While in the front garden I noticed a plumbago I'd trained to grow up a nearby eucalypt (gum tree) had really taken off and is now producing blue flowers nearly at the top of the tree. This is a photo I took of it but you may need to enlarge it to actually see the blue flowers high up in the tree.
Also we have a fiddlewood that has always been rather confused. I've often said we seldom see much in the way of autumn colours in our city but this fiddlewood decides in early summer that it will produce autumn colours in its leaves and then by now (mid-summer) it actually drops leaves as most deciduous trees do in winter. This shows the tree this week with some branches quite bare.
Actually a chap that used to work in our garden tended to be very heavy handed with the shears and when I asked him to 'prune' the fiddlewood he cut it right back to the stump. I feared the worst but it coppiced and now once again stands about 10-12 ft high. An apple blossom hibiscus really suffered at his hands and has been battling over the past year or two to regenerate but it's slowly getting there. He gave the impression that tidiness was more important than beauty in the garden. I prefer a bit of a wilderness which to me looks much more natural
Another reason we decided not to let him loose in the garden any more was his poisoning grass without telling us before he actually did it. When you have cats that eat grass it is a dangerous thing to do. We also lost a crop of grapes about 3 years back. They hang over our fence from next door and the same fellow cut them all off even though you could see grapes forming. This year there are a dozen or more bunches which look as though they are going to be delicious. We just hope our neighbour keeps up the water to them as we are lacking rain right now and everything is very dry.
P.S. Added at last minute....Daughter saw her doctor yesterday and has thyroid problems....swelling etc. I recommended the endocrinologist that operated on my parathyroid in 2014 and she will be seeing him on 25th Jan. If anyone can help her he can....I had a lot of faith him. More news of that at a later date when we know more. Seems goitre may be the prominent thought. Just thinking positive thoughts on her behalf.
After the fiasco with my scuppernong vines, I am leery about who cuts what outside.
ReplyDeleteBest thoughts for your daughter.
Some garden disaster are long remembered and thank you for the kind thoughts re my girl.
DeleteI hope that K is ok, and can avoid surgery if at all possible. Send her my best wishes please.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about gardens. Tidy is not the look I like most in a garden. Himself's father used a ruler when he was pruning and I always thought it looked unnatural.
Thanks for thoughts re K. Unfortunately I feel surgery will have to be the answer but we will know the answer next week.
DeleteI agree about gardens being made to look almost artificial with too much pruning. I'm too much of a lover of all things green and love them in their natural state.
I also hope that K is okay, perhaps her problem is in early stages and can be managed or turned around.
ReplyDeleteI like a bit of a jungle look too, but not wildly tangled so you can't walk through it.
Many trees here are also dropping leaves like it was autumn. The footpaths under some of them are covered.
I wish I had a tree man I could call on (and afford), some of the things I planted in my daughter's yard when I still lived there have grown far beyond expectations and one in particular is covered in tiny white hay-fever-headache inducing flowers twice a year. At the time I thought it 'might' reach a metre in height and be manageable, now it towers as high as the roof :(
Fingers cross re K but whatever it is that is causing these problems needs to be discovered. This one in itself is serious.
DeleteA well kept jungle perhaps but still the wild look is good.
A few years ago we'd not have had to get anyone in but Phil is beyond doing these things now and there's the removal of the debris as well. We don't have a trailer hitch on this car so can't take stuff to the tip. We don't spend much on ourselves and like to keep things in check as far as trees go. The neighbours have never said anything but I don't think it right limbs should hang over their fences. We can make mistakes at times with what we choose to plant and sometimes can also be given false information.