Another dry winter finished

My little Kalanchoe Barharensis making friends with the birds nest fern

Well we are just coming off the back of another dry winter for the farmers, with well below average rainfall, meaning a scant lot of work for us.  Hopefully all the hard yakka I put into my garden last autumn will pay off - lots of composting & mulching.
I have been quite busy getting my heavy rigid truck licence too, was quite proud of myself to pass first time. Tomorrow Im off to drive the truck & load the chief's plane, my first time on my own!
And also putting our house on the market for round 2 of  punishing home opens ( yuk) again!



 Chrysocephalum Apiculatum sunburst

This little native everlasting is so tough, doesnt need much water & flowers consistantly.

Ptilotus joey
love this native, this is its second year, they really only look good for the first season, should be treated as an annual.

& of course good old aeonium schwartzkop.

Winter

My courtyard plantings of aeoniums are in full growth mode, I have planted various sorts, but cant remember which ones are which!

This one is black rose, but isnt black as its in full shade for the winter

same garden bed in full shade, think this one is sunburst.

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.