Sassy succulents!

Echeveria Capri with one flower spike open & another soon to follow

This is in the courtyard area - Echeveria Fred Ives & Echeveria big red, along with a two smaller unknown echeverias (front right hand corner) also some sedums.

Echeveria pink frills (I think) is going mad with flower spikes, a small variagated kalanchoe grown from a cutting so not sure of its name, same with the plant above it, not even sure which family that ones from, bottom right hand corner is sedum kam...... something! and aeonium black rose at the back.  They are all getting far too much shade, but thats the trouble with my garden in autumn/winter - too much shade & then too much sun in summer!

This is a guess also - Echeveria white rose?

Echeveria frosty in the top corner. Both give me lots of offsets.

This little Echeveria is also an unknown, but in full sun it had a lovely apricot stripe around the leaf edges.

                                       Echeveria frosty with more cute babies!

Becoming rampant, sedum gold mound.

This is an unknown sedum, which is about to flower, I took this as a cutting & has grown very well.

Dahlia's

Just off the back of a lovely 28mm of rain, freshening everything up.  My dahlia's are in full swing now, but always seem to end up leaning forward, whether its toward the sun or away from the native peppermint behind it Im not sure. Also flowering there are white vinca's & purple salvia.  I have just popped in a Euphorbia firesticks that I bought at the Perth Garden Expo, so looking forward to watching that one grow.

Broome

Spent 3 days in beautiful Broome to celebrate 25 years of marriage and to visit our eldest son who lives thereWe visited Gantheame Point, where the light house lives, it was stinking hot the whole time we were there, average temp of 36C but because of the humidity it felt like 45C.These gorgeous plants were everywhere throughout the resort where we stayed - Pintada Spa Resort.

My son flys for Broome Air Services & one late afternoon he was coming in to land in a Cessna 402 twin engine, he had to fly thru this interesting cloud formation

Made a beautiful smooth landing, well done!

There tide is huge in Broome & below is the Roebuck Bay Beach.

and the mangrove swamps where the crocodiles like to wallow!

We finished our break on Cable Beach watching a gorgeous sunset

March ing on

End of March already, beginning of April, my garden finally planted out, although it was planted out at the beginning of March, but the bore pump broke & then the retic, so the front was all dug up again looking for the elusive solenoid.  Not found, bypassed & we're away again!

the little garden by the pool had lomandra's planted in it a few years ago, but they were severely neglected & looked shabby, so cut them back hard & have planted some mulla mulla (Ptilotus exultus) a native to northern WA.

Back fence pool garden starting to perk up, purple fountain grass grew back extremely fast & will flower again before winter.

Newly planted out. lots of greys & purples with a few lime greens, hoping to create good contrast & interest.  It has now rained & they are all looking a lot happier.

Back pool garden starting to recover from the hot summer, rain forecast for next week so fingers crossed.Agave attentuata in front of a new red cordyline & a native peppermint behind.

New courtyard plantings

courtyard gardens are now planted out with succulents, in this photo there's two sedums, a kalanchoe & echeveria big red.

Echeveria pink frills about to flower, aeonium chocolate rose, kalanchoe, sedum variagated, and aeonium variagata up the back.A couple of aloes, echeveria black prince, echeveria mexican giant,  aeomium short black, sedeveria darley dale, some sedums & kalanchoesAloe striata coral, echeveria white rose, echeveria frosty, echeveria set oliver, unknown small echeveria, sedum gold mound & tall unknown kalanchoe.Echeveria perle von nuremburg, sedums & kalanchoe, most of which I dont know names as they were cuttings & babies I have accumulated, once they all grow & flower maybe I'll be able to figure out what they are.  I ended up reasonably full & now I just have to wait for them to fill in the spaces.

Burnt & Battered

End of Feb & my backyard is a little worse for wear, birds nest fern, cordyline & even the dianella are burnt. So today I have trimmed all the burnt bits off & spread some magic poo & mulch & hopefully they will all spark up.

My little agave attentuata fared better than most, but still has a few burnt spots, the heat has not bothered Lomandra tanika in the slightest.

My magnificent Dracaena Draco in command position, next to it is a ficus in a pot, which is also a little burnt.  Have cut down the purple fountain grass, should get another flowering before winter, ponytail palms both from Dad when they shifted, doing well.

And just as Im finishing up S4 comes in after walking his dog saying that its just started sprinkling with rain, he also said "Mum as I walked up the street into our yard it smells like a pig pen"  Hahahaha, I think he means sheep yards!!

Couldnt possibly be the 20 bags of poo I have distributed around the garden, poor neighbours!

Poos Aint Poos!

I have been working my butt off the last couple of weeks in the garden in an endeavour to fertilise & mulch before we get some autumn rain (hopefully)The front driveway garden has been tidied up & a few things ripped out - two dwarf date palms, which had become very un dwarf like, shata daisies (too much shade) and heaps of self sown seaside daisy (erigeron). One new plant in this view - crassula ovata (Jade), we will see how this goes there!

There are two remaining of the nasty dwarf dates & a better view of the jade, which was a cutting from a garden round the block.  The date palms actually have a lovely tropical look & are extremely robust, but they can kill in a single stabbing with the deadly skewers that grow on the leaf branches.

A lovely cordyline electric pink doing very well & a cordyline peko up against the fence, this one is in full shade all year round.  Ajuga varieagata, gerbera & lots of seaside daisy. Oh & up the back in the shade are my clivea.

 This looks a little sad atm, but its very early days, Cordyline at front & in amonst the broken pot (I had to break it to get it out) against the pole is clematis montana, dont know much about this plant, purchased at an open garden last year, so will live in hope of success.

My first succulent planted in front driveway garden - Aeonium short black. love the look of this one, hope he grows strongly.  Being a lover of Australian natives, I find myself in a bit of a quandary, I need to add poo & compost to the soil to save & store some moisture in order for my plants to grow, but a lot of the natives dont like the added stuff & keel over, but they also struggle in the sands total lack of ability to retain moisture.  I have killed mainly grevilleas & banksias, so may have to stear clear of them, anyway I added sheep manure from poos aint poos & also their own special soil conditioner with a topping of sugar cane mulch, will mulch with a darker mulch once Ive finished planting.