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Here is July - Upon Us Already

© John Bottomley

I suppose we all known that there are many subtle changes taking place in the garden as we are now at the ‘beginning of the New Year’ down under. We have already pruned the roses and the rest of the garden is looking wonderfully green after all the rain during June.

One good thing that happened this year was that there were many more spikes on the orchids that my partner is growing in the shady part of the back garden. I counted fourteen on the one now sitting on the back veranda.

We now have a lemon tree, a small Mandarin Emperorcumquatquat tree and an olive tree. All are doing reasonably well. Although as far as the mandarin is concerned it looks as though there is an outbreak of aphids. I feel that I should give the tree a good dose of eitRogorogorMetasystoxstox. After visiting the plant nursery this idea was confirmed. Hope the dose I gave the tree was not a too large one. I acknowledge the assistance of Ian Dawson’s article in Gardening For Pleasure published by The Nursery Man’s Association of Western Australia. Ian also acknowledged, in the article, the help he received from The Department of Agriculture in Western Australia.

They tell us that pest control is not hard in so far as the citrus family is concerned. The main problems are brown rot, scale insects, seasonal outbreaks of aphids and beetles and some fruit infestation from the Mediterranean fruit fly.

It has been a good time over the past week or so to finish off a job I had been longing to complete. Now the cooler weather is upon us I have been moving large cement slabs from the side of the house out into the back garden. This will allow us to save more water by having a paved area instead of lawn. I will also be able to renew the brick paving around the side of the house too. It has allowed me so far to keep myself in good trim. Moving two feet square cement slabs is good exercise.

My partner tells me that placing several planter boxes and tubs wcolourfulrful plants such as roses, orchids, etc., will set off the new paved area quite well. Perhaps the odd conifer in pots scattered around the paved area would look good too. A list of plants that will grow well in tubs or planters would include: creepers suchFicusipumilamila minima; foliage plants suchAcubacuba japoniDieffenbachiachia; shrubs such as Azaleas, Camellias, Gardenia; trailing plants such as Native VioleLantanatmontevidensisnsis and trees such as Mulberry (the weeping type), MagnograndifloraloMelaleucaequinquenerviarvia (Paper Bark), etc.

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