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 National Arboretum in Canberra….. 100 trees in 100 forests
The word Canberrais often used to explain the workings of government….”Canberra raisedtaxes this year…”
Parliament House Canberra
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.
Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. National Library Australia copyright
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.
Lake Burley Griffin and Parliament House
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!
a young kangaroo on Mt Taylor
I’ve shared the blog with some big personalities
A Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
and some colourful ones ….
King Parrots
A Crimson Rosella
and some that are just plain cute.
young Kookaburras
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.
The rain clouds rising from the Brindabella Mountains in spring
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.
Early on New Year’s Day 2016 Sydney was a very quiet place after a big night of fireworks and parties.
We took advantage of the quiet to visit a wonderful public garden with an extraordinary story.
Brett Whiteley, a famous Australian painter and his wife Wendy, also an artist, settled in Lavender Bay, a secluded inlet on Sydney’s north side.
Brett Whiteley called this place ”optical ecstasy” and many of his paintings reflected these scenes.
Brett Whiteley died in 1992 aged 52, and tragically the couple’s only daughter, died of a rare cancer in 2001.
After Brett’s death Wendy, in her grief, began clearing an overgrown dump of derelict public land below their house.
Over 20 years she poured her money, creative skills, energy and emotion into transforming the wasteland by the harbour into a public garden.
The Moreton Bay Fig is the feature point of the garden, and its magnificent trunk and branches seem to reach protectively over the garden.
It is a challenging steep site, but over time, steps and paths have been built, first by Wendy and some faithful gardeners, and now by many volunteers as well.
Sydney has a wonderful climate for many different plants, and gradually the plants have almost engulfed the paths in some areas.Wendy, has no background in horticulture. However, she has the artist’s eye for colour, shape and texture and design.
As a child Wendy loved the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett called The Secret Garden. This garden began as her secret garden, a place where the physical needs of the garden gave her a distraction from grief, but also a place of solitude, and in time, replenishment.
As the garden developed it gradually became more than Wendy’s garden, it became a haven for many people who come to sit for a while in the cool dappled shade, read a book, or simply enjoy the lush green plants…. away from noisy city life.
the power of the garden….
Wendy says ”Loss is something all people end up dealing with one way or another. Sometimes it can be too much, but I have learnt we must give ourselves time to get over the stages of grieving. The amazing thing about life is that deep sadness can, in its own time eventually lead you on the path to renewal and discovery….
………This garden started as therapy, but it’s gone way beyond that, into a joyous celebration of life and nature, and a desire to share. I transformed an ugly wasteland into a beautiful garden, and along the way, the garden transformed me.”
As this is public land, the future of the garden was precarious, but in October 2015 the NSW government gave the garden a 30 year lease with a 30 year renewal option.
Many thanks to Wendy for building a garden such as this in a time of grief, and now it is available for all to share, in a quiet and caring way.
