Pots and pandanus

I finally decided to grub out the messy travellers palm that previously stood in this spot. And what do you know! Suddenly we have a lovely view of what is now a gigantic pandanus that towers over the pool pump house. So I've moved my little bubbling fountain-in-a-pot over to this part of the garden, and this is the view now from the back verandah, where we have breakfast when we're feeling idle. I've taken a hint from a nearby nursery and plunged a pot of vietnamese mint right into water, standing the pot on a brick inside the blue-green water bowl at right. That should keep this thirsty plant happy! Then last week I bought fairy lights, intending to string them up in the pandanus. On reflection, I don't think I dare climb up into the tree. I may use them instead on the new pergola atop the water tank. But this is a pretty little corner anyway. The pandanus appears to be growing up out of the pot in the foreground. And I'm just waiting for the candle banksia at the left to set some new yellow banksia flowers. That's Mary River gravel, in two sizes, on the ground. And now that the river isn't going to be dammed, maybe the price of gravel will come down??

Early Christmas colour

This is shaping up as a great year for the flowering trees. The jacarandas were earlier and bluer than usual. And now the poincianas are all out, including this pair standing guard over the entrance to our driveway. Soon the gravel underneath will be strewn with their fiery red petals. A little mound of topsoil near the mailbox awaits my rake. I'll be spreading out this 'filler' over the sloping verge, then laying down a few rolled-up lengths of grass from the turf farm down the road. The original grass died when the hillside was swamped by a stand of bamboo that AH managed to grub out over several seasons. I've planted lilly pillys and grevilleas along that boundary now. So we'll see if we can coax the verge back to green.

Clucky business

I don't think I could take responsibility for any other lives right now. And anyway, we don't have a chook house, and I don't quite feel capable of building one myself – yet! But I do love the idea of chooks in the garden. Just the shape of them, little triangular silhouettes against a background of green. So this week I found a substitute: a little trio of pottery fowl from Pots Galore! And these ones are probably safe from marauding snakes, too. (AH suggested a pottery python would make a nice addition to the scene. Haven't found one yet.)