Garden Gossip

The gardener's just come and gone.

I always learn something new from Glenn.

Today, we chatted about what sorts of plants we could use to fill in the gaps in the mulch left by dead plants that had been removed. He suggested roses, daisies and the pandan-like plant that we've got two of, splitting those and replanting the bits in different spots. Also lilly pillies (?) and possatarium (?). (Ed: Have just been told I probably mean pittosporums. Oops!) He's making a trip to a regional wholesale nursery and offered to email us pictures so we can choose the plants we want. He gets them cheaper than if I bought from a local nursery.

I'm a total non-gardener, so to me it's like, whatever, as long as it takes care of itself! Which leaves me just drought-tolerant plants and natives I guess.

We discussed how to screen the ugly common boundary fence.

One section is falling to bits but I haven't got round to writing to my neighbour to ask if he wants to do anything about it. (Under Council regulations, the cost of replacing common fences is shared 50-50 by the affected property owners.) His property is rented out, so I am guessing he wants to spend as little as possible on improving its appearance. Screening plants would be an inexpensive and effective way to camouflage the broken timber from my side.

Another thing we might want to do is keep all the trees and plants in the backyard to the borders. This achieves a double benefit: screening the common fences and creating some semblance of order. At the moment, there are fruit trees and random other shrubs growing helter-skelter all over. Since we aren't even tending the trees, removing them would be doing ourselves a favour.

It's Blue Week. Gotta get ready for yard duty in 30 minutes!