Posts Tagged ‘Summer.’

• The Garden Terrorist

  Date: 2009.02.24 | Category: family, home | Response: 7

  I am going to let you know about the real life hazards of blogging……

  You see, I know the hazards.

  The first hazard that comes to mind is ‘being totally engrossed.’

  Now, I know of this particular hazard because it happens to me quite regularly. I spend my weekends and often my time before heading off to work, reading blogs. I am a blog-a-holic. OMG.

  Anyway… One particular weekend, not too long ago, I was catching up on some very valuable reading. I had my macchiato in hand and the morning was spent perusing, otherwise known as “hey, I’m having me time!”

  Midway between blogs I got up to go to our lovely composting toilet. I do intend to tell you all about our wonderful Rota-Loo at some stage…BUT…as I was walking along our wooden pallets towards the toilet, that is when I noticed we had been under a terrorist attack.

  Now you might find this frivolous or you may find it serious, but I could not believe that one tiny little terrorist could cause so much damage to my beautiful flowering gum.

  It’s poor roots all dug up and torn, exposed to the sun and wind. It’s leaves all wilted and forlorn…What could I do? I quickly growled at The Garden Terrorist and forbade him to come anywhere near my garden again.

  I then stooped down and covered up the precious roots, watered, fed and generally just hoped for the best. A few days later, my little Corymbia ficifolia that was planted for my son is looking okay. I really do hope she will pull through…

  AND the said ‘Garden Terrorist’ is a very new addition to the family here;

  

  He also happens to go by the name of ‘DEVO.’

  And here you can see he has taken a liking to the succulent collection……

  

  At least I can now explain where those bite marks came from! For a while I thought I had one helluva caterpillar on my hands.

• My Stunning Flowering Gum (Corymbia ficifolia)

  Date: 2009.01.14 | Category: home, Horticulture | Response: 4

  It is virtually sweltering here today! It is so hot!!! Actually looking at the gauge confirms that it is 43 deg Celsius which is around 109.4 Fahrenheit. There is no where to hide…ugh…except within the confines of a cool dark house and the most powerful fan money can buy.

  It’s pretty loud in here then as you may imagine, the fan noise competing over the kids watching ‘Fraggle Rock’ on tv. Oh, Fraggle Rock is back? It does seem so.

  A quick escape out into the heat to check the mail led me past this stunning beauty by my front gate

  

  Dwarf Orange Flowering Gum (Corymbia ficifolia). This is a grafted specimen and only grows to around 3 or 4 metres where they usually can get up to 15 metres in their natural habitat. It is a West Australian species and the flowers are so symbolic of long hot Australian Summers.

  

  The bees love it too!

  You can grow this tree from seed but it does not grow ‘true to type’, which means that the flower colour can vary greatly from the parent plant. In fact, seed collected from a red flowering tree may even turn out to have white flowers or pale pink. The grafted species ensure you will retain the colour you desire, whether it be intense red, bright pink or this superb orange. They are usually grafted onto the rootstock of the Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata), as it is a very hardy and adaptable species.

  This particular tree was given to me about six years ago from the guy who grafted and grows them. He has a native plant nursery that specialises in the production of these beautiful grafted gums.

  

  You can even grow these trees in a really large pot or tub. A half wine barrel is ideal.

  I have just recently bought a red one and a pink one too to plant out in my front garden. I had never got around to planting a tree each for my children so these two will be their trees.

  Oh and by the way, can you believe apart from getting waylaid by such a stunner, by the time I got to the mail box it only had bills for me?

  Time to hit the beach….