Your Garden
WHILE in Tassie for a short break I was blown away by the majestic and beautiful old trees planted in the 1800s. Unlike many places on the mainland, they have not razed everything old, what a delight to see so many old convict built buildings and bridges and heritage houses and cottages with the bonus of some of the original trees dominating their gardens. It does show we plant trees too close together but hey, in a hundred years the garden’s custodian can thin them out a bit! It also exemplifies that gardens are planted for the future generations to enjoy too.
When we arrived they had not really had any summer so the gardens were fresh and lush, with most growing the same plants as we do. The roses looked great all in full bloom and free of black spot. With such beautiful big trees there is a lot of protection and shelter from the outside world, the 38-degree days as we left would have been a shock to the system. I did not visit any open private gardens but the public gardens and suburban ones were a delight with lots of very pretty well planned small gardens.
The trees at Port Arthur are amazing and the formal garden near the church looked great with good plant selection giving a great display. The church, which was built to to remind the convicts to be God-fearing, is now barely visible behind the trees.
An added bonus were the fields of poppies! Some had been harvested, some in full bloom and some still growing. It must be a nightmare handling such small seed in a commercial situation. Nearly all was white except one field with some orange striped through it.
When are we ever going to get some useful rain? Keep watering – albeit very cautiously.
