My garden idyll

It's always interesting to look at old photos to see how your garden has changed over the years. Sometimes it's hard to believe it ever looked so neat and tidy, as you survey the chaotic debris after a run of winter storms and no time spent gardening. I seem to have a comprehensive record of the river that has run through our property for the last 20 or so years - I think a watercourse must have become diverted as the hillside became dotted with more and more houses.

Various parts of the garden have had makeover after makeover, but all eventually became rambling and neglected due to pressure of other interests and obligations, not to mention an incredibly unreliable gardener.
In 2008 we enclosed the front portion of the garden and I built a rockery and relocated most of my shade plants (clivias and bromeliads) to incorporate them in my new private garden with railway sleepers under the milkwood tree.  A small fiddlewood tree, hibiscus and other shrubs had suffered from drought over the last 20 years as I never watered outside the fence, and in the last 5 years I can see what a difference watering would have made to their growth!

 

This is what the area looks like now - a veritable jungle! Soon it will be time to start hacking it back as the recent rains have encouraged new growth of 30cm and more on the fiddlewood, with the milkwood lagging only slightly. I have to confess that I never fed my plants either (hangs head in shame) and they are now receiving regular organic granules - let no one accuse me of neglecting my garden any more! The tranquillity of this little patch of garden under the tree will transport you into another world, with only the songs of the birdlife to interrupt your thoughts.