National Lifestyle Village

NLV - Mum's & Dad's home, a lifestyle village for the over 45's
Sooo many chooks, in a fantastic pen.

Awesome raised vegie gardens

The Entrance to the village

The village is called an eco village, They only grow natives in the gardens which are watered with recycled water.

View of the bowling green

The new indoor pool still a work in progress, but with the promise of lots of flashness!

Not sure what this plant is, but I loved the yellow flower.

Eucalyptus, Rodanthe perhaps?

A gorgeous bbq area called central park.

This is what I want in my back yard please!!

Screen, trellis & vegie gardens

The two screens I purchased from Stratco have been welded to a steel frame & concreted in about 3 feet down.  A cyclone wouldnt blow it over!!  Doesnt look that great at the moment but with some greenery around should blend nicely.

This little trellis which has also been well & truly concreted in, I will grow a creeper on to semi hide the man cave, thinking a mandevilla, I dont want anything too large or aggressive at the trellis only measures 2m x 2m.  The shade cloth structure belongs to our neighbour & covers his aquaponics vegie garden.

Two beautiful home built raised vegie gardens have been installed along with a small movable trellis for growing peas or beans.

We were going to buy them from stratco but they were about $250each, these were built out of left overs from the man cave at no cost. Its nice to have a win!

I am waiting to go and get some sheep poo from my mother inlaw's farm to fill them up further, but my wonderful husband has done a marvellous job along with the help of No 2 son. Well done guys!

Rain, Rain, glorious rain!

My planting progress has come to a halt, but thats fine as we have had in excess of 50 beautiful mls of precipitation, this June.

I am most excited to see the water pooling on top as this indicates my Gin Gin loam has some clay content, yay!  We also had a small amount of hail too!

The retic helper!

Bella getting the sprinkler fittings in place!

Way too much to say & totally unwilling to give up her sprinkler raiser, so in actual fact no help whatsoever!!  But the butt of lots of jokes, providing endless entertainment, poor old girl, we do love her!

Winter Solstice

Solstice'in Latin means 'sun-stopping'. The point on the horizon where the sun appears to rise and set, stops and reverses direction after this day. On the solstice, the sun does not rise precisely in the east, but rises to the north of east and sets to the north of west, meaning it's visible in the sky for a longer period of time.

Leucadendron Inca Gold

I have decided to plant leucandendrons along my western facing fence, hopefully they can cope with our hot summer sun

Leucadendron Discolor

All three are bushy shrubs, growing 2m x 2m with yellow bracts, the tags say drought tolerant. which I knew anyway, I'm just not sure about reflective heat off a super six fence.

Leucadendron salignum

A solstice happens when the sun's zenith is at its furthest point from the equator. On the June solstice it reaches its northernmost point and the Earth’s North Pole tilts directly towards the sun, at about 23.5 degrees. http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html

So from now on the days will get longer again, seems a bit weird as I don't feel as though we've had any winter at all yet, it certainly hasn't been cold!

Sydney Rock Lilly

Dendrobium speciosum,

My rock lilly is about to flower, which is astounding considering the rough treatment she's been given.

Totally neglected at Northam, left in the hot western sun for two years, not watered!  What an amazing plant, she is now sending out flower stalks, about 4 I think.

You can see that she is still looking quite burnt on the older leaves, I have repotted her & placed her in a sheltered spot, where I walk by every morning, lean over & whisper gentle encouragement. I have solemnly promised to never mistreat her again & I think she believes me!  The dendrobium speciosum orchid is a lithophyte (growing on rocks) or an epiphyte (growing on another living plant, but not parasitic in nature).  She is growing here in a specific native orchid mix, apparently they are also heavy feeders.

New plants

Well new to me anyway!  This azalea has one bloom with a new one coming on the side.  Not a big fan of azalea's, I inherited three with the house, I have transplanted two into pots from the front garden, this is one,  & the only one to flower at present.  It looks a lot better in the photo, its really quite small & we'll see if I keep these plants or not.  The azalea's I had at Oslo Lane suffered continuously from petal blight, so too high care for me, Im a tough love kinda gal!

Begonia of some sort, I have planted in a pot & has flowered continuously since.

Ipomea batatas summer lovin sweetheart with sun kisses in there somewhere, what a mouth full!  anyway looked gorgeous while it was warm, started to turn up its nose when the mercury plummeted, so will see if it keels over or bucks up with the warmer weather!

