seasons, called Sprinter and Sprummer.
He says we should adopt a five season approach, early spring should include August and be called Sprinter (August September)
And late spring should be called Sprummer (October, November)
He bases his seasonal categories on the timing of the plants, the activities of the animals, and the unsettled weather before we move into summer.
It is true that much of Australia has no real spring or a very short spring, and not many of the flowers and plants common to the European spring.
However, in Canberra, as you can see, we do have a joyous spring, after a cold winter. (by Aussie standards, of course..)
Paul suggests that we have should have our own season called Sprindy because we do have a lot of windy weather in spring.
However, during our Canberra spring, we brave the windy, often cold weather , to plant and enjoy English cottage garden flowers like Jonquils, daffodils, aquilegia, tulips, Iris.
Many flowers only come out in late spring, (November) and then we can smell summer in the air.
However, during the spring and summer the real stars of the garden are not the pretty spring bulbs and flowers, but the flowering long lasting, ”foot soldiers” of the garden. I’m coming to appreciate them more and more. For example..
The Orange Sparaxis, grows in poor soil and has survived through drought and wind and rain. They are striking to look at, and these flowers, right by the walkway, are often admired by passers-by.
This is a Native Geranium ground cover, which will flower and flourish in all conditions, and brings the bees. I have seen a photo of a Geranium just like this called Wild Geranium on Jason and his wife Judy’s great blog called garden in a city .
The Lemon-scented Geranium is another plant that tolerates almost any conditions, and brings the bees and the butterflies too. Another foot solider.
We have three Bottlebrush bushes in our garden, but this one deserves a special mention, for hanging in there, behind the cabin for many years. The winter and spring rain have made it sit up and take notice and it is lovely to see its flaming red colour across the garden.
And now for my spring change of heart……the Iris is lovely, but……. here today, and gonetomorrow.In autumn I spent ages re-planting the Iris into this part of the garden, and very soon the plants were leggy and falling over in the wind and rain. We were away for a week, and the flowers had died off, and the weeds had taken over.
Enough already! In autumn we will dig them up, and keep a select few and replace the rest with the hardy native plants.
Of course I’ll always grow some spring flowers, they are such a joy and sign of hope in a garden.
As Peter Cundal, the previous presenter of Gardening Australia, said one day, as he bent over a some spring plants..
”when I see the first signs of a spring plant coming up, my heart gives a little leap!”
..and I feel exactly the same way.
This has been a big week for our family, as my older brother had a long and serious heart operation and is now successfully recovering. He is a dedicated reader of my blog, and is extremely knowledgeable about birds and plants. He lives in a beautiful part of the world (Port Macquarie) with no winter or sprinter, and I know he will be glad to be back there very soon, and I look forward to him being well and able to enjoy his own green spaces again.
Cockatoos are frequent visitors to our garden, especially when the almond tree flowers and the almonds grow and drop onto the ground.
They spend a lot of time collecting the almonds from the ground, cracking open shells, and eating almonds on the carport roof, while socialising…
They are pretty good at putting on a show for the camera too..
The almond tree has beautiful flowers and is much loved by many birds.
However, there is seldom harmony amongst birds and gardeners in spring.
Recently a couple of the cockatoos hopped onto the almond tree and started shredding the leaves and the flowers. Earlier this year, they had successfully shredded our flowering Eucalyptus tree of many of its smaller branches, so we hoped this wasn’t going to start a new trend…
Paul waved the broom at them and politely said ”shoo!”
Well! We’ve never heard that tone before!
For our resident cockatoos, even implied criticism is hard to take…they collected their almonds and flew off to the neighbouring telephone wires….
and turned their backs on us!
….. and if you think you are going to get a photo opportunity from us…you can go sing for your supper…
They disappeared for a few days, but, sadly, the plot thickens.
Last year, I took most of these perfectly good tulips out of the front garden and put them in pots on the deck in the back garden.
Cockatoos frequently fly over the deck to get to the almond tree, and very occasionally they behead a daffodil or two along the way, usually the ones that have the temerity to flower early.
However, sometime after our falling out with the cockatoos, we came home one evening to find some of the early flowering tulips, and some crocus had been pulled out of their pots, and half eaten…. what a mess, what destruction!
The culprits had very large beaks…
Cockatoos are known to be curious and intelligent birds…so, were they sampling new bulbs for taste or bearing a grudge?
As my neighbour said, perhaps….”Revenge is a dish best served cold”
The cockatoos did not come visiting for a while, but we enjoyed seeing some of the other springtime youngsters…
Recently we went to Sydney for a wedding, and this time I hid my (remaining) flowering bulbs behind the camellia on the deck…better safe than sorry…
All quiet on the home front when we got home…
At least we have a few surviving tulips for the deck, so all is not lost.
There is not much chance to enjoy anything in the garden at the moment, because the rain has been tumbling down all week.
Except of course if you are a cockatoo. Word is out that the almond shells are lovely and soft, and have been lying around on the ground for some time now.
Well, okay you’re forgiven. We’ll just sit here in the rain and enjoy the bounty ….
I guess every gardener has some challenges, and at least ours are mighty big personalities!
Since I started blogging and reading gardening blogs, I’ve learnt all about a the hazards of nearby rabbits, possums, deer, squirrels and other invaders in the garden…do you have yours?