Heuchera berry smoothie, feeling very comfortable in his pot

& brother Heuchera lime marmalade likewise in his pot!

Got the backyard covered.

A lovely light rain has started to fall just as we finished raking out the good dirt, I hope it keeps on coming!

Acacia podalyiriifolia - Queensland silver wattle, ready for planting!

Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, also ready for planting, It seems Ive waited so long, I just want to get all my plants in the ground, but I must show restraint & do it properly  so I wont have to spend next winter shifting everything.

The Good Dirt!

Beautiful Gin Gin Loam mixed with peat & compost, what a contrast to my beach sand!

The muscle men mapped out the rocks for me & started to cart the dirt.

Thats gorgeous dirt & it should stay moist when it rains, hallelujah!!

two more good looking piles of dirt for the front yard!

Not much flowering in my garden at present, probably because its winter, but most likely because there isn't any garden at present.
but I do love this african daisy hybrid, osteospermum voltage, I took a cutting from my Northam garden, & I must take more before it gets too old

Osteospermum Voltage

This half opened bud on a new native hibiscus hybrid is such a gorgeous shade of pink. It is still in the pot but will grow to 80cm high by 70cm wide. the label says it flowers from spring to autumn, its winter here & it is still going so that's a bonus.

Hibiscus geranioides "Fanny"

I have had this cyclamon a couple of months now & by some miracle I haven't killed it, which is what I usually do to these plants (touch wood), trying very hard to only water when almost dry, maybe thats the key!

Cyclamon

I have been lusting after a Euphorbia crown of thorns for many years, but never purchased one as the vicious thorns always put me off.  But this lovely little lipstick is just the ticket, it still has thorns but no where near as nasty as its parent plant, love this shade, such an appropriate name.

Euphorbia "lipstick"

thats it for my blooms for GBBD, more at May Dreams

Ready for the good dirt!

We have dug out tonnes of roots & raked, shoveled & finally we have it level enough to order the landscape mix, 20 cubic metres of it!
But because I just couldn't wait any longer I had to plant something, so in the far corner I have planted a Bauhinia variegata purpurea (Orchid Tree). This tree grows to approx 8m with a width of 6m, it is partly deciduous, although we shall see as it still has lots of leaves at the moment. It has beautiful fragrant, magneta, orchid like flowers - a tropical looking tree.

Heaps of pot plants eagerly awaiting planting, some I dug out of the garden & others I have propagated & even more I have purchased.

Bella sunning herself in the warm winter sun, still lots of roots around, but hopefully they will break down under the new soil.  Rusty screen leaning against the pavers, which we will attached to a frame & erect across the entry way to the patio, it all looks outstanding in my mind!

Nice to look at flowers for a change!

All the sand everywhere is starting to get me down, so I thought I would just post some new little plants that I have recently put in the ground.
Salvia love n wishes goes beautifully with the foliage of alternanthera little ruby.

on the other side I have a Gaura Belleza dark pink, gorgeous hot pink flowers & hopefully as drought tolerant as the big white one.

A couple of little succulents in my letter box planter, dont know names.

The new growth on my draecena marginata has gone ballistic, It got a little damaged when it was moved to Perth & I think that may have prompted it to send out new trunks, it is also getting a lot more attention than before

Any how back to pulling & cleaning pavers, yuk!!

Pruning

We have green waste pick up this week, so good idea to get rid of the dreadful bottle brush branches overhanging our fence from a neighbours yard.

There are three of them & they are all riddled with scale, most unfortunate for me, I will have to be vigilant with my plants.  Neighbours are not gardeners so couldn't care less.

Bella helping with the removal of the prunings.

one more day of sand carting & we should have all the yellow sand done, then we will move onto some paving I think!

Sand fill delivered

Our fill sand has been delivered & the muscle men must now transfer it by wheel barrow into the great abyss (pool hole)

first a trailer load

& then a truck load, all that yellow sand - Yuk!!

My good dirt will come but I must be patient.

Lawn Gone!!

The muscle men dug out the rest of the front lawn

and the back lawn as well!

and put it all in here!

now we shouldn't need to get too much fill.

I pulled, cleaned & stacked all these pavers, big job & I was wrecked afterwards, still more to go!

and Bella did nothing but watch & offer advice!